Choosing a Cruise Line for Antarctica

[Bella0714]

4 hours ago, kaisatsu said:

This depends on the exchange rate. I booked my Hurtigruten trip in the US when the NOK suddenly weakened and saved quite a bit.

 

But especially for the Norwegian coastal voyages, yes, the Norwegian prices are often lower.

I'm not disagreeing. I even booked a 2023 Antarctica/South Georgia trip on the U.S. site because they were running a sale that made it less-expensive than the .no site. But right now, for example, the same Highlights of Antarctica voyage that starts at $8,981 on the U.S. site is $6,300 on the .no site, and those 66-day and 93-day voyages are more than $10,000 less-expensive on the .no site. Off topic, have you taken a look at those? They look pretty amazing.

[kaisatsu]

On 6/20/2021 at 2:02 PM, Bella0714 said:

those 66-day and 93-day voyages are more than $10,000 less-expensive on the .no site. Off topic, have you taken a look at those? They look pretty amazing

They do look pretty cool! I think it will be a few years before I can take a trip that long! My last expedition was 30 days, and I thought that was a logistical challenge even before we tacked on an unexpected extra 10 days (due to Covid port closures).

 

If I ever do a repositioning expedition (intentionally), I want to do the mid-Atlantic and visit Tristan da Cunha. I’d really love to make it to Inaccessible Island. I mentioned this to an expedition staffer once, only to have him break out in a huge grin telling me proudly that he has landed on Inaccessible Island.

[Bella0714]

15 hours ago, kaisatsu said:

They do look pretty cool! I think it will be a few years before I can take a trip that long! My last expedition was 30 days, and I thought that was a logistical challenge even before we tacked on an unexpected extra 10 days (due to Covid port closures).

 

 

I could do it if not for the Hurtigruten internet issue: You can't access a VPN from their internet, and without that, I can't be away for 60-90 days. It's a real dealbreaker, and as you know, 4G and 5G are often not accessible in some of these areas.

 

The odd thing about the 93-day one on Roald Amundsen is that after all that travel, you spend only four days in Antarctica. The shorter one on Fram finishes with seven days in Antarctica. Also, if I'm not mistaken, both go to the less-interesting side of Greenland (the west side).

[donaldsc]

9 hours ago, Bella0714 said:

I could do it if not for the Hurtigruten internet issue: You can't access a VPN from their internet, and without that, I can't be away for 60-90 days. It's a real dealbreaker, and as you know, 4G and 5G are often not accessible in some of these areas.

 

The odd thing about the 93-day one on Roald Amundsen is that after all that travel, you spend only four days in Antarctica. The shorter one on Fram finishes with seven days in Antarctica. Also, if I'm not mistaken, both go to the less-interesting side of Greenland (the west side).

Are you  going to be visiting any cities on the trip.  If so, I would imagine that you could get internet there.  It wouldn't bother me to be off the grid for a week or so if I could quick check e-mails every couple of weeks especially as most of the stuff I get is just junk.  Can you imagine how big your in box would be after 93 days.

 

DON

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by donaldsc

[edhopper]

We looking at a Hurtigruten 12 Day Antarctic expedition either next winter (2022-23) or the one after (2023-24). It seems to have the most bang for the buck for a true Antarctic trip. As many have pointed out here. It has been suggested here also that we could get a better price on the Norway site than the .com site. Am I right that I merely use the .no site and I get that price? I can use my American bank card? Right now it is about $8000 on the US site, but 55000 krone ($6,200) on the Norwegian site.

I knoe this has been rehashed before, I am just trying to make sure I have it right.

Thanks.

[Hlitner]

We looked at all the options and decided to mortgage everything we own to book the new Seabourn Venture.  Why?  Consider that it is a luxury line (even with the smaller Venture) and the ship carries 16 Zodiacs as well as two new submarines.  Because they do have many Zodiacs and exploration staff they are able to get all the passengers (200 max) ashore at the same time.  In theory this means there will be two shore excursions (onto Antarctica) per day.  The Submarines are real subs, carry 6 passengers (and a crew of 1) and can dive to nearly 1000 feet.  These subs also have huge glass bubbles so it allows everyone to get undistorted views of what lies under the sea.  Seabourn also requires that passengers fly to Buenos Aires where they are put up at a luxury hotel (pre cruise).  The cruise line than provides a chartered flight to Ushuaia (included in the cruise price).

