rich48100

Safe travels back to Tulsa town.

Glad you are making it through the weather and on the backside, if you will, of Fiona.  Don’t know if you have seen the news about all the damage in Canada along Fiona’s pathway, but lots of homes damaged and washed out to sea.   Big trees down and power out.  Good luck the rest of your trip, and hope you will be able to see as much as you had hoped.  Sounds like you are having a good time, and being stellar at Trivia as usual.

safe travels back to Tulsa town.

Rachel:  I haven’t been on this board in awhile.  Glad that you are still cruising.  We just signed up for a Grand Voyage with Regent in Jan of 24 that starts in Sydney and goes to Tokyo.  Know you may not be interested in such a long cruise, but if your 23 voyage doesn’t work out, they probably have a segment that does only the Japan portion.  We have been itching to get back to cruising, and the Grand Voyage takes us to a number of places we hadn’t been.

We think you will love this cruise.  Did similar itinerary in 2017, our first cruise on Regent .since others have talked about the cities, let me just mention that Angkor Wat was on our to do list, and they had a pre-cruise trip to it. Spectacular.  They also had an overland trip to the Taj Mahal, another bucket list item.  A little pricey, but glad we did it.  In Dubai, there was an excursion, high tea in the building that is shaped like a sail.  Wonderful experience.  Enjoy that part of the world on your cruise.

We were fortunate enough to do Antarctica in 2008 on the La Boreal, now a Ponant Line ship, but wasn’t back then.  I would highly recommend trip with landings.  More than just penguins.  Much more in the way of wildlife, both on land and sea.  Zodiacs and the drivers of them were amazing.  Trekking on land to see ice and geologic features was very special.  Had several landings per day.  About 100 passengers onboard.  Food and expedition team were awesome.  After Antarctica, Iguasu falls was also included as a 4 day post trip.  Awesome!!!  So we had Antarctica and the tropics in one trip.

My personal opinion, but if you have The bucks and can handle the landings and trekking, by all means do Antarctica on land and sea.

Steve:

I recently put a deposit down for the 2022 World cruise on Oceania, LA to NYC.  Any recommendations for insurance.  We are from Oklahoma, in our early 70s, and fortunately no preexisting conditions or medical issues.  Any insights would be appreciated.  
 

Thanks

Rachel and George and Jp and Chris and all aboard the Cloud:

Thanks for taking us along on your fantastic adventure.  Lots of beautiful sites and wildlife to behold.  Pretty much a once in a lifetime experience, unless you do it again and again.  Wonderful pictures.  Hope the cruise back through the Drake passage isn’t too bad, and safe travels to your final destination.

Rich and Barbara

Rachel and George, JP and Chris, and all onboard, enjoy your time on South Georgia even with all the restrictions.  great to have relatively calm seas so far!!! Going in the footsteps of Shackleton is a good thing.  Looking forward to pictures.  Congrats to JP and Chris for their upgrade.  Sometimes it is just good to get lucky.  
 

By the way, any familiar faces from the waitstaff or housekeeping or crew from our trip to Iceland?
 

We board the Shadow later today.
 

Rachel, JP, and all onboard, we wish you continued good sailing and good food.  When you get to land, oking forward to seeing all the scenery and wildlife pics.  Enjoy the upcoming adventures.

Glad you all made it to your first destination safely.  Enjoy you cruise and all the animals and sites. Looking forward to more info and pictures going forward.

Rachel and George:  Happy New Year.  Safe travels, and hope your trip is all you are hoping for.  Looking forward to reading your blog while in Antarctica.

Rachel and George, JP and Chris, and others on this Antarctic adventure, we wish you safe travels, good weather, fantastic scenery, and wonderful animal sightings. We were fortunate to be in Antarctica in 2011 and it was fabulous.  We look forward to following along with all your adventures both ashore and onboard.  I am sure there will be some good hikes to be found, and good libation onboard.  
 

We will be in a different part of the world, warm Caribbean waters for us, on both Silversea and Regent.  We will be swimming with the fishes.

Well, we made it back last night.  Not to worse for wear, but flights delayed some because of storms.  No big deal really.  Fortunately we did not get caught by the dreaded SSSS, for check in.

when we were leaving Greenland, storms in Reykjavik and Radar problems in Greenland delayed our departure by 3 hours.  Instead of getting to the hotel in Reykjavik at about 8pm, we got there about 11.  Then quick turnaround for our flight out of Reykjavik.  Hectic repacking, but relatively easy compared to what it could have been.

overall, Greenland was better than expected.  The excursions were well done, and a couple of extra stops not listed.  Weather really cooperated.  Lots of nice, well travelled people, and everyone wanted to have a good time.

i still think service on the ship this time around was a little lacking.  Just didn’t seem to be enough folks around or poorly distributed.  

