Live From the Sapphire, 30-Day Antarctica/SA B2B, Jan 20 - Feb 19

[Ken the cruiser]

BTW for those interested, here is a picture of the Captain and his officers.

 

 

[LaRu60]

Ken the cruiser, we’re also in an aft facing cabin on this cruise. As for whether my DW and I will check the Antarctica box as a place visited, we absolutely will. Sailing in and around Antarctica four-days is much longer than running through an airport to catch my next flight. Although, if I connect at CDG while heading to Barcelona, I will claim that I touched my feet in Paris but I didn’t “visit” Paris. My business trips are typically less than four days; our time sailing around and visiting Antarctica will be far greater. Perception is one’s own reality, so I’m checking the box!

 

Let’s hope for fair winds and flowing seas!

[Mary loves to travel]

Hi Ken,

 

we played “Where’s Waldo” and found ourselves in the lecture crowd 😄

 

Mary

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

Hi Ken,

 

we played “Where’s Waldo” and found ourselves in the lecture crowd 😄

 

Mary

It was definitely packed, that’s for sure!

[Ken the cruiser]

After a tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to the 7:30 pm show called Nothin’ But Good Times starring Kristina Wells.

  

 
Then we were off to the Generation Gap Game Shop in the Explorers Lounge, which was a lot of fun.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 3 - Jan 22 - Sea Day 2 of 3

 

 

 
Here is our current location at around 9:45 pm. The ship heading towards us is Serenade of the Seas.
 

 

As far as the wave action goes, the current reading is around 12 feet. But on the bright side, the Captain said we are hopefully heading towards calmer seas tomorrow, as reflected by the lighter colors at the bottom of the page.

 

 
However, if the wave action does not ease up, his Plan B is to head into the fjords where there are much calmer waters, and one might also imagine more awesome scenery to gaze upon as we continue to cruise towards Puerto Arenas. 😁
 

The internet speeds have also weakened a bit, but still acceptable. However, I would imagine some folks trying to stream movies right now might have a different opinion.

 

 

Edited January 22 by Ken the cruiser

[Carnevale]

Many thanks for continuing to share so much great information!  We board Sapphire on Feb 5 so I am very interested in everything you are posting @Ken the cruiser.

 

The Cruise Mapper images you posted are interesting so I downloaded the app.  So far I can get either the map or the itinerary to show so I will have to play with it for a while to learn how to use it as you are. It’s a great resource as it’s fun to see where one is sailing.

 

Hope the wave action you are experiencing does let up.

[tuffyiscruisin]

Lots of great info, curious as to who the bartenders in good spirits are, this is our favourite bar on board and we board on March 18.

[Flakie]

Great updates thank you 👍  @Ken the cruiser 🤩 apart from the wave action, what are the on board outside temperatures like ? Imagine there’s a bit of wind chill going on. 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 hours ago, Carnevale said:

Many thanks for continuing to share so much great information!  We board Sapphire on Feb 5 so I am very interested in everything you are posting @Ken the cruiser.

 

The Cruise Mapper images you posted are interesting so I downloaded the app.  So far I can get either the map or the itinerary to show so I will have to play with it for a while to learn how to use it as you are. It’s a great resource as it’s fun to see where one is sailing.

 

Hope the wave action you are experiencing does let up.

Thanks! Here’s what I do since I never downloaded the app.

 

1. Do an internet search for “Sapphire Princess location”.

 

2. Click on the Cruise Mapper link - https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Sapphire-Princess-733

 

3. Click on the picture that has the circle around the ship where it’s currently located. It will bring up this more specific link.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9228186

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 22 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Flakie said:

Great updates thank you 👍  @Ken the cruiser 🤩 apart from the wave action, what are the on board outside temperatures like ? Imagine there’s a bit of wind chill going on. 

The highs have been in the low 60s outside (on our aft-facing balcony) so far. But that's without adding in the 40-50 mph wind chill factor I felt when I took that above photo yesterday of the wave smashing off the ship! 😂

[LaRu60]

On 1/16/2024 at 4:46 PM, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Hi I was on the first Santiago to BA leg the Sapphire just did (I boarded in LA) and my friends stayed on and went back to Santigo. I’ll attach the Santiago to BA map thru the Antarctic for you. I see someone already posted the BA to Santiago map.

 

@HaveDogWillTravel - love the map, where/how did you get it?

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, tuffyiscruisin said:

Lots of great info, curious as to who the bartenders in good spirits are, this is our favourite bar on board and we board on March 18.

Just checked and Michael and Jhomel are the 2 bartenders at Good Spirits on this cruise and should both be onboard in March. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Today, the wave levels are still up around 11 feet with what looks like a brief easing up just ahead of us before it starts getting rough again.
 

We haven’t heard yet from the Capitan whether we will continue on course or opt for Plan B, but I would think that decision will be made in the next few hours. 

 

 

But at least the blue sky is trying to peak out after a cloudy start! 👍
 

 
For those interested there are 2469 passengers and 1050 crew onboard this cruise. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Today, the wave levels are still up around 11 feet with what looks like a brief easing up just ahead of us before it starts getting rough again.
 

We haven’t heard yet from the Capitan whether we will continue on course or opt for Plan B, but I would think that decision will be made in the next few hours. 

 

 

But at least the blue sky is trying to peak out after a cloudy start! 👍
 

 
For those interested there are 2469 passengers and 1050 crew onboard this cruise. 

Just heard from the Captain and we are going to stay the course and shoot for an on-time arrival at Punta Arenas day after tomorrow. If we would have altered course to go through the calmer waters in the fjords, an on-time arrival would probably not have been possible. 
 

