LIVE from Antarctica on Seabourn Pursuit! - Jan 7-19, 2024

[bilbobill]

Pre Cruise Day!

 

Wow it is hard to believe it has been almost a year since we booked our trip to Antarctica and our first ever Seabourn Cruise.  We have really enjoyed our 2 days in Bunos Aires staying at the Park Hyatt but are ready to get going.  I am glad we came early to BA as we have really enjoyed the people, food and sights and it also takes some of the stress away worrying about lost luggage or delayed flights.  The Park Hyatt was very nice but the Alvear Palace really has all the elegance you can imagine of BA in it’s prime – and our room was a super nice small suite.

 

The Lobby

 

The Bar

 

Our Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6 by bilbobill

[bilbobill]

We had late checkout at 4pm at the Park Hyatt so we went on a bike tour in the morning and then checked out of the Hyatt and into the Alvear around 4pm.  We saw a Seabourn rep in the lobby and she instructed us to check in at the front desk and then she would escort us to the Seabourn check in area.  Check in at the front desk was quick and easy – they just needed a credit card for incidentals.  Because we were leaving so early in the morning, they recommended paying our bill tonight before we went to bed if we had any charges – if no charges then they said we did not need to check out.  We decided to put any hotel meals or drinks on our credit card so we would not need to check out.

 

The Seabourn check-in was just down the hall right next to a ballroom where breakfast would be served the following morning.  Honestly the check in was a little underwhelming – we were excited and the reps looked bored.  The check in only took about 5 minutes and was focused on giving us some luggage tags and our boarding pass and spending a lot of time telling us what we couldn’t have in our check-in bags.  They informed us that there were 2 flights – one at 7am and one at 8am.   We were on the first flight and our bus was leaving at 5am.  I have attached a copy of the details they provided but essentially it was leave your check-in bags outside your room by 10pm, breakfast starts at 4am in the ballroom and be at the bus by 5am.  Not much else to it so we had dinner and are planning to go to sleep early tonight.  So really not too much to the whole pre cruise night check in – just be at the hotel before they close at 7pm to get your details!

 

 

 

What not to pack in your check in

 

 

 

Hope that is helpful to future cruisers.  Will let you know tomorrow how it goes!

 

 

[DubLady]

This is fantastic information. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. Safe flight and hope you enjoy your cruise.

[moabkayaker]

Agree that we all appreciate your info.  Interesting about the electric toothbrush - it's usually in my checked baggage toiletry kit with the large tube of toothpaste - I will reorganize.  Looking forward to your future posts as it is making the time until we leave fly by!  Thanks

[DubLady]

Hate to beat a dead horse but a currency question again.,When paying Hotel bill and they ask if you want to pay in dollars or Pasos, I guess pasos better right?

[markandjie]

8 minutes ago, DubDublady said:

Hate to beat a dead horse but a currency question again.,When paying Hotel bill and they ask if you want to pay in dollars or Pasos, I guess pasos better right?

 

If you have a good travel credit card (we have both the United Chase card and the American Citi cards) then you're always better off charging in local currency. Not uncommon on our recent Japan trip to be offered a charge in USD that's 3-5% higher than what our credit card converts to from local currency.

[bilbobill]

29 minutes ago, DubDublady said:

Hate to beat a dead horse but a currency question again.,When paying Hotel bill and they ask if you want to pay in dollars or Pasos, I guess pasos better right?

Agree with @markandjie  , ask for the bill in pesos.  Some restaurants or tours will also ask you and they always use an exchange rate less favorable than a credit card. And hopefully you are earning some miles on top of that!  I know some people recommend bringing US $100 bills and exchanging for pesos to pay the bill but that is a lot of cash to carry around so I didn’t do that. 

[DubLady]

Thank you . I do have a good card

[reeftank]

https://bluedollar.net/ seems to be a pretty good site that summarizes all of the different exchange rates.  If you click on the "Tourist Dollar Rates" tab, it shows that the current rate for foreign credit cards is 30%+ better than the unofficial "blue" rate, which you can get on the street.  Things seem to be changing weekly with regards to the peso valuation there.

[15Day+]

21 hours ago, bilbobill said:

Pre Cruise Day!

