Live From the Sapphire, 30-Day Antarctica/SA B2B, Jan 20 - Feb 19

[Boatharbour]

52 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

would be interested to hear from @effinaround if there were any other penguins, seals, and/or other wildlife to be seen at Volunteer Point? I’ve heard it’s an awesome excursion, but never heard about the diversity of wildlife to be seen there, other than of course the massive amount of King penguins.

Thanks Ken. We are doing the Magdalena Island excursion as well so will see a variety of penguins and wildlife there. I must admit though that the sheer number of Kings at Volunteer Point must be amazing to see. 

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

Thanks Ken. We are doing the Magdalena Island excursion as well so will see a variety of penguins and wildlife there. I must admit though that the sheer number of Kings at Volunteer Point must be amazing to see. 

That it would be! 😁

[LACruiser88]

3 hours ago, Boatharbour said:

Thanks Ken. We are doing the Magdalena Island excursion as well so will see a variety of penguins and wildlife there. I must admit though that the sheer number of Kings at Volunteer Point must be amazing to see. 

Here's a short video from our visit to Volunteer Point this past March.

 

 

 

 

 

[effinaround]

I didn't notice a lot of wildlife aside from the penguins, turkey vultures, sheep and geese.  If you have limited time, or any type of back or osteo problems, think twice about taking the Volunteer Point excursion. My wife and I are early fifties, and in good health so it was ok for us.  Our four year old certainly enjoyed the ride but it is bone jarring!  

[Ken the cruiser]

For us this morning was the first day we could comfortably walk around the promenade without a jacket this entire cruise! Sure, it was a little breezy, but temperature was near 70F! 😁

 

 
Various types of sea birds were also flying around the ship in numbers looking for something tasty to pop up from the waves being created.

 

 

We even saw one of the so often overlooked stowaway moths on our balcony! 😂 
 

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

On 2/1/2024 at 5:09 AM, dockman said:

Have you noticed any problem with exhaust/smoke on the back deck pool?  A friend said that the smoke blew down around that back pool?  Maybe just his cruise but i am booked on sapphire for alaska and i always spend a lot of time on that back pool deck on other princess ships.

 

thanks for any info if i should be concerned...

We were on the Sapphire in Alaska last summer and spent most of our time on those back decks. We noticed no smoke and no soot at all. 

[EDVM96]

4 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

We were on the Sapphire in Alaska last summer and spent most of our time on those back decks. We noticed no smoke and no soot at all. 

It truly depends on wind speed & direction / weather temperature / humidity etc. and what they burn at the moment. Its not only ship diesel, they burn thrash also from time to time. Mostly at night.
 

I've never seen soot / smoke at the rear pool on Gem Class ships. But you will definitely find it on deck 17 at the basketball court. It can be a BBQ smnokehouse up there from time to time. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

For us this morning was the first day we could comfortably walk around the promenade without a jacket this entire cruise! Sure, it was a little breezy, but temperature was near 70F! 😁

 

 
Various types of sea birds were also flying around the ship in numbers looking for something tasty to pop up from the waves being created.

 

 

We even saw one of the so often overlooked stowaway moths on our balcony! 😂 
 

 

For you moth lovers, here’s a better picture of the stowaway on our balcony. 😂

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Just found out using CrewCall Chat that they are estimating 2,571 guests on the next leg from BA back to San Antonio with only 47 staying on from this leg. 

[brucedodge]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just found out using CrewCall Chat that they are estimating 2,571 guests on the next leg from BA back to San Antonio with only 47 staying on from this leg. 

Ken,

 

If you get a chance on your return voyage to engage Paolo Ravera in conversation, you should ask him about taking the Coral Princess into the caldera at Deception Island in 2020.  One of the most interesting things I've seen a cruise ship do.  Supposedly it was the largest ship at that time to have ever entered the caldera.

 

Bruce

[Ken the cruiser]

53 minutes ago, brucedodge said:

Ken,

 

If you get a chance on your return voyage to engage Paolo Ravera in conversation, you should ask him about taking the Coral Princess into the caldera at Deception Island in 2020.  One of the most interesting things I've seen a cruise ship do.  Supposedly it was the largest ship at that time to have ever entered the caldera.

 

Bruce

I bet that was an adventure. However, the only time we’ve heard from the Captain on this cruise, let alone actually see him, is when he provides his daily noon briefing over the ship’s speaker system. But if by chance we’re in a position to ask him questions on the next leg, we will definitely try to find out more about the Coral going inside the rim of Deception Island. 😉

[Mary loves to travel]

20 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I bet that was an adventure. However, the only time we’ve heard from the Captain on this cruise, let alone actually see him, is when he provides his daily noon briefing over the ship’s speaker system. But if by chance we’re in a position to ask him questions on the next leg, we will definitely try to find out more about the Coral going inside the rim of Deception Island. 😉

We haven’t seen him either, and bungled our schedule so missed the platinum & elite cocktails with the captain.  
 

