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Silversea getting more competition in the Expedition cruises...


Tarwood3
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Seabourn just announced 2 expedition ships. The expedition sector is growing rapidly with Seabourn now, and ships coming from Crystal and Ponant etc...

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2018/07/02/seabourn-cruise-line-orders-two-expedition-style-ships/750270002/

 

Wonder how this might affect Silversea’s future plans with existing and future ships?

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As more and more of these ships come on line places like Antarctica will get like the Caribbean or Alaska, wall to wall ships and people.

 

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

 

I think places like Antarctica and Galapagos are pretty strictly regulated...would be surprised if they became mass market...

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Hopefully, it brings down prices in the expedition cruising sphere.

 

Appreciate this original article posted by Tarwood3. Very, very interesting!! YES, great comment and follow-up from Stumblefoot. We can hope for more competition to lower prices. However, expedition ships are smaller with more "personalized" staffing. Harder to gain "economies of scale" in these situations. We can always hope and dream!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 206,782 views for this posting.

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I think this is excellent news - only a few weeks ago I posted somewhere on CC that I thought Seabourn should go head-to-head with Silversea and others in the expedition field. However, 260 passengers is still quite big. Most expedition ships have about 100-120 passengers.

 

It will open up new areas for Seabourn, such as genuine South Pacific cruises, not just the usual hop between major ports like Papeete and Apia. I'm sure many here are also just a bit tired of the predictable stuff in the Caribbean, the Med and Asia. Been there, done that, hello Tokelau!

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Let's not forget to put Scenic into the mix with two Eclipse ships debuting this year and in 2020.

 

 

Ah yes and Ritz Carlton as well now that I think of it. Gonna be an interesting couple years!

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The onboard helicopters and submarines on Scenic I think are a fantastic selling point. The design of the Ritz Carlton Yacht looks amazing, it Looks very much like they’re trying to capture the feeling more of a private yacht than a cruise ship. I found from my recent experience on the Spirit that there was very little wow factor in the design of the ship. It was very pleasantly decorated but no wow. The Seabourn Ovation looks fantastic I can’t wait to see what they come up with for their discovery yachts.

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Yes, will be very interesting to read the reviews, especially those with experience on Silversea Expedition vessels

 

SO I think with our 175 total nights on the Silver Explorer ( after our next up-coming Explorer cruise ) we qualify as being able to compare the Explorer and the Scenic Eclipse ;p But you will have to wait till September '19 for it as we thought we would give the Eclipse a few months to get over any teething problems that arise with a brand new ship, even though they have poached quite a few top people from Silverseas and Seaborn/Ponant. I must admit the Eclipse looks devine and we have booked a spa suite for our cruise.

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Bill nails it , a crowded world creates a market for escape.

The expedition market will soon be in several tranches :

Soft ships with enough passengers allowing economy of scale to offer "faux luxe" facilities while pretending to offer dangerous liasons in their promo's . (aka African Safari's)

Harder (and smaller ) ships with less people, less glimmer , and a focus on genuine soft and hard adventure options.

The "hard" market is already quite well served , but there is clear demand for soft adventure, hence the rush to meet the demand.

 

There have been queue's in popular places like the Antarctic for years with expedition ships discreetly lined up out of sight waiting for their slot to unload the inflatables and show the supplicants "untouched wilderness". The Australian Kimberley coast was a genuine remote wilderness a few years back, now the cruise ships are lined up around the corner too.

 

Finding empty places is an increasing challenge for all travellers .

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Smart lady!

 

Seconded. In 18 years of reading CruiseCritic, I think the two most valuable things I've learned is to never book:

- an inaugural cruise; or,

- an immediate post-drydock cruise.

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We went on our first expedition cruise this year to Antarctica on Silversea. It was a wonderful experience. We had read about the new Scenic Eclipse being built but it is not out yet (first sailings are this August) so we went with Silversea. Although we enjoyed it immensely the Silver Cloud is not a new ship. It was revamped to be an expedition ship and does not seem like it will compare to the new builds some of the cruise lines are building. Some of them appear to have a more modern wow factor, and some have submarines and helicopters for example. We decided to book the Arctic...only this time we are going to try the Eclipse. We booked for 2020. Besides Seabourn, other luxury cruise companies are building expedition ships like Crystal for example. There will be a lot of choices for this type of cruising. And by the way, for Antarctica the ships must limit the number of passengers to 200 even if the ship holds more cabin space.

