Have you e
ver dreamed of going to Antarctica just to see what it was really like? We sure have. This is the first installment of a series about the excitement of cruising to, in and through Antarctica. The article was written and photographed by our good friends, Peter and Alice who have favored us with their cruise business. We thank Peter and Alice for their friendship, their business as well as their preparation of this series.
Antarctica – The Last Frontier
In the last 40 years we have been very fortunate to have traveled to many places around the world. Our journeys started in 1964 when Peter was employed by Pan American World Airways. For the next 23 years, we took full advantage of airline employee discounts for airfare, hotels and car rentals. We traveled to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Australia and of course throughout the United States. Some cruise lines offered airline employees cruise discounts. In the early 80’s we took advantage of one of these specials. We left New York on the MS Scandinavia headed for the Caribbean. Being “airline people” we always want to get to our destination as quickly as possible and it was difficult for us to understand the attraction people had for cruising. We were “hooked”. We now have probably over 20 cruises under our belt traveling on many different lines: Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival, Home Lines and Princess. Our destinations have taken us throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Panama Canal, Alaska, Baltic Sea, Australia, Hawaii, and South America. We have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a few times.
One place we decided we wanted to go was around South America. We had been to Buenos Aires 30 years ago and decided it was time for another visit. We checked out various itineraries offered by the cruise lines and the one that intrigued us the most was offered by Princess.
The Star Princess had a 16 day cruise including 5 days cruising the Antarctica Peninsula and Cape Horn. We had Yvonne and Brad book our cruise. The cruise started and ended in Buenos Aires with several ports of call. Here’s our condensed itinerary:
02/02/2010 Embarkation and departure from Buenos Aires, Argentina
02/03 & 02/04 At Sea
02/05/2010 Stanley, Falkland Islands
02/06/2010 At Sea
02/07 – 02/10 Antarctic Peninsula – Scenic Cruising
02/11/2010 Cruising off Cape Horn
02/12//2010 Tierra del Fuego - Ushuaia, Argentina
02/13/2010 Punta Arenas Chile
02/14 – 02/16 At Sea
02/17/2010 Montevideo, Uruguay
02/18/2010 Arrival and disembarkation at Buenos Aires, Argentina
Whenever we return from a trip people always ask us --- “so how was your trip?” There is no doubt that this trip was by far the “best” vacation we have ever taken. We would certainly recommend this cruise which leisurely takes you cruising around the least visited continent on earth dotted with frozen landscapes and filled with abundant wildlife. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Even during their summer (our winter) this area of the world has rapid changes in weather conditions during a short period of time (sometimes as short as 20 minutes). Lady Luck was certainly on our side for this voyage, since the weather was near perfect.
Buenos Aires, Argentina (BA)
We usually like to be in the start city a few days before boarding our ship. You never can be sure about departure weather delays, airlines arriving on-time or the location of your luggage. Much has changed since our last visit to BA. In the 1980’s it was under military rule with an economy suffering from hyper-inflation. Today it is an exciting vibrant cosmopolitan city rich in history. It is more like a typical European city except the location is in South America.
The only negative issue, we had during the entire vacation was the length and aggravation boarding the ship. All passengers were told not to board the ship before 1:00 PM. Unfortunately; it seemed all 2,500 passengers showed up at precisely 1:00 PM including us. Passengers were everywhere dragging their luggage in a light humid drizzle.
Porters were not available to help you. We finally found the bag drop area cordoned off with temporary barriers. In the small opening there was a man holding a fistful of money who accepted your luggage once you showed him your cruise documentation. We took pictures of our luggage being added to the 15 foot stack (who knows how deep). Baggage handlers filled carts with bags from the huge stack and wheeled it to another area where it was loaded on trucks to take to the ship.
What about preferred check-in? Unfortunately, Buenos Aires does not have a typical cruise ship terminal. Instead you are escorted through lines in the cargo terminal during the check-in process even though you filled out your paperwork on-line. We finally secured our cabin keys and had to wait in another holding area to board the transport bus to the ship. An added surprise at check-in was that we had to surrender our passports that would be returned to us when we reach Montevideo. A helpful hint --- always have a photocopy of your passports and credit cards with you. We passed 2 other cruise ships anchored at the dock. No wonder all the chaos in the check-in terminal. After more than 3 hours we were relieved to finally put our key into the cabin door. Surprise and relief – our luggage arrived at the same time. Such perfect timing!
