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markandjie

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Everything posted by markandjie

  1. People sometimes ask me why we travel so much. I always reply that it's a big amazing world and I want to see it all. Seeing this makes me realize it's even bigger and more amazing than I thought. Still want to see it all. <starts looking for cape to cape itineraries>
  2. Please do share your experiences and compare/contrast here. We've switched over to SS before based on making dates work. Several great cruise lines and love to hear from others what they think.
  3. Yes they do, and they are high quality. In the past on other SB ships I've been disappointed with the binoculars, but not so on venture. Note there's only a single pair.
  4. We've sailed with three people in regular verandas, spa suites, and WG suites. Your TA will be the best resource on what's available for your cruise, but i think it sometimes has to do with overall ship capacity. If there are more singles on a given cruise that creates more capacity for triples. But I could be totally wrong.
  5. So glad you had a great experience there even without a landing!
  6. Oh man, you weren't kidding when you said viewing areas are more limited than on SB Venture.
  7. That looks like the pod of Orcas we saw! Maybe they like cruise ships???
  8. Yes, hope one day our plans align! It will make for the most epic "Live from" thread in CC history... 😉
  9. I mean, yes, it was disappointing. But as I reflect back we had an amazing experience with some once in a lifetime sights. The Pursuit got MUCH luckier on landings, but I don't believe they had a pod of 10-20 orcas swim directly beneath the bow of the ship. Every Antarctica experience will be different but they're all amazing in their own way. It is Antarctica, after all. Venture and Pursuit are the newest and best luxury expedition ships you'll find anywhere. Some itineraries I believe spend more time in Antarctica, so if you want to maximize your experience you might look for one of those. The final thing is that as more and more ships go to Antarctica they are sharing the same number of potential landing sites. That gives far less flexibility if things go awry and the expedition team has to scramble for alternate sites. And that's true for every cruise line. Like highplanes says, it's a roulette wheel.
  10. This is the objective. Sometimes you even get multiple landings if things go your way. Or you can get unlucky, like we did in November with sea ice, and have multiple days with only a single activity. It is an expedition cruise, after all, and you just have to roll with it. I posted a thorough thread on our experience in Antarctica, which you can find here. @highplanesdrifters *just* posted a great thread on his Antarctica trip on Silversea, which you can find on the Silversea board.
  11. There is an obsession I think most folks here find quite annoying, and it's not that there are people who like caviar.
  12. The larger ships do not have a proportionately larger MDR, so the MDR is very crowded and busy. On the smaller ships the MDR is much better size for number of passengers and tables and provides a noticeably calmer dining experience. The biggest disadvantage of the smaller ships used to be the lack of a sushi restaurant, but with Sushi in the Club that is largely a non-issue now.
  13. Great new video posted to Seabourn social media channels showing off beautiful use of the outdoor space.
  14. I seem to recall that the Wild Bears is the superior option if your priority is bears. I think the jet boat eats up some of your time so you have less time observing the bears. Memories are quite hazy though, so consider this worth what you paid for it. 🤷🏼‍♂️
  15. Wayne! Hope all is well! So jealous! Our summer plans are up in the air right now but hoping we can book something last minute once we have clarity on a few things.
  16. This strikes me as a communications gap, whether on the staff or the requestor I don't know. Both champagne and caviar are easily attained upon request. More broadly I've no doubt your points are valid that Seabourns legacy ships will struggle upon direct comparison, particularly on dining, with the latest and greatest, of which there are more every year. Venture and Pursuit more than hold their own, though. As a consumer, this is all goodness for us. At least until the shakeout comes, anyway.
  17. Venture (and presumably Pursuit) have them up front in the bow lounge.
  18. I've been told by expedition staff it's the best place to see polar bears.
  19. We disembarked once at the same time as a few other ships, including a Disney ship. Took ages to get a taxi as we didn't have a car reserved. Different trip we were only ship disembarking and were through the port in <5 minutes. If the port is going to be busy recommend a private car.
  20. Yes, if it's an expedition trip it will have a jacket.
  21. I feel like pre-COVID the pricing was much more in line with booking on your own. Perhaps a small mark-up but one that was easily overcome by having Gold status. Now it seems they are marked up 1.5-2x the price and it doesn't really make sense to book thru the ship at all.
  22. I find a couple of different elements of this to be interesting: First, the origin story of APT sounds very very similar to that of Scenic's founder, who also started in Australian bus tours and then expanded into river and ocean cruises. One of the quotes from APT almost sounds like "well, we thought about building ships like Scenic but instead we're just gonna charter Seabourn for now". My understanding of these charters, after speaking to someone who chartered the full ship, is that Seabourn provides all of the staff, including expedition team, and the organization who chartered it is responsible for filling the suites and selecting the itinerary. So this really just saves Seabourn the trouble of filling that inventory and gives them some guaranteed revenue to amortize some very expensive assets. It's an interesting development and one that doesn't seem entirely positive.
  23. Yes, if it is an expedition cruise on Venture they will provide parkas. We did not have any, but we were already fitted for complementary boots just in case. You do NOT need to bring your own. Well maybe you do! 😉 You are welcome to bring your own and put them in your locker on the third floor. Seabourn provides each passenger a Helly Hansen branded backpack/dry bag. (Straps like a backpack, rolls up and closes like a dry sack.) It is lightweight and easy enough to roll up and carry in a jacket pocket when empty. Be warned it has ZERO cushion so if you, say, use it to carry a spare bulky camera lens on a hike you'll have the bruises to show for it. Beyond that, basically pack like you would for Antarctica but a tad less focus on cold and more focus on wet. Eg, rain pants are more useful than snow pants, but in the end either will do.
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