Antarctica

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, marieps said:

We are on Sillie's TA in October 2023.  Enjoy.

We looked at that but fancied all the ports on the Reflection route. Have a great cruise. If by chance Julie is the Director of Guest Relations please say hello from Geoff and Anita. By the way Julie is the most outgoing of the Guest Relations staff and is a regular on Liars Club ( she is also "the voice in the elevators" on all Royal Caribbean ships.). 

[marieps]

4 minutes ago, the penguins said:

We looked at that but fancied all the ports on the Reflection route. Have a great cruise. If by chance Julie is the Director of Guest Relations please say hello from Geoff and Anita. By the way Julie is the most outgoing of the Guest Relations staff and is a regular on Liars Club ( she is also "the voice in the elevators" on all Royal Caribbean ships.). 

I certainly will pass along salutations if I see her.

[the penguins]

2 minutes ago, marieps said:

I certainly will pass along salutations if I see her.

Thanks, you could gain "extra brownie points" by taking her a tube of Pringles as she can no longer rat her favourite chocolates. By the way Julie's favourite saying is "if I can't fix it, it aint broke" 

[intr3pid]

On 10/23/2022 at 2:51 AM, the penguins said:

Shame you have ruled out an "expedition" cruise. We have done the "scenic" version on Celebrity and the "expedition" on Hurtigruten's Fram. There is really no comparison between the two experiences.

Yup, not everyone's idea of a January vacation is to don a waterproof jacket, parka, liner gloves, and tumble over wet icy terrain to take photos of penguins.  It's an expedition trip for a special interest. 

 

The "scenic" cruise is for those looking to escape the northern winters.  To experience natural eye candy at the edge of the world while still getting entertained, fed, and pampered like they would in the Caribbeans. 

 

ps.  Awesome pictures - glad you took it for us!

[NMTraveller]

Did Iceland change it's rules regarding cruise ships?  I thought that in 2023 they were going to ban cruise ships or at least have special rules regarding the construction of the ships?

[NutsAboutGolf]

38 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Did Iceland change it's rules regarding cruise ships?  I thought that in 2023 they were going to ban cruise ships or at least have special rules regarding the construction of the ships?

Iceland or Antarctica?

[NMTraveller]

9 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Iceland or Antarctica?

Meant to say Antartica...

Edited October 26, 2022 by NMTraveller

[NutsAboutGolf]

I was checking the nightly rate of the (cruise line) Hurtigruten (ship) Fram not realizing how many nights they were which is at least 22 nights.  If you're working being granted 22 or more day off would be challenging for the majority and in some cases you may need to take unpaid time off if you don't have that many vacation days.  The cheapest price is just under $14K/person before fees and taxes for an INSIDE cabin.  You can find 14 night sailings on X for $2500/person before fees and taxes for a BALCONY cabin or roughly 5.5x cheaper.

 

Therefore, if you're currently working and it would be a challenge for you to get that much vacation time off, maybe it would make a lot of sense to not book the Fram until you're at least semi-retired 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Meant to say Antartica...

The Antarctic Convention sets very specific rules for each landings which includes:

1) a maximum of 100 people (passengers and crew combined) can be on land at any one time.

2) no individual can be on land for more than 60 minutes at a time.

3) all outer clothing including pockets, turnups, seams etc must be vacuumed to prevent contamination. 

4) nothing like tissues to be taken ashore.

5) once ashore nothing must be picked up moved, or left behind.

6) emergency supplies including food, water and tents must be landed before any passenger is allowed ashore and all such supplies must be removed at the end of each landing.

7) each landing must be preceded by a briefing if you don't attend the briefing you are not permitted to land.

😎 on returning to the ship each passenger must walk through a trough of disinfectant to clean their boots. Any outer clothing that is contaminated is hosed down before you can reboard.

9) all passengers going on a landing must wear the outer jacket provided by the ship - in the case of Hurtigruten this is blue for passengers and red for crew. Life jackets must be worn throughout each landing.

Only ships upto a certain size are allowed to do landings and these must be ice strengthened to a minimum standard - none of the large.cruise ships meets those standards.

Fram can carry over 400 passengers but is restricted to 208 in Antarctica.

The Fram and I assume the other ships achieve 1 and 2 by continually rotating groups on each landing. Each group is also rotated giving everyone the opportunity to be the first to land.

The rules do not apply in the Falkland Islands.

Meeting all these requirements is one of the factors that keeps the price of these expedition cruises high.

 

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I was checking the nightly rate of the (cruise line) Hurtigruten (ship) Fram not realizing how many nights they were which is at least 22 nights.  If you're working being granted 22 or more day off would be challenging for the majority and in some cases you may need to take unpaid time off if you don't have that many vacation days.  The cheapest price is just under $14K/person before fees and taxes for an INSIDE cabin.  You can find 14 night sailings on X for $2500/person before fees and taxes for a BALCONY cabin or roughly 5.5x cheaper.

 

Therefore, if you're currently working and it would be a challenge for you to get that much vacation time off, maybe it would make a lot of sense to not book the Fram until you're at least semi-retired 

Price per night is one way of looking at it but there are alternatives and I prefer the cost per "useful day" i.e the time I get at the actual destination which in this case is Antarctica/Falklands.

