Going with the Floe: Arctic Expedition Cruise July 10, 2023

[Marthasor]

We did, yes! We had tall rubber boots that Ponant lent to all guests though, so at least my socks stayed dry. Folks were very good about sliding all the way forward before swinging out, and the crew was better about being in the water to offer hands and stability to guests. They were out in greater numbers than we experienced in the Galapagos. The waves did not seem as extreme either, FWIW. I never found myself trying to time my escape around them at least!


I thought Ponant did a very good job and wouldn't hesitate to book with them again. My only hesitation is that we chartered the entire ship so I do wonder how differently it might have been with a more international group. The food did not seem especially French to me at many times, or at least felt dumbed down. I honestly wonder if it might have been better otherwise... it was good, but I was expecting to be wowed by French cuisine if I'm honest, rather than be offered a hot dog when I'd already finished my plate, lol! English was spoken 95% of the time and 100% of the time between guests and crew, they only spoke French to each other (and Damien). I'm sure that may have been different also if we weren't all Americans... the crew also commented that they were glad we were all on time, and so happy/boistrous, as that helped things run smoothly. Were they pandering? Maybe.... I do know I would not have been happy if we were delayed and missed out on things due to selfish guests strolling up when they pleased.

Thank you so much for your feedback on Ponant! I compared their Adriatic cruise with the one ABD is doing with them next summer and I think if we book, we will go with the ABD one. A bit of an up charge, but when I saw the excursions included, it seems like a really excellent itinerary.

I'm loving your report! I, too, forgot Joe was on this cruise! It sounds amazing.

 

[jimmymc]

For anyone going on an ABD, get ready for plenty of guide selfies in your phone.

 

[Eastridge]

Would have loved to hear Joe Rhode speak.

I've heard a talk from him before where he described background research for Expedition Everest. His team traveled to the Himalayas. Of course, management questioned the need and cost of the trip. Why not just get reference materials from books or videos? Because, Joe explained, you are then seeing things through someone else's filter. There's no substitute for direct experience and seeking out what you are looking for.

Just as we are seeing the Arctic trip through your filter and the Canadian Rockies trip through my filter in my report. We hope that others get some idea of the experiences, but it is being passed through our filters.

 

[Mathmagicland]

We really enjoyed Damien as a guide if that was not already obvious.

We loved Damien, also! He is so fun on the tours.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! How was your overall impression of Ponant? We are considering the Adriatic ABD with them next year and also considering just booking directly with Ponant.

We did, yes! We had tall rubber boots that Ponant lent to all guests though, so at least my socks stayed dry. Folks were very good about sliding all the way forward before swinging out, and the crew was better about being in the water to offer hands and stability to guests. They were out in greater numbers than we experienced in the Galapagos. The waves did not seem as extreme either, FWIW. I never found myself trying to time my escape around them at least!


I thought Ponant did a very good job and wouldn't hesitate to book with them again. My only hesitation is that we chartered the entire ship so I do wonder how differently it might have been with a more international group. The food did not seem especially French to me at many times, or at least felt dumbed down. I honestly wonder if it might have been better otherwise... it was good, but I was expecting to be wowed by French cuisine if I'm honest, rather than be offered a hot dog when I'd already finished my plate, lol! English was spoken 95% of the time and 100% of the time between guests and crew, they only spoke French to each other (and Damien). I'm sure that may have been different also if we weren't all Americans... the crew also commented that they were glad we were all on time, and so happy/boistrous, as that helped things run smoothly. Were they pandering? Maybe.... I do know I would not have been happy if we were delayed and missed out on things due to selfish guests strolling up when they pleased.

Ponant mentioned on our Arctic trip in June, that average passenger age on the Disney trips was around 40, while on their typical Ponant cruises it skews much older, closer to 60-65. They appreciated the younger, more active Disney group. I don’t know if their Adriatic cruise would skew the same way, something to consider and maybe ask them if you do lean towards booking directly with them.

 

[AquaDame]

Between the 13 children and some CMs that jumped aboard at the last minute (at great discount) I think that was sufficient to skew our average age lower. The 20-somethings stuck together so in the end we still mostly ended up hanging out with the 50/60 year old crowd, though we're both 41. This worked out great for us at trivia; I was able to answer a bunch of the Disney specific questions from growing up during the 'golden age' and they more than made up for it during music trivia the next day!

