Balcony in Antarctic waters?

[Sfbob]

We will board  the Silver Cloud next week for its 15 day Antarctic cruise.  Is the weather likely to permit spending time on our balcony during sea days, or is at-sea time better spent in enclosed places on the ship.

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who’s taken this cruise and can offer advice.

 

Sfbob

[Stumblefoot]

23 minutes ago, Sfbob said:

We will board  the Silver Cloud next week for its 15 day Antarctic cruise.  Is the weather likely to permit spending time on our balcony during sea days, or is at-sea time better spent in enclosed places on the ship.

It’s virtually impossible to say Sfbob.  If you’re willing to dress appropriately, you can easily spend time on your deck whenever you like.  With that said, I think you’ll find most people spend most of their time indoors during sea days transiting the Drake.

 

I’m a bit of a meteorology hack, but it’s looking like the weather in South Georgia could be quite wet with temps up to 20° below average.  Now, keep in mind, we’re 10-days out from South Georgia.  So, the accuracy of a forecast that far in the future is <20% in general as A LOT of variables can change over such a period of time.  As you can Mahomet, I would gladly forgo warm temps for clear visibility.

[jpalbny]

SFBob, the weather will be much more conducive to hanging out in the bar/lounge with the Stumblefeet and us (we will be on this cruise too) sipping wine and talking about how cold is is outside. Step outside now and then when there's something to see, but staying outside for hours on end is usually not so pleasant.

 

Weather is obviously variable, but on our Drake passage 10 years ago, we only went outside in short intervals. We didn't bother with a balcony cabin then, nor do we have one now. There were plenty of sea birds to see during the Drake transit but not too much else. We may see the occasional whale, or penguins on tabular icebergs, in spots, but that can be hit or miss.

 

Stumbles, get working on that forecast, will you? Chris's birthday is the 10th so no bad weather allowed!

[Stumblefoot]

5 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Stumbles, get working on that forecast, will you? Chris's birthday is the 10th so no bad weather allowed!

I know, I know and am hoping it will improve.  I want to be sure she can celebrate properly without any wave induced rockin’-and-rollin’ as we sail from S. Georgia towards Antarctica that evening.  
 

We’ll be celebrating Silver Princess’s 21st birthday on the 13th around Elephant Island and are hoping for calm seas too.

[Fletcher]

The weather in South Georgia has been brilliant this past week - I've been monitoring the webcams on three Ponant ships which allow live coverage. Unfortunately, the two official webcams on South Georgia appear to be offline and keep showing the same image.  You never can tell down there, it changes every hour.

 

As far as a balcony is concerned, we used ours quite a lot and found it useful for rapid photography if, say, you suddenly came across a pod of whales with your early morning coffee. 

 

 

[Fletcher]

[RachelG]

We have opted for o balcony. The upcoming cruise as I plan to be up top in the lounge sipping wine with Stumblefoot and jP.

[Sfbob]

Thanks very much to all for the helpful responses

[cflutist]

We didn't sit out on the balcony (Cloud) for any length of time but hubby sure ran out there a lot to take photos.

 

[spinnaker2]

On 12/29/2019 at 9:14 AM, Fletcher said:

Is that a Silversea balcony????

[Fletcher]

3 hours ago, spinnaker2 said:

Is that a Silversea balcony????

 

Superb detection work Sherlock.  It's a Seabourn Quest balcony.  But it's the same old Antarctica, the Lemaire Channel I think.

[spinnaker2]

Fletcher

Well I kinda was hoping the new refurb on the cloud was offering that balcony.

🙂

 

[Mocamps]

We did the Antarctic in 2018 on the Silver Cloud and then the Arctic last year. On both cruises we had the basic Vista cabin and didn't feel we missed out at all .......though I did spend a lot of time in the Observation lounge. In fact I was chatting there to a guy who had one of the most expensive cabins on the ship (with wraparound balcony) and he said it had been a complete waste of money!! There were 3 of them in it and they hadn't been able to move during the day on the Drake as they were so sick! The location of that cabin on a higher deck and near the front made their seasickness much worse than ours on a low deck and midships. Also, there was a lot of snow on their balcony so they couldn't get out on it anyway!!

 

Might be worth consideration??

 

We're now looking at an Asian cruise on the Muse and pondering the expense of the balcony (an extra £2000!) but as it's a 'hot' cruise and quite a long one with several sea days  we're giving it serious consideration. I do like reading on a balcony! But not sure it's worth that much. How easy will it be to find a quiet corner on deck given that most people will have balconies?