If anyone has questions about the Falklands...

[Gixer]

Hi Kyle & Cindy,

 

Gosh! thanks for your lovely post, and to the kind words from everyone else too :o

 

A taxi to Gypsy cove will be easy, they will be waiting in the carpark next to the Pod gift shop right where you get off the tender. You could ask the taxi driver to take you on a quick tour of the battlefield site areas, the only problem being that all the memorials (apart from the one in town) are on the battlefield sites themselves, which are all on top of mountains in the Stanley area, so you need to be in a 4x4 to get up there, unless you wanted to hike but that would take up all of your day.

 

I think maybe you could do a half day battlefield tour, so you just do the sites around Stanley instead of going out to Fitzroy & Goose Green/Argentine cemetary and your guide would take you to gypsy cove too, leaving you with half a day to look around town, visit the museam, do a bit of shopping (the wool products are beautiful) and have a couple of pints in the pub :D

[Nekokaburi]

Quick Note: A Documentary on Penguins in Antarctica is coming on Animal Planet in a few minutes, at 2300 Eastern Time.

[Nekokaburi]

Gixer,

Thanks so much for the help. We're going to shoot from the hip, which is what we tend to do anyway, and grab a driver at the pier and have some fun before striking out on foot in Stanley. Sounds really fun!

 

Now we'll have to book another trip down sometime so we can meet you since we'll miss you on this visit.

 

Cheers,

Kyle

[edinburgher]

Fridge magnets from each persons own country or town/city? Easy to carry/pack easy for Gixer to display. Not disastrous for giver if weather too poor for tendering and the port is missed.

[Nekokaburi]

Fridge magnets from each persons own country or town/city? Easy to carry/pack easy for Gixer to display. Not disastrous for giver if weather too poor for tendering and the port is missed.

 

Brilliant Idea Edinburgh!

One Clearwater / Florida Suncoast Fridge Magnet coming up! Since Gixer won't be there when we go, maybe we can leave it with a friend of hers or something at the Jetty Centre or wherever.

 

BTW Edinburgh, you live in one of my favorite places on earth. When I was attending university, in Northeast England, I used to catch the train up to Edinburgh every weekend I could. What a fun town! I did not visit every pub in town but I sure tried!

 

Kyle

[Crown Prince]

Fridge magnets from each persons own country or town/city? Easy to carry/pack easy for Gixer to display. Not disastrous for giver if weather too poor for tendering and the port is missed.

 

It will be > a year, but I will bring mine from Beautiful Downtown Burbank or, maybe Hollywood.

[edinburgher]

KYLE, thanks for that. Pleased you have such fond memories but surprised you actually have any memories at all if you drank that much alcohol! :D We enjoy living here very much. Its a beautiful city and although small has a wide range of activities and events throughout the year.

 

GIXER I hope the fridge magnets are a good idea as it seems you might get lots! If not happy with this suggestion, then in fairness to you, you must tell us before they start arriving! Time to be honest.

 

If happy with the idea, do you have a US style mailbox somewhere on or off your property or a UK style letter box opening in your door? Or a PO mailbox elsewhere in town? I hope those horses are always in the garden or we wont know which house.

[Tarheelbelle]

Gixer,

I have recently learned that my cruise includes an excursion while in Stanley. It is called West Point Penguin Rookery, a half-day tour to a Rockhopper rookery. I do plan to take that, and then to walk around Stanley for shopping, pub etc. I also may take the minibus up to Gypsy Cove. How long does it take to get there from Stanley?

Thanks again for the invaluable information you have given!

[Nekokaburi]

Edinburgher already thought of this but another member of our thread brought it to my attention that Gixer had not actually ok'd the magent idea. HAAA! We got so excited we forgot to ask the key person. We probably need to know if that's ok. I sure would hate to have cars losing control and swerving into Gixer's kitchen because of the amazing pull of 2,000,000 fridge magnets on her fridge.

 

There is a good side though, if you have that many fridge magnets and stand in front of the fridge, I think it's possible yet not scientifically proven as of this date, that one may be cured of arthritis. :)

[Gixer]

Ohhh my goodness! :o

 

I love fridge magnets! it would be fantastic to have a collection from all over the world :D Honestly though its not necessary, I really enjoy just trying to answer questions for you if I can, I want you all to enjoy your visit as much as possible!

