Silver Explorer

She has finally done it! After being trapped in the ice for a few days, the Northwest Passage has been conquered! Congrats to all of those on this historic SS voyage and to the Capt and crew!l

Excellent! Congrats to all who were there - wish we were...

She has finally done it! After being trapped in the ice for a few days, the Northwest Passage has been conquered! Congrats to all of those on this historic SS voyage and to the Capt and crew!l

Agree duct tape ! And they have had some fantastic close up polar bear sightings as well.

Looking forward to getting on board in Sapporo ! :)

It was a great trip! Don't much care for Stefan as Expedition Leader but Hotel Department was fantastic; food much improved over last trip on Silver Explorer. Best butler ever.

Marc

Was she stuck? How did she get through?

She was stuck for 4 days.A Canadiab icebreaker got her through.Now off the Russian far east coast.

And, horror of horrors, they ran out of red wine (as well as fresh produce).

And, horror of horrors, they ran out of red wine (as well as fresh produce).

Didn't run out of red wine until last night; never really ran out of fruit and vegetable except for berries; had a few days without watermelon but resupplied in Cambridge Bay. Ran out of Diet Coke four days from end; ran out of ALL diet soda two days from end. Overall; they did a real good job keeping us fed and drinking.

Marc

Running out of diet coke is as bad as running out of red wine in our household. And they ran out of diet coke on our Svalbard cruise. Our butler was able to scavenge diet coke from the fridges of people who didn't drink it, but it seemed to me at the time that they could have provisioned better. We only between the two of us drink 4 per day max, usually less.

We ran out of Diet Coke once in Easter Island. It was supposed to be a drop point! Ridiculous. Sea too rough for the tenders, but the ship did evacuate someone who had to be hospitalized on the mainland. She did well and returned to the ship later. Obviously, a memorable trip on the Shadow!

It was a great trip! Don't much care for Stefan as Expedition Leader but Hotel Department was fantastic; food much improved over last trip on Silver Explorer. Best butler ever.

 

Marc

Marc, can I ask who was your butler ?

Marc, can I ask who was your butler ?

Marlon

Marlon

I wonder if its the same Marlon, that we had on the Spirit in May ?

If so, you are right on .. an "excellent" butler !!

Marlon is awesome - he kept checking in with me to make sure I was okay since I was traveling alone. He said he never saw me!

Marq, glad you found the food good. I definitely thought it was better than our Antarctica cruise in 2012.

There is no way in the world I'll ever mention to my wife that the ship was stuck for 4 days. I'd never get on that cruise!

Are we certain that it was actually stuck? I saw nothing in the paper about it (which you would expect) and Conrad Combrink said that being accompanied by the ice breaker was an expected part of the journey. Was it late hitting port?

Are we certain that it was actually stuck? I saw nothing in the paper about it (which you would expect) and Conrad Combrink said that being accompanied by the ice breaker was an expected part of the journey. Was it late hitting port?

We were NOT stuck!!!!

We spent three days behind an ice breaker. The first night we got stopped twice and the ice breaker turned around to get us free. Finally, at 0130, the fog was getting thick so we stopped for the night. The second night, the ice breaker informed us that we would stop at 2200 and start back up at 0600.

We were NOT stuck!!!!

Marc

Thank you very much for the clarification-that was kinda what I thought. But-more importantly-did you have a wonderful adventure ?

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Thank you very much for the clarification-that was kinda what I thought. But-more importantly-did you have a wonderful adventure ?

 

 

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A great trip. I guess you could use Amundsen's definition of "adventure" to describe the trip. As I said earlier, the ship and her staff were wonderful. The expedition staff, with just a few exceptions (Peter and Rich were great), was pretty poor. This was especially noticeable as half of the expedition staff flew in for this cruise so they hadn't even melded as a team. Silversea certainly went with the "B Team" for this trip. Still, it was a fantastic voyage with great friends.

Marc

There was ice out there-what more did the expedition crew have to say?

Ok- non-snarky comment-rather surprised that the A team didn't want to be there-the NW. Passage for heaven"'s sake. But glad it was fantastic!

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Marc, can I ask who was your butler ?

QUOTE=Marq;44009036]Marlon

We recently got off the Explorer after a B2B of 30 days. We were in 702. Our first leg we had Rowena as our Butler. She was super fantastic, and the best butler we have had on the Explorer. The next leg we got Marlon, we had high expectations for Marlon after reading this thread. He was nowhere near as good as Rowena. The funny thing is Rowena and Marlon are married :D

QUOTE=Marq;44009036]Marlon

We recently got off the Explorer after a B2B of 30 days. We were in 702. Our first leg we had Rowena as our Butler. She was super fantastic, and the best butler we have had on the Explorer. The next leg we got Marlon, we had high expectations for Marlon after reading this thread. He was nowhere near as good as Rowena. The funny thing is Rowena and Marlon are married :D

Can't resist! Doesn't that say a lot about many married couples........?:p

No offense guys -- as I said -- I couldn't resist.

Here are Rowena and Marion; we enjoyed Rowena as our Butler on last year's London to London Cloud voyage, Marion was in charge of Room service..both wonderful Silversea team members and proud parents of two children too:

And it was not just a woman's view.Rowena was fantastic.She anticipated your needs.

What annoyed me was that we had Rowena on the first leg as only 3 suites occupied on Deck 7.full on the second leg and we were told because of that they couldn't assign a woman to the deck.Just wow.

And it was not just a woman's view.Rowena was fantastic.She anticipated your needs.

What annoyed me was that we had Rowena on the first leg as only 3 suites occupied on Deck 7.full on the second leg and we were told because of that they couldn't assign a woman to the deck.Just wow.

Just wow is right. What does gender have to do with being a capable butler? And I agree, Rowena is fantastic.