crunchii

That was just the non-fiction section of the library, as that's what OP was interested in. Here's the rest:

Here is the non-fiction section of the library on Zuiderdam. This photo was taken a couple of months ago in late August.

Thank you! ☺️

On 1/22/2023 at 8:04 PM, crunchii said:

A few disappointments:

1. We did not land on the actual Antarctic continent. All of our landings were on surrounding islands.

2. We did not go as far south as I had hoped. According to the map of the itinerary, we were supposed to go all the way to just north of the Antarctic Circle. I knew expedition cruises aren't guaranteed to go exactly as the itinerary map, but I was hoping we'd cross the Antarctic Circle just so we can say we did. In actuality, we only went as far south as Petermann Island.

3. We didn't stop at Port Lockroy, so I didn't get to send postcards from Antarctica or do some souvenir shopping.

I've been following the route of the Venture's current cruise (which is the same 12-day Antarctica Exploration cruise as ours) on cruisemapper and Seabourn Voyage Tracker.

It looks like they landed on the actual continent (Brown Bluff), stopped at Port Lockroy, AND crossed the Antarctic Circle (to Detaille Island), covering all of the points I was disappointed about our cruise! 😲 They apparently saw some penguin chicks too, which we saw none! We should've taken this cruise instead of 1/4-1/16 one!! 😭

Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go on another Antarctica cruise! 🤣

I will now conclude this thread with my final review of this trip.

Ship:

We LOVED the Venture. We normally cruise on Holland America, but didn't miss any of the big ship amenities!

We spent most of our time going back and forth between the Bow Lounge and Seabourn Square on Deck 6. I knew Bow Lounge would become the favorite hangout for my husband. It has the forward view, bow access (which was open most of the time except during extreme weather), neat little displays, and most importantly, coffee machine! It made pretty good coffee and was available 24/7. They had some snacks too (mostly sweets). A lot of the expedition staff and some officers hung around there, and they were always happy to chat with us.

Food:

The Restaurant was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. We ate most of our breakfast in Colonnade and some room service. Lunch was also mostly in Colonnade, but when we couldn't find any table, we went to the Restaurant.

Food was mostly great. Very tasty and beautifully presented. A lot of the times, we got something totally different from what we imagined from the description on the menu, but it turned out good most of the times, so no complains. The servers were all friendly and efficient.

The attire in the Restaurants were all over the place. Many people dressed up in suits and evening dresses, but there were as many people casually dressed in jeans. There were even some dressed in sweats, probably just returned from the landing. I saw ZERO tuxes and evening gowns.

Room:

We were in Suite 626. It's right next to the lifeboats, and I wondered if we'd hear any noises from them, but I chose this room as I wanted to be as close to the midship as possible for this cruise.

It turned out great. There was no noise from the lifeboats (except when they were lowering one of the boats for tender service in Ushuaia.) We heard some creaking from the ceiling and walls in rough weather through the Drake Passage, but otherwise, it was very quiet.

Being the midship, we were able to see all kinds of action from our balcony. When they lower the Zodiacs, they go right past our room! LOL. And you can see the Zodiac launch area from the balcony, so we could watch the people getting on the Zodiacs.

We also watched the polar plunge from our room too! And as I mentioned, we were next to the lifeboats, so we watched them being lowered too.

Expedition:

Antarctica was AMAZING! Even when we couldn't land, the view from the ship was incredible.

We did 5 landings total. To be honest, the middle 3 were all very similar (snowy area with old huts and penguins) and wished they varied a little more, but maybe all Antarctica landing spots are similar?

We also did a few Zodiac tours. Zodiac tour through thin ice in Börgen Bay was spectacular!

A few disappointments:

1. We did not land on the actual Antarctic continent. All of our landings were on surrounding islands.

2. We did not go as far south as I had hoped. According to the map of the itinerary, we were supposed to go all the way to just north of the Antarctic Circle. I knew expedition cruises aren't guaranteed to go exactly as the itinerary map, but I was hoping we'd cross the Antarctic Circle just so we can say we did. In actuality, we only went as far south as Petermann Island.

3. We didn't stop at Port Lockroy, so I didn't get to send postcards from Antarctica or do some souvenir shopping.

I hope I can convince my husband to do another Antarctic cruise some day for another try at those... (and will include South Georgia next time!)

Entertainment:

They had a singer/guitarist, a pair of singers, and a pianist. We're not into lounge music, so we didn't attend any of those. Lupi, the CD, was an opera singer. Being a classical music fan, I watched his recorded performance on the in-suite TV.

They also had many lectures. I probably attended one or two and watched a few more on the in-suite TV. All of the lectures were recorded and available to watch on TV, which was great.

They also had a nice selection of movies on demand. My husband watched a lot of them.

A few negatives:

The cruise was pretty great and there aren't too many negatives, but I guess I'll list a few minor things.

1. Pastries were always available in Bow Lounge and Seabourn Square, but there were no salty snacks available there. Seabourn Square had some sandwiches and Bow Lounge some soup and salad in the afternoon, but I wanted something quick and easy like potato chips or crackers, but there were only sweet snacks.

2. The shop only had things like clothing, jewelry, and watches. I wanted more touristy things like penguin plush and mug cup with Seabourn logo. Since there are no souvenir shops in Antarctica, I couldn't buy any knick-knacks to take home as keepsake.

3. And the biggest negative, of course, is the charter flights to/from Ushuaia. I never imagined Seabourn would put us in such old, dirty, economy-basic class airplanes...

That's all I can think of for now. I'll add more if I think of something.

And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

There were two flights. Ours was the later one, and we arrived in Buenos Aires at 4 pm. Our flight was 9 pm, so we were able to leave BA on the same day.

