Thoughts, impressions, and observations for the World Cruise.

[CSHS1979]

A few pics from John's Canon

 

 

 

 

German's 🤔

[Another_Critic]

Bucky's doing shots and John is firing a Can[n]on at lighthouses/ships/sailboats.  You all are having a good time!  🙃

[Jumping Cruiser]

Apologies if I missed it, but has there still not been any update regarding the Red Sea & Suez Canal transit?

 

MSC have cancelled 3 repositioning cruises today, all of which were scheduled for March/April time. These 3 ships will now sail to Europe around the west coast of Africa, with no passengers or ports of call on the way, as there was apparently ‘no viable alternate itinerary’. It’s definitely looking like Royal are going to have to make some challenging decisions on how to best manage this with the WC.

 

[island lady]

3 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Tequila shots?  🥛  😉

 

Now that would have been much more preferable.  😄   

[island lady]

1 hour ago, CSHS1979 said:

A few pics from John's Canon

 

 

 

 

German's 🤔

 

nice!  🙂   I just could not get that close with the crappy phone camera...thanks!  

[orville99]

1 hour ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

Apologies if I missed it, but has there still not been any update regarding the Red Sea & Suez Canal transit?

That leg does not occur until early May, and there  can be a world of changes i that region between now and then.

[island lady]

Starting to enter the Beagle Channel, on the way to Ushuaia.  World Navigator right behind us...twin to the World Traveler that was in Paradise Cove Antarctica with us.  Pretty ship.  Will be nice to check her out when we get to the dock. 

[island lady]

3 minutes ago, orville99 said:

That leg does not occur until early May, and there  can be a world of changes i that region between now and then.

 

And since we don't rejoin until Barcelona, once we bail in LA....we are not sure what will happen with our planned rejoining now.  😮 

[RHDZ]

9 hours ago, MindyJohn said:

I've finally been able to spend some time catching up with your Thoughts and Impressions group, @island lady  The photos and discussion are wonderful and we are grateful for your time and effort!!!  

 

We were fortunate to sail this area with Azamara in 2015.  Here's a pretty 11pm sunset shot from Paradise Bay area and several from our penguin excursions at Port Stanley.  I'm sorry the weather didn't cooperate for you.  We were also rerouted to avoid a storm but luckily got into Port Stanley.  We went to a sheep farmer's house in the morning to view the cliff on his property inhabited by cute Rockhoppers.  In the afternoon it was Bluff Cover to see Kings.  

 

 

Beautiful pictures!!! Thanks for sharing. We have a cruise booked to visit Stanley Island. Who did you use for your excursions?

[MindyJohn]

57 minutes ago, RHDZ said:

Beautiful pictures!!! Thanks for sharing. We have a cruise booked to visit Stanley Island. Who did you use for your excursions?

I had to go back to our 2015 rollcall to find the particulars.  We were lucky to have a very active group with many members organizing private excursions.  Google Murrell Farms for information about tours to the farm with Rockhoppers.  We used Estancia Excursions to see Kings, Gentoos and Magellans.  I mistakenly said we went to Bluff Cove but our Estancia tour was to Volunteer Point. Another operator frequently mentioned is Patrick Watts.  I'm so glad we had time for two different tours.  Of course we wanted to see and photograph Kings, but going to that farm was one of the best things we ever did.  Not only adorable Rockhopper penguins, but driving over peat fields with no roads, going into their extremely rustic farmhouse for tea with the wife opening the frig (electricity from windmill) to show us a gallon bowl of fresh cream.  Also educated us about the process of sorting, rating and selling wool.  It was very special to glimpse the farming lifestyle in such a remote place.  

[RHDZ]

17 minutes ago, MindyJohn said:

I had to go back to our 2015 rollcall to find the particulars.  We were lucky to have a very active group with many members organizing private excursions.  Google Murrell Farms for information about tours to the farm with Rockhoppers.  We used Estancia Excursions to see Kings, Gentoos and Magellans.  I mistakenly said we went to Bluff Cove but our Estancia tour was to Volunteer Point. Another operator frequently mentioned is Patrick Watts.  I'm so glad we had time for two different tours.  Of course we wanted to see and photograph Kings, but going to that farm was one of the best things we ever did.  Not only adorable Rockhopper penguins, but driving over peat fields with no roads, going into their extremely rustic farmhouse for tea with the wife opening the frig (electricity from windmill) to show us a gallon bowl of fresh cream.  Also educated us about the process of sorting, rating and selling wool.  It was very special to glimpse the farming lifestyle in such a remote place.  

Thank you for all the information!

[MindyJohn]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

Starting to enter the Beagle Channel, on the way to Ushuaia.  World Navigator right behind us...twin to the World Traveler that was in Paradise Cove Antarctica with us.  Pretty ship.  Will be nice to check her out when we get to the dock. 

 

Is it windy?

[island lady]

7 hours ago, MindyJohn said:

Is it windy?

 

No, not at all...very calm.  Channel like sheet of glass. 

[island lady]

For some reason we sat still in the middle of half up the the channel to Ushuaia for several hours in the wee hours of the morning.  Several smaller boats near us, plus a small town.  Not docked up, just held in place with the thrusters.  Maybe taking on fuel I thought?.....but no, could not see a thing even when I decided to walk deck 12 to check it out.  Strange.  

 

Coming into Ushuaia now, just ahead.  

