Silver Shadow 8/18/09

[avalon1025]

Just some quick thoughts about the Silver Shadow Alaska cruise last week. Overall another wonderful time on the Shadow, wonderful crew, food was very good.

 

Weather was awful, cool and rainy most of the cruise. Most of the shore excursions in Juneau were canceled (all the of the flight ones, which was going to be a highlight for me)

 

Very interesting fellow passengers, made for wonderful dinners and conversation

 

Ship is in overall good condition, could use some new carpet. The renovated bar off the casino I thought was a miss. Its very modern now with very cold angular furniture vs the small sofas and chairs before. Also the new bar stools are difficult to sit on and stay on!

 

Overall a fantastic trip, one should not worry about sailing the Shadow.

 

I saw many of the same crew as on my December trip, which made it even more special

 

Think twice about the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage (a really boring city), the hotel has no air conditioning, which I thought would not be a problem, but the rooms did get warm and stuffy even in 60 degree weather. I would only return to this hotel early or late in the season.

[Keith1010]

Welcome home and glad you enjoyed the cruise. We were on right before you so I guess we must have left the ship in good shape. :)

 

With Alaska weather you just never know what to expect. We had rain towards the end of our cruise. Sounds like it continued for you.

 

We only visited Anchorage once several years ago and we also did not care for it. And we also stayed at that hotel and would not stay there again.

 

Keith

[Oceans&Rivers]

Hi. We haven't sailed Silversea yet, but I have some comments about Anchorage. We stayed at another hotel there which was also just so-so, but we had a great time overall in Anchorage for four reasons:

 

1. We hit a great sale at the Nordstrom's there and picked up some current season North Face cold-weather gear already on sale (wasn't on sale in California for many months later, and then more expensive here)

2. Outdoor market was held on the Saturday we stayed there.

3. It was sunny and warm!

4. Best of all was the Galway irish Music Festival, which is held in Anchorage the first weekend of August each year.

 

http://www.akirishmusic.com/

[Keith1010]

Hi. We haven't sailed Silversea yet, but I have some comments about Anchorage. We stayed at another hotel there which was also just so-so, but we had a great time overall in Anchorage for four reasons:

 

1. We hit a great sale at the Nordstrom's there and picked up some current season North Face cold-weather gear already on sale (wasn't on sale in California for many months later, and then more expensive here)

2. Outdoor market was held on the Saturday we stayed there.

3. It was sunny and warm!

4. Best of all was the Galway irish Music Festival, which is held in Anchorage the first weekend of August each year.

 

http://www.akirishmusic.com/

 

Wow! I have not been to Anchorage in many years. I had not realized that Nordstrom's is up there. I never would have guessed that.

 

Keith

[billcrooz]

just curious; many kids on board ???

[avalon1025]

There were maybe 15 kids onboard, but you never saw them

[Emtbsam]

Just some quick thoughts about the Silver Shadow Alaska cruise last week. Overall another wonderful time on the Shadow, wonderful crew, food was very good.

 

Weather was awful, cool and rainy most of the cruise. Most of the shore excursions in Juneau were canceled (all the of the flight ones, which was going to be a highlight for me)

 

Very interesting fellow passengers, made for wonderful dinners and conversation

 

Ship is in overall good condition, could use some new carpet. The renovated bar off the casino I thought was a miss. Its very modern now with very cold angular furniture vs the small sofas and chairs before. Also the new bar stools are difficult to sit on and stay on!

 

Overall a fantastic trip, one should not worry about sailing the Shadow.

 

I saw many of the same crew as on my December trip, which made it even more special

 

Think twice about the Captain Cook hotel in Anchorage (a really boring city), the hotel has no air conditioning, which I thought would not be a problem, but the rooms did get warm and stuffy even in 60 degree weather. I would only return to this hotel early or late in the season.

Which cruise were you on December? We were on the b2b FLL to Barbados to FLL early in the month.

