MarkTapley

Small raptor. Depends a lot on where Jupiter was docked. From a search for its location, probably docked in Ushuaia, Argentina when this picture was taken. (We’re currently on Octantis, so we were there a couple days ago.) We’ve birded several times in Argentina, so my guess is Chimango Caracara. Pretty common in Argentina. More like a vulture than a falcon or hawk in that it feeds on road kill and other carcasses. Perched here, looking for a quick meal. Just my guess. Jerry

Sandi, Thanks for posting this. We’re on this cruise (from Vancouver) and hadn’t received the message yet from Viking. Bummer if you haven’t been to Auckland. It’s really worth spending a few days there, if possible. Jerry

@Dennis Viking Here is the link to the other thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2959779-panama-canal-water-woes/?do=getNewComment

In 2018, off Viking Orion, we did the Taj with an overnight in Agra. There are nice hotels there, so not sure why you need to be concerned about staying the night. Total time off the ship was about 36 hours. One advantage of an overnight is that you will go to the Taj before sunrise, when it is not so hot and the crowds more manageable. We arranged the excursion with cultureholidays.com They are New Delhi based and have a USA 800 number. They put together a custom trip for us.

And check out Lindblad. They’ve been going to Antarctica for 50 years. We were on National Geographic Endurance from New Zealand to Argentina for 33 days this winter. Lots of landings, wildlife, visiting explorer huts, Zodiac cruise along the Ross Ice Shelf, etc. The complete experience.

@CharTrav thanks for your wonderful work on this spreadsheet! And thanks for the explanation of the web glitch with the VE cruise “Antarctica & South Georgia Island.” We had actually received a letter and flyer from Mr. Hagen about this cruise around June 10 and I went to the website and couldn’t find it anywhere. Friends had told us they had booked this voyage around the time it “disappeared,” so I had our TA call Viking and she booked it for us. Later, I noticed it was back on the Viking site. I hadn’t panicked, but I did wonder what had happened. Thanks again, Jerry

Good advice to OP in the earlier replies. We spent 7 or 8 days driving completely around the island before the Viking Sky cruise around the island in 2021. The self-driving tour was amazing; the cruise was great as well. My advice is do both; but if you only have time (or resources) to do one or the other, then drive. On the cruise you will experience the “highlights” of Iceland; if you drive, you will experience Iceland.

We did the balloon ride last September, from Viking Osiris. Everyone from our sailing that wanted to go was able to get reservations. Then Viking was not accepting any advanced reservations, so we booked once we were on the ship. Not sure you need to try and setup an independent tour. They told us if they need additional capacity, they just launch another balloon. As far as timing, the group left the ship very early (4:30 AM?), took a smaller boat to the other side of the Nile and then got into vans for the ride to the balloon port. In our case, we had to wait a couple of hours for the winds to subside before we took off; but if the winds are calm, the balloons take off more quickly. Drifted around for an hour or so and landed on the east side of the river where we were picked up and went back to the ship. And BTW, our balloon ride was from Luxor, not Aswan. That was our experience.

Andy, Good explanation, as always. Lindblad has a current northwest passage itinerary, from Greenland to Alaska, about three weeks for the one-way passage. Link below: https://www.expeditions.com/expeditions/northwest-passage-greenland-to-alaska#dates-and-rates MT

Here is a link to the roll call for this cruise: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2903432-viking-venus-30-september-2023-trade-routes-of-the-middle-ages/?do=getNewComment

Yes, Dakar was dropped on the recent crossing and we went to Mindelo. We enjoyed the cruise very much, as did the passengers we interacted with. Weather was generally warm and sunny.

We were on the Southern Atlantic Crossing that ended one week ago. No Yellow Fever vaccine was required to go to Cape Verde. Not mentioned at all! (We travel with our yellow vaccine fever card, but not needed.)

Amazing - we stayed at the PH thru the same storm! A wild night. Nice location, and very quiet.

On Orion in 2018, we docked at Phu My Port. We had a private guide, who drove us to the port. Pretty sure Viking was running a shuttle from the central market, Ben Thanh, back to the ship. Things may be different now.

Daryl, Love the wildlife pics! Using your phone or a DSLR? The red-footed booby pic near the bottom left is particularly good. Were you shooting through the glass screen at the rec deck? (As it seemed like there are some funny artifacts in some of the pics when enlarged. But that may just be my glasses. LOL) Thanks, Jerry