Silversea Endeavour Parka and Packing help, please

[JSR]

We are on the Endeavour this summer in the Arctic and I am trying not to over pack as we will be traveling in Europe and then home on the QM2. 

I can figure out the bundling part for being on deck or zodiac as far as layers, just suggestions on quantity of base layer, mid layer, hats and gloves would be helpful. 

For anyone who has been on the ship recently, how is the temp on the ship itself? Trying to figure out if I need dress boats, or would I be ok with dress shoes, do I need really warm slacks (ie cashmere or is cotton ok)? Do I need a really warm sweater for dinner or is a light weight cardigan enough or something in between? Same for hubby. Dress clothes are a non issue from what I can tell on expedition cruises and since we are going to QM2 we will have them with us anyway. I just do not want to hall more then I need around on the land portion of our trip. 

 

Also, Parka's - I can not for the life of me figure out what size I need. I understand they are unisex and tend to be more boxy then women's parka's. I am short waisted, have small shoulders, but I am not small. I would say I am either a M or a L (generally get petite so they are cut shorter)  normally depending on cute - any suggestions on size? Are they good about letting you exchange if you guess incorrectly?

 

Thanks so much for the help!

 

 

[Rothko1]

Hi.  I was on Endeavour in February, in Antartica.

 

The temperature onboard the ship is regular - neither cool nor warm.  I don't think you will need dress boots for the ship at all.  The one thing you might want to have is a pair of short Uggs or something like that to wear to the mud room if you are going to be changing into water boots for the Zodiacs.  I'm not sure what they do in the Arctic, but for Antarctica, we all had the expedition boots and would put them on or off in the mud room.  Some people just wore slippers and such to go down there, but having a pair of short Uggs would be nice to slip in and out of.  That's what my wife did.  I just wore topsiders.

 

For the parkas, just try to make the best guess you can.  The ones they gave us were quite heavy, multi-layered.  Think like a ski jacket.  

 

They were very good about letting us exchange.  Except, we did the exchanges at the hotel before getting on the ship.  I'm not sure for your cruise when they will provide you with the parka.  But I guarantee you won't be the only person switching out the parka, and they must have a way for taking care of those issues on every cruise.

 

As far as the quantity of base layers, gloves, hats, etc., I think that depends on the length of your cruise, and your fashion sense.  I saw some women putting on different outfits and hats each day for their expeditions.  To look fashionable.  Others didn't.  

 

As a guy, two pairs of long underwear, base layer, and middle layer were just fine for 6 days.  One pair of heavy gloves and one hat.  Some people used gloves liners; I did not - I just brought along my ski gloves and they were fine.

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, Rothko1 said:

As a guy, two pairs of long underwear, base layer, and middle layer were just fine for 6 days.  One pair of heavy gloves and one hat.  Some people used gloves liners; I did not - I just brought along my ski gloves and they were fine.

 

I'd basically agree, but I'd suggest two pairs of gloves. They can get wet externally, but I found just from sweating in them, I was sometimes happy to have an alternate pair of gloves for an afternoon excursions. And you definitely need waterproof pants to wear over your hiking pants! I took two pair, but could have made it with one because they're thin and dry very quickly. On some hikes, with all your layers, you may work ups sweat, so I'd suggest being able to swap out your shirt or layer under the parka in case it gets damp on your first outing of the day. I was also happy to have taken an inexpensive balaclava which could over just my neck or neck and head. The hat I had also had ear flaps which could be flipped down and stopped under my chin; if my ears don't get cold, I'm fine! That still doesn't add up to a ton of clothing. Everything else I took was for wearing around the ship during days and evenings. 

[Rothko1]

10 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

I was also happy to have taken an inexpensive balaclava which could over just my neck or neck and head. The hat I had also had ear flaps which could be flipped down and stopped under my chin; if my ears don't get cold, I'm fine! That still doesn't add up to a ton of clothing. Everything else I took was for wearing around the ship during days and evenings. 

 

Definitely a balaclava or a neck gaiter that you can pull up.  I used a gaiter, and it was fine most of the time.

 

And I definitely concur about being careful on the hiking days not to overdress.  I did one hike up a hill in Antarctica where by the end I had my hat and gloves off, and parka completely unzipped, because it got so warm.

[cruiseej]

7 minutes ago, Rothko1 said:

And I definitely concur about being careful on the hiking days not to overdress.  I did one hike up a hill in Antarctica where by the end I had my hat and gloves off, and parka completely unzipped, because it got so warm.

 

All the advice I read said wear layers and peel off as needed. What they didn't say is that peeling off a middle layer, such as a lightweight fleece I wore over a shirt and under the parka, isn't always easy. you'lll probably be wearing a backpack; on the South Georgia itinerary, the backpack is a heavy-duty dry sack which you roll up at the top. And I carry a small camera bag. Oh, and you can't put anything on the ground! Sometimes I put my camera back and backpack on a tarp the expedition team had out near the landing site. But it I hiked up a hill and wanted to peel off a layer... not so easy! I became good at balancing my backpack on my feet (I emulated the emperor penguins in March of the Penguins, balancing their eggs on their feet!), and squeezing my camera bag between my legs while removing my parka and then outer layer, rolling the outer layer and putting it in the backpack, and then putting the parka back on. Another hike, I wanted to separate the outer parka from the inner down layer — another challenging balancing act. One time I wanted to pull off my waterproof pants, and just decided with nowhere to sit down it wasn't easy enough to do. 

[JSR]

@Rothko1 and @cruiseej Thank you both. This is all wonderful information. I know I am starting early but life will get very busy in May and I need to have all this sorted out. If it would only stop snowing I could start putting things in a suitcase. LOL 

I am glad you mentioned the challenges of peeling off layers. I would have never thought about that. My hubby gets warm quickly.

We did order the jackets, hubbies was easy, mine I gave it my best shot.

I love that some ladies changed outfits, I am not that gal and hubby is not that guy.  I also plan to do laundry. We are on Endeavour 14 days, then 5 days in Amsterdam area, then off to Southampton to board the QM2 to NYC, then will fly home from there. I am considering shipping some clothes home from Tromso (not sure if this is possible)  that we will not need on the rest of our journey. 

You both mentioned ship clothes- would you mind giving me an idea what you wore on the ship?

[cruiseej]

Around the ship during the day? I generally wore either jeans or what I call hiking pants:

(These are from Eddie Bauer, a line they call Guide Pro pants, which I have found very comfortable. I have both regular and fleece lined.)

 

And sneakers. And a long sleeve t-shirt, sometimes with a light-weight fleece pull-over or sweater. 

 

I was really looking forward to using all my Antarctica gear when we had a big snowstorm this winter, but our part of the east coast got through the winter with a grand total of 0.3 inches of snow!

 

For evenings, I had a pair of navy and khaki colored Docker-type pants, and several long-sleeve button down shirts. Depending on the day, I'd sometime wear with a sweater, and on a couple nights, a navy sport jacket. The latter is not necessary; the friends we traveled with did not bring a sport jacket. Also, we were on the cruise over Christmas and New Years, so I figured I'd dress up that little bit on those nights and the captain's welcome event. And I'm often cool on the ship, so the jacket was an alternative to sweaters every night. I'd guess that perhaps 50% of men had a sport jacket they wore on some nights, but you definitely won't feel out of place without one. I had one pair of black shoes, which I wore in the evening for all 18 days of the cruise (!), and one pair of sneakers/walking shoes; with size 13W feet, taking more shoes was just not an option!

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by cruiseej

[JSR]

@cruiseej Thank you that information is very helpful. Hubby is appreciative too! Nice to have a men's list.