Lectures at Sea
Our Sea Days between Buenos Aires and our next port of call, Port Stanley, were not at all boring. We had opportunity to attend several shipboard lectures to prepare us for what we were going to see, these lectures started the very first sea day. We could go to the 700+ seat Princess Theater, or view the live presentation on your cabin TV or catch a rerun of the lecture. We were privileged to have three outstanding lecturers, each with a different specialty to learn about where we were going. Here’s what we experienced:
Dr Bernard Stonehouse’s first Antarctic trip was 1946-1950. During WWII he served in the Royal Navy. After the war he started his life’s work when he joined Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. This 11 member group spent 3 years in Antarctica. On this journey Dr. Stonehouse spent 3 years as biologist, dog sled-driver (100 dogs), meteorologist, pilot, and surveyor. During this expedition he discovered an Emperor penguin colony that led him to spend three winters studying their breeding cycle. We now can identify different types of penguins. Normally the underside of a penguin’s flippers is white. If you see it is pink you can assume the penguin is overheated and needs to turn on his natural radiator to let out some heat. He starts flapping his flippers to cool down. It was fascinating to listen to Dr. Stonehouse relate his experiences as an ecologist with interests in environment management. He performed studies to determine the ecological implication tourism would have in Antarctica. I loved his take on “global warming” or as he puts it, normal cyclical changes in weather temperatures.
Dr. Tony Walker is from Mansfield UK and currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he works as a Senior Environmental Consultant for Dillon Consulting. His first trip to Antarctica was 20 years ago as a Marine Biologist on Signey Island, South Orkney Islands where he performed 200+ scuba dives. Many dives were performed under very thick ice. After this he spent 30 months (1993-1996) as a seal scientist on Bird Island, South Georgia. He served as Base Commander at the research center. Can you imagine your only communication was 100 words per month per person on a telex machine? They certainly needed that 1 liter of alcohol per month to warm their bodies. Dr Walker has published 40 scientific papers and reports about his research in Antarctica. Our recommendation to you is to keep your distance from Leopard Seals. They are the top of the food chain in Antarctica.
Chris Gunn is a naturalist, author and illustrator from Essex, UK. For the past 5 years he has been working in Scotland on various projects for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. About 13 years ago he was in the Falkland Islands doing wildlife photography. Having a great set of binoculars is a good thing to pack for this trip. You could meet Chris at 7:30 am on Deck 12 to listen to him describe and point out the many species of wildlife (flying, diving, or just coming by on an iceberg). He gave an enlightening lecture about ice. Two types exist, Sea Ice and Land Ice. Within each category there are many different types of ice. The high content of salt in the sea prevents water from freezing until the temperature reaches 28.6 degrees (1.86 Celsius) turning water into Frazil Ice. The next phase is the formation of Grease Ice. I was trying to imagine the evolution of the water alongside the ship becoming rock solid and trapping us in this location for the winter and then releasing us in the spring when it thawed. Thank goodness we have those ice captains on the bridge.
ver dreamed of going to Antarctica just to see what it was really like? We sure have. This is the first installment of a series about the excitement of cruising to, in and through Antarctica. The article was written and photographed by our good friends, Peter and Alice who have favored us with their cruise business. We thank Peter and Alice for their friendship, their business as well as their preparation of this series.Antarctica – The Last Frontier
In the last 40 years we have been very fortunate to have traveled to many places around the world. Our journeys started in 1964 when Peter was employed by Pan American World Airways. For the next 23 years, we took full advantage of airline employee discounts for airfare, hotels and car rentals. We traveled to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Australia and of course throughout the United States. Some cruise lines offered airline employees cruise discounts. In the early 80’s we took advantage of one of these specials. We left New York on the MS Scandinavia headed for the Caribbean. Being “airline people” we always want to get to our destination as quickly as possible and it was difficult for us to understand the attraction people had for cruising. We were “hooked”. We now have probably over 20 cruises under our belt traveling on many different lines: Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival, Home Lines and Princess. Our destinations have taken us throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Panama Canal, Alaska, Baltic Sea, Australia, Hawaii, and South America. We have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a few times.
One place we decided we wanted to go was around South America. We had been to Buenos Aires 30 years ago and decided it was time for another visit. We checked out various itineraries offered by the cruise lines and the one that intrigued us the most was offered by Princess.
The Star Princess had a 16 day cruise including 5 days cruising the Antarctica Peninsula and Cape Horn. We had Yvonne and Brad book our cruise. The cruise started and ended in Buenos Aires with several ports of call. Here’s our condensed itinerary:02/02/2010 Embarkation and departure from Buenos Aires, Argentina
02/03 & 02/04 At Sea
02/05/2010 Stanley, Falkland Islands
02/06/2010 At Sea
02/07 – 02/10 Antarctic Peninsula – Scenic Cruising
02/11/2010 Cruising off Cape Horn
02/12//2010 Tierra del Fuego - Ushuaia, Argentina
02/13/2010 Punta Arenas Chile
02/14 – 02/16 At Sea
02/17/2010 Montevideo, Uruguay
02/18/2010 Arrival and disembarkation at Buenos Aires, Argentina
Whenever we return from a trip people always ask us --- “so how was your trip?” There is no doubt that this trip was by far the “best” vacation we have ever taken. We would certainly recommend this cruise which leisurely takes you cruising around the least visited continent on earth dotted with frozen landscapes and filled with abundant wildlife. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Even during their summer (our winter) this area of the world has rapid changes in weather conditions during a short period of time (sometimes as short as 20 minutes). Lady Luck was certainly on our side for this voyage, since the weather was near perfect.