 

[AquaDame]

July 13th/Day 4: Tusk Tusk
I probably should have paid more attention to the pin names of the days while we were traveling... in the end they were spoilers right under my nose! Since this was an expedition cruise our handbook just kind of mooshed all the days together saying we MIGHT do X, Y, or Z, so I had completely forgotten the 'themes' until we got home. This was one that was right on schedule!

Someone must have gotten up earlier than we; they were already marking off spotted animals for the day! We had the late landing from 9:45am, with green and yellow going ashore at 8:30.



This paper was a blessing and a curse... it was fun to see them get ticked off but you'd also feel a little sad if you had missed the animal.

Today we were at Texas Bar in the morning and would reposition to Monacobreen in the afternoon. The glacier was named after the Duke Albert I of Monaco who led the expeditions which mapped it in 1906/07. This glacier was bittersweet as it has receeded so much in recent years. It had shared one calving front up until 2015 when it receeded far enough past the mountain ridge to full be seen as two distinct glaciers. The other is Seligerbreen.

If that doesn't drive you to drink, what will?



Inside the bar is a selection of liquor left behind by folks who use the building for camping in the summer. Locals from Longyearbyen share use of it.


Kyle contemplating how early it is in the day... we had been assured that it was all there for anyone to drink.

While he was busy I signed the guest book on the right, the one on the left is locals only.



While Kyle continued to think about it we went on a little hike in the area the guides had cleared for us.





More sketching~!



At the top of the hill in the distance in the above picture there was a little stack of stones that had fungus growing on it. Using a zoom or binocs you could see the teensy tiny little mushrooms, which were very cute! I've complained to Kyle that his pictures are not in our Synology gallery, but he hasn't added them and one can only nag so much... I'll have to make do with the pictures I have or this report will never get done.



These shore excursions are always so short... it was already time to head back to the ship. Aside from a few birds in the distance, we did not see other animals this time. We did end up stopping at the bar on the way back, and partook of some sampling. There was some bottles of vodka we'd never seen before... it was really smooth. The crew waited for us to leave before they did their last check that we hadn't cleared it out in there.



At 11am our guides had put out a table full of different stickers for us to decorate our bottles with. At first you could choose three, though they then said to go hogwild with whatever was left. As we were the last tour group for this trip this year (ever?) Kira did not want to pack them back home. The 'hidden mickey' photo contest was ending this afternoon at lunch, so we transferred our entries to the guides at this time also before heading to lunch. They also had a shipwide scavenger hunt, but we did not do that one for some reason. It was focused on finding little details in the trimming around the ship.

I don't remember what I had for lunch this day, and to be honest did a terrible job in general of taking food pics. I did not want to be 'that guy' who held things up at the buffet or take pics of every dish, but I'll post the ones I did take here as I come across them. They always had fun decorating up the desserts with little Disney flair. They also always had at least one no-sugar-added and a gluten free option for us. There was also a little self serve gelato area in the back of the room with 3 or 4 different flavors if you did not fancy any of these.

 

[AquaDame]

Day 4 continued...

After lunch we had free time until 3:30 (G/Y went at 2:30). The ship had moved closer to the glaciers in the meantime.



Once again our naturalist was especially cautious, so we did not get very close to the glacier itself, though we got very close to the ice, as you can see!



Close enough to taste it.. literally. We all pulled off a little hunk. The naturalist spent time sharing everything she knew about the formation of the little floaters.



And then we contemplated also how short sighted it had been to eat anything out of this water... hopefully the ice had not been seasoned by these dudes.



We once again struck out on seeing any seals amongst the ice, which was starting to feel strange and ominous, and headed back aboard where they had been running a chocolate tea party from 4-5pm. We missed out on it, but still chose to hang out in the lounge to edit photos and read.



We ended up taking over this little corner and made a habit of heading here after the afternoon outings. At 5:45 they also held a tasting of Pata Negra which was really tasty. I may have had a couple plates... once again a half full ship had its benefits!



At 6:15 it was time for our recap of the day, and this time a couple of the naturalists also held little informational talks about specific topics from the day.



We had a quick talk about some of the marine mammals we had seen,



as well as a great talk about the flora we'd encountered as well, including the little fungus. He did a great job of building respect for the tiny shrunken denizens we were then much more careful not to trample. They're similar to plants elsewhere... just microsized to adapt to a very harsh environment.

