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amyr

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  1. Oh gosh, I realize I never reported back on my friend's cabin, 3042, adjacent to the little store. It was a fine location, right by the lifts, and the store wasn't open early or late, so it was like she had no neighbor at all on that side. We were on the other hall a few cabins forward of the lifts and liked the location. It was equidistant to The Shelter on the bow and the Aula at the aft, both reachable through doors without having to negotiate stairs or lifts at all. We really really enjoyed Deck 3. So you didn't have noise or vibration in 3000 from the doors banging on the bulkhead at all? That's good to know. One time when we went through it was windy and the door got away from us and closed HARD. My friend was very glad she wasn't in that room. I think it was 3001.
  2. I was just reading the saga of an Australian couple that landed last night in Lima to join a tour of Peru with a large well known global tour operator. They thought initially that the Machu Picchu portion might get thrown out, but they kept calling the tour company who kept telling them the tour was a go, and that they should board their flight. When nobody was there to greet them at the airport they found a fellow traveler that called the tour company who then told them the tour had been cancelled. They found a place on their own for the night, but now they're just sitting there wondering what to do. I suspect HAL will behave better than the tour company and just find an alternate port or two if the troubles are still happening in March.
  3. Returning from Antarctica on Octantis in December we were 'scenic cruising' at Cape Horn with commentary and hot chocolate at noon, or if it wasn't right at noon, it was very late morning, and we were docked in Ushuaia by dinner. I can't remember exactly what time, but we had a quick bite when the World Cafe opened and then ran into town, so not longer than 5 hours for sure, and probably shorter. We enjoyed the beautiful cruise in through the Beagle Channel immensely and laughed at ourselves for not remembering anything about it on the way out at all, especially how long it took. We were just excited and busy unpacking, touring the ship, eating dinner, and attending the first briefing in The Aula. I do remember my husband commenting on the ship rocking in the night, but it was mild enough that I slept through it.
  4. This seems to be everywhere, and increasing. I've seen it on the train, in the airport, on the airplane before pushback, and even in the hospital waiting room, despite the no cell phone signage. I was in Target ahead of my last trip wheeling towards the pharmacy to grab some cough drops and could hear a big commotion in the middle aisles. Rounding the corner I saw that it was two different people on their speaker phones in the cold & flu aisle at the same time. It was, in essence, four people shouting about their ailments and the products they wanted. On Octantis recently a gentleman walked past us on his way back to the buffet with his plate. He raised it to his face, and began licking it. I guess he wanted it nice and clean for his reload. People are just people I guess. I don't think it's Viking or any cruisers really, I just think that we've been emerging back out into the world finally and had forgotten how annoying other people can be sometimes.
  5. I don’t have any nautical background other than lots of cruising - my career was an airline career - but as a layperson, I can’t imagine what any of what happened on Polaris has anything to do with the Captain’s decision making? They had what seems like a freak accident on a zodiac, which will be investigated, and then the weather was too poor to get an evac airplane anywhere to pick up the injured person, so they were forced back across a very rough Drake Passage to disembark her? There was a Ponant ship crossing just six hours behind Polaris, and a passenger reported that their crossing was just ghastly and that some of the crew said they’d never been in seas like it. We are on Octantis now, and we’ve had our own medical evacuation that’s thrown quite a wrench in our trip. We had stellar stellar weather in the beginning, but had only managed one landing in the first three days even so. On our third night down here, after a STUNNING sail through the Lemaire Channel at sunset, we began steaming out of the peninsula area in the middle of the night at a pretty good clip for King George Island. That’s where the Chilean Base is, and where there’s an airstrip that can land an airplane from Punta Arenas. We disembarked our passenger the next evening, and were grateful for her that the airplane was able to make it in. We then didn’t go back to the Antarctic Peninsula where the Windy app says the seas were still fine (blue) but where the crew here said “No, no, it was bad there too.” Instead we have been puttering around in garbage weather near King George Island for two days. We haven’t managed a landing since, and are hoping perhaps today will be the day. If not today, tomorrow is our last chance. So, you can question decision making all you want, but none of us really knows what’s going into all of it. A lot of people on Octantis now are questioning the decision to stay put up here, but who knows what the crew had to work with. I do know they were trying hard to find a place to land yesterday, but every place was the same. I think the biggest decision failings on board this trip are from passengers that thought this would be the cruise for them. Viking has required an extensive medical evaluation form for everybody that boards an Antarctic cruise, and it’s clear in looking around that some weren’t truthful about the condition of their health. Obviously a medical event can happen to anyone anywhere, but the odds seem a lot higher with what I suspect is the average Viking Expeditions passenger. When we woke up to the Captain saying we’d had a medical emergency, absolutely nobody was surprised.
