West Africa on the Cloud

[drron29]

Fletcher I am not worried that this report is not live.it is very hard to do a detailed report live.I have just finished my last cruise report 7 weeks after disembarkation.

As I said before we did this cruise from Capetown to Accra on the Silver Explorer which is a 100 person Expedition ship.Already reading your port reports I can say this is a much better way of doing this cruise as our tours were more extensive and a bit more active.Plus I enjoyed most of them.

[Fletcher]

DAY 5 - BOM BOM ISLAND, PRINCIPE

On the tender to Bom-Bom, we met one of the English couples who didn't have a visa for Ghana and were turned away by BA at Heathrow. Frankly, I was surprised to see them as I thought they couldn't possibly catch up with us. But they did and this is what happened to them.

 

They had booked their cruise with a UK travel agent, not directly with Silversea as we had done. Their travel agent put them up at a Heathrow hotel and the next day these three couples each paid £1200 for a Qatar Airways flight from London to Togo via Casablanca. They bought their Togo visas on arrival and Silversea picked them up at the airport. Piece of cake. But as the couple said, their stress levels were off the scale.

 

Anyway, back to Bom-Bom, a miraculous sort of place, reminiscent of the Seychelles when we first went there in 1981. Silversea’s daily paper, Chronicles, says more people have never heard of Sao Tome and Principe than any other country. Since early childhood I’ve been a bit nerdy about atlases and obscure UN Member States so I’d known about Sao Tome for decades and I’d even known about Bom-Bom for several years. When the resort opened on the northern tip of Principe it was covered by a travel magazine - was it a ‘hot destination’ or was it a ‘cool destination?’ Probably both. One adventurous British tour operator started offering packages there to include a week at Bom-Bom and a safari in Gabon, 100 miles to the east, where elephants roam the beaches. I’d long fancied going there.

 

Sao Tome and Principe isn’t what I would call remote, not like some other places I’ve been, such as Pitcairn and Tristan da Cunha. Yet arriving by ship at this far-flung place with such an exotic history seemed entirely appropriate. From the deck of the Cloud it was incredibly enticing. Beaches fanned out on both sides, lying beneath a green canopy of rain forest. Above and beyond were rocky domes and pinnacles bathed in mist. It was all a bit Conan Doyle’s Lost World.

 

Sometimes beaches look great from a distance and turn out to be stoney or gravelly. Not the case here. The beaches were pure powdered perfection and the Cloud’s passengers spent the day in the warm clear water, buzzed occasionally by yellow-billed kites. I felt a bit sorry for the patrons of the resort for ruining their solitude, though I’ve seen worse invasions from cruise ships. Two thousand people descending on Matira Beach in Bora Bora is not a pretty sight. This was still quiet and laid-back.

 

The Cloud originally planned a beach BBQ which they cancelled. We were told it was because of the insects. Or the lack of proper toilet facilities. Or the logistical problems of getting all the food and stuff ashore. So the BBQ was held on the pool deck and very boring it looked, too. Mainly hamburgers and sausages, nothing like the lobster fantasia offered by Seabourn or the suckling pigs roasted on the expedition ships.

 

In the late afternoon my wife and I took a transport organised by the hotel and went to the nearby town, Santo Antonio. Sleepy wasn’t the word for this place. It was catatonic. People were sitting around, staring into space. Even the dogs looked bored out of their minds. Someone had a big bonfire and the smoke combined with the rays of the setting sun to create a rather magical scene around the old Portuguese cathedral. Down by the harbour, there was a boat, half sunk, a complete wreck with bits of other things floating around it. I thought the name of this boat was quite symbolic if you thought about it. The boat was called Africa.

 

Tomorrow we visit Principe’s big brother, Sao Tome itself and its characterful capital.

[duct tape]

Glad you enjoyed it! Magical place.

[RachelG]

Enjoying your reports, and I don't mind a bit they aren't live. Internet on board ship can be really sketchy, and I have often had to write up a live report and save it until a day when I could get a decent signal then post several at once.

[Fletcher]

DAY 6 - SAO TOME

People taking the ship’s tours of Sao Tome had got up early this morning and the Terrazza restaurant couldn’t cope. Service was chaotic and the buffet was stripped bare by 7.30pm, leaving people like us who weren’t taking the tours with little to eat except capers and crumbs. I exaggerate but you know what I mean.

 

Sao Tome lay off in the sun, looking inviting. We could see the castle on the beach and a few churches. And out on the water there were pirogues. We could also see the crew were having a spot of bother with the tenders. There was a modest swell and the tender docking platform was flooded. It looked like a swell of about two feet.

