Live From the Sapphire, 30-Day Antarctica/SA B2B, Jan 20 - Feb 19

[EDVM96]

9 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Nothing was mentioned in the Patter, and not sure if the Captain mentioned it, as it depends on where you are on the ship when he speaks over the intercom system.

It's pretty unbelievable, because it's scenic cruising at it's best at these glaciers. 5 in a row.
Btw, it was just the same on my 2017 South Ameica Cruise. No mentioning by Princess in any way.

Edited February 15 by EDVM96

[Ken the cruiser]

46 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

Where did you hear the commentary?  We are on deck 10 and any captain’s announcements we hear by opening the stateroom door are very muffled.  We heard part of one yesterday but not all of it and didn’t hear any other announcements or see anything in the Patter about the glaciers.  As a result we had no idea we were going to sail past them and so we missed seeing them.  We are very disappointed as Ken your photos look amazing. We don’t want to miss more and do see information about the scenic cruising tomorrow so we won’t miss that.

That stinks. FWIW the commentaries are always broadcasted on the WebCam on the TV. But of course if you don’t know when it is going to be broadcasted, how would you know when to turn the TV on. 

[Ken the cruiser]

20 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

It's pretty unbelievable, because it's scenic cruising at it's best at these glaciers. 5 in a row.
Btw, it was just the same on my 2017 South Ameica Cruise. No mentioning by Princess in any way.

I agree. They should have listed it in the Patter and the Cruise Director should have mentioned it over the speaker system as well as it is a big deal!

[EDVM96]

13 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I agree. They should have listed it in the Patter and the Cruise Director should have mentioned it over the speaker system as well as it is a big deal!

Well, I was prepared, and your were prepared - checking the areas before you go.
But so many cruisers don't do this.

 

Edited February 15 by EDVM96

[EDVM96]

What a great cruise so far for you. No missed ports (witch is stunning, compared to last year), mostly very nice weather. 👍

[Carnevale]

6 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

Well, I was prepared, and your were prepared - checking the areas before you go.
But so many cruisers don't do this.

 

I did a ton of research before we left but without knowing the route the ship will take I don’t know how I could have discovered this or known the timing.  Having information provided onboard seems like a simple request. When we sailed Alaska with HAL there was always a lot of great info in advance so it can be done.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Carnevale said:

I did a ton of research before we left but without knowing the route the ship will take I don’t know how I could have discovered this or known the timing.  Having information provided onboard seems like a simple request. When we sailed Alaska with HAL there was always a lot of great info in advance so it can be done.

To be honest the only reason we were aware of the German Glacier was when I woke up at 5:30 am on the last leg cruising from Punta Arenas through the Beagle Channel towards Ushuaia and peaked out onto the balcony and saw this.

 

 
Then 5 minutes later I saw the German Glacier. I then took a screen shot of the Cruise Mapper location where I saw this, so I could take more photos when we came back through on this leg.

 

 
But remembering back to our 2018 HAL cruise, I only thought there was one glacier, so I went back to bed. Who knew there were 5 glaciers plus all of the other awesome views on this stretch! I sure don't remember either the CD or the naturalist onboard mentioning any of them as we left Ushuaia yesterday. In any event my camera was ready and the WebCam was on as we made the righthand turn by the little island and headed down through Glacier Alley once again.

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise overlooking a “giant turtle” swimming around in the Pacific Ocean! Unfortunately, we were too far away to determine which type it was. 😂

 

 
But by 11 am we were entering calmer waters in the Chilean Fjords.

 

 

 
The best viewing today appears to be on the starboard side, where hopefully we will be viewing the Amalia Glacier around 4:30 pm.

 

 
This is the view of the port side as we were entering the fjords.
 

 

[luvs2cruzga]

I am joining this ship on the19th and have a couple of questions.  I just had an upgrade bid to club class accepted. Will my medallion be updated or do I need to do something? Do I need to make reservations for dinner and which dining room would I make them.  It's been several years since I have cruised this class on Princess.

[milogurd]

The Drake Passage is feared by travelers and sailors alike.

From CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/drake-passage-rough-sea-scn/index.html

 

[Ken the cruiser]

19 minutes ago, luvs2cruzga said:

I am joining this ship on the19th and have a couple of questions.  I just had an upgrade bid to club class accepted. Will my medallion be updated or do I need to do something? Do I need to make reservations for dinner and which dining room would I make them.  It's been several years since I have cruised this class on Princess.

Congratulations! You don’t have to do a thing as your medallion will be automatically updated. You also don’t have to make any dinner reservations in the Reserve Dining Room, which is on Deck 6 midship on the starboard side in the Santa Fe dining room. Just show up sometime between 5-9 pm and they will seat you without usually any wait.

 

Have a fun cruise!!!

[EDVM96]

26 minutes ago, milogurd said:

The Drake Passage is feared by travelers and sailors alike.

From CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/drake-passage-rough-sea-scn/index.html

 

That's not true. Sapphire Princess is an intrepid and fearless ship. 😊

[EDVM96]

8 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise overlooking a “giant turtle” swimming around in the Pacific Ocean! Unfortunately, we were too far away to determine which type it was. 😂

 

Wow, I dind't know sea turtles go that far south in cold waters. 🐢

[waltd]

Just now, EDVM96 said:

That's not true. Sapphire Princess is an intrepid and fearless ship. 😊

Didn't they say that about the Titanic?🤔

[EDVM96]

15 minutes ago, waltd said:

Didn't they say that about the Titanic?🤔

No they said they are unsinkable. Pretentious. 😑

[waltd]

Ha Ha Ha,  if you think so.

