Report on Silver Cloud - July 5-20, 2011 (UK circumnavigation and Iceland)

[NJBelle]

Hi all,

 

Well, we are back not quite a week, and since I have finally gotten settled back in to "regular life", I figure it is time to give my review before I forget all the details. So, details will follow, but overall we had a wonderful time. Weather was really pretty good (unbelievably good a couple of days), food was great, ship as we remembered (I mean that in a positive way), staff and service was great, and people we met were very nice. While there were a very few glitches along the way, those memories have faded and only the lovely ones are left behind.

 

Just a bit of background - my husband, daughter (now 16) and I have been on 5 Silversea cruises (3 on the Cloud), but we have also sailed on Regent (8 cruises) and Crystal (7 cruises) - so we have sailed on most of the ships on all 3 lines. When asked which is our favorite, my answer is usually the one that I am on. Since right now we are limited to times when school is out (summer and Christmas holiday) we choose our cruises carefully and we go for itinerary as our main driver.

 

We loved this itinerary - some old friends (Dublin, Cobh) but lots of new ports for us (Aberdeen, Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, 3 ports in Iceland and Falmouth). We loved that we could leave from London - while we have been to London numerous times, we do not tire of it and always have a great time. (By the way, we stayed in the Andaz on Liverpool Street and really liked it - we will stay there again.) And being able to sail through the Tower Bridge as we left (albeit backwards) was just the icing on the cake.

We did take several of the ship's excursions, but I am going to do a separate post on those since that topic might be of interest to someone not necessarily on a Silversea ship.

 

Ship: We are very familiar with the Cloud and mostly like the small ship feeling. The suite was very nice as always (and we don't love the small bathroom, but it was really fine - even for the 3 of us, with one being a teenager). The public rooms are kept in good shape and there was always a feeling of spaciousness to me. It would have been good to be able to use the pool deck a little more, but with the cool, sometimes damp weather, it wasn't really a magnet, and in fact, on a couple of days was actually closed. I should mention that I thought the ship rode especially well since sometimes I would look out the window and be surprised at how high the waves were. We were lucky that the North Sea was really pretty mild and overall, I never felt seasick during the 15 days. (I will admit that one evening I thought I might be getting seasick - it was the first of two sea days in a row - so I put on my Bioband and chewed some ginger gum. Then I realized that really what was going on was that all my food receptor sites were just plain full and what I needed to do was skip a meal. So, I slept late the next morning, had only bouillon at 11 and then went to lunch at 1 and I was fine.)

 

Dress Code: We had 4 formal, 6 informal and 5 casual nights. On formal nights, I'd say about half the men wore tuxedos. On casual nights, most people looked quite smart (only saw jeans a couple of times). What I thought was interesting was that on Informal nights, the men wore jackets of course, but the women were a little less dressed up. That is to say, the differential between Informal and Casual was much less for women. There were still those who dressed in cocktail attire (I tended to go with a black dress with different scarves or jewelry) but it was just something I noticed.

 

Smoking: This is a biggie for me, since I really wish Silversea would go totally non-smoking (except for the Humidor) but overall I have to be honest and say it was not a big issue on this cruise. Early in the cruise, out on the pool deck, we did have to move from our table since there was a chain smoker on one side of the pool area (and she was in a legitimate smoking area) and unfortunately, smoke does carry even in the outdoors. But that was a one-time thing, thank goodness. I did notice a smoky odor in the Panorama Lounge once when I entered it from outside, and clearly it was coming from the Humidor which opens right into the Lounge. I support having a dedicated place for smokers to go, but SS needs to step up the ventilation in that room, I think. Our suite was fine, although once my daughter did catch a whiff of smoke (probably from our neighbors) but it was not a problem over the longrun.

 

Staff: Wellseasoned already mentioned that Judie Abbott (CD), Gianni Dotti (HD), Antonio (Rest Mgr) and Guillermo Muro (Chef) were on board with Mino Pontillo as the Captain. All were very good, although I interacted more with Guillermo and Antonio than with the rest. My feeling is that hanging out and dining with the Captain can be fine, but you really might only have one dinner with him whereas you eat every night with the Chef. So, I really pay more attention to that aspect (as you will see below with some of my comments). Judie gave her usual "My Life at Sea" presentation toward the end of the cruise and ended it with a lovely song. As someone said in an earlier post, she still sounds great after all this time.