I will say Captain Ravera has done a masterful job with our wind & sea conditions, avoiding the worst of it both ways through the Drake.   
 

Mary

[dockman]

10 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

We were on the Sapphire in Alaska last summer and spent most of our time on those back decks. We noticed no smoke and no soot at all. 

Thanks good to hear that...

[Ken the cruiser]

After dinner we headed to the theater to get a good seat for John Bressler’s encore performance, which was another awesome show! 😁

 

 
Then we were off to watch one of our favorite game shows, Hollywood Hiccups! 😂

 

 
Baywatch

 

 

Ghost Busters

 

 
Jaws

 

 
Risky Business

 

 
Lion King

 

 
Ghost

 

 
Titanic

 

 
Our awesome Cruise Director, Arrrmando, and his fantastic entertainment staff!!

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 16 - Feb 4 - Montevideo, Uruguay

 

  

 

 
We also received our Transition Day information this evening. Basically, we just show our “Guest In Transit” card if we decide to leave the ship, as the ship still has our passports. Otherwise, if we don’t leave the ship on transition day in Buenos Aires, which is our current plan, we don’t have to do anything. Yay! 😁

  

 

 

Edited February 4 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We have a relaxing excursion booked for tomorrow afternoon.

  

 
And the weather forecast is looking great! 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, where the tempurature is 70F and a little breezy. But definitely short sleeve weather! 😁

 

 

 

[Mary loves to travel]

We really lucked out with the weather-it’s been 90’s and forecast to be back that way starting tomorrow.    But today should be lovely walking around weather in Montevideo 😊

 

just finishing our last lovely breakfast in the Reserve dining room, which we tried for the first time this cruise based on your recommendations on these boards.  Thanks, Ken!

 

Mary & Peter 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Mary loves to travel said:

We really lucked out with the weather-it’s been 90’s and forecast to be back that way starting tomorrow.    But today should be lovely walking around weather in Montevideo 😊

 

just finishing our last lovely breakfast in the Reserve dining room, which we tried for the first time this cruise based on your recommendations on these boards.  Thanks, Ken!

 

Mary & Peter 

Careful, booking cabins where you can eat in Reserve dining can get addicting. 😂

 

Have a safe trip home and hopefully you’ll cherish all of the wonderful memories from this cruise like we will, to even include those first 3 days on the “high seas” that we can now safely look back on! 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

This morning after breakfast, we had fun walking around the areas of the relatively empty ship just to enjoy the weather while waiting to go on our afternoon excursion.

 
First, we headed all the way up to the Sky Lounge

 

 

 
We then headed down on a scavenger hunt to search for the spot @PescadoAmarillo took the picture she posted early. And after some strategic stair walking, we found it! And look, still no soot! 😂

 

 
Then we headed towards the bow to see what there was to see.

 

 

 

 
There was also this ship “junk yard” out in the bay.

 

 
When we got back to the cabin, we had a new friend out on our balcony. Our friendly moth had apparently headed inside last night, probably due to the rainstorm we had yesterday evening, and hid out under one of our bathroom hand towels until my DW found it this morning! 😂

 

 

Edited February 4 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Our bus tour around Montevideo was pretty much just that, with only two 10-minute stops where we actually got off the bus. One was at the Legislative Palace and the other was at a park along La Rambla.
 
Here are some of the views we saw along the way on the only sold out PCL excursion today.

 
 
 

Estevez (Presidential) Palace

 

 

Montevideo Legislative Palace

 

 

 
As we were quickly driving along the La Rambla, my DW noticed some cormorants on the rocks on the left and a couple of sleeping sea lions on the flat rocks on the right. Unfortunately, the sea lions are very hard to see in the photo as the bus driver didn’t slow down as we passing them by.

 

 
Luckily I was also able to take a photo of the elusive Montevideo pigeon, even though we saw quite a few of the very elusive “camera shy” varieties on the drive around the city! 😂

 

 

 

 

Edited February 4 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop, Buenos Aires! 😁

 

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

And we’re off! Next stop, Buenos Aires! 😁

 

 

Enjoy your cruise up the Rio de la Plata.  I found it very interesting sitting on the balcony and watching how close the ships coming towards us were.  Very narrow channel.

[ocean sounds]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

And we’re off! Next stop, Buenos Aires! 😁

Thanks for all details and photos!!

 

So happy to be joining the ship tomorrow. 
All checked in at the airport, for non-stop flight to Buenos Aires overnight.   

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

 

Enjoy your cruise up the Rio de la Plata.  I found it very interesting sitting on the balcony and watching how close the ships coming towards us were.  Very narrow channel.

It does look like the 4 cruise ships that will be passing in the night are lining up in single file, with the Sapphire and NCL Sun heading towards BA and the NCL Star and the Costa Fascinosa heading towards Montevideo. 
 

 

Edited February 5 by Ken the cruiser