North Pond Tour in Falkland Islands

[cmh]

If anyone has booked this tour through Princess, can you tell me if there are any bathroom facilities. The tour is six hours long and there is no mention of this on the website. Thanks in advance for your input.

[Mackenzie1]

According to this shore excursion description, they are available:

 

http://www.falklandislands.com/product.php/150/26/north_pond___shore_excursion

[Talisker92]

Do not book the Princess tour. Patrick Watts tour to Volunteer point is half the price. There are facilities there. To read about the tour, here is our website:

http://stevekathytravels.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/southamerica2014.pdf

We are happy to answer any questions

[runnerodb83]

We did this tour, it was excellent and I would highly recommend. You are in a group of about 4-6 SUV's, so max of about 20 people including guides at the North Pond site. It takes about 90 minutes to get there - there is an old farm house that you go by near the end of the drive where you will have lunch/snack at on the way back, It has a bathroom, so I'm sure if you asked your drive you could quickly stop. We got more than an hour with the penguins at the shore, and about 30 minutes near the rookery. It was the best cruise excursion we have ever done - penguins walked within 5 feet of me, and there were close to 150 penguins compared to 20 humans. On the ride back, you stop for a snack/lunch and then the full drive back.

 

It was an amazing tour and very much worth it for the intimate encounter with the animals. A tip for you, at first the penguins will avoid you, so slowly make your way to the edge of the group and sit on a log or something, within 15-30 minutes, you will be surrounded, especially as some penguins go back and forth between the rookery and the ocean. My wife and I have some amazing photos and videos and penguins walking straight toward us and around us, within arms reach.

 

Another tip, book more than one penguin tour on this cruise - these are probably some of the least reliable port calls. We booked otway sound in Punta Arenas also, which was not even comparable to North Pond.

 

Also, dress in layers, lots of them, include gloves, hats scarfs - the weather may be decent, but the wind is unrelenting.

Edited April 14, 2015 by runnerodb83

[cmh]

We did this tour, it was excellent and I would highly recommend. You are in a group of about 4-6 SUV's, so max of about 20 people including guides at the North Pond site. It takes about 90 minutes to get there - there is an old farm house that you go by near the end of the drive where you will have lunch/snack at on the way back, It has a bathroom, so I'm sure if you asked your drive you could quickly stop. We got more than an hour with the penguins at the shore, and about 30 minutes near the rookery. It was the best cruise excursion we have ever done - penguins walked within 5 feet of me, and there were close to 150 penguins compared to 20 humans. On the ride back, you stop for a snack/lunch and then the full drive back.

 

It was an amazing tour and very much worth it for the intimate encounter with the animals. A tip for you, at first the penguins will avoid you, so slowly make your way to the edge of the group and sit on a log or something, within 15-30 minutes, you will be surrounded, especially as some penguins go back and forth between the rookery and the ocean. My wife and I have some amazing photos and videos and penguins walking straight toward us and around us, within arms reach.

 

Another tip, book more than one penguin tour on this cruise - these are probably some of the least reliable port calls. We booked otway sound in Punta Arenas also, which was not even comparable to North Pond.

 

Also, dress in layers, lots of them, include gloves, hats scarfs - the weather may be decent, but the wind is unrelenting.

 

Thank your very much for all the information.

[WeeCountyMan]

Does your cruise include visits in Argentina ?

 

Not so long ago the Argies were refusing cruise liners from entering their ports if they had stopped over in the Falklands en route - part of their ongoing claim to the islands.

 

I don't recall the details of the ban - might only have applied to vessels flying the "red duster" though ?

 

Regardless of the issues, political grievances should not be inflicted on tourists who want to visit.

Edited April 16, 2015 by WeeCountyMan

[as19111]

I think Princess is pretty diligent in providing restroom breaks.

 

We took the private tour to Volunteer Point (with Patrick Watts). Our caravan, other private tours and the Princess caravan follow each other almost the entire way. The Princess tours stopped for a restroom break at the halfway point up and back. There are restrooms at Volunteer Point. The private tours do not make the half way stop unless you really, really need it!

 

The above advice is sound. Book more than one penguin tour in ports. We made it to the Falklands. Our second "backup penguin tour" was set for Puerto Madryn which was a stop after the Falklands. Puerto Madryn was cancelled due to a labor strike at the docks. So, if we had missed the Falklands, we would have missed the penguins! In this case, the strikers said they would let us dock, but they would not promise to let us back on the ship. For passenger safety, the captain skipped the port and it became a sea day and we spent the scheduled sea day as an extra day in Montevideo.