tjcox9

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.

6 hours ago, shark b8 said:

[anybody else remember the stark ugly red/purple and black awfulness that was “Restaurant 2”?]

 

(*shudder*)

 

Oh my! That was before our Seabourn cruising "career" began, thank goodness!!😝

Spectacular!

21 hours ago, shark b8 said:

A printed note in our mail-clip thing tonight:  

“Um…. Was anyone really expecting KFC or Taco Bell?”

 

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.........

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!

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. 

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.

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.

2 hours ago, The-Inside-Cabin said:

Great day touring Bejing 

 

Summer Palace:

 

Marble Boat

 

Mutianyu section.  Great Wall of China 

 

 

Great weather.    Great Wall almost empty.  We had the place to ourselves.  

Heading back to Bejing to tour Olympic venues at night. 

 

 

 

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.

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.............😊

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.

4 hours ago, NorbertsNiece said:

Tendering in Puerto Montt. Seven Seas Voyager also in town.

 

 

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

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.

Just want to add a couple more pix from Paaimut, also from the Seabourn Quest, but in 2022. We also enjoy the small, less visited ports.

The first is of some carvings in a stone embankment.

And the second is just reflections along the walkway into the village.

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. 

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!

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.

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.

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......

It was a bit muddy!

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.

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.

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

We headed back to the Quest ready to enjoy the remainder of our New Year's Day.  Shortly thereafter we noticed the Zaandam far off in the distance.

 

At about 5 pm we were told to come out to the pool deck to see the Polar Plunge event.  Hopefully the pool water was good and cold, especially after we'd thrown the ice blocks in it two days earlier. I went out to watch from the deck above, all bundled up and for good measure a lap blanket wrapped around my lower half.  Meanwhile our brave Captain was the first one out there to take a flying leap into the pool.  He has that thick Nordic blood you know…

 

 

Yep, there he went!  Everyone else crept out in their thick robes, tossed them off and jumped in with him.  Meanwhile I was shivering outside because I didn't have my parka on, only my puffy coat.  Thank goodness the sun had come out this afternoon though.

 

There is our Captain egging on the participants to stay in a little longer.  While he is standing there soaking wet with temperatures in the 30's.

 

The wonderful staff brought out some warm mulled wine which hopefully helped to warm up these frozen individuals.

 

Most of them hopped into the hot tubs to thaw themselves out, but not the Captain.  He simply donned his robe and chatted with onlookers.  He was probably still barefoot too!

 

The weather looked fine here but we were told there was a low coming and we would be leaving Antarctica to try to get to South Georgia Island ahead of it.  Farewell Antarctica! 

   

 

 

Interesting that the Polar Plunge was done in the pool. The two times we were on the Quest (holidays 2019/20 and January 2023), it was a true Polar Plunge and there were more participants than I would have imagined. And, btw, we were on the Zaandam in that photo you posted!! Can you tell, we love Antarctica?

We mailed post cards from the Chilean base you showed yesterday on January 1, 2020. The postcard arrived in the states in October!!

Since you had less than desirable weather today, I thought I'd share a photo or two taken from the Zaandam on December 29, 2015. We were fortunate to get good views of the Albatross Monument. I've been enjoying your trip along with you. 

6 minutes ago, NorbertsNiece said:

Patrick is now retired. One of his drivers has taken over the business 

Too bad but well deserved. His stories about the Falkland war were fascinating!

5 minutes ago, NorbertsNiece said:

Same excursion 😃

Sure is. Although we did it some years ago with Patrick Watts, we were running right along side the HAL excursion.