Final Thoughts on Antarctica and Hurtigruten

 For most this would have been a dream vacation.  How many people can say they've been to Antarctica?  Indeed the Antarctica part and the cruise were outstanding.   

Stepping on terra firma on the Antarctica continent is a unique experience.  It's my seventh continent that I've stepped foot on.  I never thought of it until a friend mentioned it on Facebook.  That means I've been to all seven continents on Mother Earth.  I never set that goal or thought that one day I will accomplished that. It just happened.

Some people I met said that I went to Antarctica to see the penguins.  Yes, they are cute but I've seen penguins in South African, albeit small African penguins.  You don't go this far just to see penguins or whales.  So why do I want to go to Antarctica?  It's to say I've been there and experience first-hand the journey there and the wilderness of the place.  Sailing through the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego, viewing the glaciers and fjords is a different experience.  It reminds me of Norway and Alaska.  Getting seasick in the Drake Passage is like a rite of passage.  I can't imagine what it was like in the early days of sailing around Cape Horn in smaller unmotorized ships and being battered by the rough seas.  Unsure if you will survive, let alone worry about vomitting your last meals.  

Often times friends would ask me what is the most beautiful place I've been to.  It's a subjective question.  Antarctica is NOT the most beautiful place.  But, it is unique.  It is raw.  It is isolated.  Very few people have been there.  No one lives there, although there are those who work there for long stretches for research.  There are no indigenous people there.  The land would not be able to support them.  Almost nothing grows there.  No country owns the "white continent."  It is at least 2 days away from modern civilization, by modern ship.  Some clever tourist companies are starting to fly tourists there.  I say it's too bad because it will start a deluge of visitors to an unspoiled continent.  They might as well open a Starbucks there.

Hurtigruten has a long maritime history.  It has been carrying people and cargo along the Norwegian coast for over a 100 years.  Today it offers upscale expedition cruises, similar to National Geographic/Linblad.  The latter was an independent company until it merged with National Geographic a few years ago.  Both have Scandinavian heritage, maybe stretching back to the Vikings.  I have taken very few cruises.  The only experience I had was 20 years ago with Royal Caribbean.  Cruises for the masses.  Three to five thousand guests per ship!  That's more people than some small towns in the Midwest in America.  Casinos, water slides, rock-climbing walls, 24-hour buffets, cabaret-style nightclubs, etc. No thank you.  That's not for me.  I like a relaxing cruise where I can read a book or news article while peeking out at the open ocean.  An occasional shore excursion to experience the local sights.  Nice relaxing meals.

MS Lofoten

My first cruise with Hurtigruten was in 2016 on the MS LOFOTEN.  It was an old ship built in 1964.  It lacks all the modern amenities but I had a wonderful cruise experience.  It is not an expedition ship but it stopped at many ports along the coast of Norway.  Visiting these small towns gave me an indelible impression of Norway.  It also extrapolated to my early days in North Dakota where many of the residents are of Norwegian descent.  Uff Da!  It means something like "Oh Gosh" or "Damm!", along that line.  That's what I learned from 4 years in North Dakota.  Norwegians are the friendliest, kindest and most helpful people.  That's how a wide-eyed, green Asian from tropical Singapore was able to survive in the frozen tundra of North Dakota.  

MS Roald Amundsen at Deception Bay

By comparison, the MS ROALD AMUNDSEN is a modern ship built in 2019.  It was specially built to sail in cold waters - the Arctic and the Antarctica.  For this COVID period, they halved the number of passengers instead of the full 500-passenger capacity load.  Spacing is one of the tools to fight against the spread of the COVID-19 virus.  I think because of that they were able to offer a single-supplement waiver.  They don't want to pack the ship.  That saved me a considerable chunk of money.  

I wrote a long post about the MS Roald Amundsen itself earlier.  After being on the ship for almost 3 weeks there are a few things I wish they did.  One was the communication system.  Although they held many lectures through streaming instead of in-person they never recorded them.  That means you have to watch at the hour that they specified.  If you were busy doing something else you'd miss it.  This question was constantly asked by the passengers.  Some were irritated that they miss whatever event they want to watch.  The constant reply from the crew was that they don't have any recording equipment on board.  Something so common in the modern era is missing on one of the most advanced and modern ships?  Hurtigruten could have installed an "On Demand" system or something similar to what modern commercial airplanes have - an IFE or In-flight Entertainment.  You watch whatever you want at whenever it is convenient for you.  Or listen to whatever music or program whenever you want.

To extend this further, Hurtigruten could have created a VPN or Virtual Private Network.  This means that anyone on board can be connected to this VPN and access any program or movies available.  Practically, it means you could be sitting in the Explorer Lounge and be watching a movie or program on your laptop or iPad.  Or you could be listening to music through the Hurtigruten app.  Passengers could also send messages to each other through this instead of having to download an additional app, as Hurtigruten had required.  

However nice the ship is and the trip to Antarctica was, it was overshadowed by the COVID-19 virus.  During the 3 days before the cruise I personally took 3 PCR and 1 Antigen (rapid) COVID tests before I first stepped on the ship.  Other passengers went through similar hurdles.  On board we have to wear our KN95 masks the second we stepped out of our cabins.  We have to wash our hands before every meal and our body temperature taken before we stepped into the dining room.  We social-distanced in the lounge and dining rooms.  The ship was constantly cleaned by the cleaning crew.

Four days after we started sailing we had our first on-board PCR test.  Eight passengers and one crew member tested positive.  This, in spite of all the tests and precautions.  It was devastating to the captain and the crew.  The passengers who tested positive had to be quarantined in the Medical Center.  Imagine spending so much money on the cruise and having to be locked up in a little room and your outside world is seen only through the small window in that room?  Especially if you paid a lot of money for one of the higher-priced suites.  With this positive tests our Falkland Islands leg of the trip was cancelled.

A few days later we had a rapid Antigen tests.  Again, more passengers tested positive.  How many; it was not disclosed.  But it was enough for the captain to consult with headquarters in Norway and ordered to sail back immediately.  That was a smart move because if the virus had gone viral on board we might have been stuck in Antarctica.  Neither Argentina nor Chile would want a ship infested with the COVID virus to be on their territory.  We would have been stuck in "no-man's land."  This is what happened in the early days of the pandemic.  That would have been a disaster for everyone on board.

Luckily, we were across the Drake Passage in two days and in Chilean territory.

As a final insult, there was another PCR test the day before we disembarked.  More passengers tested positive.  They have to disembark and check into a local hotel in Punta Arenas to be quarantined for seven days.  They have to pay their own expenses by claiming from their insurance companies.  If they are traveling with a partner or spouse they will probably be left to travel home on their own.

I feel so lucky to test negative on all the COVID-19 tests, PCR and Antigen.  Nonetheless, I feel a constant threat in the back of my mind.  What if.....

Will I travel on another cruise again?  Not until we figure out how to deal with this COVID virus, whether by vaccination or medication.  Will I travel with Hurtigruten again.  Absolutely yes.  They are an excellent expedition cruise company with top-notch crew and service.  It has been 3 years since the COVID-19 virus first surfaced in Wuhan, China.  It has caused untold misery to everyone.  Is there a message there?

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