We chose the sailing because the timing and itinerary were just what we were looking for. The issues started just after we booked the cruise through the Silversea Florida Office. The thing to bear in mind is that this is supposed to be a luxury cruise and you are paying top dollar. The booking/ administration was awful and had no idea of life outside Florida. Questions went unanswered for weeks, escalation to management helped, but slowly, promises were not kept. Flights routings were stupid - the first plan was to fly us 4 hours East to Toronto, to fly us 5 hours West to Vancouver (rather than just the one hour to Vancouver), before flying to the Far East. Then they rescheduled our early February flight at the last minute giving us a very tight transfer in the middle of a deep freeze/ snow storm. We were told they wanted to cut down on our wait time in Vancouver - a better plan would have been to ask us! In my opinion, they had just no idea. The Shipboard credit was not provided and had to be requested from the ship. In all fairness, we travelled with a friend from England who did not have any issues with their admiistartion.

Planning the ports looked odd. We stayed 2 days in Sianoukville, described as a cross between a rubbish dump and a building site, but only a few hours in Ha Long Bay, an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Once we were on the ship, the ship's company could not have been better, service was excellent from top to bottom - particularly all the bar staff. We could not fault the cabin staff, just excellent. The line is Italian, so food was slanted to haute cuisine, which was fine, we had some beautiful dishes. The lunch on the Pool deck delivered a really, really good burger, just light on the salads, though I suppose I could have asked for double portions. Read more