Svalbard advice?

[sfvoyage]

1 hour ago, JodiandFrank said:

Dear SFVoyage, 

   Thank you for that information.  It helps.

I would HATE to be assigned to the 6:30AM flight!!!  Did you get any kind of choice?!?!?!

Unfortunately you cannot choose the flight.

[BasandSyb]

Given our experience of travelling over the last 5 months, I’m glad we didn’t arrive the day prior or day of any organised travel arrangements and cruises. We never do.

 

Twice our luggage was delayed by up to 48 hours. The second time it was received only after our vigourous follow-ups and a tour company rep who was exceptional and took no prisoners.

 

Twice we received our luggage which is in hard cases and the contents were wet through. The cases had been left out in driving rain at the airport and water ingress occurred through the 1 cm zip area. The extra hotel time was invaluable in getting everything dried out and repacked. Not every airport places baggage in containers to be unloaded to an aircraft this also includes many large international airports for certain flights. One of these flights was a Seabourn charter. Thankfully none of the clothes and/or packing accessories/shoe bags etc.leached colour - something else to think about when packing. 😵‍💫

 

 

[BOB999]

19 hours ago, trips_ahoy said:

We are on the July 10th trip. I understand that we will be boarding the ship by zodiac. How was that process?

 

In Longyearbyen the ship was at a dock so we debarked (and the next group) boarded normally from a port.  There were other ships that were offloading via zodiac though. Didn't look much fun.

[trips_ahoy]

Thanks for that information. We will hope for a normal boarding at the dock.

[BasandSyb]

Our itinerary and its subsequent updates had us debarking by zodiac from Longyearbyen. Although we considered this potentially an error or fall back position given they had to do some provisioning and refuelling, we were dreading if it actually occurred. Having to wear all the gear and then pack it wet in carry-ons.
 

As BOB999 said some other ships did. It was wet, windy and cold. In port at the time were the Greg Mortimer and a Quark vessel - Ocean something. It looked awfully uncomfortable as the zodiacs were bobbing in the water. Very glad we docked.