Viking Expeditions Thread

[COfoxes]

On 11/27/2022 at 7:57 PM, Frenchberet said:

I understand your desire to pack light, but I’d hate to miss out on dinner at Manfr

On 11/27/2022 at 6:27 AM, flare3192 said:

Perhaps this has been addressed but with 29 pages things are hard to find -- Since this an expedition cruise are you expected to bring other clothes for dinner?  I am planning to bring 3 layers for top and bottom and would like to be able to use some of those clothes for dinner -- double duty -- is this allowed? Or do I need to bring a nicer top and additional slacks for dinner? Are leggings with a tunic top allowed? There is a lot of extra clothing for this cruise and I am trying to do all carry on. This past summer our checked bag with all our cold weather items for Norway were delayed 12 days. 

 

One more question for the boat -- what types of shoes are needed for the boat -- not the excursions -- would running shoes be ok? Do you need heavier duty ones?

 

Sorry -- another question -- are regular sunglasses ok or do you need glacier ones ?

 

Thank you to all who have gone before and help us.

edi’s or the Restaurant.  I’m planning to bring some nice slacks and a few sweaters.  I’m also bringing a pair of hiking/walking/tennis shoes and a pair of flats (no boots).  I bought some polarized sport sunglasses to protect from the wind and glare.

So we just got off the Polaris on 11/14 (man crazy what is happening today!) - to answer your questions, I wore jeans and a sweater or similiar to dinner. Both at the Restaurant and Manfredi's, I was never turned away. It was a mix, some people had slacks and nice shirts, some were more casual, given it is Expedition, felt like they dress code was very, very relaxed.  In a tunic and leggings you will likely be dressed nicer than I was! One night I was exhausted and wore leggings and a sweatshirt - not my finest moment but there can be some long days on this one and slacks are the last thing I want to wear at that point.  I had sunglasses and they were good for the sun (just cheap Goodr's, not fancy) but when it got real windy, I wish I had ski goggles, which many of the crew had and they were smart! Both on the SOB and zodiacs, the wind gets pretty intense.  Also I suggest two pairs of gloves and two beanies/hats - if you go out once and those get wet, the drying closet is a slow dry so you will want a back up pair of each. For all the boats, you wear their boots (exception are sub and kayaks, but again they provide the gear you have to wear on your feet for those). Let me know if you have more questions - lots of lessons learned. The crew is amazing on that ship, it was an wonderful experience! 

[COfoxes]

On 11/25/2022 at 9:46 AM, FLORIDA FLOUNDER said:

Does anyone know if you ALWAYS wear the Viking provided boots when you leave the ship for every single expedition?

Trying to gauge if I need to bring hiking boots.

Not sure if anyone answered but yes you always wear theirs. For the sub you don't wear them but they give you soft booties (and also for the Kayak they provide what you need). I brought tennis shoes, "fancy" sandals for dinner and water proof hiking shoes - the last which I could have left home but wore them on deck a few times. The combo of their boots and pants will keep you toasty!

[Hazard10]

3 hours ago, amyr said:

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.  

 

Any other news?

[FLORIDA FLOUNDER]

3 hours ago, amyr said:

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.  

 

Are you scheduled for Polaris or Octantis? I'm just being nosey. 🤪

[amyr]

11 minutes ago, FLORIDA FLOUNDER said:

Are you scheduled for Polaris or Octantis? I'm just being nosey. 🤪

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.  

[Hazard10]

8 minutes ago, amyr said:

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.  

Very sad. Hopefully you all get back safe.

 

Seems like weather in the antarctica peninsula and drake's passage has been terrible recently.

[Jim Avery]

3 minutes ago, Hazard10 said:

Very sad. Hopefully you all get back safe.

 

Seems like weather in the antarctica peninsula and drake's passage has been terrible recently.

Terrible throughout recorded history.  

[amyr]

6 minutes ago, Hazard10 said:

Very sad. Hopefully you all get back safe.

 

Seems like weather in the antarctica peninsula and drake's passage has been terrible recently.

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.  

[Hazard10]

9 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Terrible throughout recorded history.  

Particularly bad for this time of year.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Please keep updating us as you hear more information. I am not able to find anything online. 

[sippican]

2 hours ago, amyr said:

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.  

 

Are you scheduled to sail?

