tjcox9
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Posts posted by tjcox9
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9 hours ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:
We have been to Moorea five times on Wind Star, Princess and HAL. Most of our pictures are from prehistoric times before digital cameras, but I did find a few.
In 2002 on the APEC cruise on Volendam, Moorea was not a port. We took the ferry from Papeete to Moorea, and rented a car. In fact, we've rented cars there every time except 2007. That time we took a taxi to the Intercontinental Hotel to snorkel. The reef comes very close to the shore there, and the colors of the fish and coral are outstanding.
These first pictures were taken in 2007 at the hotel.
These were from our drive around the island in 2002.
We stopped at a park where a tour was watching a feast being prepared.
A young man carrying on an ancient craft.
Moorea is our second favorite port after Bora Bora. The night in Moorea on Wind Song, dinner was a barbecue on deck complete with a roasted suckling pig.
In 1996, on the Wind Song, anytime the pilot was not on the bridge, passengers could walk into the bridge. One evening, probably in Bora Bora, we did and started talking to the young deck officer. He even took us out on the bridge wing and pointed out the Southern Cross and other constellations.
Fast forward to 2016 on the Prinsendam and a talk with Captain Tim Roberts. In 1996 he was a young officer on Wind Song. We all decided it was probably Captain Tim who was the young office we talked with 21 years earlier.
It really is a small world.
Lenda
And is currently on the Seabourn Odyssey in Alaska. We had dinner with him last evening and did a bit of reminiscing - still a delightful fellow.
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53 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:
The guide is John Reid and the company is https://tenerifeprivatetours.com/
He is a very interesting guy and not only does he know the island's geography, history and politics but he can share his knowledge in a warm and interesting way. He is also a published author. https://reidten.blogspot.com/2013/07/pirates-of-canarrean.html
Thanks so much for the info. Also, really enjoyed following you on your journey. Lots of insights............
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On 4/26/2024 at 5:52 PM, VMax1700 said:
I will do the 'housekeeping' of menus etc later, but we had a great day touring part of Tenerife arranged by @sailingdutchy Tony . We had a great day, a fine lunch and wonderful conversation. The guide whom Tony picked was absolutely top class. We visited Icod de los vinos and Garachico along the north coast. Our guide selected various plates for our lunch which we all shared, including bean soup, grilled cheese with sauces, berenjenas con miel ( deep fried sliced egg plant drizzled in local palm honey), and goat stew with canarias potatoes.
The onboard entertainment tonight was a Flamenco group, who gave an above average, though unatmospheric, performance. Flamenco is not local to las Canarias but the tourists expect it!
We have a late sailaway tonight at 11pm for the short trip to Gran Canaria.
Would you or sailingdutchy be willing to share the name of the company/guide you used. Sounds like our kinda tour.
Also, thanks for the daily reports!
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58 minutes ago, mraven said:
Yeah, it was presented as a choice between 2 lists of amenities and you had to pick a preference. Luckily, there was a follow-up asking if you would book that option. I answered no to all 7. And sadly, no place to tell them what you really feel as FlyingScotSailor said.
Exactly!! No to all of the above.
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Spectacular!
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21 hours ago, shark b8 said:
We were on tour in Bangkok once that included a lunch. We love Thai food and were expecting a wonderful experience. What did we get? All American style buffet food with one Thai soup available - which was very good, btw. Very disappointing.........
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1 minute ago, dfish said:
Welcome @fruitmachine! I hope we hear more from you!
Yes, please let us know which person you are in the pix I posted. Inquiring minds want to know!
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26 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:
Thank you so much for the photos of Newhaven! I shouldn't be surprised that someone here on Cruise Critic has been there. We appreciate you posting today. It looks like a nice place to tender to. And it's lots closer to Edinburgh than either Rosyth or South Queensferry in looking at the map.
We were happy to be there instead of way out there. We'd been to Edinburgh so many times in the past, it was nice not to have to worry about transportation into town. Had we not gone to St Andrews, we'd have just gone to Leith and had lunch at a place we've enjoyed a couple of times. I don't think I've ever seen New Haven on a HAL itinerary.
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23 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:
We were surprised how empty it was. We arrived at 1:45 pm. I think it was more crowded in the morning. But the forecast was for much colder weather and it's a Monday so most people are working. Most of the people we ran into were tourists from other countries. A nice couple from Germany took the picture here.
Those Seabourn jackets have been with us since 2018. HAL sells an orange version but it looks like a human traffic cone or should be directing traffic. .
Yes, we have the Seabourn orange waterproof jacket that goes over the black jackets, two in fact.
