An African adventure - Whisper - Cape Town to Mahe

[turtlemichael]

1 hour ago, RachelG said:

Too bad about the 7:00 am wakeup for the nasal assault--George would have been revolting. 

 

Also about the bad internet, but I am loving the pics and commentary you are able to post. 

On WC2019 on Whisper there were lots of complaints about the internet. It was severely criticised in a general meeting of WCérs with management near the end of the cruise. The meeting was not solely about the internet.  One of the statements was that it would soon be upgraded. (cough, cough). All world cruisers got a future cruise credit as a gesture of goodwill. Not that I am suggesting that it is raised again, of course!

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, RachelG said:

Too bad about the 7:00 am wakeup for the nasal assault--George would have been revolting. 

 

Also about the bad internet, but I am loving the pics and commentary you are able to post. 

Working hard to find on shore Internet, not too shabby so far

[Silver Spectre]

This afternoon we went to see the Zulus at 1000 Hills, came back and emigrated from SA. Death by chocolate tonight and then we leave for Maputo.

[ronrick1943]

On 2/28/2022 at 9:59 PM, Silver Spectre said:

Most of the ship is on safari, but not before claiming their sun beds 😎

Now this is so obvious that the crew should have taken care of it before you could take a photo.

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, ronrick1943 said:

Now this is so obvious that the crew should have taken care of it before you could take a photo.

Nope, it’s there every day.

[Silver Spectre]

A nice quiet and relaxing sea day as we creep past the border between SA and Mozambique. It’s been a great few days in SA, plenty of game and welcomed by the WCers after their nine sea days in the Southern Atlantic.

[Silver Spectre]

Once again the WiFi on here is utter crap, shame on you SS for providing such an abysmal service!

[Silver Spectre]

Arrived in Maputo this morning at 6am. All going ashore had to have a rapid antigen test on the dock, administered by local medical staff. They were using Abbott labs testing equipment. No positives! Those not going on a tour or independent did not need to have a test. An unpleasant surprise was being woken at 8am by the CD announcing that guests on morning tours had to be tested and that we will be sailing an hour earlier than planned. This was piped into suites, each part repeated 3 times for the frail and hard of hearing, and repeated twice more at 15 minute intervals.

[TLCOhio]

2 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

Arrived in Maputo this morning at 6am. All going ashore had to have a rapid antigen test on the dock, administered by local medical staff. They were using Abbott labs testing equipment. No positives! Those not going on a tour or independent did not need to have a test. An unpleasant surprise was being woken at 8am by the CD announcing that guests on morning tours had to be tested and that we will be sailing an hour earlier than planned. This was piped into suites, each part repeated 3 times for the frail and hard of hearing, and repeated twice more at 15 minute intervals.

 

Sorry to hear on the continued challenges with Internet service on your ship.  

 

WOW!!!  Did not know that they were doing Covid testing during the middle of a cruise and before being able to go off of the ship for a port stop.  What would happen if someone had tested positive?  Tossed off of the ship?  Locked in your room?  Do they do a second test to verify the initial results?  Is this the first time for them doing such pre=port testing?  Does not sound like a fun and relaxing situation.  Am I missing something as to the process that Silversea is following?  Tell us more.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 243,665 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[Silver Spectre]

2 hours ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Sorry to hear on the continued challenges with Internet service on your ship.  

 

WOW!!!  Did not know that they were doing Covid testing during the middle of a cruise and before being able to go off of the ship for a port stop.  What would happen if someone had tested positive?  Tossed off of the ship?  Locked in your room?  Do they do a second test to verify the initial results?  Is this the first time for them doing such pre=port testing?  Does not sound like a fun and relaxing situation.  Am I missing something as to the process that Silversea is following?  Tell us more.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 243,665 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

It was a requirement by Mozambique. Since all were -ve we will never know.

[Silver Spectre]

After an interesting tour of Maputo yesterday afternoon, guided by a lovely local lady who polished her excellent English in Haringey, and which included the Railway station, market, Portuguese Fort and Eiffel’s Cassa de Ferro,  we left at 5pm and headed out into the channel. The wind picked up and gave a fairly bumpy evening and night.

Today we have entered the Madagascar Channel  on our way NNE, the first of 3 sea days.

There is fresh marlin for lunch on the pool deck and life is good on Little Miss Whisper.

[TLCOhio]

23 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

It was a requirement by Mozambique. Since all were -ve we will never know.

 

Appreciate your helpful follow-up and all of your nice posting, pictures, etc.  Good to hear that you enjoyed an interesting tour of Maputo.  Keep up the great sharing!!    

 

Am I correct in understanding that this cruise will skip any stops for Madagascar??  Was that the original plan to only sail around Madagascar?  In the past, have not Silversea cruises in this region include some stops or sampling for ports in and around unique and interesting Madagascar?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Fun, interesting visuals, plus travel details from this early 2016 live/blog. At 52,389 views. Featuring Cape Town, South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

 

[Silver Spectre]

12 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Appreciate your helpful follow-up and all of your nice posting, pictures, etc.  Good to hear that you enjoyed an interesting tour of Maputo.  Keep up the great sharing!!    