 

Wow it is hard to believe it has been almost a year since we booked our trip to Antarctica and our first ever Seabourn Cruise.  We have really enjoyed our 2 days in Bunos Aires staying at the Park Hyatt but are ready to get going.  I am glad we came early to BA as we have really enjoyed the people, food and sights and it also takes some of the stress away worrying about lost luggage or delayed flights.  The Park Hyatt was very nice but the Alvear Palace really has all the elegance you can imagine of BA in it’s prime – and our room was a super nice small suite.

 

Hopefully you tried Afternoon Tea during your stay in the Alvear Palace. We try to go at least once when we stay in Buenos Aires and will again next month before our Venture cruise from Ushuaia to Malaga Spain.

[DubLady]

Look at those deserts. Our pre cruise hotel is Alvear Icon. I wonder if they have afternoon tea there.

[Fitstylist55]

3 hours ago, 15Day+ said:

Hopefully you tried Afternoon Tea during your stay in the Alvear Palace. We try to go at least once when we stay in Buenos Aires and will again next month before our Venture cruise from Ushuaia to Malaga Spain.

I agree. The tea was a highlight.

[bilbobill]

Cruise Day!

 

The big day is finally here.  Our bus to the airport was 5am for a 7am flight.  We came down to breakfast about 4:30am and were surprised to see how many people were there – hungry group!

 

 

There was a hot and cold buffet which was good and had plenty of choices.  Waiters were also pouring coffee and it was pretty quick.  Took us only about 20 minutes to eat and we went to the bus.  There were 2 flights – one at 7am and one at 8am.  The buses for the 7am fight left at 4:45, 5 and 5:15 as far as I am aware – perhaps there was another one but not sure.  These were assigned at check-in yesterday.  I did hear one person say they were able to change their bus to a later time.  I would suggest trying that as the airport is really small and with a charter flight there is no reason to be there early, they are not going to leave until all the buses have arrived and everyone is on.

 

The bus ride to the airport was only 15 minutes – we went to the smaller airport Jorge Newbery.  There was a Seabourn rep on the bus and she explained the process and answered any questions.  Security was quick and just like the standard process in the US -laptops out, no large liquids or water bottles etc…  For security you do need to show your passport and boarding pass so have those ready before you enter.  Even though it is a charter flight with only Seabourn passengers, the flight operates like a normal flight – it has a flight number and gate information on the boards in the airport.  Check your gate number on the display after security, small airport so easy to find.  We left the hotel at 5:00am and were at the gate by 5:40 so plenty of time.  There were several restaurants by the gates serving coffee and food so you could skip the whole breakfast at the hotel if you wanted to sleep in a little longer.  Coffee at the airport was better.

 

 

Boarding the plane –everyone boarded in one group.  I would say at least half of the crowd had carry-ons so overheads did get used but not full. Nobody was checking carry on sizes or weighing bags.  Boarding was by bus which drove out to a plane on the tarmac.  We decided to enjoy our coffee and get on the last bus which worked out well for us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything else on the flight worked like a normal flight.  Most rows only had two people but I would say 20% had the row full.  It was an Airbus A320-200 with a 3-3 configuration.  Plane seemed in good shape and flight attendants were very friendly.

 

 

  A cold breakfast was served which was typical airline food although the yoghurt was gourmet and exceptionally good. 

 

 

Flight time to Ushuaia was 3:15  - airport was nicer than I expected and bags were coming out of the carousel by the time we got out of the plane. 

 

You have to collect your bags yourself and we were then asked to put the carryon bags through a scanner but not the checked bags.  It was pretty quick though and after exiting the baggage area Seabourn reps were waiting to take our bags from us and put them on a bus for the ship.  One other item to note, we were told the flight back goes directly to EZE so people can catch their international flights back home.

 

 

By the time we got on the buses at the airport it was 10:50 and we were told the ship would not be ready to board until 12:45 so were going on a scenic bus tour.  Not exactly what everyone wanted after getting up so early and a 3+ hour plane flight but it wasn’t bad and they let us out several times to take pictures and walk around. 

 

When we arrived at the ship precisely at 12:45 the bus drove straight down the pier and pulled up right next to the ship! 

 

Two Seabourn reps came on the bus and went aisle by aisle asking for our passport and cabin number.  They had portable printers and printed out a new boarding pass.  Forget the boarding times you were assigned a few weeks ago, those were not followed.  Once we had that we exited the bus and walked a few steps to board the ship.  Not sure why the paper boarding pass on the bus – most of us had already printed our documents or had electronic boarding pass but that is what we did.

