Cloud Ft Lauderdale to Lima 11/10-30/10

[Silver Spectre]

Heading off to T3 and our SS Biz Class flight to Miami later this morning. First cruise without a DJ or Tux in 25 years!

[QueSeraSera]

Enjoy!

[les37b]

My last 2 BA flights have been cancelled... First from FLL and eventually leaving 49 hours late and the last just under 2 weeks ago to Venice was cancelled due to none existent strike, luckily managing to change from a LGW to LCY flight which departed 2 hours late eventually. (But left me with an open jaw flight and taxis instead of the parking I'd paid for.)

 

They might (or might not be) the worlds favourite airline, but they are not mine.

 

Good luck with your flights... Hope it's not too late.

 

As soon as I saw this post I was immediately drawn as I was hoping it'll give me a good guide to my Fort Lauderdale to Lima moon cruise next year. Alas on checking, outside start and finish points, we only share 1 same port.... But it is an expedition ship now, so shouldn't be too shocked.

 

Have a great cruise Mr & Mrs Silver.... And hope you won't feel naked without the Tux! lol

 

Look forward to your views on the Cloud and summaries of the voyage.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by les37b

[Tothesunset]

Ooh, lucky people. Bon voyage. 

[Silver Spectre]

3 hours ago, les37b said:

My last 2 BA flights have been cancelled... First from FLL and eventually leaving 49 hours late and the last just under 2 weeks ago to Venice was cancelled due to none existent strike, luckily managing to change from a LGW to LCY flight which departed 2 hours late eventually. (But left me with an open jaw flight and taxis instead of the parking I'd paid for.)

 

They might (or might not be) the worlds favourite airline, but they are not mine.

 

Good luck with your flights... Hope it's not too late.

 

As soon as I saw this post I was immediately drawn as I was hoping it'll give me a good guide to my Fort Lauderdale to Lima moon cruise next year. Alas on checking, outside start and finish points, we only share 1 same port.... But it is an expedition ship now, so shouldn't be too shocked.

 

Have a great cruise Mr & Mrs Silver.... And hope you won't feel naked without the Tux! lol

 

Look forward to your views on the Cloud and summaries of the voyage.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

 

Sorry to hear about your flight issues Les, we are currently on time, and SS is providing a hotel tonight so hopefully enough flex built in.

 

The other alternative to this voyage would have been the Whisper crossing, which seems to have been more weather affected than for some years, glad we chose warmth!

 

Although I am travelling light I haven’t dared ask Mrs Silver just how many dresses and skirts she has packed into the empty space.

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

Ooh, lucky people. Bon voyage. 

Thanks TTS and QueSeraSera

[jpalbny]

Have a great time on board Cloud! We enjoyed our Iceland cruise 2 months ago and we think that she's made the transition to expedition ship very nicely. 

 

We have done a few of your Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru stops while on board Explorer and I hope you have as much fun as we did!

 

Safe travels and hope you have time to post some thoughts as you go!

[WesW]

Fair Winds and Following Seas on your Silver Cloud Central America voyage Mr. and Mrs. Silver.  Look forward to following along--enjoy the Panama Canal crossing.

[spinnaker2]

Safe travels. 

Enjoy your time aboard.

You made a good choice!

[mrlevin]

I will be getting off Cloud in the morning; ship in good shape.  Yes, very casual, even jeans and t-shirts at dinner.  Crew excellent although Expedition Staff is too large and somewhat useless (at least on our voyage with zodiacs in only two stops).  This was my first trip sailing with Moss and I really enjoyed getting to know him.  Petros is wonderful as Hotel Director.

 

Marc

[Silver Spectre]

Left Heathrow about 30 minutes late and arrived in Miami 40 minutes late, mostly due to a change of routing to avoid serious headwinds. We came across south of Iceland and then just south of Greenland, over Newfoundland and down the US East Coast.

 

We had had excellent service onboard provided by two delightful young ladies.

 

Arrived to a combination of some sun with heavy squalls, came up the I95 in heavy commuter traffic and we are now ensconced on the 10th floor of the Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach.

