Twice postponed circumnavigation of Svalbard with the MS Quest August 18-28, 2022. Bankrupt company, covid, hoping the third time is the charm.

August 1, 2022

Starting this thread whilst at home with my laptop, in the hopes that we MIGHT be able to add to it while on our trip in 2 weeks. THEREFORE nothing of interest to anyone on this first post except a brief intro.

My husband and I (Philly, early 60's) traveled to Antarctica with One Ocean in February of 2017. It was the TRIP OF A LIFETIME. We knew it could never be duplicated so we decided for our next polar trip to try the Arctic. In Sept of 2019 we reserved with One Ocean to travel in June of 2021.

My sent email reveals the following message to our travel agent in October of 2019: "I got your message and confess we are feeling very nervous. A reporter from CBC had contacted me earlier this week about a story she is writing about cancelled cruises with OO. I told her we had a great experience with them in 2017 and were looking forward to another cruise in 2021. Now on FB OO has posted something very cryptic. We do not want to lose our deposit of $----. . I have insurance but would be so upset if the cruise is cancelled. I know you don’t know anything definitive right now. Please keep us posted." Those in the know now know that One ocean went bankrupt, stranding many travelers as well as owing their employees and vendors a lot of money. It is a very ugly story with lots of grift but not for this thread. We lost our full deposit but our travel agent kindly refunded us directly. STRIKE ONE.

Parenthetically We took our college senior to Patagonia in January of 2020 which was an amazing trip.

We then booked with Polar Quest for august 2021 using the same wonderful travel agent. We booked the first week of March 2020. OOPS. COVID. STRIKE TWO.

With fingers and toes crossed, we rebooked in August of 2021 for our upcoming trip, august of 2022, again with Polar Quest. That was during the two week window when the whole world felt open again thanks to vaccines. Remember those two weeks?

Since booking, there have been two airline strikes (with a third one threatening) and covid numbers have started climbing again. IF WE MAKE IT TO SVALBARD I hope to have a lovely trip report.

I am the non photographer who takes snaps with my iphone. DH is an amazing landscape guy, and I hope I can wrestle some pictures from his photoshop jail to share with others .

If we don't get to Svalbard ,it has been lovely finding this community, and we will just relish everyone else's trip reports.

August 2, 2022

I wish you both a wonderful trip. Looking forward to your trip report and pictures.

August 2, 2022

Have a great trip. My trip in May was with Polar Quest and they were excellent. The SAS strike has ended and hopefully something will be sorted out with Lufthansa.

August 2, 2022

Good luck! Seems like very few people have had a smooth sailing getting to the Arctic. Hopefully your troubles are behind you and this trip will be awesome!

August 3, 2022

Hope your trip works out.

August 16, 2022

Quick update- 24 hours of travel with 15 minutes of sleep 😉 landed us in Tromso Monday evening. Today we took the gondola to Storsteinen, gorgeous day and beautiful views. Walked down the 1200 steps and to the Arctic cathedral, then back across the bridge into town. Wrestled one android phone photo from Nikon husband. Flying to Longyearbyen tomorrow!

August 17, 2022

Sorry to read of your earlier tribulations but can assure you personally that the effort will be worthwhile.

Good luck with the voyage. As the saying goes, "you ain't seen nuthin yet"!

August 28, 2022

Trip of a lifetime! Photos to follow through initially they’ll be iPhone snaps only . Trying to upload video but no luck

Edited August 28, 2022 by iphonewifeNikonhusband

August 30, 2022

I will first upload a few videos to show some wildlife highlights. All are from the iphone, please excuse the quality. DH's gorgeous photos are currently in photoshop jail. We had beautiful wildlife experiences, it was an amazing trip. Close safe encounters with polar bears and walruses. Here goes:

August 30, 2022

August 30, 2022

August 30, 2022

August 30, 2022

Doing this in a terrible order here is a map of where we went and list of the sites.

Edited August 30, 2022 by iphonewifeNikonhusband

August 30, 2022

@iphonewifeNikonhusbandGlad you got there in the end. Looking forward to reading about it!

August 30, 2022

1 hour ago, pomkiwi said:

@iphonewifeNikonhusbandGlad you got there in the end. Looking forward to reading about it!

Not sure if my 4 videos and 2 photos uploaded as it looks like no one has seen them. Please let me know if I uploaded them properly. Newbie here.

August 30, 2022

@iphonewifeNikonhusband Well, for a “newbie” you did an excellent job, all video’s perfect. The second one with the lady in red and the walrusses looks like a scary situation.

August 30, 2022

29 minutes ago, Biko said:

@iphonewifeNikonhusband Well, for a “newbie” you did an excellent job, all video’s perfect. The second one with the lady in red and the walrusses looks like a scary situation.

Thank you so much. That is actually on of our guides lying on the sand. He was the trip photographer , and did a great job. At no time was he in danger , and I think he was very respectful of the animals who gradually approached him over a period of about 40 minutes.

August 30, 2022

I got them all OK. Loved them too. Those two bears in the water were obviously conferring on whether to jump in your Zodiac.

August 30, 2022

29 minutes ago, Galana said:

I got them all OK. Loved them too. Those two bears in the water were obviously conferring on whether to jump in your Zodiac.

LOL they actually seemed more curious than hungry. We hope.....