LIVE! HAL Oosterdam 1/7-1/29 South America & Antarctica—Let’s Cruise!

[FLCruiser97]

1 hour ago, Hogladyrider said:

While I am not Dee, refer to post #463 where she said it was "dressy" night and they had filet and lobster in the dining room.....to of page 19.

Not seeing in post #463 where it mentioned the MDR. It only mentioned they had Filet and lobster. I can't see where it said MDR.

[NorbertsNiece]

The last tender has left Stanley to return 'home'

 

 

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

What a grand day in the Falkland Islands!  @NorbertsNiece I can see why it is your favorite port!

 

I was on line for a tender ticket by 6:45 AM. There were already people waiting, but we received our ticket for tender number one at first rest was not with me because the staff originally said that no tenders would be leaving until eight, but I overheard a conversation and had Russ come down and we actually got in a tender by about 730 because the captain had arrived in Port Stanley, early and most of the tours were scheduled to depart a little later.

 

we met a wonderful couple on the tender that was also going on our Estancia excursion to volunteer point and so we shared our range rover with them we were in our range, rover and ready to go at 8 AM!

 

Part of the ride over is a paved road and then gravel road to true off-road driving.  Definitely bumpy, but not as bad as we were led to believe from things we had read.

 

We were the second range rover to arrive at the penguin colony, which was wonderful. by the way for anyone, wondering you get a bathroom break halfway on the drive which is two hours and there are chemical toilets at volunteer point.

[TravelBluebird]

I truly do not have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to describe what it is like to be at this King Penguin colony.  Besides the king penguins there is a Gentoo penguin colony and a couple of magellenic penguins.  Are also Falkland Island geese, wild turkeys, and sheep..

 by the way, we thought Estancia  excursions was fantastic and we highly recommend them for  the Volunteer Point tour!  

 

We were provided with a sack, lunch and some water for our return trip.  Also we had enough time to get a tour of Port Stanley before we returned to the dock. Additionally, Russ and I visited the southern the southern Anglican cathedral in the world, the visitor center and the shop with locally made souvenirs.

 

Photos to follow when I have my iPad and can see them better.

 

Orange Party tonight!

[Haljo1935]

I'm so excited to see your penguin pictures from today - it's like Christmas is coming again!! I hope you enjoy the Orange Party.

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

I'm so excited to see your penguin pictures from today - it's like Christmas is coming again!! I hope you enjoy the Orange Party.

 

Had a lovely evening after our day in the Falklands!  nice MDR dinner, then we went to see the comedian Buddy Fitzpatrick’s 3rd show—3rd and unscheduled because the dance troupe was supposed to be performing but had to cancel due to illness.

 

Then hung out in casino before the Orange Party. We had on orange shirts and I may have purchased a $12.95 glittery orange headband to help get into the spirit.

 

I was one of like 4 people who showed up from the Permission to Dance class to do the line dances—was ton of  fun and felt great to move! Sad that more people from class or at the Rolling Stone Lounge didn’t join in.  Awards were then given out for most orangy outfits, and we stayed for some of the music but the music in there is just too loud for us so we retreated back to the stateroom.

 

Here are a few penguin photos from today! More tomorrow after I’ve had a bit of a rest; I’ve been up till 6am!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23 by TravelBluebird

[Haljo1935]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

Had a lovely evening after our day in the Falklands! ...

Here are a few penguin photos from today!...

 

 

 

 

 

Look at them w/their Touch of Orange honoring HAL dress code 🧡

[Harley57]

Gorgeous penguin pictures!  Thank you so much for sharing.  We are due to be there next month (fingers crossed) on a Viking cruise.  Seeing your pictures has amped up our excitement.  

[TravelBluebird]

Great room service breakfast —All American egg breakfast and egg frittata (no e tea charges).

 

we are now at Main Stage for Coffee With Ed with 2/3 of our Antarctica team—Ed is not well today.  
 

3 more presentations we want to see later today!
 

[FLCruiser97]

Great pics. Penguins may be my new favorite animal/bird.

[billco]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

Great room service breakfast —All American egg breakfast and egg frittata (no e tea charges).

 

we are now at Main Stage for Coffee With Ed with 2/3 of our Antarctica team—Ed is not well today.  
 

3 more presentations we want to see later today!
 

If you get a chance, could you ask why the Panomax Webcam is down?  I was really looking forward to viewing the past two cruises and my upcoming cruise.

https://hal.panomax.com/oosterdam

Edited January 23 by billco

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, billco said:

you get a chance, could you ask why the Panomax Webcam is down?  I was really looking forward to viewing the past two cruises and my upcoming cruise.

https://hal.panomax.com/oosterdam

Edited 1 hour ago by billco

I will enquire

[TravelBluebird]

2 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

Great pics. Penguins may be my new favorite animal/bird.

@FLCruiser97 I do not regret 3 penguin tours AT ALL even with the LONG trip TOMORROW to Punta Tomba—and in Spanish at that!

 

 

[TravelBluebird]

Spent the morning at Main Stage.  After the Q&A with the Antarctica team, there was a presentation by Graham about his father’s Antarctic expedition in the late 50s.  
 

after that was the Q&A with the captain which included a virtual tour of the bridge and parts of the ship.

 

We went back to the room to pack our cold weather gear and are now attending the port talk for Puerto Madryn and Punta del Estes.

 

Would send more photos but internet is bad at main stage

Edited January 23 by TravelBluebird

[MabePearl]

On 1/19/2024 at 8:43 PM, TravelBluebird said:

I honestly didn’t think ANYTHING could be better than the penguins on the iceburg//ice floe, and the gentoo penguin rookery at Cuverville Island, but I was wrong. 

