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Silversea Silver Cloud Expedition Ship. What You Need To Know Before Cruising
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Jan 28, 2025
Silversea Cruises Silver Cloud was converted into an expedition ship from as regular cruise ship in 2017. I went on the shop to Antarctica and I share my thoughts about the ship, what I liked and what thought had some opportunities. I take you on a tour of the ship and a Verandah suite (the main class of suites on the ship), and discuss the facilities, features and the choices available on this luxury expedition cruise ship. Check out cruising merchandise like T-shirts at my store at https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/store Support the channel by booking your Silversea cruise and get the best deals on CRUISEDIRECT.COM: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/CruiseDirectYT Consider becoming a Tips For Travellers Patron. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #Silversea #SilverseaCruises #SilverCloud
View Video Transcript
0:00
europe i discover everything you need to
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know about silversea's
0:03
silver cloud expedition cruise ship hi
0:06
i'm gary bembridge and this is another
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of my
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tips for travellers i'm currently on
0:10
board with the silver cloud and i want
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to take you on a tour
0:12
and review the ship and tell you what i
0:14
thought of all the different aspects of
0:16
the ship
0:16
the silver cloud was originally built in
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1994 it was converted
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in 2017 from a cruise ship into an
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expedition ship
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it became an ice class 1c which means
0:27
its hull was
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strengthened so it can push through some
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sea ice
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it has seven passenger decks 212 crew
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in the polar regions it takes 240 people
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and it's a pretty fast ship which is
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really important
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for things like traversing the
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notoriously
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troublesome drake passage between the
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shire and antarctica
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during my time on board the silver cloud
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i came to really love this
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ship when i first bought it my initial
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reaction was i thought it looked a
0:56
little bit dated however i really came
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to appreciate the look and feel
0:59
and design of the ship i found the decor
1:01
actually really appropriate
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so it's not modern and brash and glitzy
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and that actually works really well i
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think
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with expedition cruising in terms of
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choice of facilities the ship actually
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has
1:12
a lot to offer especially for an
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expedition ship
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so let's take a look at the main
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facilities silver cloud has a very wide
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choice again for an expedition ship of
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dining there's actually
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five dining options all together the
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main one
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is the restaurant that's the main dining
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room it's open for breakfast lunch
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and dinner and of course it is a waiter
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served restaurant
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great food down here and whether you
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want a table for two or even a table for
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one
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or a larger table they have enough space
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to cater for all of those different
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needs
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the second most popular dining option is
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la tarrazza now la taraza
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is up on deck eight during breakfast and
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lunch it's a buffet
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and in the evening it becomes an italian
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restaurant
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and you do have to make reservations for
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that so it is included within the fair
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but you do have to make reservations
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very popular really good italian food
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now on deca 8 is the grill and this is
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an open-air
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dining space on the pool deck and it's
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surprisingly popular
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even in the colds of antarctica so
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during the day it serves informal food
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so
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it has lunch of things like burgers hot
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dogs and at night
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it becomes the place where they serve
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the silver sea signature
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hot rocks which are the volcanic lava
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rocks where you cook your own meat or
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fish or vegetables
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it's really good fun being out there
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when it's really cold and blowy outside
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wrapped up and having the hot dogs
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experience
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really really popular the only
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restaurant which does have a charge
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is ladam ladam is the very premium
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prestige
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dining experience across most of the
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silver sea ships
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the last dining option is 24 hour room
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service so with its breakfast lunch
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midnight
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snacks and also during evening times you
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can actually also order
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from the main dining room menu so
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there's a lot of choice of
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dining options the one thing which they
3:00
don't really have is because there's no
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buffet
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option in the evening if you do want
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something really just quick and fast
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your only real option is room service i
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did it a couple of times because i
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didn't want to go and do a whole
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sit-down meal after a day exploring
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let's take a look at bars and lounges
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and there are a number of these first of
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all up on deck 9 you have
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tours observation lounge which is right
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on the front of the ship it's a
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magnificent
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place it overlooks the bow the ship and
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is fantastic particularly
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on expeditions when you're sailing
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through very scenic parts of the world
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it's a great space and often what will
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happen is the expedition crew
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will be based in here and they'll be
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able to give you commentary about what
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you're seeing
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done on deck eight is the panorama
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lounge this is where you have early
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riser breakfasts
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you have teas and coffees in here all
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day
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and in warmer climates you can also sit
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outside
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just off there is the smoker's lounge
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the scar lounge and particularly because
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in some places it's too cold to go out
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and smoke on deck it has its own smoking
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lounge just off the panorama lounge
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in warmer climates although to be honest
4:02
even in cold climates the pool bar
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is open pretty much during the day into
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the evening the nicest bar in my view
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particularly in the evening if you're
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looking to have a cocktail before
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or after dinner is the dolce vita which
