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Silversea Explorer-Antarctica Any Time to Relax??


Mountainduo

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We cruise often. We love it. We love to explore, primarily on our own. We rarely opt for the group activities like shore excursions.

 

For balance, we also enjoy our hours of leisurely vacation—relaxing on the ship, watching the world go by. We never complain about a day at sea. Our cruises in the Norwegian fjords have been our favorites—a combination of exiting (and exhausting) hikes on shore, and strolling the deck as the beautiful scenery passes by.

 

Now, we turn to Antarctica. A “drive-by” cruise on a larger ship would provide wonderful scenery, while enjoying the relaxation of the cruise. But not getting up close and personal would be frustrating.

 

The attractive alternative—Silversea Explorer. Our only concern is that the cruise would be too much of “school field trip”. Meetings, zodiac excursions, lectures, etc. I’m sure each would be great fun and interesting; getting closer to the environment and wildlife would be excellent. I understand there are some travelers who welcome the programmed activity every day nonstop. It fits for them.

 

But, we worry that it would be too constant for us. Are most days nearly consumed with programmed activity? Do some passengers elect to skip a day of activity and relax for a “day at sea”? Would that be frowned upon?

 

We want the adventure, we’d enjoy the activity; but would there be aspects of a relaxing vacation, for balance?

Thanks

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We cruise often. We love it. We love to explore, primarily on our own. We rarely opt for the group activities like shore excursions.

 

For balance, we also enjoy our hours of leisurely vacation—relaxing on the ship, watching the world go by. We never complain about a day at sea. Our cruises in the Norwegian fjords have been our favorites—a combination of exiting (and exhausting) hikes on shore, and strolling the deck as the beautiful scenery passes by.

 

Now, we turn to Antarctica. A “drive-by” cruise on a larger ship would provide wonderful scenery, while enjoying the relaxation of the cruise. But not getting up close and personal would be frustrating.

 

The attractive alternative—Silversea Explorer. Our only concern is that the cruise would be too much of “school field trip”. Meetings, zodiac excursions, lectures, etc. I’m sure each would be great fun and interesting; getting closer to the environment and wildlife would be excellent. I understand there are some travelers who welcome the programmed activity every day nonstop. It fits for them.

 

But, we worry that it would be too constant for us. Are most days nearly consumed with programmed activity? Do some passengers elect to skip a day of activity and relax for a “day at sea”? Would that be frowned upon?

 

We want the adventure, we’d enjoy the activity; but would there be aspects of a relaxing vacation, for balance?

Thanks

 

We went with Hurtigruten, they had the lectures & activities, etc. We had plenty of time on our own, you can choose to attend the lectures or not. Mostly we did not. The lectures were not that long anyway, you do have to attend a couple of required lectures. You also do not have to take the zodiac excursions, but I can not imagine going to AA and not doing this.

 

The short answer is you should have as much time as you want on your own, activities on our 22 day trip were not required. We had very high expectations for AA, and in every case the actual experience far exceeded our expectations.

 

Go without worry, you won't regret it.

 

Rc

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We cruise often. We love it. We love to explore, primarily on our own. We rarely opt for the group activities like shore excursions.

 

For balance, we also enjoy our hours of leisurely vacation—relaxing on the ship, watching the world go by. We never complain about a day at sea. Our cruises in the Norwegian fjords have been our favorites—a combination of exiting (and exhausting) hikes on shore, and strolling the deck as the beautiful scenery passes by.

 

Now, we turn to Antarctica. A “drive-by” cruise on a larger ship would provide wonderful scenery, while enjoying the relaxation of the cruise. But not getting up close and personal would be frustrating.

 

The attractive alternative—Silversea Explorer. Our only concern is that the cruise would be too much of “school field trip”. Meetings, zodiac excursions, lectures, etc. I’m sure each would be great fun and interesting; getting closer to the environment and wildlife would be excellent. I understand there are some travelers who welcome the programmed activity every day nonstop. It fits for them.

 

But, we worry that it would be too constant for us. Are most days nearly consumed with programmed activity? Do some passengers elect to skip a day of activity and relax for a “day at sea”? Would that be frowned upon?

 

We want the adventure, we’d enjoy the activity; but would there be aspects of a relaxing vacation, for balance?

Thanks

 

You don't have to go to the lectures, other than the mandatory safety lectures. I've been 4 times to various Antarctic and sub-antarctic locations, and I've been to probably 2 lectures in total. The landings are what it's all about for me, and the rest of the time I'm on the bridge or on the deck.

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other than the compulsory safety and orientation lectures - I tend to only go to the other lectures if the topic specifically interests me and the weather is too rough to be out on decks photographing.

