This was our third cruise in as many years on Silversea, and our first time on the Silver Spirit. Our two previous Silversea experiences were on smaller ships, where we were delighted by high level of service at every turn. On those two cruises, we felt like the staff read our minds, anticipating and meeting our needs before we asked. We couldn’t imagine a better experience on a cruise ship.

With the exception of multiple service problems, our third cruise met our basic expectations. The Silver Spirit appeared to be in fine shape, well maintained, and clean. We were pleased with the selection and availability of food and beverages throughout the ship. We made restaurant reservations on line as soon as booking opened, and all were honored on board the ship. Our favorite restaurant for dinner was La Terrazza, where we always had very good food and service. The itinerary – Lisbon to Venice, with stops in Portimao, Cadiz, Malaga, Cartagena, Trapani, Malta, and Corfu -- was interesting, with plenty to do and see. The only suggestion we would make would be to extend the in-port times in Trapani and Malta, which were too short. We walked around most of the ports on our own, which was extremely easy to do, and hired a driver in Trapani because we needed help squeezing everything we wanted to see into the six hours we were docked. We did not take any Silversea tours.

We were astonished by the weird service problems on board, some of which we are still laughing about (after all, it was vacation!), and some of which are inexcusable for a luxury experience. Read more