So our next Silversea voyage is about to start.

The last cruise of 2020 before Covid hit was on the Silver Cloud in Antarctica. That was a blessed voyage with good weather, good group and some wonderful sightings. This was right after my eye issue with the blowout orbital fracture with surgery in late December. This was early January. Doctors instructions "stay of the wind and the cold". So totally disobeying instructions off we went to Antarctica. I bought some snow googles for the wind took some zodiac tours but did not do many landings.

So now I am looking forward to no restraints in the landings and in particular landing on the magic island of Lunga, full of puffins where get amazingly close. You can almost reach out and touch them. We also have a really nice group on this trip I know all but four of the people and already heard from one of them I think they are going to be very nice.

Just wanted to get this thread up ready for posting. Stacey and Jim are on this trip, and Stacey did a remarkable job on her report on the Splendor trip so I am glad she is on this cruise also.

Our first Silversea cruise was in 2006 on the Cloud when it was a “regular” ship. Since then we have only been on Silversea Expedition ships (Explorer 3x and the Cloud after refurbished as an expedition ship 2x) . Can’t wait to do it again!
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Helen

June and I are also very much looking forward to this cruise. We did a cruise somewhat similar a couple of years ago and loved the itinerary. This cruise has a great group and we know and have cruised with almost everyone.

June and I are so looking forward to this cruise that we both are about 75% packed already.

June and I have also booked the cruise on the Cloud from Aug 8-24 in 2023 and very much looking forward to that cruise. I did some of that area years ago when I did the northwest passage and it was terrific. It is hard to beat an expedition cruise on the Cloud.

Looking forward to seeing Ralph and June, and Ngaire and Ken again soon for this cruise. It helped with the packing that all we had to do was get our gear from TROLLS laundered and repacked!!!

June and I are soooo looking forward to this cruise and seeing you and Jim again. Packing was a breeze and we are both packed and ready to go. Hard to wait. Save a night for dinner. Love the Cloud it is a fantastic expedition ship.

Can’t wait! A dinner is your!

And so it begins…. We booked Roundtrip flights to SFO and let Silversea handle our flights out of SFO and back. Our flight to SFO was the last one of the night and it got cancelled, so we had to rent a car and drive rather than drive our own car and pay for parking until we return. We had a room booked at the Grand Hyatt at SFO as we planned to anyway and we made it. Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s SFO-PDX-KEF

Good luck Kim! I know that Air travel has been a challenge of late. We leave Saturday morning LAX to JFK to KEF. Way less room for error than you guys allowed for. I know the flight JFK -KEF is the only one so I’m a bit worried about it but I will keep a good thought for you and Alice and cross my fingers for my flights.

BTW Michele and Ed are onboard the Cloud and report 6% of passengers and 7.5% of crew quarantined with Covid!
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Helen

We are going via Newark, also leave tomorrow morning. I have become so used to Covid now. On the ships or at home people all around are catching Covid. I have decided to look at the numbers in a positive way. 94% of passengers are Covid free.

Kim and Helen,
Very interesting. We were originally booked LAX-JFK-KEF but a few months ago they rerouted us LAX-SEA-KEF with only 64 minutes in Seattle to change planes. We are not optimistic about arriving on Sunday with our luggage. I tried mightily to try to get Silversea air to let us take an earlier flight to SEA but they wouldn’t budge. And if we had just done it on our own they would have cancelled our SEA-KEF tickets because we would have been considered no-shows. Fingers crossed. Hope to see you all in Reykjavik!

The flights for June and I to return from cruise just got changed to something that will not work. So we will know take advantage of post cruise hotel in Dublin and take a BA flight on august 28. Departs 13:05 arrive LHR 14:35. Departs LHR 16:10 arrives LAX 19:20.

It is clear as we all travel over next year or two we need to be flexible. And review air plans often. One is usually notified by not always and it helps to jump on the alternates sooner regather than later.

Dinner on august 27 should be fun. Lemon aid from lemons.

COVID tests done in the hotel. On-line proctoring by EMed was awesome. Got boarding passes and having Bloody Mary in the lounge. We have only 1:30 time to connect in PDX. Fingers crossed for everyone!