Buenos Aires, Argentina (BA)
We usually like to be in the start city a few days before boarding our ship. You never can be sure about departure weather delays, airlines arriving on-time or the location of your luggage. Much has changed since our last visit to BA. In the 1980’s it was under military rule with an economy suffering from hyper-inflation. Today it is an exciting vibrant cosmopolitan city rich in history. It is more like a typical European city except the location is in South America.The only negative issue, we had during the entire vacation was the length and aggravation boarding the ship. All passengers were told not to board the ship before 1:00 PM. Unfortunately; it seemed all 2,500 passengers showed up at precisely 1:00 PM including us. Passengers were everywhere dragging their luggage in a light humid drizzle.
Porters were not available to help you. We finally found the bag drop area cordoned off with temporary barriers. In the small opening there was a man holding a fistful of money who accepted your luggage once you showed him your cruise documentation. We took pictures of our luggage being added to the 15 foot stack (who knows how deep). Baggage handlers filled carts with bags from the huge stack and wheeled it to another area where it was loaded on trucks to take to the ship.What about preferred check-in? Unfortunately, Buenos Aires does not have a typical cruise ship terminal. Instead you are escorted through lines in the cargo terminal during the check-in process even though you filled out your paperwork on-line. We finally secured our cabin keys and had to wait in another holding area to board the transport bus to the ship. An added surprise at check-in was that we had to surrender our passports that would be returned to us when we reach Montevideo. A helpful hint --- always have a photocopy of your passports and credit cards with you. We passed 2 other cruise ships anchored at the dock. No wonder all the chaos in the check-in terminal. After more than 3 hours we were relieved to finally put our key into the cabin door. Surprise and relief – our luggage arrived at the same time. Such perfect timing!
Lectures at Sea
Our Sea Days between Buenos Aires and our next port of call, Port Stanley, were not at all boring. We had opportunity to attend several shipboard lectures to prepare us for what we were going to see, these lectures started the very first sea day. We could go to the 700+ seat Princess Theater, or view the live presentation on your cabin TV or catch a rerun of the lecture. We were privileged to have three outstanding lecturers, each with a different specialty to learn about where we were going. Here’s what we experienced:
Dr Bernard Stonehouse’s first Antarctic trip was 1946-1950. During WWII he served in the Royal Navy. After the war he started his life’s work when he joined Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. This 11 member group spent 3 years in Antarctica. On this journey Dr. Stonehouse spent 3 years as biologist, dog sled-driver (100 dogs), meteorologist, pilot, and surveyor. During this expedition he discovered an Emperor penguin colony that led him to spend three winters studying their breeding cycle. We now can identify different types of penguins. Normally the underside of a penguin’s flippers is white. If you see it is pink you can assume the penguin is overheated and needs to turn on his natural radiator to let out some heat. He starts flapping his flippers to cool down. It was fascinating to listen to Dr. Stonehouse relate his experiences as an ecologist with interests in environment management. He performed studies to determine the ecological implication tourism would have in Antarctica. I loved his take on “global warming” or as he puts it, normal cyclical changes in weather temperatures.
Dr. Tony Walker is from Mansfield UK and currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he works as a Senior Environmental Consultant for Dillon Consulting. His first trip to Antarctica was 20 years ago as a Marine Biologist on Signey Island, South Orkney Islands where he performed 200+ scuba dives. Many dives were performed under very thick ice. After this he spent 30 months (1993-1996) as a seal scientist on Bird Island, South Georgia. He served as Base Commander at the research center. Can you imagine your only communication was 100 words per month per person on a telex machine? They certainly needed that 1 liter of alcohol per month to warm their bodies. Dr Walker has published 40 scientific papers and reports about his research in Antarctica. Our recommendation to you is to keep your distance from Leopard Seals. They are the top of the food chain in Antarctica.Chris Gunn is a naturalist, author and illustrator from Essex, UK. For the past 5 years he has been working in Scotland on various projects for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. About 13 years ago he was in the Falkland Islands doing wildlife photography. Having a great set of binoculars is a good thing to pack for this trip. You could meet Chris at 7:30 am on Deck 12 to listen to him describe and point out the many species of wildlife (flying, diving, or just coming by on an iceberg). He gave an enlightening lecture about ice. Two types exist, Sea Ice and Land Ice. Within each category there are many different types of ice. The high content of salt in the sea prevents water from freezing until the temperature reaches 28.6 degrees (1.86 Celsius) turning water into Frazil Ice. The next phase is the formation of Grease Ice. I was trying to imagine the evolution of the water alongside the ship becoming rock solid and trapping us in this location for the winter and then releasing us in the spring when it thawed. Thank goodness we have those ice captains on the bridge.
Please come back to read more about Peter and Alice's exciting cruise to Antarctica. We'll try to have a new post every week.
.jpg)
