Silversea to the Artic ?

Having done a few expedition cruises on small ships I'm looking at Svarlbard as the next destination and am thinking about trying Silversea. I've previously been on ships with passenger numbers ranging from 8 (Sea of Cortez) to 92 (Antarctica and South Georgia) and really enjoy the atmosphere and flexibility of small ships particularly for wildlife viewing.

I like the look of the Explorer but wonder if it might be a bit too big and would welcome some feedback from those of you that have been on the trip on some issues that I've been wondering about:

- is the Explorer small enough (or have enough zodiacs) for everyone to be off the ship and in zodiacs at the same time ? I don't think I would be happy missing something because it wasn't my turn.

- how many zodiac trips / landings could I expect a day and how long would they be ? Do they take advantage of the long daylight hours to run the zodiacs in the evening if something is spotted ? If possible I'd like to spend more time off the ship than on it during waking hours.

- there seems to be no mention of a polar plunge opportunity - is this a possibility ?

- what is the ratio of expedition guides to passengers ? Do the expedition staff eat with the other passengers or can you run into them in the bar and have a chat ?

- is there an open bridge policy and are extra wildlife spotters welcome ?

- do they put on a deck BBQ one evening ?

- is there a link with a relevant wildlife or conservation charity and a charity auction at the end of the trip ?

- do you feel that the expedition staff go above and beyond in ensuring the maximum number of landings / zodiac cruises and the best wildlife encounters or do you feel they play it safe ?

- how do you feel the zodiac drivers treat whales ? Do they go too close or do they maintain a respectful distance ?

Apologies for the long list of questions but there are few reviews / trip reports for Arctic trips either on here or Trip Advisor.

We did this trip in 2011. Link to my day by day review is in my signature. Pictures are available as a separate link. Great trip.

I am leaving work shortly but can give you more specific answers to your questions when I have more time.

Having done a few expedition cruises on small ships I'm looking at Svarlbard as the next destination and am thinking about trying Silversea. I've previously been on ships with passenger numbers ranging from 8 (Sea of Cortez) to 92 (Antarctica and South Georgia) and really enjoy the atmosphere and flexibility of small ships particularly for wildlife viewing.

 

I like the look of the Explorer but wonder if it might be a bit too big and would welcome some feedback from those of you that have been on the trip on some issues that I've been wondering about:

 

- is the Explorer small enough (or have enough zodiacs) for everyone to be off the ship and in zodiacs at the same time ? I don't think I would be happy missing something because it wasn't my turn.

 

They generally disembark half of the guests at any one time. It works well. I think it would be pretty crowded on the zodiacs if they had all 128 guests off-ship at once.

 

- how many zodiac trips / landings could I expect a day and how long would they be ? Do they take advantage of the long daylight hours to run the zodiacs in the evening if something is spotted ? If possible I'd like to spend more time off the ship than on it during waking hours.

 

Generally there are two excursions per day. On one of our Antarctic cruises they did three in one day. Times vary but figure 2 hours. We didn't have any impromptu zodiac trips on our Svalbard cruise but I suppose it could happen. The impromptu stuff was mainly an announcement that such-and-such had been sighted so come on deck and take a look - like a great Polar Bear sighting, and a blue whale sighting. Didn't need a zodiac for that.

 

- there seems to be no mention of a polar plunge opportunity - is this a possibility ?

 

Yes, they did that on our trip. You are tethered to a harness and jump off a zodiac (tied up to the boat), directly into the Arctic Ocean at 82 degrees north. It's fun! Go for it. I did it; Chris was the smart one who took pictures.

 

- what is the ratio of expedition guides to passengers ? Do the expedition staff eat with the other passengers or can you run into them in the bar and have a chat ?

 

There are about 8-10 expedition staff and 128 passengers (max). Do they eat with passengers? It depends. On our Antarctic cruise they were highly visible and made a point to join passengers at dinner and lunch. On the other two cruises - less often but occasionally. It seems that they waited to be invited. You can definitely run into them at the bar...in fact, my first Polar Plunge (in Antarctica) took place the day after Chris and I stayed up way too late drinking in the bar with the historian, who convinced me that it would be fun to do the Polar Plunge at Deception Island. Be careful what you wish for! But, I am glad that I did it.

 

- is there an open bridge policy and are extra wildlife spotters welcome ?

 

There has been an open bridge policy on past cruises. Don't know if that has changed. And they have always said that the more eyes looking for wildlife, the better.

 

- do they put on a deck BBQ one evening ?

 

In warmer climates. They did open the grill one day on our Svalbard cruise. It's not as much fun as you'd think eating burgers and fries with gloves on. ;)

 

- is there a link with a relevant wildlife or conservation charity and a charity auction at the end of the trip ?