Ralph - delta messed up our return flights for Polar Bears. So I booked alternative United routing. Then delta fixed things. It I am holding on to both RT bookings until I can decide which airline is more likely than the other to get us there and back.

Really wish we were doing this one as it is right down out alley, but we had Regent FCC''s that had to be used before the end of the year. So are cruising next month and couldn't do two so close together. Disappointing.

the good news for those of you worried about flight connections is that the ship is in Iceland for 2 days after embarkation, and Iceland is really small. So you will make the ship no matter what.

Ok spoke too soon. My nice, convenient Delta One flights via JFK are no more. Flight to JFK is now delayed 3 hours meaning we will miss our connecting flight. We are now flying via Minneapolis in something called “premium Select”? We arrive at 730 am., We got the last 2 seats and are not sitting together. Only other Options included 2 stops or no arrival until the 15th. Sigh. Hoping at least our luggage enjoys the trip.
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Helen

Sigh 😔 Good luck Helen and Jerry! Be strong!
We are hanging out at the Hilton after having breakfast. We are waiting for the HOHO bus to start running. We arrived KEF 30 minutes early at 0530. Getting through immigration was easy. We waited for our driver only a few seconds. The ride to the hotel was 40 minutes.

We arrived yesterday and our luggage is here with us. Enjoyed dinner at The Coocoo’s Nest last night - reasonable prices, many locals and vegetarian options available.

Today’s plan is heading out to the eruption site and hiking in to see the volcano in action. Safe travels everyone!

We hiked out to the Fagradalsjfall Volcano. It was worth every ankle endangering step.

Some photos

I’m glad everyone is having better luck than us! So our rebooked flight LAX to KEF via MSP was also delayed so that we would not make that connection either so we were rebooked Air France to Paris and Iceland Air to KEF. It came as no surprise that 1/2 our luggage (mine!) did not make it. Keeping a good thought that it will find us before the ship sails. Per my Apple tags my bag found its way to Minnesota where it continues to reside
See everyone tomorrow!
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Helen

So are you in Iceland now, Helen!? Your flight misadventures sound awful. Good luck on the luggage.

I am in Iceland . My luggage was in Minneapolis this morning, maybe arriving here before we sail🤞🏻. Love my apple air tags!

Oh gosh sure hope your luggage makes it. Hope in spite of all the issues getting there, once onboard the ship things will return to normal and you have a great time.

Helens luggage made it! So nice to be back on the Cloud. I really like this ship, it so intimate and easy to get around. Have to wear masks in the Explorer lounge where they do the recaps but no where else on the ship is it mandatory.

Weather in Reykjavik was sunny and warm. Kate wanted to get WOLF FISH a fish i have never eaten. At the hotel they said every restaurant will have it. Wrong information. We went from restaurant to restaurant and we got "we had it yesterday" or "we will have it tomorrow". Finally Kate and I sat down in a little park and people watched. Dick and Ken went in search of the elusive Wolf Fish. The second restaurant we went to did have Wolf Fish but they were not serving it until the dinner menu that started at 3.00 pm. It was about 1.00 pm after our restaurant saga, so we finally went back to that second restaurant and "begged" for them to cook us Wolf Fish. They agreed to do that. I am so glad I got to try it. The whitest fish I have ever seen and was absolutely fantastic. I will post a picture to show the success of the Wolf Fish hunt.

Jim and Stacy went to a great restaurant (which did not have Wolf Fish) for dinner. She had scallops and they came served in a very unique way. That picture will be coming also.

Now we are in our first port, Vestmannaeyjar. Again brilliant sunshine, lush green hills, birds flying around the ship and the sun shining on the small town. Today we are doing a boat tour of the island with the bird cliffs.

Thank for the entries on the upcoming cruises. So many of the people that offer acronyms were travelling so we did not have as many entries BUT we do have good names. So I appreciate those that were able to participate. Just finally got a chance to look up LCT to see what was going on. Thank you.

Jim with scallops served very uniquely by an octopuses

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Ngaire with her Wolf Fish under the sauce.




Dick and Kate. Beer before Wolf Fish.