Anyway, glad we did it, but good to be back home and in our own bed.

glad to contribute to this blog to let folks know about our trip.  Hope it was well worth it.  I enjoyed sharing our adventure.

Another spectacular day in Ilulissat.  Large icebergs all around, and saw some whales.  Probably Fin? Whales according to expedition team.  Playing our last game of trivia in the morning when someone spotted whales off the back.  Trivia temporarily suspended until we could get our fill of photos and videos.  Moss said it may be the first time the game was suspended because of whale sightings.  We went out for an iceberg and whale cruise on a fishing trawler.  Not that comfortable, but it allowed us to see what was advertised.  Wish I could upload videos, but it would take forever, and probably fail.

anyway, trivia team was good, but not as good as our Iceland group.  Still Moss was kind enough to let me use my points, not enough, to get the t-shirt.

Sodashire, the zodiacs are easy to get in and out of.  As far as your other questions, you should have a chronicle waiting for you in the room and all is explained.  Dinner menus vary all over the place as well as things, like filets, one can get every day.

have to start our packing today for our trip home.  Should be easier than packing to get to Iceland.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Ok, so I had to update the previous post with one showing the POLAR PLUNGE.  No, I didn’t do it.  I had mine in Antarctica at Deception Island.  Doctors did not have to use the paddles on Me, and all were successful on this ship. 

here are a few pics.

This morning we had an extra stop at Evighedsfjord and glacier to do a hike up the side of the glacier to get up close and personal with Ice and walking along a lateral morain as the glacier is retreating.  Opened deck 5 for early morning photos as we approached the glacier.  

Some rough ground and slippery rock.  Rocks are generally friendly for this geologist, but after mud on the shoes it made it a little more treacherous going down hill.  Tried to take a close up of the right side of the glacier to show where we climbed.  Relatively steep, rocky and slippery.  George, Rachel,Bob, maybe Victoria, JP and Chris would have loved it.

Really interesting rock formations, polished by the glaciers.  A great extra stop for,the morning.  Going for our scheduled stop of Kangaamiut this afternoon for a town walk.

here are some pictures of this morning.

Today we are in Nuuk, Capital of Greenland.  Walked around the town with a guide and saw city hall with interesting knitted murals, colorful buildings, and museum with mummies from long ago preserved in the ice.

weather was a bit cool and drizzly, but not bad.

went for dinner at La Terrazza with another couple that are gluten free and lactose free.  They ordered ahead of time to make sure everything was right.  Basically everything was wrong.  So terrible when you are expecting a nice meal and things go haywire.  Server was difficult to communicate with, but managers rushed around to get the couple something to eat.  Fortunately Barbara’s gluten free meal was fine.  Reserved hers ahead of time as well.

we got a new room attendant for this trip, not as good or attentive as the one for Iceland.  Hate to say negative things, but that is the way it is.

here are some pics from Nuuk.

We are currently having a sea day, cruising toward Nuuk, Greenland.  Largest city on the island.  A little bleak and cool out, so good there are no zodiac landings.

yesterday we went to Qassiarsuk, where Eric the Red established a community in 982.  His son, Leif Ericsson sailed from this area to North America. We had our picture taken by his statue on a hill overlooking the village.  Weather is gorgeous again, and waters so still that one can see reflections of mountains and buildings on the water.  Some interesting buildings and museums.

see the pictures

 Victoria, I have not seen any additional staff added.  Service in my mind is still slower than what we experienced on our Africa trip.

now for Greenland. After a day of mist and miserable we woke up to sunny and warm.  Glorious day today for two stops.  One scheduled at Qaqortoq, largest town in southern Greenland.  Interesting churches and carvings on rocks.  Then on to Hvalsey.  Not originally scheduled, but interesting Norse ruins of a church from the early 1400s.  Just a nice day to be out and about.

here are some pics

OK, so we are sorry that we did not go to nanortoliq, but after hearing from someone, glad we didn’t do it.  It was on a Sunday and things that were scheduled just didn’t work out.

we are going to Qaqortoq and Hvalsey tomorrow.   More Viking history, and the weather looks like it will be cooperating.

now I need to tell you about a good,thing for our meal at the restaurant.  At lunch we asked if Barbara could have a gluten free pizza for dinner.  No problem.  Told them what we wanted.  Actually saw the restaurant manager bring the pizza to the server.  Hot and the way she wanted.

we sat in the back of the restaurant to see how things were being handled. Fascinating to see the choreography of the servers, wait staff and managers.  Similar thing happened the other day when people were getting ready to go to an excursion. We sat near the manager at la terrazzo, and it seeemed like a conductor trying to get all the folks in the instrument section to perform on que and on-key.

sometimes it is good just to sit back and watch the action.

until tomorrow to tell you about our excursions.

