Silver Cloud Live - Dublin to Reykjavik - June 15th to 25th

[spinnaker2]

That was so enjoyable!! Thanks for taking us along.

 

on another note, while we always contribute to the crew fund, i have never been reminded to do so by Silversea.

Edited June 25, 2023 by spinnaker2

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

20 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

on another note, while we always contribute to the crew fund, i have never been reminded to do so by Silversea.

On our last cruise aboard the Dawn in May, the second to last evening we were onboard we had about 7 or 8 white envelopes fanned out in our white portfolio that the suite attendant places on your bed each evening.  Normally, there are only a couple of envelopes discretely placed next to the stationary, so were they trying to be helpful, assuming we were going to tip that many crew, or were they encouraging us to tip?   

 

We will be on the Cloud next year as it sails the Cape and Indian Ocean.  Thanks Ryan for your wonderful posts.

[RyanJCanada]

Day 10 Update (Part 2):

 

When last we’d left off, we were left wondering whether we would be visiting the island of Heimaey.

 

The answer: No, we would not be.

 

Despite being anchored in a relatively sheltered area, conditions near the Silver Cloud were already less than ideal.

 

And what were the seas like outside of the sheltered area?

 

Like this:

 

Expedition leader Colin tries his very best to find a way to get the guests of the Silver Cloud onto Helmaey – but it was not meant to be

 

This is what ‘expedition country’ looks like – wild and unpredictable. And we can only be grateful that we were able to visit as many stops as we did. As already noted, many of our fellow guests had attempted to visit St. Kilda on multiple occasions before they finally landed.

 

So, what to do on an impromptu sea day? Well, we considered taking the kids swimming, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option either:

 

 

Apparently, this is the result when swells are over 1.5 metres high – which they were for a significant portion of the previous night.

 

But we had a lovely view of the Island of Heimaey, and we managed to get in some laps of the walking track. Us adults had some last-minute administrivia that we needed to sort out, and the kids were happy enough to just have a day to enjoy the ship’s routine – enjoying delicious meals, looking out through the windows of the observation lounge with a good book and a hot chocolate, chatting with members of the expedition team.

 

 

 

 

And we got to cruise past Surtsey Island. Surtsey is quite special in that it was only formed in 1963, as the result of a volcanic eruption. It began to erode almost immediately after the eruption ended in 1967 and more than half the original island has already vanished into the ocean. It’s expected to disappear entirely by around the year 2100. More on all of that here – Fifty year old island Surtsey is disappearing gradually | Icelandmag

 

Not an ideal view of Surtsey, but pretty good considering there were even small amounts of snow and hail coming down while we were cruising past

 

The Dream Team then took in one final round of trivia – our best round yet with 18/20, but still not good enough to place in the top 3 – and then my son went to redeem his prize points. He managed to get his much-desired T-shirt, as well as some key-chain lotion bottles and holders that he and his sister are planning to use to transport Lego mini-figures. Even after those redemptions, he ended up with some 200 prize points remaining – so we’ll have to hang onto those for a future cruise.

 

After that, we went to see the expedition recap and watch the cruise video. Which was absolutely incredible, and which is an absolutely massive file – so I’d like to post it at some point, but it may take a while before I’ll have sufficient internet access.

 

Then we were off to La Terrazza for one last delicious meal before we land in Reykjavik. I was surprised to see how much the menu had changed since the last time we had dinner there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

My continued attempts at artistic photography by cropping away partially eaten items. But it was a delicious striploin.

 

My wife's delicious bacon gnocchi

 

A fantastic tiramisu

 

One of the servers also managed to convince us – yes, me included – that the table lanterns changed colour via voice command. In reality, he was using a remote in his pocket to change the colour. We then looked quite silly as we shouted “Green!” into the lanterns again and again without result.

 

All in good fun…

 

Then it was time to head back to our room and pack up our bags.

 

A bit of an anticlimactic ending, isn’t it?

 

Except…

 

It’s not the ending.

 

We are continuing to Greenland.

 

[TO BE CONTINUED]

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[RyanJCanada]

2 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

On our last cruise aboard the Dawn in May, the second to last evening we were onboard we had about 7 or 8 white envelopes fanned out in our white portfolio that the suite attendant places on your bed each evening.  Normally, there are only a couple of envelopes discretely placed next to the stationary, so were they trying to be helpful, assuming we were going to tip that many crew, or were they encouraging us to tip?   

 

We will be on the Cloud next year as it sails the Cape and Indian Ocean.  Thanks Ryan for your wonderful posts.

Yes, we found this as well - feels a bit odd given that gratuities are included. Though we did get a nice thank-you from one of the crew for our contribution to the welfare fund, so we'd definitely contribute to that again.

