Hints & tips for July 2023 Arctic trip, from the June trip

[Mathmagicland]

Hi - I’ve been leaning towards not doing a trip report for this one, as it would be very similar to the Antarctica one, and with an iPhone for pics my personal wildlife photos aren’t as good as the AbD guide or Ponant photos, I thought I’d share some hopefully helpful information for those on the July Arctic trip -

Bring binoculars! This is one item on the long list of suggested items for the trip, and was overlooked by many including me. While binoculars are often not needed for Antarctica, you do need them here both on the ship and in the zodiacs as sometimes we can’t get really close to the wildlife. The ship does not have a supply for people to share. The AbD guides have some, as well as the naturalists, and they were sharing them around while on the ship.

If you are debating phone-only pics vs a digital camera, you might want the camera for this trip. We had some serious photographers along in terms of the camera equipment, as that is the best way to get closeup shots of the wildlife. Otherwise, the AbD guides had cameras they were using (along with their phones) for the included AbD pictures, and the Ponant photographer pictures were stunning! Definitely worth checking out the optional Ponant Best Of photos package for this trip.

Norway weather - I found this website (there is also an app) which was more accurate than the US-based sites or apps like weather.com. Ie - sometimes weather.com would show rain that Norway weather did not, and Norway info was more accurate. Confirm expected weather for your trip before leaving as it may change your packing.

https://www.yr.no/en


Oslo hotel - there are lots of steps everywhere throughout the hotel, including on every floor once you got off the elevators where there would be half-floors up or down to hallways with more steps. If lots of steps are a challenge, maybe reach out to AbD before you leave to request a room with no additional steps once you get off the elevators. There were very few no-steps rooms on each floor.

Oslo airport to Svalbard - security is non-PreCheck TSA-type, meaning no liquids larger than 3 oz. You will need to take all liquids, laptops, iPads, electronics (except phones), etc out for the screening. Shoes did not have to come off but all jackets did. And, if you have a film camera, while the extra film rolls can be hand-inspected if requested, all cameras must go through the X-rays. So if you don’t want your film X-rayed, make sure you don’t have a roll in the camera until after you are through security. I saw a larger than normal number of bags pulled aside after initial screening for additional personal inspection.

Also, while Norway is part of the Schengen area in Europe, Svalbard is not. We had to go through passport control as we left Oslo for the flight to Svalbard

Continued in next post -

 

[Mathmagicland]

Longyearbyen activity-

In Oslo on Day 1 at AbD guide checkin, you will select your Longyearbyen activity. They started with three choices (abbreviated descriptions below), and by the afternoon when I checked in, one was already fully booked & no longer available. So if you might want that one, go to check in earlier rather than later.


Cultural Tour of Longbearbyen - Option A

A knowledgeable local guide will take guests through Longyearbyen and the area’s exciting history. During the tour, they will visit Svalbard Museum and Museum of the North Pole. Guests will have an opportunity to explore in town if they choose after the museums, but this time was only about 15 minutes.


Exports of Svalbard (Option B)

Guests will learn about the industries of Svalbard, from the coal mining days to present day. Guests will explore a former mine and learn about the lives of miners at Coal Mine 3. Upon returning to the harbor area, the group will visit Svalbard Brewery to learn about Svalbard’s new export – beer! They will have the opportunity to taste 5 different beers.


The Spitsbergen Experience (Option C) -this is the one that was booked up by afternoon

Guests will visit the Svalbard Museum, where the exhibits range from the history of the Svalbard Archipelago to its natural resources. Next, Guests will travel through the Adventdalen to Camp Barentz; a wilderness camp where Guest will enjoy the flavors of the region in a cozy cabin while hearing stories about the unique way of life in the Arctic. Some who went said they also met some sled dogs, but no sled rides and no puppies.

*****

Continued in next post

 

[Mathmagicland]

LONGYEARBYEN-

Buses are not plentiful in Longyearbyen, so we did not have dedicated busses. After we were transported to a spot, the busses would leave to go ferry another group somewhere, and we would have a different bus pick us up to take us to the next place. Why does this matter? Because we couldn’t leave anything on the bus, so whatever you take with you from the airport you are carting around everywhere until you get on the ship six hours later. If you don’t think you’ll need all of your backpacks, for example, get extra luggage tags from AbD so they can transport more of those items from the airport to the ship.

Time in Longyearbyen - our flight arrived around 10am, we were taken to town where we had just over an hour for shopping. This is really the only time in town for any shopping. After shopping, it off to was lunch, then split into busses for our selected afternoon activity. Since you’ll be carting your purchases around from bus to bus, another reason to drop as much as possible at the airport for transport to the ship.

