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Silver Explorer 7816, Nome to Nome disappointment


PJSphotog
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Silversea left Nome on July 25, apparently without enough fuel, with ice all over the ports we were to go to in the Arctic, and left us in the dark pretty much through the whole cruise. We did not get to Wrangell island, the name destination, we did not get to 75% of the destinations on the itinerary. One passenger calculated that on the 19 day cruise, we spent less than 24 hours off of the ship. We ended up having to go to Anadyr (only about 1,000+ miles added to our course) for fuel, and ended up in Nome a day early.

 

 

The experience was so awful passengers are asking for refunds, not merely credit for future cruises.

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PJSphotog, Anadyr? SS sailed to Anadyr for fuel? This makes virtually no sense to me for a voyage focused on the Chukchi Sea even if a visit to Provideniya was scheduled.

 

Also, weren't you supposed to be in Wrangell for 3-days? To not get anytime there is such a shame. I remember looking at your voyage and there was something like 16 destinations on the itinerary if I remember correctly. Are you saying that you only made it to 4 of the 16? What were the reasons provided for such a massive diversion to the planned itinerary? Surely, it had to be more than just fuel.

 

RachelG, was this voyage prior to yours? Did you all hear anything from the crew about it? Sounds like quite a mess compared to wonderful voyage you experienced.

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Sorry to hear about the disappointing expedition. To entirely miss the centerpiece of the trip is really sad. It does make the announcement of the accelerated dry dock for the Silver Explorer far more understandable.

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yes, I heard all about this. It was a constellation of bad events. First, there was a medical emergency which required the ship to turn around and get close enough to Alaska that the US coast guard could pick up the patient (a crewmember) for evacuation to Anchorage. Apparently a heart attack according to what I could find out, but the guy was pretty young.

 

Then when sailing to Wrangell Island, ice was encountered. The particular captain on the cruise, who we have unfortunately sailed with before, is absolutely allergic to ice or bad weather in any form. I won't name names, but if I had a way of figuring out who the captain would be ahead of time, I would avoid any cruise with this person as a captain.

 

So they basically just sailed around in the ocean for most of the cruise.

 

Fortunately, we had a different captain for our cruise, plus we got great weather and no medical emergencies.

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yes, I heard all about this. It was a constellation of bad events. First, there was a medical emergency which required the ship to turn around and get close enough to Alaska that the US coast guard could pick up the patient (a crewmember) for evacuation to Anchorage. Apparently a heart attack according to what I could find out, but the guy was pretty young.

 

Then when sailing to Wrangell Island, ice was encountered. The particular captain on the cruise, who we have unfortunately sailed with before, is absolutely allergic to ice or bad weather in any form. I won't name names, but if I had a way of figuring out who the captain would be ahead of time, I would avoid any cruise with this person as a captain.

 

So they basically just sailed around in the ocean for most of the cruise.

 

Fortunately, we had a different captain for our cruise, plus we got great weather and no medical emergencies.

Interesting. We are on the first cruise following the upcoming dry dock - Valparaiso to Ushuaia. I can only hope we don’t have the captain you described.

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The cruise was so poorly run, there were more rumors flying about than actual information from the ship. We made a stop at Providenya (which almost didn't happen, the Russians wouldn't let us in) which, since we have to, to enter the country, really doesn't count. We did a zodiac cruise at Cape Dezhnev instead of a landing, because the shore is too steep to climb. We visited two villages, Uelen and Vanderam. We did a couple of landings and a couple of zodiac cruises.

 

 

Our zodiac cruise at Wrangell (no three days there) lasted two hours, and then we were told to shove off, since we clearly weren't going to get through the ice and pick up the Rangers we needed for escorts.

 

 

And then we went to Anadyr, where we weren't going to get off the ship at all, until someone, somewhere, pulled whatever strings needed to allow us onshore for a couple of hours.

 

 

The rest of the time we spent steaming back and forth in the Chukchi Sea, looking for ice (they lost track of the ice edge one day, and we "found" it, something like 60 miles away from where it was expected to be) and then scooting to Anadyr for fuel.

 

 

If that sounds like a fun cruise, you're welcome to it. What makes the passengers (at least some) spitting mad is that this was all clear to Silversea around August 3rd or 4th. They were unresponsive to questions during the cruise, and glacially slow since.

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Thanks for the details PJSphotog, I can understand your disappointment and anger. I loved the look of that itinerary, particularly for the Wrangell and would have been equally disappointed with a failure to get there. I hope you receive some acceptable compensation.

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The reason they ran low on fuel was not that not enough fuel was loaded initially, but rather that they had to do all this sailing back and forth which used up the fuel.

 

Do you know this for a certainty? Silversea changed the itinerary about four days before departure to allow two stops in Pevek for fuel. Pevek was iced in, possible even when the change was made. We were told (I was on this nightmare of a cruise) there was plenty of fuel for our cruise, so we all suspected that Silversea spent four days of our cruise refueling for the next cruise--was that your cruise? But we don't know for sure.

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With two days of high speed for medevac and then detour to Anadyr; we definitely had enough fuel for the voyage from the start. As for the ice, they scheduled this trip for two weeks too early; Al Gore must be on their arctic planning staff (I can't believe the Silversea Expedition Coordinator would make such bad decisions on his own); first Northwest Passage in 2014 was two weeks too early as was this cruise; no problem going to Wrangel Island now.