 

I will post more about what happened when we got on the ship tomorrow - we are still enjoying our first evening plus the captain said we should secure things in the cabin as we expect a mild Drake shake - nothing major though.  

Edited January 8 by bilbobill

[NetworkOne]

Curious for my upcoming trip….is there a need for a warm jacket in Ushuia?  We’re flying to BA from Florida and if we don’t need something warm before getting our polar gear on the ship, we’ll leave it at home. 

[bilbobill]

3 minutes ago, NetworkOne said:

Curious for my upcoming trip….is there a need for a warm jacket in Ushuia?  We’re flying to BA from Florida and if we don’t need something warm before getting our polar gear on the ship, we’ll leave it at home. 

I would bring a jacket that is reasonably warm. It was about 50F today but the wind made it feel colder.  We had 2 hours on the bus tour getting on and off and that would have been tough without a jacket.  Of course some people opted to stay on the bus and it was plenty warm.  Perhaps bring a long sleeve shirt and a lighter jacket that folds up in a backpack

[BasandSyb]

Depends if you feel the cold and when your sail date is 😇

January weather on the below link:

https://www.accuweather.com/en/ar/ushuaia/6462/january-weather/6462

 

[kprosise]

12 hours ago, bilbobill said:

Cruise Day!

 

The big day is finally here.  Our bus to the airport was 5am for a 7am flight.  We came down to breakfast about 4:30am and were surprised to see how many people were there – hungry group!

 

 

There was a hot and cold buffet which was good and had plenty of choices.  Waiters were also pouring coffee and it was pretty quick.  Took us only about 20 minutes to eat and we went to the bus.  There were 2 flights – one at 7am and one at 8am.  The buses for the 7am fight left at 4:45, 5 and 5:15 as far as I am aware – perhaps there was another one but not sure.  These were assigned at check-in yesterday.  I did hear one person say they were able to change their bus to a later time.  I would suggest trying that as the airport is really small and with a charter flight there is no reason to be there early, they are not going to leave until all the buses have arrived and everyone is on.

 

The bus ride to the airport was only 15 minutes – we went to the smaller airport Jorge Newbery.  There was a Seabourn rep on the bus and she explained the process and answered any questions.  Security was quick and just like the standard process in the US -laptops out, no large liquids or water bottles etc…  For security you do need to show your passport and boarding pass so have those ready before you enter.  Even though it is a charter flight with only Seabourn passengers, the flight operates like a normal flight – it has a flight number and gate information on the boards in the airport.  Check your gate number on the display after security, small airport so easy to find.  We left the hotel at 5:00am and were at the gate by 5:40 so plenty of time.  There were several restaurants by the gates serving coffee and food so you could skip the whole breakfast at the hotel if you wanted to sleep in a little longer.  Coffee at the airport was better.

 

 

Boarding the plane –everyone boarded in one group.  I would say at least half of the crowd had carry-ons so overheads did get used but not full. Nobody was checking carry on sizes or weighing bags.  Boarding was by bus which drove out to a plane on the tarmac.  We decided to enjoy our coffee and get on the last bus which worked out well for us. 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything else on the flight worked like a normal flight.  Most rows only had two people but I would say 20% had the row full.  It was an Airbus A320-200 with a 3-3 configuration.  Plane seemed in good shape and flight attendants were very friendly.

 

 

  A cold breakfast was served which was typical airline food although the yoghurt was gourmet and exceptionally good. 

 

 

Flight time to Ushuaia was 3:15  - airport was nicer than I expected and bags were coming out of the carousel by the time we got out of the plane. 

 

You have to collect your bags yourself and we were then asked to put the carryon bags through a scanner but not the checked bags.  It was pretty quick though and after exiting the baggage area Seabourn reps were waiting to take our bags from us and put them on a bus for the ship.  One other item to note, we were told the flight back goes directly to EZE so people can catch their international flights back home.

 

 

By the time we got on the buses at the airport it was 10:50 and we were told the ship would not be ready to board until 12:45 so were going on a scenic bus tour.  Not exactly what everyone wanted after getting up so early and a 3+ hour plane flight but it wasn’t bad and they let us out several times to take pictures and walk around. 

 

When we arrived at the ship precisely at 12:45 the bus drove straight down the pier and pulled up right next to the ship! 

