Interested in a Silver Explorer live report?

[mringenoldus]

I have been posting my husband's daily up dates on the thread called "uh-oh...has this ever happened to you?". Avery nice group of people have enjoyed them, I thought perhaps I would run a thread dedicated to the information. (As a bit of background, you wil note that this all started with a lost suitcase)

 

Here are some emails from his daily update - you might enjoy them:

 

Day 1 of the cruise started well, almost! It was too windy to pull away from the dock and we had to wait about an hour before we were able to escape from the dock. We are now underway heading out to sea. It is the first day of summer here which means that it will be daylight for about 20 hours. Our cabin is nice along with our butler. Tristan is drinking everything in sight on his quest to get our moneys worth. Had dinner with a retired doctor and his wife from Boston. The news about the bag is wonderfull hope it comes to fruition. Wearing my hiking shoes with dress pants looks silly. Day at sea next with a lecture on the falklands history (going) and a lecture about birds (not so much). Thanks for whatever you were able to accomplish ref the mia bag. I will appreciate it

Wildlife Sightings: 0

Off to bed now anticipating what tomorrow will bring.

Valiant Penguin Hunters

 

Day 2 Report: The cabin is very nice, bathroom has a tub, frige is full of free beer and the tv has 130 free movies, life is good! There are a number of pax who are my age and a fair amount that are Tristan's age, we just had a nice dinner with a couple his age from Canada. Her first cruise! The ride has been bumpy because of the high winds but I am enjoying the ride (Tristan say it is like an amusement park ride). I was having coffee in the Panorama Lounge when we hit a rather large wave and leaned over a little more than usual. I grabbed my coffee cup in time but everything else on the table went on the floor. The food is very good, Tristan had artichoke tonite which he says tastes like carrots??, but he did dress very nicely for the Captains dinner (jacket and tie!!). I borrowed his Burberry jacket with my dress pants and hiking boots, quite the picture! Tomorrow is Stanley, with a trip to a penguin sanctuary and then town time.

Wildlife Report: Penguins: 0

Sea life: 0

Birds: Quite a few, albatross and other nameless birds.

Thats is all for now, we have a 0845 debarkation tomorrow for our group so off to bed.

 

As you will read - no bag . The other guests must think he looks like Jed Clampett!

 

Day 3 report.

 

No bag, bummer, silver seas is unsure exactly what airport the wandering bag is currently at.

 

We arrived at Stanley in the am and silver seas had some leftover end of year money so they sprung for the famous bluff cove penguin rookery tour. 30 minutes on a minibus then 30 minutes in a land rover driving off road, they recommended that people with neck and issues avoid this trip and they were right. At the end of the line was a penguin sanctuary with lots of very noisy and stinky penguins.

 

Next was a walk through Stanley by ourselves and then a guided tour from the expedition staff where among other things we saw a reindeer and were accomplices in a gnome napping.

 

Christmas day will be on the other side on the Falklands to be determined. Found my penguin bow tie for dinner on the 25th.

 

Have fun a luminariafest (Tristan really misses being there for it) and have a good and wonderful Christmas

 

Wildlife sightings

 

1: penguins - lots

2: birds - not so many

3: other mammals - 1 reindeer

 

All for now.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Day 4 report:

 

Today we went to two islands in the Falklands to look at the local wildlife. One trip included a 1 1/2 walk to look at albatross and penguin nesting areas. Lots of albatross and penguins (rockhopper penguins). Actually both islands had the same attractions but the second island was only a 3/4 mile walk to visit with the local wildlife and had a pretty neat museum at the end of it. Penguins and albatross make an ungodly amount of noise, everybody yelling at each other and fighting over their particular nesting areas. They do not share well.

 

We also had christmas dinner which went well but I would not let Tristan wear his sweater to dinner, you have to look closely at the reindeer to understand. (editorial note: upon closer review, those reindeer were not frolicking appropriately - and it's a godawful ugly sweater) We had dinner with the professor and Ivy. Most enjoyable!

 

In Stanley they had a shop that had everything penguin, and I mean everything!!! I bought a pre tied penguin bow tie and wore it to dinner with my dress pants and hiking boots. Tristan wore his christmas bow tie and got a few compliments. We looked good.

 

The next two days are at sea, so you may get a very short daily report. We intend to get our moneys worth of beer on the next two days. The butler has stocked us up and is more than willing to bring more as required. We will see.

 

We are both are sad that we were unable to participate in Luminaria Fest--maybe next year.

(another editorial note: they weren't really the least bit sad )

Pictures to follow.

 

Hope you all had a good christmas and the twins enjoyed their cars.