It was then time for.. yes.. more food. I must have liked it, since I took a pic and it was not even pretty! They had served beef bourguignon today which I am a fan of, but don't make often at home since it is time intensive.



I also had a cute little lemon tart~! I am a sucker for a meringue Mickey!

 

[AquaDame]

Day 4 continued...

Either at the briefing or after dinner the captain made an announcement that though we had stuck out on most wildlife sightings we had one last chance to maybe see something as we sailed further north. There was an island (Moffen) that is a protected haul out site for walrus, and he would let us know when we got there if any were about.



Otherwise it was waiting for Disney Bingo at 9... but, luckily for us, the Walrus had arrived!




Ok ok not just those ones, though they were impressive and immediately started calling out for their family on shore.



They were at a distance, but still very much appreciated! Aside from one at Seaworld these were the first Walrus' I've seen, and of course the first in the wild. The ships' photographers were able to get much closer than my iPhone... here is their shot:



While there were a few in the water they were far too distant for me to observe. But hey, today there hadn't been a lot about, so we were more than happy to delay Bingo (we got here right as it was about to start).

When we got back into the theatre the performers had a quick little surprise for us, and performed 'Waterloo' by Abba. Between this and my brother putting on Dancing Queen back in Greece I had to wonder if something was in the water... I hadn't listened to Abba in years but now they'd shown up twice!



Disney bingo was of course a hoot. It was free to play, and we did various kinds until the guides ran out of prizes for us.



If Bingo was not your thing, they also had live music in both lounges (one had a pianist and the other a singer) at 10pm, and then another performance at 10:45.

With that day 4 was wrapped and tomorrow we'd be amongst a LOT more ice..!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Looks like a fun cruise so far with some fun shipboard activities. I wondered if they would do that so nice to know they did. The hard thing about reading your great report is knowing they probably aren't doing this again. I really wish we'd made the effort to get on one of these trips.

 

[AquaDame]

Looks like a fun cruise so far with some fun shipboard activities. I wondered if they would do that so nice to know they did. The hard thing about reading your great report is knowing they probably aren't doing this again. I really wish we'd made the effort to get on one of these trips.

The guides kept insisting that the trip isn't dead.... I'm not sure why. If they were going to keep going, ABD wouldn't have pulled '24 surely? They had already released it and everything... then giving away all the arctic themed stickers and some other things also doesn't fill me with confidence. But... they insisted it was not over... they lose nothing by being more realistic with us, surely? Maybe it will be back in some form, some day...

 

[AquaDame]

July 14th/Day 5: Bear with Me
Today the theme was totally off the mark, but we were going to be wowed in a few different ways anyway!

The night before we had been amped by the late appearance of the walrus, and Kyle had decided to set up outside for a bit, as there had been reports of a bear in the area from a couple days ago. They had thought we might have a chance around 10:30 or so, depending, so I got ready for bed and waited patiently for him to return.... which he did not. I waited some more and then began to get worried closer to midnight, so I took a walk around the ship looking for him, but I could not find him. I waited a bit longer, and then took another loop... still skunking out! Where was my husband?! I started to envision him overboard and wondered if anyone would notice that late at night so went around again but stopped short of the bridge... I did not want to bother them (especially not in my pyjamas) so I went back to the room until I could not take it anymore. When I got back to the door again there were a few other people who wanted entry as well, so I snuck in behind them and went out onto the deck where I found a husband icicle. Finally satisfied he was neither dead nor likely to be lost at sea, I went back down and to bed.

Thankfully for him, we had a nice late morning the next day, so we slept in a bit. There was a history of Svalbard lecture at 9am that I had wanted to go to, but suddenly sleep felt more important. When we awoke, we were amongst bigger ice.



We were also all decked out for the holiday! Today was Bastille Day also, and a French ship of course could NOT let this go unmarked... nor would Damien!





Also in honor of the late excursion the guides had decreed this our Pajama breakfast day, so we made sure to show off our high style. No, there are no pictures... I did not get a waiver. The guides also entertained the kids with board games at 10am, while the rest of us milled about, having a second or third latte and enjoying the sail as the ice got more pronounced and closer to the hull.




We were still striking out with animal viewing so far, but with so much ice to choose from, we knew it might be difficult. But then finally, I saw one! A BABY no less! It was all alone on a little 'berg as we sailed past, but the captain made sure to let everyone know to look at this cutie.



