Life aboard the ship

This post will be a bit different - instead of showing the incredible scenery and wildlife of Antarctica and Argentina, I'll talk a bit about life on the ship.

If I know people, I can be quite gregarious. But if I board a ship with 200 people I don't know, it's hard for me to know how to break in with a bunch of strangers. Fortunately, I didn't have to, because I opted for the pre-cruise trip to Patagonia. Our group of 13 gelled nicely. Amy Grieg, our trip director from Ponant, was more part of our group than employee, although she did a fabulous job taking care of us.  So I had 13 people I already knew in addition to my friend Dyan, the penguin lady.  Here are pictures of the group - the first taken in Patagonia, the second on the last night of the cruise having dinner together.

For the most part, I opted for the informal dining room on the 6th deck. The food was the same in both dining rooms, but on the 6th deck it was buffet style. Mostly, I sat with people I knew. The more extroverted of the group introduced me to more people, thus the people-I-know group kept expanding. I also met new people on my own - I found the guests on board were friendly.

The first formal dinner was on the third night of the cruise. Normally it would be the second night, but the Drake crossing was on the rough side, so the Captain decided to delay one night. Formal night started with a meet-and-greet in the auditorium, and we all got our picture taken with the Captain.

I did go to the meet-and-greet and got my picture taken, but skipped the formal dinner, instead opting for a quiet dinner in the informal dining room on the 6th deck, which was reopened after being closed during the Drake crossing. I was surprised by how many people were dressed for formal dinner.

I did choose to go to White Night. I figured Snoopy was already dressed for White Night, so I had to take him. The maïtre d' was amused. Not being American, he didn't immediately identify the pup, but said he looked familiar. When I said "Snoopy," he responded with a laugh and said, "Oh yeah!"

 

There were numerous presentations in the auditorium from the three subject matter experts and the naturalists. This is Dyan's second talk, presenting her book, "The Great Penguin Rescue." Her first talk was during the Drake crossing, and the ride was bumpy enough that she felt the need to be seated for her presentation. There was an occasional unintentional slide of the chair. She has never presented sitting before. Ben, the next presenter, decided to follow Dyan's lead and present sitting as well. When I went up on the stage to greet Dyan after her talk, I can confirm, it was difficult to stay standing on the stage without some sort of support.

Here are our three subject matter experts:
• Ben Saunders, Polar Explorer: https://bensaunders.com
• Dyan deNapoli, The Penguin Lady: https://thepenguinlady.com
• Jim Preston, Professional Photographer: https://www.prespix.com/antartica-the-white-continent
Do check out Jim's pictures at the link above - they are quite spectacular.

I enjoyed spending time with all of them.

Each of them presented three times. Plus they had to host a table in the formal dining room every night. I signed up for a dinner with each of them. Plus they were on call to the guests most of the time. Despite all of that, Dyan and I were able to carve out a little time together, mostly with other folks. One night we hid in a corridor outside the formal dining room after it closed to get a little uninterrupted time.

One of Jim's presentations was an informal get together where he taught us how to take better pictures with our iPhones. Here's one of me learning how to use the pan feature. While this shot has funny effects, Jim showed us how to use the pan feature to get better wide angle shots. I have used this technique effectively since.

 

The ship did have a small pool which was filled with sea water for the five days we were at the Antarctic Peninsula. The water was quite warm. It was easy to get in. Not so easy to get out. I was forewarned to position my towel close to where I would get out.

 

For the five days we were at the Antarctic Peninsula, we had two excursions a day. But before we had any excursions, all of our outerwear had to be inspected for contaminants such as seeds. Careful attention was paid to any gunk caught in velcro. The guests were split into four groups. Two groups would depart fifteen minutes apart. An hour or so later, the first two groups returned, and the second two groups would depart fifteen minutes apart. The order of the groups changed each day. At their departure time, groups would gather in the main lounge on the 3rd deck and then head down to the back of the 2nd deck where we would board the zodiacs for our excursion. When we returned, there would be three staff who would get hold of the zodiac and help us off. Then we each had to clean our boots before going back to the 3rd deck. Boot cleaning was mandatory so that we wouldn't move material from one spot to another.

The zodiacs are stored on the top deck, and for each excursion, the zodiacs were lowered into the water, and then lifted each row.  Two excursions a day, that's ten times the zodiacs were deployed and stowed.

Here's my room. My room attendant Imade took special care of Snoopy, always positioning him neatly on the bed. Snoopy was a present from my wife Miriam who crocheted him for my trip.

 

 

 Imade, my room attendant, made Snoopy a companion.

 

And Snoopy always appreciated the view.

This was from the final presentation. Up on stage are the three subject matter experts and the three cruise directors. But this was just one set of people introduced. EVERY EMPLOYEE was brought up on stage, not just the guest-facing employees, but cooks, servers, room attendants, maintenance folks, everyone. It was nice to be able to applaud everyone who made this trip special.

I still have one more day of Antarctica, and two days of Bariloche Argentina. It's taking me awhile to cull the pictures, but they will come.