Silversea Explorer Nome to Seward August 13-25, 2018-live

[jpalbny]

Beautiful scenery, and the otters are adorable. Love seeing them on the scenic cruises. We have many otter pictures from our Alaska trips, and those shots are some of my favorites. They swim right up to the ships and float there on their backs, looking at you curiously. They are so cute!

 

Sorry to hear about the suitcases' appearance, and the "last supper" but it looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for taking us along to a part of Alaska that we haven't seen. Safe travels home.

 

Looking forward to cruising with you around Iceland next year, and then South Georgia.

[TLCOhio]

Beautiful scenery, and the otters are adorable. Love seeing them on the scenic cruises. We have many otter pictures from our Alaska trips, and those shots are some of my favorites. They swim right up to the ships and float there on their backs, looking at you curiously. They are so cute! Thanks for taking us along to a part of Alaska that we haven't seen.

 

YES, second the comments above by JP and others for how much we have enjoyed your postings and nice visuals. Getting ready and excited for next July in doing the Silver Muse from Vancouver to Seward. Hope to see many nice scenic views and a range of interesting wildlife.

 

THANKS for sharing! 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 230,269 views.

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

[RachelG]

Thx for sharing so much of your voyage with us Rachel! Safe travels home to you and your cowboy.

 

Just a little over 16-months until Ushuaia!

 

 

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Looking forward to it!

[RachelG]

Beautiful scenery, and the otters are adorable. Love seeing them on the scenic cruises. We have many otter pictures from our Alaska trips, and those shots are some of my favorites. They swim right up to the ships and float there on their backs, looking at you curiously. They are so cute!

 

Sorry to hear about the suitcases' appearance, and the "last supper" but it looks like you had a great trip. Thanks for taking us along to a part of Alaska that we haven't seen. Safe travels home.

 

Looking forward to cruising with you around Iceland next year, and then South Georgia.

 

Can’t wait! See you in Reykjavik! Before that, we have Buenos Aires to Santiago on Regent Explorer in February and Dublin to London on Cloud in May. Lots to look forward to.

[RachelG]

YES, second the comments above by JP and others for how much we have enjoyed your postings and nice visuals. Getting ready and excited for next July in doing the Silver Muse from Vancouver to Seward. Hope to see many nice scenic views and a range of interesting wildlife.

 

THANKS for sharing! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Highly recommend you do the Otter, raptor and bear excursion in Sitka. It is one of my favorite excursions ever, so much that I have done it twice. Also recommend the Tracy Arm excursion if it is offered. It is spectacular.

[drron29]

Thanks for the memories.A very good report and loved the pictures.

[RachelG]

Thanks for the memories.A very good report and loved the pictures.

Thanks Ron.

[RachelG]

August 25, 2018–disembarkation in Seward Alaska

 

We were in port all night, so very quiet. Our alarm woke us at 7 am. Quick breakfast with the dining room already almost empty and off he ship by 8:30.

 

I had reviewed the options to get to Anchorage airport, and the least expensive was actually the transfer offered by the ship at $89 pp, but that would either stick us at the airport all day as it left at 8:30 am or give us very limited options for other activities if we took the one to the downtown hospitality lounge. The train didn’t leave till 6 pm which would not leave enough time to catch our flight. It was priced at $109 pp, not a bad price. So car rental from Hertz was $325 but u limited mileage and we could stop along the way.

 

There is a hertz counter inside the cruise port, with instructions to pick up the phone. The lady answered immediately, and a shuttle was sent for us which arrived in just a few minutes. At the counter, the lady reminded me not to drive the car to Mexico.

 

We took off for the very pleasant 3 hour drive to Anchorage. On the way, we stopped and hiked to Byron Glacier, took the tunnel to Whittier and back (a huge Princess behemoth was boarding there and the town was over run, so we didn’t stick around), stopped for lunch at Jack Sprat in Girdwood, and visited one of my favorite places on the planet, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

 

We have been to AWCC many times as I require it anytime we visit Anchorage. It is a place where they rescue and rehabilitate orphaned or disabled animals. If the animal is not able to be released back into the wild, it gets to stay there or they find it a spot in a zoo. When we first visited maybe 20 years ago, it was very small, but it has grown substantially since then. Every visit is different, but they always have some bears, some moose, at least one porcupine, and a bunch of elk and deer. Now they also have buffalo and one lynx.