Longyearbyen shops - there is one large supermarket/goods store, sort of like a small Target with fewer non-food items, where the bus dropped us. To the left there is a two-story building, their small indoor “mall” with a few shops on each floor - including a pharmacy, florist, three souvenir shops, a couple of outdoor supplies shops, and a cafe that also sells craft items and handmade chocolates. If you walk to the right, there are more outdoor supplies shops plus two smaller shops with more higher-end artsy-type gifts and souvenirs, ie no magnets, keychains, etc. The Norwegian wool sweaters & other wool goods were seen in a couple of shops. No sales tax in Svalbard, a plus since the VAT tax in Oslo is something like 25%. The shopping time we had here seemed sufficient as the shops are small and the area is compact.

AbD had filled water bottles for everyone after lunch, to take along to the afternoon activities.

Continued in next post -

 

[Mathmagicland]

ON THE SHIP -

There are Ponant water bottles in the cabins, for use on board and while on the landing activities.

Ship internet is very spotty most times. It seemed to be more often available early mornings and evenings after dinner, when we are sailing in open waters. We lose it whenever we go into the fjords for our zodiac and landing activities. The captain even made an announcement about this on the first night.

Dinner with the naturalists is offered on this cruise. However, it was never announced either in the recaps or in the daily program. It was offered just three nights, two tables each time with six guests and two naturalists per table, for a total of only 36 guests. The signup sheets showed up at Reception on the second day of the cruise. If you are interested, and I’d highly recommend this as it is a great experience to spend some extended time with a couple of the naturalists, stop by reception starting mid-morning of the second day to look for those sheets on the right side of reception desk.

Level-set your expectations re wildlife. While there is a larger variety of wildlife in the Arctic, there are fewer sightings and much lower numbers at each sighting than in Antarctica. Some who had done Antarctica commented they were disappointed with the wildlife viewings and opportunities here in the Arctic compared to their Antarctica experiences.


Continued in next post -

 

[Mathmagicland]

Last day in Longyearbyen and return to Oslo -

AbD guides will have info for transfers when leaving Oslo posted at the expedition desk on the ship on the last full day.

Return flight to Oslo is mid-morning. On the way to the airport, we took a drive out to see the Seed Vault. Note - you cannot get here on your own as it is on the other side of the airport from the town. There was a local guide on board the bus who explained the seed vault & it’s history as we drove to it. We stopped for approx 15 minutes, long enough to get off the bus and walk up to the entrance for a few photos as no one is permitted to visit inside.

Return flight arrival in Oslo was scheduled for 01:45pm arrival; we got to the gate around 2pm. On arrival, we needed to go through passport control again to reenter the Schengen area. The line was SO long, plus there were at least two other arriving flights along with ours. It took 90 minutes for our entire group to get through. We ended up back at the Grand around 4:30pm.


Let me know If there are any questions I can try to answer before you leave. . Enjoy your trip - it was an amazing adventure!

 

[CaliKris]

Thank you. These tips are very, very helpful! It sounds like we won't need our ABD water bottles that were mailed to us, so at least that is one less thing to pack.

Dinner with a naturalist sounds amazing, so we will be sure to look for that. We also have Joe Rhode on our cruise so hoping there will be events/opportunities with him as well.

Being from CA and it is summer, it is hard to wrap my brain around packing for cold weather. Any packing suggestions regarding clothing? I imagine it was quite cold on the zodiacs and on the snow.

What wildlife did you see? I know you saw polar bears from Kira's posts. Any walruses or orcas?

Thanks again!

 

[sayhello]

Great info! That's interesting about Svalbard not being in the Schengen area. That never would have occurred to me.

I'd really love to see some photos from this trip!

Sayhello

 

[Mathmagicland]

Thank you. These tips are very, very helpful! It sounds like we won't need our ABD water bottles that were mailed to us, so at least that is one less thing to pack.

Dinner with a naturalist sounds amazing, so we will be sure to look for that. We also have Joe Rhode on our cruise so hoping there will be events/opportunities with him as well.

Being from CA and it is summer, it is hard to wrap my brain around packing for cold weather. Any packing suggestions regarding clothing? I imagine it was quite cold on the zodiacs and on the snow.

What wildlife did you see? I know you saw polar bears from Kira's posts. Any walruses or orcas?

Thanks again!

I found it warmer in Arctic than Antarctica, ie I took my lighter, less-warm base layers and was just fine. There is little to no snow, a surprise for me, and the snow we saw was in small patches not yet melted so may be smaller or gone by your trip. Your landings are mainly on rocky ground.

