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

[Ken the cruiser]

Good morning from our last full day at sea, and it’s going to be a full one with the Culinary demonstration and crew talent show, a couple of lectures, and a fun game show, all before dinner! 😁

 

Edited February 18 by Ken the cruiser

[kool kruiser]

10 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I have to say, we have been super lucky with the weather on this cruise! One day either way at some locations, especially when cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula or visiting Port Stanley, and it could have resulted in a total different experience. We still would have had a great time, but blue sky is always better! 😁

Ken, your blog has been fantastic. Your second segment is on our radar for the future, at this time of year, as part of a bigger trip. As regards the weather, can you possibly provide an overview of the range, variations etc. This will help to inform packing, so as to ensure the experience is maximised.

Thanks

[Ken the cruiser]

42 minutes ago, kool kruiser said:

Ken, your blog has been fantastic. Your second segment is on our radar for the future, at this time of year, as part of a bigger trip. As regards the weather, can you possibly provide an overview of the range, variations etc. This will help to inform packing, so as to ensure the experience is maximised.

Thanks

The key port stop is Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The winds can get in the 40 mph range with the wind chill factors in the high 30F range. All of the other ports on the second itinerary were usually in the 50s with moderate winds. On the cooler stops where rain was not forecasted, such as Puerto Maydryn, Ushuaia, and Puerto Montt, we would layer up with warmer clothes. But the BA was in the high 80s, so we definitely didn’t need to layer up there! 😂

[PaulS]

13 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for following along!! Our next adventure is a 22-day Alaska B3B on the Grand Princess starting April 30. It’s an 8-day RT itinerary out of Vancouver followed by a 14-day Voyage of the Glaciers itinerary. As soon as I start the Live From thread for that one, I’ll post the link at the bottom of this thread, so keep following this thread to be notified when that happens.

 

If you haven’t already, please check out my expanded Signature area below. We’ve been on some pretty cool cruises over the last 18 months that I also did Live From threads on that have taken us to all 7 continents! 

I’m sure your Alaska trip will be wonderful. I will certainly follow along. Have a safe trip home.

[effinaround]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! My DW checked the deck plan on the web site and it appears there are laundry rooms on decks 5, 8 (with entrances from either hallway), 10 (one on each side), and 12 (one on each side). We went and took pictures of the one on deck 10 on the starboard side. Unfortunately, that’s all we know as we get unlimited laundry so we don’t use them.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made extensive use of the laundry facilities on deck 5 FWD.  They worked quite well although I usually had to run the dryer twice to fully dry some loads that were denim heavy. For a long itinerary that covers both winter and summer like this trip, the laundry facilities allow you to pack less and stay within the baggage weight limits of most airlines. 

 

Ken, thanks for the great photos. even though I was on the first leg of the trip, I refer to this thread frequently for some of the place names and other reference items like the windy maps.  I wish you safe travels home and I'll also be eagerly awaiting your April 30th B3B thread!

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, effinaround said:

I made extensive use of the laundry facilities on deck 5 FWD.  They worked quite well although I usually had to run the dryer twice to fully dry some loads that were denim heavy. For a long itinerary that covers both winter and summer like this trip, the laundry facilities allow you to pack less and stay within the baggage weight limits of most airlines. 

 

Ken, thanks for the great photos. even though I was on the first leg of the trip, I refer to this thread frequently for some of the place names and other reference items like the windy maps.  I wish you safe travels home and I'll also be eagerly awaiting your April 30th B3B thread!

And we want to thank you for sharing your awesome pictures and insights! Hopefully you’ll be cruising again soon! 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

For those curious as to how much the laundry service charges were for Princess to do it, here were the initial bulk charges for each load we ultimately got for free because we were in a suite. But we would have also got them for free as we just made Elite.
 

We usually submitted a load in the morning every 3-4 days, never washed anything by hand, and got it back the following evening. I don’t mean to air our dirty laundry here, but thought I would just pass the info along just in case someone was curious how much to budget for, hopefully with nonrefundable OBC, if you are like us and don’t like to do it when on a cruise. All totaled, it came to $447.50 for 7 loads.