 

Am I correct in understanding that this cruise will skip any stops for Madagascar??  Was that the original plan to only sail around Madagascar?  In the past, have not Silversea cruises in this region include some stops or sampling for ports in and around unique and interesting Madagascar?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Fun, interesting visuals, plus travel details from this early 2016 live/blog. At 52,389 views. Featuring Cape Town, South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

 

Madagascar was on the original schedule but was dropped in either Nov or Dec due to high Covid. A shame for the WCers, no so much for us as we have visited before.

[TLCOhio]

24 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

Madagascar was on the original schedule but was dropped in either Nov or Dec due to high Covid. A shame for the WCers, no so much for us as we have visited before.

 

Appreciate your great, quick response.  Wonderful that you had been to Madagascar previously.  For us, Madagascar is a future, must-see destination.  Would not want to miss Madagascar while in that region.  Is your Internet working better these days from the ship?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

[jpalbny]

11 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Appreciate your great, quick response.  Wonderful that you had been to Madagascar previously.  For us, Madagascar is a future, must-see destination.  Would not want to miss Madagascar while in that region.  Is your Internet working better these days from the ship?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Terry, IMO Madagascar would be best explored by land, not by cruise ship. It takes too long to get anywhere, so even if you make a few stops, you'll miss most of what makes the country special.

 

Unless your goal is to just say you've been there, I'd make time for a more in-depth visit by land, so you get the full experience. That said, I've never visited Madagascar by cruise ship so I may have the wrong impression. 

 

Silver, sorry for going OT. Did you visit Madagascar by land or by cruise? If the latter, I'd be interested in what you thought.

[TLCOhio]

7 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Terry, IMO Madagascar would be best explored by land, not by cruise ship. It takes too long to get anywhere, so even if you make a few stops, you'll miss most of what makes the country special.

Silver, sorry for going OT. Did you visit Madagascar by land or by cruise? If the latter, I'd be interested in what you thought.

 

YES, wonderful insights and follow-up from JP.  Be interested as to Mr. Silver's past experiences in Madagascar.  There are always trade-offs in seeing a place such as Madagascar via two cruise port stops versus not making it there versus a longer, better extended land exploring.  

 

Great sharing!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio   

 

Amazon River-Caribbean 2015 adventure live/blog starting in Barbados. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, San Juan, etc.).  Now at 69,523 views:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

[Silver Spectre]

5 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

Terry, IMO Madagascar would be best explored by land, not by cruise ship. It takes too long to get anywhere, so even if you make a few stops, you'll miss most of what makes the country special.

 

Unless your goal is to just say you've been there, I'd make time for a more in-depth visit by land, so you get the full experience. That said, I've never visited Madagascar by cruise ship so I may have the wrong impression. 

 

Silver, sorry for going OT. Did you visit Madagascar by land or by cruise? If the latter, I'd be interested in what you thought.

No problem, it was by cruise, many years ago on Princess, and it was a brief visit to see Lemurs. Not the best recommendation.

[Silver Spectre]

Day 2 of 3 sea days. Outside temp is 30c and humidity is 87%. Seas are pretty calm, 5’ swells and it’s sunny with some cloud. It’s Venetian night tonight. As far as I am aware we have 186 WCers onboard (2 have gone home for a month for a holiday) and about 50 segmenters.

Still no written announcement about the changes last week that were mentioned by the Captain. Not all guests were adhering to the mask requirement in the theatre last night, but of course no one dares to mention it.

[Silver Spectre]

We have just been informed that we have a ship wide mandatory Rapid Antigen test tomorrow for entry to Tanzania and Zanzibar. Here’s hoping we are still free of cases.

[Stumblefoot]

5 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

As far as I am aware we have 186 WCers onboard (2 have gone home for a month for a holiday)…

Gotta love folks who not only have the time and wherewithal to go on a holiday for an entire world cruise, but are also able to take a mid-voyage month long holiday to boot! That’s some really good livin’ right there. 
 

Any chance we won’t see anymore of Drunken Duke for a month?

[Silver Spectre]

55 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Gotta love folks who not only have the time and wherewithal to go on a holiday for an entire world cruise, but are also able to take a mid-voyage month long holiday to boot! That’s some really good livin’ right there. 
 

Any chance we won’t see anymore of Drunken Duke for a month?

Unlikely

[Silver Spectre]

Deck 10 salt pans

[Silver Spectre]

Mozambiquec cloud formations

 

[Silver Spectre]

An update to numbers, it’s 214 Venetians and 9 newbies. 6 guests at 2000+ days, to be joined by another couple before the end of the voyage.

[cruiseej]

18 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

6 guests at 2000+ days

 

This always boggles my mind: that's more than five and a half years living aboard a Silversea ship! At a cost for a couple likely in excess of $3 million. All I can say is wow and God bless! 🙂