Thoughts, impressions, and observations for the World Cruise.

[island lady]

8 hours ago, RFerrington said:

I had the same misconception 

 

There were indeed a bunch of ships in there!  Wow.   Was enchanted to see both of Viking's Expedition ships in there at the same time.  🥰 

 

Really looking forward to our time on Viking Octantis doing the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Seaway, and NW passage next year.  33 nights.  🙂 Smaller ships, and are able to participate in their scientific experiments.  They are both ice class rated.  Thought the World Traveler was pretty cool as well!  Never even knew she existed.  

[island lady]

7 hours ago, cruiselover04 said:

We see the Viking ships sail past us at our summer place on the St.Clair river when they do the Great Lakes. They look so majestic cruising down the river. I always try and go down to the river to see them. I’ll wave to you!  🙂. Yet another fabulous adventure you’ll have on the Octantis. 
Have loved following you on this adventure. I’ll never get there myself so it’s been amazing you sharing your photos and the experience. 
Thank you 

Jenni 

 

Oh wow....thank you soooo much for posting those pictures!!  We are so much looking forward to the trip.  Will be from Milwaukee to Nuuk for 5 weeks.  Such a pretty ship!  Love their "Hangar" barn door on the aft to launch their "toys".  🥰

[island lady]

7 hours ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

 

 

People are traveling to Antartica in record numbers the past 2 years, over 100K each year up from 70K pre pandemic.  Much is being written lately about the danger of overtourism in such a fragile environment.  It's such a short cruise season and with the increasing demand, there certainly are a lot of ships sailing.  I'm surprised to see 8 ships in one day in such a small area though.  No wonder people are concerned.  

 

It's the exact same thing with Alaska...and much heavier cruise traffic.  

[island lady]

Current position.  Heading to Elephant Island.   Still really massive icebergs drifting around, both starboard and port side.  And then to think you are only seeing a 10th of the total of that tonnage.  Yikes!  

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by island lady

[lovesthebeach2]

14 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

I was doing the water slides on Voyager, 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle (docked in Akureyri, Iceland) on Sept. 8, 2022.  🙂

 

We had perfect weather cruising thru Prins Christians Sund the next week.

 

In Akureyri there were a few whales swimming around the ship while we were sitting on our balcony. I got a videos and pictures of them. I would love to go to the Antarctic someday too.

[lovesthebeach2]

@island lady Patricia, thank you for all the pictures and comments on this fabulous experience. You make us feel like we’re experiencing it there with you. I think you need to alter your plans and do the whole 274 nights 😁

[ecslady]

21 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Some of those Icebergs are alot like some of the ones we saw in Greenland last year

On Jewel.

The water and ice has such beautiful colors.

Will you see be there when the sun sets? If so you should get some cool looking pictures like we got.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Jimbo - As soon as I saw your first pic, I said I've seen that iceberg.  Well, of course, I was on the Greenland cruise with you. 

 

And thanks to everyone onboard the world cruise for the continued updates and pics!

 

 

[barbeyg]

Thanks to Patricia and all the contributors here.  Really appreciate it. 🙂

[island lady]

56 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

@island lady Patricia, thank you for all the pictures and comments on this fabulous experience. You make us feel like we’re experiencing it there with you. I think you need to alter your plans and do the whole 274 nights 😁

 

LOL...thanks!   We have another cruise with another line booked in June, and a winery guest house just prior to that.  Need my wine fix.  😉 

[island lady]

Not in the strait any longer, but wow...we sure have some of these "growlers" still floating around out here in the open sea.  Things are way bigger than the ship, and a whole lot more tonnage.  They are allowed the right of way.  😄  

 

 

[Sunshine3601]

10 hours ago, Steeler Nation At Sea said:

 

 

People are traveling to Antartica in record numbers the past 2 years, over 100K each year up from 70K pre pandemic.  Much is being written lately about the danger of overtourism in such a fragile environment.  It's such a short cruise season and with the increasing demand, there certainly are a lot of ships sailing.  I'm surprised to see 8 ships in one day in such a small area though.  No wonder people are concerned.  

I had this same thought when I saw how many ships are presently there.   This cannot be good for eco system for many reasons.  

[pstone1]

19 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Yeah, those darn Humpback whales....knowing just how to stay out of camera range!!   But indeed, have been watching many pods of them with the binoculars.  Happy we brought two really good sets!

Have only seen the one pods of Orcas. 

We were going to go to the talk in the Theatre at 11 this morning, but there are so many whales out there as we are going by, we couldn’t tear ourselves away!  Just amazing!
 

As beautiful as it was yesterday, listening to the whales as they went by was my favorite thing!  They were very vocal and I think the sounds were amplified inside the Bay!

