Interested in a Silver Explorer live report?

[NCCruzQueen]

BETH, you're in for a real treat - I know you won't do anything as foolish as I did! (Never told my surgeon and follow-up X-rays didn't reveal my secret.) Looking forward to your seamail!

 

Thanks, Ted. Glad your little secret never made medical news!! I am so excited about this trip. It can't come quickly enough, but I have loads of chores to do this week to keep me busy plus a little cold fell upon me last night. I have a bit of a sinus headache and some sniffles. Hope the bandwidth will allow some postings from the SE.

[ttalbcr]

Maureen,

 

Again , thank you for posting Garrit and Tristan's cruise. We really enjoyed reading the posts. Since we will most likely be the oldest ones on our cruise , will definitly not be sliding down any hills! :eek:

 

HDS,

Getting excited about our cruise. Need to finish getting our gear(clothes,gloves,etc.) together, do not want to overpack!:confused:

[mringenoldus]

Here's a last note that should give everyone a bit of a laugh.....

 

Garrit called me at work this afternoon to say that the good news was SilverSea had his bag on the Buenos Aires shuttle to the airport. The bad news was that neither of his bags made it out of Hermosillo!

 

I gave him some more bad news - the butler didn't make it back to Phoenix either :)

 

He did say that the ship videographer made a terrific DVD movie of the trip and it includes a CD of the still photos. He made Tristan buy him one! Unfortunately, guess where it is at the moment......

 

At least I don't have to do his laundry tonight!

[jpalbny]

:( More bag woes? At least it will be less of a problem on the way home - not much use for winter clothes in Arizona! Enjoyed reading the adventures - are you wishing you'd gone with them?

[mringenoldus]

I would have loved to have had the opportunity to experience Silver Sea but this was a memory I wanted the father and son to have together since the trip was a memorial to Garrit's own father who was a true world traveler.

[NCCruzQueen]

Garrit's luck with luggage is not the best this cruise. Any sightings of the first missing bag?

 

Love your comment about the butler!! I will probably be thinking the same thing in a few weeks.

 

Can you find out if the DVD/CD is $150? That's the price I've heard.

[mringenoldus]

Hi, Beth

The DVD and CD package was $150 (Garrit guilted Tristan into buying it) It turns out it was in his backpack so we watched it last night. Except for a rough crossing, the crew and everyone agreed they had remarkable weather - so the pictures were good. It was great fun to watch the passengers and critters at the different ports. It was especially amazing to see the whales swimming around their zodiacs and someone had an underwater video camera and was able to catch a whale swimming under their zodiac.

 

There was no stock footage as some cruise lines use....everything was from this trip. I'm really glad he got the DVD. He said the CD has stills of those photos and more, so I'm looking forward to seeing it also.

 

I am really excited for you and hope you have as great a trip as they did. He said it was really the trip of a lifetime!

 

Have a wonderful time!!

Maureen

[RachelG]

Has any luggage reappeared yet??

[mringenoldus]

Not as yet!

 

On January 3 between Buenos Aires and Hermosillo - Garrit actually had two suitcases! The problem appears to be that the planes from Hermosillo are fairly small and the passengers travel with a number of suitcases and other items. Following the holidays, the airline was three days behing getting baggage back to Phoenix. They will show up - eventually. I was just getting ready to contact the insurance carrier again to see if I have to fill out additional forms for each leg of the flight that the suitcases missed.

 

He says the trip was well worth any issues with the luggage!

[NCCruzQueen]

Hey Maureen,

 

Thanks for the info on the DVD. It may be an idea to buy one, especially if my photos don't work out..... as I am not knowledgeable on how to use my own camera there.

 

As you can imagine, I am getting very excited. Only have one more chore to cross off my list. If only this cold would go away, I'll be ready. May have to call the doctor's tomorrow for a quick last minute visit.

 

Did Garrit's first missing suitcase every show up?

[mringenoldus]

I wish I knew how to attach photos to cruise critic boards - the pictures are terrific!

 

Garrit had the first bag with him briefly between Buenos Aires and Hermosillo.....but yesterday both of the missing bags were delivered to the house! Today I finally mailed Tristan's Christmas gift to him in Frankfurt (after it had been pretty much around the world :))

 

They gave the guys a certificate showing the date they landed on Antarctica. They also provide a booklet with the crew and passengers names as well as where they are from. Most passengers were from other countries.... Many the UK and Germany. He also brought back the daily Chronicles paper.

 

It was an awesome trip. I hope you're feeling better before you go! I hope you'll let me know about yours when you return.

 

Bon voyage,

Maureen

[NCCruzQueen]

Hi Maureen,

 

I will definitely drop a note here on my return. Everyone has been so helpful to me on this cruise. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

Hopefully I'll do my blog this time, but haven't had much luck following through in the past. Posting may be difficult while on the Silver Explorer, but hope to do daily writings to upload when in good internet range.

 

My cold is so much better today. A friend recommended green chilis and it seemed to work for me!!

[ttalbcr]

Hi Maureen,

 

I will definitely drop a note here on my return. Everyone has been so helpful to me on this cruise. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

Hopefully I'll do my blog this time, but haven't had much luck following through in the past. Posting may be difficult while on the Silver Explorer, but hope to do daily writings to upload when in good internet range.

 

My cold is so much better today. A friend recommended green chilis and it seemed to work for me!!

