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!

Excellent write up. You captured the experience very well. I would recommend this cruise to any one but must include South Georgia.

Thank you for all those pictures Cindy. Absolutely loved seeing all those shots. We are going in the same time frame in 2020 and done this seven times before at this time of year but never seen such tiny chicks before. So happy you had a wonderful time.

You are so right Ralph! I am so glad Ngaire and Linda convinced us we MUST do South Georgia!!

Oh Cindy, thanks so much for bringing back such great memories of our 2 trips to Antarctica. We went once without South Georgia and once with. Of course I agree that South Georgia is truly an amazing, magical place but I urge everyone to get to Antarctica even if you can’t afford the extra time necessary to include South Georgia. I have been asked if it is worth going if you can’t include So Georgia and my answer is ABSOLUTELY!
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Helen

For anyone interested, here are the species lists from our cruise:

Just wow! Photos are spectacular. We are on the trip for next year. George will be happy that there are strenuous hikes.

We are among those who love Explorer, but we are excited to try out Cloud. We better like it as we have 3 trips booked so far.

Rachel - one of the hikes was described as the "death march"! George will surely love it!!

Cindy, he will be in seventh heaven. He loves death marches. It is kind of a joke in our family.

Hi Cindy...quick question for you...what expedition excursion was done at Stanley, Falkland Island?

They did not offer an "expedition" excursion at Stanley on our cruise. They offered a "Stanley Highlights Tour" which was a bus tour around town and visit to the museum. Don't remember if there was a reason they did not offer any other excursions, or if that was the plan all along (Silversea lists several more "expedition like" excursions on their website, but none of those were offered on our cruise). We opted out of the bus tour and just took the shuttle and walked around the town on our own.

Thanks for the info...that is a bummer. So looks like we will have to make private arrangements to at least maybe go to the nearby Bluff Cove...

It's to say loke - they might offer one of the other excursions on your cruise. What ship are you going on? The Silversea website certainly shows several options for excursions in Stanley.

We are planning on the Wind's first expedition cruise from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia...

If it is offered I do enjoy the trip to see the King penguins with the tea in the cottage afterwards. You go on a four wheel drive vehicle over paddocks to get there. NOTHING like you will see in South Georgia where they are all around you. Here they are fenced off and it is pretty lame BUT still a nice outing and the tea was great when we were there.

Walking Stanley is easy - one main street along the seashore the tender/zodiacs let you off right at the beginning of that street. There is town behind uphill but most stick the main drag.

Thanks Ngaire...hopefully the Bluff Cove excursion would be available for the BA-Ushuaia cruise....that is likely the only chance to see the King penguins on this itinerary...

South Georgia and Antarctica would be nice but currently way out of our budget...

Years ago when we were there Regent offered an excursion to see the Rockhopper penguins. Since that was our first port (and also our first trip to Antarctica) I was absolutely thrilled to see all those penguins! It was a crazy bumpy ride in 4 wheel drive vehicles to get there but I thought so worth it.
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Helen

Rock Hopper penguins are a great idea if it is offered and you will not see those on the rest of trip.

Thanks everybody for the info...

And sorry for kinda hijacking Cindy’s post.

Not hijacked at all!! The posts change subjects and move in many different directions. Nothing to worry about at all just happy to have a new poster on the boards.