 

Nevertheless, two tenders were sent ashore on time loaded with the official tour people. The rest of us were told it was a 15 minute wait for the first tender to return from the pier. Sometimes you can sense things aren’t going as planned. Down at the little lobby on Deck 3, the anteroom to the tender, the four Sao Tome immigration officials had all our passports in a box and wanted to take an elevator to Deck 6. They entered the elevator, the doors closed, a minute or two passed by, the doors opened and they were still there, looking numb, as if they were disappointed by their first time in an elevator. It had failed to elevate them. This farce happened three times until they gave up and went across the lobby to the other elevator.

 

Then we independently-minded foot soldiers were told we wouldn’t going anywhere, either. The two tenders had failed to land their passengers and were returning to the ship. In fact, the first tender crashed into the pier and since many passengers were standing up they all fell down and there were some minor injuries. Sao Tome was abandoned on the orders of Captain Health and First Officer Safety.

 

These big ships are utterly useless in anything but perfect conditions. They are so impractical and so inflexible. The swell was little more than a ripple and if we had been on one of our customary expedition vessels, equipped with zodiacs, we would have got to Sao Tome without a problem. Good heavens, I landed on Tristan in a howling gale. Despite the crew’s best efforts and the passengers’ stupidity in standing up when they should have been sitting down, the Cloud showed its limitations. The last thing Silversea wants is someone slipping, falling into the water and breaking a Gucci shoulder strap.

 

A bitter disapppointment, then. Sao Tome seemed to possess considerable charm and architectural interest. We now face a day at sea, followed tomorrow by another as we head - oh joy of joys - towards the sun-drenched paradise that is Luanda’s container port.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Fletcher

[Fletcher]

DAY 7 - AT SEA WITH THE SMOKERS

My topic today is smoking. Last night we were having dinner as usual on the outside terrace of La Terrazza. We love dining out there in the balmy night air. Last night there were two other couples as we arrived at our table. After about 15 minutes the waiters set up the table next to us and this couple - Italians, I think - arrived and immediately they both lit cigarettes. Their smoke blew directly at us as we were eating.

 

This had never happened to us on any cruise ship and it was both surprising and shocking. And it was unpleasant as well. We asked a waiter if this couple were allowed to smoke here and he said yes they were, it was company policy. He then said something to this couple and then the woman smoker said to us in a thickly accented voice, ‘if you don’t like it, go inside.’ The man silently mouthed two words. One began with F and the other began with O. Things went downhill from there. The Maitre D from the main restaurant came up and spoke to us, apologising for the situation which he was powerless to do anything about it.

 

I guess these two smoked maybe ten cigarettes with their meal and by the end we had moved to a distant table. One of the other couples also moved and the other couple left the restaurant. The smokers seemed happy about their achievement. They seemed perfectly content to ruin our dinner and to cast themselves as lepers. And smokers are the lepers of today. Twenty years ago things were different but society has moved on. Silversea obviously hasn’t.

 

Now, I am totally happy with a ship having one or two designated smoking zones. On the Cloud we have noted two such zones - outside the Panorama Lounge, another by The Grill and there’s a cigar room somewhere called the Thermidor. It never occurred to us that people were allowed to smoke where food was served and consumed; indeed, it is illegal in America, Australasia and much of mainland Europe.

 

We later met with the Cloud’s duty hotel manager and she confirmed that it was Silversea’s policy to allow smoking in the outside areas of their restaurants. I don’t think this is a policy at all. It’s an offensive anachronism and totally bonkers considering they cancelled the beach BBQ on Bom-Bom because of the insects. A few harmless sand flies on Bom-Bom’s beach are thought to be a health hazard yet a couple blowing a carcinogen at your food in a restaurant is quite acceptable. How utterly insane is that?

 

I have no idea how many customers Silversea think they are pleasing but my guess is that they are displeasing vastly more people and tarnishing their image. Hardly anyone over 50 smokes these days but this noxious and obnoxious couple were probably in their 70s. There was a guy on the ship who smoked a pipe for an hour a day and there may have been half a dozen other ciggy smokers out of 240. That’s my survey, anyway.

 

I also feel very sorry for Silversea’s lovely restaurant staff who last night had to defend the right of two rude and inconsiderate passengers to ruin the evening of six polite and considerate passengers.

 

Tomorrow it’s Luanda. It has a scary reputation. I’m up for it if you are.

[lincslady]

Horrified to read about smokers in eating areas -even Seabourn, who get a lot of stick for allowing smoking in various places, do not allow smoking anywhere near food.

 

I have a feeling it may be to do with the Italian heritage of Silversea? Certainly last time a few years ago we cruised with them the Officers on board smoked a lot where it was allowed.