[Ken the cruiser]

We had a great time cruising through the Chilean Fjords and seeing the Amalia Glacier today, and the weather turned out to be another beautiful day!

 
Here’s the route we took. Where the Sapphire did a u-turn is where the Amalia Glacier was located.

 

 

Here are some of the views we experienced once we entered the fjords.

  

   

  

 

 

 
Here’s where we made the righthand turn and headed for the glacier.

 

 

 

 
As we got closer to the glacier, we started seeing snow on the nearby mountains and a few ice chips in the water.

 

 

 
This was one of the bigger ice chunks, which was maybe 10’ long. Obviously, nothing like we saw cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula. 😂
 

 
While we were waiting for the Captain to slowly turn the ship around so we could see the glacier from our balcony, we saw this very rare Amalia Glacier Little Black Duck periodically diving underwater every so often trying to find something tasty to eat. The little guy was only about 6-8” long! 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Then it was time to start cruising again through the awesome Chilean Fjords! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
This was the view looking back from whence we came before leaving this stretch of the fjords! 😁
  

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 28 - Feb 16 - Sea Day

 

 

 

[Carnevale]

More great photos Ken!  Even though we are on this cruise I look forward to your blog every day.  You do an amazing job of capturing the experience.  Many thanks!!

 

 I will just add one tidbit to what you have mentioned as I know that we do different things in the evenings.  We love to dance and have been so pleased with the experience on this sailing every evening so far. There are two duos with the Moondance Duo playing nonstop dance music during their sets and the talented Fountain Duo doing about half dance music and half other things.  So if there are any readers who are dancers looking forward to being on Sapphire soon I think you will have a great time.

[Celandine]

All caught up! Absolutely loving your pictures! This is one of my bucket list cruises! Thank you for sharing 🙂 

[beg3yrs]

3 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

That's not true. Sapphire Princess is an intrepid and fearless ship. 😊

Not far from the truth. In January of 2023 we rounded Elephant Island on the Sapphire and went from nice weather to greater than 100 knot winds and 9 meter swells just like that. Captain McBain tried to make headway towards Admiralty Bay but had to eventually settle for pointing her into the wind and setting a speed enough to maintain steerage. However, the Sapphire still rode comfortably even though now and then you had to grab a handrail. Her wider beam over the rest of the Grand class (except for the Diamond of course) makes her a much better ship to sail in rough seas!

[Cruiser Nonna]

4 hours ago, luvs2cruzga said:

I am joining this ship on the19th and have a couple of questions.  I just had an upgrade bid to club class accepted. Will my medallion be updated or do I need to do something? Do I need to make reservations for dinner and which dining room would I make them.  It's been several years since I have cruised this class on Princess.

Congratulations and question - how far in advance did you submit your bid?  I noticed that your sailing is the next one that we are on are wait listed and showing no space and we too have put in a bid but thought since nothing was available that the option would not work but you prove that it might still be a possibility?  Thank you for sharing and have a grand trip

[Cruiser Nonna]

Ken - I cannot thank you and your wife enough for the time and effort you have spent so all of us can be sailing with you on this cruise,  You have given us so many thought, suggestions, and fantastic photos to prepare us for our cruise.  Continued wonderful journey - stay well and safe

[Mary loves to travel]

We were on the first part of this cruise, from Santiago to BA.    I’m trying to remember how we knew when we were going through Glacier Alley.     We tended to be outside often, so heard most of the commentary from the naturalists, and anytime we were in our stateroom we had the tv tuned to the Bridge Cam so we’d hear any announcements.     

But we knew Glacier Alley was coming up early, and were up before 5 am.    Watching the sunrise, then the sail along Glacier Alley was an amazing experience!

People in the next cabin also knew, as they were out on their balcony at 5 am, too.   
 

I think the issue might be that some announcements from the captain and the naturalists were made in the early evening, and of course couldn’t be heard by folks in the shows.     Not sure how to solve this.   
 

Mary

[Ken the cruiser]

7 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

We were on the first part of this cruise, from Santiago to BA.    I’m trying to remember how we knew when we were going through Glacier Alley.     We tended to be outside often, so heard most of the commentary from the naturalists, and anytime we were in our stateroom we had the tv tuned to the Bridge Cam so we’d hear any announcements.     

But we knew Glacier Alley was coming up early, and were up before 5 am.    Watching the sunrise, then the sail along Glacier Alley was an amazing experience!

People in the next cabin also knew, as they were out on their balcony at 5 am, too.   
 

I think the issue might be that some announcements from the captain and the naturalists were made in the early evening, and of course couldn’t be heard by folks in the shows.     Not sure how to solve this.   
 

Mary

There is an easy fix to notify guests when the ship plans to cruise through Glacier Alley. Put it at the top of page 1 on the Patter, which everyone receives the prior evening. Kind of like they did for announcing the cruising time for the Amalia Glacier Scenic Cruising, Cape Horn, and other notable cruising events. Problem solved.

 

 
For some reason they chose not to do that on either leg of our cruise.

Edited February 16 by Ken the cruiser