 

Me.

[ttalbcr]

Just discovered your posts. DH and I are on the Silver Explorer's Feb. 19th cruise, so we are really enjoying the first-hand reports!:)

[mringenoldus]

Thank you...I'll add them to this thread as he sends them.

 

I hope you have a great trip!

[jpalbny]

Glad you broke this out to its own thread. We enjoyed this cruise so much, and it's great to relive it.

[HDS]

ttalbcr,

We are also on the Feb 19 cruise. Look forward to meeting you then.

Meanwhile enjoying the posts from mringenoldus.

Deb.

[mringenoldus]

Day 5 Report

 

Inquiring minds want to know:

 

Today and tomorrow are sea days enroute to Antarctica and the weather sucks. The ship people say this is reasonably good weather so I would hate to see a day they consider rough. I forgot how much fun it is to be on a very small ship. Every little wave causes movement.

 

I have even had an upset stomach, just had dinner so we will see how that holds together. Does not seem to bother Tristan at all, the bum!

 

The pax on this ship are a lot younger than I had anticipated, there is only one really older couple on board and more than half of the other pax are my age or younger (editorial note - Garrit is 56 and Tristan is 26. He'll be preparing for his third Army deployment when he returns to Frankfurt). We even have an official British lord and lady along with their 5 kids. The ship does not have a lot of holiday decorations, a couple trees and some garland spread around and that is it. They did give us a really awful fruitcake for a christmas present to each guest and most of us are trying to find somebody else who wants it. I am donating mine to the crew. I am also getting good at laundry, unfortuantely. ( short on clothes because of lost suitcase)

 

The crew is unfailingly polite and more than willing to assist in whatever manner they can, very nice folks. They let you go on the bridge anytime you want which is kind of cool.

 

The food is very good and very eclectic (though heavy on fish).

 

We have some interesting lectures given by the expedition staff (whale disentaglement for one), they are very naturalist focused.

 

The first day in antarctica will start at 5:30 for the first trip ashore. It would appear that there a quite a few ships operating in the antarctic area and they all have assigned landing times so you have to start early. Hope the penguins are awake that early.

 

I will be taking the cruise transfer between the airports, they charge $59.00 which is not bad.

 

That is all for now, no pictures tonite, maybe some ship pictures tomorrow.

 

Bye

[jpalbny]

Sounds like the Drake Shake instead of the Drake Lake this passage... Oh well, it saves on the calories!

[RachelG]

Had to laugh about Tristan and his frolicking reindeer sweater. My Marine son came home for Christmas right after he had finished bootcamp. He and his two Navy friends who were also home went out one night and rearranged all the yard deer in the neighborhood so that they were frolicking. And it definitely was not in an appropriate manner. Must be a military thing.

[mringenoldus]

That's hilarious!! Tristan actually "borrowed" a buddy's wife and baby wearing that crazy sweater with a bow tie for his Christmas family photo......and he's single! And if they keep deploying him - he'll be single forever!

 

 

Day 5 Report:

 

WE ARE IN THE ANTARCTIC, OFFICIALLY!!

 

We saw our first iceberg, a sighting of whales and some seals. Got a pic of the iceberg but I think the whales and seals were hiding out. I am glad that the sea days are done for a while, not a lot to do except drink beer and watch movies and attend lectures. Hard to get excited about Krill (look that up).

 

Tomorrow we stop on the continent itself at a penguin rookery (housing subdivision) and then cruise through an area with lots of icebergs etc. First group goes off at 5:30, our group is 6:30, wakeup 4:30.

 

I am going to make Tristan buy me the cruise DVD ($150.00). His christmas present to me.

 

More pictures after tomorrow, not much from today. We will get some pictures of us soon.

 

Have a good trip to the UK

[NCCruzQueen]

Maureen,

 

Thanks so much for posting Garrit's emails. They are getting me revved up for my trip in 2 weeks!! I hope Garrit will post his photos online on his return.

 

The "borrowed" wife and child story is hilarious. I know his friends (but maybe not family) thought it was a hoot!

[mringenoldus]

The trip progresses:

 

They most definately make you work for your fun on this trip. Today we stopped at Lockroy which is a British Historical Site that was active until the 60's. Now it is a museum and store and post office (the most southern po in the world) I sent myself a card and also bought one or two things. They sure do have a lot of penguin stuff in this area. A penguin liker could go crazy here. The next stop was another penguin rookery that we had to literaly go through the ice in the ship to get there.

 

Tomorrow, more penguins and maybe a seal or three and another hike to the top of another big hill, through the snow with the wind blowing 100mph or so. Lots of fun and Tristan wants to do every one. That and eat every meal in site and order room service. The boy eats more than Paderick!

