Tammy Trip Reports | Day 12 – Ushuaia For A Day

Day 12 – Ushuaia For A Day

Tammy — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 19:48:38 +0000

Day 12 – Ushuaia For A Day

Today I woke up at 7:45. When I opened the curtains – Ushuaia!

And more ships! There are several ships that visit Antarctica. We were very happy with our choice! I’ll tell you more about that later!

Since I was back in the land where I could use my international day pass, I played around on the computer for a little while.

Then Audrey, Jenn, and I got off to walk around the port.

There were four ships in port! Celebrity Eclipse was the largest by far! Too large to step on the continent, they would just be sailing through.

We saw a ton of the crew on the shore. They directed us to the End of the World sign.

Ushuaia was really beautiful!

We went to a couple of stores and then made our way back to the ship for lunch.

Here’s a portion of the buffet. Things changed every day, and it was very good!

After we ate, we went back to the room to pack. Sadness. Because of all the changes, we were getting off the ship at 3 am! And we had to leave our room at 1 am. It was going to be a sad night!

We packed as much as we could and then went up to my favorite place – The Dome!

It was perfect out!

We had tea and talked to our fellow guests for a while. Eventually, we went to the lounge to sit until dinner. After one last dinner, we went to our rooms, finished packing, and then tried to sleep for a couple of hours! Which didn’t work at all. Ha!

We read and got up at 12:30 to vacate the room. The next 36 hours were a blur! We loaded busses around 3, went to the airport, sat for a while, waved at friends getting off the charter flight and headed to the ship, boarded the flight, barely slept, landed in Buenos Ares, went to a hotel for the day where we slept and worked a little, then it was back to the airport for 15 more hours of travel.

Here we are with friends arriving!

Phew! What a trip!

Antarctica is the trip of a lifetime. I highly recommend Atlas as well!

Thanks for reading along!

Antarctica At Last – January 13-24, 2024
Day 1 – On My Way
Day 2 – Beautiful Buenos Ares
Day 3 – To the Ship
Day 4 – Drake Lake
Day 5 – First Penguins
Day 6 – Two Landings!
Day 7 – Penguins Again
Day 8 – An Unintentional Polar Plunge and Camping on the Continent!
Day 9 – To Plunge or Not to Plunge
Day 10 – The Day I Did Nothing
Day 11 – Calm Waters Again
Day 12 – Ushuaia For the Day

Day 11 – Calm Waters Again

Tammy — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:00:18 +0000

Day 11 – Calm Waters Again

We slept until 9:30 today! Crazy! It’s not like we hadn’t had enough sleep at this point!

We were rocking a little, not as bad as the day before though!

We showered, got dressed, and went to find some food.

We sat in the lounge and ate some food from Paula’s pantry!

Then it was time for lunch! I went to the Dome after and talked to people. We compared photos, chatted, etc. These small cruises really give you a good chance to make new friends if you want!

At 2:00 there was a Q&A with the crew in the Dome.

One of them said they never got sick, but that was a weird motion the day before, and they felt awful. Phew! It wasn’t just us!

Afterwards, I heard someone say – dolphins! There were sooo many playing in the ship wake! And I didn’t bring my camera! I thought we were done with wildlife! I watched them for a while, and finally couldn’t stand it. I ran to get my camera! They were gone and it was raining when it got back. Dang it!!

We talked some more and eventually a few came back!

I got rained on, but it was worth it! Audrey took a great video:

Then it was time to get ready for the Captain’s Farewell. The farewell was in the lounge. They had drinks and canapés. All the officers and crew came for us to clap for them.

After that finished, we went to dinner! And then bed. Look what we had! Soooo cool.

Day 10 – The Day I Did Nothing

Tammy — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 14:11:33 +0000

Day 10 – The Day I Did Nothing

This morning I woke up, and the ship was moving!

I thought I would be fine, but by the time I stepped out of the shower – definitely not fine. So I put on a robe and got right back in bed.

I slept off and on until 2. I got up again, determined to finish getting ready.

Mukta brought me a chocolate muffin, so I ate half.

Then got back in bed. Ha!

Woke up at 7 to watch the briefing on our TV. Then back to sleep!

At 9:30 pm I really wanted to go to the crew talent show, but that was not happening.

Eventually, I fell asleep again (swells were up to 10 meters at that point!), and then I slept all night!

