Returned Monday from nine nights on the Silver Shadow, Singapore to Hong Kong with ports in Viet Nam. We had two nights in Singapore at the Grand Hyatt, three in Bali at a gorgeous small (seven room) boutique "villa" outside of Ubud before returning to Singapore for two additional nights at the Hyatt before boarding. We ended with three days post cruise at the Sheraton Towers in a harbour-view room.

I had done the same cruise 10 years ago on the Song and was curious to see how Viet Nam had changed. This was Mark's first trip to Asia, other than a day in Eastern Turkey.

We used a one way award on United flying first class SFO-HKG-SIN and returned from HKG on a one way award biz with Cathay Pacific.

This will not be a cruise review just some random comments. If anyone has questions, fire away!

The Silver Shadow is the twin sister to the Silver Whisper which a number of us were on for CAMEL. I found the service to be better on the Shadow, but I did miss my favorite bar waitress Natalya (my cat's godmother)! Food was superior and more consistent than on CAMEL, which was often hit and miss.

The Shadow had recently come out of dry dock where the soft goods, carpeting, reupholstering etc. were replaced, so she looked brand spanking new.

All suites, regardless of level, now have a butler as well as cabin attendant. We didn't get the hors d' delivered every afternoon as on Regent, but he would have brought whatever we wanted. We were rarely in the room. One nice touch was that on the final day all of our luggage was cleaned with a non-toxic solvent and left on our bed ready for packing.

While I missed my free internet, I barely used the small package I purchased as we were so port intensive, so it didn't turn out to be a big deal.

While I find Regent and Silversea to be such a similar product the big difference has to be in the much more international mix of passengers on Silversea. We had lunch one day in The Restaurant with a 30something young man from Moscow traveling solo and I did laundry with a woman from Nairobi. Our favorite trivia partners were from the UK and we enjoyed our final night's dinner with old friends John and Tonya and new ones from Perth, Australia. I really enjoyed meeting and spending time with people from all over the globe!

As usual, we missed every show so I can't comment on the entertainment. The lounges seemed be busy both before and after dinner and the two gentlemen hosts had their hands full with ladies wanting to dance.

We arranged private excursions in three ports which went off without a hitch and allowed us flexibility to move at our own pace as well as saving $$ over the ship's offerings.

John arranged a fabulous dinner as well as lunch the following day in Saigon, so we ended up eating off the ship a number of times. Some of the meals were quite sophisticated and pricey for the area while others were tasty, fun, and cheap (beer and a spicy noodle dish at something like $6 for four people!)

Yes, there was art for sale on board, but it wasn't pushed, instead the "art guy" gave a number of small talks which turned which turned out to be not only informative, but extremely entertaining, and we tried not to miss them.

While I didn't do an onboard booking I would certainly return to Silversea and hope to in the future. Right now I've got Seabourn in my scope!

Great info and comments Suzanne. Sounds like Silver Sea might just be on our list of future cruise possibilities, if we don't run out of money first and end up living in our kids guest room or something. Gotta slow down the cruise bookings.....we wanna be Jean and Clyde, which means the $$$ have to last another 20+ years or so!!! LOL. :app:

Did you find Vietnam changed?

Thanks, Suzanne. We are trying SS out in January and are looking forward to an equally good time. Glad to hear about the mix of passengers.

Betty,

Yes, I did find Viet Nam much changed. I didn't realize my first visit was fairly soon after VN had opened to tourism. There was very little industry, a few large plants were springing up in the midst of rice paddies. Of course things are different in that respect today.

I kept feeling that although the traffic is still frantic, there aren't as many motorcycles as there were. That can't be right, it must be that there are many more private cars than there were in 2001. It used to be a blend of pedicabs, motos and a few taxis and cars, but pedicabs are now banned in Saigon, with the exception of a few for tourist purposes, due to traffic. The mix has changed.

A second visit to the Hanoi Hilton revealed that the extreme propaganda bias regarding the "American War" had changed. Gone were the photos of Jane Fonda shaking hands with VK leaders and photos of John McCain smiling while imprisoned (but openly flipping the bird as a symbol to those back home that things weren't quite as pictured). There is more emphasis now on how the French colonialists used the facility to imprison and torture the Vietnamese. The only photo of McCain is a one of a post war visit. The War Museum in Saigon had a very powerful and often disturbing exhibit on the War as seen through the eyes of a number of media photographers, many who lost their lives on assignment. Interestingly the War Museum was not part of any of Silversea's tours. I realized that just now as I went through my tour book looking to see if there was a name other than the War Museum.

Quite recently other nationalities are now allowed to buy property (as in homes and apartments) in VN and there is a large presence of multi-national hotel chains.

Thanks for your comments, Suzanne. I'm glad it was an interesting trip.

Natalya left the bar service & transferred to the butler jobs. When were were on Silver Whisper in January 2010, she was working in the large suites section on deck 7. If I remember correctly, by the time we boarded Prince Albert II in Norway, one of the folks from Silver Whisper let us know Natalya had left the ship to return home for a while.

I hope she will be back - she is truly sensationally magnificent.

Welcome home!

Cheers, Anne

Suzanne: I hope you get a chance to try Seabourn.

Like Silversea, there is a very different passenger mix with usually more than half coming from other parts of world. We have always made many interesting friends while sailing, and we've maintained contact with many of them.

Great reporting Suzanne...we've been on 1 short Seabourn Med cruise but never on SS. Sounds like you and Mark had a great trip!

Good to read this Suzanne. We've just booked a holiday cruise - Sand Diego to Ft. Lauderdale on the SilverShadow. I've always wanted to cruise over Christmas and New Year's.

I hope you get to try Seabourn. We loved our cruise on the Sojourn last year so much that we've scheduled Sydney to LA in February 2012 on the Spirit (I think it's the Spirit - writing off the top of my head). Had the most fun in the lounges that I've ever experienced. LOTS of dancing - but it could have been the passenger mix - you never really know with a cruise.