I knew my first luxury cruise would be different from Royal Caribbean, but a few aspects truly surprised me.
I've been on almost 100 Royal Caribbean sailings, but I was intrigued by the prospect of trying something completely different.
When loyalty status matching was updated, I jumped at the opportunity to try out Silversea. It meant going on a luxury ship without truly abandoning what I'm familiar with, because Silversea is owned by Royal Caribbean.
After spending a week on Silver Dawn, I came home with 11 surprises from the experience that I wasn't expecting.
The butlers are very different from a Royal Genie
I was excited by the idea of having a butler for the first time on a cruise, but the experience was very different from the Royal Genie service.
Luxury cruise ships are known for offering each suite a butler, but in practice, it's not what I expected.
I suppose in retrospect it makes sense that your butler is only available to help you in your suite. If I had a butler in my house, they would be there too.
I asked a few different cruisers I met how they maximize their butlers, and most told me the same thing: you basically have to live in your suite to get the most out of it.
That's a bit different from the Royal Genie in Star Class suites, where their services can be used around the ship.
Moreover, I liked I could message my Royal Genie through WhatsApp. On Silver Dawn, I could only get a hold of the butler by calling them from my cabin phone.
That's not a big deal, but on a few occasions it would have been more practical to message the butler to prepare something as I make my way back to my room.
I expected a stuffy dress code, but most people wore collared shirt and no jacket
If I had a concern before my first Silversea cruise, it was the dress code requirements.
I came into the cruise worried about having to wear a suit every night, but the truth is it's not as formal as I expected.
Silversea relaxed their dress code standards fairly recently, and it was no where near as formal as others had warned me about.
There wasn't even a formal night on our sailing. Evidently I have to be on a longer cruise to have one.
The basic dress code was no jeans or shorts after 6pm, and you needed to have a collared shirt in the restaurants. Jackets were optional.
And yes, the crew did enforce the rules. I spoke with various guests who told me about how they or someone else were informed they didn't meet the dress code standards. In those situations, men were offered a jacket to borrow.
During the day, I had no issues wearing what I would wear on Royal Caribbean. Shorts, t-shirts, flip flops were all perfectly acceptable.
Far fewer men than I expected wore a jacket to dinner, so it wasn't nearly as strict as I once feared.
No lines anywhere
One thing I quickly noticed on Silver Dawn was that there were basically no lines or crowds.
You often hear about how cruises have long lines and crowds, but Silver Dawn didn't have them at all. In fact, a few times I went to figure out where everyone was because so many areas were completely empty.
When I asked cruisers onboard why they picked a luxury ship, many said they did it to avoid crowds. They could appreciate what the big ships offer, but didn't want to deal with competing for lounge chairs or lines.
I certainly didn't think the ship would feel as crowded as an Oasis Class ship, but I never thought it would be as empty as it felt.
The incredible service by crew members
No matter which cruise line I've sailed on, crew members have always worked incredibly hard to stand out. But on Silversea, it went to a different level.
Because the crew to passenger ratio is lower on a luxury ship, I think it was easier for the crew to learn passenger names and what they liked.
By the third day of the sailing, I could count on walking into a bar or lounge and at least one crew member greeting me by name as soon as I walked in.
Food selections are incredible, even at buffet
I expected the food would better on Silversea than on Royal Caribbean, and I wasn't disappointed.
I think it's fair to assume a luxury cruise would have better food, and it was exemplified at the buffet when they had every day a large selection of sushi.
There were cooking stations at the buffet too, but the dishes came out looking like something I'd get from a specialty restaurant.
In the ship's Main Dining Room, every night there was filet mignon, lobster tail, shrimp, and other cuts of steak to choose from.
When I ate at the ship's French specialty restaurant, La Dame, there were some really high-end food served, such as foie gras.
My favorite place for food was at the S.A.L.T. lab and restaurant, which sources food from the areas your ship visits.
Not only is it a really smart idea to incorporate the ship experience into the region you are visiting, but there were fantastic food choices.
Surprised the premium WiFi costs extra
Considering Silversea is all inclusive, I was surprised there were tiers of internet service.
The cruise fare comes with basic WiFi included, but it's fairly useless. It's heavily throttled and works only for messaging.
I paid $365 to upgrade to a 2-device premium WiFi package. Not only was that a high cost, but I think a luxury cruise line that says it's all inclusive should include the high speed internet.
In case you're wondering, Silversea uses Starlink too, and the speeds were great.
The only furnishings that disappointed me were the balcony chairs
From the pool chairs, to the lounges, to the towels in my cabin, everything felt luxurious except for my balcony chairs.
It's a minor thing, but I spent time on my balcony on numerous occasions and noticed the chairs and table out there were almost identical to the ones you'd find on a new Royal Caribbean ship.
Moreover, Royal Caribbean suite balconies have more plush chairs with ottomans.
I felt like it was an easy fix, and perhaps Silversea's newer ships already have them.
Beer selection is surprisingly bad
I think the only double take I did on my cruise was when I asked about the beers to order.
Royal Caribbean's beer selection has always been disappointing, but Silversea's beers are even worse. You'll find just the generic beers, with little flavor discrepancy.
As you can see in the photo, there isn't much in the way of IPAs, craft beers, or some of the trendier malt beverages.
I'm guessing the average Silversea cruiser doesn't ask for them, but considering how much wider their liquor selection was than Royal Caribbean, I was surprised how limited the beer options were.
No app or check in
I thought I did something wrong when I couldn't find the Silversea app, but turns out there isn't one.
From what I understand they are working on developing an app, but in the meantime there isn't an app.
Truthfully, you don't need the app onboard because there's a mobile website you can access once connected to the WiFi and it had what I needed: activities, my bookings, a copy of the newsletter, and more.
I was equally surprised to find a lack of an online check-in option, but maybe that's just because I'm conditioned to have one on Royal Caribbean.
When I arrived at the ship for check-in in Copenhagen, there was no line at all and just one person ahead of me. I suppose you don't need a fancy online check-in if there's not a crowd issue to contend with.
Reservations needed for the popular specialty restaurants
Another nuance of the luxury cruise experience is how specialty dining works.
There are essentially three tiers of restaurants on Silversea:
- Included restaurants that don't require reservations (Main Dining Room)
- Specialty restaurants that are included in your cruise fare (Silver Note, The Grill)
- Specialty restaurants that cost money (Kaiseki, La Dame)
How all the reservations worked was more confusion than I anticipated pre-cruise.
Some restaurants absolutely require reservations or you pretty much cannot dine there. Kaiseki and La Dame pretty much sold out almost immediately, whereas Silver Note and The Grill had more flexibility.
The takeaway here is just because restaurants are included, you can't go in anytime you want. I'd recommend making reservations as early as you can to ensure you can get in.
Status matching was easy, but it didn't get me much
I tried Silversea because of the status matching offered, but it really didn't get me much.
That's a bit misleading, because Silversea includes so much more in the cruise fare than Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.
If you think about all the best benefits you get from Crown & Anchor Society or Captain's Club, they're almost all perks that included with a luxury cruise.
I got free laundry, which was a godsend to not have to ration clean clothing.
Speaking of status, there isn't as much recognition of status like you do on the other lines. Your Seapass card doesn't have your status level listed or different colors to your card. That's fine with me, just a different approach.