 

You're very welcome... thank you for reading! Hope you'll let us know all about your cruise - sounds like a great itinerary.

Edited June 25, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[RyanJCanada]

2 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

That was so enjoyable!! Thanks for taking us along.

 

on another note, while we always contribute to the crew fund, i have never been reminded to do so by Silversea.

So glad you enjoyed it!

 

Interesting to know re: the crew fund - the only time we were told about it was during the Captain's Farewell, so I'd say it felt fairly low key to us. My mother-in-law has travelled on Silversea several times and this was the first she'd ever heard of it.

Edited June 25, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[RyanJCanada]

18 hours ago, drron29 said:

😢🥹 Didn't have a sad icon for your post. You can hardly like or laugh at a post when someone is coming to the end of an obviously enjoyable voyage.

A great report and thanks for sharing.

And by the way tell your children from me that they have great parents.

Very kind of you to say... I will be sure to pass that along to our kids, though they can be a tough crowd at times. 😉

 

And... well, please have a look at the most recent post. Bit of news there for everyone...

[drron29]

7 hours ago, CruzinFeraBruzin said:

On our last cruise aboard the Dawn in May, the second to last evening we were onboard we had about 7 or 8 white envelopes fanned out in our white portfolio that the suite attendant places on your bed each evening.  Normally, there are only a couple of envelopes discretely placed next to the stationary, so were they trying to be helpful, assuming we were going to tip that many crew, or were they encouraging us to tip?   

 

We will be on the Cloud next year as it sails the Cape and Indian Ocean.  Thanks Ryan for your wonderful posts.

We used to get those discreet envelopes for our first 4 years of cruising Silversea before we heard about the crew fund. We were cruising the Amazon on the Cloud and a lovely lady took a liking to us and gave us the low down on Silversea. That lady was known as Duct Tape on here.

 

So since then we have always donated to the crew fund. the advice given was to donate early in the cruise so we usually do so in the first 2 days. Since then we have not received the envelopes - indeed until your post I had completely forgotten about them.

 

There are other benefits. We have been told on a few occasions those who donate to the crew fund have their names amd photos but up in the crew quarters. That explained why people who you have never seen come up and thank you such as a time early in the morning I went out on deck and was engaged in conversation by the fellow scrubbing the deck.

You also get thanked a few times and some are quite touching. I still have a letter from a member of the entertainment group in 2015 thanking us. On top of that you are more likely to get a dinner invitation with the hotel director. Those things are nice but not why we do it. The crew are probably the major reason why we go back to Silversea.

[Harley57]

You are continuing on to Greenland??  Awesome!  I’ll be following along.

[spinnaker2]

I am excited that you are going to Greenland…we are to be there in September! You will provide a preview!

Great news.

[highplanesdrifters]

2 hours ago, RyanJCanada said:

We are continuing to Greenland.

Hot Diggity Dog!  That's some serious Carpe Diem. 

 

Crew Fund - Ditto, It really means a lot to the crew. On our last trip we found out that crew fund donations were slim so we threw a few more bucks in the pot.  I was overwhelmed by the touching 'thank you's.

[Mr Luxury]

5 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Hot Diggity Dog!  That's some serious Carpe Diem. 

 

Crew Fund - Ditto, It really means a lot to the crew. On our last trip we found out that crew fund donations were slim so we threw a few more bucks in the pot.  I was overwhelmed by the touching 'thank you's.

More bucks,more thank you's

[RyanJCanada]

New thread is now live!

 

Silver Cloud Live - Reykjavik to Kangerlussuaq - June 25th to July 5th 2023 - Surprise! - Silversea Cruises - Cruise Critic Community

 

For those die-hards still following this thread, here is our final round of Chronicles:

 

 

[AusMum]

On 6/21/2023 at 2:24 PM, RyanJCanada said:

Thanks, Jim - kind of you to say! I’m a commercial fiction writer so I write a lot, and by this point I’m fairly quick at it. I often have sizeable quotas (5,000 to 7,000 words a week) so I need to get my thoughts down quickly. As a point of comparison, it took me about 40 minutes to write yesterday’s update. We’re also not getting a tremendous amount of sleep - though that’s more due to the short nights at this time of year!

I’ve been getting into Icelandic crime fiction to prepare me for my Iceland/Greenland adventures lol

[RyanJCanada]

1 hour ago, AusMum said:

I’ve been getting into Icelandic crime fiction to prepare me for my Iceland/Greenland adventures lol

Good call! I’ve heard really good things about Yrsa Sigurdardottir in particular, but there are a lot of great ones out there 

[AusMum]

2 hours ago, RyanJCanada said:

Good call! I’ve heard really good things about Yrsa Sigurdardottir in particular, but there are a lot of great ones out there 

I've been reading The Dark Iceland Series by Ragnar Jonasson.  He's not quite the Michael Robotham of Iceland, but he's not bad.

