drron29

There are definitely more younger passengers now than before the pandemic. On our cruises quite a few 40 or younger. Besides us old dinosaurs like talking to others and those of us on SS usually have a lot of travel experiences so you may be able to get some good travel advice.

Flying from Australia you get used to long flights. Apart from New Zealand and some Pacific islands our shortest international flight is 8 hours to Singapore from Brisbane. 14 hours to LA. About the same for Singapore to London or Tokyo to New York. You can fly directly to London from Perth in 18 hours. Hence why we travel a lot to Asia. For the last 17 years that we flew to the USA we flew via Tokyo. JAL was far better than Qantas and half the price in business class. Plus we enjoyed our stop overs in Japan.

They certainly did on our 2019 Muse cruise. Dropped off right in the middle of the CBD.

Not for me. It was fun. i did the Arctic Polar plunge and 5 months later the Antarctic polar plunge. The Best was the Arctic plunge as my rope came adrift and I was able to go for a bit of a swim.

The Adelies are my favourite penguins.We landed on the Antarctic Continent back in 2011.No problem then to lie down on the ice which always intrigued the Adelies so in a short time you had several andelies inspecting you. On one occasion I was taking a photo of a dead penguin. You could sense that they thought me stupid taking a picture of a dead penguin rather than the live ones.

We are on our last flight for the year on a cheap business class fare on Japan Airlines. The business class line was quite long at Haneda. A JAL employee pulled us and another couple out of the line and took us to the first class check in which was empty. Thought nothing more about it even though our boarding passes were for Row 2 and given a lounge pass for the first class lounge as many of their Asian flights don’t have a first class. But on boarding we found we were in first class. Enjoyed a glass of Salon 2013 pre departure.

Well Silversea has a dress code a lot more sensible than some. The Inside Chess F ed has fined a woman player for wea sports shoes in an international chess tournament. She was wearing Burberry sneakers. Unlike the SilverSea dress code that is truly nonsensical.

We went on the SilverSea cruise around Cuba as someone couldn’t tell us what to do. But just over 60% of the passengers were on a Captain’s Choice cruise and they thought they had first choice of everything. However I reached my breaking point on the classic cars tour when they were taken to the front of the queue. I became known as the leader of the Group of 19. To placate me they sent a member of the Expedition staff in our car who spoke Spanish so we learnt a lot. Rojaan asked the driver if he was appointed President for a day what would be the first thing that he would change. His answer- everything.

Here's a question for all the mind readers out there.

I am obviously an outlier as I have arrived and left Barbados twice flying AA. Breezed in twice even the first time when part of a group. Didn't have a long wait for bags. And I loved Barbados.

And now to something not so serious or philosophical.

Last week there were suspected cases of Avian flu in the South Orkney Islands. They are about half way between South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. https://scar.org/scar-news/life-sciences/awhn-news/hpai-antarctic-treaty-area https://www.google.com/maps/place/South+Orkney+Islands/@-58.3547396,-60.9967184,4z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0xbbff1e86cc4c6591:0x130ae719f859b714!8m2!3d-60.6402942!4d-45.2419342!16zL20vMDJfcHFo?authuser=0&entry=ttu If it gets to the Peninsula it will really affect Next seasons Antarctic cruises.

We were in South Georgia late in the season. By then the male seal pups were trying to assert themselves and they charged at most of us. I was extremely lucky and had a personal guide to shield me from the seals. And here he is- I thought he was indicating that I should follow him so I did.He proceeded to move everyone out of the way including humans- So for the next 500 metres he dealt with all the seals.He left when I was insight of the destination and seal free. An absolutely fabulous time.

The icebergs have probably broken off from A23a the largest iceberg ever which has recently started to move north.