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emileg

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WAVTAM

WAVTAM

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New Rules For Americans Traveling To Brazil Mean You Shouldn’t Go

by Gary Leff on December 8, 2023

Starting January 10, 2024 Brazil will require Americans, Canadians, and Australians to obtain a visa for entry to the country. The cost will be approximately $80 and allow multiple entry for 10 years (Canadians and Australians only get 5 years).

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Clay Clayton "Live from...." Rare

Clay Clayton

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21 minutes ago, WAVTAM said:

New Rules For Americans Traveling To Brazil Mean You Shouldn’t Go

by Gary Leff on December 8, 2023

Starting January 10, 2024 Brazil will require Americans, Canadians, and Australians to obtain a visa for entry to the country. The cost will be approximately $80 and allow multiple entry for 10 years (Canadians and Australians only get 5 years).

Better than the $185 it costs for a citizen of Brazil to get a tourist visa to come to the USA. 

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disudds

disudds

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We've been following Antarctic cruises on CruiseMapper and it appears that both the Octantis and Polaris left Antarctica a day early and didn't really go past Cape Horn. At first we thought it was weather, remembering last year's December accident, but other ships seem to be navigating fine. Anyone have any intel on what's going on down there? We sail next month and are very excited!

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minka34

minka34

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We are headed for our first Expedition ship experience in March.  It is a repositioning cruise so not really an expedition itinerary. On VO, I usually dress for dinner - nothing too fancy but some nights I might wear a dress (gasp!). Would you say that the dress for dinner is generally more casual on an Expedition ship in comparison to VO or similar?

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OneSixtyToOne "Live from...." Rare

OneSixtyToOne

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1 hour ago, minka34 said:

We are headed for our first Expedition ship experience in March.  It is a repositioning cruise so not really an expedition itinerary. On VO, I usually dress for dinner - nothing too fancy but some nights I might wear a dress (gasp!). Would you say that the dress for dinner is generally more casual on an Expedition ship in comparison to VO or similar?

We just did the repositioning cruise in October and I saw almost no one dress up for dinner. It is very casual.

Here is my writeup:

 

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minka34

minka34

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@OneSixtyToOne Awesome review and I did pick up a lot of helpful tips.  We did a similar itinerary to yours on an NCL ship a while back, which is why we chose the Santiago north to Ft Lauderdale itinerary.  Now I am thinking that we might need to do Ushuaia to Santiago again with VE!
Did you eat in The Restaurant or Manfredi's on your trip at all?  I was wondering if they were also quite casual or like VO?

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OneSixtyToOne "Live from...." Rare

OneSixtyToOne

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47 minutes ago, minka34 said:

@OneSixtyToOne Awesome review and I did pick up a lot of helpful tips.  We did a similar itinerary to yours on an NCL ship a while back, which is why we chose the Santiago north to Ft Lauderdale itinerary.  Now I am thinking that we might need to do Ushuaia to Santiago again with VE!
Did you eat in The Restaurant or Manfredi's on your trip at all?  I was wondering if they were also quite casual or like VO?

We cancelled both of our reservations. On our last 2 Ocean cruises we were disappointed with Manfredi’s. When we saw that The Restaurant had the exact same main course as the World Cafe, we decided to cancel. The food on the Explorer  ships are definitely the best we have experienced. Having a steak house quality grill, sushi bar, seafood buffet, bakery, and incredible desserts every night made it an easy decision. Plus, we didn’t want to miss nightly trivia.

 

Edited by OneSixtyToOne
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Insanityx4

Insanityx4

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As far as what to pack for clothes. We did an expedition trip at the beginning of the year. I was concerned as to whether or not I needed two sets of clothing. One for casual daytime, and another for dressier nighttime wear. On Viking oceans we always dine at night in the Restaurant unless we had a very late tour where we ended up in the World Cafe. I decided on taking casual daytime clothes with one nicer top and pants for Manfredi's, where we dined twice. We never ate in the Restaurant (we cancelled our reservations) because the options were so limited. Three always available menu items, chicken, salmon, and vegetarian and three other entrees which were same as in the World Cafe. They are only open in the evening. Breakfast and lunch are only available in the World Cafe and Mansen's (except room service). Manfredi's was not great with terrible service so we ended eating all of our other dinners in the World Cafe. The sushi/seafood bar was great as was the Grill with steaks to order, lobster, baked potatoes and cesar salad. The menu options on the expedition ships is far less extensive than on VO but adequate and mostly delicious. We had a couple of themed meals, a taco bar for lunch, full Mexican menu for dinner, and a bouillabaisse bar at lunch. Enjoy your cruise!

