The Silver Cloud is a good step up from the Explorer for expedition cruises, Marc. The cabins are larger and more what you’re used to, with walk in closets, real sitting area, much more storage, lots of outlets, verandas (although it’s been too chilly to enjoy them on this trip, but I like the illusion of more cabin space plus fresh air.) Bathrooms are ok, but light is too dim for Brad and storage options in there aren’t ideal.

I think they could freshen the decor some to look more contemporary, but that’s a personal preference.

Food has been very good. Having the four restaurants options is a big improvement. The Italian restaurant is quite good (buffet by day) and we’ve enjoyed the regular restaurant options. Hot Rocks is fine, but you just do that once. We are going to La Dame tonight so the jury is out on whether it’s worth the add on per person, but even though we’ve had massages, mani pedi for me, had some laundry done, we are still not going to burn through all of our shipboard credit at this point.

The two bars are good - Panorama at the front and La Dolce Vita, on deck five, before the theater. Lots of seating options, without the rather odd bar layout on the Explorer. They have a duo (singer, keyboard/piano) in the Dolce Vita bar and piano player up top. Having a real tiered theater with clear sight lines is also a big plus, rather than that lecture space on the Explorer that always smelled quite funky every time we were onboard.

Staff is impressive as always. We’ve seen quite a few familiar faces from the Explorer. And it is always impressive when so many greet you by name, know your preferences, etc. which we haven’t personally found to be the case on Regent, understandable with many more passengers.

This particular cruise is more of a regular cruise than an expedition, other than that almost all stops have involved anchoring and zodiacs (local tenders in the Scilly Islands, docked today in Killybegs.) There has only been one zodiac cruise, and very few naturalist talks. Recaps have been “precaps” describing the next day or two’s activities. They have a large expedition staff but mainly they seem to be assisting with logistics and zodiac driving as they are transitioning up to the Arctic itineraries when I assume their skills and knowledge will be put to use.

Passenger average age is quite a bit older than we have experienced on our past trips on the Explorer. We went on an all day excursion a couple of days ago and over lunch there was quite a bit of talk about it not being what they expected, and some difficulties in boarding zodiacs.

Overall the itinerary has been good. Love the stops at the small islands, especially yesterday at Inis Mor and Clare Island. Guernsey and the two stops in the Scilly Islands were charming. Today we had a lovely walk in the foothills of the Bluestack Mountains.

Our stop in Galway and Valentia Island were more traditional cruise stops with typical shore excursions. From Valentia we went to Derrynane House - a lovely hour drive away along the Ring of Kerry, but the time there was too short to see the woodlands and gardens after a quickie tour of 4 rooms of the house and a 20 minute film about the owner, there was only 10 minutes to take a quick peek at the extensive gardens, pathways, beach etc before we had to be back in the bus. From Galway we did the day in Connemara tour, an 8 hour excursion which included not enough time at Kylemore Abbey. Lots of driving, albeit through beautiful scenery. There was only enough time to see the Abbey and church OR the extensive walled gardens and grounds. Then off to a town for lunch and a bit of free time. There was a restaurant at Kylemore so it would have made much more sense if they felt they needed to feed people to just do it there as it was a lovely place.

Can’t post pictures on board but the weather has been beautiful - only a bit of drizzle a few days ago.

So, thumbs up Marc if you’re considering coming back to Silversea in the future.