pdmlynek

Sorry, but a newbie question regarding Elephant Island: Why would you expect not to land on Elephant Island? It is because it is so exposed? It would be pretty impressive to visit where Sheckleton's crew was stranded.

Thank you for your explanation. I agree that I do not think that there was any "explosion", as in a violent chemical reaction. It sounds like that the passengers described a rapid decompression of a boyancy bladder. Do RHIBs have some sort of automatic inflation devices like many liferafts? Is it possible that the rapid decompression was caused by just normal wear & tear? Is it possible that it was just an older boat, and given the right stresses at the moment, it just went off? Or maybe given that the decompression was in a bladder under the boat which may be scrapped against the beach rocks when the RHIB hits the shore? Could there have been some fracture in the bladder developed earlier in the cruise? You may be right that it might have been a collision with a large underwater mammal. The Trusdale video shows penguins leaping out of the water about 3 seconds before the incident. Is this another danger of travel to Antarctica that we need to be aware of? Killer penguins? Penguins hunting tourists? Zodiac killers?

Thank yo ufor the explanation. What do you think that happened in this case then? Why would a compartment explode so?

It is weird that an inflatable boat would overturn, but once a boat overtuns, dying of hypothermia is not unforeseen. What surprises me is that death from overturned boats, such as kayaks, associated with cruising in Antarctica, Alaska, etc. do not occur more frequently. My understanding is that the cruise line does check if the passenger can roll the kayak and upright self. Given how incredibly safety concious anything about a cruise is, I am pretty shocked that the cruise operators let people do that. The reason that I write the above is that I am pretty comfortable being under water, but when I started kayaking, and was given instructions on how to get out of a flipped over kayak (head forward, hands front to pop the skirt, hands back to push off the kayak, do a forward somersault out, pulling your legs out), it was still pretty scary getting out for real the first time. It was nothing that I've ever experienced before -- being trapped upside down, with head hanging down, leg immobolized, flailing hands doing nothing, is pretty panic-worthy. And that was under controlled conditions, in warm water, and I was all mentally ready for it. Now, after kayaking for several years, I could get out of a rolled kayak in my sleep (I never did manage to learn how to upright, despite many weeks of lessons and attempts over the years). I cannot imagine how a person who has never been kayaking, flips over unexpectedly due to own carelessness, while wearing bulky clothes, in 4 C water, is expected to self recover. I would think that relatively few novice kayakers would be able to self rescue, and would drown very easily. And even if they do get out of the kayak, then what? Swim ashore? Wait for a rescue boat? If a person survives the shock and does not drown while exiting the sea kayak, surely he'll be dead within 10 min of hypothermia. But I suspect that I am wrong, and that these kayak trips are indeed safe. I just can't figure where I am wrong.

I am perplexed fear of walking up to Fira is perpetuated on Cruise Critic. We are in late 50s, not in the best shape, and had no problem walking up the stairs. If you walk about 5 km every day, it will be trivial to you. Just two things to point out. Firstly, the stairs are at parts rather smooth, so they may be slippery. Make sure to wear appropriate foot gear. Secondly, there is donkey poop on the trail; it did not bother me, but some people find it objectionable.

Treating Antarctica as some sterile environment is weird. After all, penguin and other birds are able to bring microbes from other parts of the world to Antarctica just fine. So can ocean currents or dust particles. Antarctica is not isolatable from the rest of the world -- the ozone hole demonstrates that. However, if we do presume that Antarctica is isolatable, then a ban on pooping makes sense. Fecal matter contains microbes. I presume that there is a reason why a human feces is harmful to Antarctica, yet millions of penguin pooping is somehow OK. On the other hand, what is the issue with urine? Urine is sterile. Is the ban on urination just a measure to telegraph that defecating is banned? Or is there more to it that I am not seeing?

Thank you very much for taking time out of your day, and providing me (and hopefully others) with this detailed explanation. I really appreciate it.

should read: With the exception of ASPA125 and ASPA150, and presumably the several stations, are there any other areas of Fildes Peninsula that are off limits to tourists?"

Thank you for this. A few newbie questions, if you don't mind. (1) The flight to South Shetland Islands is to the Chilean Marsh Airport, correct? If so, then are the flights for cruisers generally from Chile as well, or do they fly there from USH as well? (2) I take it that you meet with your ship in Punta Arenas (or Ushuaia) before the cruise, and the ship takes your luggage? (3) Do you fly out the same day as the ship leaves and you wait for them at Base Friei, or does the ship leave first and then you fly out there day or two later? (4) Is it significantly cheaper to fly then to sail? Flying just seems like an extra headache, and it robs you of two or four sea days. (5) Can you decide to fly only one leg, such as outbound or return, or do you have to book both? (6) Because you are not crossing any international boundaries while on the ship, do you have to pay any cabottage penalties? (7) I presume that if the weather is predicted to be too bad for a return flight, then you would just remain on board, right? They are not just going to let you off at Base Frei with the hope of making it back with the next flight, right? (8) Is there any chance of spending some time on King George by yourself? Say, a few hours, or a few days, or a week? Just go out and enjoy back packing around the King George Island? Can you catch an ealier flight out to King George or catch a later flight out? With the exception of ASPA125 and ASPA150, and presumably the several stations, are there any other areas of Fildes Peninsula? Thanks!