 

Will put more thorough review up later; still working with Silversea on just compensation.

 

 

Marc

 

PS Ship is in great shape; main reason for dry dock are ballast issues; crew were fantastic. Just didn't like paying $30K to play cards every day.

 

PPS To add insult to injury we got into Nome a day early so Captain could fly home a day early.

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With two days of high speed for medevac and then detour to Anadyr; we definitely had enough fuel for the voyage from the start. As for the ice, they scheduled this trip for two weeks too early; Al Gore must be on their arctic planning staff (I can't believe the Silversea Expedition Coordinator would make such bad decisions on his own); first Northwest Passage in 2014 was two weeks too early as was this cruise; no problem going to Wrangel Island now.

 

Will put more thorough review up later; still working with Silversea on just compensation.

 

 

Marc

 

PS Ship is in great shape; main reason for dry dock are ballast issues; crew were fantastic. Just didn't like paying $30K to play cards every day.

 

PPS To add insult to injury we got into Nome a day early so Captain could fly home a day early.

 

Marc - who was the Captain on you cruise ??

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Perhaps this takeover has been known in high places for a long time and a who cares attitude pervaded the management structure

Perhaps the director of expeditions , who has cosily worked from home for many years, has not moved / is not moving over to the new structure.

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Do you know this for a certainty? Silversea changed the itinerary about four days before departure to allow two stops in Pevek for fuel. Pevek was iced in, possible even when the change was made. We were told (I was on this nightmare of a cruise) there was plenty of fuel for our cruise, so we all suspected that Silversea spent four days of our cruise refueling for the next cruise--was that your cruise? But we don't know for sure.

I was told that when they left Nome, they had plenty of fuel for the cruise, but all the going back and forth depleted the supply. I was told this by someone on the crew who I quite trust.

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I was told that when they left Nome, they had plenty of fuel for the cruise, but all the going back and forth depleted the supply. I was told this by someone on the crew who I quite trust.

 

Rachel, Nome was a lot closer to Kuyveveem than Anadyr; we were hoping to get into Nome three or four days early, pay for an Alaskan pilot, and then tour the Alaskan coast.

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I think the explanation has already been stated by Silversea.From the email announcing our cancelled cruise next month-

"'Following the insourcing of technical operation from an external manager our technical manager has run different analysis on our whole fleet. In specific one recent test pointed out the need to increase the ship's operational flexibility before starting cold water cruising to be able to allow our guests to enjoy longer-range cruises in the future.'

The dry dock will result will result in enhancements in the ship hull to allow for increased ship's operational flexibility in ice cold cruising.' "

This implies the hull is to be strengthened not just ballast problems.

So that is almost certainly the reason the Explorer has been avoiding the ice on recent cruises.

I think captain Maggie was just following company orders.We have sailed with her several times and cI have nothing but respect for her abilities.

And tgh The director of Expeditions certainly works out of South Africa but from an office not his home-he has by the way been promoted to a VP of Silverseas.Many of the original Expedition staff as well as some of the newer hirings are South African so it makes sense to have an Expedition office there.On top of that is the need for training a lot of Expedition staff with the Cloud coming into service and the poaching of staff by newcomers to expedition cruising.

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Seems to me that someone has to be responsible for the deterioration of the SS Expedition experience.

If not the Director , who ? Where does the buck stop ?

Promotion to VP sounds like a questionable decision based on the current performance of the expedition division.

Lots of excuses , but that doesn't help the disaffected passengers

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I don't think the entire Silversea expedition experience has deteriorated. The Nome-Nome cruise was a thorough screw-up, but our Nome to Seward cruise was one of the best expedition cruises we have been on with no missed ports and really great wildlife sightings, plus included extras like the sea plane flightseeing and the 360 catamaran to the glaciers. I have 3 more expedition cruises booked with Silversea.

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Rachel, I agree, I have two more booked. I just think they have an issue with arctic cruises wherein they can't plan for the ice and, when ice is present, won't transit through the ice. Expedition Staff was fantastic. Hotel department fantastic. I am definitely a fan of Silversea Expedition cruises; I just think Silversea needs to be more truthful (e.g., acknowledge that change in itinerary was due to ice conditions that they didn't plan for instead of solely blaming Russia) and understanding of the disappointment.

 

The compensation offered (FCC) is not what was requested but is reasonable; we just don't like the conditions on use of the FCC.

 

Marc

Edited by Marq
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Expedition Staff was fantastic. Hotel department fantastic.

 

Marc

 

We've traveled with four different expedition lines, multiple times. While there were some great people on this expedition team--Peter, Robin, and Susan spring directly to mind--overall the team was among the least qualified we've had. Agreed, however, that the hotel department was utterly marvelous.

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cruiser2001, I thought Brad did a wonderful job; in addition to his management of his staff, he was put into a very bad position by Corporate and the Captain and he handled it well. I also thought Cory was wonderful and helpful; I think the next Robin. Also, Luke has been fantastic on every cruise that we have sailed with him, I think he will be a great Expedition Leader.

 

Marc

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