Antarctica - Is there a difference in sailings?

[Spree75]

My partner and I are considering an Antarctic cruise.  I see that the cruises start in late November and go through February.  Is there a better month to go?  Are the seas rougher on the edges?  When are the penguins most prevalent? How about the weather?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

[Tarwood3]

Hi there, we haven’t been but me and my partner are booked on the first Antarctica cruise late November.  There are different things to see depending on the month you go .  Some months are bettter for whale watching, others for penguin babies, others for seeing the large icebergs etc....  we found an easy to use guide at AudleyTravel.com which breaks down each month on “when is the best time to go”.  We chose early in the season before many tourists have been and also because we want to see the massive ice bergs.   We dont really care about penguin babies late in the season besides we have heard that the land is covered in penguin poop and smells late in the season...lol.  Anyway, to each his own, we all go for different reasons.  Do some simple google searches on best time to go and things to see...maybe we will even see you on our voyage!

[maryogreen]

Spree75, My husband and I did the Quest's January 2017 Antarctica voyage, and it still remains our favorite trip of all! You will have a wonderful time no matter when you go, and the decision is clearly a personal preference. I especially wanted to see the newly hatched penguins – signs pointed to January for that – and I also was hoping for the best odds at good weather, which also worked well at that time of year. The rumor we had heard about the Drake being rough one way and smooth the other turned out to be true on our voyage.

 

We loved the entire trip's itinerary, starting in Buenos Aires and ending in Santiago. And if you're lucky enough to have the seas cooperate for a landing in the Falklands, I can't recommend Volunteer Point enough.

 

Here are a couple of links to my blog posts from the trip which you might find helpful:

https://www.themodernpostcard.com/category/antarctica/

https://www.themodernpostcard.com/category/falkland-islands/

 

Best of luck with your plans! 

Mary

Travel Blog: https://www.themodernpostcard.com

[wripro]

If possible try to book a sailing that includes South Georgia. Spectacular.

[DC Traveler244]

I'm with wripro -- the cruises that stop at South Georgia are the best.  The wildlife is spectacular, and there's so much Antarctic history associated with SG (Ernest Shackleton).  Many people have heard of the Falklands but not SG, so they tend to gravitate to cruises that stop in the Falklands.  

 

Typically, Seabourn only goes to SG once per season, on the holiday Antarctic cruise.

[whystayhome]

I thought the January 2017 Antarctica cruise was absolutely spectacular.  However, I think it would have been better to take a sailing that starts in Chile rather than in Buenos Aires, because after you’ve seen Antarctica, the Chilean fjords are not that exciting.  Agree about visiting volunteer point if possible. I hope to do this cruise again, but would probably  pick the holiday sailing that calls at South Georgia island. 

 

Linda

[sleeper9]

We did the last trip of the season this year so we could continue on to the Amazon.  We experienced the Drake Lake for both crossings.  Weather was good and we were able to do all scheduled landings.  March was great for whales. Penguins were molting and lots had already headed out to sea.  But there was still an abundance of penguins to see and lots of seals. Scenery was incredible, lots of very large ice bergs.  The expedition team on board is fantastic.  We had such an incredible experience we are booked to do the trip in December that includes the South Georgia Island.  We expect to see lots of the King Penguins there.  There will probably be fewer whales since their food source becomes much more abundant in January through March.  If we were not booked for the cruise over the holidays, we would have booked January, Santiago start.  We talked with a number of the expedition team members for advice in which one to choose.  The one thing they all agreed on is that there isn't a wrong one.  No matter what date you choose, it will be a trip of a lifetime.  We have done a lot of cruises, Antarctica on Seabourn Quest was the best. 

[StLouisCruisers]

On 5/24/2019 at 11:24 PM, sleeper9 said:

 We have done a lot of cruises, Antarctica on Seabourn Quest was the best. 

 

Agreed!!

[scapel]

22. BARBECUE ON MULTANOVISKY IN ANTARCTICA 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpPioIDKDpE

 

23. ANTARCTIC EXPEDITON 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2IKEZEnvcs

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2IKEZEnvcs&index=23&t=180s&list=PL7BD0156994A61402

 

2009  ANTARCTICA

ANTARCTICA EXPEDITION I had wanted to go to Antarctica before and almost got it scheduled when one of the ships sank when it hit an iceberg and my wife talked me out of it. A few years went by and time helps cure things and she said I could go so I got it scheduled.

This was a wonderful experience. I left Monroe, La on Nov. 22, 2009 and arrived in Punta Arenas on Nov. 23 some 29 hours later. I returned from PUNTA ARENAS on Dec. 3 arriving in Monroe on Dec 4 some 30 hours later. I list it as an Expedition rather than a cruise since it was hard and I could not make it all the way to the top of some of the climbs to penguin rookeries because I just gave out. There were plenty of penguins all around that I did not have to go to the top.

The ship was the PROFESSOR MULTANOVSKIY built in 1982 for Russian oceanographic and polar studies. It was converted to a tourism ship and it is not a luxury cruiser but is comfortable. It is 249 ft long, 42 ft wide and draft of 15ft. It has two side by side engines with over 3076 total hp and a single screw, a bow thruster and can run on one or two engines. Its cruising speed is 10 knots. It has passive stabilizers only. It is not classified as an Ice Breaker, but has an Ice re-enforced hull.

