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Everything posted by jpalbny
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Yes, completely standard and matches up with every sailing we've ever done on them. Same back in the day when we sailed Oceania. Same on Ponant last year, and that cruise was entirely within France. On both SS and Ponant, we have requested our passports numerous times when we needed them on shore for a car rental, or a COVID antigen test (last year when France was still enforcing the passe sanitaire). In every case it's been a complete non-issue and we were able to get the passports without any problem. Just go to the desk that morning once the ship has been cleared, tell them you need your passport, and it will be provided. They do ask that you sign it out so that they can keep track of whose is out. I can't remember which port, but once on SS when there was a local law that you had to carry a photocopy of your passport, they put a copy in our room the night before.
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Well, we've done it! Christmas is a Sunday this year so Monday 12/26 is a holiday. That gives us a 3-day weekend. So for the last few weeks, I've been looking for places to go. So far I'd only found an itinerary to Paris which would be challenging, so over the past few days I've been spending lots of time searching for something else that would work. Tonight I found a nice itinerary from Boston to London leaving Friday night and returning Monday afternoon. It's booked. Now to find a hotel and plan what to do for a few days there! Looking forward to it - we have not been to London in 4 years. Christmas there should be fun!
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He did. It's called the Cooler!
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Yes. The Magi went to Jerusalem first, looking for Jesus ("asking for directions"); thus alerting Herod to the birth of a potential rival. This led to the slaughter of the innocents. Obviously asking for directions is a big mistake.
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Is this a new twist on General Relativity? Eat chocolate faster, gain mass, speed up time? I didn't learn it that way... As you move faster, mass increases, but time slows down. Stands to reason that you should eat the chocolate slowly!
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On Board Le Lyrial — The Great Austral Loop — November 16-December 1, 2022
jpalbny replied to AussieBoyTX's topic in Ponant
Deception Island is a really neat place; thanks for your pictures! And yes, the still-active volcano keeps the sand on the beach quite warm. It also causes warm water to run off into the caldera so if you step into the water, the first foot or two from shore, where it's very shallow, is actually warm. Back in the "old days" (2009) we went here with Silverseas' Prince Albert II(now known as Silver Explorer) and we did our Polar Plunge inside the caldera. We wore our suits under our winter gear, stripped down on the beach, ran into the water, and dove under before we lost our nerve. Then we promptly ran out as fast as we could. The best part of it was the "hot tub" afterwards. The crew dug a shallow hole in the beach which filled up with the volcanically-heated runoff. The water was actually so hot that they had to pour in cold water from the caldera every once in a while, to keep us from boiling alive! But it felt great after the Polar Plunge. Apparently now you can't dig holes in the beach - but what fun that was! I have pictures of that but I don't want to hijack your thread. Good luck on your Drake crossing! Hope that you make good speed and avoid the worst of the weather. Have enjoyed following along with you. -
Smartphone cameras are amazing. We got our best Northern Lights pictures last week with our phones, and not with my DLSR.
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We were just in Helsinki for a few days. It was in the low 30s with occasional snow. Chris brought a pair of waterproof Merrel hikers for daytime and a pair of ankle boots for dressing up at dinner. They both worked well for her.
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Happy Monday... back at it. Here's the kitty, out of bed and eating yesterday. The other side isn't so pretty. That's a huge incision! At least half of her body length, but it seems to be healing well. Once her fur grows back it will look nicer. She clomped all the way upstairs last night to sleep under our bed for a few hours. Then she wasn't able to get back down so she yowled and woke us up. Chris carried her down and fed her. I should try that some time. A nicer picture of the completed tree, from yesterday evening. Hope everyone's holiday preparations are going well.
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Trip Report of Cruise on English Canals and Rivers - Oct 2022
jpalbny replied to pontac's topic in River Cruising
That sounds like a great holiday! So unique compared to the other cruises we hear about on these boards. Thanks for sharing, and for all the pictures. -
On Board Le Lyrial — The Great Austral Loop — November 16-December 1, 2022
jpalbny replied to AussieBoyTX's topic in Ponant
Jazz, my perspective (having done Antarctica twice, once with S. Georgia, once without): There's nothing to compare with Antarctica. Even Alaska can't compare. Massive amounts of icebergs and glaciers. Many different types of wildlife. The scenery is spectacular, especially on a good weather day. Plus the cool factor of making it to the seventh continent. South Georgia has less snow and much more green. The wildlife is incredibly dense (more so than on the Peninsula) but the species that you see are different. You wont' find Adelies there. The density of the King Penguin rookeries is like nothing else. And the fur seal pups are so cute. IMO S. Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula are very different. Very little redundancy other than the fact that some of the same explorers were at both locations, and you can see Gentoo penguins in both places. We are already looking to go back again in a few years. -
On Board Le Lyrial — The Great Austral Loop — November 16-December 1, 2022
jpalbny replied to AussieBoyTX's topic in Ponant
Nice penguin shots! Love watching them run around with pebbles for their nests. Did the trekking pole keep that gentoo from getting too close? Reminds me of the dividers at the grocery store checkout line. Smooth travels in the Drake. -
Thanks DW, she's looking stronger this morning, and leaving her heated bed frequently to search for food. All encouraging signs! 🤞 I don't want her to get used to breakfast in bed.
