Every year, the TPG Awards honor excellence in credit cards, loyalty programs and travel. Please click here to read more about our winner selection process and methodology for the 2024 TPG Awards.
When all-inclusive fares, gourmet dining, spacious suites with private balconies and attentive service are the hallmarks of every luxury cruise line, it’s tricky to decide just which brand and ship is right for your next upscale vacation.
All of the major luxury cruise lines have their own signature styles, but one line stands out for taking high-end cruising a step beyond its competitors with more choice and innovation within its vacation offerings. That’s why we’ve named Silversea Cruises the 2024 TPG Awards winner for Best Luxury Cruise Line.
Silversea is an all-inclusive cruise line with fares covering fine dining in multiple onboard venues, premium alcoholic beverages and specialty coffees, crew gratuities, standard Wi-Fi and a shore excursion in every port. Book one of its door-to-door fares and you’ll also receive private car transfers and airfare.
Its ships offer all the hallmarks of luxury cruising. Most accommodations are suites with separate living and sleeping areas, private verandas, walk-in closets and marble bathrooms with plenty of elbow room. Even its smallest cabins have picture windows and sitting areas.
Onboard dining takes travelers on a culinary journey around the world, with multicourse La Dame serving French fare; Indochine, Seishin and Kaiseki elevating Asian flavors; and La Terrazza and Spaccanapoli tempting with authentic Italian dishes.
The staff-to-guest ratio is nearly 1:1, meaning service on board is always attentive and personal; you might even get tired of waiters offering to carry your plate or bring you your favorite drink.
But we expect amenities like those from any cruise line that dares to brand itself as luxury. Here are the five areas where Silversea really stands out from its competitors.
Fleet size and variety
Silversea has the largest fleet of all the major luxury cruise lines catering to North Americans. Its 12 ships range in size from the 100-passenger Silver Origin, which sails exclusively in the Galapagos, to its two new-builds Silver Ray and Nova, with one of the highest space-to-guest ratios in the industry and an energy-efficient design.
The reason for this extensive fleet is that the cruise line offers two distinct categories of ships. Eight of its ships, with passenger capacities of 392 to 728 passengers, are typical (yet upscale) ocean-going ships, offering leisure trips around the world.
The remaining four ships are smaller (100 to 274 passengers) and belong to the line’s hardy expedition fleet. These ships specialize in more adventurous sailings to remote destinations, including Antarctica, the Arctic, the Galapagos and the South Pacific. They offer a different vibe with education-as-entertainment, led by an expedition team of historians, scientists and cultural specialists; active exploration via hikes or kayak outings; and an emphasis on local culture and wildlife.
With so much variety in onboard style and amenities, Silversea can offer guests new experiences with every vacation so they don’t have to research new lines every time they plan another cruise. Plus, the line’s Venetian Society loyalty program rewards repeat passengers even more with perks that range from discounts to free cruises.
Unique itineraries to every continent
With 12 ocean and expedition ships, Silversea can offer itineraries to every continent, from pole to pole — something that many of its competitors cannot do. The line claims its ships leave almost no coastline unvisited, traveling to more than 900 destinations each year.
Of course, Silversea cruisers can visit all the cruise staple regions: the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, and Alaska. Expect more off-the-beaten-path ports, with a yacht-y vibe. Ships might stop in Giardini Naxos, Sicily; Casablanca, Morocco; Gustavia, St. Barts; or Wrangell, Alaska.
But Silversea isn’t content to stick with tried-and-true itineraries. For example, it’s the only major luxury cruise line to have a ship dedicated to the Galapagos, with Silver Origin sailing weeklong cruises from San Cristobal year-round.
Three of the line’s expedition ships spend the Southern Hemisphere summer in Antarctica. (The cruise line was an early trendsetter in luxury sailings to Antarctica.) Guests can choose to sail from Puerto Williams, at the southern tip of Chile, across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula. Or, they can choose to fly over the Drake — skipping the stomach-turning waves — and board their ship at King George Island for a shorter itinerary concentrated all on the southernmost continent.
The luxury line is even building a hotel in Puerto Williams to house guests prior to their cruise or flight; when finished, it will be the southernmost hotel in the world.
Silversea also offers itineraries to bucket list destinations in the Arctic, Africa and the Indian Ocean, French Polynesia and the Pacific Islands, South America, Australia/New Zealand and Asia. The line started operating in Australia’s remote Kimberley region before it was on many other cruise line’s radars. (You’ll find more small-ship lines there as of this year.)
