machotspur

Some sad news has reached us on Silver Endeavour last night . Avian Bird Flu has reached South Georgia - one of the most remote and environmentally protected locations on the planet. It has been found on around 40% of landing sites on the north side of the island. Our planned landings for our final day have therefore been pulled. We have just received some bad news regarding our substitute landing - Peggoty Bay - Shackleton’s landing site on the south side. The crew advanced landing has identified presence of Avian Bird Flu, with dead birds evident. The landing has therefore been cancelled. The plan is for us now to view the sites from zodiacs. I’m no expert but it’s not looking good in South Georgia, both for the bird population and cruise visits. Those familiar with the island will be aware of the huge populations of various species existing here. Not wishing to be alarmist but I suspect a full lockdown will not be far away.

OK - here's a rather unusual question for you Antarctica veterans out there. We head off for our Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctica in 48 hours, beginning with a couple of days in Santiago, Chile. I believe that Santiago time zone is GMT -3 hours. Falklands is GMT -3 hours & South Georgia GMT -2 hours. HOWEVER - I understand that Antarctica is GMT +12 hours, although the various research stations there apparently have there own time zone, presumably aligned to their home country. So how do the cruise ships, specifically Silversea, handle this ? I'm thinking that we will keep with Chile time (GMT -3 hours) all the way round ?

Ryan - Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" is the classic account of Shackleton's adventure but may I recommend a couple of other excellent books - both of which I have experienced (twice) on audio. Ranulph Fiennes (the preeminent living British explorer) released a biography of Shackleton in 2021 and it is truly outstanding !! Hearing the perspective from someone who has first hand experience of the challenges of Antarctic exploration really brings the book to life. By way of variation Michael Smith also released in the same year a book named "An Unsung Hero". The subject was a chap name Tom Crean, who was on Shackleton's Endurance expedition and also one of the crew of 8 of the James Caird that managed to 'sail' from Elephant Island to South Georgia. He was also on previous expeditions with Shackleton and Scott. He is - IMHO - a truly awesome man who deserves far more exposure than he has been given. Enjoy - whatever you decide.

Hi RyanJCanada There are some truly awesome accounts that have been posted already, from experienced Antarctic cruisers in response to your enquiry, so I will not attempt to augment them. Mrs machotspur and I embark Silver Endeavour this time next week, commencing the Falklands/South Georgia/Antarctic Peninsula itinerary you are looking at. In truth when considering 'when to go' we went round in circles. Like you Falklands & South Georgia were more important to us than several landings on the Antarctic Peninsula (although like you we must have at least one Antarctic landing). I am a 'Shackleton fanatic' so would be devastated if we didn't get to at least see Elephant Island and to raise a glass at his graveside in South Georgia. In the end - and I know it sounds shallow - but the thing that swung it for us was that a quite new ship - Silver Endeavour - was to be our home for 18 days, rather than more dated ships. We felt that with the whole ecosystem being far less predictable than a couple of decades ago, we should just make a decision and go for it. I will let you know how we are feeling in 4 weeks time 😉

Thank you for sharing your experience mchell810 - and of course lincslady. I am thinking that the actual location is not finalised until the number of guests attending is confirmed. Your info that there was around 100 from the Spirit - not that different in size from Muse class - is at the number that would probably be accommodated at the Library. Maybe 200 or so the group gets shifted to Harbour Road (doesn't sound too exotic does it !). We will check the situation out on embarkation. Kusadasi is on Day 6. If it is confirmed that the performance is at Celsus Library we will stick with the booking, otherwise cancel. In the meantime we are heading for Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica next week on Silver Endeavour. Couldn't be more different from Kusadasi - unless of course Silversea have arranged for the clever penguins to do a classical performance for us on Elephant Island😉😂

The plot thickens ! Having examined two separate areas of the Silversea excursion booking system within My Silversea both locations are stated - Celsus Library & Harbour Street !! I await a response from Silversea but to be honest rarely do I have confidence in their responses to queries such as this.