I am home now. The flight home was brutal, so I pretty much slept the whole afternoon.

The Jet Smart flight to Buenos Aires was on another old Airbus A320 (this time I checked), but at least we had a window this time. I didn't see any broken seats, but the seats were filthy (crumbs all over.) Thank goodness I had some disinfecting wipes! I'll definitely give them a big thumbs down in the post-cruise survey.

Seabourn offered to take us out to dinner upon arrival in Buenos Aires, but American Airline check-in counter didn't open till 5 pm, so by the time we checked in our luggage, it was too late, so we didn't go.

I'll write a more detailed review at a later date (probably this weekend), but it was a FANTASTIC cruise, and the Venture was a great ship!

While sailing through Beagle Channel this morning, they offered the tour of the engine control room.

We arrived at Ushuaia around noon today. They said they'd have the tenders out to take us ashore, but that didn't happen until around 5 pm. There was an event going on at 6:30 pm, so we didn't bother with the tenders.

While eating our dinner, the ship actually docked, so after dinner, we went out for a stroll. Not much to see here, and most shops were closed since it's Sunday, so no souvenir shopping. Just snapped a few pictures and went back to the ship.

We're disembarking tomorrow morning, so we had to pack and put our luggage out on the hallway by 11 pm tonight…

1 hour ago, toseaornottosea said:

Are the divers inspecting the stabilizers?

I believe so. At least that's what my husband heard from someone.

20 minutes ago, neophyte said:

Hi Crunchii, THANK YOU for these wonderful and informative updates as we are on the January 26 cruise.  I am wondering:  what are the temperatures there?

It wasn't that cold. Probably around 32F, though the wind chill can make it feel colder. The provided parka kept me warm.

Yeah, one of the expedition staff mentioned that too. Thanks for the warning!

We're anchored off Ushuaia now. We have to wait for the divers to finish the inspection before the tenders can be launched, so not sure when/if we can go ashore.

Sorry, I got a bit seasick last night and went to bed early, so I couldn't post.

Yesterday, we made our last stop in Antarctica at Elephant Island. Due to the weather, the planned Zodiac tour was canceled, but we saw Cape Valentine and Point Wild from the ship.

After that, we left Antarctica and started our way back to Ushuaia.

Today was the Drake Passage crossing. It was pretty rough, but it was mostly pitching, so I don't think the stabilizers would've made much difference.

This afternoon, they opened the bridge for tour.

It's now the evening of Jan. 14. We are out of the Drake Passage now and expected to arrive Ushuaia tomorrow. They said they'd have tenders out to take us to Ushuaia to look around.

Today's landing site was Telefon Bay in Deception Island. It was a very geologically interesting place.

Abandoned whaling station:

Massive chinstrap penguin colony:

1 minute ago, toseaornottosea said:

Thanks. Is the dark inner layer like a “puffy” jacket?

Yes, it is. It's pretty warm too. It comes in handy when I go out on deck/balcony to take quick photos.

Zodiac ride through snow and thin ice this morning in Börgen Bay. It was fascinating.

After that we watched some crazy people do the polar plunge. 😱

Then we had another landing in the late afternoon to Damoy Point. It was another little island with old huts and penguins, except that we could actually go inside one of the huts this time.

Earlier this afternoon, they said we'd have to leave Antarctica one day early to avoid the bad weather. Then later in the evening, they said the weather report had changed and we'd stay two more days here as scheduled. Whew! (Of course, the weather can change again.)

Here you go! Sorry, the hood is cut off. My husband takes lousy pictures 😝

In the morning, we were supposed to do a Zodiac tour in Hidden Bay, but it got canceled due to high wind. We were able to do a landing at Petermann Island in the afternoon. It was similar to D'Hainaut Island. Some old huts and more penguins.

Then there was a surprise Zodiac tour through icebergs in Pleneau Bay in the evening.

We had our second landing this afternoon on D'Hainaut Island in Mikkelsen Harbor. Lots of penguins! Submarines and kayaks were also out today. I think this is the first day the sub/kayak tours didn't get canceled and actually went out.

Not that I know of. I haven't seen any sign of it.

The airline was Jet Smart. I don't know the aircraft type. My husband thinks it was Airbus A320, but not sure. Whatever it was, it was old, and some of the seats were broken...

The seats were pre-assigned and we didn't get to choose. Economy class only. The plane had two rows of three seats. I don't know if anyone got stuck in the middle seats, but I think most rows had only two people.

And here are our "window" seats. LOL

We went as far south as Lockyer Island, then got blocked by ice bergs. We have now turned around and are going back the way we came instead of going around James Ross Island.

This morning's landing was canceled, due to high wind.

Disappointing, but we're enjoying the scenery from the ship. We're cruising along the west side of James Ross Island, where not too many cruise ships visit. According to the expedition staff, this area was completely blocked off by the ice until 1990's.

Looks like they're a little behind on their posts, but you can see their blog in Seabourn Voyage Tracker.

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/experience/voyagetracker/index.html

Select "Seabourn Venture" > 2023 > 12-day Antarctica Exploration (4 - 16 January)

You can see the posts from the previous cruises there as well.

Current CD on Venture is Luperci de Souza.

We did our first landing today. In the morning we took the Zodiac to The Naze on James Ross Island. We saw some penguins and seals there.

In the afternoon, we were supposed to do another landing at False Island Point on Vega Island, but the condition wasn't right, so we just did a Zodiac tour through icebergs.

Then in the evening, we saw a couple pods of orcas. They swam along with us for a while.

Tonight, the ship will go east, then south along James Ross Island to Rum Cove, where we'll have another landing tomorrow morning, weather permitting.