Earlier I had posted the quote below in a Silversea vs. Regent thread on CruiseCritic:

Well, now we’ve taken both cruises, the April - Caribbean cruise on the Silver Shadow and the May - East Coast to Reykjavik cruise on Voyager, which just happened to be this year’s (season’s?) President’s cruise; Mark Conway and his lovely wife were on board as far as Halifax. During that part of the cruise, both food and service were the best we’ve had on Regent in several years. After Halifax, it fell off a bit, but was still pretty good. And we certainly enjoyed all the perks that come with the Platinum tier on Regent, plus we were offered and took a low-cost upgrade to a Penthouse Suite, so we were able to compare service, butler against butler!

I don’t know if we’d be willing to pay full price for a butler on Regent, but it is a very welcome addition; it takes the level of in-suite service back to, and honestly a fair distance beyond, that we used to enjoy when every suite on Radisson had both a stewardess and a steward. Interestingly enough, our Silversea butler was on his first contract with them; previously he had been on Voyager for several contracts, and was a good buddy of our butler on that ship. Both were great and insured we had outstanding service! Having butlers in all suites is a definite plus for Silversea.

Silversea’s food was just a slight bit better than Regent’s early high standard, in both selection and quality, but the choice of standard wines was not as extensive or as good. And since we had to pay for many amenities we get without charge via our Seven Seas Society tier status with Regent (laundry, Internet access, newspaper, free air deviation service, etc.), we didn’t spring for any of the connoisseur collection wines. Overall, Silversea gets the edge on food, wine and overall service. My wife remarked that while all of the Regent staff were graciously attentive and smiled a lot while the Conroys were aboard, the quickly went back to cordial but slow service, smiles absent as soon as they disembarked. Despite disclaimers that service and provisioning expenses have not been cut, our experience on this cruise (after Halifax) and on earlier cruises as well as the very nature of the Apollo-Prestige-Regent business relationship, the way outfits like Apollo operate, at least strongly suggest otherwise. If budgets haven’t been cut, they certainly haven’t kept pace with inflation.

In his Town Meeting on board, Mark Conway pointed out some of the constraints on staffing, one being Regent’s ability to recruit and keep trained help, particularly in competition with lines that do not include gratuities in the fare, where wait and stateroom staff typically make more overall than their counterparts on lines like Regent that do include tips in the fare. Other factors affecting staffing levels is that Regent ships don’t have free staff cabins to house larger crews, a hard-to-believe contention as all three ships were in service when Radisson had two stewards(esses) per suite and many more wait and supervisory staff in the dining rooms. Also, Mark cited competition from all the large new ships that are just coming into service, and joked at one point that if he banned smoking he’d have to do it for both guests and crew. Then we’d have to wait on ourselves and make our own beds. Neither of us smoke, and only once in two weeks, in the bar across from the Casino, did we smell smoke, not enough to bother us, but certainly noticeable.

Comparing the two ships overall and in suites and entertainment, the two lines come out nearly equal. Bothersome to us are charges for the alternate restaurant and the Internet on Silversea, and the loss of food choice and quality as well as the declining levels of service on Regent. We get lots of benefits with them though, and like all three Regent ships, with the Voyager being a slight favorite. We’re concerned about the Silver Wind and Cloud, with their lack of separate showers (we always take a shower suite on Mariner). The specialty restaurants on Regent are better too, in our opinion, plus there isn’t an added charge for any of them. And today, access to the Internet is (or certainly should be) an integral part of any upscale lodging or cruising experience. Silversea approach is so 1990ies.

In all honesty, overall for us Silversea and Regent are mostly just about equal. Silversea’s edge in food quality and selection, it’s universal butlers, and very clear edge overall in service and friendliness of staff is balanced by Regent’s plethora of included features and amenities. So we’ll continue to cruise with Regent, and if we can find a cruise that isn’t cancelled or truncated to accommodate a charter, we'll also travel again with Silversea.

The great three week triple back-to-back Istanbul-Athens-Venice-Monaco cruise on the new Silver Spirit in September-October, 2011 we’d booked (see quote above) was cancelled when they chartered the ship for a major piece of the Athens-Venice leg. Our super-agent and a very helpful woman at the Silversea call center found us another, shorter back-to-back cruise on the Cloud a bit later, making several of the same port calls, so we booked that, disappointed that we wouldn’t be sailing in the new ship but comforted by a small discount to make up for the cancellation. Then just last week we were notified that this second cruise has been shortened by several days, making it hardly worth the effort to get to it and back; flying is such a giant hassle these days!

So our verdict in the Silversea vs. Regent sweepstakes: TOO CLOSE TO CALL! For those just getting started cruising, I think Silversea gets the edge, but I’d try Seabourn and Crystal as well before I made up my mind.

Count, exceptionally well crafted comparison of SS and R. We also enjoy both of these cruiselines (sailed on the maiden cross on the Spirit in Jan, will be on the Voyager this Nov; and then we are booked on Oceania Marina's maiden voyage in Jan. Plan to briefly report back on our food prefences between R, SS and O.

ColonelWes,
Hope you will give us your overall preferences between R, SS, O when you are no longer on holiday.

Count, I am happy to read this. Some of your recent (okay, past several years) comments about Regent have been disturbing, particularly since I was crusing on both SS and Regent from time to time as you were were posting disappointing messages about Regent. Glad you tried Silversea, as I have done twice. You reached about the same conclusion as me, I think. Both great lines, almost interchangeable for value and service overall. Food so subjective, and service just depends on what you asked for when, and how it was delivered at the time. I'm not yet ready to give the "edge" to Silversea after at least as many cruising days on Regent as you, and about 28 days on SS.

Speaking as someone who is considering trying SS I found this review most interesting. We have travelled a lot with Regent (Gold level) in the past 8 years and my concern is that we might try SS and then wish we were on Regent. From your review I rather think we would...I share your feelings about the nuisance factor of charging for the speciality restaurants and internet access but most of all I think it is the SS smoking policy that worries me. I am so used now to not smelling smoke that I do not want to have to smell it ever again! So until SS changes its policies we will stick with Regent. And, by the way, our last cruise on the Mariner this April was on a full ship, port intensive, and as far as I am concerned the standard of service was terrific! I had no complaints at all.

Thanks for the comparison. It concers with a lot of my thoughts, as well.