 

After my animal fix, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare to board our flights back home. I will post a recap and final comments when I get caught up in a day or two.

[RachelG]

Glacier hike

 

 

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[RachelG]

My bear fix

 

 

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[RachelG]

More animals

 

 

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[Stumblefoot]

My bear fix

 

Great pics. But, WOAH! Living in bear country like we do, i wouldn’t trust that little fence at all.

 

 

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[RachelG]

Great pics. But, WOAH! Living in bear country like we do, i wouldn’t trust that little fence at all.

 

 

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I too think the fence is pretty flimsy. They warn you not to stick your hands through it, and it is the same fence that has been there since I first visited as far as I can tell.

[Stumblefoot]

I too think the fence is pretty flimsy. They warn you not to stick your hands through it, and it is the same fence that has been there since I first visited as far as I can tell.

Wow! Well, I guess folks have headed that warning thru the years.

 

 

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[tgh]

Thanks very much for a most interesting tr

[RachelG]

Final thoughts

 

The ship is in great condition overall. My only complaint in that regard would be the continued poor drainage of the showers, but that is a design defect.

 

The butler and housekeeping staff, waiters and bartenders were all at top notch condition. We have cruised with many of them before, and they remembered our preferences. I have no complaints as far as service. Even the people at the main desk were really top notch, and I have had issues with them before. Expedition staff were outstanding and enthusiastic. And we had our favorite captain.

 

The itinerary was good. We did not miss any ports, and had extra time in some. Saw more wildlife here than in Svalbard for sure.

 

Food was mediocre. We had some outstanding dishes, and they had great bacon at breakfast. But there were lots of failures. The tougher than a boot beef ribs being a prime example. Also soggy shrimp, over cooked pasta, scant veggies at dinner. At lunch, I had salad and some sort of protein which was fine, but basically the same every day. I tried the pizza once—not good. The food could use some work, though maybe I should be happy because I did not gain weight.

 

Wine was good to great, better than regent choices.

 

Most cruisers were 45-75 age range, with a few younger and a few older. There were 2 kids total, both very nice and well behaved. One was a cute 6 year old boy from China. The other a 12 year old girl from Mexico who is as well traveled as me, speaks perfect English and was a joy. We had dinner with her and her family twice.

[RachelG]

One additional observation—this is not a cruise for a person with any mobility issue. There were a couple of people on this cruise who should not have been there, both morbidly obese and one quite immobile. You have to be able to get on and off the ship via zodiac. You have to be able to go up and down stairs, If you can’t walk without assistance, that is a problem. It creates a huge safety issue, not just for you but also the crew that is trying to assist you. I saw some very near disasters with these two people, very scary.

[Stumblefoot]

Thanks for sharing your final thoughts T

Rachel. For someone who has never sailed on an expedition voyage, you truly brought what it is like to life. Thank you!

 

 

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[labrasett]

Great series of posts and a lovely round up. We too have found the food somewhat varied but never starved - it just isnt possible as there is always something which is acceptable at any time and sometimes the food is wonderful. We have also cruised with someone who was utterly huge and the expedition and ships staff were fantastic at getting him on and off the zodiacs at all but one stop on the relevant cruise and the effort they put into ensuring he enjoyed himself was immense, the crew showed great forbearance and considerable skill. The only place he could get off was onto a rocky sided island in a pretty brisk swell which was fairly hazardous for eve the most agile although safely negotiated by all who wanted to go to the island. Thank you Rachel for your wonderful pictures and descriptions of your trip. Cant wait for ours next March (Cape to Cape).

[labrasett]

What I should have said was that the only place the large gentleman couldnt/didnt get off was on to a rocky island.