Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  12/07/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  This is regarding a cruise where Silversea specifically touted staying at the ************* in **************. The invoice that we paid specifically indicated the *************. A few weeks after making final payment for the cruise, we received an email stating that we were not at the ******* but instead at an inferior hotel. This was a classic bait and switch. Our invoice clearly showed us booked at the ************************* for the specific dates and their representative, clearly had used the hotel as a selling point for booking the cruise. The cruise line should arrange for a stay at the specific hotel that was booked.

• Initial Complaint

  07/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  We booked a cruise on Silverseas for September of 2025. We booked this cruise in the spring of 2024. We were required to put down a $5000.00 deposit. I was uncomfortable with this amount of money, because the cruise was over a year and a half away. But I was assured by the travel agent that if we needed to cancel, we could use the deposit money towards another trip. We were comfortable with that because we are retired and travel often.Last week, the couple we were traveling with, decided that they werent going on the trip. We called silverseas and were told we could get our deposit back, because the trip was so far away.We then received a call from the travel agent, along with a representative with Silverseas on the line. We were told that if we booked the trip now, we would get a full refund of our deposit as long as the trip was 150 days away. But when we booked it, that wasn't the policy. Of course, we were very upset, as they said they were entitled to keep $3000, 15% of the total cost of the cruise. We pleaded with them to refund our money, or even apply it to another Silverseas cruise that we were taking in March 2025.The emailed us last night, and said there was nothing they would do for us. They were keeping the money, just refunding $2000.This is very unfair, and they know it. Thats why they changed the policy.I feel it is criminal that they are keeping $3000 for a trip that we cancelled 15 months in advance.I dont know who to turn to, which prompted my filing a complaint with you.

• Initial Complaint

  06/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My husband and I booked a door-to-door cruise (booking # *** ******) on 8/8/23 in order to receive discounts on the cruise. The catalog stated "door-to-door all inclusive fares with refundable reduced deposit when booked by 31 August 2023. We requested our flights to be from **************. On 12/29/23 we received an e-mail that we were flying out of JFK .It was corrected on 4/18/24. We requested a post cruise hotel in ****. E-mail of 4/29/24 showed a pre cruise room at **************************** in ******. When my husband called he was told that we would have to correct it ourselves. It was at this point that we decided we could not trust the cruise line to provide a safe uninterrupted trip and requested a cancellation. We were told we would get $139.50 back and they were keeping our deposit. Considering they are the ones that made us feel unsafe and their brochure states our package was refundable, I believe we should get a full refund. They ruined our 50th anniversary vacation.

  Business response

  06/14/2024

  Dear *****,

  Thank you kindly for allowing us the opportunity to respond to this complaint. We are very sorry to learn that Mr. and *************** are unhappy with our cancelation policy. This policy is sent to guest's numerous times including but not limited to being published on our website, their passenger contract, our terms and conditions, and every invoice that is sent via email to them and their travel professional. Additionally, the guests acknowledge our policies when a booking is confirmed by way of them making a deposit. Additionally, the refundable reduced deposit is subject to a cancelation policy, and again this information is provided to the guests on multiple occasions. 

  We are very sorry to learn that Mr. and *************** feel that Silversea did not provide the service and arrangements they requested and extend our apology if a staff member did not inform them properly. Our goal is for our guests to have a stress free, seamless vacation, as such, it is our pleasure to extend a one-time courtesy and refund the cancelation penalty for their booking 454134-23 / ************************* & *****. The amount of $2,850.00 was refunded today, June 14, 2024, to ******************* credit card on file, ending 1322.

  It is our sincere hope that we will have the pleasure of welcoming Mr. and *************** aboard in the near future. 

  I remain available should there be any questions. 

  *************************  
  Manager,Guest Relations
  
  SILVERSEA
  ***************************************************************
  Mobile :  ***************  
  ********************************* | Silversea.com

• Initial Complaint

  06/02/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I have been unable, after numerous attempts, to speak with our Silversea agent, *****************. We repeatedly call, leave messages on her voicemail, and send emails, yet she does not respond. We have also spoken to the call center in the ***********, but they are unable to rectify this situation. We are booked on voyage DA240629010, ********** to **********, departing 6/29/24. There are several issues that need to be addressed.First, our room assignments are incorrect and need to be fixed. Our Silversea agent, ************, had promised to make these changes prior to ticketing, but alas, she did not and will not respond to our calls. Second, our airline reservation was mishandled by Silversea. We were told that we were being downgraded to Economy Plus. the Silversea air department admitted that they had made an error, and there was nothing that could be done. Although we had paid $1990 per person extra for Business class, Silversea would not issue any refund nor credit for the downgraded class of service. We had to change our flights to leave a day early, incurring travel expenses of approximately $3000.The third issue is in regards to a change of excursions. We reserved an included excursion and later saw that it became selected for an addl cost of $199/person. We were told not to cancel and that Silversea would honor the included status at no charge, but this was not the case. However, it was too late as I had already cancelled. I subsequently rebooked the excursion for the family and interestingly one booking has the excursion at no charge, whereas the other booking numbers have the excursions priced at $199/person for a total of $995, which will be charged on board.Hopefully the ticketing snafu can be resolved before boarding, as I do not wish to have any difficulties at the port of embarkation. Our pre-cruise experience for this cruise is unlike any we have had with Silversea in the past, and I need the cruise line to remedy these issues.