I did Nothing all day! I was in bed for almost 36 hours!! Sleeping most of it! Insanity.

I thought I would take a cool video of the seas moving, but that didn’t happen. I didn’t take a single picture of anything!

So we got the Drake Shake, after all.

There’s a saying in Antarctica that you have to earn Antarctica. Today – we did!

Day 9 – To Plunge or Not to Plunge

Tammy — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 11:53:11 +0000

Day 9 – To Plunge or Not to Plunge

I woke up around 4:30 for good. It was rather blinding, opening my eyes!

I talked to Mukta for a while and we started packing our bags up around 4:50.

The zodiacs were coming back to get us around 5. We put everything back in the garbage bags and tried to knock down our snow walls.

Which was much harder than you would think! The snow had frozen solid around us, and we worked hard to get it looking like it did before we arrived. Mostly like it did anyway!

We walked down, hopped on a zodiac, and zoomed back to the ship. They were waiting for us with hot chocolate, which was a welcome sight!

I took off my gear in the mud room, and went and got right into pajamas. I set my alarm for 10, and I was asleep very quickly. The bed was sooooo soft. And warm. Ha!

At 10, the cruise director came on the speakers and said it was time to get ready for the polar plunge!

When I heard about the polar plunge, I was an immediate no. No desire whatsoever! Plus, you can do polar plunges anywhere! Except maybe Florida.

Then several people pointed out that you can’t do them at the ACTUAL poles! Plus, most of our group was doing it.

It was peer pressure. One hundred percent!

Mukta woke up too, and we put on our swimsuits and robes and went to sign the release forms. Then we met up in the lounge with everyone else. It was packed! I think half the ship was doing it!

After our group was called, we went downstairs to the mud room again. They had music playing to get us excited!

When it was my turn, I knew I couldn’t stop to think. Simon, the cruise director, said he would film me. There was also a photographer on a zodiac. I was like – I DO NOT need pictures of this. But then I thought, well… why not! Let’s document it, even if no one ever sees it! So I gave him my phone, took off the robe, and immediately questioned all of my life’s choices!

I walked to the end, they put the rope around me, and I went downstairs. I asked about 20 questions – do I jump, do I stand here, there, etc. Stalling maybe?

Someone in the zodiac yelled – it’s your second polar plunge! Ha! Truth!

I truly didn’t know if I would be able to make myself jump. Then I heard someone counting to three, and I stopped thinking, and when they hit three, I jumped!

It wasn’t bad!

For about .5 seconds.

Your first thought is – not bad! Then it hits you. And it shocks you! Sooooo cold!

Back to the ladder immediately. I crawled out and was never so happy to be on a freezing platform. I climbed the stairs, and I was sooooo happy to be done and to have done it. I’m so glad I did! It’s a life experience, and I never need to do it again.

Here’s video proof:

And a picture from the photographer:

Mukta did it right after me! They were waiting with hot chocolate again, and I grabbed one and went to shower. Mukta showered after me, and we sent our laundry off again. Our suite included laundry twice. It was extra nice to send away our wet swimsuits!

Here are the normal prices:

The view from our room:

After we got ready, we went to lunch. It was delicious, as usual.

Jenn and Audrey gave us the lowdown from their dinner last night. They said it was only for ten people and was amazing!

Then we went up to the Dome and hung out. We were going through Foyn Harbor which was a bay full of whales. Like we passed pods of 4-5 every 5 minutes. We would go outside, freeze and take pictures, come back in for two minutes, and then go out the other side. I just couldn’t believe how many there were.

Whales!

At 2:30 we had our last expedition. It was a zodiac ride through the bay to see a shipwreck. And hopefully, see even more whales!

We did both! Woohoo!

One of the other passengers very kindly took a picture of me. I had no idea! He told me later that he knew as photographers, we didn’t get in the frame enough. He is correct!

Love these green jackets!

There was a shipwreck in the harbor:

The ice was so blue.

When we got back, we got some pizza and then went back to the Dome. More whales!

The expedition briefing was at 7, so we went down for that. They said the Drake should be smooth again! My word, that would be lucky! Then it was time for dinner and then bed!

Day 8 – An Unintentional Polar Plunge and Camping on the Continent!

Tammy — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:42:57 +0000

Day 8 – An Unintentional Polar Plunge and Camping on the Continent!

