My first clue our
cruise to Antarctica might be fraught with frustration was the immigration line
that seemed a mile long in the Buenos Aires, Argentina, airport on February 3,
2024.
We had flown from Sarasota to Charlotte, North Carolina, then JFK to catch an 11-hour overnight flight to the opposite side of the world. Booked in domestic First Class and International Business Class with its lay-flat seats, we were treated like royalty on American Airlines. We even arrived in Buenos Aires early!
That feeling of royalty evaporated when we saw that only 4 Argentina immigration officers were working to handle the influx of 9 jets ranging in mega-size from a Lufthansa 747 to several Boeing 777’s to Boeing 787s. In the end, we stood in line, moving at a snail’s pace, and after three hours of shuffling forward finally were able to talk to an immigration officer.
Retrieving our luggage, we stepped into the receiving area outside of Customs where we expected to see my name on a placard for our pre-arranged ride to the Buenos Aires Marriott. We used Reservas Quickcar in 2023, and found them punctual and highly professional. Not so in 2024. After walking around the hordes of people waiting for passengers to arrive we never found Reservas Quickcar. They didn’t show up! Instead, we found a local transport company, paid them $88 USD for a 30-minute ride into town, and checked into the Buenos Aires Marriott.
On arrival at the hotel, I received a message from Reservas Quickcar informing me that they gave up waiting for us at 8:00 a.m. and left the airport. I responded with a copy of the confirmation letter showing we had requested a 12:00 noon pick up. Reservas Quickcar screwed up, not us.
Sunday morning, Reservas Quickcar met us at the hotel exactly on time at 11:00 and drove us to the cruise terminal. A recent violent thunderstorm tore the roof off the regular terminal building so in response, all cruises now drop off luggage at a “shed” near the Jorge Newberry domestic airport. From there passengers are transferred to the original terminal whose roof was supposedly ripped off where you pass through security, then check in, then clear Argentina Immigration before being loaded on another bus and driven to the cruise ship.
If only it was this easy.
We entered the terminal “shed” at 11:10 a.m. where, because Norwegian Cruise Line forgot to send everyone luggage tags, we stood in line to have our bags marked for our stateroom. After dropping them off we were given a number and told to wait until it was called before we could board a bus to drive us several miles to the original cruise terminal. Our number was “White 12” and when it was finally called we darted to the bus before anyone could say “You have to wait for the next bus.”
At the old terminal we repeated the dance we performed in 2023, jumped through the hoops, and finally stepped on the ship at 3:10 pm – a full four hours after beginning this merry-go-round ride. In 2023 it took us 3 hours to get on the ship. In 2024 it took us 4 hours. Curiously in April 2023, in Honolulu, it took us 16 MINUTES from the time we entered the cruise terminal until we were standing inside the confines of the Norwegian Spirit. As much as we love traveling to Antarctica we will NOT do this cruise again on Norwegian or any other cruise line until the pandemonium of check in and ship boarding in Buenos Aires becomes more civilized! I don’t expect much improvement any time soon. In 2025 Norwegian will be sailing to Antarctica from Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina. Maybe that will be less chaotic than Buenos Aires. It couldn’t be worse.
Hungry, tired, and frustrated with the craziness of boarding the ship we sought out the Garden Café on Deck 12 for a late lunch and a much-needed glass of Pinot Noir. While seated, I saw Dan Bauer walking through the café. Long ago in graduate school (Biology) I taught a lab in Historical Geology for my former Paleontology professor. Dan Bauer was one of my students in that class. Like me, Dan had a double major in Biology and Geology for his undergraduate degree. I chose the Biology route for my career and Dan chose Geology. After graduation in a series of scenarios where he was in the right place at the right time, Dan worked as a geologist in Antarctica during the Austral summer (our winter). When he wasn’t walking among Penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula, he was prospecting for precious metals in Alaska, or working on the Barnes Ice Cap near Pond Inlet in Nunavut, Canada. We hadn’t seen each other in nearly 50 years but the reconnection was almost immediate.
