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Post by Admin on Dec 7, 2019 5:38:54 GMT
Review of OceanWide Expeditions - Hondius - F/SG/A Nov 2019 Satie37 from Toronto, Canada headed off to Antarctica for the second time - on board Oceanwide's newest vessel - for an Antarctica - Falklands - South Georgia Is combo. www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i12337-k13076058-Review_of_OceanWide_Expeditions_Hondius_F_SG_A_Nov_2019-Antarctic_Adventures.html6 Dec. 2019, 7:16 am This was my second trip to Antarctica (first 2018 21 day with Quark East/West) and first to Falklands/South Georgia. Timing: If I had a 'do over' for a November trip I would stick with Falklands and South Georgia and enjoy Antarctica later in the season when there is more wild life and icebergs. Timing was perfect for Falklands and South Georgia as we were there for Elephant Seals and Albatross before they close down some of the landing sites to protect breeding colonies. Of course we saw lots of penguins - King, Macaroni, Gentoo, Magellenic - we missed the landing with Rock Hoppers. We were also fortunate in that we had good weather for all the major South Georgia landing sites. I can't say enough good things about our time on South Georgia. The captain of the Hondius was also amazing and was able to get us into landings and areas that we may not have been able to venture due to conditions - in some cases high waves and winds. I did like the fact that we had alot of time on shore during our landings - 3 hours generally - much more than we had with Quark. Hondius Ship: This ship had alot of good things about it and some which could be improved. Our cabin and some of the other cabins I saw - were larger than equivalent cabins on other ships. We had a twin deluxe on the 6th deck and I can't fault anything - lots of space, closet space, sitting, desk and two huge windows. The bathroom was spa like. Our boots/lifejackets were stored in the room and I think having a rubber mat to avoid wet carpets would be a good thing. Also, I am not sure how this will work out later in the season when landing areas are messier. With Quark there was a locker area on the ship where people kept outer wear and boots to prevent dirt and smell in the cabins. Having said that..... the Hondius staff were obsessive about biosecurity (yeah!!) and our boots had to be spotless before going on landings and we scrubbed boots before and after shore landings. Public areas on the ship: The main public area is the lounge. I found it strange that it has very few chairs/tables set up as conversation groups. Instead there are rows of bench like seating which I did not find particularly comfortable. For this reason, I didn't end of spending alot of time in the lounge. Alot of the lectures and any daily wrap ups were held here. There is also a lecture room which was not used alot. The lounge does have 2 fancy coffee machines which are available 24/7 for lattes, cappuccinos, hot chocolate etc. Diningroom - breakfast/lunch were buffet style and dinner was always served. The dining room was comfortable with lots of tables of different sizes. Food for the most part was good - except there were some very strange food combinations and a lot of use of polenta (I am not a fan). Deck space - there was alot of deck space on this ship - the back decks also had sitting areas. The side decks had nooks where you could get out of the wind and cold. The bridge had an open door policy and I spent alot of time up there. Overall, what adds to the itinerary is the staff and I felt this was the main let down of this trip. Some of the staff was excellent - engaging with passengers, very knowledgeable with a field of expertise. These staff gave very interesting talks on their subject areas. Other staff..... we had one person regurgitate information from a google search, another staff had absolutely no presentation skills at all .... reading verbatim their slides with no added value. Other workshops which were offered throughout the trip seemed to be put together at the last moment without much thought. For example, the photography program.... no informative presentations were given on sea days (missed opportunity IMHO) when they could have offered tips on cold weather photography - how to protect gear etc. They could have given a photography briefing for next days landings suggesting lenses, tips for wildlife photos etc. None of this was done! My impression was the programs offered (except for the videography) were just a bit thoughtless - not thought through or planned out well. That seemed to be the general theme on this expedition. For example, the Hondius had 2 shell doors which open for zodiak boarding..... so you descend the stairs from inside the ship and step onto/into the zodiac which is secured alongside the ship. We were divided into 4 groups for shore trips/zodiac cruising. Instead of calling one group at a time and rotating shore time across the 4 groups they would call 2 groups at a time. So this resulted in 70 passengers in warm clothing all being in the small boarding space at the same time. Often only 1 shell door was open for boarding however, there was no sign notifying which shell doors were open. This resulted in confusion and delays. The loading of passengers into the zodiacs ended up being a slow, hot and painful process. It could have been