Silver Cloud

Quality information prior to arrival. Excellent follow up byrepresentatives in Chile. Exceptionally friendly and service oriented staff. Quality equipment and safety measures during expedition. Kayaking was well organized. While the weather was a factor with missed landings thought it might be beneficial to offer opportunities to guests who were adventurous.

Very well organized from the flights, including the charter, through embarkation, expeditions, polar plunge (!) and return home. The expedition teams were knowledgeable, friendly and very receptive to the endless passenger questions. They never hesitated to take yet another photo. Their experience and training was invaluable, particularly those team members that had spent significant time in Antarctica or extensive background in the history and/or various forms of wildlife, biology, geology or botany. The various briefings were very informative and provided history, context and background on what we saw throughout the cruise.

Overland tour post trip needs to be better supervisor or better organized to account for all guests. The cold Greenland part locations were fantastic along with the related expeditions. Certain southern ports were excellent, but the other ports seemed all the same. Certain excursions had never been investigated before the cruise. Wouldn’t this be dangerous? Lack of wildlife, particularly walruses when it is part of the brochure.

The ship which is quite old, about 1994 I believe, was in excellent shape. The complimentary wines had improved from 2018 and earlier. This process had started in 2018 and I was happy to see it continued. The cuisine on board was sup par except for the Italian venue and when I met with the Hotel Director, I learned that this was due to shipping issues and not being able to get their American meats. They were forced to serve French cuts which are not the same grade. However the cheeses were also sad and this should have not been impacted. Service at la Terrazzo lunchtime is cut back as guests cannot serve themselves and it is awkward. The main dining room was just average if that. Biggest improvement were hot plate and hot pastas. Service almost throughout was very good. Expedition staff was outstanding , as were those who did the difficult work of getting 200 guests in and out of zodiacs sometimes twice a day. Little entertainment onboard, and lectures were mostly geared toward wildlife rather than culture or history, though there was one very good lecture on that. The crowd was not the usual Silversea type. Very casual, very understated and serious about birding:) Most diners were almost never dressed up.There was Covid on board both crew and guests. This was never addressed for better or worse, though about 5 days in they did request that more guests mask up in public areas.