 

Two Seabourn reps came on the bus and went aisle by aisle asking for our passport and cabin number.  They had portable printers and printed out a new boarding pass.  Forget the boarding times you were assigned a few weeks ago, those were not followed.  Once we had that we exited the bus and walked a few steps to board the ship.  Not sure why the paper boarding pass on the bus – most of us had already printed our documents or had electronic boarding pass but that is what we did.

 

I will post more about what happened when we got on the ship tomorrow - we are still enjoying our first evening plus the captain said we should secure things in the cabin as we expect a mild Drake shake - nothing major though.  

Great embarkation summary! Just wanted to add, we were on the same charter flight and we were able to take about 3 liters of water through security. Maybe it depends on the people in your lane, but they didn't even bat an eye at our water.

[bilbobill]

2 hours ago, kprosise said:

Great embarkation summary! Just wanted to add, we were on the same charter flight and we were able to take about 3 liters of water through security. Maybe it depends on the people in your lane, but they didn't even bat an eye at our water.

Yes I believe that is possible. We asked the Seabourn rep on the plane and she said no water but security didn’t seem so strict so It probably varies. Worse they will do is make you pour out your water or throw it away so worth a try.

[jmm]

Thanks so much for all the great tips!!  Heading on the Venture next month.  We are doing a Malbec tasting in BA and I was hoping to carry some wine to the ship.  Seems like liquids are ok to carry on.  Did you notice if anyone was trying to carry wine?  Thanks so much!

[bilbobill]

 

Once on board the Pursuit, we had a quick x-ray for our carry on’s and then through a metal detector before registering with a photo.  The Colonnade was open for lunch so most headed there to wait for the rooms to be ready.  By the time we finished lunch our room was ready and we got settled.  Bags were delivered soon after but I did hear some people saying their checked bags didn’t arrive until after 5pm so it is good to bring any essentials with you.  There was a mandatory safety briefing on your TV that you are required to view.  Your TV won’t work without it being activated so best to get that out of the way early.  Then there was an in-person safety/briefing (muster drill) in the Discovery center which is also required, and they scan your card to make sure you attend.

I will post the the daily Herald for Day 1 and 2 so you can get an idea of the activities and opening time of the dining and bar venues.  My first goal with this thread was to help everyone with the details before the cruise since I felt Seabourn communication was a little lacking in this area.  Now that “we have you on board” I’m just going to focus on any highlights you might need to know before you cruise rather than give you a minute by minute account of my journey.  If you’ve read this far you can probably see that I love details but I think I a little surprise is good so I don’t want to ruin that for future travelers.  So from here on out I will just post things I think are interesting to know or that I have seen questions about in previous threads.  Also, if you have anything specific you want to ask about, do it here and I will respond as best as I can. Or perhaps some of my fellow travelers can give their views.

 

A few highlights for now
 Ship is beautiful – everything sparkling new.  Our sailing is full but it doesn’t feel crowded.  
Had no problem finding a seat at dinner last night in the Restaurant and only saw a couple of men wearing sportscoats.  Most people were smart casual.  I am also including a pic of part of the wine list so you can evaluate pricing. Note that they have a program that helps you get additional wine for free if you spend enough.  

Our Drake crossing has been a little wavy but nothing serious.  We brought Scopolamine patches just to be safe but I think we could have gone without.  Coming back may be a different story.
Fellow travelers are awesome – this is my first trip on Seabourn but now I see why it has so many loyal cruisers – the people (passengers and crew) are great!
 

[nancygp]

You have a great CD, Aimee…enjoy

 

Nancy

[sfvoyage]

1 hour ago, bilbobill said:

 If you’ve read this far you can probably see that I love details but I think I a little surprise is good so I don’t want to ruin that for future travelers.

 

 

Thank you, and I couldn't agree with you more...  Aside from specific logistics and questions that may require taking actions in advance, I would much rather discover on my own and have a sense of wonder with new experiences and explorations.

[jmm]

Thank you so much for all the great information!!  The Daily Herald's and Wine List are so incredibly helpful!!  I'm glad to see that the Pursuit has the restaurant open for Breakfast and Lunch; it was my understanding that the Venture does not - hopefully Venture has them open next month!

[TUCHIK]

Another thanks for the extremely informative and useful post.

 

We join the Pursuit February 20 for our 2nd Antartic trip. Our first was on the Quest in 2018, but we didn't get to South Georgia. We should make it this trip, though the closures are disappointing. Fingers crossed!!

[BasandSyb]

We are on the same with you. Will see you “out and about”.