Well, i don't think that traveler's checks (TCs) are on anyone's mind anymore. They have been obsolete for the past quarter of century, as you wrote. Now, you can use credit cards when traveling; very few people outside the US knew what a credit card was, let alone accepted it. And the only card that they typically accepted was Amex. Likewise, there were no ATMs in most countries until recently, and for a long time they did not accept any card except for the own bank's cards, let alone debit cards from abroad. So, you had to travel without credit cards, and without access to ATMs. That meant using cash. You'd be traveling with thousands of USDs (by now equivalent to tens of thousands in today's money), and you'd exchange it into local currency whatever country you were in. Now we have Euros, so you dont need to exchange it as much. Because many people were not comfortable traveling with that much cash, so they used TCs. It cost you money to buy them, it cost you money to redeem them. I never used them, and just traveled with cash.

I agree about tipping or paying in local currency, but @jas283a wrote about tipping ship personnel. On US based ships the currency is USD even when traveling in Europe.

Two days is not much time, but it is more than the 8 to 12 hrs that most cruisers spend. A few points. (1) I agree with @Sinbadssailors about Akrotiri. It is an excellent archaeological site. It is a huge, covered site. For whatever reason, there were very few people there when we visited. (2) I agree with @Sinbadssailors about sunset dining in Oia, though dining in Fira may be on the similar level. (3) I would not stay in Oia but in Fira, because Fira is centrally located, and you can take a bus from Fira to anywhere on the island. Oia is just on the end, thus you'd need to bus or drive from Oia to Fira to even start your journey. (4) The walk from Fira to the cruise ship port is fine; as @Sinbadssailors we too are just in average shape and had no problem walking it up in 40 min and down in leisurely 20. But I would not waste my time doing that. Instead I'd do the hike from Oia to Fira along the camera (per Cruisecritic policy I can't recommend since we have not done it). (5) We also were considering but didn't do (thus can't recommend) visiting the small islands in the camera to see the hot springs. Good luck, and once you get back, please let us know what you did, and how it was.

Wow! Thanks! 😯

Thank you for the report. It was very captivating!

Wow, I had no idea that a bull fur seal is such a threat. What was the danger? That the seal thought that the swimmer was a penguin? But, wow, a series of 1 km swims is impressive! Heck even 100 m in ice water is impressive.

Well, my very brief look into this has not turn up anything, but I am sure that such data is out there, and is analyzable. If so, I'll post it her in due time. 🙂 Actually, given your expertise in Antarctica, particularly cruising in Antarctica -- you seem to be the most knowledgeble person on the subject -- I am surprised that you did have this information at your fingertips just like you have about almost any subject on Antarctica. Your contributions to cruisecritic are important; I am one of your many fans.

Thanks! I think that if I ever get to decide to do Antarctica cruise, that visiting Deception Island would be one of the top destinations for me to look forward to. (Yes, I know that you can't predict where the ships will end up sailing to.)

Oops, sorry that I missed the post above. 😞

Sorry. 😞

I agree. That makes total sense. 🙂

I wrote that wrong. I meant that I have enough medicine to last me through the travel. After I consume my last pill, I simply toss the empty bottle. Sorry.

I am sorry, my bad. I meant that after I use the last pill, I just toss the empty bottle.

I think that the job of the Transportation Security Administration is the security of transportation. That means, that they want to make sure that passengers do not bring anything on board of planes, trains, and other public conveyances that would be dangerous to the travelig public or to the operation of said conveyance. From their website (which may be wrong), they are not looking for foods that shouldn't be imported into the destination country, or for stolen items, or trademark infringing products, or endangered species transportion, or drugs. They have other police and agencies for these things. In any case, those things are usually searched for at the destination airport. The job of TSA is supposed to be security. But if TSA does more than just security of transportation, I welcome a correction.

I agree. This is a serious problem for me when I travel. I'd like to take the original bottle, but if I did that, then it would take some serious room in my first aid kit.

Well, sure the more sophisticated ones can look at in PDR or other similar publication or websites, but do they really have time to mess around like that? In any case, the point remains: if you are going to have them try to differentiate between legal and illegal drugs, then the recommendation by @poocher to have drugs in original containers, should extent to ALL legal drugs, regardless if they are Rx or OTC. If they can rely on PDR to identify legal drugs, then it does not matter if they are Rx or OTC. My point is to be consistent across all legal drugs. If you believe that Rx drugs should be in their original container as @poocher wrote in order to indicate their legality, then it makes sense to have OTC drugs in their original containers as well. If you believe that legal drugs, both OTC and Rx, can be readily identified as @Aquahound by the customs agents, then there is no difference between OTC and Rx, and both can be kept outside of their original containers.