streamlined simply by: a) calling 1 group (35 people) at a time b) having signs advising on shell doors (1 or 2 or both open) c) using more zodiacs (there were LOTS of zodiacs on the stern - I think only 4-5 zodiacs were used to ferry passengers) d) rotating across the 4 groups so each group had a turn to be first on the landing. We had a few rough sea days but at no time was there ever an announcement made to the passengers regarding safety during rough seas. No one knew that there were safety barriers under our mattresses!! Some of us found this out by chance. When one of the passengers asked about railings for their top bunk they were told there were none. When they asked another staff member they were informed it was not their area and they should ask a hotel staff. So just a lack of follow up and initiative in general. I would have expected a general announcement and information on this with verbal instructions on how to put up the railings if needed. I also suspect that one afternoon was spent testing the ice strengthened hull in the Weddel. The day before we had been told we might look for and navigate to the large berg left over from one of the ice shelfs - but the next day no more was said of that - we were told we were going to look for emperor penguins floating on ice bergs in the Weddel and the afternoon was spent crunching empty pan ice. I doubt there are Emperor Penguins on icebergs in November and rather, the captain was wanting to test out the Polar 6 ice capabilities of the ship. So.... in spite of all this, yes it was an amazing trip. South Georgia absolutely was the highlight. If I ever go again I likely would not travel with Oceanwide but might be tempted to travel with them simply because of the Hondius and I think with the right itinerary it is really tough to mess up a trip to this region of the world. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2023 23:46:07 GMT
#5 of 12 ·
I just got of Ortelius from a Falkland Island/South Georgia/Antarctic Peninsula trip. We did have phenomenal luck with weather, which certainly helped, but yes, the expedition team did their very best to maximize our time ashore. Nearly all landings lasted 3-4 hours, often including time for multiple options (visit the penguin colony to the left, then hike up to the viewpoint on the right, then do a polar plunge if you want to). I was usually in one of the first 2 zodiacs off the ship, and I often stayed out until they very politely dragged us back for the last zodiac. I think in our 19 night itinerary, we managed to spend over 50 hours ashore (plus a few hours of zodiac rides and a ship's cruise through the Drygalski Fjord in South Georgia, which was a real treat).
It often felt as though our expedition leader Sara never slept. Each night they would give us a schedule for the following day (Plan A - of course this could always change), and often times they were able to launch zodiacs 15 minutes earlier than planned, trying to give us every extra minute they could.
I don't think I'll have the time or energy to write a proper trip report, but for those curious, we visited the following sites:
=====FALKLAND ISLANDS=====
North Point Island
Carcass Island
Saunder's Island (2 landings because there was so much to see)
Stanley
=====SOUTH GEORGIA=====
Stromness
Grytviken
Saint Andrews Bay
Jason Harbor
Fortuna Bay
Hercules Bay (Zodiac Cruise)
Gold Harbor
Drygalski Fjord (Ship's Cruise)
=====SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS=====
Shingle Cove
=====ANTARCTIC SOUND=====
Hope Bay
Kinnes Cove (Zodiac Cruise)
Paulet Island
Antarctic Sound (Ship's Cruise -- too much swell to do a landing...our weather luck was finally running out)
=====SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS=====
Whalers Bay at Deception Island
We saw over a million penguins in total, including mega king colonies and Adélie colonies, as well as gentoos, rockhoppers, chinstraps, and magellanics. There were chicks of various sizes of all types except chinstrap and magellanics (just based on the sites we went to). We saw nesting albatrosses with chicks in the Falklands and were able to get quite close to them; I'm not a birder, but seeing those amazing creatures up close was fantastic. We had hundreds of fur seals and elephant seals (including so many young ones, which were adorable), as well as a few Weddell, crabeater, and leopard seals. We saw a leopard seal destroying a king penguin in the water, which was pretty gruesome but kind of amazing (circle of life).
We had plenty of time to observe a huge variety of behaviors of these animals, which is the sort of thing that you never can convey in a trip report. And though this was my fourth Antarctic trip, every single landing showed me something I had never seen before. I cannot convey how amazing this trip was; our expedition leader said that she had never had such a long stretch of good weather on a FI+SG+AP trip. Of course, much of that was due to the good weather. But we wouldn't have had nearly as great of an experience if it wasn't for the expedition team and crew working very hard to get us off the ship as much as possible, as well as arranging special activities on Christmas and New Year's Eve. I think our expedition leader Sara was up until after 1:00am on New Year's Eve, and she was woken up at 4:30am the next day for work. She is a f***ing rockstar!