The zodiac cruises by the glaciers weren’t too cold as you don’t get really close, only go fast to get somewhere but then cruise slowly, and if the sun was out it got hot. The only time I was really cold was when we did an hour zodiac cruise around the sea ice on our farthest north day, just above the 80th parallel. For that day, I added on an extra layer. I find the parka they give you keeps you very warm, so maybe warmer leggings than tops so your legs have a bit extra warmth. And, it is not cold on the ship at all; they even had outdoor tables set up for breakfast and lunch, with lap robes if desired, on about half of the days.

I would pack things that can be layered, ie more thin layers than thick, so you can add or subtract as needed. Fewer layers for the landings when you are walking around & will feel warmer, and you can add an extra layer for the zodiac cruising when it may feel cooler. One landing it was so warm, many people were taking off their parkas and setting them on the ground as it was just too hot to continue with them on! So, maybe bring a sharpie or something to put your initials on the parka tags to know which are yours, or little jacket pull things to help identify which are yours.

I had my AbD beanie, but also a thinner one which I wore on the warmer or landing days when I’d get too hot with the AbD beanie. I also have both a thin and thick neck gaiter, and wore thin one all but two outings. Sometimes we’d even take gloves off as it wasn’t cold enough to keep them on the whole time.

Re wildlife - we saw a polar bear on two separate occasions, walruses two different times, three different kinds of seals, two kinds of whales but only a couple of them each time on two different days, and Arctic reindeer several times. We’d see a seal here & there, not alot of them except one group of harp seals. No orcas. And lots of different birds every day. A lot will depend on which way you cruise, which the caption & expedition leader decide based on weather and reports from other ships. The cruise before ours went south where ours went north. They mentioned one of the cruises before us saw a blue whale but we did not. Polar bear sightings are rare, so we felt fortunate to see one two different times as some cruises don’t see one at all.

The Ponant expedition staff works very hard to try to find the different wildlife for us to see. Their sister ship is also up there so info is shared between the two ships. That is how we saw a polar bear our first night out - the other ship found it, we were about 20-30 minutes away, so our captain detoured for us to be able to see and watch it for a while.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Great info! That's interesting about Svalbard not being in the Schengen area. That never would have occurred to me.

I'd really love to see some photos from this trip!

Sayhello

I’ll find a few of my better ones & post them later today or tomorrow.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

How was your hotel in Oslo (the Grand?)? Would you recommend it? I'll be in Oslo in September.

 

[AquaDame]

Thank you for the excellent info! Based on this my husband decided to rent a different lens after all... he was already on the fence about it. He leaves a week after me, so it should still get here in time. Good to know we'll be visiting the seed vault also, as I was wondering about that! Which of the tours in Svalbard did you end up doing..? Would you recommend it? I'm certainly tempted to pick up a wool sweater while I'm there. Hopefully they have a nice selection!

It does seem like you all had excellent luck with polar bear sightings - we are very anxious knowing we may see zero but nature does what nature likes. All we can do is hope. I've been watching Le Boreal for a few weeks now and it seems they do at least try to alter north and south, which may account for the breaks between the trips also if they are trying to make sure we all head north (weather dependent). I'm also thinking I may have gone overboard on my packing. I have snow pants in there..!

 

[Mathmagicland]

Which of the tours in Svalbard did you end up doing..? Would you recommend it?

I picked Option A, the cultural Tour. My first choice was the C but it was not available when I checked in. The Svalbard Museum is small but excellent, as many reviews note, with descriptions in both Norwegian and English. I found it very interesting and so did most who visited it, I heard only positive comments.

The North Pole museum was OK - very low-tech in terms of displays, which would have been OK except very little was in English and I never did figure out which order they’d suggest we follow so most of the time it didn’t make sense what I was seeing. The 15 minutes in town weren’t really useful with our shopping time before lunch; most folks just Sartre waiting for the bus. The cutest part of the 15 minutes was these two little girls, elementary school age, with their home-made sign selling pieces of coal they’d picked around town (Longyearbyen has a long coal-mining history and still has an active mine). I had a few coins left from purchases in Oslo, so picked up a couple from them to use the coins, and they were happy to make a sale.

I’d read online that the coal mine tour could be dusty and claustrophobic, and my friends weren’t interested in it. I chatted with someone who did that tour, he said it wasn’t dusty at all but was very cold inside, negative four degrees Celsius. He did find it interesting to learn about the mining process. The group had to wear hard hats on the tour. From a couple of pics I saw, it was sort of dark but not as tight an area as I’d expected.

 

[Mathmagicland]

I'm certainly tempted to pick up a wool sweater while I'm there. Hopefully they have a nice selection!