 

The other staff - dining room, bars, pool deck, butlers and stewardesses were all quite good. There were a few times when the service didn't seem as "Johnny on the Spot" as I might like, but mostly we felt very well taken care of wherever we went. We don't really care if people learn our names (well, we would expect the stewardess and the butler to know us, but other than that, it doesn't really matter) but many did. In fact, we would get a chorus every time we walked into La Terrazza - and if Katherine (our daughter) wasn't with us, we would get quizzed about what she was up to. Jose, the Mgr of La Terrazza, was especially warm to all of us and we always got a nice table within seconds. Our stewardess did a great job (we used both the Bulgari and the Ferragamo products, and both were kept in good supply) and our butler, Prabu, was a sweetie pie. Now I am one of these folks who can take or leave a butler, but this trip we actually came up with some real stuff for him to do.

 

My husband and daughter went on a fishing excursion and their boat and the other boat (8 total SS passengers) caught a "boatload" of fish. Well, Guillermo met the boats at the dock when they returned and used a thermometer to ascertain that they were well chilled. My husband had to sign a certificate that they had been properly gutted and iced on the boat and with all that accomplished, Guillermo took them back to the ship. So, since he signed the certificate, I guess, my husband became in charge of putting together the "Fisheman's Dinner" for all the fisher folks and their spouses. (Now, in our real life, I am always the social organizer for the family, so it was amusing to me to watch him spring into action with his "assignment".) He got the list of all the people on the excursion from the Excursion folks, gave the list to Prabu with some wording for the invitation, talked to Antonio about setting up two tables for us in The Restaurant for the next night (they were told it is better to allow 24 hours between catching and eating....in any event, that worked out better since it allowed all the plans to take place). Then he wrote a note to Guillermo, making some suggestions (like using the fish two different ways since there had been several different fish caught) and then he crossed his fingers that all would go well. We left on a all day excursion and were very happy to come back and see the printed invitation in our day's mail. Turns out every single person came to the dinner (except our daughter since she really doesn't like to eat fish!) and we had a great meal and a great time.

 

The other time I asked Prabu to do something "special" was when I twisted my ankle on an excursion and needed a cane. He rustled one up (clearly a previous passenger had left it on board) and delivered it to me the next morning. Seriously, I can say that saved me a lot of time and energy tracking one down in the Infirmary on my own and I was very grateful.

 

Food: Did I mention that food is very important to us? Well, we were very happy with Guillermo. He is young, dynamic and clearly wants to please the passengers. He mentioned that because he saw that there were a number of British on board this cruise, he decided to include a curry each day on the pool grill buffet. He got fresh fish whenever possible (and given that we were in the Faroe Islands and Iceland that was pretty easy) and included them on the menu. My birthday occurred during the cruise, so Eric touched base with him about serving some of my favorite foods. I was thrilled to have foie gras, soft-shelled crab, lobster and a special low carb cheesecake for my birthday dinner. During the cruise, I didn't eat any of the desserts on offer (except for that cheesecake) but clearly the pastry chef is also fabulous. The desserts for the galley brunch looked unbelievably delicious. I have to say that they were every bit as good-looking and bountiful as what I saw on the Crystal Gala Brunch (and we are talking about a 300 passenger ship vs ~1000 passengers) years ago.

 

Wine: I was delighted to find a chilled bottle of Heidsieck Monopole Champagne when we arrived in our suite. And Prabu kept them coming as we needed them. The complimentary wines were very nice and if we didn't feel like what they were serving, there were others we could have instead. The "for purchase" list is quite nice and very reasonable; we bought a bottle when we ate at Le Champagne - it was delicious and only $40 (had tasted it earlier at the wine tasting they had on the first sea day). For my birthday, we had a vintage Pol Roger champagne and a wonderful Bordeaux that Ramy recommended. The service for these purchased wines was especially nice since the lead sommeliers did the honors for those two dinners.

 

Entertainment: If I really cared a lot about entertainment at night, then I might be somewhat negative here since it wasn't the greatest. There was a magician who was quite good and appeared twice - our whole family enjoyed that. We went to hear a couple of singers, but mostly steered clear of the "pseudo-Broadway" shows they did. We like to go to the Panorama Lounge and listen to the piano player, but I guess we were just spoiled with Mark Farris the last time we were on the Cloud, so it just wasn't the same with Mario. I will say that the little combo that would play in the Bar and for some of the entertainers was pretty decent.

 

For those of you who have been on the Spirit, you know there is the "in the wall" TV and there are videos in the system which you can call up. Now when we sailed last year, the videos available were somewhat limited, so we were hoping that the Cloud would not have been upgraded too much since we were last on her and that there would just be a flat screen with a plain old DVD system. Fortunately for my daughter, that was the case, so she had tons of DVDs to choose from (all in the Library to be checked out). She loves ordering room service while watching movies, so this was heaven to her (Oh, I forgot, she also "trained" Prabu to bring her popcorn every day about 5:30 so that was a highlight as well).

