Live From -Star Princess Antartica 2/2/10

[ccrain]

Enjoying your report..sounds like u love dancing!!

Are there any teas,or ceramics classes going on ?

 

They do have tea every afternooon in one of the dining rooms and the ceramics classes were going full bore the entire cruise.

[ccrain]

Its packing, filling out questionairre, looking at flight schedule and misc day.

 

Don't know if we will venture ashore today. I seem to have picked up my cruise cold later in the cruise than normal. Nyquil and a nap is sounding better and better to me right now...

 

We have the Tango tour tomorrow ending up at the Sheraton hotel, which I assume will be packed to the gills, prior to transfer to the airport, with the Taxi as Plan B.

 

Last night was another HC dinner night. With all the dance music going on, I really didn't want to spend and hour or two getting dinner, and it was not bad either. Had a very nice discussion with Jack, the on-board sommilier (a real one BTW). He's got some real innovative ideas on how to increase on board wine sales. We wish him the best of luck - the more Princess can make from alternative optional revenue streams, the easier it is for them to hold the line on the basic cruise price.

 

Did some canned music dancing in Explorer's, then to the Orchestra, then to the Groove Babies. Thought about going to the show's, but this will be our last opportunity for serious dancing for the next 10 months. Gotta make hay while the sun shines.

 

Overall the cruise has been suprisingly calm. Nothing worst than the 2nd day to Stanley at 15-18 foot seas. Not the 30-60's that I was expecting. Even though weather kept us from a couple of sights, it was mostly wind and/or fog, not high seas. Keeping Judy low, away from the top decks, and in the Piazza probably helped her on the moderate days.

 

I have saved the patter's for the cruise and I will be doing a review/travelog and posting it in the next few weeks - I had 4 emails from work today - on my personal use only in case of emergencies while I'm on a cruise email. Things will probably be frantic when I get back. Oh well, it was a nice vacation while it lasted...

[ccrain]

For the most part the cruise was well worth it to see the Falklands, Antarctica, Cape Horn and South America. The destinations made the cruise. The lecturers and naturalists were really good. I enjoyed Dr Stonehouse the most. His British humor and the fact that he was one of the 2nd wave Antartic pioneers makes it even more interesting.

 

Our cabin steward, Chip, was first rate. Every request was met and he was extremely efficient. Arnold, the bar steward in Explorer's was also a real gem, as was Sam (from Nottingham), one of the cruise staff. ZaZa in the main dining room was one of our favorite waiters and Chef's table was excellent, as usual. The Groove Babies were the best of the three rock and roll bands we have danced to in the last 3 cruises.

 

Chef's table, lamb dishes, burgers and pizza, the mexican buffet, were all pretty darn good. Overall the food was good.

 

However, compared to the Golden in September and the Grand in April, service and overall food were not as good, and the scheduled activities were way below what David Cole had on the Golden in September.

 

Drink and food service in the HC was spotty, especially compared to the Grand last April. I think after the second day all the deck bar servers gave up on sales as cold weather really caused drink orders to plummet. When was the last time you actually had dishes pile up on your table while you had dinner? Not in my recent memory.

 

As far as activities go, on a couple of sea days, we were actually very bored, unusual for us on a ship, while on yesterday, the last sea day, things were so overlapped in the schedule we had to split up. On days when "scenic cruising" was curtailed, no additional activities were added to the patter.

 

In the evenings the lack of a good dance band in the Wheelhouse really restricted dancing, and the use of canned dance music, while better than nothing, was very inconsistent. Why 1 hour gaps when changing CDs? (Rhetorical question.) How did a CD get stuck on 5 songs for 2 hours? Where are the ballroom dance bands for the wheelhouse? The last one for us was several cruises ago, a trio. A single guitar player is not a good substitute. Nice listening music, but not dance music.

 

More details will be forthcoming in the later review, but in general a good cruise, made special by the destinations, the sights and the related lectures and commentaries. Highly recommended for those who want to see Antarctica and South America for a reasonable price.

 

Probably post one more time this afternoon...see ya then...

