Silversea X CITTI Elite: An ‘adventure reveal’
During their recent “adventure reveal” at the Grand Hyatt in Taguig City, CITTI Elite president and CEO Shan Dioquino David and Takanobu “Koba” Kobayakawa, Silversea’s director of sales for Asia, connected the dots in the ocean of the planet we call home — by unveiling over 900 destinations on all seven continents in the world. All reachable by Silversea.
Whether you want to sail directly into the heart of Seville, around the tip of Cape Horn, along the craggy coasts of Canada or through the breathtaking Chilean fjords, there is a luxury cruise for you. There are classic voyages that visit iconic ports and focus on full destination immersion, and there are expedition cruises, which cannot be fully described, only experienced. You’ll travel to some of the world’s most remote and remarkable landscapes — from the primeval Galápagos Islands to the lush, tropical Edens of Polynesia to the frosted wilderness of Antarctica.
Argentine diplomat Fabrício Sordoni said, “We are far away, but we are well connected, nevertheless.”
Sordoni was referencing the Silversea cruises to Argentina being curated by CITTI Elite, which involve flying first to New York or Miami, or perhaps Paris, before going on to Argentina. And then after that…A new world awaits!
(The Argentine voyage is a true bucket-list trip that stretches from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso in Chile and immerses you in the natural splendor of the Falkland Islands’ magnificent penguins, the spectacular Garibaldi fjord and glacier, as well as the deepest blue Chilean fjords.)
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Shan, who has been to at least 100 countries in all seven continents, and Koba, a seasoned cruise executive, set sail that night a regatta of choices to explore the world, making me think that we all belong to one vast body of water. Yes, as Señor Sordoni had said, we are all connected.
Koba told me that bookings for Silversea cruises this year are “coming in very fast compared to last year.”
The most popular is in the southern Hemisphere, the Antarctica Flying Cruise. What is a “flying” cruise?
Antarctica fly-cruises offer a way to reach the Antarctic Peninsula by plane, bypassing the often rough Drake Passage. These trips combine a flight from Punta Arenas, Chile, to King George Island (South Shetland Islands) with a cruise along the Antarctic Peninsula. This reportedly allows travelers to focus on the Antarctic landscapes and wildlife without the potential for seasickness or rough seas.
According to Koba, from the Philippines alone, bookings “are landing somewhere this year in a three-digit number.”
That’s a lot, considering that Silversea ships intentionally only carry passengers in three-digit numbers in order to have a good passenger to crew ratio.
I myself have been privileged to go on a Silversea Expedition cruise to the Arctic. We flew first to Oslo in Norway then to Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago between Norway and the North Pole.
With me in my very first expedition cruise on Silversea were Shan herself and Karen Davila and her family.
“I love expeditions! And the Arctic expedition was the first one we did with Silversea. Loved the adventure!” Karen said.
Driven by weather, wildlife and whim, Silversea Expeditions’ Arctic cruises put the amaze into amazing. Our Silver Cloud expedition to the Arctic was a combination of sailing, sightseeing and going on a safari — except it was a safari on ice water instead of dry land.
On the second night of our cruise, I asked Silver Cloud Capt. Andriy Domanin what makes the Arctic expedition cruise unique.
“Every day you’re looking for something new and you never know what is going to happen today. You never know what’s happening tomorrow. So it’s not like the usual cruise. You always have an adventure; you’re always excited to see something new. You see something — you’re exploring the world.”
Of course, the captain knew whereof he spoke. In six days, I learned to ride a Zodiac, a sturdy rubber boat that can forge through the ice and make dry landings as well; had champagne from a floating bar in the middle of a serene fjord (the “Fjord of Love,” so I missed my husband); beheld stunning glaciers, one of them 4.4-kilometer wide; saw a “huddle” of walruses and seals; was entranced by deer; sailed on an ocean of ice to the Ice Edge, the ice glistening like diamond boulders bobbing up and down the ocean.
And after all this, we all had a comfortable floating home to come back to, with a personal butler to assist us in every way. We began our day with an expedition, and we ended our day with elegance. Or you can just relax in your suite the whole day, stay in your veranda and just drink in all the beauty of snow-dusted mountains under the Midnight Sun 24 hours a day — or night.
The cruise was a thrilling and yet calming (oh those views are reportedly better than therapy!) expedition into a world I once only imagined. *
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