 

They auctioned off a map of the voyage, signed by Captain and crew. The proceeds benefited some charity or another. Details escape me now.

 

- do you feel that the expedition staff go above and beyond in ensuring the maximum number of landings / zodiac cruises and the best wildlife encounters or do you feel they play it safe ?

 

The expedition staff do everything possible to make sure that this is a trip of a lifetime. Great folks.

 

- how do you feel the zodiac drivers treat whales ? Do they go too close or do they maintain a respectful distance ?

 

Never experienced a driver harassing a whale with a zodiac. That would strike me as a bit crazy. We observed whales from onboard the Explorer. The expedition crew are the zodiac drivers; they are all naturalists and know better than to disrespect nature. We did observe a swimming Polar Bear from a zodiac but our driver was appropriately cautious and kept a respectful distance.

 

Apologies for the long list of questions but there are few reviews / trip reports for Arctic trips either on here or Trip Advisor.

Here are some more details. We love Silver Explorer and have been on 3 cruises - Antarctica, Arctic, and Panama Canal. Looking at the Chilean Fiords for 2017...hope we can get back on board then!

We have been there twice and are scheduled for am3 red time, all on explorer. So you can guess we like it. My blogs are all here in this section of cruise critic, so just do a search.

Thanks for the answers. I've worked out how to use the search function and found a few more reports.

I'm surprised not to see examples of following whales in zodiacs in any of the blogs - I've had wonderful experiences following blue, fin, orca, humpback and sperm whales in zodiacs or pangas. Some zodiac drivers have got a bit too close but most not which is why I asked about the Silversea experience.

Had a fantastic afternoon in the Antarctic in zodiacs following a pod of orca who were hunting a minke - the expedition leader thought they we had seen a training hunt for the teenage orca as they could have killed it much sooner than they did. They weren't bothered by us and we kept a respectful distance away. We left before the final kill but a photo taken that afternoon won best photo in the expedition competition.

Reading your reports has convinced me to go before the polar bears become too difficult to see but I'm not sure if Silversea is the right fit. I think I need something a bit smaller or at least where everyone can be off the ship together for the best sightings which has been my experience on every other ship I've been on.

Might have to save Silversea for one of the more unusual itineraries - I quite like the look of northern Alaska to Japan.

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Reading your reports has convinced me to go before the polar bears become too difficult to see but I'm not sure if Silversea is the right fit. I think I need something a bit smaller or at least where everyone can be off the ship together for the best sightings which has been my experience on every other ship I've been on................

We did Longyearbyen to Tromso. It was our first Silverseas cruise. We saw Polar bears. If there was a sighting, no matter what time of day or night, the announcement came over, so you could see them. Our best one was a 'family' of 3 full size bears and two cubs, they were eating a frozen whale carcass in the water with 'mum' keeping her cubs safely out of reach. The WHOLE ship were in the zodiacs for hours watching this, it was snowing, freezing, all you could hear were the click of cameras ! We got spectacular photos. Nobody wanted to return to the ship, the expedition leader eventually said time out - but by that time our feet were frozen and we were happy to return to the Explorer. The Explorer and its crew - our favourite ship in the fleet ! :)

Rojaan19, I was hoping that you or Ron would chime in on this thread. Good to hear from you, and Rachel as well. We are certainly the big Silver Explorer fans here!

Speaking of future Explorer cruises...the October 2016 cruise from Guayaquil to Santiago, with a special focus on local food, looks amazing! We can't go, as we're in Madagascar and South Africa for 3 weeks during that same time frame.

But we're seriously considering that itinerary for 2017...or the next sailing, for the Chilean fiords.

Rojaan19, I was hoping that you or Ron would chime in on this thread. Good to hear from you, and Rachel as well. We are certainly the big Silver Explorer fans here!...........

Thanks JP ! We have just returned from a month in Japan, did a Botanica cruise on the Caledonian Sky ( 100 passengers/expedition type ship/ owned by Nobel Caledonia/APT ) It really makes you appreciate what a great ship the Explorer is when you try something charging the same price, but is SO lacking ! We did enjoy the gardens and Japan and it was cherry blossom time :D but never again on that line.

We are definitely on the Cape to Cape in March '17 - Ron has always wanted to do that one. Conrad is going to have to come up with a few more places for us to go !

Ann

JP, the Chilean fjords one in 2017 looks tempting. I have been eyeing that one for a while.

As far as the OPs question regarding following whales, we really didn't see any whales on our Arctic cruise.

Now on our Churchill to Greenland cruise, at Churchill there were hundreds of Beluga whales which were mating there. They deployed all the zodiacs, and we spent the whole afternoon out among them. I was totally frozen by and soaked by the end, but it was a great experience. So if whales appear, I think you would have opportunity to get close to them.