pdmlynek

Thanks. Is the South Georgia Island also restricted to 100 pax in shore at a time? I would think that it is not, since SG is not south of 60 S, and thus is not controlled by IAATO, but the line may have its own rules. Thank you!

Thank you very much for a very helpful trip review.

Thanks. I had no idea that EFTPOS would work in SG.

This is a good question. Not only for Princess, on which there is plenty of room to have lots of extra clothes, but what about expedition ships? Are there laundry facilities? This is important for those who fly to Marsh Airport on King George Island who are limited on luggage. Thank you in advance.

I find it amazing, that after thousands of years of building ships, ship hulls, and bows, that we are still learning to design radically different desgnes. I would have expected that every hull designer understand the tradeoff on hull elements, and that the design would settle onto a particular designs.

I can't speak about Zakynthos, but we enjoyed Kefalonia very much. Actually, it was our favorite Greek island.

During our cruise, on some Greek Islands we rented cars or boats, but on Santorini we just used buses. We actually took two separate bus trips; one to Oia, and one to Akrotiri. I recommend both, but there are plenty of other places on Santorini to visit. As far as eating on the ship, that should not be a problem. The sunset is at 19:46 in early September, at 19:03 in late September, so you'll have plenty of time to watch the sunset from the cliffs in Fira, and then walk down to the ship. You can be on board by 20:00, and have dinner by 20:45. Enjoy it!

I did not, so I am not able to comment on it, except that during our planning of what we will do on Santorini, I've gotten some ideas from the "Let's Take a Selfie" of where to go.

Yes, I did put together an extensive effort into assembling information on Mykonos. If you are intersted, send me your e-mail and I'll forward it to you. But, to be honest, you can find much of the information on line yourself as well.

Is the Canal open again? There were landslides in Nov 2020, Jan 2021, and Feb 2021 that closed it down. See the landslide on Google maps at 37.9370N 22.9807E. https://greekreporter.com/2022/10/04/greece-corinth-canal-closes-again/

I would get to Acropolis as early in the morning as possible. The crowds later in the morning are so huge, that it makes it unpleasant. As far as the Acropolis Museum goes, it is very nicely built, very nicely organized, but the exhibits leave much to be desired. The artifacts are somewhat poor. It too seems to be pretty crowded, which, I suppose, is due to its proximity to the Acropolis. There are a dozen archeological museums that are better, the best of them the National Archaeological Museum.

Please forgive this newbie query, but I'd rather look foolish now than be unprepared. I've seen this type of comment on this board several times, yet I am still puzzled. Yes, I understand one needs appropriate gear for a wet landing with the Zodiac. One needs waterproof boots and waterproof pants. Boots are good enough only up to the top of the boots. If one wears boots that come up to the top of the shins, yet water is higher, up to the knees, then the water will pour down into the boots, regardless of what pants one wears. It won't matter what type of pants one wears; the water will still get the feet and legs wet. Or are the boots and the pants someone affixed together, such as a waterproof tape or a waterproof zipper, to make a watertight seal? Or is standing in water so brief, that only a small amount of water pours over the top of the boots? Would hip waders, i.e., waterproof pants with boots, be preferable?

Thank you! that is a very nice blog. Kudos!

Is there a database on how many passengers are there on any cruise ship? Either when we buy the tickets, or when we sail? Is there a way for us, cruising public, to find this important information? Thank you!

Yes, I understand that some people can't wear the same types of shoes than others. But to me, hiking shoes or hiking boots are the correct answer to the original query. If your footwear of choice is Clark Shoes, then that's fine. The original poster can choose among the answers that she received. 🙂

Can you please write a little more about the helicopter? I know that for at least one IAATO site in Ross Sea a helicopter is needed to get to (I.e., a dry valley site), but what other rides do helicopters make? Thank you!

A couple of points as I understand them. (1) There are no ports in Antarctica. There are no tenders in Antarctica. There are simply rocky beaches onto which rubber boats (such as Zodiacs) with a dozen passengers land. (2) There is no alternative to a "ship excursion". All are ship excursions. You are under supervision of a guide. On some landing sites you are allowed to "roam" a few hundred meters within a confined, on others you have to stay in a group. (3) I wish that I could tell you how full they are.

What does TSA do now? Do they not open luggages as needed?

That certainly makes sense. Given that about 100K per year visit Antarctica, at least a portion would like to see more than the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. When scrolling through the 45 IAATO landing site I was struck that there are several of them in the Ross Sea, yet there are very few comments about them on CruiseCritic or similar websites. I wonder what the motivation for that was. Perhaps the uniqueness of the sites in Ross Sea, such as the various early explorer huts, and dry valley.

Thanks for the correction. I saw a trip report about Le Commandant Charcot, and assumed that the ship has been around for a while. Well, longer than that of the posting, anyway. I am going to Google what classification each ship in Antarctica have.

Well, compared to what Shackleton went through this was a breeze....

Did you go? Did you ever find fid your answer via Google as @donaldsc suggested? A quick question: was there a specific to visit such a tiny island? Was to get a post card mailed from there?

Isn't Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot ice class PC2? Wouldn't that qualify as an icebreaker?

Thank you for the warning. This is very helpful to us.

I think that a lot of cruise customers getting 20% is a good deal. It may be, but I doubt it. There have been times when I bought some items for 15% of what they were initially asking, i.e., 85% below their asking price. And no, I am not some skilled negotiator.