donaldsc

I would guess although I do not know that the people who have done their landing time would be offered the opportunity of doing zodiac cruising when they are not on land. Zodiac cruising can be as much fun and as interesting as the actual landings. DON

"The size of the ship has very little to do with potential comfort in a seaway. The seakeeping ability of a ship is determined by the design and scantlings. Many of the liners I worked aboard in the 70's & 80's are tiny in comparison to some of the modern ships afloat today. They were comparable in size to the current Viking ocean ships and were way more comfortable in a seaway than any current ship, with the exception of QM2. The old liners could also maintain a much higher speed through heavy seas. Those liners handled the seas way better than any of today large ships and were also better than the current Viking ocean ships. I haven't yet sailed on the Expedition ships, nor have I seen the ship out of the water, or the plans, so can't comment on their sea-keeping ability. However, since they were designed for these waters, I expect they have superior scantlings than the ocean ships, especially since they are ice strengthened." --------------------- Sorry, I think you lost my context, which was to comment about the comfort issue brought up on on posts #5 and #6. 1. *Of the ships that cruise Antarctica and offer landings*, (i.e., this context of discussing "comfort" getting to and cruising that continent) I think of the Octantis as a *big* ship, not a small ship! I think of the "adventurer" ships that go to Antarctica, e.g., along the lines of what donaldsc described (and indirectly recommended), as the *small* ships. I'm not discussing ships the size of the old liners, or the giant Norwegian Epic, or even Viking Ocean. 2. I also said, "all else being equal", and "may" (at least as one factor in determining , e.g., longitudinal stability) What is relevant in the "comfort" context is if the little and cheaper adventurer ships donaldsc was on are less stable (and cause more motion sickness) than the Octantis, or the same. Both were designed for polar waters. Is it possible for those tiny ships to be just as stable as the larger new Octantis? If so, many of us would be happy to save a lot of money and consider the cheap lines instead! 3. BTW (more context) I was very young, due to our need to repeatedly cross the Atlantic from Europe and my mother's flying phobia after a traumatic experience, I experienced the 'joy' of multiple transatlantic crossings on old fast passenger transport ships, i.e., old ocean liners. Some of these crossings were in winter, and the amount of ship rocking and rolling was quite frightening (my mother was in a low middle cabin most of the time with severe sea sickness and I was close to sick but instead preferred running around the ship -- including places where I could easily have been washed overboard). I felt almost equally concerned and quite sick when on the Silver Cloud off southern South America as few years ago, (pre-modification) but not on the Seabourn Quest (which used to go to Antarctica, pre-Venture), though those two are comparable in size, but smaller than the old liners I sailed on (like the Bremen). The modern stabilizers and construction style have definitely helped make being on a ship in stormy weather in the 21st century more comfortable for me, I just don't yet know how small (and how cheap) I could go without compromising safety and enjoyment (i.e., avoiding sea sickness). Since my post has been referenced several times in this reply I feel that a response is in order. The ships I went on were not the Russian icebreaker types. I don't even know if any of them are still in use. The ships I was on could carry 120 - 180 passengers max. My most recent ship had a maximum capacity of 120 but we had less than 100 people on board so we were not impacted by the 100 passenger landing limit. This 100 passenger limit is important because if you have more than that all off the passengers on land at the same time so people have to come back before the rest of the passengers can come off. I do not know how the larger luxury Antarctica ships handle this problem or maybe they just ignore it because they are luxury ships so the rules don't apply to them. With regard to sea keeping ability - we encountered 75 mph winds on my most recent trip. We also encountered force 10 or 11 (55 - 63 mph) gales on my other trip. In both cases the ships handled those high winds w/o any problems although my wife chose not to have dinner on the windy days. Also I did not feel that I had to hide out in my smallish cabin when it was windy. In fact on my most recent trip where we could spend as much time as we wanted on the bridge (do the luxury ships even allow you to spend time on the bridge) the bridge always had a lot of guests on it and even during the periods of high winds and heavy seas we were allowed there so we could see the same instrumentation that the crew saw. We were up on the bridge when the winds hit 75 mph and I even have a picture of the wind speed meter to prove it. Our most recent ship was the Quark Ocean Adventurer. This is a link to the description of the ship - https://www.quarkexpeditions.com/expedition-ships/ocean-adventurer?creative=&keyword=&matchtype=&network=x&device=c&infinity=ict2~net~gaw~cmp~18605727346~ag~~ar~~kw~~mt~~acr~2450480439&&&campaignid=18605727346&adgroupid=&adid=&gclid=Cj0KCQiAveebBhD_ARIsAFaAvrGIL91C2iRWOE2nYxjvCWxBAetA4h4-FX4Hve-JYmFnDnMJtHwuL1IaAroPEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds. A perfectly acceptable ship to me. Our other trip was on the Hurtigrutin Nordkapp which was a bit more upscale than the Adventurer but certainly not luxury. We did that trip maybe 10 or 12 years ago when nobody would have ever imagined a luxury Antarctica cruise and the Nordkapp was luxury compared to the Russion icebreakers that people were doing Antarctica on. The Nordkapp can hold almost 600 passengers when she does her Norwegian coast runs but they kept it to about 250 for her Antarctica trips. Also someone on another post suggested that they would not want to have the cruise line pick their cabin or make their airplane reservations for them. That suggestion was absurd. I can assure you that I picked the cabin I wanted and made my own reservations. I come back to my original statement. I go on adventure type cruise for what is outside of the ship, for the quality of the expedition staff and of course to be on a safe ship. I don't much care about what is inside of the ship as long as it is comfortable. I feel that I am better off doing two $7000 cruises on my type of ship instead of spending $14,000 on a single luxury cruise. As I said in my 1st post - "different strokes" etc. DON

