Ocean Voyage on Le Commandant Charcot - October 2024

[jpalbny]

Well, we did it! We booked Le Commandant Charcot for a 6d/5n ocean voyage from Reykjavik to Tromsø this October. We have been very eager to see this ship and even though we usually want more activity during our cruises this opportunity was too good to pass up. It will be good practice for our (potential) retirement in November.

 

With the additional 10% off due to our Grand Admiral status (love that status match!), we splurged for a privilege suite on Deck 8. We figured that we'd spend more time in the room on an Ocean voyage, and also it would probably be the only time we could afford one of these suites. We didn't go for the Duplex suite as the step-up in price was a bit much.

 

We will probably go to Reykjavik a day early (at most) since we've been there a lot. We'll stay in Tromsø for a few days afterwards and see if we get some Northern Lights sightings. We have spent a day there once after a Svalbard cruise, and except for the airport it's a beautiful place, so we're looking forward to seeing it again.

 

Finally found the review from your OV, @AussieBoyTX. It was challenging (for me) to find because the words "ocean voyage" aren't in the title! I had been searching for a few days but finally found it by brute force this morning.

 

Will take a cursory look at possible flights but won't do anything about that for a few months. This should be easy to plan compared to our other trips.

Edited January 10 by jpalbny

[AussieBoyTX]

Yeah, our trip wasn't marketed as an ocean voyage, so it didn't even occur to me to put that in the title. We even had a full event schedule -- they were just all at sea. 😂 

 

Charot is an extraordinary ship and I know you'll have an exceptional journey

[jpalbny]

We are eagerly anticipating this for sure.

 

And even better news, our friends from Toronto are going to join us! 

 

My TA says that cabins are filling fast. Glad that Chris found this voyage.

[highplanesdrifters]

Can't wait for the live details.

[jpalbny]

We are now also looking at additional sailing on Le CC for December. Helsinki RT, with stops in Stockholm, Visby, Gdansk, Riga, and Tallinn. We're thinking of the 11 December sailing. If all goes to plan we should be either retired or part-time by then... 🤞🤞

 

 

There is an overnight in Stockholm, which we've never visited. Poland and Latvia would be new countries for us. Though we changed planes in Warsaw once, and crossed through into the Schengen zone there, we don't really count that as a "visit" so this would make it more official in our book.

[highplanesdrifters]

19 hours ago, jpalbny said:

We are now also looking at additional sailing on Le CC for December. Helsinki RT, with stops in Stockholm, Visby, Gdansk, Riga, and Tallinn. We're thinking of the 11 December sailing. If all goes to plan we should be either retired or part-time by then... 🤞🤞

 

 

There is an overnight in Stockholm, which we've never visited. Poland and Latvia would be new countries for us. Though we changed planes in Warsaw once, and crossed through into the Schengen zone there, we don't really count that as a "visit" so this would make it more official in our book.

Looks like a good one.  Love that area, and especially Stockholm.  Will be back to the motherland this June. 😃  Havent been to Latvia or Poland either, except for the plane change in Warsaw.  It was back in the 80's coming home from the then 'Soviet Union'.  Oh my how things have changed.

[jpalbny]

Well, we did it! We are now signed up for the December cruise too. Excited to see Stockholm; it will complete our tour of major Nordic capital cities. We've been to Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, and Reykjavik already and have enjoyed all of them.

 

I know that the Nordic Region also includes the autonomous regions of Greenland, Faroes, and Åland. We've been to two of those three countries as well. We'll have to find a way to get to Åland some day!

 

Edited January 27 by jpalbny

[highplanesdrifters]

21 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Well, we did it! We are now signed up for the December cruise too. Excited to see Stockholm; it will complete our tour of major Nordic capital cities. We've been to Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, and Reykjavik already and have enjoyed all of them.

 

I know that the Nordic Region also includes the autonomous regions of Greenland, Faroes, and Åland. We've been to two of those three countries as well. We'll have to find a way to get to Åland some day!

 

Boy did that meme hit home......or perhaps we need to spend more money on cruises. 😃

 

Thanks for mentioning Aland.  I didn't know anything about it.  Just spent some time reading the complicated history. I'm always fascinated by territories, autonomous regions and the like. Nice Rabbit Hole for a lazy Sunday morning.

 

Thought about trying to go there in June but the ferry from Stockholm is 5-12 hours.

 

There is a move called Devil's Bride about witch hunts on Aland in the 1600s. Just put it on our watch list.

[jpalbny]

7 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Thanks for mentioning Aland.  I didn't know anything about it.  Just spent some time reading the complicated history. I'm always fascinated by territories, autonomous regions and the like. Nice Rabbit Hole for a lazy Sunday morning.

 

Thought about trying to go there in June but the ferry from Stockholm is 5-12 hours.

 

...And now you know more about it than I do! 😛

[jpalbny]

More plans fell into place today, though not without some consternation. 

 

We planned to fly to Reykjavik a day early, which meant leaving on Thursday night and arriving Friday morning...Ridiculously early and with no sleep, as the 5h flight from BOS or JFK is just too short for any meaningful rest.

 

So I saw that Iceland Air is doing a day flight. We booked that instead. We leave JFK at 1PM and arrive in KEF at 10:30PM. Much nicer. And half the price of DL.

 

I know DL has lie-flat seats and FI has much less appealing seats like domestic F. But on a 5h flight where we won't sleep enough to make it worthwhile, I didn't need to pay more for DL. And we can definitely tolerate the FI seats for a daytime flight. 

 

That was the easy part.

 

I tried using the Amex site to book their fine hotel choice in Reykjavik but kept getting an error all afternoon, and again this evening. 