• Initial Complaint

  03/28/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Silversea Antarctica Cruise January 25, 2024SiBooking ************: On arrival at hotel, I was given a room without phone service. I refused to take that room, common sense, if anything happens I have no access to operator or anyone else. I was given phone service. I believe we spent 3 nights in ************. The corridors to/from my hotel room were not lit at night and the corridors have steps. Since I could not see the corridor clearly, one night while walking to my room I missed the steps&fell flat on my face. The last night, we were told to go to our rooms for a two hour sleep and be ready for a 2:30 am departure to Antarctica to subsequently board the Silversea Cruise ship. Silversea Cruise Endeavor Experience: Anyway, within two minutes, my ****** comes to introduce himself. He asked me if I wanted anything at that time and I said "Yes, I would like a smoothie with spinach, blueberries&bananas".He responded that they were short of blueberries. I requested a smoothie with spinach, strawberries&bananas, he responded they were short on strawberries, so I asked for a smoothie with spinach and bananas. He responded they could provide this. Now, remember this is at time of boarding the Silversea Endeavor and they prove they are already short on basic food supply. I requested the chicken ****** salad on each occasion. It had hardly any lettuce and a lot of chicken and croutons. On one occasion,the dinner trays were accumulating in my cabin, one day I picked up three of the trays with all of the glassware, utensils, plates and everything else that a dinner tray would have. I walked to the cabin door to place them outside.I opened the door, the door swung open and threw me and all three trays to the floor. There was blood on me, the napkins and blood spatter on the walls. The medics came in My pinky finger and hand palm were cut. My pinky finger was cut halfway from the front to halfway to the back, had the cut been any deeper I could have severed my whole finger.

• Initial Complaint

  02/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I booked a trip on Silverseas departing 10/27/23. I gave my deposit of $3665. Due to a conflict I changed my trip to a new vacation 2/1/2025. I am now again in a conflict and wanted to either change my trip or get a refund. I was told there was no refund and instead a "penalty" which was actually greater than my deposit. The trip is a year away. I essentially paid for nothing. I would like a refund. I have noticed multiple similar complaints on "cruise critic" and horrible ratings even here on the BBB website.

• Initial Complaint

  11/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  We had a cruise booked with 'Silverseas departing ****** 11/09/2023. On 11/03/2023, I was notified that my father, who lives in ******* *****, passed away, requiring me to immediately to return to ***** from ******* to take care of his funeral and burial. I immediately called Silverseas to see we could get a refund or rebook a future date. I was told I could not. I then asked if I could transfer my tickets to relatives to go in our place. I was told the tickets could not be transferred and we would just have to lose all money we had paid for this cruise. This doesn't sound fair and just. Attached is our ticketing information. While you promote the concept of making SilverSea cruise the best experience for clients, your action tells us that you actually do not care. We selected Silverseas because you were recommended by several of our neighbors and friends that have taken one of your cruises in the past.

• Initial Complaint

  11/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Silversea is supposed to refund me EUR ****** which is not disputed by them. This has been pending for 2 months now and I have reached out several times via e-mail and telephone to the cruise consultant. Apart from saying the payment is pending, I have not received any valid explanation why it takes them so long to refund the outstanding amount or why it takes them 8 weeks to get internal approval to wire the money. More details on the various exchanges can be found in the supporting documents.

• Initial Complaint

  08/25/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Since mid June I have tried to contact Silversea to resolve a reservation/cancellation issue, not to mention false advertising and price gouging. I have emailed at least four times and as many calls to their *************************** to contact me. To date, no response. I cancelled reservation #******-22 because they have a 15% penalty on their port-to port bookings even though their ads say "deposit refundable". To avoid that "penalty" one has to upgrade to their "door to door" booking for a cost of $1900. But all you get for that $1900 is limo service at both ends of the cruise, (about $200 of transportation costs. I wanted to resolve and re-book this cruise but unable to speak to someone to resolve my questions. In addition, since June the cost of the cruise is now higher by $1200 if Silversea called me I could have re-booked at a lower price.

  Customer response

  09/25/2023

  After numerous tries Silversea has given me a Future Cruise credit to be used for future travel. Unfortunately, they still never replied to the "penalty" difference if I book the "port to port" vs the "door to door" booking.

  At this point they  have made me financially whole however they are still using the higher penalty if you cancel the "port to port" booking.

• Initial Complaint

  07/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I booked a cruise trip for Jan **** to Feb **** for 6 people with a silversea sales agent on May 29, 2023 and put down a deposit for $40212.5. Under the impression of that the agent's word 'this is the best deal i have seen at silversea cruise', the price of the trip dropped around $4400 per person 2 days later in June and the new price is a refundable price. I consider it dishonest solicitation and asked for a price much, the agent did not resolve it and leave the case open for almost 2 months.While we are waiting for his response, my wife found out she is pregnant and the due date is in Feb ****, which means she cannot be on the cruise when she is late in her pregnancy and my family needs to be with her around that time too. so we contacted the agent to either cancel 4 people's trip and get refund or push all 6 people's trip to ****. the response is the agent's accusation of why we are pregnant when we book a cruise (it's really not professional) and he demanded we pay full but also 'there is no guarantee that after the full payment the order can be extended to ****. I am extremely not satisfied with the service and the response. First, the agent solicitated the deal with words like 'the best deal ever', then the price dropped; second, we need to make change to our plan due to my wife's pregnancy and his response was to accuse us for 'why are you getting pregnant'; lastly, this has been going on for a while, we have email proofs, they have absolutely no positive altitude in solving it. We proposed 2 plans and they denied both and couldn't not make any promise other than asking us for full payment. We demand a full refund of our deposit.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