Simply put: Its reach is unbeatable.
Butlers in every suite
One of the reasons travelers choose a luxury cruise line is to feel pampered, and Silversea takes that desire seriously. To that end, it offers around-the-clock butler service in every suite on all its ships — not just the top accommodation, as some lines do.
Silversea butlers will take all your vacation’s frustrating logistical chores off your to-do list so you can focus on relaxing by the pool or sampling all the signature cocktails. They’ll unpack your bags, make restaurant reservations, whisk away your laundry and return it impeccably folded. Leave your sunglasses on the counter, and you’ll find them wrapped neatly in a microfiber cloth to prevent scratches.
But Silversea butlers can also add to the magic of a luxury vacation. They are happy to bring you complimentary Champagne and caviar at your request — or every afternoon, if you prefer. They’ll draw you aromatherapy baths, serve you gourmet hot chocolate on your balcony and bring you truffled popcorn to enjoy with an in-room movie. They will even help you throw a cocktail party in your cabin for your newfound cruise friends.
And service this good is even more special when it’s delivered by a butler dressed in a tuxedo and white gloves, with a friendly smile on their face.
Immersive destination experience through food
All luxury cruise lines stand out for their swoon-worthy cuisine, with stunning grand dining rooms and intimate specialty restaurants serving the best dishes from around the world. Silversea’s innovative S.A.L.T. (Sea And Land Taste) program takes fine dining and uses it to immerse you in the destination you’re visiting through tastes and sips.
On board select ships, guests can dine at two restaurants where menus change based on the region your ship is sailing. S.A.L.T. Kitchen is a main dining room with regionally inspired menus at dinner, with half the menu reflecting the larger region and the other half changing daily based on the current port of call. The S.A.L.T. Lab hosts an intimate chef’s table for just diners with an 11-course meal paired with cocktails and wine, again introducing guests to your destination’s cuisine.
Guests who prefer to drink their way to cultural literacy can mosey on over to the S.A.L.T. bar, which specializes in craft cocktails inspired by your itinerary’s ports of call. If you like a concoction, get your fill because it might disappear off the menu when the ship moves on.
For the hands-on learners, Silversea offers S.A.L.T. experiences, culinary-inspired shore excursions that take you to markets, farms, restaurants and wineries, where you can meet the local people carrying on regional food traditions or leading the way in culinary innovation. Or, head to the S.A.L.T. Lab on a sea day and learn to create local dishes under the guidance of a cooking teacher.
Silversea knows that today’s travelers are passionate about having authentic encounters with the destinations they’re visiting and enjoying top-notch, local food. It combines those two goals into one to enhance your sailing through its food-themed activities.
Most innovative new luxury cruise ships
Royal Caribbean Group absorbed Silversea into its portfolio of cruise brands in 2020 and has since shared its creative juices with its adopted luxury line. The result is that Silversea’s two newest ships, Silver Nova and Silver Ray, are the most innovative new luxury cruise ships afloat.
The line took cruise ship design back to the drawing boards and created a never-seen-before asymmetric design that incorporates light and outside views in most public spaces. The top-deck pool is set along one side of the ship, rather than the middle, so bathers are always looking out to sea or port. All the elevators have glass walls so you have views when waiting to go back to your suite or down to dinner.
No matter where you are on board, you feel immersed in the surroundings outside, rather than stuck on a ship, oblivious to where you are in the world.
The ships also embrace a more modern and youthful vibe than many luxury cruise ships out there. New restaurant menus reflect Italian and French culinary trends (rather than sticking to the classics), and the S.A.L.T. Bar utilizes all the cutting-edge cocktail mixing techniques.
Plus, as some of the most spacious ships at sea, these ships will kill the notion that vessels with hundreds of passengers must feel crowded. Silversea executives make the claim that if every passenger during a sold-out cruise showed up on the pool deck at the same time, they’d still have plenty of space to themselves. All the suites offer oodles of elbow room, with the smallest suite on the ship still a whopping 357 square feet, including the 56-square-foot balcony.
Bottom line
Silversea takes all the characteristics of all-inclusive, small-ship cruising and adds its own spin to make sure high-end travelers have a wealth of choices for hassle-free vacations around the world. It continues to adapt its offerings to the modern traveler while giving its stalwart loyal customers the indulgent vacations they’ve come to love. The line stands out in an increasingly crowded field of luxury cruise lines for all the right reasons.
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