Comparing the cruises

[fbhjr]

2 years ago my wife and I took the Silver Cloud to Antarctica and back for 10 days.
2 weeks ago my wife and I took the Silver Spirit around the bottom of Africa for 6 days.
The experiences were very different, despite being the same cruise line.

Other passengers:
On the Cloud, the passengers included a very vocal group of assholes. There were about 200 and maybe 10% were what my wife calls “Tech Bros” who were a bunch of young, rich, pretentious asses that really poisoned the mood for a LOT of folks on board. They were the ones who said things like “Can we make sure no fat and ugly people are in our boat as we don’t want to ruin our photos”. We met a few nice folks, but it was generally a downbeat atmosphere and certainly impacted how we felt about the trip and cruises in general.

On the Spirit folks were much, much nicer, even with three times more people. Almost everyone said hello to each other. Everyone smiled. It was generally a much nicer atmosphere than on the cloud. While we didn’t really have any in-depth conversations with people, no one insulted us or made folks uncomfortable.

I’m much more open to going on a cruise with that kind of crowd then what we faced on the cloud.

The crew:
On the Cloud the folks who worked on the ship seemed VERY on top of things. It was still Covid time and folks needed to be checked for fever twice a day and every third day have a nose swab test. So, the folks we dealt with seemed very on top of their game as we dealt with them.
By day 2 it seemed like everyone on board knew we didn’t drink alcohol, and even the restaurants we hadn’t been to before were “let me take those wine glasses away and get you the Diet Coke you like” when we came in. The service was excellent. We had great meals quickly and never had any issues.

On the Spirit the folks were very friendly, but not as on their game as on the cloud. On day 5 folks were still trying to pour me wine in restaurants I had been in several times before.
The main restaurant for the ship had such slow service we actually complained some. The restaurant is only open 2 1/2 hours each night and it took us 2 hours 20 minutes to get through it. All the other tables in our area had been served, eaten and left long before we did.
The other big restaurant on board was much better and we ended up eating there 3 of the 6 nights because of it.
We ate on the restaurant on deck once. My wife said her meal would have been disappointing at a local chain restaurant, never mind on what is supposed to be a luxury cruise.
I got into an argument with the waiter who saw I had put down “lactose free” as a meal option and refused to bring me the sauce offered for my steak as “it might have a small amount of cream in it!”
“I’m OK with small amounts, especially if it is cooked,” I told him.
“I can’t take that chance!”
“I can!”
“No, you can’t!”
I saw him working the buffet line a few days later and he tried to stop me from taking something that “might have some milk in it!”
I suspect he doesn’t understand that I can’t digest it and might poop some more a few hours later rather than go into anaphylactic shock. But, I didn’t put down allergy and there is a difference. I do get headaches from non-cooked milk, but that’s a different thing than the roll I picked up might have some butter on it.
I get he was trying to help me. But, he also wasn’t listening to what I was telling him at all.
Some of the folks were as good as the ones on the cloud. But, the majority were not.
The two folks who did our cabin were both good and about equal to the Cloud.
Over all, I felt like we got the B team on the Spirit.

Enrichment/entertainment crew:
The folks on the Cloud were exceptional. Ornithologists, marine biologists, historians, photo experts and more. These folks were all great to talk with, had tons of knowledge they wanted to share, gave references to books and other information for more details, taught classes on things and were just great to be there. They were by far the best thing about our trip on the Cloud.

The folks on the Spirit were nice. But, no where near the class of the Cloud.
I’m sure Bridge is a fine game of cards. But, I’d trade the Bridge teacher for a marine biologist.
Sadly the Spirit traded a casino for the photo lab. So, my backup plan to do the photos on board fell through. And, the casino was not a good substitute for it.
They did have someone giving “historical talks”. But, it was an old guy telling stories about growing up in South Africa during apartheid and how it didn’t seem that bad to him. I didn’t even get half way through his first talk. One other guy gave talks about what it used to be like to live as an American in the Soviet Union. I was hoping for something a bit more relevant to the continent we were sailing past.
So, I didn’t go away from this cruise ordering any books.

Excursions:
The Cloud went to Antarctica and the excursions were all very intense. Several layers of clothes, waterproof pants, parkas, heavy inflatable life preservers, special boots, and more for every trip off of the ship. Then, cleaning it all when you got back.
Small rubber boats to take your places where you had to climb of the pitching ship onto the boat and grab hold quickly.
It was work. And very tiring.
We saw cool things. But, the work to do it was very high.

The Spirit put you on a bus and drove you out to where the thing you were going to see was waiting. They’d make sure you had something to drink and a snack along the way.
And we saw cool things. Hippos, elephants, rhinos, warthogs and more in the way of animals.
Zulu dancers and cultural presentations.
We were told about the history and culture of the areas we drove through by people who were from there and native to the cultures.
As cool as the stuff we saw on the Cloud was, the Spirit Excursions were better.
Although that time in the bus in the sun was very hot…

Food:
The Spirit had almost double the number of restaurants than the Cloud. But, two of the places we tried on the Spirt did not impress us.
Their Asian restaurant was very good and gave us very good food. It was better than anything we had on the Cloud. But, the others were the same or worse.
They did have one place at the back of the ship that was always open. But, what they had changed with the time of day.
On the Cloud they had one restaurant do afternoon tea where you were given a tea menu to choose from and brought a tray of snack foods and small sandwiches.
The Spirt had the small sandwiches and tea, but no tea menu and you had to pick your sandwiches out of a displace cabinet yourself.
It sounds like a small difference as I write it, but it is the difference between being served afternoon tea and getting it at a cafeteria. It’s not the same.

Transportation:
The trip to the Cloud the company booked our airfare, had us picked up at the airport, put us up in a hotel, had a bus to the next plane, flew us to where the ship was, bused us to it and made sure our luggage was in our cabin. Granted on the way home they kind of abandoned us at the airport and we had to find our own way, but I didn’t worry getting to the ship that I wouldn’t find it.

On the trip with the Spirit, they’d drive me from home to the airport, but getting to the ship from the Boston airport was all on me.
That was mostly OK, I actually prefer to book my own travel. But, the last couple of kilometers to the ship were pretty stressful.
The ship was not parked in an easy to find place and we went through a lot to get to it.
I didn’t need to be bussed there by the company, but more clear directions on how to get there would have been much more helpful than just the road it was down.

Overall:
Overall, this cruise on the Silver Spirit still wins for me. Mostly do the lack of assholes as fellow passengers. Those folks on the Cloud really poisoned it for everyone.
While it would be nice to combine the best of both, I’ll still take the cruise with nice folks over the other.

Some of the folks we talked with told us they had been sailing Silver Seas for years and felt it had gone down hill.
And, from 2 years ago to now, I don’t think the folks on board were as good as they were then.
But, different ship, different type of cruise, three times the passengers, I’m not sure if it is the company going down hill or just the very different conditions.

Comments

[ravena_kade]

The other guests do make a big impact. Back in 1985 I went on my only cruise and we talk about this one a-hole of a woman to this day. Her name was
Garnet.

[fauxklore]

I did a cruise with Silversea in 2016. But: 1) it was a charter for a total solar eclipse in Micronesia and 2) apparently they have since sold the Silver Discoverer, which id now La Belle des Oceanes, operated by CroisiEurope. It was a great trip. They provided some local experts (e.g. the Polynesian navigator Tua Pittman) and had excellent excursions.