maztoz

Fascinating photos Seadog, thanks for the posting. 

A couple of months ago I recall reading (perhaps in the Cruise Industry news?) that the builder had orders for 10 of these Ulstein bow ships. The Mortimer will be the first to float, and since we have booked two back to backs for 2021 we have fingers crossed for a successful build and a timely sailing schedule.
The zodiac loading looks great and oh... that mudroom! How wonderful to have the ability to store your gear in lockers!

Thanks to all for the great suggestions.

Fran,

Fabulous info! Thanks a million.

Paul,

The friends we're meeting in Paris for a Seine cruise have also suggested that Budapest Sofitel, and I really like the location. Sounds like a winner!

So glad you enjoyed Scenic. It was a leap of faith to book two of them at once. Take care, and thanks again.

Nice! Just took a look, great location and reasonably reasonable.

Sure appreciate the recommendation.

Thanks so much 3-4 !

What good advice Three4rd, we might not have thought to leave a day to tour *backwards* to the Bend area. Our schedule is flexible, so perhaps four days will do the trick.

Thanks very much.

Hi Paul,

Thanks for mentioning Melinda K. in Budapest. We have two separate Scenic river cruises booked with a healthy gap in between and appreciate the recommendation for a city guide. I'll be sure to say *hi* should we book her.

Do you happen to have any preferences for a Budapest hotel? I think we might stay in Budapest for 4-5 days before moving on to France.

Best Regards from Deep East Texas!

Greetings all,

For those interested in Hebridean Sky, please note that my trip impressions are colored by good fortune. We had nearly perfect weather the entire 3 weeks, a gentle Drake passage and the most delightful expedition staff imaginable.

Our trip was beyond fantastic. Of course, so early in the season, we saw no chicks. Our compensation was a South Georgia teeming with Oakum boys. The courting and mating behaviors were mesmerizing. The Black browed albatross, the Kings, all the penguin species in fact, were busy, busy at it. The elephant seals were abundant and frisky, but boy, do they ever stink.

This trip was truly an expedition and not for the faint of heart. Our expedition leader Brandon Harvey, regularly woke us up at 5am for a pre-breakfast landing. This resulted in our having 3 landings a day on most days. It was FABULOUS. We were very grateful we’d booked a week in Ushuaia upon disembarkation, allowing us to hike and bird in Tierra Del Fuego N.P. AND get some needed rest.

The trip started in Puerto Madryn, rather than round trip Ushuaia, and we loved that portion. The Peninsula Valdes is a must see and those Southern Right whales… astonishingly close to shore.

The Hebridean Sky, as operated by Polar Latitudes is a wonderful, luxurious ship we’d sail again in a heartbeat. A good many of our fellow travelers were repeat visitors to Antarctica and knew exactly what they wanted to experience. The kayakers had 8 excellent opportunities to go ‘yakking and they were all pretty thrilled. The hearty hikers got to recreate the “Shackleton Walk” and we even had a wedding! It was really quite a special trip.

At one point our ship had to change course a bit to go around a piece of the Larsen ice shelf that measured 26 x12 MILES ! That’s a pretty big ice cube. If you long to see Antarctica, go soon. Things are changing down there.

Happy Holidays!

Hi Smokey,

PerfectlyPerth speaks the truth. Choose your preferred itinerary and you can’t go wrong. We sailed the Hebridean Sky to Antarctica back when she was still the Corinthian II, and the experience was fantastic. So much so that we are currently booked on Polar Latitudes’ November trip to the Falklands, SG and the peninsula. Everything about that ship is wonderful and if the current expedition team is just half as knowledgable, brilliant and fun as our last voyage we’ll be in for a treat.

You will hardly use your cabin, but having a nice refuge, decent grub and good wine is important to us and I understand Hebridean just underwent a major refresh. Regardless of the ship you choose, prepare yourself for an experience you will never forget and will long to repeat. It’s really easy to catch the Ice-Virus.

Happy travels!

MZ

ps. Turtles, really nice albatross :)

Take care you guys.

Enjoyed the heck out of this thread. May all future travels be equally glorious.

Thank you for the effort!

Best wishes for safe travels and continued adventures. This labor of love thread will remain here as a valuable resource for many.

Thanks Wayne.

Cynthia

This thread is a work of great mastery.

Your seemingly effortless ability to distill down to essentials while still conveying your contagious sense of wonder and joy is a sheer pleasure to read.

Thank you very much for this outstanding resource!

The positives are many, I quite agree. Numerous enough for us to sign on for 180 days in 2017. But it can't be a bad thing to illuminate inequities. If we don't note and talk about them, how can we ever expect improvements to occur?

Oceania is a pretty darn good cruise line with the potential to be a great one. Fairness and common sense should dictate cruise credits, rather than the current willy-nilly allocation, so I'm siding with Nelly.

This thread is painful to read!

What I see, is that what you say they say about this issue, is more than enough inconsistency and unpredictability to cause major headaches requiring immediate application of chilled wine bottles to forehead! (Please use contents of bottle to swallow aspirin)

Hang in there my friend, don't let the Bizarro's make you crazy.

I'm thinking a nice juicy formal letter to the Powers-That-Be couldn't hurt?