David and I just returned last week from our Expedition cruise on the Silver Explorer to the Falklands, South Georgia Islands and Antarctica. This is the same itinerary many LCTers will be doing with Ngaire in January of 2020, so she asked me to write up a little review.

Of course you guys will be on the Silver Cloud. I wish we had been on the Cloud, but alas, the itinerary to South Georgia was only offered on the Explorer this year. We weren’t that crazy about the ship, but we had adjusted our expectations going in, recognizing that it is an expedition ship. We were just so fortunate to have been able to get on to this cruise after our Scenic cruise was cancelled. We went for the wildlife, not the ship, and wow! – did we ever get to see wildlife!!!

We were blessed with extraordinarily beautiful weather for almost the entire trip. In fact, the expedition team told us they had never seen the weather so nice for all of our landings. We only missed one landing the whole trip due to rough seas (Hercules Bay).

I have some physical limitations, so I was a little worried about this trip, but knew I wanted to make the trip while I still could and fulfill one of my dreams of “walking among the penguins” – and boy did I ever get to walk with the penguins!! As David said, “I never knew there so many penguins in the whole world!!” And although we had cruised around the Antarctic Peninsula back in 2011 on the Mariner, we had never actually set foot on the continent, so that was another one of our bucket list items.

Some of the landings had some pretty strenuous hikes, but the expedition staff was great about describing the hike and the conditions during the briefing so you could make a decision about whether you could handle the hike and/or the landing. I only made one hike – the first stop at Westpoint Island. It was manageable but long. Most of the rest of the hikes were quite strenuous with steep climbs – I would guess about 40-50 folks took most of the difficult hikes. The rest of us just made the ladings and walked the beaches or took shorter easy hikes. Those who are very physically fit will love the strenuous hikes, but the great thing is, except for that first landing at Westpoint, you did not have to take a long or strenuous hike to see the wildlife (and even there they offered a land rover to take you to the site if you could not manage the walk).
Loading and landings in the zodiacs were no problem, even when there were some swells. The crew and expedition staff have had lots of practice and they are right there to assist you. I only had to forgo one landing as the conditions on the shore were described as very icy, and I didn’t want to risk a fall.

Now, let me get to the wildlife! People who are into birds will be in heaven. Birders on the trip were checking off species after species. Of course, my main reason was for the penguins and the seals. And we saw plenty of both! But we also saw whales and dolphins. We saw 7 types of penguins and 4 different species of seals. Salisbury Plain in the South Georgia Islands was definitely the highlight – there were over 700,000 king penguins there! And Brown Bluff was also awesome, where we set foot on the continent and got to see the adorable Adelie penguins. Our timing was perfect as there were baby chicks everywhere! The expedition team said that on the previous visit about 2 weeks earlier they had only seen a handful of chicks the whole time. And we loved the Zodiac ride through the icebergs at Cierva Cove.

As I eluded to before, we were not crazy about the ship itself (although I know there are many who have cruised on the Explorer that love it!). The food was not good (although that was most likely related to the chef) and we didn’t like the single seating, table sharing restaurant. The lounge was so small and crowded (only seated about 50 people and the ship has 140+ passengers)! We had to adjust our normal evening routine - if you wanted to get a table for 2, you had to get to the restaurant the moment they opened, as there were only about 6 of them. So we went early and had drinks at the dinner table! Unfortunately we didn’t get to try Hot Rocks – it was only opened about 4 nights the whole time we were onboard. The best part about the ship was our suite – we hit the GTY jackpot and were upgraded to a Silver Suite, which was totally awesome and helped make our trip.

To sum it up, the whole trip was phenomenal! So, if you have never been to this part of the world before and are signed up to go with Ngaire next year but are perhaps a bit apprehensive, DON’T BE - you MUST GO! People of all fitness levels can enjoy the wildlife and scenery on this trip. And being on the Cloud you will have a bit more luxury, more space and more dining options, so you will be able to enjoy the beautiful ship as well. This truly was a trip of a lifetime!

Here are a few photos to wet your appetite!