Live from Silver Cloud July 19-29, 2024–Darwin to Broome Australia

[RachelG]

 

[RachelG]

[Port Power]

There is something I must correct.  There was an accident a few years ago, but never any fatalities. No one died at Horizontal Falls.

 

The traditional caretakers have now stopped the boats going through, although with about two years’ notice IIRC.  (Totally unrelated to the previous accident.)  There was quite a business with float planes flying from Broome and landing on the water there, and passengers then boarding the boats. 
 

I’m glad you have been enjoying your Kimberley cruise.  The area is a wonderful part of my home state.

Edited July 28 by Port Power

[RachelG]

18 hours ago, Port Power said:

There is something I must correct.  There was an accident a few years ago, but never any fatalities. No one died at Horizontal Falls.

 

The traditional caretakers have now stopped the boats going through, although with about two years’ notice IIRC.  (Totally unrelated to the previous accident.)  There was quite a business with float planes flying from Broome and landing on the water there, and passengers then boarding the boats. 
 

I’m glad you have been enjoying your Kimberley cruise.  The area is a wonderful part of my home state.

Just reporting what was told to us by our guide.  The float planes are still flying in and out, and the big fast boat is still blasting through the lower falls through.  We saw that. They don’t seem to pay much attention to the zodiacs, so we had to really stick near to the shore.

[RachelG]

July 29, 2024–Broome, Australia and disembarkation 

 

When we awoke, we were just pulling alongside a long jetty.  Land outside was very flat, dry with rust colored soil.  There are no terminal facilities.  Luggage was just offloaded onto the jetty.

 

We had done our air independently, so I had booked a driver and car through the only company in town that is allowed to drive out onto the jetty.  I learned later, we probably could have taken the Silversea bus to the airport, but George doesn’t like bus transfers with luggage anyway.  Our driver was ahead of schedule, and Skulk had to page us overhead to disembark.

 

It was a short drive to the airport, and we were there before the Qantas desk opened.  When the check in agent arrived, she was extremely efficient, and we were checked in and through security in no time.  There is a big open air area with tables and chairs, and a nice gift shop.  I did some shopping for grand babies.

 

Our plane was an airbus A320, no first or business class, but we had exit row seats with the seat between us being empty. No jetbridges, just the old outdoor stairs.  2 1/2 hour flight to Perth.

 

We landed on time and reclaimed our bags as we are on a separate reservation to Sydney made with AA miles.  Our bags were almost the last out, so by the time we rechecked them and went back through security, we had less than an hour before boarding the flight to Sydney, a 737-800.  Business class seats were large and comfortable though not lie flat.  It started pouring rain as we taxied for takeoff.

 

We arrived in Sydney ahead of time.  Luggage was out first this time, and we were soon in a taxi and to the West Hotel, which is the other Hilton property in Sydney.  Equal distance to the airport than the other Hilton, and less expensive with no exec lounge, but very modern rooms with multiple USB ports and a very nice bathroom, comfortable bed.  I would stay at either again.

 

[RachelG]

Just catching up after a couple of long flights and super busy days at the office.

 

would I do this itinerary again?  Probably not.  We saw a lot of very unique and beautiful things, but I think it is a one and done. The lack of snorkeling at Ashmore Reef was really a disappointment particularly since snorkeling was mentioned in the initial description of the itinerary when we first booked.

 

the crew were great and all worked hard to please.  Our butler was always looking for things to do, and our cabin attendant was great.  Waiters were mostly great as was the sommelier.   They learned our preferences and really tried hard, even with the limitation that all fresh produce and meat had to be Australian origin.  Was very impressed that the seafood buffet included crab.  You don’t see that on Regent anymore.  Included wines were also better than on regent, and wine list prices for the premium ones were not bad.

 

it wasn’t as hot as I expected until the last 2 days, but we are used to Oklahoma summer hot, which is a whole other ballgame.  I did get bitten by a few insects, but George didn’t.  I have the ability to get bug bites anywhere when no one else does, so no surprise.  I didn’t actually see any mosquitoes, and this seems to be another insect as the bites aren’t like mosquito bites.

while Regent remains our favorite for traditional cruises, we actually booked a Tahiti to Tahiti cruise on Whisper for 2026, as Regent doesn’t go there in the summer.

 

any additional questions, I will be happy to answer.

[JimDee363636]

@RachelG

I hope by now you're "livin' on Tulsa time."

 

I just read your entire trip report in one sitting, and I have to compliment you on your excellent prose style, your ability as a photographer, and your even-handedness in detailing the hits and misses of the expedition experience. I hope you'll do something like this again on your future cruises.

 

Jim

[drron29]

Thanks for the report. It brought back wonderful memories of our Kimberley cruise way back in 2006 on the then Australian ship Orion.

Crab is often on Aussie buffets as we have some really good crabs such as blue swimmers and mud crabs though our local crab is the spanner crab.

[sanne]

We were also on this cruise, our fourth time in the Kimberley. Rachel has summed up perfectly our thoughts about our time on the Cloud.