Today we opened the curtains and gasped. There was a glacier right next to us. Like we were PARKED next to a glacier.

Unreal! And there were penguins everywhere!

This was Necko Harbor, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Pictures cannot do it justice.

We got ready slowly while stopping to look outside every two minutes. We went down to eat breakfast, and they came on the overhead and said there was a lot of ice in the area. They weren’t sure we could make landings safely, so they were sending a team to check.

While we ate, we saw the team come back, and saw them lowering some zodiacs! Woohoo!

They said there were some humpbacks in the area, so we went to the top decks!

There are some guides in the zodiacs near the whales:

I also went out to the bow and learned the benches are heated! How did I just learn this?!

The hall to get out there felt all kinds of wrong, though. I felt like I was entering a crew area with every door I opened.

It was so quiet and peaceful in this amazing setting. We could hear everything. Penguin sounds, glacier cracking, whales blowing – it was incredible.

Look at these guys!

I love their reflections!

I saw a glacier calve while I was out there! I got a few pictures in sequence. Look at the bottom right (ish):

Super cool!

The whales were still hanging around.

There was also another deck aft that I went to explore.

I could see where we were going when our group was called. That’s our people!

There was an avalanche/snow waterfall while I was out there!

More penguins.

Penguins on an iceberg.

We were the last group today, so we had lots of time. Finally, they called us, and we went down to the mudroom! We heard from the group coming in that it was super hot. Like sweat rolling down their back hot. So we took off whatever layers we could.

When we landed, the penguin highway was in front of us.

A penguin. Highway.

Can you even? They went up and down and up and down.

There is never enough time to take pictures of penguins on a penguin highway, but I did want to go to the top!

Plus, being on the continent means more flag pictures!

Then Audrey and I walked up.

Sup?

The glacier backdrop was incredible.

Two penguins passing on the highway.

Looking back:

Babies!!!

We were among the last people down for the last zodiac back.

When I was climbing in, I was on the side that was a tiny bit deeper. I had one leg up on the zodiac, and the boat moved! I was basically doing the splits and realized I wasn’t going to make it.

I said, “Nope! I’m going down!” as I crashed into the ocean.

An unofficial polar plunge, if you will. Lol

The expedition leader turned around, saw me laying spread eagle in the water, grabbed me and yanked me out! And helped me on to the zodiac safely.

Somehow, I managed to hold my camera bag up in the air, and I didn’t get it wet! A miracle.

I was wet but fine. We all had a good laugh! Everyone said I didn’t want to wait for the polar plunge the next day, so I did my own! I guess I did!

I was pretty lucky. Normally with 100 people on land, every single one of them taking pictures and videos, there’s no way someone wouldn’t have gotten a picture. But there were only about 10 of us, all focused on getting on the zodiac! So there is no photo evidence.

Audrey was dry:

When we got back, I took my coat to the room to make sure it was dry for camping! My waterproof pants were amazing, and the water never got through them. All in all, I was in pretty good shape for a dip in the freezing water!

I changed when I got back and went to meet Mukta for lunch. Lunch was delicious! No pictures.

After eating, I showered and then went to the Dome where I sat for a few hours. We saw orcas! But they were shy and didn’t come close to the ship. I stopped by the aft deck to see our sister ship go by!

I went down to the room at 4:30 so we could order room service for dinner. We were getting off to camp on the continent tonight!

That’s as crazy as it sounds.

When we learned camping was an option, one with an additional cost (!!), I was like – no way! We paid a lot for that luxury ship to sleep on! But Mukta, Gautam, and Cisco were all in. So, I started considering it.

I’m a sucker when you throw in words like “exclusive opportunity” or “once in a lifetime”.

Okay, I’m in. How many people can say they slept on Antarctica?

We would get off at 9 pm and not come back until 5 am. There are no bathroom facilities out there, so I wanted to stop drinking Coke by 5 pm. I didn’t want to eat dinner without a drink, so we decided to eat early in the room.

After we ordered, all heck broke loose. The cruise director came on and said that there was a worker’s strike in Argentina, and our charter flight back to Buenos Aires was canceled! We all needed to reschedule our flights for one day later, and we would be on the ship for one more day! Whoa. Okay! So we got to work!

They gave everyone the internet to make changes and let people use their computers. Mine was surprisingly easy to do! It was a $1 price change.

