Wednesday May 28th - a bit about our ship Silver Explorer

Another lovely day here – you might all be getting tired of hearing that (assuming anyone is actually reading this!) 

Today we are scheduled to visit Iona in the morning and Tobermory in the afternoon. Because I spent a day here on Iona just under 4 weeks ago I decided to stay on board the ship and catch up on washing etc. If I get too bored I will jump on a zodiac and run to and from the island for a bit of excitement. 

In the meantime I thought I would give you a bit of info on our ship the Silver Explorer. There are 118 passengers on board and about 120 crew members who represent 25 different nationalities. 

The ship appears to be about 100m long and has 6 decks plus the boat deck on top where they store the zodiacs we use to get to and from the landings. 

My cabin is on deck 4 and pretty close to the middle of the ship although our weather has been so benign to date no part of the ship would be uncomfortable.  As cruise ships go, this is a small one which is what I like. 

My cabin

The observation lounge on deck 6 from where I am writing this

The theatre

the Panorama Lounge to which we adjourn after dinner

The restaurant

The pool deck (no pools, just a couple of jacuzzis)

 

And the library and Internet cafe.

We have a Butler called Voijtech and our suite attendant is Haryanti. Obviously there are usually people in all of these spaces but because I have taken some of the photos today when most people are ashore, the ship appears deserted. 

The food is really good and I can choose to eat in the restaurant, at the grill bar on the pool deck or have room service and I can have a really early breakfast in the observation lounge which means I can check out the view as we are approaching each landing site.  The evening meal consists of 5 courses but they are sensible and give small servings. Big eaters can, I guess, order seconds.  All the food that you could need or want is provided and all alcohol is included unless you want something from their "special" range. I can request as much wine, whisky or whatever as I want to be in my cabin for me to drink at my leisure should I want it (not that I am sitting in my cabin drinking anything). 

Each morning we have a news sheet delivered to the cabin which is specific to the passenger's nationality. So I get "Australia Today" but I have seen a British and American one too and assume they have one for all of the others too.