Roald Amundsen - Landings in Antarctica

[Louby-Lou]

I see from the reviews there is no mention of the underwater camera on Roald Amundsen. Is it working and, if so, what did you see?

 

Thanks. 

[Gurnee2]

Towards the end of the trip the various naturalists gave a presentation with photos summarizing the trip. What we saw etc. The fellow who manages the science center showed a video from the underwater camera that showed penguins diving, the ocean floor and the underside of icebergs. I had thought it was going to be a undersea webcam during the entire trip but evidently the video was taken from zodiacs from time to time and pieced together as one video for the end of trip summary. 

[Louby-Lou]

23 minutes ago, Gurnee2 said:

Towards the end of the trip the various naturalists gave a presentation with photos summarizing the trip. What we saw etc. The fellow who manages the science center showed a video from the underwater camera that showed penguins diving, the ocean floor and the underside of icebergs. I had thought it was going to be a undersea webcam during the entire trip but evidently the video was taken from zodiacs from time to time and pieced together as one video for the end of trip summary. 

Thanks. Like you we were under the impression that the camera would be on. We were told the pictures could be viewed on a very tall screen which clearly isn't the case. We went to a Hurtigruten presentation before the ship was built and this was definitely one of the marketing highlights!  Very disappointed.

 

Thanks again.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Louby-Lou

[Gurnee2]

Hi, me again. Oh....I didnt realize this. There is a tall 7 story screen on a wall opposite the glass elevator with videos but it appeared to be various landscapes of Norway. We were shown the underwater camera and the joy sticks that operate it etc. and then just a short video as I mentioned before. 

[2blueyam]

Gurnee2, I can tell from your writing how special you thought it was. We can’t wait to go. We’re on the January 26 departure and fully expecting it to be great. Thanks for all the details. We’re hoping to go kayaking. Thinking about snowshoeing, too, although we’ve never done it. We will report back. The most-recent reviews on Cruise Critic are very positive.

Thanks to all who added reviews. It is great to know most of the initial bugs have been worked out.

My parents will be on this sailing with you. A few less excursions is probably not a bad thing as they are nearing 80.

[bob brown]

Glad to hear things are going well...I just booked the 28 February expedition, at a "steal" fare, and am so excited!

My first time to Antarctica, and on Hurtigruten, as well...

[Bella0714]

We just got back. We were on the January 26 Antarctica/Falklands sailing. I'll post a complete review, but in keeping with the topic of this thread:

 

• There were 396 passengers on-board. We were split into five landing groups. Landings ranged from 45 minutes to 1 hour, 15 minutes and were very well organized.

• We landed five times in Antarctica: Half Moon Island and Deception Island in the South Shetlands, Brown Bluff on the Peninsula, Danco Island and Petermann Island off the Peninsula.

• We did ice cruising in their zodiac-type boats once, near the Erebus and Terror Gulf (Weddell Sea). We were very fortunate to spend two days on the Weddell Sea side of the Peninsula and saw spectacular tabular icebergs one evening while cruising on the ship.

• We sailed through the Lemaire Channel twice: morning and evening of Petermann day.

• There was one day when we were supposed to do both landing and zodiac cruising at Astrolabe Island, but that was cencelled because of high swells.

• Another landing at Yankee Harbour was also canceled because of high winds.

• We didn't land at Point Wild, of course, but we had perfect weather that day and got very close to it and the iceberg.

• We kayaked off Petermann Island and went in the science boat off Danco, so overall, we were off the ship eight times in Antarctica. Kayaking was by lottery; some didn't get to kayak in Antarctica.

• We never got to a place where snowshoeing would have been possible; camping was near Danco, but we didn't do it.

• We docked at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; at Carcass Island and West Point Island (both great stops), we zodiaced to shore; everyone got to go ashore at once at all three stops in the Falklands. We loved the Falklands.

• Polar plunges were offered at three or four stops.

 

The ship is beautiful. The expedition team is knowledgeable, helpful, everything you could hope for. Getting in and out of the zodiacs (they're not really zodiacs) was very easy; there were even a few passengers in wheel chairs.

[clo]

Unfortunately temps are hitting record highs, almost 70F 😞