I’ve just had a look on the ‘other place’ and all posts from Silversea guests indicate that the evening concerts they attended always took place in front of the Celsus Library. (This was the case on ships similar in size to Silver Muse).

Thank you everyone for the useful insight. lincslady makes a very good point - one that i'm now wishing for Silversea to clarify. The situation I have is as follows :- - We are on Silver Muse and the Ephesus evening concert is now a 'pay extra' event - at $299 per person. - The details contained within the Silversea booking system state clearly that the event will take place at the Library of Celsus - the famous iconic spot within Ephesus. - HOWEVER - the photographs included on the Silversea system all show a larger location running down to the Theatre - Harbour Street I believe, shown below. (I think this may be the location that is showing in the report by HaveDogWillTravel ?). As this will be a 'pay extra' event I suspect that the number of guests taking it up will be <100% - maybe 200-300 ? Plus there is no catering provided other than drinks. In this case the Library is likely to be the location, as opposed to the larger Harbour Street/Theatre. Any further comments would be welcome please.

I've very much been enjoying Fletcher's reports of his Sprit Aegean cruise (thank you 👋) and note that the latest post was from Kusadasi for Ephesus. To avoid disrupting such an excellent thread I've begun a separate post on something related to this port of call. Only today my wife and I have been selecting the Shore Ex's for a similar forthcoming cruise on Muse and are considering booking the evening show at Ephesus. Also - we visited Ephesus probably 15 years ago or so - has much changed since then ? We'd welcome any insight on this that previous SS cruisers may have (lincslady .. I note you have been to the evening show several times 😉). Thanks very much in anticipation. In the meantime Fletcher - you are an awesome poster - please keep it coming 👍.

Visas are not required for Antarctica, Falklands & South Georgia - the cruise company have to organise permits for the cruise ship I believe. For Chile - Santiago & Puerto Williams - UK & USA passport holders do not need a visa but I understand that Australian passport holders do need a visa. Most of the posters I have seen commenting on the cruise that departs in a couple of weeks are UK & US - hopefully a fellow Aussie will be along soon with guidance for you.

If my memory is correct I believe that the launderettes are closed down late evening.

Thank you alithecat, Tex1, labrasett - that's really interesting insight. Having been forced to cancel this trip several times in the past few years we are very much 'on tenterhooks' with regard to this trip actually taking place unhindered. 😟. Fingers crossed ! Mmmm .. 'on tenterhooks' - is this a phrase that is only of meaning in certain nations ? 🤔

Mrs machotspur and I have stayed in 1010 & 1009 on Moon & Dawn. Whilst these are one suite back from the suites you refer to - and of course don't directly adjoin the laundrette - we haven't noticed any disturbance at all. There are laundrettes on every deck so I don't suppose that the one on Deck 10 specifically is particularly heavily used. As an aside Deck 10 on Dawn/Moon/Muse is our favourite location on any ship. A 'short' set of suites, with the only 'traffic' being those going to the bridge (I met the Captain a number of times in passing).

Mrs machotspur and I are embarking Silver Endeavour at the end of this month for a round trip cruise from Puerto Williams, visiting the Falklands, South Georgia & Antarctica. We've just received details of the charter flight down to Puerto Williams. I'm assuming there are 2 flights that depart Santiago as the planes only hold around 100 passengers but Silver Endeavour accommodates around 200. Our departure from Santiago is at 13:00 - 14:00 with an arrival at Puerto Williams of 17:00 - 18:00. Does anyone who has experience of the charter have any idea as to the typical timing of what I am assuming is two flights each sailing ? i.e. has a flight left significantly earlier than us - and will they therefore be nicely settled in well before we arrive, or do both flights depart within the 13:00 - 14:00 window ? I have to admit that i'm a bit grumpy at the prospect of going through the embarkation/checking in of 100 people/waiting for luggage to be delivered at 19:00 ish - but I guess I will get over it once I had my first glass or three of champagne.

A point to note for some - particularly UK based cruisers ... Many of the library services provide Pressreader access for free - we use the App on a daily basis, both on land and on various cruise ships. Downloading to the App is reasonably quick, even on a slowish cruise wi-fi. Just load the App, go to the Sign-In page and select the Libraries & Groups icon - a long list of libraries around the world shows up. Sign in with your local library account details (you have to be a library member of course 😉).