On the local front, today we’re going to 2 more Antarctica lectures and a Ushuaia port talk. Definitely giving those gray cells a workout these past two days! 😂

Edited January 22 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after another tasty dinner in the Reserve Dining Room, we headed to watch Divos with Erwin and Sergio.

 

 
Then we were off to the Explorers Lounge to watch the hilarious Yes/No Game Show.

 
 

 
Then it was back to the cabin to relax and ride the waves, which are in the 9 foot range now, but look to get a little worse as the evening progresses, as we still have a long way to go before arriving at Punta Arenas day after tomorrow.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 4 - Jan 23 - Sea Day 3 of 3 (4 enrichment programs today)

 

 

 
Internet speeds this evening

 

Edited January 23 by Ken the cruiser

[PapaGoose]

Question for you Ken. When you first boarded in Valparaiso did they have a table set up to collect corkage fees for extra bottles of wine? Where did the security check for containers of beverages in carry on luggage take place? In the terminal or onboard the ship? Thanks for keeping us up to date on your travels so far!

[effinaround]

I can answer this.  There was a table just past the security screening point before exiting the building to take the bus to the ship that was collecting corkage fees.  Once on the ship there was no additional screening other than tapping our medallion.

 

I had a can of beer in the outside of my backpack but the security people didn't question it.  

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, effinaround said:

I can answer this.  There was a table just past the security screening point before exiting the building to take the bus to the ship that was collecting corkage fees.  Once on the ship there was no additional screening other than tapping our medallion.

 

I had a can of beer in the outside of my backpack but the security people didn't question it.  

Thanks for that as I didn’t have a clue. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

This morning has been an interesting one. First we got up relatively early so we could go to breakfast before going to the first of three morning lectures at 9:15 am, and this was the view from our balcony.
 

 
Then on the way to breakfast, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the new “symbol” of someone that has been quarantined in their room. When we asked our steward, he said is for gastrointestinal issues. BTW it’s the only one we’ve seen on our floor so far, and hopefully it stays that way. 🤞

 

 

Then after the first two lectures, we decided to pass on the third and head back to the cabin to relax until it was lunchtime. And then there they were, a couple of Black-footed Albatross flying around the wake behind the ship. Yay, finally some wildlife to take pictures of! 😁

 

 

 
Then we decided to try one of our two free “Casual Dining” perks that come with the Plus package. For those interested, they do offer gluten-free pizza crusts, but not “dairy-free” cheese. It was OK, but we will probably pass on using them in the future as they got super busy after we arrived causing the service to become really slow. But on the bright side, we were sitting by the window and this was the 17’ wave action outside of Deck 5. Shortly after I took this picture, they entire window got completely washed by a huge wave!

 

 
Here’s where we are currently at now, and the Captain said we will be entering the Strait of Magellan around 8 pm this evening. FWIW the blue line on the map in front of us was the route the Sapphire took on the previous cruise from BA to Valparaiso.

 

 
And this is the weather and wave action we will be cruising through until we enter the Strait of Magellan.

 

 

 

Fun times!! 😂

[Flakie]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

But on the bright side, we were sitting by the window and this was the 17’ wave action outside of Deck 5. Shortly after I took this picture, the entire window got completely washed by a huge wave!

 

 
 

 

Fun times!! 😂

Wow, love a choppy sea 🌊. Thanks @Ken for another great update 👍

[beg3yrs]

We were on the Sapphire this time last year. We boarded on January 4 in BA and did a B2B so we saw Antarctica twice. For us it was a good choice as what we missed on the first leg we saw on the return. Technically we missed Cape Horn both times but on the first leg we were close enough to see it in the distance. Anyway, the Sapphire is an excellent vessel in rough seas. It rides better due to it's beam being a bit wider than other ships of its size. We rounded Elephant Island on the first leg and went from calm seas to greater than 100 knot winds and basically had to just point into the wind and go only fast enough to maintain steerage. 27' waves and the ship did well. Oh yeah, they didn't know how much over 100 knots the winds were because that's the maximum reading on the anemometer.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, beg3yrs said:

We were on the Sapphire this time last year. We boarded on January 4 in BA and did a B2B so we saw Antarctica twice. For us it was a good choice as what we missed on the first leg we saw on the return. Technically we missed Cape Horn both times but on the first leg we were close enough to see it in the distance. Anyway, the Sapphire is an excellent vessel in rough seas. It rides better due to it's beam being a bit wider than other ships of its size. We rounded Elephant Island on the first leg and went from calm seas to greater than 100 knot winds and basically had to just point into the wind and go only fast enough to maintain steerage. 27' waves and the ship did well. Oh yeah, they didn't know how much over 100 knots the winds were because that's the maximum reading on the anemometer.

Sounds like you had a great cruise! We thought about doing the “same itinerary” B2B, but opted for this 30-day combination so we could visit more unique ports, especially since we had done a similar Antarctica cruise with HAL 5 years ago. But we didn’t see Elephant Island on that cruise nor the A23a Iceberg, which we’re hoping to see both on this cruise. Plus we just got back from going on a Galapagos cruise in December, so there was that reason as well. 😁

 

I just checked Windy and on Jan 26 when we are supposed to stop by Cape Horn at 7 am before heading across Drake Passage, the wind forecast is looking pretty good! 🤞

 

Edited January 23 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We just entered the Strait of Magellan and calmer waters! Yay!! Next stop Punta Arenas tomorrow morning! 😁