 

Edited by Insanityx4
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emileg

emileg

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On 12/13/2023 at 1:03 PM, disudds said:

We've been following Antarctic cruises on CruiseMapper and it appears that both the Octantis and Polaris left Antarctica a day early and didn't really go past Cape Horn. At first we thought it was weather, remembering last year's December accident, but other ships seem to be navigating fine. Anyone have any intel on what's going on down there? We sail next month and are very excited!

According to expeditioners who are on that sailing, as they reported on the other social media site, the decision was made to return a day early to Ushuaia due to anticipated weather. Passengers were to be provided with tours for their extra day in Ushuaia.

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WAVTAM

WAVTAM

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On second day of Polaris Xmas run. So far in middle of Drake Passage and you don't even know you are on a ship. Food /service all up to Viking standards.

Air, Hilton and transfers work like clockwork. 

Any questions ask away.

Ate at Manfredis last night and food and service were great.

Had lunch second day art World with lamb shanks, cordon blue. Korean b-cue and rice and vegetables. Maybe 20 people ate on this side and the line was 20 deep for Hamburgers, fries and rings on the other side.!!!!!

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OnTheJourney

OnTheJourney

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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, WAVTAM said:

So far in middle of Drake Passage and you don't even know you are on a ship.

So you got the "lake" instead of the "shake"!  Or else the seas are perhaps rough but the ship rides it extraordinarily well. Either way, enjoy!  We loved it down there and had smooth sailing in both directions across the Drake.

Edited by OnTheJourney
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puffy

puffy

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We stayed at intercontinental hotel. They won’t let you check in till 4 unless you want to upgrade , then pay extra to have available room. We deny offer and able to check in around 1:30

The ship IT post. We skip Cape Horn and return Ushuaia day early. I don’t know why

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WAVTAM

WAVTAM

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23 hours ago, puffy said:

We stayed at intercontinental hotel. They won’t let you check in till 4 unless you want to upgrade , then pay extra to have available room. We deny offer and able to check in around 1:30

The ship IT post. We skip Cape Horn and return Ushuaia day early. I don’t know why

We arrive at 11 am with the same statement that you could not check in until afternoon. We walked to front desk and ask for the first cleaned room. N/C. Unpacking by 11:30am

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Reaniel

Reaniel

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Quick question for those keeping track of the Expedition itineraries:

Did Viking retire the Patagonia to Canada Grand Explorer itineraries altogether?  We were this close to booking it last year, but decided against it in the end.  I was looking forward to future offerings, but I see that there are no sailings for this itinerary planned at all 😕 

https://www.vikingcruises.com/expeditions/cruise-destinations/grand-journeys/patagonia-to-canada-grand-explorer/index.html

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OneSixtyToOne "Live from...." Rare

OneSixtyToOne

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44 minutes ago, Reaniel said:

Quick question for those keeping track of the Expedition itineraries:

Did Viking retire the Patagonia to Canada Grand Explorer itineraries altogether?  We were this close to booking it last year, but decided against it in the end.  I was looking forward to future offerings, but I see that there are no sailings for this itinerary planned at all 😕 

https://www.vikingcruises.com/expeditions/cruise-destinations/grand-journeys/patagonia-to-canada-grand-explorer/index.html

This is essentially the Longitudinal World Cruise without the Antarctica leg. Probably had little demand without also going to Antartica. Could be this was added after the full LWC was not filled. It’s a repositioning cruise of the Polaris and Octantis and it’s possible to book the legs in two separate segments (back to back, Ushuaia to FTL; FTL to Canada/Great Lakes) and get the same results. They currently have not bundled them as a separate itinerary. We were on the Chilean Fjords leg in October. It was fantastic. That portion I highly recommend.

Here is the closest current version:

https://www.vikingcruises.com/expeditions/cruise-destinations/grand-journeys/longitudinal-world-cruise-i/index.html

Edited by OneSixtyToOne
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CurlerRob

CurlerRob

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3 hours ago, wp bob said:

more specifically the antarctic explorer itinerary


Thank you, that narrows it to the Antarctic. Hopefully, someone with real time experience will weigh in - there’s nothing I found on the roll calls. 
 

In general, despite the improvements seen from Starlink adoption, service in the high latitudes is still likely to be unpredictable. Starlink deployment is still ongoing in the far south and north. 
 

I note the webcams from the two Ex ships is intermittent, and I suspect that mirrors the overall service. The other question, of course, is what level of service one is looking for.
 

Phone plans will be useless other than in BA and perhaps Ushuaia. Not many cell towers on the continent 😁.  🍺🥌

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