Wow, it has been a long time since we were there. As I recall, the Bird Nest was under construction when we were there so it has been a long time.
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Although I don't have a lot of info about New Haven, we did have it as a port for Edinburgh last summer on the Island Princess. We went to St Andrews and DH decided I needed to see the course that he had the opportunity to play several times.
It is a tender port and is fairly close to Leith where the Royal Yacht is available for touring. Here are a few pictures of the port area.
A lighthouse near the tender dock
The view of the town from the lighthouse walkway
A few shops near the tender dock.
Sorry, that is all we saw of New Haven, but most everyone went off to Edinburgh or elsewhere, I believe. We did get to drive over the Firth of Forth bridge near Queensferry where most ships dock on our way to St Andrews.
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2 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:
Nice to see you getting some use from your Seabourn Antarctic jackets! Love the picture of the Great Wall. It's been a long time time since our visit there. Looks pretty empty.
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40 minutes ago, kazu said:
LOL Vanessa - I didn’t buy it - DD DH did. I had no idea we had another. He must have bought it and put it away and probably bought another one. In the same box was a cute carving he bought in Columbia years ago !
Yup - you got it 👍
Sorry, I didn’t realize the cartoon was that hard to get.
Perhaps only those of us of a "certain age" would quickly get the alligator.............😊
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No jackets on Iceland/Greenland Quest cruise. Yes, there are some zodiac shore excursions offered, but it is not an expedition cruise. Did it in 2022.
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4 hours ago, NorbertsNiece said:
Actually unrelated to post, but wanted to ask you a ? since you were on a previous cruise, same itinerary. Did you also have to tender in Ushuaia? Seems like this time they did and it was a bit of a snafu. Thanks
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1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:
Here are Lenda's @Quartzsite Cruiser's photos from her post on May 16, 2021.
We have been to Alesund on the Prinsendam in 2011 and 2016. Both times we had grey skies and heavy clouds. In 2011, we walked around and road the city bus. In 2016, we took the Ho-Ho and walked around town.
One of our stops in 2011 on our city bus "tour" was the aquarium, which is a nice aquarium for a small town.
One of the more unusual fish on display, but I don't know what it is.
Some of their outdoor residents, who are far from home
Looking toward the sea from the back outside display area
A few pictures from our walks around on both stops
A last look of town as the Prinsendam sailed toward the next port
Lenda
Great street patch job!!! Love Alesund and the lovely water reflections it can provide on a nice day. We have been there several times and enjoy it each time.
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16 hours ago, 0106 said:
My book recommendation is Madhouse at the End of the Earth. The story of the Belgica which visited Antartica in 1897, 20 years before Shakleton. The first mate was the legendary explorer Roald Amundsen. The book is based on the crews diaries & journals and the ship’s log book.
Just finished this book recently. It had been recommended to us last year when we were in Antarctica and since we are following multiple voyages in that part of the world decided it was time to give it a read.
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18 hours ago, whogo said:
Naturalists on our Seabourn Antarctica cruise had Swarovski available. I was impressed at how clear the image was compared to my Canon binoculars. Swarovski were for sale on the ship, I never checked the price.
Now on the new Seabourn expedition ships, each cabin has a pair of Swarovski binocs for use during the voyage. Of course, they are also more than happy to sell them to you!
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34 minutes ago, aliaschief said:
Good morning from a gray foggy morning in Lima, Peru. Actually according to locals it’s like this most of the time. So I was glad that we had such a sunny sail in yesterday. Last night we went on a private Gourmet food tour in Lima. We dined at four different venues. First was direct waterfront where we enjoyed Pisco Sours and several appetizers of which one was ceviche. Peruvian custom is to eat seafood only at lunch to ensure its freshness. Our next stop was a famous restaurant where celebrities, statesman and royalty have dined. Around ten of us sampled just about every appetizers on the menu were sampled. Now I’m starting to get full. Two more unique venues and we returned to ship and caught the end of a colorful Peruvian Cultural Dance show. Some bags lined the hallway which brought smiles knowing we have nine more segments to go.
We sail at five for several sea days to Easter Island.
Thanks for the report.
We were lucky enough to eat there once also. I believe it was on our way to Machu Picchu. We did not have all the stops prior to this though! Interesting setting for sure.
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As for the app, it's really not similar to the Princess app, but almost identical in function and look (with the exception of color schemese) to the Holland America app.
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38 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:
South Georgia Island January 6, 2017
Continuing my cruise report with Jan 6, 2017- Seabourn Quest Antarctica-South Georgia Island
Today began at Salisbury Plain on the north coast of South Georgia Island.