There are wool sweaters everywhere in Norway! I didn’t specifically look for one, would never wear it here in SoCal, so can’t tell you what the selection was in Longyearbyen as I didn’t look at them there. One lady in our tour got one, I know because she was in my airport transfers group and was planning to get her VAT refund at the airport…however those counters were not open at 0430a.m, when we got there so I don’t know how she will get her tax refund.

 

[Mathmagicland]

How was your hotel in Oslo (the Grand?)? Would you recommend it? I'll be in Oslo in September.

The hotel was nice, has an old elegance vibe to it. I’ve read it is the place the Nobel Peace prize recipient stays, as well as famous people. Someone spotted Guns & Roses when I was there, in for a concert. Staff was excellent at every interaction!! The cafe had a very good buffet breakfast with lots of options. The location is great to central Oslo, the train station, the Royal Palace, a couple of museums, lots of restaurants, and a subway station, etc. it has a rooftop bar, and the lobby lounges were always busy.

The rooms feel older not in a bad way but it fits with the ambiance of old world; bathrooms are updated with heated floors. I found the beds and pillows too soft for my preference, though. There is no AC, which is tough when it gets hot, but the windows open. It can get noisy night on the weekends from street noise on Karl Johans Gate, as that is a major pedestrian area; I didn’t hear any street noise on our Tuesday last night stay.



The big possible negative is all of the internal stairs on each floor, if stairs are a challenge - I don’t think any floor is on a single level!



There are stairs up or down in six different directions here, the pic shows four of them, two more are to the right -

 

[CaliKris]

Did you hear from anyone who did the Camp Barentz activity in Svalbard? I don't understand the appeal of that one but maybe I am missing something.

Did the guides recommend any restaurants in Oslo? Trying to figure out where to eat on our pre-night and the last night of the ABD.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Did you hear from anyone who did the Camp Barentz activity in Svalbard? I don't understand the appeal of that one but maybe I am missing something.

Did the guides recommend any restaurants in Oslo? Trying to figure out where to eat on our pre-night and the last night of the ABD.

The guides did have a sheet at checkin with some restaurant suggestions, but I did not get that page….probably because I checked in after lunch and we had a group dinner that evening.

Re Camp Barentz, I think a big appeal was the dogs, because I did hear that some were disappointed by both no puppies and no sled dogs rides for that one. The tasting food was Norwegian pancakes or waffles, with jam. It could also have been that people did not want the coal mine, or just museums, so it rose to the top. Two people I spoke with who did this one said they did enjoy it, and they didn’t expect puppies.

 

[You'veGotAFigment]

Thank you for the great info!

Did you use/wish you'd had trekking poles on any of your landings? They're on the "optional" list and we do have some, but they're kind of heavy and we're worried about our luggage going over the weight limit.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Thank you for the great info!

Did you use/wish you'd had trekking poles on any of your landings? They're on the "optional" list and we do have some, but they're kind of heavy and we're worried about our luggage going over the weight limit.

A few folks did have trekking poles, and I have a single pole I used a lot in Antarctica that I also brought in this trip. I liked having them on Antarctica, they were helpful in the ice and snow. Here in the Arctic, I could have left mine at home & would have been OK with doing so all except one day when the hill we were hiking was a bit steep. If I’d not had the pole, I would have made it maybe 2/3 of the way but not to the top of the ridge. Overall, fewer people had poles here than In Antarctica.

The ground is more rocky with gravel, than solid dirt, and you will be hiking in rubber boots not hiking shoes as you have to wear their boots on landing expeditions. Not sure if this helps - I guess it might depend on how much people might need to depend on the poles. Here are some pics of the ground that might help you decide -

This is what we saw most of the time -







Hane to include a shot of some parkas piled up on the really warm day -



And this day, the trekking poles were useless because the beach and ground were all rocks the size of plums to grapefruits -

 

[chuff88]

How was your hotel in Oslo (the Grand?)? Would you recommend it? I'll be in Oslo in September.

The Grand is also the final hotel on the Norway ABD and I'll second that it's a lovely hotel. Every breakfast buffet on that trip was fantastic but the Grand's was the best by far. There's also a nice cocktail bar in the lounge that we enjoyed. We did do a post night there and it is on the spendy side, but it's nice and central and I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[chuff88]

Did you hear from anyone who did the Camp Barentz activity in Svalbard? I don't understand the appeal of that one but maybe I am missing something.

Did the guides recommend any restaurants in Oslo? Trying to figure out where to eat on our pre-night and the last night of the ABD.

If Kira is one of your guides she also does the Norway ABD and I'm sure she'd have some recommendations for restaurants in Oslo! It's not Norwegian food by any means, but if you go to the Munch Museum there's a nice little ramen place, Koie Ramen, that I ate at nearby and really enjoyed. We were also at the end of our trip and I was ready for a break from the more traditional Norwegian fare.