 

Finally I contacted them and they put the reservation through. But when I got the email confirmation they had completely mangled my first name, dropped a letter from my last name, booked the wrong room type, and put the wrong phone number on the reservation for good measure! 

 

More time was spent fixing all of this. My swear jar got heavy for some reason. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

37 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

More plans fell into place today, though not without some consternation. 

 

We planned to fly to Reykjavik a day early, which meant leaving on Thursday night and arriving Friday morning...Ridiculously early and with no sleep, as the 5h flight from BOS or JFK is just too short for any meaningful rest.

 

So I saw that Iceland Air is doing a day flight. We booked that instead. We leave JFK at 1PM and arrive in KEF at 10:30PM. Much nicer. And half the price of DL.

 

I know DL has lie-flat seats and FI has much less appealing seats like domestic F. But on a 5h flight where we won't sleep enough to make it worthwhile, I didn't need to pay more for DL. And we can definitely tolerate the FI seats for a daytime flight. 

 

That was the easy part.

 

I tried using the Amex site to book their fine hotel choice in Reykjavik but kept getting an error all afternoon, and again this evening. 

 

Finally I contacted them and they put the reservation through. But when I got the email confirmation they had completely mangled my first name, dropped a letter from my last name, booked the wrong room type, and put the wrong phone number on the reservation for good measure! 

 

More time was spent fixing all of this. My swear jar got heavy for some reason. 

Thanks for this.  I have Amex Platinum but have never used their travel service.  Since they give 5% back on airfare even if booked direct, that's what I do.  I book hotels direct using my Costco Visa card which gives 3% back and keeps me in complete control.  [It's getting harder to recoup the ever-increasing cost of the Platinum card.  I recalculate every year to see whether to keep it – so far it does work out.]

[jpalbny]

I almost always DIY because both my name and Chris's are so easy to mess up. Luckily the correct spelling of our names is saved in my browser's auto-fill memory!

 

I only used the "service" because the website had a glitch yesterday and I couldn't DIY. The agent figured out the glitch, which was helpful, then put the booking through, but somehow mangled it beyond belief. Now that I knew what the problem was with the website, I was able to cancel and rebook myself.

 

Back in antediluvian times you did have to call them to take advantage of the International Airline program (cheaper fares). I have been using those fares for about 10 years. Now you can book those directly on the website - it's much easier. I was excited to find Iceland Air fares there, at a (slight) discount from the price on the Iceland Air website. I don't usually see those fares discounted much, as they are pretty cheap to begin with.

 

And - it looks like this ocean voyage is FULLY BOOKED! I guess everyone else wants to take advantage of this cheap opportunity to experience Le Commandant Charcot. We met other friends this weekend and they were interested, so for now they are on the wait list.

Edited February 7 by jpalbny

[highplanesdrifters]

13 hours ago, jpalbny said:

So I saw that Iceland Air is doing a day flight. We booked that instead. We leave JFK at 1PM and arrive in KEF at 10:30PM. Much nicer. And half the price of DL.

Great Intel, thanks.  Heading back in 2025 and was just poking around.  Afternoon flight sounds perfect. I know exactly what you're saying about the overnight flight. Very disruptive sleep wise. Arriving in decent shape is becoming more of an issue as the years tick by.😁

 

 

[worldtraveller99]

Really interested to see you have booked the Christmas Markets cruise in the Baltic this December jpalbny, because we are planning to do this - not this year - it looks wonderful. We have now taken / booked for next year 4 Christmas Market European river cruises on different rivers, they are such fun.

 

Will you be doing a day by day review please? My only concern is the sea days - I am not into gyms or pools, so I will be glad to hear what you do on the sea days? Also on your Ocean Voyage in October? Thank you very much.

[jpalbny]

We have not had much experience with consecutive sea days either. We're making this up as we go along and it will be a new type of vacation for us. I will probably do a live from report - I'll need something to occupy my time during all those sea days!

 

So atypically, I already have the return flights booked too. Found a pretty good deal directly from AF, for 1/3 less than the best price I could find on AMEX. Tromso-Paris-JFK on Saturday; nice evening flight with a decent layover. Done. My AMEX is melting between all of those flights, and the final payment on our upcoming Kimberley cruise which just hit today, but oh well. 

[worldtraveller99]

Thank you jpalbny. I shall start to watch along in October and December!

[highplanesdrifters]

15 hours ago, jpalbny said:

We have not had much experience with consecutive sea days either. We're making this up as we go along and it will be a new type of vacation for us. I will probably do a live from report - I'll need something to occupy my time during all those sea days!

 

So atypically, I already have the return flights booked too. Found a pretty good deal directly from AF, for 1/3 less than the best price I could find on AMEX. Tromso-Paris-JFK on Saturday; nice evening flight with a decent layover. Done. My AMEX is melting between all of those flights, and the final payment on our upcoming Kimberley cruise which just hit today, but oh well. 

Congrats on the flights.  It is such a challenge lately and has become as important as finding the right cruise. Fingers crossed for some great Northern Light CME explosions. We're at solar max this year so good chance.

 

And more importantly hope eruptions stay away from KEF.

[jpalbny]

23 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Fingers crossed for some great Northern Light CME explosions. We're at solar max this year so good chance.

 

Yes! If they are anything like what we saw in Finland last November (2022), I will be overjoyed.

 

 

Tromsø is supposed to be very good for Aurora sightings. 

[highplanesdrifters]

32 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

Yes! If they are anything like what we saw in Finland last November (2022), I will be overjoyed.

 

 

Tromsø is supposed to be very good for Aurora sightings. 

Wowza! Look at that. Very jelly.