Our Silversea's Arctic cruise on the Silver Cloud Expedition was very good. The ship is lovely and very comfortable; expedition crew is excellent; accommodations and food very good. The service on board is attentive and excellent and there are three restaurant options. Daily enrichment lectures were offered, and they were excellent and very informative.

Silversea's falls down with their land arrangements. At the beginning of the tour, we were put up in a hotel in the center of Oslo. Since we had a very early flight the following morning to reach Longyearbyn, it would have made more sense to accommodate us at one of the airport hotels. Instead, we had to awake at 2:00am for a 3:00am transfer to the airport.

The worst part of the trip was at the end; we docked in Kristiansund; most travel agents booked clients from Kristiansand to Oslo - a much larger and, to their understanding, a more logical city. Silversea had a record of everyone's air arrangements, but never notified anyone of the Kristiansand-Kristiansund problem until the end of the journey. We all had to scramble to make alternative arrangements; my husband and I ended up spending a night in Kristiansund, since we could not get a flight out until the next day. Unnecessary expense on new air tickets, hotel. Silversea's was of no help to us;; I cannot give them a high recommendation for their ineptitude with land arrangements.