Cruising to Greenland

[Hlitner]

2 minutes ago, clo said:

Do they only speak German?  We've been on a Norwegian line - not THAT Norwegian - and the announced were made in Norwegian, English and German.  And all the crew spoke English.

The German cruise lines are primarily German speaking as are nearly all of their passengers.  It is not quite the same as the Norwegian lines like Hurtigruten where a majority of the folks are bi-lingual.  Funny thing is that we have met quite a few Germans on English speaking lines and they tell us that they prefer the English speaking lines to the German lines.  Not exactly sure why, but its what we have heard from quite a few Germans.  Most recently we had quite a  German crowd on our MSC Divina cruise and they told us they enjoyed that line and some other American based lines more than the German speaking lines.  Most of those Germans spoke some English but they did struggle a bit communicating with Americans.  But they were great fun and sure could handle their share of booze.

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, GeeDunk said:

 

Sailed the Marco Polo, to Antarctica, in 2006.

Great Ship. Owned by Orient.

Due to Landings, the Ship sailed at half capacity

It broke our heart when Orient went under and sold the Marco Polo.  DW and I had planned to go on their Antarctica cruise the following year.  Now, we might do it on Seabourn's new exploration vessel (still to be built) but it will cost us 3-4 times what it would have been on the Marco Polo :(.

 

Hank

[clo]

10 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It broke our heart when Orient went under and sold the Marco Polo.  DW and I had planned to go on their Antarctica cruise the following year.  Now, we might do it on Seabourn's new exploration vessel (still to be built) but it will cost us 3-4 times what it would have been on the Marco Polo :(.

 

Hank

We went to Antarctica on Hurtigruten's Midnatsol.  Awesome - a word I generally avoid 🙂

[CPT Trips]

6 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I can't find any information whether the Saga ship is Polar Class or not, but any of the older ships, especially the Marco Polo will not be allowed north or south of 60* in the future.

 

Do you happen to know whether the Corinthian (98 pax operated by Grand Circle Cruise Line) is Polar Class? All I could ascertain is that she is "ice reinforced." I have no idea what that actually means. 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by CPT Trips

[chengkp75]

3 hours ago, CPT Trips said:

 

Do you happen to know whether the Corinthian (98 pax operated by Grand Circle Cruise Line) is Polar Class? All I could ascertain is that she is "ice reinforced." I have no idea what that actually means. 

 

I see that she was built in 1990, so I don't think there is any way she meets the new (effective 2018) PC-6 class rules, as built.  It is also almost impossible, fiscally, to retrofit a ship to these new standards.  Again, little information available, but typically "ice reinforced" meant one of the lowest classes of the old "Ice Class" rules.  Those old rules, which varied by classification society, had a Finnish "Ice Class 1A", and most existing ice classed cruise ships met this standard.  This old standard is now the lowest of the new Polar Classes (PC-7), and passenger ships must now meet the stricter PC-6 standards.

[jocap]

21 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

I can't find any information whether the Saga ship is Polar Class or not, but any of the older ships, especially the Marco Polo will not be allowed north or south of 60* in the future.

Yes, both the newly launched Saga Spirit of Discovery and next year's Spirit of Adventure are listed as Polar Class.

[Tom47]

We cruised to Antarctica on Hurtigruten's Fram in Feb -Mar 2016.  All landings were by zodiac boats and it was strenuous.  We enjoyed it but don't plan to do it again.  There were 3 groups--1 Norwegian, 1 German and 1 American aboard.

[clo]

5 minutes ago, Tom47 said:

We cruised to Antarctica on Hurtigruten's Fram in Feb -Mar 2016.  All landings were by zodiac boats and it was strenuous.  We enjoyed it but don't plan to do it again.  There were 3 groups--1 Norwegian, 1 German and 1 American aboard.

We were on Midnatsol to Antarctica in '18.  I'm not physically strong and am 72 and didn't find the landings at all bad.  They helped me in and out..  Not sure what this has to do with Greenland 🙂

[Tom47]

Just now, clo said:

We were on Midnatsol to Antarctica in '18.  I'm not physically strong and am 72 and didn't find the landings at all bad.  They helped me in and out..  Not sure what this has to do with Greenland 🙂

Hurtigruten also goes to Greenland and most of their landings are by zodiac boats.  We were required to wear our life vests for all hikes under 3k.  DW stayed on the ship some days.  We are  in our early 70s.  On 1 of the Falklands hikes, I was in a later group, but there were hikers after me.  They passed me and met me on their way back before I made it it to the turnaround point.  I was the last one to make it back that day and went back with the crew.  It was a 7k hike.  We went to Greenland on a land tour in 2017.

 

[clo]

21 minutes ago, Tom47 said:

Hurtigruten also goes to Greenland and most of their landings are by zodiac boats.  We were required to wear our life vests for all hikes under 3k.  DW stayed on the ship some days.  We are  in our early 70s.  On 1 of the Falklands hikes, I was in a later group, but there were hikers after me.  They passed me and met me on their way back before I made it it to the turnaround point.  I was the last one to make it back that day and went back with the crew.  It was a 7k hike.  We went to Greenland on a land tour in 2017.

 

Thanks for connecting the dots.  I didn't do any hikes.