Sunviking

23 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We always use AirTags with Luggage Forwarding, never had a problem with receiving our bags.   We Lao kept track of our bags with our AirTags.   The tags even warn you if you need to replace a battery.

I'm confused. Are Air Tags allowed or not?  I'm using Luggage Forward next week for the first time and I would like to put air tags in if they are permitted.  On the LF website it says that they aren't allowed but friends have told me they used them and had no problems.

20 hours ago, frantic36 said:

 

We're both doing well Ann thank you. We are on the LA - Sydney segment of the world cruise any chance you might be onboard? It was lovely to meet you on Quest.

Yes, it was very nice meeting you on the Quest.  I especially enjoyed your anniversary party.  I'll be on the Odyssey for the Grand Pacific voyage so our paths won't cross.  Maybe some time in the future.  Be well.

I don't usually comment on threads about clothes and I don't even own a pair of jeans, but I had to jump in here because of an article I read yesterday in the Off Duty section of the Wall Street Journal.  On the front page of that section which is published on Saturdays and covers fashion, decor and food, the lead article  covering essentially the whole front page is this article: Glamorous Denim: A Guide with the sub-title From haute-couture runways to red carpets, jeans have emerged as formidable formalwear.  I thought it was an interesting coincidence to see this thread and that article at virtually the same time.

BTW, Hi Julie.  I hope you and Keith are both well.

Bob, I have enjoyed reading your "Live from..." too and I know how much time it takes to do that from my own experience.  I also know that when you're doing a cruise with lots of sea days it's easy to lose track of what day it is, especially when you're changing time every day. (Sailing east and losing an hour every day is my least favorite BTW - I hate those 23 hour days!)  I think you've given everyone sailing on the Sapphire soon a good taste of what they will be experiencing.  I'm just sorry that you caught a cold and I hope you're feeling much better now. You and Holli enjoy your last days on the ship and have a safe trip home.  I'll look forward to the next time you cruise and do your reporting.  Fair winds and following seas.

1 hour ago, crusdiva said:

Hi Bob. Sorry to hear you aren’t feeling well. But having a ship practically to yourself on a port day can be a thing of beauty. 😉 

I hope you and Holli have a wonderful sail back. All the best.

I don't want to hijack Bob's "Live from..." but I just wanted to say hi Sharon.  I hope you and Bruce and Jake are well. I've kind of lost touch.  Cheers.

Over the years we used a guide named Sylvie diCristo several times for stops on the French Riviera. She always did an excellent job.  It has been a while so I'm not certain she still is a guide but here's her e-mail address in case you want to contact her.

dicristosylvie@gmail.com

56 minutes ago, SLSD said:

I've just read that the Acropolis in Athens is closed again today due to extreme heat.  

Closing the Acropolis because of heat is not an unusual occurrence in July.  Eleven years ago my daughter and I were in Athens and fortunately took a tour to the Acropolis early in the morning. By noon the place was closed because the temperature had risen so much that walking around there was like being on a marble frying pan.  On that cruise we sailed from Venice to Rome and I don't think I felt cool at any time when I was ashore, but that was when she could go so we did.  Coincidentally while we were away it was just as hot at home in eastern Virginia.  I vowed to never travel to the Med area in July or August again.

6 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

Time of year makes a difference.  Dubai can be hot and Petra and Luxor can be brutal in the heat.

Check the temps during the time you intend on going.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.  I have done a cruise like this in both directions and think the temperatures one can expect would be the deciding factor for me too.  The last time we went  in May and it was already getting very hot in some of the ports.

48 hours.

Last year before I cruised on the Encore from Istanbul I spent a couple of days there. I did a Bosphorus cruise which was very interesting and which I just booked on my own.  I also used a driver and guide arranged through a company called Sea Song. Their website is at seasong.com.  My guide was excellent and I would highly recommend his services.  That company also does shore excursions from other ports in Turkey.

23 hours ago, DTtravelers said:

Enjoy!

 

We also did the trip on the Quest in 2019 (the first of 5 trips that season).  I loved the extended Santiago to Buenos Aires Itinerary, with Chiloé, the Chilean Fjords, the Falklands and Montevideo (we did not get to do South Georgia like you did).

 

D

 

btw, we lived in Lynchburg, VA for 10 years before heading west.  I still remember the redbuds and dogwoods which should be in bloom soon.  Always loved that time of year.

I was able to watch the video again. Thank you. Yes, just about everything is blooming here right now. When I went out today, there was a pale pink “snow storm” of cherry blossoms at the end of my driveway. Now if the pollen would just go away.

Yes, I was on the Quest.  Thank you very much for the link.  I've bookmarked it and will enjoy watching the video and sharing it. It was a marvelous trip!

Does anyone who was on this voyage have the web address for the video that Kieran made of our voyage?  I have lost the address and would like to be able to see it and show it to my family. TYIA

1 hour ago, patnlcc said:

I finally got a response on 28 March. 

I'm glad you finally got it Pat.  I hope you and Bill have a wonderful cruise on the Ovation. I'll just miss you.  I'm boarding on the 23rd in Dover.