 

As I said above, I am not going to go into the various excursions - will do as a separate post - but I will say that there were a reasonable variety to choose from. We did some ports "on our own" but were pretty happy with the excursions that we took. (I noted that the bus for our first excursion (port of Aberdeen) was really quite full. I know that some have complained that Regent is packing buses fuller than they used to since they have included excursions, but this was as full as I have ever seen a bus on any excursion on Regent, Crystal or SS. (I am not complaining and it was not really an issue, but just wanted those who find fault with Regent to know that others are also filling the buses as well!). The buses for the other excursions that we took seemed to be not quite as full so it may have been something to do with the number of guides or buses available.)

 

Other guests: I heard that there were 264 guests on this cruise - with one small "group". It was a congenial crowd; a fair number of British and Australians. We got the Passenger List after the first couple of days and for the first time, I spotted someone I knew (or thought I did). It was the same name and the same city for a professor that I had in my residency (30 years ago), so I took a chance, wrote a note - and lo and behold, not only was it my former professor, but he and his wife were right across the hall from us! That was an extra highlight for us and we might never have figured it out if it weren't for the List.

 

There were not many kids, but that didn't surprise us. There was an "Italian family" and a "Spanish family" (but it turned out they were from Mexico) and they would eye Katherine and she would eye them but they never really connected (I think they played ping pong once). Jose kept trying to think of a way to fix up Katherine with one of the "Spanish boys" but it was not to be. She actually had fun with us (it may be our last family cruise since next summer we will be looking at colleges, etc) and didn't really care about any other kids. She liked that when she went into the restaurants, the staff would flock around (she likes that "Cheers - where everybody knows your name" atmosphere) and if Eric and I happened to be off the ship on an excursion or whatever, she enjoyed heading up alone to La Terrazza to get her pasta (usually 3 orders before she was done) for lunch and seeing what everyone was up to.

 

As mentioned earlier, we met Poolcat and DaddyO mid-cruise (on the stools at the Bar, where else?) and then met Wellseasoned and his wife later on. It was fun to connect like that and we really enjoyed our time spent with them.

 

So, here we are back in civilization. I really think there could be a market for some kind of "Betty Ford Center/Weight Watchers" combination. One could leave the cruise and then check in for about a week and just detox and lose the weight gained from the cruise. What do you think?

 

Until the next cruise.....NJBelle signing off.

[Atomica]

Sounds like a great cruise!

[Emtbsam]

Thank you for such a thorough review. Well done!

[dusababy]

NJ Belle thanks for such a thorough review of your trip -- you touched all the bases we're all interested in -- and you did it with such an enjoyable read. !!

[jpalbny]

I really think there could be a market for some kind of "Betty Ford Center/Weight Watchers" combination. One could leave the cruise and then check in for about a week and just detox and lose the weight gained from the cruise. What do you think?

 

Until the next cruise.....NJBelle signing off.

 

Sign me up... Already worried about the "withdrawal" from our upcoming cruise on Silver Explorer!

 

Love any cruise that stops in Iceland! Enjoyed your review very much, and looking forward to hearing about your tours.

[bissel]

NJBelle, Thanks for posting your summary of your cruise. We are signed up as our first SS cruise on this itinerary for next year so I was keenly interested in your report. I eagerly await your descriptions of your excursions!

 

I ask hesitantly...............where exactly do you go for embarkation at the Tower?

 

Thanks again for your thoughtful review.

[meow!]

Thank you kindly for this comprehensive report. As we will be on a similar itinerary on Azamara Journey next month, we are also waiting to read your ports report!

[duct tape]

I love the Cloud!

[meow!]

You know what, Iceland must be "in season"! Silversea's voyage 1219A+B, the 9+9 days Iceland voyage next July/August, is "waitlist" only for all categories, the only one to be so classified among the Silversea voyages next Summer. However, the fare has not increased, still at "60% discount" (i.e. starting price). So they must expect lots of cancellations down the road, and they would pile up as long a waiting list as they can to make sure that voyage will be filled. Perhaps there are some large groups of reservations which may not be that "firm"

[Isklaar]

Thank you so much for your review.

Even though I couldn't be paid any amount of money to cruise on these, my home seas, it sounds as if you had a fabulous time.

Oh to be 16 again and be able to eat three servings of pasta with no detrimental effect on the waistline!