Our food came while Audrey and Jenn were in our room changing theirs, and I scarfed it down. And stopped drinking!

We hung out until it was time to go down. It was FREEZING out. I was a little concerned. At 9, we were all bundled, and we waddled our way downstairs!

When we boarded the zodiac, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t warm, but not as cold as I feared! The scenery was beautiful! We weren’t staying too far from the ship. We could see it from our campsite.

When we pulled up, we saw the rest of the 17 campers making their way up the hill. We got out of the zodiac, grabbed our gear, and headed up. There was a huge seal asleep nearby. The view from the top was amazing.

First, we picked a spot.

Then, we had to dig out a little. Which was not easy!!

Full disclosure – Gautam helped us. We took a group picture! Which I will add one day when I locate it…

Then, the guides laughed and waved as they bolted for the ship. We felt abandoned! But three crew members did stay with us. Phew!

Then we set up our bags and sat in our chairs.

Here’s our setup:

Gautam’s:

We could see the ship!

Mandatory flag pic.

Here’s one of the cones marking where we could walk:

It was awesome to walk around and not be in our life jackets, parkas, etc.

I was pretty warm! For about 10 minutes.

Then I started to get cold quickly. We decided to walk around a little and warm up. We went to see the seal. And visited other campsites.

Here’s where the guides sat all night:

Seal!

Right about then, he decided to take off.

I also remembered I hadn’t turned on my heated vest yet! Missy gave me a heated vest! I had worn it several times, but I hadn’t had to turn it on yet. I gotta say, it was glorious when I turned it on.

We sat in our chairs and talked until about midnight. Then we climbed into our sleeping bags.

There’s Gautam over there! I took a phone picture of him so you can see how it all looks!

I put my parka in the bottom of my bag, and Mukta wore hers. I didn’t feel like I would be comfortable enough to sleep if I was too bundled. Plus I had a heated vest!

So when I woke up, and my hands were cold, I put them in the best pockets.

Mukta was in!

We’re in!

This was the view from our sleeping bags:

I slept okay! I probably got about 4 hours? The hardest thing was rolling over. It let air in the bag, and you had to be careful not to roll up against the ice or let things escape the bag!

So I woke up a few times, rolled over, looked around, etc. But overall, I did sleep! And no, it never got dark. Little duskier, but not dark.

Day 7 – Penguins Again!

Tammy — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:48:42 +0000

Day 7 – Penguins Again!

We woke up at seven and got ready for more penguins! Woohoo! It was very Antarcticy outside today!

Today was a day for allll the layers! Or so I thought.

We ate our room service breakfast and headed down. We realized that they changed the elevator carpets three times a day!

Today we were visiting another penguin rookery! Look!!!

So many. This one was my favorite.

No, this one.

Who can choose?! And there were babies!!

It’s like these two were chatting.

There’s the ship!

Hello, Mr. Leopard Seal…

We only had 45 minutes, I could have stayed for twice that. We saw glaciers calving, penguins roaming, seals, so much!

Here’s a group heading back:

And one boarding:

We watched penguins while we waited for the next zodiac. Not a bad trade-off!

Eventually, we got back on a zodiac and headed back to the ship. By the end, I was quite hot. And regretting how many layers I had on. But it could be worse!

We took off our warm gear and went and got a snack. I had a donut! Then we sat in the Dome until lunch. Lunch was delicious. I didn’t take a single picture, but I had pasta from the cooking station, chicken tenders, AND potatoes. The perfect combination.

Afterwards we went to the Dome until it was getting close to time for our group to be called. Good afternoon!

The afternoon excursion was a zodiac excursion into the icebergs. The 9 million icebergs!

We saw some penguins, of course.

Look at this beauty:

I took pictures of the other zodiacs too. The green against the water is so striking.

There’s our ship hiding back there!

It was fun! Very warm, I didn’t wear nearly as many layers and I was much more comfortable.

At one point, there was a group of penguins swimming right at us! I only got one picture.

Back to the ship!

Gautam and Cisco went kayaking instead of zodiacing (which I am sure is not a word). Kayaking would have been great! But I really wanted to take pictures, and I knew I couldn’t in a kayak.

This was their gear:

After we got back, I showered, and we immediately ordered French fries which came in this cute little box.

