Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Has anybody here been to the Arctic or Antarctic?

Has anybody here been to the Arctic or Antarctic?
Thread Tools
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 21, 2009, 10:56 PM
 
Not exactly your most common tourist destination, but I think it would be damn, damn cool to go there! There probably isn't a whole lot to see and do, but man, wouldn't this be a totally unforgettable experience? Wouldn't this be totally surreal? If people travel for miles to go to scenic places of great natural beauty like the Grand Canyon, why not to the most beautiful parts of the Arctic or Antarctic?

Has anybody gone, or at least contemplated going, or am I just weird? Am I the only one captivated by the scenes in documentaries such as March of the Penguins?
     
Dork.
Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Rochester, NY
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 21, 2009, 11:06 PM
 
Living in Canada wasn't close enough to the Arctic for you, eh?
     
Timo
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: New York City
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 21, 2009, 11:20 PM
 
I've been wading in the Arctic Ocean. It was, ah, bracing.
     
Oisín
Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Copenhagen
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 03:10 AM
 
Someone made a thread here (a couple of years ago, perhaps?) about his job where he’d been living on Antarctica for a few months, observing some kind of animal, I think … details are hazy.
     
phantomdragonz
Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Near Boulder, CO
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 03:37 AM
 
there are a few guys on a local (to me) automotive forum who work at McMurdo (sp?) and they say it's quite boring...

apparently it gets a little wacky at times...

personally, I would not mind if I never get the opportunity to visit that part of the globe...

-Zach
     
downinflames68
Baninated
Join Date: Jun 2009
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 03:55 AM
 
I say go to northern WI sometime this winter, lock yourself in a cabin for a few months with supplies. Would probably simulate the same thing.
     
Phileas
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Toronto, Canada
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 07:02 AM
 
Yes, although only to Nunavut, which is still considered the southern arctic. It's an amazing place. In mid-April night temperatures were a balmy -35º Celsius.
     
ctt1wbw
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Suffolk, VA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 07:07 AM
 
The closest I've been is crossing the Arctic Circle on a sub. Did the Bluenose ceremony and got hosed down with Arctic water. it was a bit chilly, to say the least.

But, no, never set foot at either one.
     
residentEvil
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Detroit
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 07:47 AM
 
funny; i just started budget planning for my trips to those locations...

this is trip plan for the year of my 45th birthday:

Cruise Antarctica Explorer's Route - Expedition Travel South Georgia, Falkland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula

this is the trip plan for the year of my 50th birthday:

Spitsbergen, Eastern Greenland, Iceland - Arctic Expedition Cruise

I've already been to Alaska for 3 weeks and got north of the Arctic circle for a day during that trip. Now I'm ready for some real adventures. The Alaska trip was too "family friendly"; still a lot of fun and would do it again, but way too touristy for me.
     
osiris
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Isle of Manhattan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 09:22 AM
 
Not really. But I flew over the Arctic two years ago.
It looked quite nondescript, and white.
"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
     
ghporter
Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 09:32 AM
 
I got farther north than ever before in my life this past summer. Cruised to Juneau, AK then to Skagway. Funny thing was that while Skagway was quite temperate, farther south we sailed into an inlet fed by a glacier-and it was MAD cold!

residentEvil is right about most Alaska cruises being relatively family friendly and touristy. While we sailed at the end of May while a lot of schools were still in session, and thus had relatively few kids on the cruise, there were a TON of "older adults" on the cruise, which altered the way it went about the same way that kids might have.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
residentEvil
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Detroit
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 09:59 AM
 
yeah, don't get me wrong, the cruise i took in alaska was a lot of fun. from the week tour on land (train/bus) to the cruise itself, i experienced a lot. i went too, end of May, after 9/11. nobody was traveling and couldn't pass up the price; and it was mostly older crowd as gphorter said but some of the excursions were just too kiddie like. the excursions that we got to pick i was able to do more adventerous things and got to experience "alaska", not "summer camp/made for tv/disney esque what we think you want to see alaska".

i'm excited for the arctic and antarctic trips; really will be one of a kind/unique and limited to those who truely want to experience these frontiers as they were meant to be...not canned "experiences" presented 5x a day for 10,000 cruise ship goers (in any given 24 hour period, some 5 cruise ships will come through a port of call...with an average of 2000 passengers).
     
Laminar
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 11:11 AM
 
     
besson3c  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 01:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by osiris View Post
Not really. But I flew over the Arctic two years ago.
It looked quite nondescript, and white.
racist.
     
besson3c  (op)
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 01:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by residentEvil View Post
yeah, don't get me wrong, the cruise i took in alaska was a lot of fun. from the week tour on land (train/bus) to the cruise itself, i experienced a lot. i went too, end of May, after 9/11. nobody was traveling and couldn't pass up the price; and it was mostly older crowd as gphorter said but some of the excursions were just too kiddie like. the excursions that we got to pick i was able to do more adventerous things and got to experience "alaska", not "summer camp/made for tv/disney esque what we think you want to see alaska".

i'm excited for the arctic and antarctic trips; really will be one of a kind/unique and limited to those who truely want to experience these frontiers as they were meant to be...not canned "experiences" presented 5x a day for 10,000 cruise ship goers (in any given 24 hour period, some 5 cruise ships will come through a port of call...with an average of 2000 passengers).


I know exactly what you mean. I use to work on cruise ships.
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 02:05 PM
 
I love The Thing. One of my favorite movies.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
SpaceMonkey
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Washington, DC
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 02:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by olePigeon View Post
I love The Thing. One of my favorite movies.
The original isn't bad, either.

"One ticket to Washington, please. I have a date with destiny."
     
olePigeon
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Oct 22, 2009, 02:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey View Post
The original isn't bad, either.
Yeah, but I absolutely love the special affects in The Thing. Superb robotics and puppetry.

On a related note, I think it'd be interesting to spend a year at an arctic research station.
"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:52 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,