Reminiscent of World Traveller Jan 26th 2023 cruise

[rloke]

Offroading is more difficult than taking the highways...

 

 

 

Follow the leader...

 

 

Bumpy ride down the rocky slope...

 

 

 

[AweighToSea]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:51 AM, ilv4cruising said:

@rloke Did you happen to get a link from Atlas with the pictures of our trip taken by the Expedition leaders?  I never got one but contacted Atlas and they just sent it.  Just wanted to let you know.

 

 

 

On 4/1/2023 at 7:49 AM, rloke said:

Thanks for the heads-up. Will give them a shout…

So much enjoying this thread. @rloke you have excellent photos! And for the play-by play notes. A great read.

 

I'm quoting this post because we too did not receive an email from Atlas with a link to the photos. i have been intending to post a question regarding this issue on the board but have ben tied up with some issues since we returned (and also wanted to have the photos first which I happily now have)

 

We were on a different sailing and don't want to hijack your excellent thread but as this came up I will interrupt with apologies.

 

We used a TA and not direct. When I reached out to Atlas for the "missing email" they told me all communication would go through the agent. I was surprised that would include a follow-up informational email such as this but maybe that is why you two too did not get the link. We have another Atlas cruise booked so I would like to know where the "what we've got here is a failure to communicate" happened so can head it off before the next trip.

 

That said, I am very curious if someone here on CC did get the original email and its contents. We understood the email would be more than the link to the photos but include links to some sites that we discussed in the recaps, the route taken, etc. I am disappointed we had to chase down the photos and that we did not get the other info but glad that we did eventually get a link. I suspect that the link we did receive was not a link to the original store as this seems unedited in that there are a few badly exposed shots that I'd expect the ship's photographer to have edited out before "publishing".

[rloke]

7 hours ago, AweighToSea said:

I'm quoting this post because we too did not receive an email from Atlas with a link to the photos. i have been intending to post a question regarding this issue on the board but have ben tied up with some issues since we returned (and also wanted to have the photos first which I happily now have)

 

Yes, it was weird that even follow-ups were going through the TA. The main reason is that it seems like Atlas did not have our e-mail info on file.

The following is an excerpt of the e-mail sent by Atlas to our TA, who in turn, sent it to us...ironically on April 1st actually...😄 Atlas "finally" sent the link to our TA on March 31st.

 

"

The guests listed below recently joined us aboard a cruise aboard World Traveller.  We hope they enjoyed their lasting memories.  You are receiving this email because we did not have a direct email to send this information to your clients.

 

Please provide the link below to your clients so they can access all the pictures that were taken by our Expedition Leaders during their cruise. They can follow the link to access the pictures and download them for their use.  The link will expire after 30 days so please ensure you send them the link so they can download their preferred pictures before the expiration.

"

 

Most of the content through the link were the same as what we got in the USB stick presented to us while on-board though.

 

[rloke]

If I am not mistaken, we had our first (and only) daily evening pre-dinner briefing/recap after the landing at Neko Harbour. And it was rather brief indeed...Max mentioned that we would be going through the Lemaire Channel later in the evening, around 9-10pm. And then headed to Fish Island for a Feb 1st morning landing. Weather looked favourable...

Edited April 6, 2023 by rloke
sp

[rloke]

Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse, and the conditions were not favourable for a Lemaire Channel transit. So the Captain took us on a path that is more open ocean, a bit further north of the channel, so that we could sail at a reasonable pace.

[rloke]

And the unfavorable conditions followed us to Fish Island. As a result, the landing was canceled. We would continue to sail straight to the afternoon location, Andresen Island which is south of the Antarctica circle.

 

We crossed the circle sometime after lunch. Celebrations were held at the Observation Lounge and champagne was flowing freely. Note that this was the only occasion where alcohol was allowed to be consumed prior to a Zodiac operation. Everyone rejoice! 

 

 

[rloke]

We reached Andresen Island at around 2pm on February 1st for a zodiac cruise. It has some impressive snow formations on one side of the island. The other side had less snow and ice and more exposed rocky slopes. Also a number of interesting icebergs near the island.

 

[rloke]

The "sphinx"-berg...

 

Arch-berg...

[rloke]

On the exposed rocky side of the island, found the following...

 

Lots of molting Adelie chicks here...at various stages of molt...

 

The rightmost chick had almost finished...just a small turf left on its head...

 

The adults on dates...or perhaps just a stalker...

 

I think they know each other...

 

Social distancing or date gone bad...

 

The singles....

 

 

 

[rloke]

The polar plunge took place at Andresen Island. A record for the season, thus far, of 70+ plungers took part.

 

Once you were safely teethered, you would be carefully escorted down the stairs...and then all you needed to do was to take a leap...

 

 

 

Geronimo...

[AweighToSea]

On 4/4/2023 at 5:49 AM, rloke said:

 

Yes, it was weird that even follow-ups were going through the TA. The main reason is that it seems like Atlas did not have our e-mail info on file.

The following is an excerpt of the e-mail sent by Atlas to our TA, who in turn, sent it to us...ironically on April 1st actually...😄 Atlas "finally" sent the link to our TA on March 31st.