If you do happen to bring a magnet and Im not here then you could always just leave it in the post office for me, then I can pick it up when I get back or my mum could collect it!

 

Your all very kind, Thanks :o

 

Tarheelbelle -

 

It only takes 10mins in a taxi from town to Gypsy Cove so you will have plenty of time to do your excursion, go to Gypsy Cove and have a wander around town too.

[Tarheelbelle]

Thanks, Gixer, for the information. I am looking forward to my brief visit to Stanley and surrounds.

[Nekokaburi]

Ok Ms. Gixer,

You will be up here when we're down there. When we're at the post office, do we say "This is for Gixer?" If you don't want to post this, please email me at kylekiper@yahoo.com . You're getting a thank-you momento no matter how modest you are. You've helped us to enjoy a life memory and, although the world is a wild crazy place with wars and disaster, people are kind at heart and we appreciate warmth.

 

If Mum wants to collect them, let me know. Ms. Cindy and I would love to meet her too!

 

Kyle

Nekokaburi (For those who wonder, Nekokaburi is the name of my male Akita doggie. He's a slight 130lbs of "don't mess with daddy's house." Nekokaburi means "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing")

[Gixer]

My user name is the name of a pet too, Gixer is my cat, a beautiful Ragdoll seal point. My real name is Samantha John, you could put the magnet in an envelope with my name on it and drop it either into the post office, or Michelle's cafe in town where my friend works, or leave it behind the bar at the Goose hotel, you could leave it with anyone in town really and it would find its way to me :D

 

Hope I get to meet some of you when you visit!

[edinburgher]

Gixer/Samantha, did you read post no 137? (previous page)

[BurBunny]

My user name is the name of a pet too, Gixer is my cat, a beautiful Ragdoll seal point. My real name is Samantha John, you could put the magnet in an envelope with my name on it and drop it either into the post office, or Michelle's cafe in town where my friend works, or leave it behind the bar at the Goose hotel, you could leave it with anyone in town really and it would find its way to me :D

 

Hope I get to meet some of you when you visit!

 

Oh, Ragdolls are so precious! Their coloring is unique and they're usually just cuddle bugs. I'm sure she's one lucky kitty!

 

Unfortunately, I'm on the same sailing as Nekokaburi, so will miss you. But you'll have a magnet awaiting you upon your return to the island!

[wocruiser]

No we dont have letter boxes or a postman! we collect all our mail from the post office. I do have a US postbox style thing attatched to my fence though, its for the Milk delivery, its green and has Stanley dairy written on it, you could always drop it in there if you find yourself down this end of town when you visit, I live right down the West end, sometimes I have the 2 older horses in the garden during summer, one is a black and white horse (the only one on the Island) and the other is all black with 3 white feet, so if you see those horses in a garden then your in the right place, kettle is always on if you fancy popping in for a cuppa!

 

I mentioned a few days ago that I was hoping to get out to volounteer soon, well Neil is taking me, mum & the kids next Saturday so I will take plenty of photos, and we will get some ''timings'' down for you aswell, time from Stanly to Johnsons harbour by track, time off road to the point etc to give you a better idea of what to expect on your excursion. Fingers crossed for good weather!

We're looking forward to seeing your pictures of Volunteer, and hearing more about the trek out there!

How long is your Disney cruise? Will you be back in the Falklands by Jan 30th?

[CTGirl]

Gixer,

 

After reading through the entire thread, we are going to email Patrick Watts about a Volunteer Point tour on April 3, 2008. We're on the March 30th sailing of Star Princess out of Buenos Aires.

 

I greatly appreciate your generous attention to responding to everyone's questions. The information was invaluable.

Hi Babydoc, I don't know if you have come to this thread recently but if you do and you read this.... I am on the Star on March 30 as well. We have a really nice Roll Call going on. Here is the link if you want to join us. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=380318. I noticed you are from Connecticut. I am too. What town do you live in?

Shelly

[Gixer]

We're looking forward to seeing your pictures of Volunteer, and hearing more about the trek out there!

How long is your Disney cruise? Will you be back in the Falklands by Jan 30th?

 

Hi,

 

We are in Florida/Cruising for a month, we leave on 5th Jan and get back on 2nd Feb so unfortunatley I wont be here when you visit, our cruise is from 19th - 26th Jan but we have some time in WDW before hand then after the cruise we are spending some time at Universal. Its getting so close now and I think my kids are about to burst with excitment!