We also watched Trapped and Entrapped, and another series called Black Sands.

 

My hubby had a question for you regarding going on shore in Greenland, with their quarantine regulations (was really interesting when you mentioned velcro carrying potential threats, and amazed us that Australia hasn't adopted this practice with our pretty tight regulations) - are you able to take any food off the vessel? he is a diabetic and usually carries something in case his sugars go too low.

 

Did you purchase food/lunch in any of the towns?

[RyanJCanada]

1 hour ago, AusMum said:

I've been reading The Dark Iceland Series by Ragnar Jonasson.  He's not quite the Michael Robotham of Iceland, but he's not bad.

We also watched Trapped and Entrapped, and another series called Black Sands.

 

My hubby had a question for you regarding going on shore in Greenland, with their quarantine regulations (was really interesting when you mentioned velcro carrying potential threats, and amazed us that Australia hasn't adopted this practice with our pretty tight regulations) - are you able to take any food off the vessel? he is a diabetic and usually carries something in case his sugars go too low.

 

Did you purchase food/lunch in any of the towns?

We have been told not to bring any food off the boat. I’ll see if I can ask if there are any exceptions for medical reasons. We haven’t visited any of the towns yet but I’ll have a look and let you know!

[AusMum]

29 minutes ago, RyanJCanada said:

We have been told not to bring any food off the boat. I’ll see if I can ask if there are any exceptions for medical reasons. We haven’t visited any of the towns yet but I’ll have a look and let you know!

I looked at your itinerary and think ours might be quite different, but (as you've indicated) they can change the itinerary at any time to suit the conditions,

 

He really just needs to be responsible and eat a good breakfast.

 

Ps: enjoyed the video you linked us too about the do's and don't in the Arctic

[RachelG]

8 hours ago, AusMum said:

I've been reading The Dark Iceland Series by Ragnar Jonasson.  He's not quite the Michael Robotham of Iceland, but he's not bad.

We also watched Trapped and Entrapped, and another series called Black Sands.

 

My hubby had a question for you regarding going on shore in Greenland, with their quarantine regulations (was really interesting when you mentioned velcro carrying potential threats, and amazed us that Australia hasn't adopted this practice with our pretty tight regulations) - are you able to take any food off the vessel? he is a diabetic and usually carries something in case his sugars go too low.

 

Did you purchase food/lunch in any of the towns?

We have been there three times--no food allowed off the ship.  And most landings aren't in towns so nothing to buy.  The exception would be Nuuk where there are plenty of stores and even restaurants.  We have been to a couple of other small villages where you possibly could buy food, but it would be really limited variety.  I get hypoglycemic too, but just make sure I eat plenty of protein prior to going out. 

[Lirio]

When we were there last year no food allowed off the ship. It was also informed that supplies in small villages are difficulty to arrive, so we were recommended to avoid buying them. But you can buy souvenirs. There are beautiful handcrafts.

[RyanJCanada]

The sun sets on the Cloud (and a massive iceberg):

[RyanJCanada]

On 6/28/2023 at 3:50 PM, AusMum said:

I looked at your itinerary and think ours might be quite different, but (as you've indicated) they can change the itinerary at any time to suit the conditions,

 

He really just needs to be responsible and eat a good breakfast.

 

Ps: enjoyed the video you linked us too about the do's and don't in the Arctic

Unlike our trip through the Northern Scottish isles, most of the excursions in Greenland tend to be quite short and / or involve a stop in a village with a grocery store. (Had some great ice cream in Qaqortok earlier today, as an example.) I think the longest we’ve been off boat without access to food is about 2 hours so far. But I’ll let you know if that changes.

Edited July 1, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[AusMum]

11 hours ago, RyanJCanada said:

Unlike our trip through the Northern Scottish isles, most of the excursions in Greenland tend to be quite short and / or involve a stop in a village with a grocery store. (Had some great ice cream in Qaqortok earlier today, as an example.) I think the longest we’ve been off boat without access to food is about 2 hours so far. But I’ll let you know if that changes.

I guess the ice cream doesn't melt lol

[RyanJCanada]

4 hours ago, AusMum said:

I guess the ice cream doesn't melt lol

We've had surprisingly mild weather this trip - we were just in Hvalsey, and ended up taking off our parkas so were just down to jeans and T-shirts. But certainly slower to melt than it would be in Canada in July!

[RyanJCanada]

The end-of-expedition video:

 

(Reposting here as the version uploaded to Cruise Critic seemed to cut out midway through.)