Sorry to have been such a lazy correspondent. Been having a great time. We are currently en route from Morocco to Lanzerote—the first of the Canary Islands. Alas, only two days left on the cruise.

There’s much to like about Silversea. Here’s a bit of a side by side comparison of SS and RSSC—strictly my view and not necessarily shared by the other LCTers on board.

Cabins: Very comparable in size and layout (comparing the first level of balcony cabins on each). Décor and furniture are almost exactly the same, as is room layout and size. The bathrooms are a bit smaller on SS, and it’s a tub/shower combo. I do prefer the separate shower setup of Navigator and Voyager. But the vanity setup on SS is better—there’s a medicine cabinet where you can tuck away your goods, as opposed to the open shelf on RSSC ships.

Therefore, on cabins, I’d score both equal,

Public spaces: Again, the two lines are very similar in appearance. The Silver Wind is a bit less worn than the RSSC ships I’ve been on more recently, but all that can be attributed to the timing of refurbishing. No tacky art auctions on this ship—thank heavens—but then there weren’t on the Navigator either. I don’t know if SS does them on its larger ships.

The Bar is very much the social center of the ship. The past couple of evenings they’ve run out of seats. You don’t see that on RSSC. But, as RSSC goes all-inclusive, I’m willing to bet that people will be gathering more in the lounges.

Due to the ship having a social center that works, I give the advantage on public spaces to SS.

Food: The food on the Silver Wind, in the main dining room, is excellent—noticeably above anything I’ve experienced on RSSC (and I like RSSC’s food). We haven’t tried the alternative Italian restaurant yet, so can’t comment on that. Nor have we tried Saletto—not really interested in paying an extra $150 for dinner.

SS wins on the food in the main restaurant. RSSC wins on alternative venues, if only because it doesn’t charge for them.

Beverages: The wines poured at meals tend to be a little pedestrian on this ship, though they’ve branched out more the past couple of nights. RSSC does tend to experiment more. And sometimes those experiments flop, but I give them points for trying. And SS tends to be a little stingy with the wine. You don’t get the magically always-full glass here that you do on RSSC. Score to RSSC on the wines. Bar drinks on SS are a good selection, and of course it’s all-inclusive, so score to SS on that front (though RSSC will be catching up next year).

Service: Kudos to both lines on this front—the service is superb. A few misses here and there, particularly a couple of nights in the dining room, but overall the staff is pleasant, hard-working and personable. For both lines, this is their greatest asset. It’s a wash on the scoring on this.

Shore excursions: This may be an apples to oranges comparison, as different routes are going to have different experiences re the ship’s excursions. But the ones I’ve seen so far on SS have been more about getting you to shopping venues than to seeing actual sights. Yesterday was the most egregious—everyone was clearly fascinated by the goats in the trees outside Agadir (they climb the argon trees to eat the fruit), but we had to ask to get the bus to stop, and then the guide was clearly irritated and rushed us along. He was in a great hurry to get us to the markets where he could collect his commission on any shopping we might do. While there was a little bit of this on the RSSC Asia tour last year, the RSSC staff had the grace to be apologetic about it, explaining that the host country pretty much required the shopping stops. Score to RSSC on shore excursions.

The little things: Laundry facilities on this ship are awful. Three poor quality machines—at least one of which is broken at any given time—for the whole ship, and limited operating hours. RSSC does this much better. Phone system was just changed, and the instructions in the rooms are for the old system, so using the phones has been a problem. Towels and toiletries on SS are great—waffle towels and Bulgari toiletries.

Problem solving: We’re talking front office here. I’ve run into problems with both lines that involved dealing with the front office. RSSC dealt with it efficiently, satisfactorily, and graciously. SS was more a fight, and while giving satisfaction in the end, it did so grudgingly. Point to RSSC for the front office.

All in all, each line has its strengths and not-so-strong points. Either would be a great choice for future cruising. On balance, I’ll probably stay with RSSC now that it’s gone all-inclusive, if for no other reason than a reasonable single supplement on most sailings.