It has the second largest breeding site of King penguins. Literally 500,000 King penguins. Then there are seals, both elephant and fur seals. The penguins stood shoulder to shoulder, sort of like a rock concert crowd. Crazy! Look carefully – that dark grey color running down the hillside to the water is penguins (and probably some seals).
We were supposed to land on the shore starting at 6 am but at 5:45 that famous Captain of ours announced (in our cabins!) that due to the waves breaking at the shoreline they would be unable to land but instead we would do a Zodiac tour of the shoreline. The poor blue group got the worst of the draw today, too because we were last. By the time we went it was spitting snow out there, not large flakes but pellet-like snow. Just before we boarded one man fell halfway into the water due to the swell tossing the Zodiacs around at the loading platform. He was fine, but they gave the rest of us a refresher course on how to lock hands onto the arms of the loading personnel. The trick is to lock your grip around your helper’s forearm, while they lock their grip around your forearm. If you were to grab each other’s hands, they might end up with your glove in their fist if you were to start to fall into the water. So we had at least three people helping us into the Zodiacs after that. We had no problem and away we went to the shoreline to see the penguins and seals. I have never seen more penguins together at one time in my life!
from the Seabourn video
These predatory birds are called northern giant petrels (or Halls giant petrels), and were busy feasting on some poor penguin or seal.
I wish I knew what the lineup was for. Haven’t they heard of social distancing?
That’s better. Now we need to work on wearing a mask!
At the end of our ride the decision was made to get the Zodiacs on board quickly so we could leave the area because bad weather was moving in between South Georgia and Montevideo. Our Captain (who used to introduce himself on Prinsendam at the noon announcements as “the disembodied voice from the bridge”) as well as Ice Captain Larsen and the rest of the bridge team were ever vigilant in watching for bad weather.
Heading in we got a good look at the rear “marina” feature. I know they can fold that door out and have a deck for water sports like swimming, kayaking and jet skis in warm weather climates. The starboard Zodiac crane can be seen here. There’s one on the port side, too.
Here’s what stacked Zodiacs look like.
For the life of me I can’t figure out who all the people in the blue parkas are. Everyone was given the orange Seabourn parkas to wear, so having all those blue parkas on those Zodiacs confuses me. The Expedition Team wore red or yellow parkas.
When we left South Georgia it was rather sunny, but the bad weather was ahead of us. That afternoon I spent time with my knitting and stitching friends in the Observation Bar where I worked on a counted cross stitch Christmas stocking; what else? Is it time for champagne yet?
The blue jackets are crew. They all have an opportunity to go on the zodiac tours and landings at some point if they wish. One of our waiters in the DR got to go twice in Jan/Feb 2023 and was so excited. He did stand in line for several hours to await the opportunity both times. They go only after everyone else.
Too bad you were unable to land at Salisbury Plain. The first time there, we could not but were able to land nearby at a spot that was not as populated, but a wonderful way to spend Christmas Day! I'll post a picture of that area as well as one or two from Salisbury Plain where we were able to land on our last trip. South Georgia is amazing!
From near Salisbury Plain........
Salisbury Plain with a couple hundred thousand......
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8 hours ago, Utopia1 said:
I am looking at suite 748 on the Quest. It is below the pool. Does anyone know if it is very noisy in the morning and at night when they are moving chairs?
We were in 747 last Jan/Feb on the Quest and loved it. We had no noise from above, however, we were in Antarctica and South Georgia, so activity there may have been more limited than at other times. We loved the location and would happily book it again.
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57 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:
Wow, and we thought our post offices were slow here! That's a long time to wait for a postcard even during the height of Covid! Glad to hear I captured some photos of the Zaandam while you were on it (with Boris Federer). LOL! Interesting the Polar Plunge was in the actual sea! It's a long way back up to the hot tub from that aft platform, which is what I assume they used. I know you must have enjoyed the Quest as much as we have. Thanks for the comments.
The Polar Plunge is done right off the tender/zodiac platform and each participant is tethered. They are doing this also on the Venture and Pursuit which are in Antarctica currently. I saw a photo last week of one participant who donned a onesie type of penguin outfit for the event!
And yes, we like the Quest. We've only done the three small ones, haven't ventured onto the newer, larger ones yet.
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Zero @ Seabourn rolled out
in Seabourn Cruise Line
Posted
Have also been enjoying Tanqueray 0.0 on the Odyssey with Fever Tree tonic and on the rocks. Now, if they only made a Bombay Sapphire 0.0. 😃