About 4:00 pm we received word that all staterooms were now available and we walked (slowly because of my knee) down one deck and opened the door of Stateroom 11082, a Club Balcony Suite starboard and mid-ship. We had sailed on the Star twice before. First on a 14-day Transatlantic repositioning cruise from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Miami. It was on this cruise we decided that Norwegian was out preferred cruise line and the Star was our preferred ship. Later, in January 2023, we sailed again on the Star during Norwegian’s inaugural cruise from Buenos Aires to Antarctica.
On entering Stateroom 11082 we found a message on our bed. It was from Norwegian informing us of an itinerary change. This quickly became the second omen that our cruise was not going to be a happy one.
Our original itinerary took us from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay, to Puerto Madryn in Chubut Province, Argentina, to Punta Arenas, Chile, to Ushuaia, Argentina. After passing through the Beagle Channel and crossing the dreaded Drake Passage we were supposed to spend one day in Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula before traveling overnight to Elephant Island, made famous by the Shackelton Expedition. From Elephant Island, we were to re-cross the Drake Passage for one day to the Falkland Islands, then a two-day sail back to Buenos Aires. The message on our bed told a different story.
For no clear reason Norwegian had altered the itinerary to remove Paradise Bay. We would now spend one day in Admiralty Bay on King George Island and then dash up to Elephant Island in the latter part of the day. We would still spend a day crossing the Drake Passage to the Falkland Islands and after leaving them we would spend THREE days crawling at 13 nautical miles per hour back to Buenos Aires. Frustration was quickly replaced by disappointment when 2,000 or so passengers learned that our time in Antarctica was cut in half and in place of it we would crawl like a slow-moving snail back to Buenos Aires!
A quick check with the Customer Service desk on Deck 7 revealed a game of cat and mouse with the itinerary change. Customer Service claimed it was a “management” decision to make the change. I asked to speak with an officer and soon the Director of Operations for the cruise was standing in front of me. I asked him to explain the management decision to change the itinerary. He quickly recited the words on every cruise confirmation that the cruise line reserves the right to change the itinerary as needed. I asked for clarification of why it had to be changed. He said, “It was a corporate decision made in Miami.” I worked for the Federal government long enough to recognize when smoke was being blown up my ass and told the Director of Operations how I felt. He offered platitudes and thoughts and prayers and walked away. Perhaps he needs some additional training in customer service because he received an F from me.
Where I accepted the fact that we were being screwed out of a day in Antarctica on a cruise billed and marketed as “Antarctica” many others on the ship were not so complacent. Three days after sailing out of Buenos Aires word spread among passengers that “Good Morning America” on the ABC Network was seeking passengers to speak on the record about losing a day in Antarctica and not receiving a straight answer. Soon emails from friends arrived with links to stories in the Washington Post and the Business Insider (among others) about the media attention the itinerary change was receiving. Norwegian Cruise Line stepped on its corporate dick big time and didn’t have the common sense needed to quell the uprising of anger over what they did.
That first night we had dinner in the Versailles Dining Room then settled in for a much-needed night of rest after a hectic day. We were jolted awake at 4:45 a.m. when crew members on the Deck 12 by the pool, a few inches above us, began rearranging lounge chairs. It seemed that they had to drag every deck chair on Deck 12 from one end of the pool deck to the other and each step they took made the sound louder. The night before, as we tried to get to sleep, we heard the deep bass of music being played on the pool deck for the “sail away” party. This continued until 11:00 pm under various names throughout the cruise. We assumed, incorrectly, that the noise was a one-time inconvenience. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
For the first 10 days of the cruise, every morning at 4:45, the dedicated staff was on the pool deck rearranging the deck chairs even though it was 1) still dark, and after several days we were in 2) air temperatures of 36 degrees F that precluded anyone laying out on the pool deck on the recently moved chairs. Not to be outdone, once the deck chairs were moved waking up everyone on the Starboard side of the ship under the pool deck, the Chinese couple in Stateroom 11080 started hacking up their lungs and sneezing. They had COVID or RSV or the Hong Kong Fong and they spent every waking moment from the second day of the cruise coughing and sneezing. This wasn’t normal sneezing or coughing. This was deep and hard coughing that sounded like a cat being strangled. Every day this went on from the moment we were jolted awake until the end of the cruise.
