You're about to discover everything you need to know about Silversea Silver Cloud
Expedition cruise ship. I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my tips
for travellers. I'm currently onboard the Silver Cloud, and I will take you on a
tour and review the ship and tell you what I thought of all the different
aspects of the ship. The Silver Cloud was originally built in 1994. It was
converted in 2017 from a cruise ship into an exhibition ship. It became an ice
class 1C, which means its hull was strengthened so it can push through some
sea ice. It has seven passenger decks, 212 crew and in the polar regions it takes 240
Passengers. It is a pretty fast ship, which is important for things like
traversing the notoriously troublesome Drake Passage between Ushuaia and
Antarctica. During my time on board the Silver Cloud, I came to really love this
ship. When I first boarded, my initial reaction was I thought it looked a
little bit dated, but I came to appreciate the look,
feel and design of the ship. I found the decor really
appropriate as it's not modern, brash and glitzy and works
really well, I think, with expedition cruising. In terms of choice of
facilities, the ship has a lot to offer especially for an expedition
ship. Let's take a look at the main facilities. Silver Cloud has a wide
choice for an expedition ship of dining, actually 5 dining options
altogether. The main one is the Restaurant, that's the main dining room.
It's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and, of course, it is a waiter served
restaurant. Great food down here, and whether you want to table for two,
even a table for one or larger table they have enough space to cater for all
of those different needs. The second most popular dining option is La Terrazza
which is up on deck 8. During breakfast and lunch it's a buffet,
and in the evening it becomes an Italian restaurant. You have to make
reservations for that and it is included within the fare, but you do have to make
reservations. It is very popular with really good Italian food. On deck 8 is the
Grill, and this is an open-air dining space on the pool deck. It's
surprisingly popular, even in the cold of Antarctica. During the day it
serves informal food, it has lunch of things
like burgers and hot dogs. At night it becomes the place where they serve the
service Silversea Hot Rocks, which are the volcanic lava rocks where you cook
your own meat, fish or vegetables. It's really good fun being out there when
it's really cold and blustery outside wrapped up and having the Hot Rocks
experience. It is really popular. The only restaurant which does have a charge
is La Dame. La Dame is the premium prestige dining experience across most
of the Silversea ships. The last dining option is 24-hour room service with
breakfast, lunch, midnight snacks and also during evening you can
also order from the main dining room menu. There's a lot of choice of
dining options. The one thing which they don't really have is, because there's no
buffet option in the evening, if you do want something ready just quick and fast
your only real option is room service. I did it a couple of times because I
didn't want to go and do a whole sit-down meal after a day exploring.
Let's take a look at bars and lounges, and there are a number of these. First of
all up on deck 9 you have Tor's Observation Lounge which is right in the
front of the ship. it's a magnificent place and overlooks the bow of the ship.
It is fantastic, particularly on expeditions, when you're sailing through
very scenic parts of the world. It's a great space and often
the expedition crew will be based in here and they'll be able to provide
commentary about what you're seeing. Down on Deck 8 is the Panorama Lounge.
This is where you have early riser breakfasts and teas and coffees in
here all day. In warmer climates you can also sit outside. Just off there is
the smokers' lounge. Particularly because in some places it's
too cold to go out and smoke on deck, Silver Cloud has its own smoking lounge just off the
Panorama Lounge. In warmer climates, although to be honest even in cold
climates, the Pool Bar is open pretty much during the day into the evening. The
nicest bar, in my view, especially in the evening if you are looking to have a
cocktail before or after dinner Is Dolce Vita, which is on deck 7. In the
evenings they normally have a duo playing and performing live music.
In terms of entertainment, being an exploration ship, there is not a lot of
laid on entertainment. Saying that, you do
have the Explorers lounge where you have all your briefings and expedition
lectures. The main focus of entertainment is enrichment.
The expedition team, of which there can be up to 28 people, ranging from
historians to botanists to experts in birds and wildlife and they hold
briefings every day and give lots of different talks. There's no
production shows and it's very much enrichment focused,
and that really happens in the Explorers lounge. What about other
facilities? One things that I really loved is the Photo Studio. The Photo
Studio is fantastic. They have loads of machines, both Mac based and PC based and on
those machines you have programs like Lightroom and Photoshop. During the
course of the cruise you can go down there with your SD cards and you can
work on your photographs and you can also
print those out. There is a charge to print those out. The other thing which
they do is offer a range of free and paid for training sessions. You can
learn how to use Lightroom, go on one-to-one photography tuition or
go on group classes. It's a really great initiative. In terms of other
facilities, while they have the usual things you would expect, they have a
fitness centre, a pretty big fitness centre considering the size of the
ship. A Spa, of course, with a Beauty Center
and the usual spa treatments. They also have a small library, which is actually
pretty well stocked. There's also a free-to-use guest laundry. Then
the Mud Room where you keep all your boots, where you get ready and come back
from expeditions. Being an expedition ship it also has 18 zodiacs to take
people out on the various excursions ,and also it has 10 kayaks. I know they
are trying to increase the amount of kayaks they have because it's incredibly
popular. Let's talk about accommodation. The main type of cabin,
or should I say suite, on board Silver Cloud is what I'm in here - which is the
veranda or the balcony suite. I like it a huge amount. I think particularly
if you're going on an Expedition, especially to places like the Arctic or Antarctica, having a
veranda cabin is fantastic because there might be things like whales passing by
or incredible scenery and I found it great that I could just go on the
balcony and take great pictures or video.
The vast majority are these veranda cabins and, as you can see, really nice
with comfortable beds, really nice bathroom with a nice big shower.
They do have more premium Suites as well Owners suites,
Medallion suites, Silver Suites which are much bigger but the main type of cabin
is this one that I'm in. Built originally as a classic cruise ship the Silver
Cloud was converted in 2017 into an expedition ship and, as I've mentioned
earlier, my first impressions when I came aboard is I thought maybe it was
a little bit dated. However, I came to really appreciate the look and feel of
the ship because I felt it tied beautifully with the expedition process.
It wasn't glitzy and modern. It really fitted in with a classic and
historic sense of going on an expedition. The accommodation itself was
incredibly comfortable. I loved my suite. I loved the beds. I loved the
space and really appreciated the bathroom with a nice big shower.
There's a surprisingly large amount of choice in terms of dining options and
bars considering this is an expedition cruise and probably the only niggle
out of everything was that in the evenings if you want to have
something quick and fast, your only real option was have room service,
because there was no quick and fast option. The Silver Cloud expedition cruise
ship is a great ship. I really liked it. I can see why so many people are so passionate
about the ship. So many people I know really love this ship and it is a great
ship to do an expedition cruise on. If you're considering going to Antarctica and
you've got to go through Drake Passage, this ship is very fast and it can
actually deal with waves pretty well. It's a really good ship. Hopefully, you
found that helpful and has helped you decide if Silver Cloud is the right ship
for you if you're thinking of going on an expedition and thinking of
an expedition with Silversea. I'd love it if you watch many more of my Tips For
Travellers videos, they're designed to help you make more of your precious
travel time money whether it's on land, on sea or on rivers.