  6. We were laughing about that too - a romantic cruise to paradise he called it. He also drove himself out to RDU to do the reporting, despite the couple he was quoting being nowhere around. They had left days earlier, and I’m not sure he knew when they were due home? I guess it was as good a place as any to do a live shot 🤷‍♀️ We depart at 4:20 a.m. for our flight to Ushuaia.
  7. There’s conflicting information. Some have said they’re notifying people on their way to Buenos Aires that they’re cancelled, and others have said what you have, that everything is going as planned. There’s a good chance that maybe only people in the affected cabins are being sent home? I’m not sure how many were damaged, but it sounds like several. Perhaps just a cruise with reduced capacity?
  8. How are her spirits? It must be so disheartening. For most that make this trip it’s once in a lifetime and there’s not a real way to make a second attempt. I’m sure Viking will make them whole, but they may not want to give it a second try.
  9. We’re sailing on the 3rd. I’m sorry about your trip, I guess we won’t know for a while how long Polaris will be out of commission. Probably not long, they can fix these things pretty quickly I think. Years ago we were booked on Star Princess for a transatlantic when I was watching CNN and saw video of the whole middle of it aflame off the coast of Jamaica. I turned to my husband and said that I didn’t think we’d be on that sailing in a week, but don’t you know she was good as new only four weeks later. I think they replaced 150 cabins. Of course, they were near dry dock facilities in the Bahamas, or maybe they sailed empty straight to Europe, I can’t remember. Not sure where Polaris will have to go, maybe the maritime experts on here will have an idea? Someone on Polaris got wind of the fatality via facebook and started asking around. Apparently the family of the deceased is on board, and they asked that the information not be announced to their fellow passengers, so the Polaris crew was abiding by their wishes. It’s just been a horrible, horrible experience for everyone, and I feel so bad for them all.
  10. We’re not onboard right now, just reading reports from folks who are. We’re in Buenos Aires and will be flying to Ushuaia on Saturday.
  11. We’re on Octantis, along with what seemed like half the flight from Atlanta. Lots of Viking tags. Probably some for Polaris as well, though they are now being told their cruise is cancelled. Yes, it seems that some of the news from Polaris and the storm is quite dire. In addition to the poor woman who broke her leg from the zodiac explosion, it’s being said that someone has perished and several are critically injured from the waves that crashed through the cabin windows. Rough rough go for the passengers and crew of Polaris, and Octantis is currently plowing through the same storm, albeit much more slowly. They don’t have an injured person to get back to shore like Polaris did.
  12. I really popped in to say that we’re at the Hilton with thunderstorms rolling in, so have plenty of time to answer any questions, but then I got all gossipy. I’ll post more if we hear anything. There are a couple of Viking agents in the lobby that are going to be busy. We also saw buses near Casa Rosada earlier from the Viking Jupiter, so lots going on here. PS - I think the damage was on Decks 2 and 3, port side.
  13. We’ve arrived at the Hilton in Buenos Aires. Polaris apparently has been having a hell of a time with it. Some sort of bladder exploded on a zodiac while transferring passengers to the sub a couple days ago, and a woman had her leg severely broken. The weather was too bad for a helicopter evacuation, so they turned around after only the first afternoon there and were heading back across the Drake. The cruise was then amended to a Chilean Fjords cruise. There’s a raging storm in the Drake right now, and Polaris got hit by some waves that came through the windows in cabins on Deck 2. Port side I think, not sure. Everybody was flushed out of their cabins in the night, but then those that didn’t have a damaged cabin were allowed back in. They got to Ushuaia and inspectors came on board to assess the damage, and the passengers are being sent home. The next (at least one) cruise has been cancelled. Meanwhile, Octantis is heading back to Ushuaia 30+ hours early because of the weather (they haven’t had much luck with their excursions since they got there) and the passengers have been told to batten everything down in their cabins. They left early so they can go slowly to minimize the impact of the storm. Such is life in the Southern Ocean I guess. I have been hitting the Windy.com app pretty hard trying to figure out how it’s going to go for us on our December 3 Octantis departure. I think it will be okay.
  14. We haven't been yet, are leaving Tuesday, but from everything I've read, running shoes should be fine for most of the ship. Unless you have reservations at Manfredi's or The Restaurant, you'll be taking most of your meals in the World Cafe, so you'll be able to wear what you'd wear to any buffet dinner. Various versions of whatever you wore under your excursion clothes should be fine, and a tunic top with leggings should be fine in the sit-down restaurant venues. It's probably less dressy than Viking Ocean, and that's not that dressy. As for the goggles, we're taking some for the SOB boat because they say it's really windy, and my eyes water. My husband has issues with sunlight since his LASIC, so he'll probably wear UV goggles on all the landings.
  15. Everything I've read indicates that yes, you do. Some people say to bring something you can wear out on deck in bad weather, and some people say they just wore normal shoes for that. I guess it all depends on the weather, but it seems you always wear the Viking boots off the ship. Hopefully someone that's been will confirm for us.
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