The original poster said Princess gave him just 1 extra day making the cost very high. On our Celebrity cruise we were scheduled to get 1 day in the Falklands and 2 days cruising the peninsular due to bad weather we had just 1 day scenic cruising and no Falklands. On the Fram we had 4 days on the Peninsular, 2 days on South Georgia and 3 days in the Falklands.

I have also heard that comparing Expedition cruising with Scenic is like comparing a trip to a Safari Park with an actual Safari.

Every option has its merits, every ones personal circumstances are different. Europeans also benefit from having a minimum of 4 weeks paid holiday a year. 

Whichever cruise you choose Antarctica is a wonderful experience but please don't sit in the lounge or stay on your balcony. Get outside and enjoy the experience in the company of others.

[villauk]

13 hours ago, the penguins said:

We looked at that but fancied all the ports on the Reflection route. Have a great cruise. If by chance Julie is the Director of Guest Relations please say hello from Geoff and Anita. By the way Julie is the most outgoing of the Guest Relations staff and is a regular on Liars Club ( she is also "the voice in the elevators" on all Royal Caribbean ships.). 

 

Off topic, but we love Julie too. We remember her on Royal ships and then thought we were seeing things in Harwich when we sailed on Infinity many years ago - we shouted her name and it was indeed Julie (she’d moved across brands) 😁. Great personality.

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

Off topic, but we love Julie too. We remember her on Royal ships and then thought we were seeing things in Harwich when we sailed on Infinity many years ago - we shouted her name and it was indeed Julie (she’d moved across brands) 😁. Great personality.

We cruised with her twice this year on Silhouette. Only difference now is that she has had to give up all chocolate due to health issues hence the switch to Pringles.

We asked about switching lines and she said they used to have a choice of any ship across the brand's but now they are restricted to one. However Royal still uses her as "the voice in the elevators" so she gets do the recordings as new ships are introduced.

 

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I was checking the nightly rate of the (cruise line) Hurtigruten (ship) Fram not realizing how many nights they were which is at least 22 nights.  If you're working being granted 22 or more day off would be challenging for the majority and in some cases you may need to take unpaid time off if you don't have that many vacation days.  The cheapest price is just under $14K/person before fees and taxes for an INSIDE cabin.  You can find 14 night sailings on X for $2500/person before fees and taxes for a BALCONY cabin or roughly 5.5x cheaper.

 

Therefore, if you're currently working and it would be a challenge for you to get that much vacation time off, maybe it would make a lot of sense to not book the Fram until you're at least semi-retired 

I quoted the Fram as it's the ship we sailed on. Hurtigruten have Antarctic Expedition cruises starting from 12 nights and with good discounts for early bookings. The shorter itineraries just do the Peninsula but even those give you 5 days there with numerous landings. 18 days seems the shortest that includes South Georgia for the King Penguins.

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

59 minutes ago, the penguins said:

I quoted the Fram as it's the ship we sailed on. Hurtigruten have Antarctic Expedition cruises starting from 12 nights and with good discounts for early bookings. The shorter itineraries just do the Peninsula but even those give you 5 days there with numerous landings. 18 days seems the shortest that includes South Georgia for the King Penguins.

 

Also there are many other cruise lines offering the expedition experience; I’d imagine the cheaper ones offer a less luxurious experience.  Bottom line, like anything, do your own due diligence.  First determine big ship vs expedition then research the available sailings

[chisoxfan]

Have been viewing this post with some interest and envious of those who had memorable Antarctic cruises (or expeditions). Just retired and we had booked 14 day Infinity in 2023 but ultimately canceled.

Our concerns were weather (of course not predictable but understand potentially some of the roughest 

seas in the world. We tried to combine with other cruises trips out of BA but couldn't find anything that worked.  Doing some research we were also very late  in season (end of Feb.)  Had some concern with Infinity as a older ship and one 'rumored' to be on the block and which has not been rehabbed.  The killer for us was the horrendous air travel from the midwest. Tried to use some points but at the end of the day a lot of money and time with what we were convinced would be a strenuous  day(s) of travel.  

Just sharing my observations and know they are specific to me and opinion but that is why we opted to do other travel instead.

 

We hope to make this trip someday (God willing) but will immediately focus on some other trips.

 

ps. we booked an exclusive all inclusive in Mexico in place of our cruise - somehow leaving the Midwest in WInter to see icebergs was less exciting than a swim up bar. Doesn't say much for our

sense of adventure.

 

[the penguins]

6 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Also there are many other cruise lines offering the expedition experience; I’d imagine the cheaper ones offer a less luxurious experience.  Bottom line, like anything, do your own due diligence.  First determine big ship vs expedition then research the available sailings

Good advice. Anyone else have first hand experience of either way of seeing Antarctica?

By the way I wouldn't describe the Fram as being luxurious. Cabins functional. Public areas good with huge windows at the front - like a miniaturised  Sky Lounge. Deck space excellent with high sides so practically always accessible. Food excellent quality but limited choice. Mainly buffet with a few set meals. Crew amazing. Lecture programme and landings excellent. Night time entertainment all done by the crew, everyone from the Captain to the most junior member of the crew joins in.