Activities on the Silver Cloud Expedition

[hapzfl]

We are considering the world cruise for 2022. However, we are somewhat concerned about on board activities on this small expedition ship. The cruise is long and has many sea days. On a relatively short expedition cruise on board activities might not matter that much but on a 167 day cruise it would get really boring really fast to have only "interesting lectures" day in and day out.

Does anybody have experience or info on what has been or will be offered on daily activities on such a world cruise?

 

Any info would be highly appreciated!

[Silver Spectre]

2 hours ago, hapzfl said:

We are considering the world cruise for 2022. However, we are somewhat concerned about on board activities on this small expedition ship. The cruise is long and has many sea days. On a relatively short expedition cruise on board activities might not matter that much but on a 167 day cruise it would get really boring really fast to have only "interesting lectures" day in and day out.

Does anybody have experience or info on what has been or will be offered on daily activities on such a world cruise?

 

Any info would be highly appreciated!

Since this is the first Expedition WC only SS can provide any answers. The Whisper WC’s have many onboard activities, but it’s a classic ship.

[hapzfl]

Unfortunately SS did not have an answer (yet). They provided examples from the Silver Shadow. The current situation with the non-availability of many employees prevents access to more current information...

[jpalbny]

We have done 6 expedition cruises. Four on explorer and the last 2 on Cloud.

 

Explorer really doesn't have much entertainment, unless you make your own (understatement). Cloud has a bit more but it's really not a lot. The focus of the expedition cruises has been on the destination - its history, physical and natural sciences, anthropology, etc. The physical limitations of Explorer make it more bare-bones than Cloud.

 

Silver Cloud expedition trips are meant to be different compared to Explorer and we do see that slight difference. The Cloud is meant to provide a decent expedition experience perhaps not as rugged as Explorer, accompanied by more shipboard activities. But still, not as many shipboard activities as a Classic ship.

 

On Cloud there is a "Social Activities Director" which is kind of like a CD. Actually on our first Cloud expedition, Moss Hills was there, training the Activities Director, and setting up the activities, so we had the best of all worlds! 

 

The Activities Director does provide some entertainment. On our recent January 2020 15-day Antarctic cruise, he did Liar's Club, Newlywed game, some dance parties, etc. There was a guitarist who played in the bar every night and did some sets in the lounge later for dancing, listening, etc. Rumor has it that there was trivia; we never bother. But there were no shows on-stage in the theater. And the evening stuff was not well-attended; many people were tired from excursions and went to bed after dinner.

 

It may well be different on an expedition WC, but as Silver has pointed out - one hasn't happened yet, so we just have no experience to share with you. I wish we had the time to do one, entertainment or not!

[RachelG]

There is always plenty to do onboard on sea days.  We have been on multiple expedition cruises on Explorer and Cloud.  Never boring.  Lots of lectures.  On Cloud there is traditional trivia.   Expedition cruises require sometimes early arising, so there may not be a whole lot late night, but they are wonderful trips.  I really miss them.

[hapzfl]

Thanks for all the input!