When I was ready, I went upstairs to the Dome. Lots of people were up there! When we started moving, I saw penguins every 2-3 minutes. They were jumping up all over! Here’s some on an iceberg.

And more on an iceberg!

Off they go!

I decided much like the supermodel who famously said she wouldn’t get out of bed for less than $10,000, I don’t get out of my chair for less than five penguins now. I reached that level of spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, I had hot chocolate.

Icebergs. Everywhere.

More with penguins!

Then, it was time for the expedition briefing. The nightly briefings consisted of two 10-minute lectures on something we had seen that day, like glaciers, birds, etc., plus a briefing on the next day’s expeditions. Tonight, during the last segment, the cruise director came over to the speakers and told us there were four humpback whales! I was in the front row.

I almost got up, but I felt bad. Then they said the ship was stopping. So I jumped up and ran!

I ran to our room, grabbed my camera, and ran upstairs! Everyone was there.

There were whales everywhere, so I didn’t know where would be best. I probably should have gone to the bow, but everywhere was amazing. I literally took 1400 pictures! 1380 of them look the exact same! Ha!

Their fins almost looked like they glowed through this water:

Got a mouth open-ish!

At the end, when most everyone had left for dinner, there were still a few of us out there with our big lenses. We were FREEZING! But we didn’t care too much!

I did laugh that I ran to the room to get my camera, but not a coat. In Antarctica.

There was one whale who went down and showed off her tail, and we all took pictures and put our cameras down. About two seconds later, one fully jumped up in the air, and we all screamed! We all got pictures of – the splash. Not one of us caught it. It was pretty funny!

I did get him going back into the water:

So we went to dinner! After dinner, we all went to bed. In our room, there was an invite to an exclusive dinner the next night! We couldn’t do it because of camping! Dang it!

But Audrey and Jenn could, and they would update us!

Day 6 – Two Landings

Tammy — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 23:07:34 +0000

Day 6 – Two Landings

I was sleeping hard at 7:30 when my alarm went off today. But it went off at 7:30 because we had two landings today! Yay!

Our butler brought our room service breakfast! Here’s the order form:

They started calling groups about 15 minutes early and our group was first. We grabbed everything and went down to the mud room.

We boarded the zodiac and were off!

Silly me, we were excited when we saw penguins in the water. We had no idea what we were in for…

We saw a couple jump onto land. I was so excited, I immediately forgot all instructions for disembarking once we stopped and it was my turn to get off, I stood, I didn’t scoot, I held my bag – disaster! But we made it!

When we got off, we started walking up the hill, and realized there were penguins EVERYWHERE.

My word.

I just can’t.

Also, penguins smell. But really, who cares? When you look like this, you can get away with a lot.

These were chinstrap penguins, by the way! See the chinstrap line?

We had 45 minutes on the island. At one point I decided I was never leaving. Forward my mail.

Gautam and Cisco:

Audrey!

We got Mukta’s flag out and took pictures.

I was so happy about the penguins, I kind of forgot that we were in Antarctica!

Tons more penguins over there:

Eventually, they made us head back to the ship. Sadness.

I went through photos for a while, and then we went to get a snack. We ended up in the Dome. I saw some whales. Of course.

Then we went to lunch (that’s right, all this before we even had lunch!) where I had a delicious burger. And two plates of fries.

Then we went back to the Dome to watch the sights and wait until we got to the volcano! Volcano!

Our afternoon landing wouldn’t involve wildlife. Just a volcano! But we did pass a hundred or so penguins. They were everywhere again.

It was pretty foggy, and we didn’t know how well we would see the volcano, when all of the sudden, the clouds lifted!

It was amazing!

We watched for a little while longer and sipped on hot chocolate. Then we went down to change and wait for our group to be called.

It was much warmer outside, so we all went with fewer layers today. I didn’t even wear gloves!

It is time! Group C!

I started wearing slippers down to the mudroom. Much easier than shoes!

We were actually inside the volcano. It felt a little like Mars!

We saw one penguin!

We walked around for a while and then took the zodiac back to the ship. I showered and got ready for the expedition briefing and dinner.

The briefing was delayed for a little while because the excursions ran late. We watched the briefing from the lounge tonight.

Dinner was yummy tonight! We had a great time. I didn’t bring my camera though. Whoops!

