Antarctica cruise

[treasurer]

We are booking this cruise on Pursuit in 2020.  Pleas tell us the good and the bad.

 

 

[ellbon]

Good lots of animals on the bergs. Maybe snow on deck.

 

bad...lots of motion and lots of motion pills.

 

did it once and plan on again

[Shawnino]

From what I can surmise, no landings.

[ellbon]

Correct, no landings.  But I have social media friends who

osted lovely pictures taken at sea if huge burgs etc.

[excitedofharpenden]

I loved it. Just came back. There are no landings. It's a sail by, but stunning scenery. We lucked out with the weather. Drake's Passage was very benevolent and we got to the Falklands on a lovely sunny day. This was one of the bergs we passed pretty close to. Fortunately not too close. Haha 

 

Phil

[excitedofharpenden]

13 hours ago, ellbon said:

Correct, no landings.  But I have social media friends who

osted lovely pictures taken at sea if huge burgs etc.

Captain Carl came on one noon day announcement to firmly say he wanted to scotch the rumours that there would be landings on this cruise.  He didn’t know where these rumours came from and he would be the only one to start any such rumours.  Well, I was watching channel 17, the info channel one day and there was an information film on what to do and not to do when going ashore to see penguins and sea lions.  So this totally inappropriate information film probably had something to do with it.  I never got the chance to mention it to him because I never saw him around the ship to speak to.

 

Phil

[Bloodaxe]

9 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Captain Carl came on one noon day announcement to firmly say he wanted to scotch the rumours that there would be landings on this cruise.  He didn’t know where these rumours came from and he would be the only one to start any such rumours.  Well, I was watching channel 17, the info channel one day and there was an information film on what to do and not to do when going ashore to see penguins and sea lions.  So this totally inappropriate information film probably had something to do with it.  I never got the chance to mention it to him because I never saw him around the ship to speak to.

 

Phil

 

Did the film specifically mentioned going ashore in Antarctica?.

We got very close to Penguins and Sea lions ashore in the Falklands and Argentina on our cruise a few years ago.

[excitedofharpenden]

58 minutes ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

Did the film specifically mentioned going ashore in Antarctica?.

We got very close to Penguins and Sea lions ashore in the Falklands and Argentina on our cruise a few years ago.

Oh yes.  It was specific to Antarctica and talked about zodiacs.  It was an information film aimed squarely at an expedition cruise.  Showed getting dressed up in the thermal gear.  The whole lot.  Totally irrelevant.  

 

Phil

[silkismom]

Treasurer, I started a roll-call, please join us, it's VERY exclusive, as of now.  

[uktog]

37 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Oh yes.  It was specific to Antarctica and talked about zodiacs.  It was an information film aimed squarely at an expedition cruise.  Showed getting dressed up in the thermal gear.  The whole lot.  Totally irrelevant.  

 

Phil

Who is responsible for the content of the ships TV channels onboard -  the ones that they can load content to? 

There was also irrelevant content uploaded on our South America cruises?

They also kept telling us we could catch up on lectures on demand but I suspect no one had told the Cruise Director and his assistant that the interactive TVs weren't functioning so whoever  is responsible was letting them down as well.

Edited January 24, 2019 by uktog

[Tom47]

DW and I did an expedition Antarctica cruise with Hurtiigruten and recommend it.  Landings were by zodiac boats.  In order to do landings, total pax could, including crew, must be under 500.

[Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Oh yes.  It was specific to Antarctica and talked about zodiacs.  It was an information film aimed squarely at an expedition cruise.  Showed getting dressed up in the thermal gear.  The whole lot.  Totally irrelevant.  

 

Phil

 

Have to agree,  also surprised you did not see Carl much around the Ship, always found him to be very visible in the past.

[Shawnino]

1 hour ago, Tom47 said:

DW and I did an expedition Antarctica cruise with Hurtiigruten and recommend it.  Landings were by zodiac boats.  In order to do landings, total pax could, including crew, must be under 500.

 

Agree (we went with Lindblad). Cannot imagine no-landings Antarctica any more than I could imagine no-landings Italy.

[marinaro44]

1 hour ago, Shawnino said:

 

Agree (we went with Lindblad). Cannot imagine no-landings Antarctica any more than I could imagine no-landings Italy.

Your opinion, not everyone's.  Many of us were very happy with the Azamara Antarctica cruise just completed.  And I've landed on Italy hundreds of times.

 

2 hours ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

Have to agree,  also surprised you did not see Carl much around the Ship, always found him to be very visible in the past.

Carl was quite visible.  Bloodaxe, you have this  tendency to generalize negatively based on one person's observation.  Carl came to our breakfast table to show us pictures and a video of the apartment he wants to buy as he and family look to move to a city to get better education choices for his children.  He also called the couple we were traveling with to arrange coffee with them after he learned they'd be visiting the Isle of Man this summer.  I suspect he spent long hours on the bridge as we navigated through the Antarctic's icebergs, narrow bays, etc.  And I also suspect he enjoyed himself immensely doing so.

Edited January 24, 2019 by marinaro44

[tgg]

3 hours ago, Shawnino said:

 

Agree (we went with Lindblad). Cannot imagine no-landings Antarctica any more than I could imagine no-landings Italy.

 

For people with serious mobility problems, sailing past icebergs is probably better than not seeing them at all. 