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I would have killed to have the luxury of either of these hay bales. On the farm where I grew up, we eschewed such conveniences and did it the old-fashioned way, with regular hay bales. About 12-14,000 per year, 50-60# each. Every freakin' year! And I had to handle each one at least twice. At least once while going into the haymow. And once more, taking it out to feed it to the cows. I guess it was a good core workout, before that kind of thing got popular? *** Well we got home from Finland Thursday night after a really great trip. Flights worked well and no major delays. Schipol was a cakewalk; we went from gate to gate in 20 minutes, even though we had to go through passport control in between. Very smooth. Unfortunately there were some "cat"astrophes awaiting us at home. One of the fish bit it and that made a bit of a mess in the aquarium. Nothing more fun than digging a rotten dead fish carcass out of the aquarium after a few days' worth of decomposition... While being utterly exhausted after traveling for 18+ hours! But the worst part is that the cat almost didn't survive our absence. She had a surgical procedure while we were away and that had gone well, and she came back home seemingly doing very well. But inexplicably, she stopped eating a few days before we got home and the pet sitter didn't find her until Wednesday, after probably 3 days with no intake at all. Sounded like she was on her last legs at that point and we are very lucky that our emergency contact is a vet tech. So she pulled out all the stops, on Thanksgiving Eve no less, and nursed the ill kitty back to health over the next 36 hours. Miraculous that this 21-year-old cat seems to be out of the woods now but I don't think she would have made it without our friend's help. We owe her big time. *** Today we put up a few Christmas lights outside, and bought a really nice tree to decorate tomorrow! Funny, after being up in the far north of Finland, it seems really light here! Sunset at 4:30? Wow - that's a lot of daylight! 😄
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In Antarctica? No. You simply don't walk far enough to need them. And you don't want to get your nice hiking boots mucked up with penguin poop.
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Leftover pizza for breakfast. That's a blast from the past! I have some vague "memories" of such a thing from my college days...
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On Board Le Lyrial — The Great Austral Loop — November 16-December 1, 2022
jpalbny replied to AussieBoyTX's topic in Ponant
Sounds like a great trip! Looking forward to seeing where you go and what you do around the peninsula. We are starting to think about our next Antarctica trip and Le Commandant Charcot looks amazing, but Le Lyrial sure looks nice too. -
Yes, Happy Thanksgiving all! We're celebrating in the Atlanta Airport now. Almost home from a very fun trip to Finland. We very much enjoyed our time in Helsinki, and got to see an amazing Northern Lights display way up north in Saariselkä. But the Delta Sky Club had turkey with the fixings. So we did get to partake in that. So, it was a great holiday.
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Have an amazing trip!
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Just saw this sad news. Expedition travel is not without risk, even when conditions look good. Hoping that the remaining injured staff and passengers make a full recovery. https://www.travelresearchonline.com/blog/index.php/2022/11/two-dead-in-rare-zodiac-accident-in-antarctica/
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Here are a few aurora shots. It's after midnight here so time for bed soon. We were gettting set for our snowshoeing trek around 8:15 when the lights put in an appearance! We got some cell phone shots from the resort. The display seemed to be intensifying so we hurried to the viewpoint in the taiga forest. An occasional quick snapshot as we trekked. Of course they became much less intense once we got to the viewpoint. Still, Chris was happy to pose with them. We waited for a while but eventually came home and shed our heavy clothes. On cue, as we were walking back to our cabin, the display surged even stronger than before! What luck! So a very successful first day here in Saariselkä. Now, it's after midnight, so it's time to catch a few winks. Hopefully more sightings to follow!
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Hello from Saariselkä! 68.4 degrees north. We landed at 1:15 as the sun was setting. Barren snow-covered landscapes looked nice in the golden light. We arrived at Northern Lights Village at 2:00 and checked in. Nice cabin with a glass roof facing north, for aurora views, we hope! Late lunch at 2:30, and the twilight was deepening significantly by 3:00. It's pretty much dark now at 4PM. Tonight, a photography briefing and then dinner. Later on, aurora chasing on snowshoes at 10:30PM. Sounds like work!
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Ok, more as promised. We did Antarctica in 2009, and Svalbard in 2011, both on SS's smallest expedition ship, PAII/Silver Explorer. These were our first and third SS cruises. The expedition aspect was great. Zodiac landings on the continent, great wildlife sightings, excellent history and scientific lectures, and luxurious accommodations. Food and wine were very nice as well. I did a text-only live report from Svalbard too, before I got the hang of posting pix, but you'd have to search for it. There are pictures from both expedition cruises in my SmugMug galleries; link also in my signature. In the last few years, SS has retrofitted two of their older classic ships into expedition-type vessels. We loved Silver Cloud and Wind as classic ships and have been equally happy with Cloud as an expedition ship (trying Wind expedition in June). The ship is about 50% bigger than Explorer, and has 4 restaurants so the combo of expedition and luxury is a big plus for us. We have also done 3 other non-polar expedition trips so it's obvious that we really like this type of cruise. The larger ships are a bit more "expedition lite" and you have to land in 3 groups not two, so that may be a negative thing. We didn't notice any big issue with this. You'll see all sorts of complaining on the SS boards about a perceived drop in quality since Covid. We didn't notice it much when we were back on SS for a classic cruise last November, but obvious some people feel differently. Can't tell you how you're going to perceive it, but if you've never done an ocean cruise you'll very likely have a great time on SS. The new Silver Endeavor looks amazing but it's much more expensive. You may get what you pay for. Have no experience with that. We are considering a third Antarctica trip in a few years and will give it a look then, along with Ponant's new ship, Le Commandant Charcot. Any other specific questions? LMK. Have fun planning!