I agree with your comments. The American thing of wishing to tip on a 'gratuity inclusive' cruise is alien to me - and many others onboard I suspect. However - I believe that it it is clear that guides on excursions are not included in 'this deal' and to this end we always tip the tour guide - unless the experience has not been good.

Similar to my experience on Silver Dawn maiden voyage. We were on the quite short Deck 10, which leads to the bridge. One morning I was struggling to get the cabin door to close properly from the outside. I was approached from behind by the Captain who joined me in my efforts to close the door, but he had no more luck than I. He immediately got on his phone to summon help and waited until the maintenance guy arrived to explain to him the problem and got it fixed. A Captain showing that the guests matter ! Compare that to my experience on Explora last week. I interacted with the two most senior officers (excluding the Captain). One of them clearly demonstrated that the guests were an inconvenience and got in the way of his daily routine. The second was onboard with his wife and young child. Together they showed near contempt for the guests (and other crew) whilst sitting in the Cafe Crema lounge. The truly appalling behaviour was witnessed by several guests, who reported this on 'the other place' So - based on my experiences last week EJ would do best to keep the senior officers in the back office away from the guests because they appear to do more harm than good !

No - whilst there was an abundance onboard from the industry there were many 'paying' guests taking a 3 day 'taster cruise' from Hamburg to Southampton - myself and wife included. We are so glad we did this 3 day cruise as we found out very quickly that this ship & company is most certainly not for us and we will not be booking any further journeys (!!). In any case we did have a longer cruise booked with them in 2025 but EJ have taken care of this by trashing much of their forthcoming itineraries !

Yes - we too were quite happy with the inclusive selection and found the sommelier in a given restaurant quite willing to go and find an alternative (suggested by us !) if we didn't care for the wine being offered to us.

Mrs machotspur and I disembarked on Thursday. More than one poster has posted on social media their real concerns as to the restaurant set up on Explora being flawed. In short the number of seats in the 'table service' restaurants equate to around 65% of the number of guests onboard, on a full ship. This means that they expect a third of the guests to eat in the buffet self serve restaurant (Emporium Marketplace) or take room service (or to have a high level of table turning). This, to any seasoned cruiser on luxury ships, is complete nonsense. We were only onboard for a 3 night 'quickie trial cruise' and chose to dine in Sakura, Marble & Co and Fil Rouge. The first of these was chaos, with incredibly slow service, delivered by very stressed out crew. (I was told by the Maitre d' that a system glitch on the reservation system had partially contributed to this). The second night in Marble & Co was fine, in fact the two servers and the sommelier were excellent. The third night in Fil Rouge was truly unpleasant. A packed restaurant with the servers all over the place, with little indication who was looking after which tables etc. We didn't hang around for the full meal as the whole experience was not good. The shame is that we enjoyed all of the food we were served and would rate it at least as good as - or better - than our extensive experiences with Silversea/Seabourn/Regent. The willingness and at times professionalism of the servers was at times equal to, or better than the other three. Whilst some may put this down to new ship 'teething problems' I do not subscribe to this. In my opinion - based on observations and discussions with crew and officers - I do not believe that Explora/MSC have the customer service ethos that is a prerequisite to delivering a 'ultra luxury' cruise experience (and this is coming from someone who is often critical as to the performance of the other three I mention).

The host of the 'other place' posted a couple of weeks ago that the first tranche would be released on 11th September, with the rest a couple of weeks later.

We disembarked this morning and can confirm that the list includes all of the wines we tried over the past few days.

No - the General Manager currently onboard is a Maarten Smeets.

We were also returning from a tour at the same time. We were shocked that this was the only option for lunch, particularly as Seabourn/Regent/Silversea often keep the buffet option open later in situations such as this and the pool grill facility always open until around 4pm. I caught the attention of the General Manager who quite frankly was dismissive of the issue and showed no concern regarding their failings, merely saying that they will be looking into it !