Here are some of my final thoughts about Silversea vs. Regent:

Staff: The staff were extremely friendly--perhaps more so than on Regent at least from our experiences. Some of this may be due to the smaller size of the ship. For example, I think on the PG the experience is more similar, but that is also in French Polynesia, where the Gauguines add a special dimension. I still think the staff are overworked in the dining venues on the Whisper.

Food: We thought it was less consistent than on Regent. However, on several occasions, when a dish was good, it exceeded anything I've had on Regent. You couldn't go hungry on either line. One peculiarity was that The Bar--where we played Pooch and Trivia, is a main bar on the ship, and during the day there is no bartender. So if you want anything to drink, you have to call for it, which we did on several occasions. This seems very strange, given the all-inclusive nature of the ship. This is quite different than the set-up on Regent when one plays Trivia right after afternoon Tea.

Excursions: They were really good, except for Jeddah. No better than Regent's, but on par. What we didn't like was the fact that thus far Silversea has ignored the whole issue of our terrible guide in Jeddah. One Camelite even sent a letter the night of the excursion, and didn't even receive an acknowledgment.

Cooking demos: As I mentioned to Ngaire, the audio-visual set-up for the cooking demonstrations was more sophisticated than on Regent. Also, they brought samples of the dish and a wine pairing, which added to the experience.

Ship handling: Another interesting thing is that while we were blessed with spectacular weather and very calm seas, even when it was windy and it seemed the seas were certainly moderately choppy, the Whisper handled it amazingly. Either the wind direction was an important factor, or there is just something about the design to provide exceptionally smooth sailing. I would be curious to hear from those who have been on the Whisper or its sister ship, the Shadow, to find out if they ever experienced a "rough" sailing.

Disembarkation: Baggage was handled very well upon disembarkation. There were also a number of Silversea staff around to ensure that everything went smoothly. They provided more assistance than we've seen on Regent. You didn't feel that now that the cruise was over, you were forgotten about.

Passenger composition: I just did an analysis of the make-up of the passengers. European (incl. Great Britain)-37%, U.S. 31%, Australia/NZ-13%, Canada-7%, Asia-6%, S. America (incl. Mexico)-5%, Misc.- 1%. A high proportion of the Europeans were from Great Britain. There is obviously a much larger proportion of non-USA passengers than on most Regent sailings.

Our bottom line is that if everything else was equal, we would still pick Regent over Silversea. We did not think we would mix in as well with the passenger demographics as on a Regent ship, especially if it were not an escorted cruise. At the same time, if B&K escorted another Silversea cruise to a destination in which we were interested, we wouldn't hesitate for a minute in signing up for it.

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Eugene

P.S. We are in Santorini now, and it is amazing. We've only been here for part of a day from a cruise ship. The Sea Captain's House in Oia is spectacular. I'll be posting something about it. Yesterday, we saw several cruise ships far below in the Caldera. One was a huge Holland America ship, another was Oceania's Insignia, which we are scheduled to sail on around South America in February. We just enjoyed breakfast on the Terrace, with a view that rivals any we've ever experienced, including the Pitons in St. Lucia.

Thanks for posting your comparison, Eugene. We're interested in trying Silversea at some point. This gives us an idea of what to expect.

Just wanted to say that trivia is immediately after tea, but they are not in the same location. We also hate that "The Bar" doesn't serve liquor during the day, but you definitely don't have to call for drinks. The Panorama Lounge is open the entire day for full bar service from like 10 a.m. into the night with no break in service. Also, the pool bar is open all day until 7 pm, and they will also get wine and champagne and such in the observation lounge at any time.

We did have a rough day on Shadow a couple of days ago but nothing like Regent Navigator, though it was a bit reminiscent.

We just returned from Silverseas Carib..during Easter..who knew that every port would be closed for Easter sunday, Monday Tuesday etc..??
Geez.. what's a clothes horse shopping addict shoe freak to do? BAR
We had no problems with Dom at the "closed bar" we called room service and told them to deliver to us at everywhere..
great ship..great EVERYTHING..I will book that over and over.. and most of you know me for "O" well.. ask me again..

Here is our take on our recent Silver Whisper cruise from Dubai to Athens (on which we had the great pleasure to meet Eugene & Gail):

Service: Marvelous, even better than Regent. A number of members of the waitstaff and bar staff took great care to remember passengers' preferences. Our cabin attendants (SS still uses teams of two, as opposed to the unfortunate Regent change to a single attendant) were superb - cheerful, responsive, and efficient.

