twangster

IME food is basically the same on all ships. Love it or hate it, the food is created from the same fleet standard recipes and fleet standard items. Nearly all ships are supplied from the same warehouses supplied by the same food distributors in bulk. If the food doesn't work for you on Royal that is perfectly acceptable. We all have different tastes. Someone else may love the food I dislike. Someone else may dislike the food I love. That is fine, we are unique individuals. However to be perfectly honest and blunt the food quality has declined considerably on Royal over the past 18 months, for my personal tastes and I do now struggle at times on Royal when I did not three years ago. As a result the number of my Royal cruises has declined and I am now sailing other lines on an increased basis. No one who loves Royal's current state of food should feel insulted by my personal views, we are different unique individuals.

Cruise Summary I've waited a few days to post a summary so I can properly contemplate the experience. In summary it was amazing. With my creative thoughts warmed tonight with a glass of Endurance Scotch I am ready to summarize this voyage. I've enjoyed some special bucket list cruises on various lines to great destinations. This experience on the Silver Wind to Antarctica has surpassed them all. We had some great weather on this voyage but I have the feeling that the experience would be pretty fantastic with or without the weather we had. I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the Silver Wind. There is no disputing her age yet I was pleased with the ship and how it has been updated. The premium internet plan and the consistent internet experience throughout the voyage given the challenges of internet at sea well away from populated areas was a pleasant surprise for this tech geek. When I considered Antarctic itineraries I initially focused on Antarctica exclusively. Fortunately I realized if I was going all this way, investing in this vacation as required, I should explore the greater area. This was a great itinerary that included the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Elephant Island and Antarctica. All of them are special in their own way and all of them worthy of being included on this special voyage. Boots on the ground in the Falklands, South Georgia, Elephant Island and Antarctica with a surprise visit to iceberg A23a. Enough said. Christmas in South Georgia, New Years in Antarctica. Does it get any better than that? On the way home at the hotel in Santiago with new friends made on this voyage someone asked the best moment of this experience. In truth there wasn't one, there were many best moments. Being in a special place is all well and good but I learned the value of a great zodiac driver while in the Galapagos. That lesson holds true in the Antarctic. Great guides are equally important and our expedition team were all pretty great. They all have impressive resumes and their passion for their work is hard to miss. They were a large part of making this experience what it became. I am quickly becoming a fan of Silversea expedition cruising. The Captain along with his bridge and deck teams were also a significant factor in the making of this experience. They all did a phenomenal job. Food is subjective. I try to refrain from reviewing food because my tastes should mean little to anyone else. I can't recall a bad meal and there were some pretty great meals on board. How do they keep food fresh as long as they did? The only meals that I was not enthused about were the two lunches in The Restaurant that were basically buffets. Generally speaking the food in The Restaurant where I ate most of my meals was perfect for me. As far as my camera kit for this sailing I think I did pretty good. When you own a boat and pull into a marina there is always someone in the marina with a better boat. Photography is somewhat similar and I sometimes had some "PE" (photographer envy) seeing what other guests had in their hand. Despite that I think I did okay and I'm pleased with the results. I watched the ship provided video again before sitting down to write this summary. I am so glad they provide the video. Justin did a great job with it. Every time I watch it the memories come flooding back. This was an incredible experience and I enjoyed presenting it here. I hope you have found it informative and I thank you for viewing.

Nailed it and exactly why it's there. Consider that just over 50% of a typical sailing involves folks who have never sailed Royal before. That is thousands of people who might have seen a flashing marketing photo or video with a bionic bartender. That's cool! Right? That is the target of the BB and why it exists. As new to cruise and new to Royal are window shopping which cruise line to book a flashy gimmick is attractive to many. Even if most of those guests with their first cruise complete look back and reach the same conclusion, the BB fulfilled its purpose. It sets Royal apart.

Expedition cruising only works with small loads such as <250. Expedition cruising works best under 200 guests, at 229 last week it felt crowded and the volume of guests impacted the ability of the expedition team to deal with everyone compared to a prior expedition cruise with only 98 guests on board. I don't see Royal Caribbean International ever doing expedition cruising. Expedition cruising is so far from the mass market nature of RCI it would not be a good fit and would cost substantially more than the mass market cruiser would pay. Silversea expedition cruises cost a lot of money, substantially more than the non-expedition "Classic" ships in the Silversea fleet. Celebrity expedition cruising in the Galapagos is pretty close to the same price as Silversea in the same region so there is no secret sauce to offering a budget expedition cruise. You can't do expeditions with large numbers, it just doesn't work given the time it takes to load zodiacs and deal with large numbers of guests doing wet landings on shore in places where local regulations often don't allow for more than 100 passengers on land at any given moment. This is exactly the appeal to expedition cruising. Expedition cruising involves small guests populations and that just isn't the RCI way of how they generate profit.

