Simply Superb!!!

Stunning is the word that comes screaming to mind, Ken. Just stunning. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible photographs with us.

Just when I think Ken's photos couldn't get more brilliant, his awesome photographic expertise surpasses all expectations!

Ken, you are the Grand Master of Photography! Magnificent photos! Thank you so much for posting them so quickly for all of us to "OOH and AHH" over! Stunning and breathtaking photos!

Fantastic photos, Leslie! I can't wait to see more! Brad is an incredible photographer, as well!

Wow! The pictures are fabulous. Thank you for the wonderful travel log and pictures. I enjoyed reading about your adventure each day as you lived it. It was very exciting.
Merril

Those photos were definitely worth the anticipation. Just over the TOP, Ken! That must have been such an incredible trip. And I enjoyed every word of everyone's seamail!

Those pictures of Turdley (and the reaction of his relative) were hysterical, by the way!!!

Ngaire, these pictures are so amazing!! I've just loved reading about your trip! Ken's pictures are beyond fantastic!

Brad just uploaded some people pix too...it's great to see all the smiling POOPsters!

Margo

People pix are up in the kodakgallery web site. I'm still going through Brad's shots - we only have a little Canon so unless I find some really great ones I will spare you all from a million penguin photos!

Loved the people pics, Leslie. Nice to see all the POOPsters.

Great people pics Leslie & Brad! I loved the one of you, Leslie, labeled "safe" after sliding the luge! :banana:

Leslie...I went back to view the Pics....with captions now - really enjoyed them. Your slide down the ice shute looks like it was FUN.

Thank you again for sharing so many emails and now photos with all of us. Your trip is a dream of mine and will have to do for now. You made it almost real for all of us.

Leslie and Ken--great pictures! Our pictures are mediocre at best, just like our pooch playing :D . It's OK, we had lots of fun taking the pictures and playing pooch. We loved the whole trip, but as always, we're happy to be home, ya ya!

Somebody, PLEASE show us a picture of the pooch game!

Brad, love those people pictures. You got some GREAT ones.

Dont think anyone took pictures of us playing pooch. It is just a one deck card game so other than the laughing faces not much to take pictures of really.

Never fear, pooch will be taught to all those who want to play. You need four to seven players to make it work the best.

Leslie, more, more, I know you have more! Those are wonderful photos! Was that a bumpy down the hill?

Fabulous pictures! :app:

Brovo to the photographers.

The sea mail was fantastic too, I looked forward to each instalment. I have got to do this someday. I have even been considering giving up ROAR2 to do ICE. We shall see....

I wouldn't get into that family decision with a 10 foot pole!

OK. OK. I have now added some more shots to Brad's pix - some scenery, penguins, seals.

We bought the ship's photographer's CD of shots taken on the voyage, which are fabulous, but I don't think I should be uploading any of them to the kodak site, right?

Leslie you are right. You should not upload any of the ship's photographer's CD photos. Not fair to him plus that falls under copyright laws.

With Brad and Ken's photos (plus I'm sure there will be others), we have plenty of good shots to view.

Thanks, Leslie. I love your pictures and your captions!

You'll have to teach it to Debbie for when we're on PEARLS. :)Or you can teach it to us during the afternoon while you're waiting for your flight.

both sets of pictures were wonderful.

Leslie, thanks for the additions to Brad's album! I can't get enough of these pictures, and LOVE your captions!

Wonderful pictures and captions are a hoot!!

Great additions, Leslie! Both Brad and Ken are awesome photographers! The captions are hysterical!

Yes, no problem Arlene. I will teach POOCH to Debbie on PUBS in September she is on that with me so we can play in our free time on board.

I just saw these photos, and WOW! Every time I see Ken's photos I think "Well, he's outdone himself this time" -- and then he keeps doing it! And Mark, your photos are so great too. The captions had me laughing out loud.

What an amazing trip!

Both set of pictures are fantastic. It made being there almost real for me. Thank you for sharing!

I too loved the pictures and Leslie's captions are terrific. TThank you for sharing them with us.

All I can say is WOW!!!!! Next best thing to being there. Thank you so much for all the reports and the pictures....

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PENGUINS GONE??!!