 

Deception Island was INCREDIBLE. We got there at 7:30pm after dinner. It was heavily snowing with very limited visibility.  I was worried we wouldn’t be able to see anything.  Somehow, within a half hour, the snow stopped and the visibility cleared.

 

The island is the caldera of an active volcano. It is also home to 100,000 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins.  

 

The island was beautiful and so interesting with its volcanic features, and penguins everywhere—on the rocks and in the water. And, another ice floe with penguins! Bigger floe, more penguins, right near the island!

 

The captain did an incredible job of getting us close to the island safely.

 

Here are some of the images; I also got some incredible video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s also a great area to spot whales , keep a look out for them.

[MabePearl]

20 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

What a grand day in the Falkland Islands!  @NorbertsNiece I can see why it is your favorite port!

 

I was on line for a tender ticket by 6:45 AM. There were already people waiting, but we received our ticket for tender number one at first rest was not with me because the staff originally said that no tenders would be leaving until eight, but I overheard a conversation and had Russ come down and we actually got in a tender by about 730 because the captain had arrived in Port Stanley, early and most of the tours were scheduled to depart a little later.

 

we met a wonderful couple on the tender that was also going on our Estancia excursion to volunteer point and so we shared our range rover with them we were in our range, rover and ready to go at 8 AM!

 

Part of the ride over is a paved road and then gravel road to true off-road driving.  Definitely bumpy, but not as bad as we were led to believe from things we had read.

 

We were the second range rover to arrive at the penguin colony, which was wonderful. by the way for anyone, wondering you get a bathroom break halfway on the drive which is two hours and there are chemical toilets at volunteer point.

Woohoo

is the Estancia excursion to volunteer point by Range Rover a private one you can book in advance? If so how far in advance can you book it and where?

thanks

Francine

 

[TravelBluebird]

25 minutes ago, MabePearl said:

Woohoo

is the Estancia excursion to volunteer point by Range Rover a private one you can book in advance? If so how far in advance can you book it and where?

thanks

Francine

 

@MabePearl It is a private tour that you can and should book in advance.  Definitely at least a few months in advance, but if you email them, they are very quick in getting back to you.  The cost was $200 per person; considerably less than a similar HAL excursion.

 

12 people on our ship did NOT turn up for their pre-arranged excursions with Estancia, and they didn’t let the company know in advance! So they lost all of those dollars, and it was unfair to both the tour company that trusts people to show up AND to others on the ship that would have loved to have had their spots.

[TravelBluebird]

Here is a short video of some of the VERY interesting penguin activity we saw at Volunteer Point on the Falkland Islands!  

 

 

[MabePearl]

37 minutes ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

@MabePearl It is a private tour that you can and should book in advance.  Definitely at least a few months in advance, but if you email them, they are very quick in getting back to you.  The cost was $200 per person; considerably less than a similar HAL excursion.

 

12 people on our ship did NOT turn up for their pre-arranged excursions with Estancia, and they didn’t let the company know in advance! So they lost all of those dollars, and it was unfair to both the tour company that trusts people to show up AND to others on the ship that would have loved to have had their spots.

Thank you, good to have the information in advance.  

[TravelBluebird]

At the second The Company Men show!  Russ at his first since he had that cold earlier this cruise

[RosieCanberra]

8 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

12 people on our ship did NOT turn up for their pre-arranged excursions with Estancia, and they didn’t let the company know in advance! So they lost all of those dollars, and it was unfair to both the tour company that trusts people to show up AND to others on the ship that would have loved to have had their spots.

 

Maybe they were among those that missed the cruise altogether. 

[perrysburg]

Attention cruisers who love Penguins! (which is everyone, right?)

 

The University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand has a fund raising campaign underway for their Penguin Research,  which uses cutting edge technology to assess and conserve penguin populations.

 

Info here:  https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about-uc/donating-to-uc/focus-your-support/support-our-research/penguin-research-fund-support

[NorbertsNiece]

10 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

 

@MabePearl It is a private tour that you can and should book in advance.  Definitely at least a few months in advance, but if you email them, they are very quick in getting back to you.  The cost was $200 per person; considerably less than a similar HAL excursion.

 

12 people on our ship did NOT turn up for their pre-arranged excursions with Estancia, and they didn’t let the company know in advance! So they lost all of those dollars, and it was unfair to both the tour company that trusts people to show up AND to others on the ship that would have loved to have had their spots.

That's disgraceful.

 

I just heard on the news about new colonies of emperor penguins being discovered in Antarctica. It sounded exciting so I googled the story. It's actually not a happy event. Article here 

[TravelBluebird]

6 hours ago, RosieCanberra said:

 

Maybe they were among those that missed the cruise altogether. 

 

I hope so; at least that gives them a reason….BUT they had plenty of time to send an email to cancel!

 

The captain and the cruise director had people pretty worked up about if the ship’s horn blew continuously, everyone had to get back to the ship because weather conditions had changed.  I asked and found out it is actually an extremely rare occurrence, but just tossed my essential medication in my bag for the day just in case.  I did meet one lady who said she cancelled an independent to Volunteer Point  because she was so anxious about it.

 

This morning I am off to my last wildlife adventure—the penguins (and guanacos!) of Punta Tombo.  After that its all city touring—Punta del Estes, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires.  

 

7:55 meet up for the Spanish Language excursion!  Sólo hablo un poco de español so we shall see how this goes!

[TravelBluebird]

5 hours ago, NorbertsNiece said:

That's disgraceful.

 

I just heard on the news about new colonies of emperor penguins being discovered in Antarctica. It sounded exciting so I googled the story. It's actually not a happy event. Article here 

 

@NorbertsNiece Thank you for the article. Not a happy event at all.  Do you feel protective over Antarctica after visiting there? I do; its like a fierce love and appreciation that you just can’t get from movies or books.

Edited January 24 by TravelBluebird