[cliffie2]

Thanks for the info. We are on the Sept. 3-12 cruise on Silver Shadow. What did you do in Juneau when trips were cancelled? We have booked glacier helicopter ride and the rainforest canopy and zipline expedition. Is that too much in one day?

 

We were on the Silver Whisper in October, 2007 on Rome to Athens and had a wonderful time. We are looking forward to Alaska. Any other suggestions?:)

[chicagogal]

Thanks for the info. We are on the Sept. 3-12 cruise on Silver Shadow. What did you do in Juneau when trips were cancelled? We have booked glacier helicopter ride and the rainforest canopy and zipline expedition. Is that too much in one day?

 

We were on the Silver Whisper in October, 2007 on Rome to Athens and had a wonderful time. We are looking forward to Alaska. Any other suggestions?:)

 

Hello Cliffie2 - So glad to FINALLY see someone else on the cruise next week! I was never able to get a roll call going. We are still trying to figure out shore excursions, too, and it appears most of them are now sold out on line.

 

We are Bill and Patty from Chicago and we look forward to meeting you! This will be our 2nd Silversea cruise - we did the Baltic in Sept 2006.

 

I see this is your first post on Cruisecritic ... even though you have been a member quite a while! That's great.

[avalon1025]

Shore excursions in Juneau were being canceled from the early morning until around noon. My noon Heli-flight glacier walk was canceled around noon. It was a scramble to find something else to do. I settled on Whale Watching with a few other passengers. The ship could not arrange much on short notice. We were directed to the shore side excursions and found the whale trip that way.

 

I was on the December Barbados to Ft Lauderdale segment (around the 10th out of Bridgetown) on the Shadow last year, spent a few days pre cruise at Sandy Lane; it was a wonderful trip!

[Emtbsam]

Shore excursions in Juneau were being canceled from the early morning until around noon. My noon Heli-flight glacier walk was canceled around noon. It was a scramble to find something else to do. I settled on Whale Watching with a few other passengers. The ship could not arrange much on short notice. We were directed to the shore side excursions and found the whale trip that way.

 

I was on the December Barbados to Ft Lauderdale segment (around the 10th out of Bridgetown) on the Shadow last year, spent a few days pre cruise at Sandy Lane; it was a wonderful trip!

We were on that one as well and hung out at the ping pong table quite a bit.

 

We are hoping that our heli-flight and other bush plane excursions don't get cancelled but certainly don't want to fly in less than good weather. We are so excited about our trip on the 12th.

 

Regards,

Bob & Victoria

[billcrooz]

the excursion tour around Juneau wasn.t bad...museum,salmon hatchery,mendenhall glacier;headr the whale and sea otter trip was outstanding;lots of orcas !

[cliffie2]

Hello Cliffie2 - So glad to FINALLY see someone else on the cruise next week! I was never able to get a roll call going. We are still trying to figure out shore excursions, too, and it appears most of them are now sold out on line.

 

We are Bill and Patty from Chicago and we look forward to meeting you! This will be our 2nd Silversea cruise - we did the Baltic in Sept 2006.

 

I see this is your first post on Cruisecritic ... even though you have been a member quite a while! That's great.

 

I am still trying to figure out how to use the posts, etc.

We booked our shore excursions several months ago so we got what we asked for. I guess the weather will determine what we actually experience. We look forward to meeting you, too. We are from Oregon.

[chicagogal]

I am still trying to figure out how to use the posts, etc.

We booked our shore excursions several months ago so we got what we asked for. I guess the weather will determine what we actually experience. We look forward to meeting you, too. We are from Oregon.

 

Hopefully we will meet up on the ship! Only a couple of more days to wait now ... We are pretty well packed after the week-end since we are both working up through Wednesday.

[cliffie2]

Hopefully we will meet up on the ship! Only a couple of more days to wait now ... We are pretty well packed after the week-end since we are both working up through Wednesday.

Still packing. We will drive to Vancouver tomorrow and embark early on Thursday. We will look for your names on the passenger list. We are Sylvia and Cliff.