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is on deck 7 and in the evenings
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they will normally have a duo playing
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and performing here
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live music now in terms of entertainment
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being an exploration ship there is not a
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lot of
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laid on entertainment saying that though
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you do have the explorers lounge
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where you have all your briefings and
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expedition lectures so the main
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focus of entertainment is really
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enrichment so
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the expedition team of which there can
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be up to 28
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people ranging from historians to
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botanists to
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experts in birds and wildlife and
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there'll be briefings every day
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and lots of different talks but there's
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no production shows
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and there's no shows as such it's very
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much enrichment focused and that really
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happens in
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the explorers lounge i want to talk a
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little bit about facilities one things
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that i really loved
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is the photo center the photo center is
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fantastic they have
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loads of machines both mac based and pc
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based on those machines you have
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programs like lightroom and photoshop so
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during the course of the cruise
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you can go down there with your sd cards
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and you can then go and work on your
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photographs
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and then you also have a choice of
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actually printing those out there is a
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charge
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to print those out the other thing which
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they do is they offer a
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range of free and paid for training
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sessions you can learn how to use
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lightroom go on one-to-one
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photography tuition you can go on group
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classes
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it's a really really great initiative in
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terms of other facilities well they have
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the usual things that you would expect
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they have a fitness center a pretty big
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fitness center actually considering the
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size of the ship
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a spa of course with the beauty center
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and the usual spa treatments
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you also have a small library which is
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actually pretty well stocked
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there's also a guest laundry a free to
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use
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guest laundry there's the mud room where
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you keep all your boots
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where you get ready and come back from
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expeditions
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being an expedition ship it also has 18
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zodiacs to take people out
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on the various excursions and also it
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has 10 kayaks and i know they are trying
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to increase
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the amount of kayaks they have because
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it's incredibly popular
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so let's talk about accommodation now
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the main type
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of cabin or should i say sweet on board
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silver cloud
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is what i'm in here which is the veranda
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or the balcony suite
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i really liked it a huge amount and i
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think particularly on expedition if
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you're going to somewhere like the
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arctic or antarctica
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having a veranda cabin is fantastic
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because there might be things like
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whales passing by
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or incredible scenery so i found it
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really great that i could just go on the
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balcony and
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take great pictures or video or whatever
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vast majority
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are these veranda cabins and as you can
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see really nice decor comfortable beds
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really nice
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bathroom with a nice big shower of
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course they then do have much more
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premium suites as well owners sweets
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medallion sweet silver suites
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which are much bigger but the main type
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of cabin is this one that i'm in
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built originally as a classic cruise
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ship the silver cloud
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was converted in 2017 into an expedition
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ship
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and as i mentioned earlier when my first
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impressions when i came on board is
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i thought maybe it was a little bit
7:10
dated however i came to really
7:12
appreciate the look and feel of the ship
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because i felt it tied really
7:16
beautifully
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with the expedition process it wasn't
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glitzy and modern it really fitted in
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with the kind of the classic
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and the historic sense of going on an
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expedition
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the accommodation itself incredibly
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comfortable i loved
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my cabin i love the beds i love the
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amount of space
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and really appreciate the bathroom with
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a nice big shower
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there's a surprisingly large amount of
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choice in terms of dining options and
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bars
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considering this is an expedition cruise
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and probably the only needle that i had
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of everything that
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was that in the evenings if you wanted
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to have something quick and fast
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your only real option was really to have
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room service because there was no quick
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and fast option
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silver cloud expedition cruise ship
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great ship
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really liked it i can see why so many
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people are so passionate about the ship
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so many people i know really love this
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ship and it is a great ship to do
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an expedition cruise on if you're
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considering going to antarctica and
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you've got to go through drake
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passage this ship is very fast and it
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can actually deal with waves
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pretty well so it's a really good ship
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hopefully you found that helping us help
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you
8:18
decide if the silver cloud is the right
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ship for you if you're thinking of going
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on an expedition
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and think of you're on an expedition
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with silversea i'd love it if you watch
8:26
many more of my tips for travellers
8:27
videos they're designed to help you make
8:29
more of your precious travel time money
8:31
whether it's on land on sea
8:33
or on rivers
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