Yikes, we’ve been home a few days and are getting over our jet lag, finishing laundry (it only took five runs of our waterproof pants through the washer to get rid of the last fragrant traces of Eau de Penguin No. 5), and trying to convince our two skeptical doggies that we are indeed staying here for a while. But we miss our penguins…

As part of my therapy for penguin withdrawal, I have noted a few random comments about the cruise, as follows (the rest of my therapy involves copious quantities of schnapps and liverwurst):

Overriding observation: fantastic experience on a terrific ship.

Itinerary: Superb, magnifico, wunderbar. Once again, we must thank our dear Mother Superior, Ngaire, for having so enthusiastically promoted this itinerary. We are sure that we would have enjoyed the cruise even without the visits to South Georgia (and the Kings); but the cruise would have been greatly diminished without those remarkable landings.

ICEers, you have a series of great thrills to which you may look forward. Even Ken’s splendid photos (which should be in National Geographic or The Penguin Observer) only hint at the enchantment of our time among the Kings, our astonishment at the gigantic icebergs which were many times larger than our ship, and our delight at sitting in a Zodiac surrounded by thousands of fur seals and porpoising adelie penguins. Those are experiences which must be experienced to be experienced (hmm, that sounds either quite Zen or quite bad-60’s-flashback).

The grub: Pat & I found the food on board to be very good to excellent, both in selection and in quality of execution. We were particularly pleased with the many interesting choices and the bold flavor profiles of the dishes. I cannot imagine Regent (or any other American line) offering such things as grilled sweetbreads or veal kidneys in spicy mustard sauce. Now, many people would likely consider that a good thing, as those items are more than a bit creepy to a lot of people. (I liked the sweetbreads but could not bring myself to order the kidneys, preferring not to eat any body part used in transplants.) But the inclusion of such dishes which are so atypical of most cruise menus demonstrates that the chefs are not timid.

Fortunately, many less scary but marvelously tasty dishes were offered as well. Pat, Leslie, and I were quite fond of the excellent cheese selection offered at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oddly, the galley could not produce an edible warm dessert soufflé, despite offering them on numerous occasions. The Hanseatic version of a soufflé Grand Marnier always turned out to be a peculiar creation bearing a glumly close resemblance to silly putty. Thus, we simply indulged in the rich ice cream available (ahh, fond memories of the espresso croquant – until our little group gobbled up every scoop of it on board).

The boot room: First, please understand that this issue did not at all reduce our absolute enjoyment of the cruise and has, in fact, given us endless amusing anecdotes to use at cocktail parties for years to come. The Battle of the Boot-Room was a to-the-death battle that occurred just before and after each Zodiac landing, as everyone went to his or her designated boot-room (small rooms where we stored and washed our wellies) to put on the boots or to rinse them off after stomping about in penguin guano.

There was a limited amount of space in the two rooms, requiring the prospective bootees to be quite considerate and cooperative. Sadly, a large number of passengers on board had only the most passing acquaintance with either of those concepts and committed such random acts of unkindness as demanding that others move off of “their” bench (when, of course, the benches were entirely at everyone’s disposal), demanding that everyone within a radius of six feet clear a space while the demander flailed about trying to put on the little life vest, or trying to grab a boot-washing hose out of one’s hands (oops, I am so sorry, Frau Schmidt, that you got sprayed in the face when you grabbed the hose from me).

As I sat in the clinic one evening, waiting to see the ship’s sawbones about my dislocated shoulder, cracked ribs, and bruised fingers, I reflected that, in retrospect, I should have just let Frau Schmidt have the damned hose…

The Zodiacs: When Neptune decided that mortals needed some fun toys to use on his seas, he clearly had Zodiacs in mind. Our 18 Zodiac landings/tours were all super. It was also fascinating to see each day who would be our drivers, as they varied from the gorgeous Esther (the head driver) to delightful Doris (the hotel director) to eccentric Christian (the boutique manager, who was a driver-in-training and not entirely confidence-inspiring with his spiked white hair and oh-so-trendo space-man eyeglasses).