 

 

 

[ONECRUISER]

21 minutes ago, island lady said:

For some reason we sat still in the middle of half up the the channel to Ushuaia for several hours in the wee hours of the morning.  Several smaller boats near us, plus a small town.  Not docked up, just held in place with the thrusters.  Maybe taking on fuel I thought?.....but no, could not see a thing even when I decided to walk deck 12 to check it out.  Strange.  

 

Coming into Ushuaia now, just ahead.  

 

 

 

Wow either you are up early of I'm up really late! ...or both.  But yeah been while but many times over the years we'd get somewhere early and either putt around outside a Port or come to dead stop. Last one I remember we were just sitting there stopped, was on Deck 2 and whole ship was rocking side to side without any side/side tipping. Weird feeling and probably reason woke me at 3am sitting 5miles out of MIA

Edited January 17 by ONECRUISER

[island lady]

World Navigator already docked up ahead of us, plus expedition ship Le Boreal.  Previously, when we were sitting in the channel, one of the ice breaker ships was next to us...though I sure don't see any ice. 

 

It's rather nice weather here...no wind and 48 degrees with the pretty snow capped mountains as a back drop.  🙂 

 

  

[island lady]

1 minute ago, ONECRUISER said:

Wow either you are up early of I'm up really late! ...or both.

 

LOL...it is 7 am local time here in Ushuaia.  I was up at 3 am this morning walking the deck trying to figure out why we were stopped...now that was early.  😉 

[ONECRUISER]

5 minutes ago, island lady said:

 

LOL...it is 7 am local time here in Ushuaia.  I was up at 3 am this morning walking the deck trying to figure out why we were stopped...now that was early.  😉 

Ok, not bad as thought there now, It's 3:06am here in AZ, haven't been to bed and up at 6:05am get my Grand Daughter up & off to School. Days like this its do I just stay up?

[island lady]

Ushuaia pilot coming aboard.  Gave a us a friendly little toot-toot as he left.  Nice boat!  

 

 

[island lady]

Hello Ushuaia.  Le Boreal and World Navigator docked up ahead of us...aft to aft.  Tour buses already angling for position.  

 

World Navigator (blue hull facing out) does 8 night Antarctica trips from here with her 192 pax.  No stops...just touring and then back here.  Very pretty little ship.  

 

 

 

 

[ILCTCRUISER]

4 hours ago, island lady said:

For some reason we sat still in the middle of half up the the channel to Ushuaia for several hours in the wee hours of the morning.  Several smaller boats near us, plus a small town.  Not docked up, just held in place with the thrusters.  Maybe taking on fuel I thought?.....but no, could not see a thing even when I decided to walk deck 12 to check it out.  Strange.  

 

Coming into Ushuaia now, just ahead.  

 

 

 

Before we arrived at Ushuaia we had to stop at Port Williams to clear customs.  That's what we were told was the reason for the stop. Very early in the morning.  However, Ushuaia was our first port in Argentina and that’s not your situation.  More confusion:  Port Williams is in Chile.  EDIT:  We didn’t dock in Port Williams so the fact that Port Williams is in Chile may not be an issue.  We sat in Channel so, I guess, Argentine customs could have come to us.

Edited January 17 by ILCTCRUISER

[DragonOfTheSeas]

23 hours ago, MindyJohn said:

  I'm sorry the weather didn't cooperate for you.  We were also rerouted to avoid a storm but luckily got into Port Stanley.  We went to a sheep farmer's house in the morning to view the cliff on his property inhabited by cute Rockhoppers.  In the afternoon it was Bluff Cover to see Kings.  

 

 

 

 

On Jeopardy! last night one of the answers was the rockhoppers.  Thanks for helping me know the correct answer.  😁

Edited January 17 by DragonOfTheSeas

[Rogueperson]

19 hours ago, Jumping Cruiser said:

Apologies if I missed it, but has there still not been any update regarding the Red Sea & Suez Canal transit?

 

MSC have cancelled 3 repositioning cruises today, all of which were scheduled for March/April time. These 3 ships will now sail to Europe around the west coast of Africa, with no passengers or ports of call on the way, as there was apparently ‘no viable alternate itinerary’. It’s definitely looking like Royal are going to have to make some challenging decisions on how to best manage this with the WC.

 

 

This is such a lynchpin in the itinerary.  If the Red Sea and Suez is closed off, then you either disembark early, and an entire segment is cancelled, or they have to go around the Cape of Good Hope adding significant time to that next leg to get you back to Miami.

[orville99]

11 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

 

This is such a lynchpin in the itinerary.  If the Red Sea and Suez is closed off, then you either disembark early, and an entire segment is cancelled, or they have to go around the Cape of Good Hope adding significant time to that next leg to get you back to Miami.

There are several cruise lines that currently do the Dubai to Barcelona route by going around the Cape of Good Hope, so that route is not out of the realm of possibility. There may not be many ports of call that fit within the WC's transit timeframe, but the 7-10 days that the route itself consumes is doable.

[jakeil7]

13 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

 

This is such a lynchpin in the itinerary.  If the Red Sea and Suez is closed off, then you either disembark early, and an entire segment is cancelled, or they have to go around the Cape of Good Hope adding significant time to that next leg to get you back to Miami.

Worse, it isn’t just the time. Several of those east med ports won’t be safe to visit. Basically, they will most likely have to redo the entire 3rd (and 4th?) leg. 

But as others have already mentioned that is still a while away and things can change quickly. I’m sure HQ is already putting together their alternate strategies to deal not just with the WC, but all their east med cruises in 2024. We just need to sit back and wait.