August 11

Ship Matters – Final report

This has been one terrific trip – out of the ordinary for us, and much enjoyed. Our heartfelt thanks to our fellow travelers and intrepid leaders, Ngaire and Ken, for a trip that will long be remembered. Our ship's crew, officers and expedition staff delivered far more than we dared hope .. and for this, we are ever so grateful.

Are you tempted? Seriously consider this itinerary, subject to the provisos below. It's more remote and less traveled than Antarctica. The penguins may be missing, but there is much in the way of wildlife that is active and vibrant here.

Musings (in no particular order):

-Weather gets you down? Mindset is important, as well as the twin benefits of adequate warm and waterproof clothing.

-The zodiac rides have varied from serene to soaking.

-Take a quart sized ziploc with two small holes cut in the fold to run your camera strap through so the plastic protects the camera for the wet trips.

-The ship provided parkas are great. Get a parka big enough to zip around your camera for those wet and wild rides. I got a medium and it was just right. Yes, you can exchange sizes if you've gotten it wrong on your guest information sheet for a few days after embarkation.

-Ski glove liners with waterproof outer gloves are best

-Can't take the cold and wind? This may not be the best itinerary for you, as weather changes in the blink of an eye

-You're also provided with a backpack for shore excursions. We used ours once. We made do with zipping cameras or binoculars into our jackets for the rest of the trips.

-Want quiet dinners a deux? It's unlikely, unless you want room service. 90% of the tables are for 4 and 6 people in the dining room. Breakfast and lunch are buffets with limited table service.

-The sun deck is in far less use than our Lunch Loungeabouts on the sun and pool deck in Antarctica.

-Vista suite is fine (picture window, deck 4, 230 sq ft). Some of the explorer/adventure class rooms vary in size .. I'd not want a room much smaller than the one I have, but if that was the only choice for this trip, I'd have taken the trip and made the best of the space situation.

-Storage space is in abundance in the cabin. Two drawers under the bed, two spaces for 26” suitcases under the bed, four drawers on desk, four bedstand drawers in total, shelves in closet, small shelves behind full length mirror, lots of shelves in bathroom .. very well thought out.

-$300 nonrefundable shipboard credit. There does not appear to be a big run on spa services. Silversea also throws in the bottle of vintage Dom Perignon as an Amex platinum card perk.

-Suzanne and Tonya, there is hope .. I did see a rare pole dancing warm-up in the theater yesterday morning.

-Pre-dinner and post-dinner bars are pleasantly full on this ship. Our group has pretty much decamped to bed and nature documentaries to lull ourselves to sleep apres dinner.

-Entertainment is a very good pianist. There's no risk we will break the record set on ICE for number of people on the dance floor doing the Penguin.

-This has been the most difficult trip in memory for wildlife photography. Adjusting one's expectations is important. I have a 15x zoom with 10 pixels, and it's barely enough to get good pictures.

-A group has been a great way to go on this trip. With the photography challenge in place, it's helpful to have fellow travelers who are willing to rotate places so all can get their prize photos on the zodiac. I think it would be more difficult should we have drawn pot luck on the zodiac tours as opposed to sharing a zodiac with our group.

-Zodiac drivers matter .. and you can't do anything about it.

-Let's talk about the bootroom, shall we? Gum boots on board were fine. There's a small space to hold those boots between outings and to hold your shoes whilst you are out with the gum boots. Easy enough to hold the shoes; two pair of gum boots barely fit.

-One will decide for oneself as to the tradeoff between cabin space and public space. For me (and this is entirely irrelevant since Explorer II no longer operates as it did two years ago), the public spaces were larger and easier to access on a per capita basis than they are on Prince Albert II. Ngaire, the Bittles and others who were in smaller cabins on Explorer II would, I think, disagree with this assessment.

-Shore excursions are very much luck of the draw, and have changed constantly. We've seen an enormous amount of northernmost NORGES, thanks to thinner ice and a stoked expedition team leadership.

-Food has been good to great.

-Silversea staff, if they remember you from a prior trip, sparkle at keeping up acquaintances. This is additive to the overall experience.

-I expected limited internet connectivity; I did not expect it would be off line for nearly the entire trip. Plan accordingly. Buying an internet package is a risky thing .. but logging on to only be bumped off is risky, too. 75 cents a minute on the as-you-go plan; 250 minutes on the $85 plan.

-A daily lecture presentation, meals, one or two expedition stops and daily briefings are about it for planned shipboard activities.

-The library is largely populated with adventure books. I'm enjoying a selection of National Geographic explorer articles from the first half of the 20th century. The movie selection is heavily geared to arctic and antartica themed documentaries.

-10 days was just right. The sightings have been tremendous. For us, it's time to leave and head for home.

From your intrepid reporter - cheers! Anne