[Mark_K]

Outside La Terrazza is not mentioned as a smoking area in the Silversea Smoking Policy. I can understand a desire to accommodate smokers, but it seems to me to be unfair to non-smokers to add locations not listed in the policy.

[spinnaker2]

Take a look at setting sail guide.

It delineates smoking areas, including la t.

I have seen and encountered it many times.

[nfcu]

Take a look at setting sail guide.

It delineates smoking areas, including la t.

I have seen and encountered it many times.

 

This is correct. Outside La Terrazzo is listed as a smoking area on all ships. I have seen it during meals, but not very often.

[Mark_K]

Take a look at setting sail guide.

 

It delineates smoking areas, including la t.

 

I have seen and encountered it many times.

 

 

If that's the case, it should be listed in their Smoking Policy:

 

Smoking Policy

At Silversea, the comfort, enjoyment, and safety of all guests is paramount. Most areas on board are non-smoking, and, as a safety precaution, smoking is not permitted in guests suites or guest suite verandas or balconies. However, cigarette, cigar, electronic cigarette and pipe smoking is permitted in the Connoisseur’s Corner and in specifically designated areas. These areas include designated tables outside of the Panorama Lounge and the Pool Bar, as well as on open Decks 9 and 10 aboard Silver Spirit, Silver Whisper and Silver Shadow; on open Deck 9 aboard Silver Cloud and Silver Wind; in specifically-designated outside areas on Decks 5 and 6 aboard Silver Explorer; in a designated outside area on Deck 4 aboard Silver Galapagos; and in the designated smoking area on Deck 6 on Silver Discoverer.

[spinnaker2]

Mark, agreed. There is a conflict in the actual policy as listed in one place vs the other.

One would think that Silversea would clarify it, but apparently the fact that it is listed as OK and permitted in one piece of their literature makes it indeed, ok.

I am not a smoker, but a former smoker, and I don't like having smoke blown at me while I eat either.

[Mark_K]

They're not the best at keeping their website updated or consistent.

 

I had a little kerfuffle with them a year or two ago when different parts of their website were showing different prices for the same cruise, and they refused to give me the lower price.

 

Funny how quickly (about 45 minutes) after I called them on it, they were able to get the page with the lower price changed.

 

It all worked out well, though, as I booked a 12 night vacation in Puerto Vallarta instead of giving Silversea my $$$ and had a really good time.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Mark_K

[spinnaker2]

Don't want to hijack this thread with another topic.

Best to post to cooler imo.

[Fletcher]

DAY 8 - LUANDA, ANGOLA

Angola announced its presence during yesterday’s sea day when the offshore oil rigs of Cabinda were seen from the deck of the Cloud. Cabinda is a strange coastal enclave, belonging to Angola yet encircled by both Congos. Unless you work in the oil industry entry into Cabinda is virtually impossible. We couldn’t see the land from the ship but we could smell the oil in the air and the water churned up by the Cloud’s propellers was a frothy yellow-brown. One solitary whale was risking a passage across this polluted wet desert.

 

Luanda came up this morning in a grey haze, though it quickly cleared and became a humid furnace. I had been rather dreading coming here, such is its fearsome reputation for squalor, crime and general unpleasantness. One blogger wrote that he had his camera confiscated by the police after taking a shot of the impressive colonial era Bank of Angola. Two Silversea passengers on the Silver Explorer, one of them a regular on these boards, told me they simply took a walk and survived to tell the tale.

 

Only recently a war zone, Luanda is apparently the most expensive city in the world and there are several fascinating magazine articles available online describing how a hamburger costs $65, a water melon $25 and an apartment costs roughly the same as one in Manhattan or Mayfair. The whole place is nuts, corruption central, run on a distorted oil-based economy, with ex-pats in gated communities and an Angolan super elite whose wealth rivals the sheikhs of the Gulf States. And of course, everyone else lives in abject poverty. Built for half a million citizens, Luanda is currently home to 3.5 million and seems to be a microcosm of everything that’s wrong with Africa and humanity in general. Paul Theroux said of it, ‘This is what the world will look like when it ends.’

 

Silversea’s daily newspaper, quoting the usually anodyne Fodor’s Guide, doesn’t pull any punches about the singular appeal of this port of call: ‘Whiff the stench of fetid water that intoxicates early-morning joggers on the picturesque Marginal promenade,’ it says. OK then, we are up for that.