Edited January 13 by pstone1

[Jimbo]

Here is a nice video telling a little bit about Elephant Island before those onboard the ship get to see it. Might be neat to look for some of the landmarks on the Island that the Captain may or may not mention.

 

 

[Ocean Boy]

I think we are not in the Caribbean any longer, Toto.

 

My problem with this cruise is I think I'd would never close my eyes to take a nap for fear of missing something... FOMO.

[DaniDanielle]

@island ladyYour pictures are very good, you are keeping us all entertained!

[LadyZolt]

4 hours ago, island lady said:

 

though indeed the Eclipse was in there with us (actually a bit crowded with ships) I think that was actually "World Traveler"  She has a dark blue hull. Had never heard of her...so I googled it.  Very new ship, actually quite pretty.   Elite all inclusive yacht style.  She slipped around us while we were sitting in Paradise Bay. 

 

 

You may be right.  My husband was using an app that tells locations of ships and it seemed to think the World had been there, but had left before us and that the ship in my photo was the Celebrity Eclipse. The Seabourn Pursuit was also there and I got pics of it.  Someone on the Eclipse got a good photo of the Serenade and posted it on Reddit and I think that was in or near Paradise Bay, but I didn't happen to see the Eclipse passing us.  As you said, crowded day in Paradise Bay.  🙂 

[island lady]

25 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

@island ladyYour pictures are very good, you are keeping us all entertained!

 

Thanks my friend.  And very happy so many are enjoying time here.  🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by island lady

[island lady]

Big "rock" in the background...but check out this huge iceberg floating along.  I think it may be part of an ice shelf that broke away....and it has a partner that was following, along with an ice "debris" field.  

 

On the second one (which could simply be the second of one that was broken in half) there are many Penguins on the sloped side of it, though I could not pick it up with my crappy phone camera...I could see them (more than a 100) with the binoculars.  

 

Penguin cruise on the "Iceberg of the Seas".  😉 

 

 

 

 

[orville99]

5 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Aw...thanks my friend!  Couldn't have done it without your help.  😊

DW asked me to ask - have they fixed the heater for the solarium pool? It wasn't working when we were on Serenade in November.

[island lady]

2 minutes ago, orville99 said:

DW asked me to ask - have they fixed the heater for the solarium pool? It wasn't working when we were on Serenade in November.

 

Ooops...sorry...did not even know it was not working.  We don't spend anytime at all in the Solarium.  And we never use any of the pools or hot tubs on any of the ships.  I will try to walk through and check it for you if you want me to.  

[clochette]

2 hours ago, island lady said:

 

LOL...thanks!   We have another cruise with another line booked in June, and a winery guest house just prior to that.  Need my wine fix.  😉 

Thank you so much for taking us along, what amazing experiences you are having.

Where are you going for your wine trip, I live in the finger lakes region on NY and we have some pretty good wineries, beautiful place to visit.

[island lady]

5 minutes ago, clochette said:

Thank you so much for taking us along, what amazing experiences you are having.

Where are you going for your wine trip, I live in the finger lakes region on NY and we have some pretty good wineries, beautiful place to visit.

 

Yes, indeed love the wineries there as well.  🥰  So many different varieties of grapes...makes unusual wines.  And such beautiful area.  

 

We are headed to Portland Oregon in June.  Will stay at a winery guest house just south of Portland for two weeks.  Pretty house right in the vineyard.  Then we board American Queen (looks like a vintage old paddle wheeler) to do a B2B from Portland to Spokane and back.  Kind of the Lewis and Clark trail on the Columbia and Snake rivers.  

 

We will get back just in time to repack and rejoin Serenade in Barcelona for her last quarter, ending in Miami.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13 by island lady

[Jimbo]

26 minutes ago, island lady said:

Big "rock" in the background...but check out this huge iceberg floating along.  I think it may be part of an ice shelf that broke away....and it has a partner that was following, along with an ice "debris" field.  

 

On the second one (which could simply be the second of one that was broken in half) there are many Penguins on the sloped side of it, though I could not pick it up with my crappy phone camera...I could see them (more than a 100) with the binoculars.  

 

Penguin cruise on the "Iceberg of the Seas".  😉 

 

 

 

 

If that big rock is off the port side it might be Bridgeman Island that was formed from a volcano.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Island_(South_Shetland_Islands)

 

Did the Captain mention anything when he sailed by it?

[orville99]

1 hour ago, clochette said:

I live in the finger lakes region on NY and we have some pretty good wineries, beautiful place to visit.

Have not been back to the Finger Lakes in almost 30 years, but fondly (even if a bit fuzzily) remember the Naples Grape Festival every September. Is Bully Hill winery still there?

[PolytheneGirl]

I just want to say thank you to @island lady and everyone else posting and taking us with you on this journey. You've become part of my daily routine to check in and see what's happened and where you are 🙂