Live from the Silver Cloud - Reykjavik to Ft Lauderdale September 8 - October 1

[spinnaker2]

22 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

😄  I know exactly what you mean.  We are on the Cloud in Feb/March 24.  What was I thinking!

Details pls 

[JimBob Willy]

20 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

We have but a few days left.  

I can't wait to get home, quite the opposite from what I usually experience.

 

And if we could hitch a ride south on one of those huge vessels it might be because we are being called to battle. DrSpins tells me his Air Force rank of Major might not hold much status with the Navy, especially since it's 40 plus years ago.

 

And lastly, not sure the crew aboard one of those ships is as wonderful as those who are aboard the Cloud. 

 

 

 

I am pretty sure his last rank was Lt. Colonel...silver oak leaf.

[9stilton]

2 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

😄  I know exactly what you mean.  We are on the Cloud in Feb/March 24.  What was I thinking!

We get on the Cloud on Sunday coming!

I don't know what to think -- although thankfully we are not in a Silver Suite!

Like so many others we feel for Spins and the others onboard who have been so poorly treated by Silversea

[spinnaker2]

17 minutes ago, 9stilton said:

We get on the Cloud on Sunday coming!

I don't know what to think -- although thankfully we are not in a Silver Suite!

Like so many others we feel for Spins and the others onboard who have been so poorly treated by Silversea

We get off on Sunday as you head to Lima. Make sure to say hello to Melody, Vasily, Blessing, Nobleman, Vipin, Oscar, Justice, Mehdi, Abigail, Eduardo, Neil, Joseph, to name a but a few of the stellar crew. 

 

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

8 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

Details pls 

We are on the Cloud, returning to Antarctica followed by Cape to Cape (31  days) in a Silver Suite, deck 6.   I do love the Silver Suites on the Cloud. I have enjoyed both Cloud and Wind in the past. Had a disaster on Wind last year.  And as JP mentioned in another thread, they are both a bit long in the tooth. I suspect past their expiration date.

 

Our trip is a great itinary with lots of time in South Georgia and Falklands, St. Helena etc. I know some of the expedition team.  Will the Cloud give us one more decent trip without incident?  I hope so.  Have trips booked on Seabourn Venture and Pursuit.  Will also give SS Endeavor a try if they bring those prices out of the stratosphere. Cloud and Wind no more.

 

Thanks again for you report. 

 

P.S. Those fans, the helicopter noise, yikes. We just started unplugging them and insisting they get some there with a wet vac.

[Giggleypuff]

40 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

We are on the Cloud, returning to Antarctica followed by Cape to Cape (31  days) in a Silver Suite, deck 6.   I do love the Silver Suites on the Cloud. I have enjoyed both Cloud and Wind in the past. Had a disaster on Wind last year.  And as JP mentioned in another thread, they are both a bit long in the tooth. I suspect past their expiration date.

 

Our trip is a great itinary with lots of time in South Georgia and Falklands, St. Helena etc. I know some of the expedition team.  Will the Cloud give us one more decent trip without incident?  I hope so.  Have trips booked on Seabourn Venture and Pursuit.  Will also give SS Endeavor a try if they bring those prices out of the stratosphere. Cloud and Wind no more.

 

Thanks again for you report. 

 

P.S. Those fans, the helicopter noise, yikes. We just started unplugging them and insisting they get some there with a wet vac.

Oh gosh. I’m on the Cloud in 2025. Now I’m getting really scared. 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Giggleypuff

[Bronxchihuahua]

I love the Cloud.  If you’re having problems, forget about Reception.  They tend to be rather useless.  Instead, go talk to the Hotel Director, Michelle Roberts.  She is one of my very favorite Silversea people and a very good problem solver.  

[spinnaker2]

11 hours ago, Bronxchihuahua said:

I love the Cloud.  If you’re having problems, forget about Reception.  They tend to be rather useless.  Instead, go talk to the Hotel Director, Michelle Roberts.  She is one of my very favorite Silversea people and a very good problem solver.  

Bronxhua

The issues which  I reluctantly raised  and articulated in detail on this forum have been made known to Silversea. 

 

I am happy you love the Cloud. While I do not know you, I find it hard to believe you would be so enamored were you in our shoes.

 

At this time the "problem" to which you euphemistically refer, has not been solved. 

 

[Bronxchihuahua]

Did you speak directly to Michelle about this situation, which, by the way, sounds like a mess.  It should be addressed and resolved from the get-go, not after you’ve been living with it for days.

 

 

[spinnaker2]

Today is a sea day. The air is remarkably humid. We are getting closer to Florida!

another seafood invictus lunch in the MDR. Lots of other activities. 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

1 hour ago, Bronxchihuahua said:

Did you speak directly to Michelle about this situation, which, by the way, sounds like a mess.  It should be addressed and resolved from the get-go, not after you’ve been living with it for days.

 

 

Having been in @spinnaker2shoes, I can assure you that some problems on the older ships cannot be resolved, much less in a timely manner.  The top of the Silversea corporate food chain is aware of them. Engineer and staff have band aids.

[spinnaker2]

Bronx

It sounds as if you are somehow admonishing me for not bringing the issues to the fore earlier so they could or should have been “ resolved”.  

That just isn't the case.

I wont engage with you on this topic any longer although I suspect that you will want the last word. So be it. 