 

Interestingly we also sailed on the Orion in 2006, our very first Kimberley cruise and the experience was much more detailed than what we see and do now on this itinerary. And for the whole cruise we did not see another vessel of any description! How times have changed. On this latest cruise we had to ‘take turns’ and work round other cruise ships in the area. 

[drron29]

We must have been on a different date as we did see the True North when we visited the Mitchell Falls. It didn't interfere with us as only a few passengers and they had their own helicopter to overfly the falls.

[Port Power]

8 hours ago, sanne said:

We were also on this cruise, our fourth time in the Kimberley. Rachel has summed up perfectly our thoughts about our time on the Cloud.

 

Interestingly we also sailed on the Orion in 2006, our very first Kimberley cruise and the experience was much more detailed than what we see and do now on this itinerary. And for the whole cruise we did not see another vessel of any description! How times have changed. On this latest cruise we had to ‘take turns’ and work round other cruise ships in the area. 

Because of the rules that allowed cruise ships to operate in Australian waters, many more smaller and medium sized expedition ships are coming into the Kimberley.  There should have been a size limit set for cruise ships initially, but expedition cruising was not an industry back then, so it wasn’t thought necessary.  So more and more international ships are heading into the Kimberley, often too big at more than 200 passengers to get into many areas of interest.  Nor can zodiacs handle the distance to visit other beautiful waterfalls and rock pools.  Obtaining sufficient numbers of experienced expedition staff who know northern Australia then becomes another problem.

 

International ships are also selling expedition cruises years in advance, even though they don’t have their permits for said cruises at the time of booking.

 

There are really a lot of ships in the northwest during the season.  The smaller ones (up to 120 maximum dual occupancy or less) IMO offer a much better overall experience.

 

(If of interest, I have been on six Kimberley expedition cruises, as well as across the top end and down the coral coast.)

Edited August 4 by Port Power

[highplanesdrifters]

27 minutes ago, Port Power said:

Obtaining sufficient numbers of experienced expedition staff who know northern Australia then becomes another problem.

 

International ships are also selling expedition cruises years in advance, even though they don’t have their permits for said cruises at the time of booking.

 

Really great points.  It's not just Australia cruises that are lacking in expedition staff with local knowledge. Nor is it exclusive to Silversea. Our last Seabourn expedition Scotland/Norway was lacking in knowledgeable staff.   For the most part lots of enthusiastic zodiac drivers.  Which can be good fun....as long as they can drive.😂

 

It's a fill the ship and worry about the details later bean counter approach.

[jpalbny]

2 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

It's a fill the ship and worry about the details later bean counter approach.

 

I prefer to think that it's more of a dilution of the talent pool. There are just so many experts available who want to be away for months at a time on an expedition. And now every cruise line knows that expedition cruising is a hot commodity so they are adding many expedition cruises all over the planet, and all competing for the same pool of expert naturalists.

 

Kind of like baseball - when it was a three-man pitching rotation and 8 teams per league, you only needed 48 starting pitchers for 16 teams. Now there are 30 teams and five-man rotations so you need 150. Expansion dilutes the talent pool.

 

ETA: plus the ships are much bigger now. Our first Antarctica trip on PAII was 120ish pax and about 12 expedition crew. Now on Cloud and Wind those numbers are double. So they need 5x the expedition crew to handle 3 ships compared to 15 years ago.

Edited August 4 by jpalbny

[highplanesdrifters]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

 

I prefer to think that it's more of a dilution of the talent pool. There are just so many experts available who want to be away for months at a time on an expedition. And now every cruise line knows that expedition cruising is a hot commodity so they are adding many expedition cruises all over the planet, and all competing for the same pool of expert naturalists.

 

Kind of like baseball - when it was a three-man pitching rotation and 8 teams per league, you only needed 48 starting pitchers for 16 teams. Now there are 30 teams and five-man rotations so you need 150. Expansion dilutes the talent pool.

 

ETA: plus the ships are much bigger now. Our first Antarctica trip on PAII was 120ish pax and about 12 expedition crew. Now on Cloud and Wind those numbers are double. So they need 5x the expedition crew to handle 3 ships compared to 15 years ago.

 

Exactly! A much more eloquent explanation.  😃

 

Here a quandary we've been discussing with friends.....

Now that the expected over supply of "luxury expedition" ships is here and some lines are having trouble filling them.....when will the base prices drop?  Or will they just continue with the not so secret 35% off on board (seabourn), last minute Giant OBCs, sweet booking deals with preferred local companies and similar?  Will we see more of the Hybred Expedition/Ocean cruises? Pricing in the coming years will be interesting. 

[RachelG]

I am pretty sure Silversea filled up a large number of unsold cabins with deeply discounted fares offered to Aussies at last minute.  I say this based on the large number of Aussies onboard, most who had never sailed on Silversea or any other ship for that matter and who had no idea what expedition cruising was about.

[Port Power]

14 minutes ago, RachelG said:

I am pretty sure Silversea filled up a large number of unsold cabins with deeply discounted fares offered to Aussies at last minute.  I say this based on the large number of Aussies onboard, most who had never sailed on Silversea or any other ship for that matter and who had no idea what expedition cruising was about.