Had a great day in Vestmannaeyjar. Sun was shining and seas were calm. Once we arrived at the town it was really warm. There was not a cloud in the sky and a stunning day. We boarded a boat for a tour around the islands. The commentator was great had us laughing a lot and told interesting stories about the island where she has lived all her life. Massive islands with ropes to help people climb. She said it is very easy only takes about 20 minutes to get to the top!

We saw puffins, and an interesting part of an island that looks like an elephant drinking. I will post that picture.

Dick, Kate, June Ralph and Mary Ellen and Jim were on this tour. Helen and Jerry had the earlier departure.

After the tour we went into what we thought was a museum but turned out to be tourist attraction. Kind of hokey but we did enjoy it. They had puffins so you could see them up close but the big attraction was the beluga whales.

These Beluga whales were originally in Shanghai. In a very small enclousure and not very good conditions. Iceland purchased the Belugas and they are now at home here in Vestmannaeyjar. It mentions how they do not like to have an animal in capativity and not in its natural habitat. However, these belugas have never been in their natural habitat.

They have a bigger enclosure for them here and are better cared for than they were in China. They sectioned off part of the bay harbor where they would be in far more natural an enviroment. However we were told that they were not as happy there and seemed to be afraid of the rain.
I guess never been in the ocean before it was not what they had experienced before. They were playing with a box when we saw them and came right up to the glass, I guess looking at us!

Then we went back to the ship for lunch. Wish I had eaten downstairs I heard they had Arctic Char and crab cakes. But we were a little late back so we went to the buffet instead.

Pictures below.

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Ngaire, June and Ralph



Ngaire and Kate on board our tour boat in a cave.



Hard to see. Look for the trunk of the elephant going to the water and the look up from there to see the elephants eye. You may also see the front leg bent on the ground as elephants often do. Hopefully you may be able to see the rest of the elephant. Hard to capture in a picture.



The beautiful beluga whale.

We arrived at Djupivogur and again greeted by flat seas, sunshine and blue skies. There is a storm behind us and they moved departures up today to get on shore before the storm arrived. However, they warned us that it would not be a beautiful day like we had yesterday. But here we are with the same beautiful weather. Maybe we will have this storm following us and we keep ahead of it that would be fantastic.

Today we did a 4-wheel drive jeep over the island. Most of those in our group are on this same excursion. We ended up with a vehicle for 12 and all but two Australian girls were in our jeep.
Jim & Stacy, Kim & Alice, Ed & Michelle, Dick & Kate, plus me & Ken. This was a great tour that we all enjoyed. The topography was really interesting, with rock faced cliffs, green moss. Extremely rugged terrain. Plus there was a huge number of swans and most permanently stay in this town.

The 4-wheel part of the trip was “truly” a four-wheel adventure. We went very high into the mountains on gravel roads with spectacular scenery. During the trip we walked to two different waterfalls. They were just a short walk not a long hike.

We got back to the ship and the weather was still good. Overcast now but no rain or wind. We had our welcome get together planned for 3.00 pm in the Observation Lounge which is on deck 9. I was worried it may get rough. However, although the wind picked up it did not get rough until around 7.00 pm and then it was pretty heavy seas during the night. Pictures will follow.

We are now in the Faroe Islands and we decided to stay onboard and turned in our tour tickets. We have been here several times before. Fortunately, at 10.00 am right as the tours started to leave the weather brightened up and the rain stopped. Now there are patches of blue sky!

Great pics, Mary Ellen!

Here's the first post from Reykjavik:https://vayacongringos.wordpress.com/2022/08/15/reykjavik-redux/

Love these photos!

There has been a big storm behind us but we have been very fortunate. Good weather each day but the "impending storm" did not catch up wiht us. Yesterday it looked bad in the morning and many cancelled their excursions. However, it cleared up and again we saw sun.

We are now at the Island of Noss a nature reserve so we cannot land here. Sun is shining, no clouds but a little bit of a swell. This morning it is a zodiac ride to see the gannets colony. Interesting birds they dive into the water from a pretty high height. Fun to watch. This afternoon we are in Lerwick, Ken and I have been here multiple times. This is where the immigration control takes place for the UK. We are just going to visit the town today. Be back later on today hopefully with some nice pictures.

