Anyone else here on Breeze in August Reykjavik-Edinburgh or Edinburgh Dublin

[Carolfay]

Good point.  Our Icelandic guides also pointed out the turning leaves as we drove around and noted that the sheep appeared to be moving down from higher elevations.

[Host Jazzbeau]

 

17 hours ago, milepig said:

The captains know their stuff. 

 

To the point of too late in the season?  One of our private guides said that the fall started about 6 weeks early. The leaves are turning and migratory birds from Russia are already appearing. The wild crazy winds and rain are more of an October thing. 

 

On Grimsey Island, which is literally on the Arctic Circle, the puffins had left by the time we got there (Aug 24 – not unusual) – except one baby who had failed to launch with his flock.  He has been adopted by a homeowner and will be nursed through the winter then released.  Our local guide knew the adoptive 'father' [well, I guess everybody in Grimsey knows everybody else – all 35 of them!] and brought our group to his front door to meet the puffling.  So we did get to see one...

[new_cruiser]

On 8/3/2019 at 12:38 PM, jmbklj said:

It seems that Windstar cruisers don't like to use Roll Calls.  We don't have a Roll Call listed  for our August Around Iceland sailing.

 

Enjoy your cruises - they sound fabulous!

 

Safe Travels

I don't think it is any particular dislike of roll calls compared to passengers on other cruise lines. It is a matter of scale.

 

Say that on average 2% of cruisers post on Cruise critic and participate in roll calls. On a 2000 passenger ship, that would be 40 people on the roll call. On a 200 passenger ship such as Breeze, that would be 4 people. With that small number, it becomes less likely to be useful to those who participate to fine others to share excursions or other activities so there is less reason to participate so that might drop the percentage participating. Also, someone needs to start a roll call - some people will participate on a roll call thread but don't start them. For the 2000 passenger ship, it's pretty likely that one of the passengers will start a roll call. On Windstar, maybe none of the 4ish people feels motivated to start the roll call. If you want one for your sailing, you can start the roll call thread.

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

On the River Cruising Roll Call forum, roll calls for individual sailings rarely get much of a response.  Therefore we have created a new category to consolidate all the sailings of a particular cruise line/itinerary for the year.  But that only works because river cruise lines do each itinerary over and over all season long.  Not sure what would work for small ocean lines like Windstar.  [My attempt at a roll call for my recent Ponant cruise got no responses, and my roll call for the September 29, 2020 Spanish Serenade on Star Legend hasn't gotten any yet – and I would really like some people to join the Spain Day Tour shore excursions to hit the minimum number!]

[new_cruiser]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

On the River Cruising Roll Call forum, roll calls for individual sailings rarely get much of a response.  Therefore we have created a new category to consolidate all the sailings of a particular cruise line/itinerary for the year.  But that only works because river cruise lines do each itinerary over and over all season long.  Not sure what would work for small ocean lines like Windstar.  [My attempt at a roll call for my recent Ponant cruise got no responses, and my roll call for the September 29, 2020 Spanish Serenade on Star Legend hasn't gotten any yet – and I would really like some people to join the Spain Day Tour shore excursions to hit the minimum number!]

It's early for a Sept 2020 cruise. It's likely that many haven't booked yet. We got around 5 responding for our spring 2017 Spanish Serenade. That would have represented around 10 travelers as most were one person from a couple. Still below critical mass for getting enough interest to meet Spain Day minimum number.

 

Some of the Windstar itineraries repeat - e.g.Panama Canal/Costa Rica (most 7 days plus some 10-11 day with 2 or 3 extra ports); Alaska, Spanish Serenade (plus some other patients between Lisbon & Barcelona).