 

[Arya3]

Ken,

Thank you for your amazing travel blog with so much detail and fantastic pictures! Also thanks to all the other contributors sharing their pictures and expertise! We are on the Antarctic RT Buenos Aires in December. I was wondering what brand of binoculars would be best  to buy for this trip. Also, the beginning of the cruise has an overnight in BA and when I look at the available excursions, it has this phrase

“This tour is only available on transit calls”. Would you know what this means?

Looking forward to your next travel blogs.

Safe travels home!

[PescadoAmarillo]

I have enormously enjoyed all of your posts and photos (and those of the others who contributed as well).  I was originally scheduled to be on a few of the Sapphire cruises this winter, but had to cancel. Following along with your travels was almost the same as being there myself. Many thanks. 
 

I have a question, though about volcanos. I was in that area over 20 years ago, and had taken these two photos.  I know the first is Osorno but I never knew the name of the second. Do you think it’s Tronador? Of course these peaks look different depending on viewing angle,  but perhaps, having just been there, you would recognize it. Thank you. 

[Ken the cruiser]

40 minutes ago, Arya3 said:

Ken,

Thank you for your amazing travel blog with so much detail and fantastic pictures! Also thanks to all the other contributors sharing their pictures and expertise! We are on the Antarctic RT Buenos Aires in December. I was wondering what brand of binoculars would be best  to buy for this trip. Also, the beginning of the cruise has an overnight in BA and when I look at the available excursions, it has this phrase

“This tour is only available on transit calls”. Would you know what this means?

Looking forward to your next travel blogs.

Safe travels home!

We are definitely no experts when it comes to buying quality binoculars. But we bought ours for less than $200 using nonrefundable OBC on the NCL Jade while we were on our Africa cruise and they worked fine. 😁

 

As far as the “This tour is only available on transit calls” statement goes. It you saw an excursion available on the first day of your cruise (ie, embarkation day), it probably means that only those passengers on a B2B (like we were), where this is their “In Transit” day, can book the excursion in advance. 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

20 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I have enormously enjoyed all of your posts and photos (and those of the others who contributed as well).  I was originally scheduled to be on a few of the Sapphire cruises this winter, but had to cancel. Following along with your travels was almost the same as being there myself. Many thanks. 
 

I have a question, though about volcanos. I was in that area over 20 years ago, and had taken these two photos.  I know the first is Osorno but I never knew the name of the second. Do you think it’s Tronador? Of course these peaks look different depending on viewing angle,  but perhaps, having just been there, you would recognize it. Thank you. 

Looking at the picture provided in this Wikipedia link, it sure looks like your second picture at a slightly different angle is the Tronador volcano.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tronador
 

[ocean sounds]

 @Ken the cruiser and your DW, it was so nice meeting you today in the theater !
 

Thanks again for a wonderful, detailed thread, and safe travels home.  

[Ken the cruiser]

We definitely had quite the morning going to the various entertainment options that interested us. After taking a peak out side and hearing there were 40+ knot winds coming from the south.

 

 
we decided to pass on any promenade walks today! 😂 Instead, we first went to the Culinary Demonstration and Crew Variety Show. 
 

 

 
Then a little while later, we went to hear about how Princess evolved to the cruise line they are today presented by Franz Schneider.

,

 
Then after a tasty lunch in the Reserve DR, we headed back to the theater to watch The Incredible Mighty Quinn Show that turned out to be a fantastic ending to the entertainment portion of our cruise. He was so funny and entertaining, I had to post a few photos of his very unique and engaging acts! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

10 minutes ago, ocean sounds said:

 @Ken the cruiser and your DW, it was so nice meeting you today in the theater !
 

Thanks again for a wonderful, detailed thread, and safe travels home.  

It was fun meeting you too, and hope your travel back home is smooth and uneventful as well! 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

One final note about the weather, and most importantly about the wind direction and wave action. On the first 3 days of our cruise heading south along the Chilean coastline, the wind and wave action played a huge role in the ship’s “bumpy” response to both.
 

