This was my second expedition cruise with Silver Seas; the first having been on the Prince Albert II in Svalbard. Therefore I had high expectations, most of which were met. I agree with other reviewers that the ship is old and needs to be replaced. There is only so much cosmetic refurbishing that can be done. That said, the rooms were small, but very clean and comfortable. The public areas had also been refurbished. The food was excellent and up to Silverseas standards. The dinner portions were small enough so that you could eat all four courses if desired. Wait staff were excellent and identified me by name soon after we commenced our voyage. My maid and butler were both charming. The maid kept my room looking "together" throughout the voyage. I was pleased to have the butler service so I could have a meal in my room, which I did several times since I returned to the ship after very hot and humid weather excursions and didn't feel like eating in the dining room. I only did "hot rocks" once, but it was a lot of fun and had no problem whatsoever in reserving this. The bar/kitchen near the pool was too small and the wait staff did a super job in trying to cope with inadequate space. Overall I thought the staff was excellent and we had some very interesting lectures, although not the quantity that I experienced on the Arctic cruise. The first lecture was generally at 9:15AM, which was a bit early, esp. on days at sea. Unfortunately, a cyclone off the coast of Madagascar affected our time at Aldabra Atoll. The crew should be commended for being able to land us for a late afternoon walk to the ranger station; at least we were able to see a large number of the Aldabra giant tortoise. Due to the weather, we could not do the lagoon tour or any snorkeling/diving the next day. Most of the coral in the Maldives had been bleached out due to an El Nino in 2016. However, we did see a lot of beautifully colored fish. Snorkelling in the Seychelles was not good due to weather complications. Great great shore excursions in Zanzibar and Victoria. Poor scheduling though because we landed in both on Sundays! Thank you to Jamie again for fixing my mask and getting to my "taxi" on shore in Dar es Salaam. I'm not sure who was at fault for this but there was NO information for pre or post-embarkation/disembarkation or hotels given to me prior to the cruise. I made my own arrangements in Colombo and used the ship's way-overpriced $89 ride from the port in Dar to my centrally-located hotel, which I arranged on my own.