 

Anyway more pics follow and have to put laundry in the dryer.

 

Have fun

 

Me

[mringenoldus]

Beth

I really laughed at the photo.....But a little part of me kind of almost wished he'd find such a sweet looking girl :)

 

He's all about his military career and enjoying the single life!

[RachelG]

LOL, Maureen, I still think we have the same son! Those 2 really would have a great time if they got together (or maybe too great of a time.)

[mringenoldus]

Happy New Year to you all! And now, the rest of the story.......

 

 

All:

 

I am not exactly sure what day this is (8 or 9), but is was good none the less. Today started out as another penguin visitation and ended up being the day we saw a humpback whale and another whale called a minke whale. Went right under the boat. Very exciting for all.

 

Penguins are really kind of cute but we sure have seen a lot of them. Between birds and penguins, and the occasional whale that is pretty much all you see here. The scenery however is really great. Lots of snow and ice and mountains.

 

We had dinner tonite with a german married to an italian lady.

 

One of the things we did today at our second stop waws climb to the top of the hill (mountain),. and slide down in the snow. This was Tristans idea and I foolishly went along with it. He is fine and I pulled a muscle in my back. I do believe that after this penguins are the smarter animal!

 

Tomorrow we sail into an active volcano (Deception Island) and visit an old whaling station.

 

After---two days at sea and the weather is not looking good.

 

The expedition leader says that we will all be throwing up before we get a chance to drink on New Years Eve when he was asked the question about a party. We shall see.

 

Off to bed.

 

Later

 

 

Happy New Year which here is about 1 hour away.

 

Today we did Deception Island which is the one place I really wanted to see. An active volcano that you sail into complete with an old whaling station. It was a nice end to the trip.

 

We are now on our way back and the Drake Passage is living up to its reputation. Tristan, however is having a rather good time. I had room service and he went to dinner and I have not seen him since. I will go back to the cabin and celebrate with a coke and retire. I am pooped.

 

We have lectures the next two days on various subjects, tomorrow, the legends of the deep and a course on bird migration. Not only do they make you work for your enjoyment they make you go back to school.

 

The weather is supposed to be clearing up a bit which will make the passage a little easier.

 

Not sure how many folks will make breakfast--we shall see. I know that Tristan will, the boy does not miss a meal.

 

Hope you are having a good time and from the looks of it you are.

 

I will let you know all about bird migration when I get back.

 

Total Fauna count:

 

5 kinds of penguins

3 kinds of seals

too many birds

2 kinds of whales.

 

and about 5000 pictures

 

and a whole lot of scenery

 

All told not a bad trip.

[NCCruzQueen]

All told not a bad trip.

 

Maureen, Is this Garrit's way of saying it has been a really good trip or just ok? It's hard to read people's true thoughts when you don't know them, but I am guessing you can read his meaning here.

 

I do appreciate you posting The Adventures of Garrit and Tristan on the Icy Continent emails. It sounds like Tristan is having the time of his life. So glad.

 

I am now into heavy packing mode and have made my list of things to accomplish this week. I'm in High Gear mode!!!

[mringenoldus]

Hi, Beth

 

That is definitely Garrit's way of saying he was very satisfied with the cruise.....I will have to get the end of the story when he gets back.

 

On the way home from the UK...more later!

[NCCruzQueen]

That is definitely Garrit's way of saying he was very satisfied with the cruise.....I will have to get the end of the story when he gets back.

 

Thanks for the translation, Maureen. Hope you have had a nice trip to London. Have a safe trip home. Looking forward to hearing more about their trip.

[ringostarr]

Enjoying your posts. Quick question...on charter to Ushuaia ... is it one carryon or a carryon and a personal item like on domestic trips? Thanks

[mringenoldus]

I will ask him the charter carry on question. This is a recap of the whole journey. They return to Ushuaia tomorrow.

 

 

To all

 

The trip is unfortunately almost over and time to get in touch with the real world. All told this has been a once in a lifetime experience and I am glad that I came.

 

We left Ushuaia on the 22nd of Dec and spent two days at sea enroute to the Falkland Islands. Once there we spent one day at the capital city of Stanley and one day visiting two other islands. Stanley was our first exposure to penguins and their not so cute smell. They may be cute little fellows but their homes (rookerys) have a very definitive odor. We also had time for a walk around the town and got to see how folks live at the end of the world. We also experienced a gnome garden which was kind of weird. I saw government house and some of the other sights made famous in the 82 conflict. The people who live here are very nice though sometimes a little different (i.e gnome garden). The next stop was an island that had a large colony of Albatross and Rockhopper penguins living together. Everybody had their little nesting areas complete with babies of one kind or the other. The little rockhopper guys are my favorite of all the penguins I have seen. Albatross up close are rather large birds and we managed to stand right in their landing pattern.

