Emerilprm

We used this link http://www.igtours.is/eng/catalog/tour76.html because, at the time, Silversea was not offering a grand tour of Iceland. When we boarded, we found the ship did offer such a tour. I think it filled up quickly. All the passengers on the private and ship's version seemed to love that Grand Circle Tour. (I think both tours offered the same basic stops, with some slight variations.) the private tour was great, and the tour operator changed things slightly to make sure the 6 Whisper passengers arrived with time to spare.

The Giant's Causeway was offered as a tour from Belfast. Passengers who took it seemed very happy. In Belfast, we toured the Titanic Museum, which we enjoyed thoroughly. Before we boarded in Southampton, we had a private tour of the area and saw several monuments and sites related to the Titanic, but we didn't know about a Titanic museum there.

Possibly our favorite tour was a private home tour (arranged through the ship) in Qaqortoq, Greenland. The hostess was quite charming and very willing to talk about everyday life there. She served coffee, tea, and cakes while showing off many of the costumes and boots used in ceremonies such as her own wedding.

Our favorite city was Quebec City. It was delightful, and I wish we had had another day there. We took a city tour that included Montmorency Falls, which is well worth the effort, in our opinion. Make sure you're on deck if you sail out at sunset. Going under a bridge with a real history was a lot of fun, and made for some great photos. That city is even more beautiful at sunset than during a sunny day.

We hope this helps. I'm sure you'll have a great time.

My wife and I were first-time Silversea cruisers on the Southampton to Montreal cruise this year. We loved it, and certainly will consider more Silversea cruises. This will be a fairly short critique. Embarkation went very smoothly despite some confusion about the time to board. Service at dinner was a tad slow for the first two nights (some veteran Silversea cruisers weren't happy), but then the service was as sparkling as I expected. The food started off very good, and then consistently improved. It was certainly the best cruise food we've had. We enjoyed the Italian restaurant as well as the outdoor grill.

The weather presented a few challenges. We waited most of an extra day in Belfast to wait out a storm the captain described as the equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. We had to skip a stop in Scotland and slogging in the wake of the storm took an extra day before we got to Iceland. The shore excursion desk was terrific in helping us schedule a backup trip in case our private tour operator couldn't accommodate us a day later than planned. (Thank you, Col. Wes for the Great Circle Tour link for Iceland.) When we found the private operator could take us, the Shore desk canceled our "backup" tour so we didn't have to pay twice. This was typical of the service throughout the ship.

Our day in the Prince Christian Sund in Greenland may have been the best day of the trip. The sun finally came out and we spent about 7 or 8 hours slowly traveling through icebergs and next to some beautiful glaciers. There's nothing quite as decadent as sipping hot chocolate in our room while taking pictures on our balcony.

Because of the storm, we had to skip our stop in L'Anse Aux Meadows in Canada in order to catch up with the other Canadian tours. Overall, we thought the tours sponsored through the ship were first class. The tour operators were considerate, and always aware of time constraints to get us back to the ship on time.

We had at least 5 Cruise Critic members on board, but we didn't meet them, as we know of. I really wish we could have had a Meet and Mingle, but we were one short of the requirement.

Overall, this was a spectacular experience that we would recommend wholeheartedly.