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=3014

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There will be a lot of choices for this type of cruising. And by the way, for Antarctica the ships must limit the number of passengers to 200 even if the ship holds more cabin space.

 

That's not strictly true. I was on the Seabourn Quest in Antarctica and South Georgia earlier this year. There were 450 passengers. Landings by zodiac took place each day in four groups. While not a traditional expedition experience, I have absolutely no regrets taking this ship - it had masses of deck space, a high level of luxury, choice of dining options etc. Most importantly, it was stable in rough seas and we did the Drake in a day.

 

BTW, those two photos of the beach in Phi Phi Island. It was just like the first photo when I was there back in 1985.

Edited by Fletcher
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Did the Quest really have it's full complement of 450 on the cruise.If so it is impossible for everyone to have had a landing each day if done in 4 groups as there is a limit of 100 at any one time.

This is the beauty of a smaller ship.The Cloud is not a small expedition ship.Nor are most that are coming on line.They will be doing soft expeditions and places like the South Pacific will become popular.The problem is going to be the effect on the locals on the remoter islands that are visited on the soft expeditions.Certainly after a few years you will no longer find the culture that has made the islands desirable to visit.

So for now we will stick with the Explorer but as we age and depending on our Scenic Eclipse experience soft expedition cruises will become our favourite most probably.

As to stability we have been through 2 Force 12 gales on the Explorer.She handles them well.

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Did the Quest really have it's full complement of 450 on the cruise.If so it is impossible for everyone to have had a landing each day if done in 4 groups as there is a limit of 100 at any one time.

 

Not everyone wanted to (or were able) to go ashore. We started with five groups and that reduced to four groups as some passengers stayed on the ship. The ship stayed in the same position throughout the day to enable everyone to get ashore who wanted to go. This also meant that the utterly brilliant expedition team worked incredibly hard. Personally I didn't mind not having two landings a day which is the usual for expedition vessels like Explorer. Getting all that clobber on and off and seeing yet more penguins and trudging through all that penguin poo is perhaps a once daily routine.

 

On one day only the first group went ashore and all landings subsequent to that were cancelled because of strong waves at the beach landings site. The ship changed course and in the afternoon the remaining groups got ashore.

 

I'm currently of the opinion that I've served my time on 100-passenger expedition ships - eight South Pacific cruises; one to Tristan and St Helena; one to Aldabra; another to the Far East etc. I find them a bit claustrophobic nowadays and lack deck space and variety of food. I thought the Seabourn Quest was stunning and I'm on Seabourn Ovation next month.

 

That said, I'm on Silver Galapagos next year!

Edited by Fletcher
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Dr. Ron & Ann, look forward to hearing/reading about your scenic experience and appreciate the terrific expedition blogs you have shared here on the Silversea thread.

 

Fletcher, thanks for sharing your Seabourn Quest Antarctica experience, matches what are cruise friend Rallydave said about the Quest in Antarctica too. Only wish they would push this 24 day itinerary into January and not keep it exclusively over the Christmas holidays.

 

Bill B; thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures of Phi Phi--we return to Thailand in February but instead of snorkeling at Phi Phi (did this in 2014) this time we will enjoy snorkeling at Koi Khai enroute to Myanmar.

 

Tho, not exactly the inaugural cruise, we were on the Spirit maiden crossing in Jan 2010 (and unlike post Spirit Stretch drydock) this voyage was outstanding. Spirit was in terrific shape post build (and passengers who were doing the b2b (inaugural and maiden crossing) loved both cruises. The service was exceptional and we found the crew almost as excited as we were to be on the Spirit.

 

Can fondly recall Capt Angelo Corsaro coming up to the pool deck and showing us the new plaques that he received for making the first port call the ship made in St. Maarten, and then elsewhere. Also, have not been on a cruise ship where we were greeted by multiple water canons as we entered the port at Ft. Lauderdale for the first US port stop.

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Wes we were on that cruise

 

 

Have you forgotten the weather for the first part of the cruise, even had to miss out Madeira, Corsaro told us it was the equivalent of hurricane force winds on the way down from Lisbon

 

 

As to the water cannon greetings from the fire tugs, we had to wait so long for them to arrive

then Ferenando messed up the disembarkation colours we almost missed our connections

 

 

I do agree though it was a wonderful inaugural cruise for Silversea as it would have also been for yourself and Ida redoing your marriage vows

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