Silver Explorer Review

This was an expedition cruise and expeditions were very poor

Review for the Arctic Cruise on Silver Explorer
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Jean Reed
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jul 2015
Cabin: Expedition Suite

We went on a Silver Sea expedition cruise to Svalbard in July 2015. Our ship the Silver Explorer was a beautiful ship and our service by the crew was wonderful. The issue started when our mandatory charter flight to Longyearbyen was not able to land because of fog. They flew us back to Oslo and put us up in the local airport hotel. I'm not upset as to the weather as I know that can happen at any time. I'm upset at how the company handled the situation. There was very little communication and when we did have meetings things were said like, " What do you want us to do, it is Sunday?" We were told to have lunch in town and save the receipts, so they can reimburse us. It was never mentioned again. When I went to reception on the ship, at the end of the cruise, and asked them what to do with the receipts, I was told they would make a copy of them but a decision hadn't been made as to what would be done with them. Two days later we finally were able to get on the ship. They said they wanted to give us the best cruise ever as we had missed 2 days.

As I said the ship was great but the expeditions were terrible. According to the dictionary expedition means to explore, we did no exploring. When we did get off the ship, in the zodiacs, we were required to walk in a small tight group and look at poop or bones on the ground. If we walked 1/2 mile we would be lucky. One expedition was 45 minutes long to look at a walrus. I could have stayed longer and the last thing I wanted to do was walk and see poop down the beach. Another day on the zodiac was 1 1/2 hours long to sit at the bottom of a glacier and stare at it. Glaciers don't move much so there wasn't much to see. My husband and I have been on a Quark expedition to Antarctica and it was totally different. We walked around to see and explore the area and wildlife on the Antarctica cruise.

This is a good cruise but it is not an expedition cruise at all. The expedition staff are all knowledgeable and nice, however their program is in need of some exploring to make it an expedition.

Cabin Review

Expedition Suite

Cabin EX

The cabin was very nice. We liked having the walk in closet as that was a great place to get ready for the day. Our butler was attentive and brought us what ever we wanted.

Port Reviews

Spitsbergen (Svalbard)

We went straight to the ship and spent zero time on land.

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