 

Stanley has without a doubt the most interesting penguin gift ship I have ever seen. If it is possible to have a penguin on it or be in some form of penguin motif, they have it. they even had a selection of pre tied penguin bow ties. I bought one! Interestingly most of the stuff is made in the united states.

 

Next up were two days at sea. The next time I go on a little ship I will remember to get seasickness patches. All the bouncing around tends to tire you out a lot because you do not get adequate rest. I kept sliding off the bed,

 

After two days at sea, Antarctica arrived. We made a total of six stops and landings during the four days we were here. Every stop had a new kind of penguin to visit for a total of six types of the little guys. They really are kind of cute when they are doing their penguin thing, also very noisy and they do smell. We were warned to give the penguins a 5 meter clearance but nobody told the penguins about the rule. They would come waddling along, see us and generally stop and think about what to do next. Usually this occurred right in the path we were walking on and we had to wait until they made up their minds on which way to move. Most of the rookerys we visited had chicks being taken care of by their mothers.

 

At almost every stop we were able to see seals of one variety or the other. The seal highlight was watching a Leopard seal chow down on a penguin. Since seals do not have hands the Leopard seal whips his penguin lunch around quite violently until it is turned inside out so it can eat it. This we saw in living color! Most of the other seal sightings were on the beaches or sleeping on icebergs.

 

One of our stops was at Port Lockroy, which is a restored British weather station that has been turned into a museum and is staffed by 4 girls who spend the 4 summer months living in a small hut. They do not have running water, minimal bathroom facilities, and horror of horrors---No Internet!! They absolutely love what they do and the competition for the job is quite high. They also have the most southerly post office in the world. We took one of the girls along while we cruised in the area so she could get a shower and do laundry. We attempted to get to another landing spot and we almost made it there but the ice was to thick to make a landing. Speaking of landings, they are done in small zodiacs that are exactly what the army etc. use. Fun to get in and out of and very drafty. Most of time, the landings are wet, you have to wade ashore. When you depart the beach you have to give your boots a good scrub, penguin poop sticks like nothing ever made and you have to scrub your boots when you get on the ship again. Nobody likes penguin poop in the carpet!

 

Periodically we would get whale sightings (humpback and minke) and then everybody would go nuts. We actually were very lucky to spend some time chasing a mother and baby humpback whale in zodiacs. The photo you want is when the whale starts to dive, it lifts its flipper in the air prior to the dive. Thank god for digital cameras because it usually takes about 200 photos to get one good tail shot. Another time we spotted a minke whale that decided to swim under our zodiac and rub its back on the bottom of the boat---most exciting! I thought the boat guides were going to be overcome with excitement.

 

The expedition staff are all marine biologists, bird experts, ice experts, and one lone historian. They do know their stuff and share it with a religious fervor. A whole bunch of highly educated people in love with the antarctic and living their dream. I now know more about more stuff than I really probably never needed to know. I did find it hard to get excited about the birds however but the lecture about bird migration patterns was interesting. Question of the day: What do whales and chickens have in common?

 

You pay your money to go on this trip and the staff makes it their business to ensure you get your money's worth. They work you hard. This is the hardest I have very had to work on a vacation, maybe that is why it is called an expedition. Most very stop involved a climb up some very big hill.

 

The ship itself is very nice. Being used to much larger ships, this ship could probably be compared to a lifeboat on the large cruise liners. You could walk from one end to the other in about 30 seconds. The cabins were small (at least mine was), even more crowded when sharing with the slob of the south. The food was amazing even when I did not know what half of it was. Heavy on fish but always with some non fish thing available. Breakfast buffets were great including baked beans. Their concept of a hamburger is entertaining however.

What is even more fun is trying to take a shower when the ship is bouncing around. I now fully understand the concept of one hand for the ship and one hand for yourself. The beer and wine was part of the package and the Lt and myself gave a good attempt to get our money's worth. The cabin comes with a butler who actually dresses like a butler.

 

Our last stop was Deception Island, which is still an active volcano. You sail into the center called a caldera and you can see steam rising from parts of the shoreline. This the location of an old whaling station complete with oil tanks and dilapidated buildings. This was also the sight of the Polar Plunge!. 43 brave souls went for a very short swim. Silly people.