On the 10th day of being blasted out of bed by deck chairs being moved at 4:45 a.m. I trotted down to Customer Service and said, “I don’t want to seem trite, but is it really necessary for the crew to be moving deck chairs on the pool deck at 4:45 every morning?” Customer Service apologized and sent a Housekeeping Department manager to our room at 5:00 a.m. to continue apologizing. Eventually he told me that the unwanted 4:45 a.m. wake up calls from moving deck chairs would stop. And it did. For the rest of the cruise the crew moved them at 3:30 a.m.
Concerned about the hacking and sneezing from Stateroom 11080 we told our room steward about our concerns for the people in the room and for him having to clean their room. Our room steward admitted that the occupants of 11080 refused to let him in the room to clean it! They would bring a garbage can to the door and hand it to him then quickly close the door and lock it. We suggested that the room needed to be fumigated at the end of the cruise. Thankfully, our room steward wore a mask each time he opened their door to take the garbage. I feel sorry for the passengers who were stuck in 11080 after this cruise.
Other than these annoyances the cruise was enjoyable and educational. When we anchored in Punta Arenas, Chile we took part in a shore excursion to the Museo Nao Victoria where we examined replicas of the ship Magellan sailed when he discovered the Straits of Magellan. Also here was a replica of the HMS Beagle that Charles Darwin sailed through here on his way to the Galapagos. Most importantly was a replica of the James Caird, the 22-foot boat that Sir Ernest Shackelton and 5 of his crew sailed in for more than 800 miles to South Georgia Island where they started the effort to rescue the remainder of the crew of the Endurance camped on Point Wild on Elephant Island.
After looking at the Caird I have even more respect for Shackelton and his crew. Sailing over 800 miles across the Drake Passage with no modern navigational aids. Their only instruments were a sextant and dead reckoning. How they made it over the treacherous seas of the Drake remains a mystery but they did it. Upon his return to Elephant Island four months later, none of Shackelton’s 28-member crew had perished including the 22 who remained on Point Wild eating seaweed, Chinstrap Penguins, Southern Elephant Seals and burning blubber for heat.
Our hurried itinerary through the South Shetland Islands archipelago allowed us time to explore Admiralty Bay with its large concentration of Chinstrap Penguins.
At one point not far from Elephant Island we encountered a feeding frenzy of whales of several species and observed more than 30 spouts over the ocean at the same time! Then not to be outdone, while eating dinner off Elephant Island a flock of 300 Cape Petrels, my most favorite Antarctic bird, appeared as the sun was fading for the day.
Return northward over the Drake Passage began about 10:00 p.m. and was uneventful. The wind was only about 20 mph and wave height was 8 feet.
Several days earlier when we arrived in Punta Arenas, we learned that ours was only the second Norwegian Cruise Line ship since November to be able to anchor and bring passengers ashore in tender boats. Luck also was with us at Stanley, Falkland Islands where our ship and a Viking Cruise Line ship anchored 25 minutes from shore.
Our objective in Stanley was to visit the penguin colony at Bluff Cove, a 24-minute drive from the cruise terminal. There we were told to expect King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins and maybe Magellanic Penguins. We found all three species plus a Southern Rockhopper Penguin that had swam to the cove to molt. Adding to the excitement was several hundred Upland Geese and offshore from the cove was a similar number of Southern Giant-Petrel.
We spent three days at sea moving at 13 nautical miles per hour to kill time on the return to Buenos Aires. On arrival on February 18, we disembarked at 5:30 a.m., took a bus to Jorge Newberry domestic airport then flew on American Jet (Argentina) a life airline to Iguazu Falls for a long day trip visiting the spectacular waterfalls on the border of Brazil and Argentina.
I slept in on Monday while Cathy walked to Ricoletta to visit the famous grave of Eva Perone then on Tuesday we caught an American Airlines flight to Miami, then Charlotte and after 21 hours of travel arrived in Sarasota.
Despite the disappointment of losing a day in Antarctica our trip results in 2024 were similar to 2023. Last year we saw 5 species of whales including Blue Whale. This year we saw 6 species of whales missing Blue Whale but seeing Pilot Whale. Last year we saw 5 species of Albatross and in 2024 saw 6 species. We had the same number of Penguin species both years. One obvious difference this year was the huge number of icebergs that we did not see in 2023. This year we were there in February (our equivalent of August) after three months of melting so it was expected there would be more icebergs. They were fun to watch and many of them had Penguins or Leopard Seals hitching a ride. However, I could not help but think about the movie “Titanic” as we weaved among the floating mountains of ice.