I just disembarked the Quest having done 58 days of the Grand South America voyage. On only one occasion did I see a man wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops in the dining room and that was pretty early on.  Yes, many men didn't wear jackets most nights, but all that I saw were wearing collared shirts.  Perhaps I was in a different part of the dining room from Markham. Nor did I see baggy, drooping trousers.  I ate in either the dining room or TK on all but three nights.  While not Michelin starred, I thought the food was quite good and I was always able to find something I enjoyed.  The changes being made to the TK menu are especially welcome.  I had lunch on three or four days in the restaurant and never saw more than four tables occupied.  The menu on the days that I dined there was not the same as what was being offered in the Colonnade.  I thought the entertainment on this cruise was exceptional.  The cruise singers, dancers, and musicians were outstanding; in addition they were genuinely nice people with whom I enjoyed dining. There were a few service hiccups, particularly when new staff joined the ship, but in my case these were quickly corrected.  Almost without exception, every staff person I encountered tried very hard to accommodate whatever request was made of them and always with a smiling face.  Was the cruise absolutely perfect?  No, but it was most definitely very, very good in my opinion.  When I read the comments above, I wondered if I had been on a different ship because my experience was so very different. Just to add a little context, this was my 53rd cruise and I have a couple of hundred days sailed on Seabourn. My late husband and I always set sail with the expectation that we would have a good time and we always did. I have a couple more cruises booked on Seabourn and I look forward to having just as good a time as I had on this just ended one.

2 hours ago, mcmarya said:

We're from Springfield, northern VA.

Not too far from where I live then.  I'm on the lower Peninsula.  We will have a big change of entertainment in Buenos Aires.  We've had fabulous guest entertainers for the last few weeks, but I'm sure the new ones will be just as good. The ship's entertainers (band, trio, singers and dancers are great too.)  We'll be getting a new expedition team for the Amazon cruise and I'm sure they will do a great job.  Our Antarctic team has been wonderful and has been outstanding in conveying lots of information and helping us to get off and on the ship in sometimes challenging conditions. I hope you will have as great a time as I am having.

I'm not positive but I think I heard that 120 are leaving and 80 are joining the cruise.  The trivia team I'm on is losing all but four of us.  What part of No. Virginia are you from?

4 hours ago, mcmarya said:

Looking forward to boarding in Buenos Aires.

 

You will have a lovely time I’m sure. I’ve been on since Santiago and things have been wonderful. Today in South Georgia we had a picture postcard day. In fact the young woman in the post office there told me the ship should come more often if we brought today’s kind of weather with us. The expedition team has been great and the regular staff is working very hard to keep all of us happy.

Hello Pat,  I used that address in December to ask for my shareholder OBC.  It took a few days but I got confirmation within a week.  I would send it again if I were you.  Hope all is well with you.

Ann

I was in the last group of zodiacs to go out and I can only describe the weather as glorious. The sun came out and it added new perspective and color to the ice around us. In the early evening as we left Melchior we passed through a number of whales feeding. It was wonderful to watch. I, like probably many others onboard, managed to get a short video, but I won’t even attempt to upload it because the internet is pretty awful tonight. I think tomorrow the weather isn’t supposed to be as good. We really lucked out today.

8 minutes ago, cadburysmom said:

Loving these wonderful photos and thrilled for all onboard!

 

This is a top bucket list item for me so following along with great enthusiasm and envy.  Perfect timing too as upon my recommendation, my book club is reading Endeavor by Alfred Lansing...a "cruise" of an entirely different sort but reading their descriptions of the spectacular scenery coupled with your beautiful photos makes reading it again all the more meaningful.

 

Many thanks to all posting here for sharing this wonderful adventure with us. Very much looking forward to hearing more.

We are fortunate to have an excellent expedition team onboard. I read Endurance by Lansing just before I came on the ship and was fascinated by it. One night I was fortunate to be invited to dine with a team member named Robert Egelstaff.  In the mid 1990's he and several other adventurers got sponsors to fund an attempt to recreate Shackleton's journey in the 23 ft long James Caird  from Elephant Island to South Georgia.  It was fascinating to listen to his tales of that trip.  I think he said the boat, which was built for their voyage and is an exact replica, is now in a museum somewhere in the UK.  Besides the spectacular scenery I'm seeing, I'm learning so much, an added bonus.

I'm just chiming in to report where we are today since I managed to locate it on the map.  We're in Melchior Harbour, which is a small sheltered bay on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula in the Palmer Archipelago.  Whoever named the little islands around us either wasn't very creative or else liked Greek, because they are called Alpha, Beta, Delta, Kappa and Gamma.  There's some useless information unless they happen to ask it in a Team Trivia game. 

I boarded in Santiago on the 27th and to date we have had one formal night. I saw a couple of tuxes, not many. A number of ladies were dressed in sparkly tops.

Just to follow on what Julie wrote, we've been sailing through the Beagle Channel which separates the larger main island of Tierra del Fuego from many of the smaller ones. It passes through an area called Glacier Alley where this morning we were able to see a number of spectacular glaciers. While it is disappointing that our time in Antarctica will be a little shorter, this is a pretty interesting area we would otherwise have missed on this voyage. We just passed a tiny island, more of a rock really, where I could see hundreds of cormorants of the variety that look a lot like small penguins except they can fly.  And at the edge of the rocks with binoculars I could just make out a few seals lying around.

I too lost my husband of nearly 50 years in mid-2020.  I love to travel, particularly cruising, so in November 2021 I took my first solo cruise on the Ovation and had a marvelous time. I'm currently on my fifth cruise since then (including that Ovation one), all on Seabourn.  I'm on the 58 day Santiago to Miami cruise.  Seabourn takes very good care of us solo travelers.  As Wesport said we are invited to hosted tables nearly every night and you meet people playing trivia or in the bars or on tours. I think you'll have a great time.  You'll miss your partner of course, but I like to think that my husband is watching and happy that I'm continuing to live and enjoy the things we always did together.