Edited January 24, 2019 by tgg

[Bloodaxe]

2 hours ago, marinaro44 said:

Your opinion, not everyone's.  Many of us were very happy with the Azamara Antarctica cruise just completed.  And I've landed on Italy hundreds of times.

 

Carl was quite visible.  Bloodaxe, you have this  tendency to generalize negatively based on one person's observation.  Carl came to our breakfast table to show us pictures and a video of the apartment he wants to buy as he and family look to move to a city to get better education choices for his children.  He also called the couple we were traveling with to arrange coffee with them after he learned they'd be visiting the Isle of Man this summer.  I suspect he spent long hours on the bridge as we navigated through the Antarctic's icebergs, narrow bays, etc.  And I also suspect he enjoyed himself immensely doing so.

 

I was not being negative at all, just the opposite, I was saying how surprised I was if Carl had not been has visible as usual.

You last comment could well explain why he may not have been.

Pleased that you enjoyed your cruise, our first Azamara was to the Antarctic in 2008, still probably our best ever.

 

[Tom47]

DW and I have been on 2 expedition cruises,Hurtiigruten Antarctica and Celebrity Galapagos.  We recommend both.  Hurtiigruten required a doctor's certificate.  Each of us had to present the certificate to a ship's officer.  Each of us had to persuade the officer that our conditions were controlled with medication.  I agree people with mobility issues are better off on Azamara.  There was 1 woman on our Galapagos cruise who had hip joint replacement surgery.  She didn't use a scooter/wheelchair and went on most landings.  She frequently just stayed on the boat.

[rallydave]

8 hours ago, Tom47 said:

DW and I did an expedition Antarctica cruise with Hurtiigruten and recommend it.  Landings were by zodiac boats.  In order to do landings, total pax could, including crew, must be under 500.

Not completely true.  We did Antarctica in 2017 with Seabourn and landed 6 consecutive days on a ship with a passenger capacity of 450 and crew of about 300 crew.  The only limitation we heard was no more than 100 people on shore at any given time.  We were broken up into 4 color groups for shore landings so believe they limited passenger count to the 400.  Crew were allowed on shore when all of a given color group did not go ashore and many people didn't go every day.

 

No way could the total ship count be under 500 and the Expedition team kept count as zodiac's went back and forth.  The 100 person limit included the Expedition Team so not sure what would happen if all of the 100 tried to go ashore at about the same time.

[Tom47]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Not completely true.  We did Antarctica in 2017 with Seabourn and landed 6 consecutive days on a ship with a passenger capacity of 450 and crew of about 300 crew.  The only limitation we heard was no more than 100 people on shore at any given time.  We were broken up into 4 color groups for shore landings so believe they limited passenger count to the 400.  Crew were allowed on shore when all of a given color group did not go ashore and many people didn't go every day.

 

No way could the total ship count be under 500 and the Expedition team kept count as zodiac's went back and forth.  The 100 person limit included the Expedition Team so not sure what would happen if all of the 100 tried to go ashore at about the same time.

Our trip was 2016, and we also had 100 pax limit ashore.  As for the other, perhaps the rules changed.

[Shawnino]

I have only ever heard of the restriction of no more than a hundred ashore at once (naturalists included). 

We were diligently counted--probably to make sure no one was left behind as much as anything else.

 

Disagree that people with reduced mobility should forego ships that make landings.

My mobility is awful and I made every landing--staff wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Landing is the only way to see the penguin nurseries.

 

[donaldsc]

3 hours ago, Shawnino said:

I have only ever heard of the restriction of no more than a hundred ashore at once (naturalists included). 

We were diligently counted--probably to make sure no one was left behind as much as anything else.

 

Disagree that people with reduced mobility should forego ships that make landings.

My mobility is awful and I made every landing--staff wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Landing is the only way to see the penguin nurseries.

 

 

I just came back from a S. Georgia Island trip.  There was one woman on board who had limited mobility and used a cane.  She managed very well.  She needed help getting into and out of the Zodiacs and she did not walk around much once she got on shore but she made most of the landings.  She also did not interfere with what everyone else did on the trip.

 

DON

[Shawnino]

18 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

I just came back from a S. Georgia Island trip.  There was one woman on board who had limited mobility and used a cane.  She managed very well.  She needed help getting into and out of the Zodiacs and she did not walk around much once she got on shore but she made most of the landings.  She also did not interfere with what everyone else did on the trip.

 

DON

 

I think that's more the norm than the exception.

 

FWIW, just about anyone who has done both will say S. Georgia > Antarctica for wildlife. Antarctica obviously has the huge icy expanses, but S. Georgia has many more creatures to look at. 

[donaldsc]

5 hours ago, Shawnino said:

 

I think that's more the norm than the exception.

 

FWIW, just about anyone who has done both will say S. Georgia > Antarctica for wildlife. Antarctica obviously has the huge icy expanses, but S. Georgia has many more creatures to look at. 

 

Totally agree.  We had already done Antarctica so I picked one of the few cruises that did just the Falklands and S. Georgia.  While you can intellectually understand a place where there are several hundred thousand nesting pairs of King Penguins, you have to be there to understand what this really means.

 

DON

[Tom47]

Our Hurtiigruten cruise also went to S. Georgia.  It was called"In the Footsteps of Shackleton."  Hurtiigruten also carried their mail to the Falklands.