[c-to-sea]

I am still chuckling at the vision I have of the poor Post Office in Stanley and

the look on Samantha's face after each cruise ship arrival

when she is handed the huge mass of gifts,

all clinging to each other and inseperable by all but the strongest hands.

Oh, I forget - maybe it works the other way and they will be repel each other,

flying to all corners of the office. Either way, it should be fun to watch.

[edinburgher]

Maybe she will need to buy an entire row of fridges to accommodate them all.:D

 

Does anyone have an alternative/better suggestion?:confused:

[c-to-sea]

Don't get me wrong - I still find the idea attractive.

[Nekokaburi]

Hi,

 

We are in Florida/Cruising for a month, we leave on 5th Jan and get back on 2nd Feb so unfortunatley I wont be here when you visit, our cruise is from 19th - 26th Jan but we have some time in WDW before hand then after the cruise we are spending some time at Universal. Its getting so close now and I think my kids are about to burst with excitment!

 

Gixer,

I bet your kids are going nuts. I LOVE Universal Orlando. We go over and go to Margaritaville and all the other theme restaurants. (Sad truth is I love the Nascar Cafe. You can take the boy out of the South but you can't take the south out of the boy I guess) The Dueling Dragons RollerCoaster is AWESOME. Tell the kiddos it's worth waiting in the longer line to get the seats at the front of the rollercoaster!

 

Kyle

[Nekokaburi]

Cruise vessels will start experiencing navigational difficulties when approaching the Falkand Islands. When questioned about the anomalies, ship's officers will state: "It's very hard to pinpoint. There is something very strange happening. When we approach the Falklands, our navigational systems go offline and our compasses start spinning until they point toward two horses at a house ashore."

[etsdas]

What a deal! We are able to have our own private shore excursion expert for the Falklands! We were there before and opted to wander around town - we had planned our major penguin excursion for a later port - then weather interfered.

 

We did hear that some on our cruise were disappointed in the number of penguins - but you are making it sound like there will be quite a few to see.

 

By the way, our ship encountered high winds leaving Montivideo. It was calmer as we arrived at the Falklands, but the wind picked up as we walked around town, and we decided to return to the ship about noon. As it turned out, this was the last tender of the day - 2 others bounced around for quite a while, unable to link to the ship (HAL Amsterdam). They returned to shore, and about 1000 passengers and crew spent the night (in homes, barracks, and on church pews). The anchor would not hold, so the ship went farther out to sea, returning about 5 a.m. when tenders were able to bring people out. I am sure this is a rare occurrence, but did provide some excitement. Apparently the residents of Stanley do have a plan in place for such emergencies.

 

On the other hand,, we hear that the area around the Cape is often rough - we had smooth sailing there.

[Gixer]

What a deal! We are able to have our own private shore excursion expert for the Falklands! We were there before and opted to wander around town - we had planned our major penguin excursion for a later port - then weather interfered.

 

We did hear that some on our cruise were disappointed in the number of penguins - but you are making it sound like there will be quite a few to see.

 

By the way, our ship encountered high winds leaving Montivideo. It was calmer as we arrived at the Falklands, but the wind picked up as we walked around town, and we decided to return to the ship about noon. As it turned out, this was the last tender of the day - 2 others bounced around for quite a while, unable to link to the ship (HAL Amsterdam). They returned to shore, and about 1000 passengers and crew spent the night (in homes, barracks, and on church pews). The anchor would not hold, so the ship went farther out to sea, returning about 5 a.m. when tenders were able to bring people out. I am sure this is a rare occurrence, but did provide some excitement. Apparently the residents of Stanley do have a plan in place for such emergencies.

 

On the other hand,, we hear that the area around the Cape is often rough - we had smooth sailing there.

 

It does happen, infact it hapened a week last Sunday! we had 200 people stuck here overnight, and then the ship was able to sail at mid-day on the Monday. Its never an issue though, we have our names on an ''emergancy list'' and recieve a phone call asking us if we can accomodate a few passangers and to collect them from the jetty centre. Any of you cruise critic members are welcome to email me before you travel and I will give you my cell phone number, so if you do happen to get stuck you can ring me and I will come collect you :D

 

Etsdas, The best time of day to see the penguins is always about 7pm when they are returning from sea, although you wont be here at that time of night you will still get to see plenty. I guess its the passangers that arrive very early or very late in the season that would maybe be a bit dissapointed in the numbers?