 

Beth ,

Take airborne tablets and lots of Vitamin C! Looking forward to your posts since we are booked on the Feb. 19th cruise. Am trying not to overpack , would like to know what you are planning to wear on Captain"s night?

 

Theresa

[NCCruzQueen]

Beth, Take airborne tablets and lots of Vitamin C! Looking forward to your posts since we are booked on the Feb. 19th cruise. Am trying not to overpack , would like to know what you are planning to wear on Captain"s night? Theresa

 

Hey Theresa,

 

I've got both Airborne and EmergenC for the trip.

 

As far as evening clothes go, I'm taking white & black Travelers pants and some dressy black jeans, along with 5-6 interchangeable tops. For Captain's night, I'll probably wear black Travelers pants and a dressy top. The guys in our group have made a pact to not take ties or jackets. From everything I am reading, this cruise is much more casual than the regular Silversea cruises. Thank goodness there is a self-serve laundry on the SE!

[mringenoldus]

Garrit said that the ship provided laundry baskets.

 

The DVD showed people going to the Captain's Welcome Party.....most had on "Sunday Best" type clothing. Your plan seems just fine!

[NCCruzQueen]

The DVD showed people going to the Captain's Welcome Party.....most had on "Sunday Best" type clothing. Your plan seems just fine!

 

Maureen, I was thinking that since Garrit and Tristan were on the Holiday cruise, that it may have been a little more dressy.

 

Thx for the tip about the laundry baskets!!

 

Getting more and more excited.......... Leaving home tomorrow!! :D

[mringenoldus]

You must be on the longer itinerary that includes south Georgia....Garrit is a bit jealous!

Have a wonderful time!

[NCCruzQueen]

Hi Maureen, Yes, we are going to South Georgia. Can't wait to see all the penguins there!!!

[xcountry]

Hi Maureen,

 

Thanks for posting the daily activities! Gives me a better idea what to expect should we proceed for this coming December. Have a few of questions for you (or anyone else out there) -- Did Garrit and Tristan use Silversea for the overnight in BA before going to USH? If they made their own accommodations, was it easy to catch up with the charter in the am? Which airport does the charter fly out of? I saw the part of paying the $59 for the transfer on the return. What time does the charter from USH arrive in BA on the return? Also, did they purchase wellingtons/boots for the trip or did they just use what was available on the ship? Last question (for now!) -- how did they choose Silversea over Lindblad or Le Boreal? Thanks for the info!

[mringenoldus]

Hello, xcountry

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the posts! It's interesting that about 30 photos Garrit sent while onboard all just showed up today!

 

I made a reservation for them at the Howard Johnson Recoleta pre cruise and the Glu Hotel post cruise. Both are quite close to the domestic airport (Jorge Newbury) only a couple miles away. The hotels are about 17 miles from the international airport. Garrit said that the traffic from EZE was ridiculous, so he chose to take the shuttle straight back after arriving at Jorge Newbury on the charter. The charter returned from Ushuaia at around 4:30 pm.

 

Garrit brought his own wells, but Tristan preordered his from the ship's rental. They have size 12-13 feet and there was no problem providing the boots.

 

We chose SilverSea at the advice of our TA. The price was less than I thought it would be for a luxury line and even less than the others in the comparison study I read. If it were just Tristan going, I might have chosen one of the more "hardcore" ships with more rigorous expeditions.....but Garrit said that this trip had plenty of physical exertion for him (26 years old vs 56 years old :)).

 

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have!

[NCCruzQueen]

Maureen, I've made it to Buenos Aires with luggage. Staying at the Park Hyatt (free Internet) on my friends' points. Cooler and rainy today. Going for a good steak dinner tonight with friends on our cruise. Tomorrow we've booked the Tigre River Cruise. Then, Friday off to Ushuaia!!

[jpalbny]

Maureen, I've made it to Buenos Aires with luggage. Staying at the Park Hyatt (free Internet) on my friends' points. Cooler and rainy today. Going for a good steak dinner tonight with friends on our cruise. Tomorrow we've booked the Tigre River Cruise. Then, Friday off to Ushuaia!!

 

Have a great time! Say Hi to the chinstrap penguins for us! Soak up the sun and warmth in BA; you're going to need it shortly... :cool:

[mringenoldus]

Beth

So glad you arrived in such good shape! Tristan is still raving about how much he liked Buenos Aires as a city.

 

A bunch of photos Garrit sent while onboard just showed up in my email account. They are fantastic! He was laughing at the cumulative value of everyone's camera equipment...he said it must have bee almost a million dollars. So get ready to take a lot of photos :)

 

I hope you have great weather as they did! You are going to have a really great time.

[ChantalK]

Thank you very much for the report.

 

We are going with Silversea to the Antartic in november.

We have booked this cruise in december 2010 and counting now the days till it is time to go. We already have booked our tickets to EZE. When we are going back to Amsterdam, we have 1 overnight in BA again.

 

Do you know if it is worth it to buy the boots and clothes with them?

 

Chantal

[mringenoldus]

Garrit and Tristan had almost all of the recommended gear already except the boots. Garrit bought his, but could have easily just rented them as Tristan did. While it would be convenient to purchase the SilverSea package and have all your gear delivered to the ship, it is not the best value to do so.

 

Hope that helps!

Maureen