Then we pretty much went to bed! Well, bath and then bed. As I do.

Tomorrow’s schedule:

Day 5 – First Penguins!

Tammy — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:35:20 +0000

Day 5 – First Penguins!

We slept great, and woke up around 8:30. I could see icebergs and land in the distance!

We were in the South Shetland Islands. Here we are on a map:

I was staring out the window when a penguin jumped out of the water! Acccckkk!! I screamed. Of course.

Mukta ran out in her pjs to see. Then about 5 minutes later we saw a whole group of them!!

I was soooo excited! I took a bazillion pictures. Here are about a half bazillion of them.

At some point, I was like, when do I stop? Do I just take penguin pictures until I die?

And then the captain came on and said there was a whale breaching port side. We were starboard! I had to go!

I put on my shoes and Mukta held open the door while I literally ran out and up the stairs! That’s the kind of friend she is. She knew what was coming, no words were necessary.

He was a long way away, but I saw him!

I went back down to get my other lens, and then back up to camp out in the Dome.

I had a Coke Zero and my camera and I was watching for penguins and whales. This is my best life.

The Dome becomes a group mind kind of thing. When someone sees something they tell everyone else, and we all get our cameras and binoculars out. I realized an iceberg we were approaching had tons of penguins on it. I told everyone, and out we went! It was sooo exciting!!

I did some serious zooming/cropping here, so these are small!

Look at this little guy just shooting out of the water!

And this one going back in!

This was when I realized I probably should have taken my son’s advice and rented a bigger lens.

It was snowing, so we couldn’t make it outside long. We had multiple whale sightings. Even saw another ship!

At noon, we went downstairs to rope-drop lunch. I had chicken, rice and potatoes. That hit the spot!

We saw penguins out the window at lunch. We talked to fellow passengers for quite a while and then decided to head back up to the Dome.

I stopped in the room to get my laptop and upload some pics. Looked outside while they were uploading and saw more penguins. I truly could not believe how many penguins and whales we had seen. Just in the first morning!

Back in the Dome we just talked. They let us know that they would start calling us by groups, and when they did, they wanted us to go down to the lounge with all of our warm clothes on. We were C, so when they called B, we went to our room to get ready. Then they called us!

Woohoo! We went down to the mud room and put on our boots and parkas.

After we were all dressed, we loaded onto the zodiac. It was cold and snowing, but I was pretty warm! I took a few pictures, but I didn’t want to take too many risks with my camera on the first outing. I used my camera a few times and my phone a few times. Look! Penguins!

Here’s Audrey and Jenn by Edinburgh Hill:

We saw lots of penguins! But nothing compared to what was coming later in the trip.

We were out for about 45 minutes. Super cool! Literally!

We left our gear in the mud room in our lockers and went to the room to warm up and change. We also ordered French fries. That’s how we roll.

We were chilling in the room when they announced there were whales. So we took off again! Then we relaxed in the Dome until our 6:30 expedition meeting.

We learned that we would land twice tomorrow!! So exciting!

But it would probably be raining for the first one. Not so exciting.

But we were looking for a penguin colony! Exciting again.

After the meeting, it was time for the Meet the Neighbors Hallway Party! This was just brilliant. They told everyone to go stand outside their rooms, and they brought drinks and canapés. All the officers came by to socialize too! It was a great little activity.

Then it was time for dinner. We sat in Hop’s section, of course.

After dinner, we went up to the Dome to stake out a spot for trivia!

Gautam or Cisco asked why we like trivia so much. Mukta said something admirable like, “It’s always fun and we learn new things!”

I said, “Also we usually win…”

That’s the most fun part about it! Ha!

Trivia was crazy. Like crazy. 20 random questions and then 15 music questions. With bonus points for dancing. It took TWO hours. But we actually laughed a ton and had fun. And… We won!!!!

Woohoo! Everyone sing it now – We are the champions, we are the champions…

Big winners with Simon, the cruise director:

How do you really feel?

Then it was basically midnight! So we went to bed! Early morning tomorrow! Here’s our schedule:

Day 4 – Drake Lake

Tammy — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:46:06 +0000

Day 4 – Drake Lake

Drake Lake or Drake Shake? That was the question on all of our minds.

Our bus guide the day before had told us she hoped we had Drake-Lakey, and not Drake-Shakey!