[jpalbny]

Welcome to "our" side of the Pond, Silver! Looks like a nice place to be.

[Silver Spectre]

Thanks to JP, Wes and Spins for your kind thoughts. The Conrad seems nice and we got a nice sunset to welcome us.

 

[Silver Spectre]

8 hours ago, mrlevin said:

I will be getting off Cloud in the morning; ship in good shape.  Yes, very casual, even jeans and t-shirts at dinner.  Crew excellent although Expedition Staff is too large and somewhat useless (at least on our voyage with zodiacs in only two stops).  This was my first trip sailing with Moss and I really enjoyed getting to know him.  Petros is wonderful as Hotel Director.

 

Marc

Thanks for your info Marc, we are looking forward to meeting Moss as it will also be our first time with him.

[Stumblefoot]

Have a great time Mr. & Mrs. Silver!  Look forward to following your posts.

 

I’d still like to convince JP that he and I need to bring our tuxedos to South Georgia and Antarctica, so let me know what you think of that idea when your expedition voyage is complete. 😁

[Silver Spectre]

3 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Have a great time Mr. & Mrs. Silver!  Look forward to following your posts.

 

I’d still like to convince JP that he and I need to bring our tuxedos to South Georgia and Antarctica, so let me know what you think of that idea when your expedition voyage is complete. 😁

Will do Stumblefoot. 

[Silver Spectre]

The transfer from the hotel to the ship went smoothly and on arrival at the Celebrity cruise terminal we found that boarding was set for 1:30, although I believe people were allowed on at 1pm.

 

The port is relatively deserted today as we seem to be the only cruise ship in.

 

The ship is looking very smart.

 

I had a look in the MDR and found Mark Conroy entertaining some local TA’s, also bumped into Gilbert who is the Restaurant Mgr, and will be going home soon for a break before joining the Whisper WC on Jan 5th.

 

The weather has deteriorated and it has been thrashing it down for the last 1 1/2 hours.

[Silver Spectre]

Has anyone seen this on the Expedition ships before, and refused to sign it. And does anyone have an opinion on the legality of the final sentence? I raise these questions in the context of the full T’s and C’s that apply when booking an SS cruise and which this document does not form a part.

 

[Silver Spectre]

Lovely weather

[jpalbny]

Thanks for the picture! Looks like the second part of our circumnavigation of Iceland! Hope your weather improves quickly.

[Daveywavey70]

Have a great time Silver, I'll keep an eye on Brexit for you. 

 

[spinnaker2]

I didn't sign it.

We just arrived in ft Lauderdale on way home.

Rainy.

 

Hope the weather improves quickly.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by spinnaker2

[QueSeraSera]

22 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

I didn't sign it.

I totally don't understand it, so I wouldn't sign either!

Also offering best wishes Mr. and Mrs. Silver for a great cruise.  FLL to Lima sounds so interesting!  Peru just a place on the map to me, soon it (and other places) will be memories for you. 

I'm hoping you'll see better weather than what Florida gave you in the picture above.

OT:  Wife and I did sign up for the Dublin to Amsterdam cruise, sort of embarrassed that I thought it warranted a separate thread so I'm sneaking this in here...  

 

 

 

[Silver Spectre]

We finally left at 20:10, about 3 hours late, loads of provisions coming onboard as this was the first major provision stop for two months, and also the last one until the ship gets to the southern  tip of SA.

 

Headed out of the Ft Lauderdale channel in the dark and into a little swell and chop, Bahamas tomorrow morning at 10am.

 

Over and out for tonight.

[Silver Spectre]

So far the Internet has been very patchy, it was out and being worked on for a couple of hours last night and has just reappeared after a further 3 hour outage this morning.

 

We still have a small swell and overcast skies, but clearing up.

 

Dinner in the MDR was good last night, great to see Norman as Head Sommelier who was so happy to have received a major provisioning yesterday, the first in a couple of months. He explained that not only had the ship run out of many beers but almost ran out of wine on the way Ft Lauderdale!