We began pushing the ice aside with the ship as we navigated as far north as Captain Richard was comfortable with. It made fun groaning and cracking sounds against the hull as we moved. I tried not to think about the damage we were doing to the precious ice... ^^;

Kyle also found this fabulous friend, but I missed out as I had gone back inside due to the cold. D'oh!



Our guides had once again gifted us a little something to make sure everyone was taking care of themselves - you can see a couple of our chosen stickers here as well. Everyone got the custom 'Arctic Expedition' one the day prior when we picked out the other ones.



At 11:45am they played French music in the lounge area, where we could be found editing more pictures, enjoying the view, and reading some more.

Far on the horizon we could see a couple other ships; one plying the waters at the edge as we were, and another that was going far deeper. We looked it up and found it to be a proper ice breaker, which explained that! Before long we were well and truly "in it" and getting ready with another lecture on sea ice formation.





Mmm, pancakes.

 

[AquaDame]

Day 5 continued...



Still no bears... Kyle's timer kept tick tocking away...

It was not until 2pm that it was finally time to take to the zodiacs again for our cruise in the pack ice! Even Santa himself made an appearance for this one! I guess we were close enough to the north pole.



When they warn you that expedition cruises need to be flexible, they are not kidding. We were able to board the zodiacs just fine and began to cruise amongst the ice, when our driver suddenly got a message on the radio that made her uneasy and she started moving back towards the ship. It was in French, so I was not sure what they were saying. This is as far out as we got when we turned back - I had only taken one or two pics by this point.



For awhile we thought she was just being extra cautious... again (we kept getting the same driver by chance)... but then we saw a light mist start to roll in. Some of the zodiacs were continuing on, but then we saw one turn back as we were as well. We milled around close to the ship for what felt like an eternity waiting to see if the fog would roll back out as quickly as it rolled back in. It also hadn't gotten so bad that we had to toss in the towel... we were just kind of bobbing out there. Losing visibility was a huge danger in the zodiacs; not only could the guides not guarantee our safety from animals or the ice, there was danger we would lose our way if we lost visual with the ship. (GPS only does so much...)

Eventually with no fanfare our driver opened the box in the middle of the boat that we'd all noticed but thought nothing of... we were supposed to toast with champagne on an ice floe but... travel, am I right? The juice was for anyone who didn't want alcohol... which in our case was me. Ok ok I did take a tiny bit of bubbles and make a mimosa, technically. Just to say I had. The boats stuck close together as you can see - we were always in pairs, and in this case we may as well have been one!



As you can see, its pretty much a nice sunny day... except for that wispy stuff between the ship and us! Even just that much was too much... if you got further away it got worse, as the pic from our ship photographers who were further way showed:



While we were toasting I went ahead and just haaaad to get a shot of my glass on the ice. Which then the blogger lady wanted to do also, but with the champagne bottle too. While she was getting it juuuuust right we started to float away..! I got the glass but missed the bottle..!!! It was just out of my reach. She was nice enough to catch my scrambling in a video...



I was NOT going to be responsible for leaving a bottle in the arctic... I was NOT!! So I grabbed the darn ice...



And hauled the whole dang zodiac back towards it.



Who says I have no upper body strength? (It probably should have been way easier but give me this one please... I was so stressed, lol). I can verify that water was very, very, very cold.

After we'd boxed our glasses and bottles back up, we drove into a floe and beached ourselves so we could enjoy getting back out of it again. We all had to stand up and JUMP JUMP JUMP while the driver tried to back out until our little floe cracked and we were free.... then it was time to head back to the ship.



The fog was rolling in a little thicker again, but thankfully the next group was ready to head out when we got back. We sneaked our box off, and a fresh one on.

Our snack today were crepes! We had the choice of chocolate, nutella or crepe suzette~!

 

[AquaDame]

Day 5 continued...

On we sailed ere long, back off of the edge of the packed sea ice.



At 5pm, after stuffing ourselves with crepes it was time to head to another lecture by Joe Rhode! Today's was titled 'Travelers' Tales' and featured more recountings of travels he'd been on while researching various park projects and others in the last few years. He touched on his time in Mongolia doing work in service of snow leopards, and a little bit about his upcoming journey in search of narwhals while working on a community art project in way way northern Canada.