While not perfectly calm, we were closer to Lakey than Shakey!

I woke up a few times during the night and went right back to sleep. Mukta woke up at 9 and asked if I was okay. I had no idea what time it was!

Man, that felt good. Rolling ships put me to sleep!

I got up and started getting ready.

Simon, the cruise director, came on the intercom, told us it was 37 degrees out, and confirmed this was Drake Lake! Woohoo!

While getting ready, I realized there was one flaw in our beautiful room. The room only had one plug, US or European, and it was in the living room. That’s not totally unusual for a cruise ship, and there were USBs all over, so I could make that work.

The flaw was that there was no mirror by the plug. Drying and curling hair without a mirror is not ideal!

But I loved our room so much I immediately forgave it.

After I finished getting ready, I walked around a little to take pictures. There was a lecture happening in the theater about expedition cruising, so it was fairly empty around the ship.

I sat in the Dome for a little while. These yellow chairs spin, which is so smart! You can face a group to talk, or spin around and look at the ocean!

So. smart.

Then I went down to get Mukta, and neither of us were feeling great, despite the relatively calm seas. We had some slow rolling going on, which just makes me want to go to sleep.

We decided to get out of the room and got a snack to see if that helped. It did a little, so then we went to lunch. We both had rice and were about to leave when our friends came in! And the server gave us ginger lemonade! It was all good from there.

Medicine, food, and distraction. That’s the key!

We also got to know our server at lunch and loved him! We decided to sit in his section for every meal. His name was Hieu Hop, and he was from Vietnam. We called him Hop.

We talked to everyone for a while and then went to our room for a few minutes. Then, after that, we went up to the Dome and talked to some other guests until it was time for our gear fitting! It went great. It’s a good setup down there, much like the Galapagos setup we had.

Then we went to vacuum off anything we were taking to land. Here is our location –

After that, we went upstairs for high tea!

Someone’s tea, not mine. I stand firmly with Ted Lasso in my anti-tea stance.

But I’m all for the snacks!

We saw our first iceberg and multiple whales! The cruise director came over the intercom and told us to take a picture of the iceberg. And then he said we would delete it the next day because we would see so many more so much closer than that one. Ha!

We talked for quite a while to Christophe, the expedition leader. He was super interesting!

Next up was our camping briefing. We were so excited about this! Stephen said I was crazy to pay more to sleep on ice (especially with a luxury ship right off the shore), but say the words “once in a lifetime” or “exclusive” to me, and I can’t resist.

We signed away our lives via the waiver and then went upstairs to play Name that Tune with Paul the Piano Guy!

We won stickers!

Next up was the nightly expedition meeting. We learned more about Antarctica and got even more excited.

Afterwards was the Captain’s Gala before dinner.

Jenn still had no clothes, but the store had a few things, and they got her some waterproof pants from lost and found! Plus they told her they could do laundry every day for free. Woohoo!

Dinner was excellent tonight. I had my normal Disney Cruise appetizer…

And another dinner in the black bowl.

Someone had risotto, which I do like!

I had a delicious souffle for dessert! Woohoo!

After dinner, we ran up to see the ice cream cart. It was self-serve and out in the freezing cold. And it was so cute! So we had some! Didn’t care that we were full.

Then we went back to the room and looked at tomorrow’s schedule. Here’s our schedule:

We were sooooo excited!! So many good things. Meet The Neighbors Hallway Party?!! What brilliance is this?

Trivia for teams of six? Made for us.

AND – we get an extra land expedition since we made it across so quickly! My word, we were lucky.

Bedtime! More to come!

Day 3 – To the Ship!

Tammy — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 00:13:47 +0000

Day 3 – To the Ship!

We had a ridiculously early morning charter flight to Ushuaia, so we met the group downstairs in the lobby at 4:30 am.

We took the bus to the airport and went through security as a group. We all had liquids over the allotted amount, but it was no problem.

While in security, Gautam informed us that if our plane went down in the mountains of Argentina, he would not hesitate to eat any of us.

Good. To. Know.

We had a short wait, so I purchased survival food.

Mukta informed me that all this wording was saying it was “Excessive calories”, “Excessive sugar”, etc etc.

Perfect.

Also, they were delicious!

We caught a bus to our plane and boarded.

There’s Audrey boarding!