 

Silversea’s city tours didn’t look promising and cost $199 or $499 if you wanted lunch on a beach included. So we walked off the ship, along the Marginal, past enormous building sites and some impressive colonial era buildings, and up to the heavily restored Portuguese fortress. The views from the fort are worth the climb - in one direction you gaze down on Luanda’s multi-billion dollar property boom and in another direction you gaze down on the hell-hole of Chicala, a vast shanty on the beach, home to maybe a million people living in shacks surrounded by mountains of garbage, overlooked by the government elite up in Zona Verde with their cool villas and swimming pools.

 

There were police and soldiers everywhere, I think probably because the Cloud was in town. And on our walk the Cloud’s tour buses roared by, escorted by sirens, police outriders and an ambulance. At least no one would be mugged, or murdered, or politely asked their name and where they came from.

 

We walked back to the ship. Walking slowly it took us 50 minutes each way with a few detours and was entirely stress and hassle free. And I have to report, we photographed the Bank of Angola without incident. Even Luanda’s notorious traffic was moving. We did not detect any fetid air. In fact, the water in the bay seemed quite clean as there were many fish jumping and flocks of egrets fishing. Also, the city authorities were reclaiming vast tracts of land and landscaping the Marginal to a rather lavish degree - grass like putting greens and some stylish planting. I think Boris Johnson’s opposite number in Luanda went to Abu Dhabi and thought, we’ll have some of that!

 

There were joggers, dog-walkers, sprinklers, students buried in their books, business people with iPhones and female soldiers armed with automatic rifles driving up and down in golf carts. They even said ‘Good morning’ to us in English. It was surreal.

 

Back on deck, behind the Panorama Lounge with a gin and tonic, we felt just a little proud of our achievement. We had walked around for nearly four hours, we saw almost everything people saw on the tour and we saved ourselves $400. And gazing out at the amazing city vista from the deck of the Cloud we had to admit that Luanda had been an exciting place to visit, though its shocking extremes are right in front of you.

 

We now have two days at sea until we reach Walvis Bay in Namibia. If food were the only measure of this cruise, I'd be happy if it was Cape Town tomorrow.

[Observer]

Another wonderful post. Thanks very much. I, for one, will be sorry when you reach Cape Town in this narrative.

[TLCOhio]

Another wonderful post. Thanks very much. I, for one, will be sorry when you reach Cape Town in this narrative.

 

nacu: Outside La Terrazzo is listed as a smoking area on all ships. I have seen it during meals' date=' but not very often. [/quote']

 

Enjoyed very much the details for this DIY adventure when visiting Luanda, Angolia, its costs, security challenges, etc.

 

Actually, to be honest, I will be glad when these reports reach Cape Town. Looking forward to hearing what Fletcher loved, hated, enjoyed, avoided, etc., for scenic and more cosmopolitan Cape Town. We will be there Jan. 28-Feb. 2 and are looking forward to the insights from this skilled writer and observer. Clearly lots of "contrasts" and challenges were observed during this sailing and for these varied ports in western Africa.

 

From our 26 days on the Silver Cloud earlier this year for the Amazon River and Caribbean, we never observed and/or had any problems with the smoking there at La Terrezza or elsewhere on this ship. Maybe we were lucky!!?? Hope that good fortune continues on the Silver Cloud in early February 2016 off of the South Africa coast.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 190,304 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[Fletcher]

DAYS 9,10 & 11: WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

We left Luanda and spent days 9 and 10 nipping down the South Atlantic. The sea has been calm but the climate has changed noticeably. Although we are well within the tropics, the temperature has plunged, barely into the 60s, and I fully expected to see an iceberg on the horizon. Our raised blood temperature in the furnace-like heat of Cotonou and Luanda doesn’t help, either.

 

Our cabin got seriously cold overnight - about 55 degrees - and it took an engineer two hours the next morning to replace our broken a/c unit. He took out a panel in our ceiling and out fell a load of black dust. The room has warmed up now but we both have nasty coughs, like many other passengers it seems. I think cruise ships are seriously unhealthy environments. What is annoying is that the ship asks you to sign a form as you embark to confirm you have no cold or ‘flu-like symptoms’ and then happily give you them while you are aboard.

 

Apart from the air conditioning issue and the dysfunctional internet, we are enjoying our cabin. We feel the need to keep our cabin immaculately tidy at all times because our butler will simply rearrange everything. We often find Marlon lurking in the corridor, wanting something to do. I’m finding this whole butler thing creepy and annoying. Yesterday we had a visit from the hotel manager, Mr Mohan, who did a routine check of our living space and ran his fingers along a brass cupboard frame to check for dust.