I guess in Mongolia their huts have a section at the entrance that is intended for stranded travelers, which he had to utilize when a freak storm waylaid him and his companions. Without any complaint an elderly woman welcomed them into her home and fed them, keeping them warm until they were able to move on again. When you live somewhere so dangerous, it just makes sense to do the right thing, lest you or your loved ones also need help at some point.



Once again he sang to us, and once again the talk was over far too soon... we then had our recap of the day in the same theatre, where they also talked about what we hoped to do tomorrow. They had been talking up how far northeast we were going to get to go, as if it was a very special thing, but as we knew nothing, we did not know what to expect. Our captain had JUST received some kind of certification allowing him to sail through the waters to get there, which everyone was very proud of him for doing in the last year, especially at his age... I guess he is fairly young in captain terms! We had heard we'd be trying to head to a fantastic bird colony of some sort, and it was just now on the eve of heading there that they told us a bit more about it. The weather was holding well and we had been able to get a spot, so it was a go! Supposedly that is hard to do at Alkefjellet as it is very popular, but luck was on our side, though we would have to arrive fairly late. We would start the day with a landing on Nordaustlandet as well, which is mostly a nature reserve, to see a research station and do a bit of walking.

At this point I have to admit I am curious how we've deviated from the June departure so far including tomorrow... if anyone is able to chime in on that...!

After our talk, we went to dinner and then we ran into this on the way back to the room...! I 'heard the people sing' before I saw them, that is for sure!



Kyle was completely wiped from being up so late the night before though it was only around 9pm, so I followed them to the lounge by my lonesome, where I enjoyed listening to Damien sing some classic French songs with the artist resident and continue to insist this hat is worn by everyone on Bastille Day.



Julien backed him up, as Liberté herself wears one in "Liberty Leading the People", but I must admit no one else broke theirs out on this occasion... the ship performers came out high kicking once Damien had had his fill as well, and were gifted with a sketch done by Joe Rhode during their performance.



The party continued on, but I was wiped and returned to the cabin as well for a good night's rest. At some point we were all gifted this from the ship as well, to commemorate our sailing as far north as we would on this trip!

 

[sayhello]

It *is* good to know that it's always "Safety First"! But sorry your day's explorations got cut short. But now I'm all curious for this bird thing for tomorrow!!

It is *so* cool how Joe Rohde just whips up these sketches real time and can just gift them to the people right then and there. What a gift he has!

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

The guides kept insisting that the trip isn't dead.... I'm not sure why. If they were going to keep going, ABD wouldn't have pulled '24 surely? They had already released it and everything... then giving away all the arctic themed stickers and some other things also doesn't fill me with confidence. But... they insisted it was not over... they lose nothing by being more realistic with us, surely? Maybe it will be back in some form, some day...

I hope they bring it back in some form, but it doesn't sound promising. I will be crossing my fingers!!!

And I agree with Sayhello--so cool about Joe just whipping up a sketch or two. What a lovely keepsake! Did you get one or was it only for performers, etc?

 

[AquaDame]

I hope they bring it back in some form, but it doesn't sound promising. I will be crossing my fingers!!!

And I agree with Sayhello--so cool about Joe just whipping up a sketch or two. What a lovely keepsake! Did you get one or was it only for performers, etc?

Sadly I did not... it does seem like he does so sparingly, and seems to tend to be if you are in the sketch yourself. He did do something nice for us all later on though....

 

[AquaDame]

July 15th/Day 6: Ice-olated Beauty
Today started out with a whimper but by the end... boy was our luck changing!

I was not sure what to expect from the day, but admit I had started to feel a little melancholy about the lack of wildlife viewing on the trip. I know, I know, we were seeing some, and normally I just take things as they come and enjoy whatever I find, but sometimes moods get ahold of us. I only mention it because it did affect my pictures for the day.

The theme of the morning would be rocks, rocks, and more rocks. The snippet on our daily adventurer did not even mention the morning stop in the informational blurb, it was all saved for the cliffs in the afternoon. For now though, we were at Kinnvika.



I was impressed by the squiggle from navigating through the ice the day prior here too. We were on the later departure again today, so we had until 9:45 to get ready to board the zodiacs. At our landing, we took a very short walk to the research area where there were a group of buildings. At this time, no one was home, and in fact I am not sure it HAS been home to anyone in years, so there was no one really around to greet or speak with. A couple of the naturalists were standing around, but their info was also limited, so I admit I did not learn anything about the area while we were on the trip. I haven't learned much AFTER the trip either if I'm honest... there just isn't much out there in English.





