Which Antarctica cruise would you choose?

[taxatty]

1 hour ago, cruiseej said:

 

Yes, that was more recently. But when they announced their agreement with the government of Chile last month, they trumpeted they would be sailing all there ships from Punta Arenas. When Barbara Muckermann and Conrad Combrink stopped replying on Facebook to questions about the Wind in the last two weeks, that was my indication that we were in trouble.

 

Now that the full picture has emerged, it seems to me that the cancellation of the Wind's season likely is more due to the cancellation of the Cloud's world cruise than a delay in finishing the renovation of the Wind. Once they canceled the Cloud world cruise, they were stuck with a ship in South America with nowhere to go. By moving all the Wind's trips from January through June to the Cloud, they saved the cost of running two ships and having one without passengers. It's likely that the renovation work did fall behind, but considering they announced it would be sailing just a month ago, it's probably not too far behind. Perhaps they would have needed to cancel the first cruise due to the delay. But with the ability to serve all the Wind itineraries in the second half of the Antarctica season on the empty Cloud, it didn't make sense for them to staff the Wind and sail her to South America for just a few cruises before the Cloud could take over. If the Cloud hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure the Wind would have sailed this season, even if it was a little late. So those of us booked on the Wind in November and December became collateral damage in the cancellation of the Cloud's world cruise.

 

Since we want to see South Georgia, and the holiday timeframe is the only time that works for us to take a cruise that long, we're stuck waiting until next year. 😞

I'll bet your analysis of the Wind and the Cloud is spot-on. It makes a lot of sense.

[WesW]

Cruisejj/Eric; we prefer the Cloud over the Wind not only due the size of the Fitness facility (both really, imo, are too small) but the location (Cloud on deck six, Wind on deck nine).  The fitness facility on the Wind is directly above Medallion suites, often meaning you can't enter the facilities until 7am.  There are also nearly twice as many Vista suites on the Cloud vs the Wind.  And, tho it may  not matter,  looking at pre-refurb deck plan, can't figure out where they are going to put the Zodiacs.

 

However, with that said, we enjoy both the Wind and the Cloud, and push comes to shove would rather take expedition voyages on these two Silversea ships (more space, more dining venues) than the Explorer (probably why I did not pull the trigger on taking Capetown to Zanzibar in March of 2022, but do have the Cloud booked in March 2023 for Capetown to Mahe (right after Ushuaia to Capetown).

 

 

[bethtex]

we did Cloud 10 day RT from Ushaia in Dec 2019.  Would not hesitate to go to Antarctica in December again.  The weather was wonderful.  Saw so much wildlife.  No chicks, but plenty of penguins, seals, whales, orcas, etc

Love the Cloud!!  perfect size for this trip.  

Next time hope we can work South Georgia and other areas into our trip, but the 10 days to the peninsula were wonderful.  Be sure to kayak if you can - it was a wonderful experience.

no matter what you choose, you will have a wonderful time.

 

FYI - we thought it would be a once in a lifetime trip but are already trying to figure out when we can go again