 

[spinnaker2]

And to everyone else, thanks for your support and words of wisdom or memes. 

Let’s just move on to anther topic. 

 

 

[spinnaker2]

And the sea...

 

 

[mysty]

 

1 minute ago, spinnaker2 said:

And the sea...

 

 

Oh to be by the sea,  by the seaside,  by the beautiful sea! 😁

[spinnaker2]

On 9/27/2023 at 1:12 PM, 9stilton said:

We get on the Cloud on Sunday coming!

I don't know what to think -- although thankfully we are not in a Silver Suite!

Like so many others we feel for Spins and the others onboard who have been so poorly treated by Silversea

I am sure you will have a lovely time. The crew are amazing and over the top. For us the issues are confined to our suite. 

The corridor outside our suite reminds me of a college dorm, so many happy pax and voices. This is a small vessel, sound carries and we understand that. 

Food in the MDR is good, la T is good, the Grill is good. 

Dress is extremely casual. I mean extremely. As in men wearing a tshirt for dinner, jeans and sandals with or without socks. Hats at lunch. Flannel shirts. 

I did see a few jackets on informal night in MDR, a step up from casual.

 

[Bronxchihuahua]

Sorry I wasn’t clear.  I meant that the issues should have been urgently addressed and resolved by Silversea from the get-go.  Not you.  

[Stumblefoot]

4 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

Dress is extremely casual. I mean extremely. As in men wearing a tshirt for dinner, jeans and sandals with or without socks. Hats at lunch. Flannel shirts.

Wow!  I realize the Cloud is an Expedition ship and thus has a completely different dress code than the Classic fleet, but what you describe sounds like an utter deterioration in standards since the last time I was on the Cloud 3-years ago.  I know some here in this forum have expressed their opinion that SS should relax their dress code standards and let people dress however they see fit because what people wear has no bearing on their enjoyment of meal, but I must say what you describe will drive us away if we experience what you have.

 

We sail SS for a variety of reasons, one of which is our enjoyment of the decorum of fellow passengers.  As an American, I wear hats regularly each week, but never at a table (or on my way to one for that matter).  And, I certainly have zero interest in dining at an indoor venue on SS where men's toes are allowed to freely reign in open-toed sandals or flip-flops.  That's just plain nasty.

 

[spinnaker2]

Stumbles

It's dress as you see fit. Or whatever you want.

At least on the two cruises we have been on.

This past leg really has not been expedition but pretend expedition.

Take a look at the itinerary.

I haven't seen a parka in awhile.

 

If there are some rules or guidelines none or NOTHING is followed.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by spinnaker2

[Fletcher]

Sorry to read about the plumbing issues . . . no hint of anything like that on our month on the Cloud last April/May.  However, I did think the ship was well past its prime and the lack of a proper forward-facing outer deck is shocking for a so-called expedition ship.  We're on the Wind for a month next April and expect a slightly better ship but not by much.  If Silversea dispense with both vessels they surely can't exist with just the one expedition ship.  So they must have a plan.  At present they seem way behind Seabourn in this sector of the cruise market.

[spinnaker2]

We are in Charleston. Saw some dolphins earlier. Lots of sea birds and pelicans.

Cloudy.

Of course it's the Cloud. 

Gulls jockeying for best position to grab some fish from the wake of the tug and then hitching a ride to the next destination.

Water taxi!!!

[spinnaker2]

and bit of walk about today at the pool deck.

looking forward and looking aft.

port side.

 

[spinnaker2]

And there is a very strong sewage smell  in one area. 

Right about here. This is deck 8 of course.

 

 

[spinnaker2]

The sun is out now and its quite warm at the pool deck.

 

These stairs are on the port side and lead to the upper deck.

Hot tub on port side facing fore, note how much deck space is taken up by items in storage.

 

[TLCOhio]

If, Spins, there is any "Good News" from your challenged, rainy New York City experiences, it is that now things are getting much, much worse in Manhattan.  Below is the most recent map from AccuWeather.  They are getting really hit hard with huge amounts of rain, subway lines flooding, etc.  

 

As to the Silver Cloud, our first sailing on that classic ship was July 2010.  Great trip, but we ran into certain "mechanical" issues in our room on day one with loud, clanging noises.  Fortunately we got upgraded from a Vista room and moved to a nicer, better balcony suite.  Wonderful!    But, the point made at that time thirteen years ago by a retired Navy Captain on this sailing was these ships on the open oceans age in ways that us on land do not always appreciate.  All of those pressure with sea air and rough oceans, passengers and loads on and off, etc., stress the systems.  We have done four different sailings on the Cloud and things all worked fine for us.  The last time was South Africa in 2016.  But, the pipes, wires, systems, etc., are all aging.  New paint and fresh carpeting do not address or hide those infrastructure challenges.  

 

Did check with a source with Silversea this afternoon as to if the Silver Cloud and Wind have been sold.  No knowledge or confirmation of that move.  Currently both ships are listed and open for bookings into September 2025.  There could be confusion as the Explorer has been sold.  This SS individual I talked with today will be boarding the Cloud on Sunday.  I have told him to check more about these serious issues that affected Spins and her DH.   

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 249,011 views.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/1172051-livesilver-cloud-norway-coastfjords-july-1-16-reports/