Even in the endless grey and tan a little color could be found...



But mostly it was rocks rocks rocks. We did not find any animals but we did take advantage of the little hike the guides had cleared for us to stretch our legs, hoping to see something if we changed our vantage.



We just found more rocks though. It was also a little foggy here today too. It was pretty neat how the stones were breaking apart though. You can see how it is falling to pieces here. There was also a little snow around, though we were warm enough with the hiking to not really need our thick parkas.



More pretty cracked rocks.



This honestly felt like the longest time ashore of our entire trip, though we only really had 15 minutes more than the others. We made our way back down.



More buildings we could not enter...





You can see the buildings about 1/3 of the way in from the right to see how far we'd come. The melting snow had made it a little muddy in spots, so we did have to walk carefully. Now we can say we've been on Nordaustlandet!

 

[AquaDame]

Day 6 continued....

Back onboard we were back to activities with our guides and the crew; we would not do our afternoon excursion until evening, as we had "booked" late at the cliffs and would need to wait until everyone else had gone. The kids had more game time with the guides while the rest of us enjoyed live music and worked on the next photo contest, this time we were looking for pictures in the theme of polar pals. I had nothin'.. so I tried to make a winterscape out of pillows and towels. Shocker.. I did not win, but it kept me entertained for a bit.



We had time to waste after all... our next activity wasn't until 1pm when there would be musical bingo with the ABD guides. Since we had just done regular bingo we weren't feeling it, so we were not planning to go. Besides... we had heard a rumor that there may be whales about, so we decided to head up to the lounge on 6 and relax there. It made sense, given that we were navigating between two land masses that they may be.

Well, ladies and gentlemen.. there WAS a whale. And not just ANY whale. Tiffany's BLUE WHALE. Bingo was once again delayed... or maybe cancelled... no one cared. We all grabbed our gear and ran outside.



Y'all. I'm tearing up even now. Tiffany got on the speaker and it was obvious she was crying, she was so happy. Earlier in the day when we had come through on the way to Kinnvika one of the crew had spotted it from her verandah, though no one else had. This picture is from later in the evening, but you can see how we crossed back over again:



She then had made it her personal mission to find that whale... staying on for longer than her shift necessitated trying to make this happen for her. There are so many little things the guides do for us to make magic that it was so right someone else was able to make a little for her. The whale was kind enough to stay... and stay.. and stay. We were with it as long as we could be...



It even deigned to show its fluke! Which supposedly they only do about 5% of the time. But it dove again and again. Tiffany came out on deck and hugs went all around, as did a few more tears.



Closer shots compliments of my picture package...





Finally we had to say adieu, memories made, and continue on with our regularly scheduled program. We went to the 2pm lecture with Evan, the teacher from Longyearbyen, about what it is like living there. The man is either unintentionally funny or has deadpan down to an art... those are some lucky kids, even if he DID film them falling over in the wind on their yearly field trip in the winter to show what NOT to do...



After that the guides held a ping pong tournament at 3pm where anyone could participate.



No, it wasn't regulation sized but at least everyone all had the same handicap! We had fun watching while we enjoyed teatime once again. The daily adventurer says parisian specialties but I have no pictures of it... this may have been the day we had several flavors of macrons, or perhaps it was something else and I skipped it entirely.

At 4pm we had our final talk with Joe Rhode, entitled 'Fireside Chat' which was an informal Q&A... he told more stories and answered any questions we asked for about an hour. I don't have any pictures this time... sorry y'all! It was all words words words.

I'm also going to have to leave the rest of this day to tomorrow, as it is late here and I still need to shower off from my jog. Birds and more are coming though, I promise! <3

 

[Mathmagicland]

I hope they bring it back in some form, but it doesn't sound promising. I will be crossing my fingers!!!

And I agree with Sayhello--so cool about Joe just whipping up a sketch or two. What a lovely keepsake! Did you get one or was it only for performers, etc?

An AbD rep on the June departure commented (when I asked) that the Arctic trip may end up being an every few years trip, rather than annually. Obviously they need to hit certain participation numbers on the trips, same as the land adventures. Even the Antarctica trips have gone from three each of the prior two seasons down to just one coming up this season. Interest /those who can go now is tapering off. So, I’d encourage anyone interested in a future Arctic adventure to email AbD and let them know. AbD needs to see the potential interest to gauge when to possibly look at offering one again.