Thinking of going to South America and Antarctica on Princess ?

[scubacruiserx2]

Sunset on New Years Eve was another cloudy affair

 

 

But it got better

 

 

 

Video clip :

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We had a calm sea while crossing the Drake on New Years Day in the morning .

 

 

 

 

But of course it could change , and it did . We had an apparent wind speed of 58 mph across the deck keeping the door closed when we tried to open it . For the 1st time on this cruise the forward flag was down as we rode it out . The question was would we be able to make port in the Falklands the next day ?

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The sea was so bumpy that at dinner an ice bucket for our wine fell over spilling the uncorked half  full wine bottle . The cruise line gave us a new bottle which we took up to our room . The bumpy seas rocked us to sleep and we dreamed of penguins in Falkland Islands hoping that we would be able to make port . On a previous cruise we missed the Falkland Islands and went to Puerto Madryn instead .

 

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[MicCanberra]

I hope you get in as well, Port Stanley is nice but getting out to one of the points is amazing.

[scubacruiserx2]

12 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

I hope you get in as well, Port Stanley is nice but getting out to one of the points is amazing.

 

It was the pinnacle of penguin viewing for us .

[scubacruiserx2]

It had been 9 days since we last walked on land in Punta Arenas so we were ready to come ashore.

 

 

It looked to be a nice day

 

 

 

Tenders away !

 

 

It's about 20-25 minutes to tender to shore

 

 

Welcome to the Falkland Islands

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Cool, so glad the weather was kind.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 minute ago, MicCanberra said:

Cool, so glad the weather was kind.

 

Well it started out that way . We just wore fleece and when the wind and a little rain came up latter , we wished that we would have brought our jackets .

[scubacruiserx2]

After coming ashore we met our guide and driver , Kurt , from Estancia Excursions .

 

 

 

http://estancia-excursions.com/tour/volunteer-point/

 

It's about 2 1/2 hours over pavement , gravel and off road for abot 12 miles to see the penguins at Volunteer Point , so buckle in and hold on .

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

A nice sunset at Port Everglades

 

[scubacruiserx2]

On the ranch and time to go off road

 

 

Video clip :

 

 

 

 

We can see the water , almost there

 

 

We made it ahead of the crowds .

 

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

4 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

A nice sunset at Port Everglades

 

Lovely.

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 

 

We can see the water , almost there

 

 

We made it ahead of the crowds .

Driving through the peat bogs was fun wasn't it.

[scubacruiserx2]

The colony of King Penguins

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

8 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Driving through the peat bogs was fun wasn't it.

 

Yeah , it was our first encounter with it .

[scubacruiserx2]

 

A video clip of noisy king penguins :

 

 

 

The penguins behavior was both amusing and amazing

 

Snoozing

 

 

 

Flapping

 

 

[Gracie115]

We just placed a hold on a suite on the Coral for the 12/18/19 South America and Antarctica sailing...…….so will be going back and reading/viewing this wonderful thread!!

[scubacruiserx2]

31 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

We just placed a hold on a suite on the Coral for the 12/18/19 South America and Antarctica sailing...…….so will be going back and reading/viewing this wonderful thread!!

 

Sweet ! And a White Christmas to boot . We are thrilled for you guys . You may want to get in touch with Patrick Watts or Estancia if you're thinking of Volunteer Point on the Falklands ASAP . At Punta Arenas we liked the trip to Torres del Paine and Princess also offers a landing in Antarctica - at a steep price . We don't normally like to go when the weather down here is so nice but we were glad that we did and we hope that you enjoy it as much as we did or more . 😊

[scubacruiserx2]

Scratching

 

 

Snuggling

 

 

Waiting for a bus

 

 

Crowing

 

And posing

 

 

Video clip of  a penguin pair waddling through the crowd  :

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We didn't see any King chicks but there is an adjacent colony of Gentoo with cute chicks 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

 

 

Gentoo penguins in the Falkland Islands video clip :

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Hi Joe, I am so glad someone is inspired from your thread to visit Antarctica.

[scubacruiserx2]

58 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Hi Joe, I am so glad someone is inspired from your thread to visit Antarctica.

 

We're thrilled that Gracie and her husband could book Antarctica . We cruised with them on the Eclipse TA in 2015 and she did a great job of organizing the M&G and we had a couple of nice tours with them that they had found . 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Don't cross the stones 

 

 

Molting 

 

 

 

Walk like a penguin

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We saw birds of prey circling overhead

 

 

So  keep moving

 

 

Measuring up

 

 

 

Ready for a selfie

 

 

 

and a close up