[Minoushka]

I really enjoyed your daily reviews .BRAVO!!!

Have a safe trip home.At least your cruise had more substance to it than ours did...I feel we saw South america pass us by ...it would have been nice to stop long enough to SEE some of it

OH WELL

Bon Voyage Safe travels

 

Michele

[DougH]

It's been fun reading your reports. I board the Star in less than two weeks so your thoughts have been inteersting reading. Sorry the cruise had to end for you. I know I'm going to have a tough time getting off after 32 days :)

[Tampa Girl]

Basically we were able to enjoy antarctica for about 2 1/2 days. the rest was spent running from weather, hiding from icebergs and in general trying to stay out of trouble. But the trip into Elephant Island and the trip through the Gerlache straits made it all worth while...for us. the other ports were just a price we had to pay to go to the antarctic. After March 2011, the ships available to go to the antarctic will be severely limited and Princess will probably not be going for several years.

.

 

Could you give me some more information on this March, 2011, deadline? I know that the IAATO will be voting next month on a resolution banning all heavy fuel oil carried in ships going to Antarctica. But what were you told aboard the ship about the likelihood of this passing and the effective date? We are booked on a HAL cruise to Antarctica next January, so I am anxiously watching the outcome of this resolution.

[lollypopj]

Thanks,ccrain for the crafts info and keeping us all up to date..:)

Good luck and good weather as you head home..

[ccrain]

Could you give me some more information on this March, 2011, deadline? I know that the IAATO will be voting next month on a resolution banning all heavy fuel oil carried in ships going to Antarctica. But what were you told aboard the ship about the likelihood of this passing and the effective date? We are booked on a HAL cruise to Antarctica next January, so I am anxiously watching the outcome of this resolution.

 

At least that's what everybody on the ship is planning for. If the treaty goes into effect, Princess will probably do only south american cruises, not antarctic cruises.

 

so I think its highly likely the treaty will pass and the cruises curtailed.

 

However, there will still be jet service from Punta Arenas!

[ccrain]

Diverting to Jamaica due to a medial emergency cost us 4 hours and every planned connection, so we got home 12 hours late, exactly 48 hours from when we got up the morning of debarkation.

 

Now that was a long trip home...

 

My head is still fuzzy so it'll be a few days for a review. I have to now download Gigabytes of photos and video and do my taxes...

[landnsea]

Hello Charles and Judy, Man.... 48 hrs to get home, Charles, Just wanted to thank you for your post, lots of good information you shared.

We are booked on the Jan.9th 2011 sailing with the five day precruise Iguazu Falls Adventure land tour, we booked this past August as soon as we heard about the ban on the large cruise ships.

From your post and what we have learned, the weather is the big factor for this sailing, at least we feel for warned.

We will e-mail you some pictures of the three of us on are most recent cruise.

Thanks again, go rest up.

 

John,Laura and Gaby

Seattle,Wa.

[ccrain]

Hello Charles and Judy, Man.... 48 hrs to get home, Charles, Just wanted to thank you for your post, lots of good information you shared.

We are booked on the Jan.9th 2011 sailing with the five day precruise Iguazu Falls Adventure land tour, we booked this past August as soon as we heard about the ban on the large cruise ships.

From your post and what we have learned, the weather is the big factor for this sailing, at least we feel for warned.

We will e-mail you some pictures of the three of us on are most recent cruise.

Thanks again, go rest up.

 

John,Laura and Gaby

Seattle,Wa.

 

Judy did really, really well in the Piazza. I think for big water trips we will move back down to the lower decks, midships so that she can make it to the Piazza in reasonable time. Poor girl, she couldn't take a shower for 2 days because that really set her off in that enclosed space. She would get dressed, lay down, put on shoes, lay down, clean up, lay down, then run to the Piazza and grab a seat.

 

But it worked!

 

However, we were lucky. I've seen the video of the Star in 30' seas on youtube. That would have been pretty nasty.

[Raamo]

Thanks for the live from! 301 days until we board the Star for a similar itinerary. If you post some of your pictures online I'd love to take a look.

 

Brian