However, as we’re currently heading north towards San Antonio with roughly the same wind and wave action has we encountered at the beginning of the cruise, it makes a huge difference when you’re cruising with the wind rather than against it. I know, who knew! 😂

  

 

 

 

[Jevsy]

On 1/28/2024 at 6:08 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

We had an aft-facing Club Balcony cabin on the NCL Jade when we did our 38-day Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai cruise and had an awesome time (see Live From thread below) and really enjoyed the aft views. We also have an aft-facing Balcony cabin booked on the NCL Star in 2025 for our Longyearbyen B2B cruise. Both of these smaller NCL ships (around 2200 passengers) are more geared for longer cruises. So no waterslides or anything like that. Just boring “old people” stuff to do. 😂

That’s where I remember your name from! We did The Cape Town to Dubai stint just after you, and doing BA to LA in March! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

We had our last tasty meal in the Reserve DR and headed back to the cabin to finish packing to get our luggage out in the hall before 8 pm. From what the Disembarkation Tour instructions said, once we place our luggage out in the hall, we won’t see it again until we get to the airport after our 9-hour tour tomorrow. Cool! 😁

 

Speaking of excursions, here is our last one of the cruise. Just a heads-up. We paid $199 pp in advance for this debarkation/airport transfer tour. The price right now is $309 pp if we had waited to book it onboard. 😱

 

[Ken the cruiser]

For those interested there will be approximately 2,460 passengers on the next cruise from San Antonio back to Buenos Aires with only 27 passengers continuing on from this cruise. 

[Ken the cruiser]

I was hoping to see the “Green Flash” on our final Pacific Ocean sunset on this cruise, but I guess it wasn’t to be. Maybe on our Oct 2025 Tahiti cruise we recently booked we’ll have better luck, as there’s a bunch of sea days on that Pacific Ocean cruise roundtrip out of LA! 🤞

 

I love sunsets, before and after! 😁

 

Edited February 19 by Ken the cruiser

[Cruiser Nonna]

Ken - Thanks again for all the information - in regards to the Laundry - we too are elite and are going on the 32 day next month - I was under the impression that it is only for machine washables - and no hangers just comes folded?  We were on several years ago and everything was returned to us in a bag non folded and horribly wrinkled - I am hopeful that was just a mistake but would appreciate insight as to what you did send in (other than unmentionables) Thank you again you have truly been a help!!!

Stay well and safe and easy journey home!

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, Cruiser Nonna said:

Ken - Thanks again for all the information - in regards to the Laundry - we too are elite and are going on the 32 day next month - I was under the impression that it is only for machine washables - and no hangers just comes folded?  We were on several years ago and everything was returned to us in a bag non folded and horribly wrinkled - I am hopeful that was just a mistake but would appreciate insight as to what you did send in (other than unmentionables) Thank you again you have truly been a help!!!

Stay well and safe and easy journey home!

All of our shirts, blouses and pants always came back on hangers and were always wrinkle free. Only underwear and socks came back in a bag. BTW we only bring machine-washable clothes, so not sure about delicates.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived at San Antonia, Chile

 

 

and the weather is looking great for tour going around the Santiago area!

 

 

 

[kool kruiser]

23 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

The key port stop is Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The winds can get in the 40 mph range with the wind chill factors in the high 30F range. All of the other ports on the second itinerary were usually in the 50s with moderate winds. On the cooler stops where rain was not forecasted, such as Puerto Maydryn, Ushuaia, and Puerto Montt, we would layer up with warmer clothes. But the BA was in the high 80s, so we definitely didn’t need to layer up there! 😂

Many thanks. Take clothing for all eventualities seems to be what is needed for this itinerary.

[DLSHS_Mom]

Ken,

Many thanks for taking us along on your fantastic voyage.  Safe travels home.  We did the South Pacific cruise this past October....it was WOW!  We had 31.5 days of smooth as glass seas.  We didn't see very many birds or sea life when we in between ports. 

 

[LACruiser88]

Safe travels home!  Looking forward to meeting you on our Dec/Jan Majestic cruise!