This was NOT a luxury aircraft, and we had some problems finding bag space, but all was well. We made it! A bit more packed in than our Galapagos charter flight, but we still made it! And Mukta and I had the front row with no one in between us! Score.

We learned on this flight that “charter” flight did not mean the same thing to Atlas as it did to me. Atlas chartered a flight for all of us, but then apparently sold the remaining seats as well to other people. Ha!

The flight was 3 1/2 hours. They gave us food! Woohoo!

Food with Exceso calories and more. Even better!

Ushuaia has a surprisingly nice airport! I was expecting a much smaller one.

We got our bags and headed towards the tour buses. Jenn has been told in Buenos Aires that she could get cold weather gear in Ushuaia. What they didn’t tell her was that she was on her own. She would have to skip the tour and take a taxi into town and then get to the ship on her own. So not ideal.

We decided to risk the ship having some things and, if not, having time to get off and race into town before we left.

It was super cloudy and a little rainy, so while the tour was interesting, I didn’t take as many pictures, but I did finally get out my camera for the first time!

We stopped a few times for pictures, first at the visitor’s center.

Jenn found some clothes in the shop! Yay! She only needed waterproof pants now!

Then we stopped at a lake.

We stopped at the highway that goes from Argentina to Alaska! Crazy!

Here are Jenn and I walking:

It was beautiful scenery, for sure!

It was clearing up a little.

They gave us some food on the bus:

Here we are!

Finally, we headed to the ship! Woohoo! There she is! The World Traveller!

First impressions – it’s gorgeous. We boarded, and they escorted us to the lounge to eat and get checked in.

I thought this was Cloudem for a brief moment, but no luck!

Then our butler, Dehnee (yes, we were in a very bougie room with a butler), took us to our room to tell us all about it! It was absolutely amazing. Love this room!

Welcome champagne!

The toiletries were all L’Occitane, and there were tons of extras, like loofas, nail files, bath bomb, etc.. Love that!

The shower also had wall jets, which were great!

Then Mukta stepped out, and I filmed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NQq1OU7AJM

After filming, Audrey and Jenn came over. We talked for a little while and then left to muster. Muster! With life jackets!

Here’s our fridge, by the way. Mukta told Dehnee we would really only need Coke Zero – me, and room temperature water – her obviously. Later, that’s exactly what we had!

After we dropped off our life jackets, we walked around a little.

We got distracted by pizza.

The captain came on while we ate and told us the Drake wasn’t going to be too bad! He said we were looking at 2-5 meter swells. It’s not a true lake, but it could be worse! A bigger ship would barely have felt that.

Here’s the fitness room!

The store was nearby, and it was filled with very bougie cold weather brands like Marmot, Holly Hanson, etc.

Here’s the main dining room.

We also stopped by the library to see what they had. Next, we went by Jenn and Audrey’s room. It was smaller than ours, but still very nice.

Then we walked up to the Dome! It’s a great space! Pictures later! But here’s my Coke Zero. They had bottles everywhere. I loved that!

Then, it was time for a meeting in the theater.

Check these cool little trays out!

They told us there were 146 passengers onboard. The ship holds 196, so we were at about 75 percent occupancy. There were also around 136 crew members onboard.

We saw pictures of wildlife and were given instructions for landings. We also met all of the lecturers and Zodiac drivers. It was an impressive bunch!

After the meeting, we went to dinner. There’s one dinner time, and everyone seats themselves. We sat at a big table of 10 and had a few people join us. We laughed and talked and had a great time!

Here’s my dinner:

That bowl looks like a takeout bowl, but it was actually iron and very heavy!

We sailed away during dinner, but it was super calm as we were in an inside passage of sorts for most of it.

My dessert:

It was so light outside, and we talked for so long that we didn’t even realize it was almost 10 o’clock! I love cruises where it’s light so much of the day. I feel more energized, and it’s easier to take pictures!

After dinner, we stepped outside to look around and then went up to the dome for the scenery. It was windy out…

We met some more people upstairs and chatted for a while. Small ships are great to get to know people. Everyone is so friendly! Mukta’s favorite thing is talking to strangers, so she is living her best life.

We had a slow rocking happening after we left the passage. We were in the Drake Passage!

Mukta and I went back to the room to unpack and go to bed! Tomorrow’s schedule:

We went to bed around midnight. The ship was rocking, and I knew I would sleep well!