 

They are a brilliant way to learn and understand the environment you are in - because of course not everyone knows everything and they stuff you can learn down there (even with all your pre research) can still blow your mind.

 

They are timed for at sea periods and do not interfere with the timing of landings in any way. And as DPRO said - the zodiac landings are also not compulsory. I know several passengers who have been on more than 20 journeys down there and they pick and choose what landings they want to do.

 

I skipped two due to severe back pain but that was on a 30 day trip where I knew there were more than ample landings to satisfy me.

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You can do as you please. No lectures (other than safety briefings) and no landings would be quite possible.

 

However, I couldn't imagine choosing to miss any of our landings with Hurtigruten and the lectures were absolutely excellent. Not to take full advantage of what was on offer would, in my opinion, have been a waste of an expedition cruise.

 

Having said that, there were times to relax when cruising between the various landing locations and on some of the 'sightseeing' legs of the trip.

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I couldn't imagine missing any of the landings ... not because I'm a fan of group activities, but because of the special nature of the destination. In fact, we went with a 48 pax ship to maximize our time ashore and the number of times each day that we could land. But nothing is forced upon you and you can pick and choose what you do. In fact, we found that to be the case when we went to Svalbard with Silver Explorer. With Silver Explorer's pax capacity, you may be taking turns to go ashore at each stop, so in addition to skipping lectures, etc., you will have time to yourselves while you're waiting for your group to be called to go ashore. (Unless things have changed since we went in 2007, no more than 100 can be ashore at any given time.)

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We were on a "drive-by" HAL cruise in Jan 2011. In our 3 fantastic days of slow cruising the Antarctic peninsula, we experienced very little down time - by our own choice. It was sunny and calm, but quite cold - in the 30s/40s?

 

We had an ocean view cabin on deck 5 but were either on the promenade deck or on the open bow for most of the daylight hours - which were very long :)

 

There were a geologist, a biologist, a political scientist and an ice pilot on board who gave lectures throughout the cruise - fascinating, and a good preparation for the Antarctic and "glacier alley" portions. They also narrated from the bridge to the open decks on those days.

 

I would go again in a heartbeat - a fantastic experience, however you choose to travel.

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  • 1 month later...

Antarctic cruises that land travellers are closer to expeditions than leisurely cruises. Intense activity is normal. But all worth it! You will have time between landings to rest but be prepared for a LOT of physical activity!

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You can have as much down time as you wish on Silverseas. We went with them and did everything we could but the choice is yours other than the mandatory lectures. My husband stayed on board for one zodiac landing that I went on since he didn't want to slide down the 'mountain'. With that being said if you expect to spend a relaxing day at sea I would not recommend this trip for you since you really are paying to do the zodiacs which can occur at any time depending on weather and what you will be seeing. You may get an early wake up call to get out and then come back and have breakfast or as happened to us have dinner halted so we could go on deck as we watched a pod of whales for about 1/2 hour with the crew, passengers and kitchen staff enjoying the antics of the babies and their mothers. We then all went back to dinner. At night we didn't do any activities at all we just went to bed. Getting up and out for 2 zodiac trips per day is exhausting but well worth it. It is the vacation of a lifetime. We loved Silverseas- great food, great staff and great trip.

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I don't know know why the "only alternative is Silver Explorer". i went on A&K's Le Boreal in January and had the time of my life. We had two zodiac tours or landings each day and they were fabulous. If you can afford the time and money, you should NOT do a drive by. Yes, the scenery is beautiful but you lose a great dea in not getting off and getting up close and personal.

 

NJBelle

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I don't know know why the "only alternative is Silver Explorer". i went on A&K's Le Boreal in January and had the time of my life. We had two zodiac tours or landings each day and they were fabulous. If you can afford the time and money, you should NOT do a drive by. Yes, the scenery is beautiful but you lose a great dea in not getting off and getting up close and personal.

 

NJBelle

 

 

Agree that a drive by is a "poor" substitute that should be used only if finances or health issues preclude a cruise with landings.

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Not mutually exclusive, but the very definition of expedition cruising kind of precludes a lot of down time. To me, it is a single purpose sailing with everyone there for the same purpose - to explore the history, scenery, flora, fauna, etc. of the area. You can have as many as 3 excursions a day in Antarctica - at least we did one day on L'Austral last year.

 

That said, the lectures will cover a wide range of topics - from wildlife to the process of glaciation. We usually attend many (but not all) of them because we are interested and want to learn as much as possible about what we are going to see and experience. Remember you will have about 3.5 - 4.0 days (total) crossing and re-crossing the Drake. Depending on whether you get the shake or the lake, that is a lot of down time.

 

Since we took our first expedition cruise to the Arctic on the Silver Explorer (then named PA II), we have not taken a mainstream cruise and may not again. For us, it is a perfect fit.

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