Food: The weak point of the cruise, as compared to Regent. As Eugene mentioned, it is quite inconsistent. At the same table, one of us received a dish at proper temperature, while another received the identical order at the entirely wrong temperature (i.e. slices of pork tenderloin that were not even warm and were smothered by a room temperature sauce or a dessert plate with ice cream that was melted and therefore ran all over the other items on the plate). One night, of four orders of the chocolate souffle, one was properly baked, two were somewhat undercooked, and one was completely runny and inedible. A poster on CC who was on the Singapore to Dubai cruise on Whisper also had problems with food quality control. Perhaps the new Exec Chef on Whisper does not understand how to run a restaurant on a ship. Previous Silversea cruisers told us that they considered these food problems to be quite uncharacteristic of SS. Further, we are encouraged that passengers on other recent SS cruises (such as Debbie on the Shadow) do not report such quality control problems. One would hope that either the new Exec Chef on Whisper will get a handle on the quality control problems or will be replaced with someone who can.

Excursions: We found the Tour Desk to be more knowledgeable about ports than the Regent desk has been. Further, unlike Regent, there were always SS reps on each tour (and even each tour bus). We were more fortunate that Eugene in Jeddah - we took the full day tour and had an excellent experience.

Disembarkation: We agree heartily with Eugene that the process was handled very well. The luggage was organized perfectly in the terminal building, with a number of SS personnel there to assist as needed. That has not been our experience on Regent in some cases.

Passenger mix: We loved the more diverse passenger mix and would not hesitate to take another SS cruise, irrespective of whether it was escorted.

Summary: Assuming that the food problems do not become a pattern at SS, we would be quite happy to sail on either Regent or SS, making the choice based on itinerary and fare. Overall, this SS experience - our first - was excellent.

Cheers, Fred

Most of your points are consistent with what I've described as what I like more about SS than Regent, but my food issues in liking Voyager better is the choices, not the quality. I am disappointed to hear of this experience with the food. On our Dubai cruise, they did so well. We didn't have temperature issues on Shadow, but I didn't like the sauces, dressings, etc. as much as on Whisper.

I hope you filled out (and received) a mid-cruise comment card and the after cruise sheet. Always our mid-cruise concerns have been addressed immediately. I would have listed all that you mentioned.

An executive chef, as you made obvious has a lot more issues than cooking. Let us hope this was isolated or will be addressed.

Debbie - We did indeed mention the food quality control issues on our mid-cruise comment card but received no response with respect thereto. It may well be that so many such comments were received that (aside from publicly keel-hauling the Exec Chef) there was not really any adequate response to make during the cruise.

We also mentioned the fact that the Panorama Lounge was almost always extremely hot. The front desk called me the next day to explain that because that lounge was high up in the ship and had lots of windows, it simply couldn't be kept cool. When I pointed out that the Observation Lounge was also high up on Whisper with lots of windows and did not have cooling problems and that the many-windowed lounges on Regent Voyager (built by the same shipyard) managed to stay cool, the nice lady said that air conditioning was "a very complicated thing" on ships. Gee, thanks for the insight...

Speaking of mid-cruise comment cards, we complimented our delightful cabin attendants on our card and, to our very pleasant surprise, received a thank-you call from the front desk, along with the news that the two attendants had received a commendation for their good service due to our comments. Silversea seems to know how to treat its staff and reward those who provide good service.

I am thrilled to know that about the comment card on the cabin attendants, as we wrote ours up at the end of the cruise. I really hope she gets a commendation. I also wrote that the cruise consultant was arrogant and bordering on rude. I hope that is looked into as well.

Odds are someone saw what you wrote about the executive chef even if they sheepishly did not address it to you personally. They clearly got the card since your other comments were handled appropriately. You two don't seem too upset about it. One response, whether adequate or not would have been, "Thanks for your feedback. We do not take your comments lightly and will look into the matter. We make every effort to give our fine guests a consistent high quality dining experience".

A couple of cruises ago, I mentioned that the girl that did my pedicure stopped 8 times to greet walk-ins and that they should not take appointments w/o someone manning the desk. I was called and offered a freshener and guaranteed a private appointment.