DTtravelers

Do you have Lucci?? We had him in Antarctica. Awesome experience. We also had Iggy from Lima to Santiago.

Unconfirmed source heard that Iggy might be on the Quest trip in Antarctica Jan 2023.

Dawes Glacier - Endicott Arm. Does it get any better than this?? Not according to the Captain. Kayak trip was A++ today! Enjoying a little Woodford Reserve on 10,000 year old glacier ice. 😁

Per the shark’s request… We’re currently in Juneau, meaning the trip is already half over 😳. It is sunny with a few clouds, so we are missing out on the 3 inches of rain that they had the other day. Inian islands by zodiac was great, even with mist and some rain. Saw a momma sea otter carrying her pup on her belly-cute!!! And some puffins and lots of sea lions…. Recommended even at 6:30 am. btw: the jackets are waterproof and lined so we kept warm even in a light rain. It has been warm enough that most of the time I just use my light weight rain jacket instead. BRING RAIN PANTS!!! (Just a useful hint). We made up our own whale-watch, bear watch excursion: At Icy Straights we enjoyed the breaching whale while eating lunch at the Colonade, then watched the brown bear at the shore later on. We asked about bears while on shore and the girl working the gift shop said “it rained this morning-so you won’t see them”. Then she told us about the time she and her sister had to curl up in a ball while the brown bear sniffed her. She was 12 at the time… The Hubbard Glacier only calved about 15 times while we were there. 😉 I got a few on video but the file is 200 mbytes. Our first cruise in 3 years - so far it has been great. 315 of us on the way up, 351 staff! Staff has been great. Ate at E&O half the time, even when it rained (we were covered and they had slow roasted lamb shank) Zero complaints. Comparable to our experience on the Quest 3 years ago. Great to be out again. D

We interrupt this train trip to bring you a special bear report from the Odyssey… To remain in good graces with shark b8 and avoid legal proceedings, and help our September cruisers, I offer the following: we met a nice couple from Glasgow + Liverpool who had never seen a bear in the wild. They came back from their Ketchikan tour yesterday drenched but in high spirits. They encountered 5 black bears on their excursion. Lots of smiles. Lovely day in Sitka today. The salmon run is beginning… lots of pinks, chum and a few steelhead. Locals said that by next week they would be so thick that you won’t be able to see the pebbles in the creek. Amazing sight. Every day. Best day ever!

Thanks shark b8 for taking us along with you! And for leaving the ship in good shape for us. 🙂 Today we enjoyed breaching humpback whale for lunch. The food and wine were good too. We were the last 2 to snag a Wild bears of Anon excursion, so we’ll post an update here next week for this who are following this cruise in September, if that is okay with you?

Hi jimandcyn: Did you perhaps mean to post this on the Celebrity Board or maybe start a Roll Call, rather than posting on the Seabourn Board?? Just trying to help in case you are new/lost...

1. Cruiseej: your third picture looks like a large, blue, ice-fish jumping out of the water!!! 2. Shark b8: Your glacier and ice pics are really amazing... What are you using to capture them? 3. Lastly... since you are now highly experienced at Hubbard Glacier: Catamaran, Kayak, or Zodiac?? Which would give us the best views of that amazing blue-colored ice? We will be hopping on next Friday afternoon after you get off. Hope you didn't use up all the good stuff! 🙂

I agree with flyerstef. Your posts are very interesting and positive, and we have talked casually doing that trip for about 10 years... Also, neither TrainCritic nor RailCritic seem to exist, so where else would you post?? And how were you able to schedule the "unknown atmospheric force" (i.e., sunshine)?? I cannot seem to locate that anywhere in the App. When we did our first cruise unpteen years ago, they gave us a complimentary book "The Alaska Cruise Handbook" and I remembered a cute side note about Ketchican: Ketchican visitor to child: "How long has it been raining?" Child: "I don't know; I'm only five"

More like keeping up with the HAL's. We did a Somalier's Dinner in 2015 on the old Statendam with my brother and sister-in-law, and it was most excellent. Great pairing with food. So these ave been around for a long time. The Somalier was terrific, Jacques St Pierre from Mauritius. That I still know that says something because I am really bad at remembering names! Doing this at lunchtime, however... don't count on doing anything the rest of the day... 😁 Big thanks to shark b8 for the excellent blog, pictures and videos. We sail this cruise in August and it has been really terrific seeing what is coming up.

Hi FlyingScotSailors: Not sure why you cannot see the UK version. I go right to it when I click on it. Same with US version. Actually the language between the two is very different, but they seem to be covering the same cruise alteration/change topic. UK passengers appear to have different rights, but I am not a Solicitor/Lawyer.

Look here and scoll down to 40... Note the -united-kingdom- part of the URL. https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/legal-privacy-united-kingdom/booking-conditions-united-kingdom.html In the US, it is Clause 8: https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/legal-privacy/cruise-contract.html

Could someone post what the proposed itinerary changes are? Thanks I had been looking at this cruise for the last few months, but wanted to finish sailing SE Alaska on the Odyssey first to see for myself how things were working out. It would have been the ultimate snorkeling cruise, and it also left from Seattle so no airplanes needed for us - at least at the start. HAL is/was sailing the Westerdam from Seattle to some of these same ports (New Caledonia, New Guinea, Conflict Islands). Nothing on their boards about any changes....

Great minds think alike, tjcox9! We always ate outside in Antarctica, often at the Earth and Ocean. Best kep secret on the ship. We had to get there early as others soon caught on. The staff was excellent, full of enthusiam and energy and always made the meal enjoyable. And remember, there is neither hot nor cold - only inappropriate clothing. One night, I was told that was going to have the Nigerian Prawns. I mentioned that I was thinking about something else, and our waiter said that was okay, but he would still bring them anyway. He was right: they were huge and delicious. Another night, we sailed around a huge tabular iceberg. We all just got up and watched for half an hour, then came back and finished eating. Those in the restaurant missed out on this amazing sight. Note that we took these photos from the 9th deck - the face is over 200 feet high. If you lock in the foreground of the last picture, you will see adele penguins.

Hi kjbacon: We got to do both many times from the Quest (2019). In Antarctica, the zodiaks were included so we got to do 6 of those trips, but we had to pay for the Kayaks. Best money we ever spent! If the water is calm, they are so peaceful. And you really did not need any previous experience. We initially signed up for 3 kayak trips just to make sure that we would get the opportunity to do at least one, as the weather in Antartica is unpredicable (days 1, 3, and 5 all worked out, but days 2 and 4 had to be cancelled). But after clear blue sky, no wind, glassy water, outstanding support crew and top notch equipment, we kept the other two trips and were lucky to get to do them all. One difference was that in Antarctica, we got to do both the Kayak and Zodiak trips every day, so we did not have to choose. Each trip was different, but we would not have given up any of them. And since we were taken to the Kayaks using the Zodiaks, we actually got to do 3 additional zodiaks trips. They took us to spectcular locations separate from the Zodiak locations. We are doing Alaska in a few weeks on the Odyessy and will opt for the Kayaks. If the weather is not ammenable to kayaking, you might still get to do a zodiak trip. Hope this is useful!