 

Of the 127 passengers on board, we had a real live British Lord and Lady along with their five kids (best behaved children I have ever seen), Germans, Italians, Brits, Canadians, Australians, and of course the odd American (one couple was from Naperville Il). One silly boy even proposed to his girl on the third day on an island complete with bubbly. The interesting thing about them is the girls mother is sharing the cabin with them!

 

I only have about 1000 pictures of various sights (penguins, seals, whale tails and scenery) that will take some time to wade through.

 

We also had access to the bridge almost every day, so I was able to assist the captain driving the boat. I am however banned from whistling on board, some silly superstition about whistling on a ship brings bad weather. Speaking of weather--we had the best weather it is possible to have while in the Antarctic. Even the Drake passage was relatively calm (I would hate to see what they consider rough weather out here.).

 

All told this a great trip even if one bag never managed to connect with me. Got a lot of experience doing laundry.

 

Answer: Whales and chickens sleep by resting one side of their brain at a time. There you go, something you never knew you needed to know but now you now. I have lots more! DraftsSentAirline Res and VouchersAlaska 9-12-12Oceania 3-21-12order receiptsPhotosShort term travel reservationsSilversea 12-22-11Solstice 3-28-13SVDP conferenceTrust information

[NCCruzQueen]

Maureen,

 

Please thank Garrit for this extensive write up on his cruise. It is so helpful for me, filled with great advise. You are so gracious to post his emails for all of us. Many thanks!!

[mringenoldus]

photo.JPG

Download(2.9 MB)

 

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Download(2.4 MB)

 

It has been great fun sharing with all of you. I jhave tried to attach two very cool photos - but I may not have done it correctly.

[RachelG]

Can't get the pics to open.

 

Loved your husband's descriptions though.

[TedC]

Happy New Year to you all! And now, the rest of the story.......

 

 

All:

 

I am not exactly sure what day this is (8 or 9), but is was good none the less. Today started out as another penguin visitation and ended up being the day we saw a humpback whale and another whale called a minke whale. Went right under the boat. Very exciting for all.

 

Penguins are really kind of cute but we sure have seen a lot of them. Between birds and penguins, and the occasional whale that is pretty much all you see here. The scenery however is really great. Lots of snow and ice and mountains.

 

We had dinner tonite with a german married to an italian lady.

 

One of the things we did today at our second stop waws climb to the top of the hill (mountain),. and slide down in the snow. This was Tristans idea and I foolishly went along with it. He is fine and I pulled a muscle in my back. I do believe that after this penguins are the smarter animal!

 

Tomorrow we sail into an active volcano (Deception Island) and visit an old whaling station.

 

After---two days at sea and the weather is not looking good.

 

The expedition leader says that we will all be throwing up before we get a chance to drink on New Years Eve when he was asked the question about a party. We shall see.

 

Off to bed.

 

Later

 

 

Happy New Year which here is about 1 hour away.

 

Today we did Deception Island which is the one place I really wanted to see. An active volcano that you sail into complete with an old whaling station. It was a nice end to the trip.

 

We are now on our way back and the Drake Passage is living up to its reputation. Tristan, however is having a rather good time. I had room service and he went to dinner and I have not seen him since. I will go back to the cabin and celebrate with a coke and retire. I am pooped.

 

We have lectures the next two days on various subjects, tomorrow, the legends of the deep and a course on bird migration. Not only do they make you work for your enjoyment they make you go back to school.

 

The weather is supposed to be clearing up a bit which will make the passage a little easier.

 

Not sure how many folks will make breakfast--we shall see. I know that Tristan will, the boy does not miss a meal.

 

Hope you are having a good time and from the looks of it you are.

 

I will let you know all about bird migration when I get back.

 

Total Fauna count:

 

5 kinds of penguins

3 kinds of seals

too many birds

2 kinds of whales.

 

and about 5000 pictures

 

and a whole lot of scenery

 

All told not a bad trip.

 

Enoying your reports immensely!

 

I climbed hill at Neko harbor while anchored in Paradise Bay and had to slide down - part way down I remembered I had a hip replacement just a year earlier and shouldn't be doing this! It wasn't pretty but I lived to tell the tale of my stupidity! ( I was far from 28)

 

 

Thanks for the memories!

[NCCruzQueen]

I climbed hill at Neko harbor while anchored in Paradise Bay and had to slide down - part way down I remembered I had a hip replacement just a year earlier and shouldn't be doing this!

 

Oh, Ted, only you would do something like this with a replaced hip!!!

[TedC]

BETH, you're in for a real treat - I know you won't do anything as foolish as I did!

 

(Never told my surgeon and follow-up X-rays didn't reveal my secret.)

 

 

Looking forward to your seamail!