Live (somewhat) from the Eclipse SA and Antarctica

[cjcruiser27]

1 hour ago, abbydancer said:

Since this now appears to have become a thread about drive by vs land, does anyone still want me to do my blog thing?  If so, I'm happy to.  If not, I'll drop it and just move it to my blog.

Yes I’d like to hear more! Wondered where you went😎

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Glad you're back.  I think we were just keeping the thread alive waiting for you. 

[pratt2]

Please continue your trip report! We are taking this trip in 2020

[lovecruzin]

On 2/10/2019 at 2:25 PM, abbydancer said:

Since this now appears to have become a thread about drive by vs land, does anyone still want me to do my blog thing?  If so, I'm happy to.  If not, I'll drop it and just move it to my blog.

 

Please continue Abby! We were just chatting amongst ourselves waiting for you! 😊

[nursemommy7578]

On 1/31/2019 at 7:33 PM, Tarwood3 said:

So we have looked at this trip numerous times but keep thinking that if we go all the way to Antarctica , we want to step foot on land and see some wildlife.  We go back and forth since obviously an expedition trip is more expensive.  We keep leaning toward the Silversea experience where you do zodiacs to land.....  For anyone who has done this tripbefore, is it really worth it? Do you feel like you saw enough or were you left wanting more? In the meantime,  We have decided to do a Feb 14 2021 cruise on the Silhouette (will be refurbished by then) from Buenos Aires to Santiago (no Antarctica)

we would also prefer a landing trip...but pricing is just not great.  We are doing B2B in 2021 on Silhouette, and will make the best of it.  Maybe the lottery gods will afford us an expedition trip someday!!

[nursemommy7578]

On 2/10/2019 at 5:25 PM, abbydancer said:

Since this now appears to have become a thread about drive by vs land, does anyone still want me to do my blog thing?  If so, I'm happy to.  If not, I'll drop it and just move it to my blog.

oh please continue!!!!  sometimes this "off topic" conversation is useful.  Apologies to you!!!

[abbydancer2003]

And so, continuing.

 

It’s Tuesday, and our second sea day.  Today was the cruise critic slot pull after breakfast.  We had breakfast, and then I headed to the meeting at the martini bar for the slot pull.  There was quite a crowd there, but Kristi and Pat had done a great job with organizing it.  I gave them my name, and my 15.00 and we headed to the casino.  They’d picked out a 1.00 machine, and fed a lot of small bills to it.  We each took our turn, and by the end, we were up, to about 20.60 total each.  We agreed that everyone would get 20, and the person with the best spin got the extra 19.00.  

 

Jacqueline and David then decided to cash in their Elite 3 match plays.  I did too, and decided to try to cash it out on roulette.  It turns out I have to put the coupon and 5.00 on something.  I put it on Red, and tried to put another 10.00 on black, but he wouldn’t let me do that.  So I just watched David and Jacqueline play out theirs.

 

At 12:30, we met Mike and Kathy for lunch.  Apparently, they had 1:30 spa appointments, but an hour should have been enough.  We were seated and ordered.  And waited.  Apparently, everyone had arrived at about noon, so the kitchen was backed up.  At about 1:15, we’d been served appetizers (K had ordered from the main menu and that ended up delaying things a bit), but they had to leave.  Mike had ordered Risotto, and Kathy a turkey panini.  They left and I asked that two paninis and their desserts be sent to their room for after their spa visit.  I heard later that that was successful.

 

After lunch, I came back to the room and found a few messages from CC friends.  I set up a couple of meetings and helped Carolyn find a couple of singles for Volunteer point.

 

Wee had made up to meet our friends for a game of Catan.  We headed to the card room and set it up.  Fortunately, there was a table available.  We realized that we’d forgotten our rule book, so I’d pulled a pdf up on my laptop (need it if we haven’t played in a while).  It worked but not well, so I decided I’d ask John to print one for me later.

 

We played, Donna won (a reoccurring theme has it’s turning out), and we agreed to keep doing it.  

 

Our next venue was to meet our Ft. Lauderdale CC friends up in the sky lounge.  We’d had dinner with them when we were in Ft. Lauderdale in November.  We quickly found them and met the friends they were traveling with.  We were there for about 45 minutes, and then had to head to Qsine for our Petit Chef dinner.  

We joined Kathy and Mike, Jacqueline & David and also Ed and Judy, who’d decided to join us for this dinner.  

 

For those who don’t know, the Qsine menu has been replaced by Le Petit Chef, a four course meal in which each course is accompanied by an animation of the chef projected onto the table, making the course.  I have video, but it’s easer if you google it, as it’s on you tube.  

 

While we all enjoyed it, (and I did think the steak was very good), I can’t see repeating this again.  We’d also done it on the Edge, and we’d enjoyed it, but it was a different show, so we did it on this ship as well.   It’s really a once and done thing for each show.  They claim they will update each ship yearly, but I’m still not sure I want to do it again.  The sad thing is, that on the Edge menu, I’d do the menu again, but not the experience.  The other effect of is is that it’s pretty rushed, as you have to eat at the pace of the show, not your own.

 

After dinner, we gathered our jackets and took a walk around the upper decks.  We then headed to Michael’s club, where we ran into our various friends.  Jacqueline was preparing for silent disco, which tonight was at the Disco on 4.  She left and I followed.  I didn’t see her when I first got there, but I did see some of my other CC friends.  I danced with them for a bit, and then went back to get Glen.  I did tell him it was less crowded than when we went to the Sky Lounge on the Reflection, so he came back.  I had him do a swing with a fellow CC member who dances, but no partner on the ship.  We danced a bit and then went back to Michael’s club for a while.  Another fun day at sea in the books.

 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

50 minutes ago, nursemommy7578 said:

we would also prefer a landing trip...but pricing is just not great.  We are doing B2B in 2021 on Silhouette, and will make the best of it.  Maybe the lottery gods will afford us an expedition trip someday!!

I started a roll call for the January 31, 2021 trip.

[jcross2]

Hi Abby, enjoyed cruising with y’all! Looking forward to the rest of your review. Jan