Live-ish -- Dec 20 Thru Jan 5 South America/Antarctica on Coral Princess

[erber]

We left the ship at around 11:30 and met up with the tour group for Bluff Cove. We were informed the tour would start a little late due to some tendering issues with the Holland America ship that did the tour ahead of us and was a little off schedule, so I went to the Falkland Islands Tourist Board gift shop and got a few items.

 

Then we boarded a 16 seat mini bus and were driven about 25 minutes to another location where we went in 4x4s off road for 10 minutes to the farm and rookery. We were told a lot of the history of the Falklands along the way. 

 

We arrived around 1:10 and we were told we had an hour to experience the penguins and treats at the cafe . We were met by our drivers for the trip back after eating at the cafe.  The complimentary baked treats and tea were lovely and the gift shop had many unique items -- many penguiny ones!!!  I went a little wild on penguin gifts. 

 

This tour was wonderful. I'll post some photos! Sorry I can't post videos as the video files are too large.  

[erber]

Here is a photo of carols in the Piazza. This was at 7 pm this evening.  

 

Merry Christmas! ⛄❄️🎄🦌

[Coral]

Great pics!

[sjcivilady]

Did you do a Princess tour or a private company?

[lorri111]

Great stuff!

[erber]

45 minutes ago, sjcivilady said:

Did you do a Princess tour or a private company?

Bluff Cove can only be booked ethrough Princess. They do not book independent tours. I booked it early and it cost $199 when I booked it. I saw the price rise to $219. It was sold out way before the cruise date. 

[Little Miss Fine]

Thank you so much for posting your cruise Erber. We embark on the 5th so it's great watching your progress. 

 

Merry Christmas 🥂🥂

 

Cheers,

Naomi

[noworriesbehappy]

Merry Christmas.  Thank you for sharing your holiday with us.

[treesah]

Love those penguins.  Super cute.  You brought so many memories.  We did this cruise back in 2009, from Valpparaiso  to Buenos Aires.  Thank you for taking the time to share your adventures.

[sjcivilady]

5 hours ago, erber said:

Bluff Cove can only be booked ethrough Princess. They do not book independent tours. I booked it early and it cost $199 when I booked it. I saw the price rise to $219. It was sold out way before the cruise date. 

Thank you. 

[Andrew J. Cat]

Thanks for the great pics and info!  We're doing this in Jan '21.  You've really got us excited now!!!

Merry Christmas!

[erber]

Merry  Christmas! Today we are at sea and we will spend the bulk of it at the many lectures offered regarding Antarctica. But first...there's breakfast.

 

For those of you concerned with laundry turn around, we got the first batch back after 48 hours. We are turning in another batch today. Supposedly it will take up to 72 hours to get it back.

 

The seas are not bad, but a little rolly today. Air temperature is 52 degrees according to the navigation channel. Winds are 20 kts (but apparent winds are only 16 kts).

 

If I remember I'll post the menus for dinner (I have not found any menus that are not under glass).

 

Have a wonderful day. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah!

[scubacruiserx2]

Merry Christmas . We did a similar cruise last year and loved it . We hope that yours is great . We had trouble uploading videos and could not until we got home . Here's a couple for your viewers from last year .

 

 

 

 

Keep up the great review ! 

[erber]

Christmas dinner menu. There is also a Christmas themed dinner in the buffet. 

 

Going to several more lectures today,  concluding today with the 1:30 lecture regarding navigating in Antarctica. 

[gottagocit]

The photo of the menu is very clear this time so whatever you did worked great. Thanks. 
 

Did you see taxis available in Port Stanley near the ship?

 

 

[gottagocit]

26 minutes ago, gottagocit said:

The photo of the menu is very clear this time so whatever you did worked great. Thanks. 
 

Did you see taxis available in Port Stanley near the ship?

 

 

Meant to say near the pier where the ships tenders drop you or near the ship. 

[erber]

Glad the menu is clearer. I took several photos so I could select the best. 

 

I didn't notice taxis in Stanley as I was on a tour, after which I walked around the town before returning to the pier. 

[erber]

Tomorrow's patter.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos throughout the journey! However, there could be intermittent satellite issues. So if I cannot post easily while in Antarctica , I'll catch up afterwards.

[cecimar]

Thanks for the Patters and for this wonderful thread! 🙂

[mimiclem]

Thank you for this wonderful information!  We leave on January 9 on the Island Princess from Ft. Lauderdale to do the 58 day cruise all the way around South America.  Hopefully the weather will be warmer and a little better by the time we get to Montevideo and the Falklands. We go to Central America, thru the Panama Canal and down the Pacific side of the continent, then around Cape Horn and north up the Atlantic Coast back to Florida.  So fun to see the penguin pix!!

[gottagocit]

Thank you once again on for taking the time to posting these updates. 
I suspected internet and tv signal reception that far south may be an issue and it appears they could indeed. Hopefully it won’t be for substantial periods of time. 
 

[erber]

Internet is slower and so far we have tv reception. I was in  the process of trying to upload photos of maps and other information sent to our staterooms regarding the Antarctic part of our cruise. All uploads failed. So at least for now I cannot post photos. I'll try later. If I can'tger anything to upload,  I'll try to catch up after we are further north again. 

[gottagocit]

27 minutes ago, erber said:

Internet is slower and so far we have tv reception. I was in  the process of trying to upload photos of maps and other information sent to our staterooms regarding the Antarctic part of our cruise. All uploads failed. So at least for now I cannot post photos. I'll try later. If I can'tger anything to upload,  I'll try to catch up after we are further north again. 

Thanks. We would be very interested in any information including a map showing the actual route the coral will be taking while in Antartica. It’s not something I’ve been able to locate elsewhere. 

[erber]

We saw our first tabular iceberg out our balcony. Approaching Elephant Island. It is quite dramatic, jagged peaks shrouded in low clouds. So sorry I can't upload a photo. This day will be very exciting. 

[azbirdmom]

3 hours ago, erber said:

Internet is slower and so far we have tv reception. I was in  the process of trying to upload photos of maps and other information sent to our staterooms regarding the Antarctic part of our cruise. All uploads failed. So at least for now I cannot post photos. I'll try later. If I can'tger anything to upload,  I'll try to catch up after we are further north again. 

 

Are you posting from your stateroom or from the Internet Cafe?  If in your stateroom have you tried propping your door open?  I know that the Medallion Net satellites yield poor coverage in Alaska and was expecting the same down south.  In Alaska it helped if I opened the door though and was kind of hoping that would be the case in Antarctica.  I'm sure the weather isn't helping - heard it is wet, windy, and very cold!