The staff and service: From the first day in Buenos Aires, when Hapag-Lloyd provided a whole bus for a tour of the city for only four of us in the POP group, the service was cheerful and quite good. Herr Kapitan opened the Bridge a surprising amount of time during the cruise, even when we were in heavy water or among icebergs. The senior staff was uniformly (even when not in uniform) friendly and helpful.

And finally, the POOPsters: Our jolly little band of posters, poochers, and penguin-lovers seemed to be having the best time of any group on the ship (or maybe just the loudest). Our good memories of this cruise include so many excellent adventures and hilarious moments with our compatriots that we cannot begin to list them (other than to remark that Leslie’s reference to my stirring account of the Attack of the Leopard Seals as “florid prose” cut me to the quick and drove me to drink – a very short drive – with the result that I am sending our bar bill to her as a bit of justifiable and measured response – after all, what is a couple of thousand euros one way or the other??).

On that non-florid fiscal note, I close, wishing the ICEers many months of wonderful anticipation…

Cheers, Fred

Dear dear Fred,

SO good to hear from you!! I manage to recover and stand ready to follow...to follow in your gracious footsteps on such an incredible adventure! You have painted an intriguing picture of the "adventure of a lifetime" as I had so dreamed. I think we all treasure yours, Pat's & the rest of the Pooper's dialogue with your vivid descriptions of these experiences. The "Hanseatic" & all its passengers seem to add to the flavor...We enjoyed your description of the "battles" & are gratified that you all seemed to have endured! Well done! Please don't hesitate to express more of your wonderful memories of this great trip! We are all ears. :) , especially me....

Your lost sailor,
Michele

Fred, Fred, Fred....

Florid is a compliment!

from Miriam Webster's thesaurus:
Main Entry: florid

*full of fine words
*fully developed

You positively made the frightening leopard seal encounter come alive with your fine words and fully developed description!

And let's not forget that YOU braved the wild weather and ventured forth in one of those zodiacs and saw that scary leopard seal snarf down a poor penguin. I took the cowardly route, opting to stay warm & dry onboard.

I have only the highest regard for your adventurous spirit and wonderful prose. :nw:

Leslie - Irrespective of your gracious and kind message, I still intend to send you my bar bill. It's the only way that I can get past the pain... Cheers, Fred

Once again, the inimitable Fred has me LOL! Looking forward to more!

I can just imagine Frau Schmidt's version of your encounter! :app:

Thank you all for your seamails from POP ... I've loved each and every one of them and look forward to (someday) doing this itinerary, hopefully before the icebergs melt from global warming.

Masaki

Thank you all POOPers, for your wonderful reports and photos. I can't tell you how very much I have enjoyed following your wonderful trip!!!!

I've loved of all the POOPers' reports but Fred yours takes the cake. LOL. I hope you will post more...write a book...host a TV show. Your humor should be shared with the world!

This morgan the uber effecient front desk staff of the Hanseatic faxed me Fred's bar bill, per his request. Alas, it is in German, as well as in euros, so I can't readily comply with his request to pick up his tab, but this presents a perfect time to discuss the issue of actually having to pay for drinks, which I believe someone asked about earlier on.

I thought drinks and wine were reasonably priced. The suggested wines at dinner usually were in the 20 - 25 euro range - ($25-$30). Ordering wine by the "glass" was the best way to go - they would bring a carafe that held .25 liters, about 1/3 of a bottle, or 2 glasses, and the wine this way was usually 4-5 euros ($5-$6.50) which is a real bargain, considering most restaurants we go to around here are now up to $10 plus for a glass of wine. I think mixed drinks were generally in the 4 euro range.

Signing wasn't a big issue - since it is a small ship they know who you are and your cabin number. After a few days passed they would typically present you with chits to sign from the past few days. Christophe, the wine guy, and Kristina, who worked in the Observation lounge (as well as driving zodiacs and working in the restaurant) were very efficient and learned our preferences.

Some bought some wine in Ushuaia to take onboard. The corkage fee was a modest 5 euros. If you didn't finish the bottle they would save it for you for the next day.

I detect some good natured teasing going on during this cruise by some people with wonderfully dry senses of humor.

Friends, stunning scenery, humor, food and wine. Who could ask for anything more.

Cheers! Ray