[Isklaar]

You know what, Iceland must be "in season"! Silversea's voyage 1219A+B, the 9+9 days Iceland voyage next July/August, is "waitlist" only for all categories, the only one to be so classified among the Silversea voyages next Summer. However, the fare has not increased, still at "60% discount" (i.e. starting price). So they must expect lots of cancellations down the road, and they would pile up as long a waiting list as they can to make sure that voyage will be filled. Perhaps there are some large groups of reservations which may not be that "firm"

 

meow, this may sound strange but this may be due to the two volcanic eruptions in Iceland this last year or so. As you'll know, the eruptions caused much disruption to air services across huge parts of Europe,especially the eruption in April 2010 and because of this were given huge media attention. It created a lot of interest in Iceland.

[meow!]

That is an interesting explanation!

[wripro]

Thanks for the thorough review, NJBelle. Glad you enjoyed your cruise.

[jpalbny]

I ask hesitantly...............where exactly do you go for embarkation at the Tower?

 

 

When we embarked at Tower Bridge last year, the Cloud was tied to the HMS Belfast, on the Southwark side of the river. However, to embark you check in at the Tower Pier which is on the North side of the Thames (just below the Tower of London).

 

From there you take a tender over to the Belfast, climb up some stairs, and cross from there to the Cloud. Kind of circuitous, but neat! The tender keeps running; we went out for a few hours after lunch and came back at dinnertime.

 

You're upriver from the bridge, so it has to open to let you out. We sailed at 4AM and it was really cool - a tug pulls you out, backwards, through the bridge and down the Thames all the way past Greenwich, where the river's wide enough to turn around. After that, can't tell you more because we went back to sleep!

[bissel]

Thanks JP and Chris!

 

You put my mind at ease!

[bissel]

I just looked at your Cape Town-Cape Town pictures and enjoyed it tremendously. It seemed you were at so many places. Did you spend a lot of time on a land tour prior to the cruise?

 

Very inspiring, indeed!

[jpalbny]

I just looked at your Cape Town-Cape Town pictures and enjoyed it tremendously. It seemed you were at so many places. Did you spend a lot of time on a land tour prior to the cruise?

 

Very inspiring, indeed!

 

Thanks! We did 3 days at Lion Sands outside of Kruger NP pre cruise, and spent 3 days in Cape Town after the cruise. It was a whirlwind but we saw a lot of incredible places! We usually work harder on vacation than anywhere else... needed time off afterwards to recuperate!

[daddyo]

NJbelle, I could not agree more with your review. It was a pleasure meeting both you and Wellseasnoned. Hopefully, Poolcat and I will again see both of you on an upcoming SS Cruise!!!!

[NJBelle]

Hello All,

 

Thanks for all the nice comments about my review. I learn so much from all the CCers who post that I figured I needed to share whatever I could with the rest of you.

 

And thanks to JP for answering the question about the Tower sailing. That is exactly the way ours played out (except we left in the afternoon so were able to enjoy the full sailaway). It was very cool to have the Tower Bridge open up for us to sail through.....

 

One of these days I will get to the excursion topic. Until then...

 

NJBelle

[Wellseasoned]

NJBelle and Daddyo, it was a pleasure meeting you both on the cruise. And, NJBelle, happy that I also have a strong connection to your NJ town! My impressions, posted on the "Hello from the Cloud" thread, are very similar to yours from your fine review. Great cruise! We also did a lot of excursions, and would be happy to discuss them if any are interested.

 

Dieter

[crusinbanjo]

Thanks for that great review. Mrs Banjo & I will be on the cloud in Sept. Thanks, you have confirmed that she will be as we remember her!

[NCCruzQueen]

When we embarked at Tower Bridge last year, the Cloud was tied to the HMS Belfast, on the Southwark side of the river.

 

The same when we disembarked the Song of Flower in 1993.

[CruisinPashmina]

Song of Flower, don't get me started!. We had seven absolutely wonderful cruises on the sweet little Song of Flower. We've had to have intensive SS therapy in order to be able to move on!

NJBelle; Thanks for the wonderfully detailed, and charmingly written, review on the Cloud. These long reviews are such fun to read, especially for sentimental old timers. Plus they are extremely helpful for people considering a first time SS cruise. Your itinerary is one we keep putting off, but your review has reminded us to put Iceland back at the top of our list.

[mortgagemaster]

I love the Cloud!

I had been a little apprehensive about booking the Cloud based on it's age and lack of refurbishment, but then I read so many positive comments about the people and the small-ship feel. We took the Whisper 7 years ago and loved it. We're on the Cloud January 7.

[dusababy]

I had been a little apprehensive about booking the Cloud based on it's age and lack of refurbishment, but then I read so many positive comments about the people and the small-ship feel. We took the Whisper 7 years ago and loved it. We're on the Cloud January 7.

 

You won't be disappointed. I was on in September and it's still terrific.:)