 

We’ve been on board long enough to know that we are not really Silversea people - at least not a ‘big ship’ couple. We haven’t partaken in any jolly on-board activity, we avoid the Grill and the main Restaurant, we never sit by the pool drinking beer and reading John Grisham. We don’t use the spa, the gym, let alone the casino, and we don’t attend anything in the Venetian Lounge. The bar is dark and gloomy, OK for London or New York maybe. All we do is go for long walks on the top deck, read our books on our balcony, and eat every meal at La Terrazza. We have only shared a table once. Brief encounters on deck are sufficient social intercourse for us.

 

The food at breakfast and lunch remains at a fair-to-average level. Dinners are usually rather poor which is why we’ve never fancied paying the $80 supplement for luxury ingredients indifferently cooked at the hushed and pretentious-looking Le Champagne. As I said before, we are using this ship as a taxi to get from A-W.

 

Speaking of which, Walvis Bay came up this cold, misty morning and the Cloud berthed next to a much larger ship, the Oceania Marina. We had been looking forward to this Namibian port, having heard great things about the desert scenery, the flamingos, the pelicans and other delights. Yet it turned out to be just about the dullest, least interesting port-of-call we have ever visited. Africa was not supposed to look like this - prim, proper, orderly, clean . . . Walvis Bay had all the soul of the outskirts of Milton Keynes.

 

We had booked a four-hour independent tour and we were back on the ship in two hours. There were about 20 flamingos near some new housing, there weren’t any pelicans to be seen. There was a dusty road to Dune 7 which was . . . well, it was a sand dune. Next another dusty road, about 20 miles of it, dead straight, dead boring. Our driver took us on a detour to a swanky golf course where three or four springboks were lounging on a putting green. Tiger had played here, he told us proudly.

 

We drove through Swakopmund which had some nice old buildings but nothing worth getting out and looking at. We insisted we weren’t interested in the inevitable artisan market so our driver stopped at a grotty beach. Then he wanted us to admire two moth-eaten camels. It was then we said, we give up, take us back to the ship. We drove past several new beach developments which looked like concentration camps. Basically it was a story of traffic, dust, uranium mines and aluminium factories. We were massively disappointed with Walvis Bay. One passenger told us he simply took the shuttle to the harbour gate, walked around the corner, and spent the morning watching thousands of flamingos. We obviously just did it the wrong way. Our fault entirely.

 

Tomorrow we step back in time in Luderitz, our last stop before Cape Town.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Fletcher

[duct tape]

[emoji53]

[dusababy]

Fletcher it's good you've determined Silversea is not for you.

[spinnaker2]

We were lucky enough to have Marlon as a butler.

Soft spoken and delightful gentleman.

 

You write well Fletcher, and while it does not appear you have much enjoyed your cruise and or the ports, I appreciate that you did take the time to write the posts. I felt as if I was reading Dickens or Kafka...

 

I am not sure that silversea would hire you as a promotional travel writer, a la avid cruiser, you might be the rabid cruiser...

 

Looking forward to the next installment.

[nfcu]

I understand that you are just using the ship as a "taxi" as you say, but I do not understand why you are on this cruise? You do not like any of the ports or countries visited because they are either too third world or too cleaned up. But being the seasoned traveller you are, you knew that before you booked the trip.

 

If you knew you would not enjoy the ship, fellow passengers, or the itinerary, why did you spend all of that money and go? I just do not get it. I do enjoy your writing though.

[WesW]

Fletcher, thanks for sharing your West Africa Cloud voyage experience.

 

Candy/Spinnaker2; we absolutely concur Marlon is indeed soft spoken and a true gentleman. Moreover, you can be sure his wife Rowena (also on the Cloud as a Butler) has assisted/mentored Marlon in his Butler duties. We adored this Silversea crew member couple on our Cloud cruise (London to Reykjavik and back) a two years ago, so much so we profiled them on the Cloud voyage cruise critic thread (pls see post #261 below):

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1879827&page=14

[drron29]

Agree with you 100% Wes.We enjoyed the duo on our Explorer cruises last year.Rowena was wonderful.

 

Fletcher I agree you are not Silverseas pax.Mingling with the other guests is one reason we enjoy SS.The only time we have complained is when a MD on the Explorer decided we liked to eat by ourselves.

 

Also you would have been better taking the Explorer but unfortunately it does this trip in reverse in March.The port experiences you have had certainly are very poor compared to our experiences on the Explorer.The Dinner in the Desert whilst at Walvis Bay was a highlight and like all Explorer tours was included in the cruise price.We also saw lots of flamingos and pelicans.

If you wish to read it here is my report though it does include our South African pre cruise stay.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1814491&highlight=explorer+in+africa

[rojaan19]

And you had on board the best HD in Surjith Mohan -IMO.

 

I have enjoyed reading your trip report !