We made it to Nanortaliq, and our string of good weather in Greenland ended.  Cold, rainy and foggy.  Our zodiac time was at 7 am and when our number was called we just kind of rolled over in bed and felt very comfortable.  This was our rest day.  I think we were not the only ones that stayed on the ship today

tomorrow is supposed to be much nicer with more Viking history and similar sites as what was available today in the rain and cold.

here are just a few pics from today

We are still on the Cloud cruising Greenland.  Fortunately good weather and no missed ports.  Talking with a number of expedition staff, and going out on zodiacs, the determination of going out is based on the least common denominator.  In other words if George and Rachel and Rich and Barbara can make it out but not someone who is less capable physically then we won’t go.  Unfortunately, people will sue at the drop of a hat if something goes wrong.  Like it or not that is what will happen.  Hopefully Antarctica will be good and no iffy weather to stymie your zodiac departures.

agree if there is a forecast for inclement weather that is known in there should be more flexibility.

now for the service.  We were on the Cloud from South Africa to Lisbon and service and food were great.  Handled Barbara’s gluten free issue fantastically and very attentive.  Unfortunately on our two segments so far there has been a drop off in service.  Takes a long time to be served, Barbara given wrong menus, just not the same service.  This is mainly in the restaurant.  Room service is generally on time, but the food is generally not as hot as we experienced on our Africa trip in April.

we were seated in La Terraza for breakfast one day and no one came to the table for coffee or water after we were seated.  It seemed like ten minutes,probably shorter, and I went up to the restaurant manager and told him.  Finally more people came over and we were served.  Shouldn’t have to resort to complaining to get served.

i will stop my rant and carry on with,my blog for our Greenland trip.

Emtbsam, Victoria, very nice pictures from the air.  That is near the locations we are in the fjords.  Nice to see it from the air.  

We we have had another glorious day cruising in Prince Christian Sound, a long fjord that cuts across the southern tip of Greenland.  On our way to our first zodiac landing at a small village, Aappolittoq.  Tongue twisters these Greenlandic names.  Once there, some residents performed for us at a local church.  Colorful, but dilapidated buildings.  About 130 residents.  My first “Polar Bear”.

The cruise getting there was fabulous with more eye candy for this geologist.  Glaciers, Icebergs, thin but beautiful streams of water and waterfalls, mountains, interesting rock formations, OH MY!!!!  I could go on and on, but I will let the pictures do the talking.  They will replace thousands of words.

Donaldsc, haven’t met you brother, but with a full ship of about 220, I may run into him.  On our way to another small village, Nanortalik for tomorrow. As well as Uunartoq Island.

here are some pictures

Well, we entered skjoldungen fjord,east side of Greenland, at 5 am and all I can say is spectacular.  Weather cooperating, and took a multitude of pictures.  Really they can’t do the views and scenery justice.  Sunrise was great as well as the cruise up the fjord.

we were the first off the ship in the zodiacs, and words can’t describe what an awesome site.  Can you tell I liked what I saw!!!!!!  Spent 1.5 hours on the water in the zodiac and cruised through icebergs and saw the main glacier calving.  Temps were in the low 50s, sunny and not much wind.

i could go on and on, but you get the picture.  If you can’t I am going to include some.  Captains welcome dinner tonight followed by Venetian Society dinner invite.

by the way, we were let out on deck 5 at the bow of the ship in the morning to get wonderful pictures up close and personal.  Good move!!!

ok here are the pics.

As we approach Skjoldungen the seas are getting calmer and good reports for tomorrow. Googled the fjord, and photos look spectacular.  I can only hope we have similar weather.  Our zodiac group are the first off the ship, so hopefully will be clear and bright.

Captains welcome party postponed till tomorrow for calmer weather, and folks getting over the seasickness blues.

by the way, teamed up with a couple of people from another trivia team that were on our last voyage.  They are very good.  23 out of 25.  First place.  A great start.  Time will tell if we will continue to gel.

hopefully will have good things to report tomorrow after our fjord zodiac cruise.

till then!!!!