The night before departure in Punta Arenas we were fitted for boots and given instructions on how to get in and out of the Zodiacs. We were suppose to have breakfast at 8 AM, but got a wake up call at 6:30 AM and told to hustle since we had a weather window to take off from Punta Arenas to land at KING GEORGE ISLAND before weather moved in.

The ships passenger capacity was 49 and had 32 crew, but we only had 25 passengers on this trip so the BAE 146 plane from Punta Arenas to King George Island had plenty of room and the ship was not crowded. We used only one of the two dining rooms for meals.

Of the 25 passengers there were only three of us from the US and we wished each other Happy Thanksgiving. Other countries represented were Holland, England, Australia, Israel, Spain, Russia, Germany, Italy, Chile and Argentina.

We did two landings daily, weather permitting and we had beautiful weather except for the gale across the Bransfield Strait and fog at Deception Island which would have been beautiful if the weather would have been nice. We had one day when at Neko Island the chop was too bad to launch Zodiacs so we just moved to another bay.

Saw thousands of penguins, skuas, giant petrols, many minke whales and orca whales. One orca got just under the bow and I have a picture of it under the water swimming. Saw several Weddell seals and a Leopard Seal. The little Snow Petrols were very curious and would actually come up and bite on your gloves. Penguins kept their distance and we kept distance. If we saw any seals on land with us we definitely kept our distance, since seals can be aggressive.

We visited KING GEORGE ISLAND, ARDLEY ISLAND, MIKKELSON HARBOUR, HERRERA CHANNEL TO PORT LOCKROY, LEMAIRE CHANNEL TO PETERMAN ISLAND (THE SOUTHERN MOST EXTENSION OF OUR TRIP), PARADISE BAY, DANKO ISLAND, BROWN LANDING (Antarctica Peninsula proper), DECEPTION BAY back to King George Island. 
On the way back we got into a full gale across the Bransfield Strait that gave a rough ride. The crew used the term “the ship will move tonight”. The roll threw one man out of a chair when the ship rolled to 30 deg crossing the Bransfield Strait. My bunk was cross ways or I would have probably been thrown out. I just slid from head to foot as she rolled. Scopace tablets worked to prevent seasickness.

We got back to Maxwell Bay at the Fildes Peninsula of King George Island on time (Dec. 1, 2009) but we could not get out because the runway was covered with 15cm of ice. We spent an extra night on the ship and got out the next day. Antarctica XXI was superb in changing all flight connections. BTW the satellite phone worked very well from the ship, but cost was about $5/min.

To fill the morning while we waited on the plane the Antarctica XXI people arranged a visit to the KING SEJONG KOREAN scientific station and they seemed very happy to have us visit. I have video from the ship of their snow plow cleaning a place for us to walk from the dock to a building.

On two occasions we did a Zodiac cruise only where the three Zodiacs went out and by radio communication one would report wild life sightings and we would creep up on them. The scenery was magnificent. I have never seen so many beautiful icebergs. One day at breakfast while we were anchored we heard and felt a thump. Either we had drifted into an iceberg while at anchor or the iceberg drifted into us. No big deal, we just use the single screw and bow thruster to work away from it.

As I said it was a hard trip taking 29 hours to get to Punta Arenas, Chile the departure point and 30 hours to get back from Punta Arenas. The flight across the Drake Passage of 600 miles was better than crossing it by ship in a Drake Rake.

I found that having automatic dimming prescription glasses was not an asset. They got so dark I couldn’t see where I was going and I would suggest one use regular prescription glasses with snow goggles over them for light protection. The brighter and colder it got, the darker my glasses got until I was almost blind. I didn't realize that cold also dimmed the glasses.

I was never really cold because I followed directions and dressed properly. I had a waterproof bag for my cameras and it saved me once when we hit a wave in the Zodiac and everyone got sprayed, but it happened only once. I could have just put the camera under my down jacket to protect it.

Skin protection for the face is a must because it can take only a few hours and your face is burned.

I found my best dress was two pairs of socks, silk longs, blue jeans and rain suit pants which gave excellent wind protection and maintained dryness on the wet pontoons that we sat on in the Zodiacs. The last layer of waterproof goes outside the boots. Insulated hunting type pants (waterproof) also worked well over the silks or thermals. A down jacket with hood and baseball cap took care of the top with under garments and warm shirt. The baseball cap kept the hood from falling over my eyes and helped keep sprinkles off of the glasses. Glove liners were best and I used outside gloves attached to the coat with the little clippie things. One had to take off the outer gloves to manipulate the cameras with the glove liners and the clip things kept you from loosing the outer glove. On a recommendation from another article I used inserts in the boots and I think it helped a great deal. The baseball cap should have a safety tie to catch it if the wind blows it off. There is a lot of wind in Antarctica.

The ship was maintained at 70 deg F and we could open the porthole if we got too hot. The temperature was only about 0 C but when the wind blew it would drop to chill factor of -15C. Water temperature was around 0.5 Deg. C. so we tried very hard not to fall in and no one did. I was the oldest passenger on this trip and probably the slowest when we went ashore, but was just too happy to let the youngsters pass me up. I had a wonderful time.

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Sorry if this took up too much space, but out of the 52 cruises I have taken this was the most memorable. I'm 81 now and in too poor health to do it again, but I would others the chance to experience this trip. My wife was not interested in going.