You could be right.  I seem to remember an email from my TA, but not the price now.  It’s the sort of cruise I would book last minute if the price was attractive and I was free.  I guess some people just read the “luxury cruise” part, maybe “Kimberley”, and didn’t look any further!  And no need for expensive flights to go to the other side of the planet. Nor a passport required.

Edited August 5 by Port Power

[sanne]

4 hours ago, RachelG said:

I am pretty sure Silversea filled up a large number of unsold cabins with deeply discounted fares offered to Aussies at last minute.  I say this based on the large number of Aussies onboard, most who had never sailed on Silversea or any other ship for that matter and who had no idea what expedition cruising was about.

Rachel, I don’t believe that was correct. As an Aussie, being on this cruise plus someone who watches cruise prices all the time I only saw the prices for this sailing increase in Aussie $s since we first booked it. Never saw it ‘dumped’. 
 

There could be many varied reasons why there were so many Aussies on this sailing that had never sailed Silversea or expeditionary cruising  previously. I could venture a few but this isn’t the forum for that. 
 

We will be on the Cloud again soon from Perth to Darwin. Will be interesting to see the mix of passengers on this longer cruise. And for sure this cruise was never ‘dumped’in Australia. 

[sanne]

3 hours ago, Port Power said:

You could be right.  I seem to remember an email from my TA, but not the price now.  It’s the sort of cruise I would book last minute if the price was attractive and I was free.  I guess some people just read the “luxury cruise” part, maybe “Kimberley”, and didn’t look any further!  And no need for expensive flights to go to the other side of the planet. Nor a passport required.

Aussies needed a passport! Without it you could not embark. 

[Port Power]

1 hour ago, sanne said:

Aussies needed a passport! Without it you could not embark. 

As I said, I’ve taken many Kimberley expeditions with various companies.  Some didn’t need passports.  I probably mixed them up. Some didn’t go out to Ashmore reef.  One was a round trip from Broome.

 

I totally agree Silversea never “dumped” any cruises in Australia, including the Kimberley.  Silversea doesn’t discount at all as far as I’m aware. They will offer no solo supplement closer to departure, which is the big draw card for solo travellers.  Australia’s would just have taken the opportunity of a close to home, luxury cruise.

 

1 hour ago, sanne said:

[jpalbny]

3 hours ago, sanne said:

Aussies needed a passport! Without it you could not embark. 

 

Absolutely. We saw a few who were denied boarding in Darwin, on our cruise in June.

 

8 hours ago, RachelG said:

I am pretty sure Silversea filled up a large number of unsold cabins with deeply discounted fares offered to Aussies at last minute.  I say this based on the large number of Aussies onboard, most who had never sailed on Silversea or any other ship for that matter and who had no idea what expedition cruising was about.

 

I got the same impression. Seemed as if there was good availability until a few weeks from our sailing then everything disappeared. And comparatively fewer Venetians on our cruise than I'd ever seen before.

 

As I mentioned earlier, we were the top cruisers with our paltry total of 155 days which might be good enough for the bottom 10% on most other Silversea voyages.

 

4 hours ago, sanne said:

As an Aussie, being on this cruise plus someone who watches cruise prices all the time I only saw the prices for this sailing increase in Aussie $s since we first booked it. Never saw it ‘dumped’. 

 

Thanks for the additional perspective. I wonder how they filled our cruise without last-minute discounts?

[lincslady]

Possibly a late incentive to just one or two agents, to contact their own clients?  Not publicised?

[jillyf]

There has been a lot of Silversea advertising in papers, magazines and TV lately although I haven’t seen any for cheaper fares nor specifically for the Kimberly. 

[RachelG]

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

Possibly a late incentive to just one or two agents, to contact their own clients?  Not publicised?

Likely possible.  I have received such offers in the past, but have never been able to take advantage of them.  And yes, as JP stated, there was a lot of availability on this cruise until about 6 weeks prior then all of a sudden it was full. So something happened.

 

George and I had the 3rd most days onboard which was really unexpected.

 

of course, a big draw for Aussies would be the relatively short flights.

[Port Power]

I’ve been reading some posts on the CC Australian Cruisers thread.  It appears there are many Australian cruisers, mainly older folk who are used to sailing on Princess, who think of Darwin to Broome as “small ship cruising”. And very expensive, so are splurging!  “Small ship cruises” was mentioned repeatedly, but never once “expedition cruising”.  I agree, they seem to have no concept of expedition cruising!

[Lirio]

18 minutes ago, RachelG said:

Likely possible.  I have received such offers in the past, but have never been able to take advantage of them.  And yes, as JP stated, there was a lot of availability on this cruise until about 6 weeks prior then all of a sudden it was full. So something happened.

 

George and I had the 3rd most days onboard which was really unexpected.

 

of course, a big draw for Aussies would be the relatively short flights.

I will keep my eyes on that. I will subscribe to some Australian and New Zealand TA mailing list. Who knows I can find something available while in NZ........