 

"

The guests listed below recently joined us aboard a cruise aboard World Traveller.  We hope they enjoyed their lasting memories.  You are receiving this email because we did not have a direct email to send this information to your clients.

 

Please provide the link below to your clients so they can access all the pictures that were taken by our Expedition Leaders during their cruise. They can follow the link to access the pictures and download them for their use.  The link will expire after 30 days so please ensure you send them the link so they can download their preferred pictures before the expiration.

"

 

Most of the content through the link were the same as what we got in the USB stick presented to us while on-board though.

 

Thanks - that is good to know. We had an agent change (same agency). I suspect that email is sitting in the previous agent's inbox that is only occasionally monitored for "bigger" things. I'll follow-up with my (great) current agent to ensure we get timely emails from Atlas.

[rloke]

The morning landing at Detaille Island on Feb 2nd was canceled due to 50+ knots wind. So it was a leisurely sail back up north to a hopeful zodiac cruise around the Yalour Islands on Feb 3rd.

[rloke]

We were out for a Zodiac cruise around the Yalour Islands on Feb 3rd at around 9:30am. The sea was a bit choppy and wind was around 15 knots but it was perfectly safe for zodiac operations. Temperature was around 2°C (35-36°F).

 

A short moment upon starting the cruise, Jean Roch noticed the characteristic water pattern to indicate that a whale was nearby. He carefully guided the zodiac towards the target area and sure enough, there was a juvenile humpback...

[rloke]

There were a number of icebergs scattered around the islands...

 

Rock on an iceberg...was dug up and embedded under a glacier which broke off as an iceberg...this iceberg then flipped and reveal this rock underneath...

 

[rloke]

And a number of Adelie nurseries scattered across the various little islands...

 

While mostly populated by Adelie penguins, there were a small number of Gentoo visitors as well...

 

[rloke]

Yalour Islands was the last zodiac operation. Conditions were OK for a Lemaire Channel transit on our way back north.

 

View from the Dome, the ship's "moon roof"...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rloke]

A quick pitstop at Port Lockroy, before crossing the Drake, to drop off the postcards at the post office...we did receive the postcard after a month or so...

[rloke]

The postcard from Antarctica...

[shuyak]

@rloke: 

 

We just booked the last minute cruise for this December (Would Navigator).  Your detailed/vivid posts allow us to know what to expect, what to look for, and what to look out for.

 

Thank you very much for sharing!

 

 

[rloke]

22 minutes ago, shuyak said:

@rloke: 

 

We just booked the last minute cruise for this December (Would Navigator).  Your detailed/vivid posts allow us to know what to expect, what to look for, and what to look out for.

 

Thank you very much for sharing!

 

 

 

Enjoy your cruise @shuyak

 

 

[shuyak]

@rloke, assuming dry pack is needed for camera, how is it handled during zodiac rides?  

 

Many thanks.

[rloke]

1 hour ago, shuyak said:

@rloke, assuming dry pack is needed for camera, how is it handled during zodiac rides?  

 

Many thanks.

We did have our cameras in dry packs during zodiac rides in case of splashes. It is just an extra precaution but we did not get splashed at all fortunately.
 

If we were to do it again, we could probably had been fine with putting the camera in a large ziplock bag and place that in our regular water resistant backpack. Makes it easier to access the camera than the rolltop style dry pack which can sometimes be a bit fiddly.

 

We were able to use the cameras during all the zodiac rides without any issues but of course YMMV as it really does depend on sea and weather conditions.

 

[shuyak]

10 hours ago, rloke said:

We did have our cameras in dry packs during zodiac rides in case of splashes. It is just an extra precaution but we did not get splashed at all fortunately.
 

If we were to do it again, we could probably had been fine with putting the camera in a large ziplock bag and place that in our regular water resistant backpack. Makes it easier to access the camera than the rolltop style dry pack which can sometimes be a bit fiddly.

 

We were able to use the cameras during all the zodiac rides without any issues but of course YMMV as it really does depend on sea and weather conditions.

 

 

Thank you very much!

[californiagirl]

Thank you for taking the time to post pictures, videos and narrative of your amazing journey.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

[ShopperfiendTO]

Hi OP,

 

After the cruise, did you fly from USH to EZE and then stay at the airport to catch your flight back to Canada later that day?

 

If you did, could you let us know how that worked logistically?  I assume that the USH-EZE leg was on a flight chartered by Atlas and the EZE-Canada flight was on your own separate booking, so there was no "linking" the two itineraries or checking through the luggage from the USH-EZE flight to the EZE-Canada flight?

 

If this was the case, then upon landing at EZE from USH, did you have to exit the secured area, pick up your luggage from the USH-EZE flight, and recheck-in for your EZE-Canada flight as if you were never in the airport and just coming in from the city? 

 

That sounds annoying and a waste time having to do 2 check-ins and security screenings even though the connection is in the same airport and you could have possibly remained in the secured area if they just checked the luggage to the EZE-Canada flight.

 

Did your USH-EZE flight land in the same terminal as where your EZE-Canada flight was departing from?

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!   

Edited October 15, 2023 by ShopperfiendTO