This was probably the coolest side quest we did on this trip. When we left, we knew we wanted to do this, so had money set aside from the beginning, we just had to find the right deal. We joined all the antarctica mailing lists, and groups on Facebook. Next we paid attention to when and how much trips got marked down. The only thing we were picky about was being a boat with 200 or less people so we could go on as many excursions as possible. The internet told us that the larger boats aren’t usually able to do excursions, and the ones that can don’t do very many.
Every day we would go on two excursions, one just after breakfast, and one just after lunch. They were mostly based around wildlife. Several penguin colonies, boat tours to see seals, whales, sea birds, and hiking near fur seals.
There were also lots of on-boat activities. An early one was the Polar Plunge, the water was 2C. It was aggressively painful to jump into. Many of the boat staff are historians, and academics, so there were several lectures on the history and wildlife of the area. All very informative, and streamed to the cabins, so the sick people could participate too. We had the added activity of Hashes (group run/walks that end at beers). We did one one the boat, one at a penguin colony, and one in a zodiac.
The food on our boat was top notch. A wide variety for both lunch and dinner, along with a gigantic salad bar. Because of the clientele, they threw a BBQ on deck one night (a majority of our boat were Americans). And there was room service for those who couldn’t leave their rooms for whatever reason.
Days on The Boat: 11 days 10 nights
Price: $16,980 for both of us
Included: All meals, snacks, alcohol and excursions
Not Included: The gift shop, internet (which was really nice)
Things we weren’t expecting:
We really didn’t know what to expect, so everything was exciting.
The amount of wildlife blew our minds. We saw so many penguins that the eventually became commonplace. Who knew that could happen?! The size and majesty of the icebergs was incredible. Each one, a unique sculptural masterpiece. The thing we were least expecting, making real friends. We had a regular dinner table, and we still talk to them on a regular basis.
We had great weather, most days were warm enough to go on deck in just a sweatshirt! We had two days of snow, and only one of those was a stormy snow. The staff was even shocked by how great the weather was for our cruise.
Things we didn’t enjoy:
Sea sickness. Neither of us knew that KoKo gets VERY sea sick, so we were completely unprepared. The first crossing of The Drake Passage was really rough for her. For the Drake, it was a really calm crossing. KoKo spent two full days throwing up. The return crossing was less extreme, just lots of sleeping even though the water was rougher. We employed the sea sick medicine from the doctor, ginger candies and ginger tea, lots of laying down, sea sick wrist bands, and lots of toast.
Odd fact: Using the cabin bathroom increased the feeling of sea sickness ten fold.
Some things we recommend:
Buying last minuet to get the good deal. We went through the Antarctica Travel Group:
https://www.antarcticatravelgroup.com
Our boat was the Ocean Albatross, and we stayed in Cat C Twin Balcony Stateroom. Highly recommend. Having a balcony was great for enjoying the views, and helping with sea sickness:
https://www.antarcticatravelgroup.com/ocean-albatros
Getting the alcohol package. The prices on the boat are very expensive, and their dinner wines are quite good. It’s great value.
How we got here:
Leave a Reply