effinaround

Hey Ken, Loved your review of the trip as I have this cruise on my list for some date in the future. The photo above is actually Mississauga - a city of almost a million people just west of Toronto and where I live. The city has undergone rapid growth and most of the buildings in your photo are all residential. Here's a photo of it I took last weekend after my return from the Antarctica cruise.

I made extensive use of the laundry facilities on deck 5 FWD. They worked quite well although I usually had to run the dryer twice to fully dry some loads that were denim heavy. For a long itinerary that covers both winter and summer like this trip, the laundry facilities allow you to pack less and stay within the baggage weight limits of most airlines. Ken, thanks for the great photos. even though I was on the first leg of the trip, I refer to this thread frequently for some of the place names and other reference items like the windy maps. I wish you safe travels home and I'll also be eagerly awaiting your April 30th B3B thread!

GET OUT OF THE CABIN!!!! I can't say this loudly enough. There is so much to see on all sides of the ship. You'll gain a better appreciation if you are mobile and move around the ship. I enjoyed every second of our cruise and there was just so much to see. There were some mornings where I walked bow to stern from promenade deck to the upper decks to get a different viewpoint. The lighting and the angles changed every few seconds it seemed like and I have so many fabulous photographs. For me it really was a trip of a lifetime and I really wanted to make the most of it. I'd encourage anyone taking this cruise in the future to dress appropriately, get outside, and move around the ship when passing such breathtaking scenery.

That's a good point. I know many people missed Deception Island because we were about an hour later than planned and I guess they didn't look at the Antarctica voyage map that was distributed to the cabins for the timing. I kept racing out of the dining room and going up to deck 7 to take photos since it was lunchtime when we passed by. I mentioned in the survey that it should be mentioned in the patter.

I know I set my alarm for some ungodly hour like 430 or 5am and I think I may have done that after learning from a post on the Facebook group about the timing. I'm glad I did as it was worth getting up early:

Fortunately, we are staying in Buenos Aires for a few days and fly back to Toronto on Thursday afternoon. For those that have mobility challenges and were of an advanced age, it must not have been easy for them. I can't imagine disembarking 500 passengers in that small space outside the terminal, let alone 3500! If Buenos Aires is serious about attracting cruise traffic, that need to become serious about building a facility to handle them. If that was the experience today with an arrival, I can't imagine how the departure with a damaged waiting lounge went!

Ken, you were lucky to stay on the ship. That disembarkation was a complete cluster. We left the ship at 10:00 and arrived at the terminal at 10:15 and waited in a line of nine other buses for 32 minutes. Once we got off it was a cauldron of chaos and confusion. There was no place for the flow of people upon exiting the building. The building used today is wholly unsuitable for any type of pax handling operations.

Kids club is great. My four year old daughter is thoroughly enjoying it on the Sapphire Princess right now. I don't know about the other ships but it is a large space on the Sapphire and they run it three times a day 09:00 to 12:00, 14:00-17:00 and 19:00-22:00. No appointment is necessary and they have fabulous activities for those that want to participate. It really has helped us on the Antarctica cruise where she really didn't want to spend a lot of time outdoors looking at scenery.

I didn't notice a lot of wildlife aside from the penguins, turkey vultures, sheep and geese. If you have limited time, or any type of back or osteo problems, think twice about taking the Volunteer Point excursion. My wife and I are early fifties, and in good health so it was ok for us. Our four year old certainly enjoyed the ride but it is bone jarring!

This was tacked onto the washroom and is certainly outdated:

If you like Kings, Volunteer Point is a good place to be:

We did Volunteer Point. What would you like to know? Lots of Kings at Volunteer Point and we had a great time!

No trouble tendering for us. We left at 08:00 for Stanley and came back at 16:30. It was not as choppy as I expected. It was a long day for me, my wife and the little one but totally worth it to see some of these guys in action: This was my 4 year old daughter's reaction to seeing the penguins: By the end of the day I felt like this:

Indeed.

True. I was using a 2000mm equivalent zoom lens. There was a lot of stuff that I shot on spec where I thought there might be something and zoomed in. Once i captured the image I played it back on the camera and then had a better idea where to focus. If I was better organized I would have had the binoculars with me more frequently. Still, I shot a number of frames of the National Geographic Resolution expedition ship yesterday and only after the fact realized that there were penguins right behind it.