PAllinson

August 2023, Pond Inlet (RT)

The ship and crew are wonderful, food was great, We had some weather issues on our cruise that were handeled well by the staff. Gym and Spa are excelent. We are scheduled to sail on the Dawn next month.

There are non stops to Iceland from BWI. You should be able to get there. FYI most flights from the east. Oats are red eyes

We recently returned from this cruise and had some concerns. We were in a sky suite and learned that there were no longer butlers provided, The ship was tired and in need of a refurbishment. Our suite was clean and the attendant visited once or twice daily. The suite hand the old european 220votlt plugs, no usa plugs or usb ports, TV was small and old. and no plug in the bathroom. HVAC was good. The bed comfortable. Food in Lumane was excellent and you could choose from any of the main menus as well as the lumane menu, Food in the main dining room was good and service was good all over. The oceanview cafe was crowded, food was luke warm to cool, food was bland and tasteless, other than the daily special, the menu remained the same. The ice cream was soft and melting and the croissants were stale. The shows were excellent. Pricxes for good scotch were rediculously expensive even with the premium drink package. Spa and gym were good as well as the outdoor and solarium pools. Still a good ship to cruise on but could use updasting.

We finally got everything worked out with KLM, now will be flying on Delta from JFK to Barcelona. What happened was that when the iinitial KLM flight out of IAD cancelled, KLM automatically rebooked us a non-viable flight, After multiple calls to both KLM and Flights by celebrity KLM claimed that American airlines would not allow them to drop the segment and they rebooked us on the delta flight out of JFK. Hope there are no further hitches.

WE do not have control of the ticket, Flights by celebrity now claims that KLM took control of the ticket when KLM automatically rebooked us on the DCA to JFK to BCN flights, KLM claims Celebrity has control. FUBAR due to the KLM cancellation

Yesterday, we were placed on a flight from DCA that connects to a flight from JFK to Barcellona, when I got up this morning nothing had changed. The DCA to JFK flight we are still standby, we had asked to drop the ov ersold flight out of DCA and would drive to JFK . We thought everything was fixed yesterday and we would take the nonstop flight out of JFK and lose the oversold DCA to JFK connection. This morning nothing changed. Still showed we were leaving from DCA. KLM sas flights by celebrity has control of the tickets and Flights by Celebrity claims that KLM has control of the tickets. FUBR

We booked a cruise 1/21/23 on the Infinity, leaving Barcelona on 12/9/23 and used Flights by Celebrity to provide our air on KLM. Today at 1PM I received notification from KLM that our flight from IAD to Barcelona was cancelled, Flights by celebrity was unable to find any flights to take the place of the cancelled flight. I then called KLM and they found a connection flight from DCA to JFK to Barcellona and booked the 4 of us on the flights. When I wnet tto the airline website to fill in the passport information and obtain seats, I could only get 3 of the 4 seats on the DCA to JFK portion as the flightg was oversold by 2 people. I am trying to drive to JFK and lose the DCA to JFK portion but so far no luck, being told that we have to fly out of the washington area airorts and not JFK since our initial ticket was out of IAD. Any help and suggestions appreciated

Pack warm casual clothes, Bathing suit, waterproof pants, they will give you a warm parka, gloves (recommend vallerret), warm beenie hat ( alpaka warmest), rental boots.

Flight to and from iqualuit was on the SILVERSEA chartered jet (737 I think), boots not needed for boarding. We only had 3 zodiac tours due to sea conditions and polar bears in the area.

Did you see any wildlife? We saw very few within photo range with my 140-560 or even my 800mm lenses. Any polar bear we saw was over a mile away.

Ship is beautiful, comfortable, great service food excellent, a great classic cruise not an expedition cruise,

Plane caught on fire landing inIqaluit, fire alarm went off at breakfast due to the WiFi getting overloaded, and our luggage did not make it to iqaluit from Pond inlet but did get to Montréal.

Good luck.

Disembarking was another cluster f that contained the confusion. Luggage out before Mn, out of suites bey 0800, then waited to 5 pm till we actually left the ship, some day rooms were made available, unplanned lunch in the grill was served to all passengers, the seas and winds were as bad or worse than those stops that were too extreme for the szodiacs to launch, when we got on the bus to the airport had to wait inn the bus as there was no room in the building, plane caught on fire during the landing , hotel fire alarm went off during breakfast, it was due to the WiFi.

We are on the ship, still, waiting for planes from Iqaluit to arrive. No real information from the expedition leader or staff The entire cruise has been a mess

There were 126 passengers out of a capacity of 220. Staff was wonderful, food, excellent, and we did not notice any problems with the ship. Most of the time they were running between 12 and 14 kn. The problem started When they repositioned the departure port from pond inlet to Iqaluit. Initially we were supposed to go north of the 80th parallel, visit multiple fjords, noted for their high animal density, and have three stops in Greenland. Out of 10 days of expedition sailing, we were out on the zodiacs a grand total of three days from anywhere from 1 to 2 times a day. The original departure and arrival port, the pond inlet and Greenland that's why we picked the screws. We did not find out about the change in itinerary until we were in Iqaluit awaiting departure for the ship. I can understand one or two problems related to weather, but not changing the entire itinerary. We had a total of two sunny days . The rest of the days were overcast. Almost all of the passengers were not happy with the itinerary that they provided.

Due to starting from Ilaquit because of ice at pond inlet, we lost all but one of our Greenland stops.Due to fog as we worked our way north we lost several excisions and have only been off the ship 3 times since boarding. On a clear day they did not launch the zodiacs due to a couple of polar bears over a mile away from the ship. Today we did not launch zodiacs because the seas were too rough, they seem to be overly cautious. No Greenland ports due to starting in Ilaquit, they cleared customs offshore in Greenland at cape York but we were not allowed to get off the ship, entire itinerary was FUBR. Most of the passengers asking for a refund.

Do not fly air Canada, we were the lucky ones our flight to Montreal was delayed 4 hours, others had their flights canceled. The charter flight to ilaquit was great. Did not get the second flight to Pond inlet due to ice preventing the Endeavour from getting ther, instead we boarded in Ilaquit late after noon. Ship is beautiful, staff great, food excellent. First 2 days of zodiac excursions canceled due to heavy fog. Have been ship bound since boarding , itinerary totally messed up. Hope to do an excursion today.

Leaving today for Montreal to overnight at Fairmont QE, then on to a Charter flight to Ilaquit for an overnight then embarking on 8/10 (port changed to Ilaquit from Pond Inlet due to heavy Ice buildup around Pond Inlet. I will post some photos and details of the trip as we progress,

one pair binocs to use, a waterproof backpack and expedition jacket, no hat, rental boots available. we are on the 8/10 R/T pond inlet trip.

Lindblad just notified our TA that they are cancelling our trip to Scotland this summer due to UK's travel restrictions and are refusing to refund us. Insurance also refuses to refund us as they claim it is covid related as well as the airlines. I will have to dispute with AMEX. This is the second time they pulled tis on us as they did the same thing last summer with a Canada trip and refused to refund us. I will never book with them again