We always buy an annual policy from Allianz. When I had to cancel a trip because of a medical issue they handled my claim very will and w/o problems. DON

I have not seen this elsewhere on CC - https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/expedition-cruising/two-die-quark-expeditions-zodiac-incident-antarctica?fbclid=IwAR2ISymuxWfbHFwc8XgcuYCmmZj7DJ2_RY1Fj9YaBbpar65FLzDelosBfuI. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on St. Thomas - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in St. Thomas lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on St. Martin - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in St. Martin lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on Antigua - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in Antigua lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on Barbados - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in Barbados lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on St. Lucia - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in St. Kucia lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on St. Kitts - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in St. Kitts lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on Tortola - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in Tortola lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

This is going to sound like a dumb question but here goes. We are taking a 10 day Viking Ocean Caribbean cruise in February. We are doing it not because we really want to do a Caribbean cruise but we want to check out Viking Ocean cruises so we can decide if we want to make Viking Ocean our future go to cruise line and this was a conveniently located cruise. It isn't that we don't want to go to the Caribbean but it is just that we really aren't interested in beaches and snorkeling. With that opening, does anyone have any suggestion for interesting tours on Dominica - cultural, historical, nature related, arty and maybe even food tours. I wouldn't want to rule out tours on boats but we don't want to spend our day in Dominica lying on the beach or in the water. Thanks. DON

Anyone out there?? DON

I will give you the same reply about Antarctica that I give to people who are stressing out about which ship to go to Alaska on. In Antarctica it doesn't matter what is on the ship as long as the ship and your cabin are comfortable. What matters is what is outside of the ship - scenery, excursions etc. Just my opinion but I feel that spending the large sums of money to do a luxury cruise to Antarctica is a total waste of money. A few years ago I did an adventure cruise to South Georgia Island - look it up on a map. My cabin was not large and not fancy but how much time do you spend in the cabin. There was no balcony but there was lots of outside deck space to see stuff. Just one dining room without an overwhelming number of menu choices but there was always something that I liked including a meat, fish, pasta and vegetarian option. The public spaces were not fancy but they sufficed. The good part was that the trip organization and the adventure staff were wonderful and I was there. I also got to spend as much time on the bridge as I wanted which I doubt that you would have on Viking. You have to decide what is important to you - a great cruise that might be longer because it is affordable at a fair price or an overpriced fancy cruise that doesn't give you anything more than what you came there for - Antarctica. DON

It wasn't the fault of your TA that this problem is happening and it also seems that she is trying to fix it. Why are you going to punish her on the rebooking. Do you really think that you would be better off it you had booked directly on the Princess site? DON

But I bet it does fool lots of geographically challenged cruisers who think that London, Rome, Florence and Berlin are directly on the ocean. Just walk out of the Vatican and you are on a beach. DON

I have never been able to figure out what the difference between north bound and south bound is in terms of the quality of the cruise. There is not a lot of difference between either of your cruises. Your port time on the south bound is marginally better. However the north bound gets Sitka instead of Skagway and in my opinion Sitka is a much better stop than Skagway. When 3 or 4 Genormous of the Seas ships are in Skagway at the same time it becomes a zoo. Sitka is a much better stop. One problem w both of the cruises is that your only visit to a glacier is to Hubbard Glacier. Hubbard is great IF you get into it but many times the ships can not get into Hubbard because of ice this means that you don't get to see any glaciers. Try to find a cruise that includes Glacier Bay. That is a great visit and the odds of getting into Glacier Bay are almost 100%. DON

Sitka is one of the better ports in AK because it does not get inundated with people in the same way that most of the other ports are. Juneau, Ketchikan, and especially Skagway become a real zoo when 4 or 5 Genormous of the Sea ships hit town at the same time. Skagway is also a town that would dry up and blow away if the cruise ships stopped coming. Sitka has great scenery, interesting places to visit and existed before the cruise ships started coming and would continue to exist if the stopped. We spent 2 or 3 days there on our last visit and would love to go back. DON

Somebody has to be making a profit or the company would go out of business. Some information is missing here. DON

The difference is that cruise visitors spend almost no money in town. They just crowd the streets, buy a few souvenirs and maybe buy an ice cream cone. Land visitors spend time in town. They may even spend several days in or near town. They leave money behind. DON

What public spaces which should be available to all the passengers will be reserved for just the group of 700. If I pay for a cruise I don't want to be denied usage of any area of the ship. Perhaps people who have booked on a ship where a large group of passengers also booked can respond. Would the people who have been subjected to large group booked cruises like to respond? DON

That group will take over the ship and make the cruise miserable for everyone else on board. Everyone else on that cruise who is not on the group should cancel if at all possible. DON

Just so you know - sunset in Juneau on 15 October is 5:52 and sunset in Skagway is 5:53. DON

Great idea except that there are rules on cruise ships about dropping useless garbage into the ocean. LOL!! DON

How old is your son? I don't know what the rules are for the ship you are looking at or the cabin(s) you are looking at but if he is below a certain age you may not be allowed to book in as a solo in any cabin. You need to check. You may need to book one of the older folk into a cabin as a single and then switch cabins once you board. DON