Of course, you never know what the weather will bring. And expedition leaders and teams change often and rotate between companies, so there is some luck of the draw. Someone else said that they had a slightly better experience with Quark than Oceanwide. I'd be willing to bet that some of the better guides they had through Quark had probably worked for Oceanwide at some point, and some of their less favorite guides from Oceanwide had probably worked for Quark at some point. There's a lot of crossover in contracts in this field, so I wouldn't use a single data point to pick a trip (good or bad). Unless you can find out who the expedition leader is. And if it's Sara Jenner, you can bet she'll do her best to maximize your time on shore (and tsk tsk at the people who head back to the ship early).
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2023 23:52:23 GMT
JezzaMac of Macclesfield, United Kingdom travelled with their grandson on Oceanwide's Plancius for a Basecamp itinerary over the 2022 Christmas - New Year period. Trip report in post 12 of this thread. www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i12337-k14208575-o10-Oceanwide-Antarctic_Adventures.html#12 of 12 · My grandson (15) and I (70) travelled with them on Plancius on the Basecamp trip - 12 days to the South Shetland iIslands and the Antarctic peninsula over Christmas and New Year, both celebrated on board. We had the cheapest cabin available and not was comfortable clean and as we didn't't spend much time there, except to sleep, quite enough for our needs. There's a bar, and a pleasant lounge, spacious dining room and the food was very good. Plancius is a former Dutch Navy research vessel so it's not a luxury cruise ship - and all the better for that! You feel like an intrepid explorer! . With only 100 or so passengers taking part in all the activities is pretty much guaranteed even if you hit a patch of bad weather. (Zodiacs can be used in winds over 40 knots). The experts knew their stuff and were very approachable, so too the ship's captain and crew. In the Basecamp trip all activities are included a reasonable level of day to day fitness is needed but don't stress about it. The only activity of concern is the mountaineering and the guides will check and assign you to a group based on ability and experience. Again don't stress about or the boots requirement. My group claimed to about 350m (just over 1150ft) above sea level. It was a steady uphill walk in snowshoes - RIGID climbing boots were NOT essential as the Muck Boots supplied by the company were quite acceptable for use with snowshoes. Only one very small group needed specialist footwear. (I hired a pair in UK before travel but needn't have bothered) Nor did we need Polar down jackets, but the weather was good. I wore a Merino base layer, mid-layer fleece and Goretex shell jacket and that was more than enough most days. On a sunny day the air temp was around 12º as long as there was little wind. On windy days it was colder but the shell jacket prevents its worst effects. The muck boots provided onboard are well insulated but I wore Merino socks too and my feet were never cold. Remember to bring swimming trunks for the optional Polar Plunge! Always good for bragging rights! Most rush in, submerge, jump up gasping and screaming and rush out. Be brave walk in as deep as you dare and swim back. So much more impressive. The doctor and zodiacs are on hand so no worries. As they say "we bring the towels, you bring the courage". When camping on the ice remember to bring an eye-shade as it's light all the time (and a pee bottle if you're a chap. I'm not sure what advice to give to women who wake up in the night, except there is a portaloo but it usually mens a walk!) Kayaking is in highly stable twin kayaks - novices can be paired up with someone more experienced. Don't stress about it. Our leader was a really cool guy who made everyone feel confident. The daily landings/activities are always wind/sea state dependent, but they work like this: First group are put ashore, second group tour the area in zodiacs, after allotted time, swap over then return to ship. If you have a barbecue on board (I think each trip has one) my advice is to take very little hot food. Eat it and return for more - otherwise you'll be eating cold cuts by the time you are halfway through your meal !! I have no experience of other trip providers, but I am full of praise for Plancius her captain and crew and the expedition staff. Our passengers were a particularly gregarious group - though I suppose most people on such voyages have a lot in common. We were very fortunate in seeing orca twice - the second time attacking a humpbacked whale which was both shocking and exhilarating. We realised you can never ever see too many penguins - they are so cute and funny and will always cheer you up! The Basecamp trip on Plancius went beyond what I was expecting and I'd have happily stowed away for the return. * Do use a scopolamine patch (anti seasickness) for the Drake Passage. Prevention is far better than taking a chance!!!) |
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Post by Admin on Jan 22, 2023 0:22:55 GMT