We were scheduled to sail on Polaris on 12/6, but are hearing others on the pre-cruise excursion have been notified of the cancellation. Passengers on Octantis were read a statement from Viking that there was one death and others critically injured on Polaris. Those passengers currently on Polaris have not received any such news. Those in the impacted cabins have not been allowed to return to their cabins to retrieve any of their personal belongings until the investigation is finished.

Edited December 1, 2022 by sippican

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Hazard10 said:

Particularly bad for this time of year.

 

In this part of the World the weather can be this bad at any time of year. Without any land masses, the predominant W'ly winds have nothing to break up the seas.

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, amyr said:

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.  

 

 

Best waiting for the AIBN report, but since the winds are predominantly W'ly and the vessel was mostly likely steaming a N'ly course, the port side would be a reasonable guess.

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Terrible throughout recorded history.  

 

You and I have also provided some of the meteorological data that was incorporated into that history. Those southern Latitudes can have snotty weather at any time of the year.😁

[RainbowSuperstar]

Thank you for posting my sister is on the Polaris. She is waiting to be routed home. 

[amyr]

9 hours ago, sippican said:

 

Are you scheduled to sail?

We were scheduled to sail on Polaris on 12/6, but are hearing others on the pre-cruise excursion have been notified of the cancellation. Passengers on Octantis were read a statement from Viking that there was one death and others critically injured on Polaris. Those passengers currently on Polaris have not received any such news. Those in the impacted cabins have not been allowed to return to their cabins to retrieve any of their personal belongings until the investigation is finished.

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.  

[amyr]

4 hours ago, RainbowSuperstar said:

Thank you for posting my sister is on the Polaris. She is waiting to be routed home. 

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.  

[TrumpyNor]

20 hours ago, amyr said:

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.  

 

Latest  "official news":

As Viking Polaris is a ship that is registered in Norway, there was a report here in a Norwegian newspaper less than 2 hours ago (01.00 PM European time), quoting somebody from Viking Line officially stating that unfortunately the wave caused one fatality (passenger) and four other passengers that were receiving medical threatment for non-lethal injuries. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by TrumpyNor

[Ktwofish]

1 hour ago, TrumpyNor said:

 

Latest  "official news":

As Viking Polaris is a ship that is registered in Norway, there was a report here in a Norwegian newspaper less than 2 hours ago (01.00 PM European time), quoting somebody from Viking Line officially stating that unfortunately the wave caused one fatality (passenger) and four other passengers that were receiving medical threatment for non-lethal injuries. 

This is all so tragic, and my heart goes out to the family of the deceased.

[sippican]

4 hours ago, TrumpyNor said:

 

Latest  "official news":

As Viking Polaris is a ship that is registered in Norway, there was a report here in a Norwegian newspaper less than 2 hours ago (01.00 PM European time), quoting somebody from Viking Line officially stating that unfortunately the wave caused one fatality (passenger) and four other passengers that were receiving medical threatment for non-lethal injuries. 

 Where did you get your information regarding the next cruise being cancelled? 

As a TA booked to depart 12/6, there has been no such notification or information from Viking. Their official statement says the next sailing will go as planned.  (although that seems impossible).

[amyr]

32 minutes ago, sippican said:

 Where did you get your information regarding the next cruise being cancelled? 

As a TA booked to depart 12/6, there has been no such notification or information from Viking. Their official statement says the next sailing will go as planned.  (although that seems impossible).

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?  

[Chari910]

Don't think they can repair these windows in 5 days. Even they decide to sail with those cabins empty,   the water will get inside from the rough waves. Too dangerous.

[JM0115]

2 minutes ago, Chari910 said:

Don't think they can repair these windows in 5 days. Even they decide to sail with those cabins empty,   the water will get inside from the rough waves. Too dangerous.

The bottom ones?

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, sippican said:

 Where did you get your information regarding the next cruise being cancelled? 

As a TA booked to depart 12/6, there has been no such notification or information from Viking. Their official statement says the next sailing will go as planned.  (although that seems impossible).

 

Without knowing the scope of repairs required, it is impossible to speculate on the status of the next cruise.

 

The information provided on Octantis stipulated minimal damage, so that could potentially be addressed by the onboard engineers in a couple of days. They clearly have some flooded cabins, but provided the windows are blanked off, the ship can sail with those cabins empty, provided the ship has no other structural damage impacting the water-tight integrity.

 

The Master must follow the decisions of the Class Inspector with respect to being certified safe to sail.

[Chari910]

31 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

The bottom ones?

Yes, Deck 2 on the Port side. Not just the damaged windows, some walls and ceilings also collapsed.