Love the photos....thanks for sharing with us. Keep having a great time.

Here is the post about the puffin-palooza:
https://vayacongringos.wordpress.com/2022/08/16/an-improbability-of-puffins/

Pictures from Lerwick.

This is one of two birds that a local fed each day. Watching them was great fun. This bird was making the fact known that no food was left was not acceptable




.

Yesterday we were at Dunvegan Castle. They had an early buffet dinner as the private visit was scheduled for 6.15 pm. The buffef looked REALLY good.

However, we have been to this castle three times and decided to use the opportunity to go to Hot Rocks. Empty docked ship, no wind as the ship is anchored. This turned out to be a great decision. Sister June and Ralph joined us and we had steak or veal each and shared shrimp and Arctic Char on the side. Coupled with a baked potato and battered mushrooms. Only one other couple there. Very enjoyable.

This morning we are at Isle of Sky. Zodiac tour or a hike on offer this morning. This afternoon we will visit the small town of Canna. I love these tiny towns and always enjoy wandering around. I hear they have an ice cream shop so that may defintely quarant a visit, probably home made.

We continue to have good weather. Little overcast day but still a bright day anticipate the blue sky will appear shortly.

So we opted for the zodiac tour. Seas were pretty calm. Beautiful green island with a fresh waterfall flowing into the saltwater loch. Great seal viewing with Harbor Seals on a haul out. They were moving around which was fun to watch.

We saw some zodiacs coming back early from the strenuous hike. But our tough KLT hikers, Kim, Alice, Michelle and Ed finished the hike. There may have been others as well.

We are now at the Island of Canna. Had every intention of going onshore. However, after the warning to wear waterproof clothing and it could rain I decided to be a weeny and stay in my nice warm cabin and play scrabble with sister June. Ken has departed to investigate the island.

Ngaire is not the only weenie in the group. I also stayed aboard to work on blog posts. Sadly, I'm much further behind than she is, but I'm trying to catch up. Here is the post from our last day in Iceland in the town of Djúpivogur. There are some good Keene group pics here.

https://vayacongringos.wordpress.com/2022/08/17/jumping-into-djupivogur/

Today we arrived at St.Kilda. Our good luck on weather let us down today. Low fog and swelly conditions but not raining. We were able to go ashore. Last time we were fortunate with a brilliant sunny day. The walking trail had a lot of mud so it was better to walk on the grass. Since we were last here a lot of buildings have been erected and it does take away from the beauty of St. Kilda. However, I do understand they needed better facitlities for those doing research here. This is a remarkable site with stone houses and a very ancient breed of sheep.

After the visit to St. Kilda there was a zodiac cruise to see a colony of puffins. The seas had calmed down and the sun had started to appear. We thought this was a good sign as the highlight in my mind is Lunga where you can walk amongst the puffins. We were concerned the puffins may have already migrated.

We sailed away from this area and then went very close to two unique rock formations with a lot of birds.

Unfortunately the program I use to post pictures is not working. Kim is having the same issues so not sure there will be pictures for the remainder of the trip. I will try again tomorrow.

Today we are on the Isle of Mull and visited Duart Castle, traditional stronghold of the MacLean Clan.
However, in the blog world.. I'm still back in the Faroe Islands because I haven't had enough Internet to be able to upload pictures. Here is the post from the Faroe Islands:

https://vayacongringos.wordpress.com/2022/08/18/the-faroe-islands/

Sorry not posted much since we lost the ability to post pictures. We are debarking this morning. Duart Castle was really good we enjoyed it a lot. Did some other tours and zodiac rides. I think we missed the best tour on the last day, in the Port of St. Mary & Calf in the Isle of Man. A train ride and a Rushen, a medival castle. I often do not take a tour on the last day of a cruise. Take time to pack and enjoy the ship before we have to leave but probably a mistake in this case.

Next cruise is Alaska which I am looking forward to as a lot of people we know well. IPlus I like to eat my way through Alaska the seafood is so fantastic there.

Ngaire, I'm so glad that you and Ken enjoyed the Wolf Fish after the Icelandic Saga that it took for us to find it! Thanks to you both for your perseverance. Another KLT memory!