The mechanics of this trip were disappointing and Norwegian needs to do some damage control because there were many irate passengers. Norwegian also has to do something about the musical chairs in the middle of the night on the pool deck. We are booked on another cruise on the Star in July 2024 from Reykjavik Iceland to New York City. As bad luck would have it we are again in a Stateroom on Deck 11 but theoretically forward of the pool deck. Regardless, the Iceland trip will be our final jaunt aboard the Norwegian Star.
Marine Mammals Seen from the Norwegian Star in the Atlantic Ocean, Straits of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and the Southern Ocean, February 4 to 17, 2024
Southern Elephant Seal
Antarctic Fur Seal
South American Fur Seal
Leopard Seal
Weddell Seal
Atlantic Minke Whale
Fin Whale
Southern Humpback Whale
Orca
Southern Right Whale
Bird Species Seen in
Uruguay, Chubut Province Argentina, Punta Arenas Chile, Ushuaia Argentina, the
Drake Passage, Antarctica, the Falkland Islands and the Atlantic Ocean,
February 4 to February 17, 2024
DUCKS, GEESE, AND
WATERFOWL
Upland Goose
Kelp Goose
Flying Steamer-Duck
Flightless Steamer-Duck
Falkland Steamer-Duck
White-headed Steamer-Duck
Crested Duck
Spectacled Duck
Silver Teal
Chiloe Wigeon
Yellow-billed Pintail
GREBES
White-tufted Grebe
Great Grebe
Silvery Grebe
PIGEONS AND DOVES
Rock Pigeon
SHEATHBILLS
Snowy Sheathbill
OYSTERCATCHERS
Magellanic Oystercatcher
PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS
American Golden-Plover
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Southern Lapwing
SANDPIPERS AND
ALLIES
Red Phalarope
Baird's Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
SKUAS AND JAEGERS
Long-tailed Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
Chilean Skua
Brown Skua
South Polar Skua
GULLS, TERNS, AND
SKIMMERS
Brown-hooded Gull
Dolphin Gull
Olrog's Gull
Kelp Gull
Snowy-crowned Tern
Arctic Tern
South American Tern
Antarctic Tern
PENGUINS
King Penguin
Emperor Penguin
Adelie Penguin
Gentoo Penguin
Chinstrap Penguin
Magellanic Penguin
Macaroni Penguin
Southern Rockhopper
Penguin
ALBATROSSES
Northern Royal Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross
Snowy Albatross
Light-mantled Albatross
Gray-headed Albatross
Black-browed Albatross
SOUTHERN
STORM-PETRELS
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Gray-backed Storm-Petrel
Black-bellied Storm-Petrel
SHEARWATERS AND
PETRELS
Southern Giant-Petrel
Northern Giant-Petrel
Southern Fulmar
Antarctic Petrel
Cape Petrel
Snow Petrel
Kerguelen Petrel
Soft-plumaged Petrel
Atlantic Petrel
Blue Petrel
Antarctic Prion
Gray Petrel
White-chinned Petrel
Spectacled Petrel
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Subantarctic Shearwater
Magellanic Diving-Petrel
CORMORANTS AND SHAGS
Magellanic Cormorant
Imperial Cormorant
Antarctic Shag
NEW WORLD VULTURES
Turkey Vulture
FALCONS AND
CARACARAS
Striated Caracara
TYRANT FLYCATCHERS
Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant
SWALLOWS
Southern Martin
Brown-chested Martin
Blue-and-white Swallow
Barn Swallow
MOCKINGBIRDS AND
THRASHERS
Patagonian Mockingbird
THRUSHES AND ALLIES
Austral Thrush
Chiguanco Thrush
OLD WORLD SPARROWS
House Sparrow
NEW WORLD SPARROWS
Rufous-collared Sparrow
TROUPIALS AND ALLIES
Long-tailed Meadowlark
Austral Blackbird
-------- STATISTICS
--------
Species seen - 89