There are a couple of... "it depends" answers to your question. Since you booked a US airline leaving from Vancouver then you will almost assuredly do CBP clearance at YVR airport in Vancouver. This airport can also have long CBP processing times at certain times of the day so give yourself lots of time before your flight coming off the ship in Vancouver. If you booked a Canadian airline such as Air Canada to fly home they can sometimes connect in a Canadian city first which is where you may or may not have pre-clearance for the next hop into the US. If such a flight connects in Toronto for example, Pearson airport is notorious for having long CBP preclearance wait times. I am including this for anyone else who may read this post. If you have Nexus then you cut a lot of time off the process in both Vancouver or Toronto. Global Entry only (not Nexus) does help a bit but you still have to do the standard initial security line with only GE. Nexus card holders get sort of a TSA Precheck like security queue which at certain times of the day can save 30 minutes or more. Sometimes the Nexus card hardly saves any time, it depends on the volume at that moment. Flying from YVR to MSP is essentially a domestic flight when you do CBP clearance in YVR. Fifty five minutes is a "legal" domestic connection but starting to verge on being a tight connection these days. At MSP for some reason I always connect at far flung ends of different terminals. Even traveling solo and being pretty efficient as a frequent flyer I don't like a 55 minute connection.

Royal does charter a separate train that operates from closer to the airport in Anchorage to the cruise ship dock in Seward. It sells out quickly and may or may not offer gold star service with dome cars. You can call Royal to inquire if there is availability. It leaves later in the day on the premise that fly in guests arriving the day of the cruise can still use their charter train service. As a result you get to the ship later in the day, such as early evening. The train booked direct with the Alaskan Railroad that leaves from the main or "downtown" public train station still operates as it did pre-CV. I like getting to the ship earlier in the day so I've always booked direct with the railroad.

"Excuse me, there's a snail in my soup. "

At least you get Sky Class drinks in the lounge from 11am to 11pm on select ships. Not so all ships. Another makes-no-sense approach to the Royal Suite class program.

During this exhibition I also dislike the folks that insist on waving their napkins in the air flinging whatever morsels of food from dinner are on them to all the neighboring tables. Please don't.

The luggage drop off was pretty evident every time I've sailed there but the key to sailing out of Seattle is getting an early check in time. If you don't secure an early check in time then go late. Midday is mad house for check in.

Not really. Both are memorable. I'd more likely consider the departure and arrival ports as it relates to flights and hotel stays versus doing the canal in a specific direction.

A quick word about the complimentary parka. This worked quite well for me. It is a two part design with an inner bubble style jacket that zips into the red waterproof outer shell. I didn't keep mine zippered into the shell, I simply put on the shell over the jacket. Sizing for me was perfect. I am typically a large ski jacket and this large fit well. I generally wore a long sleeve t-shirt and the Silversea parka on all excursions and I was never cold. The shell did a great job. Despite being splashed often on zodiac rides I was never wet inside.

This morning while waiting to debark I stopped at the photo studio to inquire if I could post the video from the ship's videographer Justin Duncan. They indicated it was okay to post the video but suggested I remove any segments that show a guest's face that would be easily recognizable. I have done that and also removed the sound track which would likely cause a copyright issue on Youtube. This video contains content that was all captured during this voyage. There was no stock footage used or content from another ship or sailing. No sound:

Thirty minute stop in Punta Arenas to refuel and pick up some cargo. It's five o'clock somewhere. Meal service was decent all things considered.

Beautiful views of Patagonia this morning. So many glaciers.

We've made it to Punta Arenas to refuel so while we wait I'll continue to post. The short ride to the airport. They held us on the bus while the aircraft before us taxied out to the runway. Then it was time to walk up to the tarmac to our awaiting plane. Row 11 has an excellent view... of the engines. Our plane. I have the row on my side to myself again. With flaps extended my view was somewhat obstructed.

Shortly after 6am the first group was called. Busses waiting for the short ride to the airport. A final farewell from the crew. It occurs to me the airport can't handle all four aircraft at the same time. My plane hasn't landed yet. A final look back at the Silver Wind. An earlier group prepares to take off.

Early morning here in Puerto Williams but the weather has cleared and it's too beautiful of a morning to let it uncaptured.

Day Nineteen - Debark Chronicle: 6 JAN - DEBARK - Puerto Williams.pdf

A great last dinner with new friends before one last photo op. The Cloud still hanging out with us but off the pier now.

The video contained content all captured during this cruise. It was amazing and one of items I love about expedition cruising on Silversea. A USB drive with the video will be left in the cabin during dinner service.

It's nearly 5pm on board and we are gathered in the Show Lounge for our final recap briefing and a video presentation of our voyage.

Final position report:

With that we have arrived at Puerto Williams. The Silver Cloud at the pier. I assume the Captain has a very big credit card. Our fuel barge. Looks like the Cloud is doing crew laundry.

I'll have to look up this vessel later. More notions of Shackelton swirling in my head. Right in front of me a whale did a full breach. It was magnificent. All I caught with my camera was the splash. This was less than two miles from Puerto Williams.