Our alarm went off at the unholy hour of 4:30am. A time that shouldn’t even exist during your holidays, although pure and simple, we had a flight to catch. Seabourn had chartered two JetSmart planes to shuttle all 260 passengers from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia. One of those ‘cosy’ planes where the seats didn’t even recline, although our flight wasn’t full so virtually everyone had a three seat row between two people.
I would describe the weather in Ushuaia as fickle. If you don’t like the icy blasts of cold wind and rain, just wait 10 minutes – you may well get blue skies. We took advantage of one of those breaks in the weather for a little walkabout in Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world and often referred to as “The end of the world”. It is truly the last stop in Argentina and yet for us, it’s the first stop in terms of meeting up with our ship, Seabourn Venture.
As a brand new ship, much of Venture was completed during the Covid days, and she did her inaugural voyage in August this year. During the remaining summer days, the ship was positioned around Greenland and Iceland for Arctic circle expedition cruising. And then more recently, she crossed the northwest passage and continued cruising down the west coast of South America and beyond.
Our cruise would be only the second time that Venture has ventured to the Great White Continent. From the outside with her dark emerald green livery and polar class ice-breaking hull, she certainly looks like she means business. From the inside, she is the epitome of tasteful luxury with warm wood tones and furry fluffy cushions (I’m a big fan of furry fluffy cushions). All passenger cabins have a balcony and in contrast with other cruise lines, there is a ton of cabinet and closet space, and even a bath.
Brief photo tour of the ship for anyone as excited as me:
Oh and not forgetting the submarines. Technically they are submersibles but let’s not split hairs. This ship has two such toys to play with, which can reach depths of 300 feet or 1000 meters. Spoiler alert, we unfortunately didn’t manage to bag a ride in one on this trip as their outings were very limited due to the sea conditions.
Seabourn strives to deliver ‘Seabourn moments’, and they certainly got off to a good start. Ready and waiting for us in our stateroom was a polar class jacket. It consists of an inner warm winter jacket, stylish in black and an outer windproof and waterproof layer (not so stylish) in bright orange. Indeed there will be no missing us against a snowy white background!
There was also a dry bag style backpack and warm fleecy beanie (very happy with that, you can never have too many woolly hats). And of course, no sailaway is complete without a bottle of champagne on ice. Cheers!