6OfThe7Continents of Scottsdale, Arizona USA traveled with Oceanwide on board MV Hondius from 23 December to 4 January doing the Basecamp itinerary. Back from the ice! Report from guy that helped create forum! (Admin note - ahhh no - he didn't !). www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i12337-k14237571-Back_from_the_ice_Report_from_guy_that_helped_create_forum-Antarctic_Adventures.html#116279893www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i12104-k2369521-o20-Why_is_there_no_forum_for_Antarctica-Help_us_make_Tripadvisor_better.htmlI posted this 14 years ago! Anyway, finally made it to Antarctica, I read countless posts here leading up to it, and some of these things may have been mentioned, but here's some standard things I wish I knew (maybe missed here) going in! -Make sure all your pockets have zippers, you will be carrying little things like batteries, handkerchiefs etc that shouldn't ever touch the ice -think carefully about a window suite, I paid extra, saw the railing of the ship, and didn't factor in the eternal days of Antarctica Summer that made sleeping difficult -Make sure your day bag is large enough for snow shoes if applicable. Mine was not but luckily I had extra velcro straps to clip them on during mountaineering, speaking of which... -Make sure you bring the right boots if you are doing it, the company will send a list of acceptable boots, many people on my voyage didn't have the right ones and were not able to do technical mountaineering. -I'm not a big photographer, people who are will know what they are doing but for us non photography people if you have a point and shoot go over a few quick YouTube videos on white balancing -pack gaiters. I live in the desert, I thought gaiters were an animal in the swamp in Florida but when my pants started riding up trudging through snow and ice that eventually got in my boots, I thought about those gaiters! -In case that happens, pack an extra pair of socks on your landing days. My feet got wet mountaineering, several other people got wet just getting off the zodiac even with the high boots. An extra pair of socks for the polar plunge day also would have been nice. -Book with a company that specializes in Polar Cruises. I went with Oceanwide, you will get guides that are polar guides year round, captains on the ship that are polar year round, etc. Safer and more involved in the Arctic and Antarctic than ships who say spend a lot of time in the warmer waters. -I think everything else would be standard. I was on the MV Hondius over New Years eve. I highly recommend this ship and the company Oceanwide. 14 year ago I really never thought I'd make it to continent 7... As my user name implies, but the crew and staff of Oceanwide and Hondius helped make it happen. -Cost: $12,000 (shared window room in twin suite) included everything but alcohol (spent about $150) and laundry (done twice $70) 13 days. 2.5 at sea and 2.5 coming back. We made landings all days but one due to weather. Camping, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing, mountaineering, all included. If you weren't on a landing you were on a zodiac cruising the seas and seeing countless wildlife. Very little time was spent on the ship once we arrived. -While in Ushuaia, the last minute deals still exist, I saw cruises with landing for as low as $4,000, but of course these are last minute, the one I mentioned was a week from the day I saw it. I got to Ushuaia two days early which I highly recommend just in case. I left on the 5pm flight the same day we got back, which if I did it again, I'd feel safe with the 2pm flight. Those are some of the big things I can think of, feel free to message below, happy to answer any questions. ------------ Additional info about Basecamp provided in a response on this thread. www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i12337-k14208575-Oceanwide-Antarctic_Adventures.html#8 of 14 · Did you get to do all of the activities included? Yes. However we had flawless weather which would be your obstacle to worry about. If so, how were they and how long is each excursion? Only activities that were more than 3 hours were camping (4/5) and technical mountaineering (6) make sure you have the correct boots if you want to do technical, 60-75 percent probably didn't have the right ones. I am particularly interested in mountaineering so if you did that, then please let me know how it was. Challenging but if you have some experience it's a good time. One person had to turn back because they were not in shape for it. I really debated on whether we should choose the Hondius or one of Oceanwide's smaller ships because we may be able to go on more excursions. I understand that weather is the main factor on how many excursions occur, but did you feel that most people got to experience the activities that they wanted to? Absolutely I personally skipped kayaking because if you kayak there is a chance you miss a normal zodiac landing and I wanted as much time on the continent as possible. Anytime anyone is doing anything all groups will be doing something, for example if one group is mountaineering the other is zodiac cruising. You will not be sitting on the ship bored. #10 of 14 · Experience no, they will ask you about fitness level and definitely be honest. I will note about 50 percent of people did not bring proper mountaineering boots. If they can fold they are not proper should be like roller blades and fairly expensive I got mine luckily used on eBay. |
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