 

Is this pricey?  Yes.  Is it worth the price?  Stay tuned :).

 

Hank

[sippican]

7 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We looked at all the options and decided to mortgage everything we own to book the new Seabourn Venture.  Why?  Consider that it is a luxury line (even with the smaller Venture) and the ship carries 16 Zodiacs as well as two new submarines.  Because they do have many Zodiacs and exploration staff they are able to get all the passengers (200 max) ashore at the same time.  In theory this means there will be two shore excursions (onto Antarctica) per day.  The Submarines are real subs, carry 6 passengers (and a crew of 1) and can dive to nearly 1000 feet.  These subs also have huge glass bubbles so it allows everyone to get undistorted views of what lies under the sea.  Seabourn also requires that passengers fly to Buenos Aires where they are put up at a luxury hotel (pre cruise).  The cruise line than provides a chartered flight to Ushuaia (included in the cruise price).

 

Is this pricey?  Yes.  Is it worth the price?  Stay tuned :).

 

Hank

 

Did you happen to compare the cruise above with Viking's offerings? Sounds  very similar to the sailings on Octantis and Polaris (which we booked for this December).

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by sippican

[Hlitner]

42 minutes ago, sippican said:

 

Did you happen to compare the cruise above with Viking's offerings? Sounds  very similar to the sailings on Octantis and Polaris (which we booked for this December).

 

We did do a quick "look see" but the Seabourn cruise fit our timetable and we like the luxury touches on Seabourn.  We also noted that the Viking ship can carry nearly 400 passengers whereas the Seabourn Venture only carries a maximum of 200 in Antarctica.  But no problems with Viking and we would be happy on that line (River or Ocean) any time.

 

Hank

[donaldsc]

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We looked at all the options and decided to mortgage everything we own to book the new Seabourn Venture.  Why?  Consider that it is a luxury line (even with the smaller Venture) and the ship carries 16 Zodiacs as well as two new submarines.  Because they do have many Zodiacs and exploration staff they are able to get all the passengers (200 max) ashore at the same time.  In theory this means there will be two shore excursions (onto Antarctica) per day.  The Submarines are real subs, carry 6 passengers (and a crew of 1) and can dive to nearly 1000 feet.  These subs also have huge glass bubbles so it allows everyone to get undistorted views of what lies under the sea.  Seabourn also requires that passengers fly to Buenos Aires where they are put up at a luxury hotel (pre cruise).  The cruise line than provides a chartered flight to Ushuaia (included in the cruise price).

 

Is this pricey?  Yes.  Is it worth the price?  Stay tuned :).

 

Hank

 

These are the rules for landing on Antarctica -

 

"Larger cruise ships

There are some advantages to larger ships. They are generally more stable, reducing the chance of seasickness, especially on the lower decks. They will have a wider range of facilities on board too.

However, in Antarctica you’ll need to bear in mind that only 100 passengers are permitted to disembark at one time according to regulations set by IAATO, so for ships carrying over 200 passengers that will mean you will not be able to disembark every day.

The regulations also state that ships carrying 500-plus passengers may not land at all, so if you have a cabin on one of these, you’ll have to content yourself by watching the frozen continent pass by your porthole." 

 

The fact that Seabourn may have lots of staff and lots of zodiacs is irrelevant.  They can only put 100 people on the continent at a time.  Now they can put 100 people on land and have 100 people doing zodiac cruises but your statement about 2 landings per day is correct but misleading.  All of the Antarctica trips try to do 2 different landings per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) but still 100 people at a time.

 

Also check out this document from the IAATO WEB site - https://iaato.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IAATO-on-Antarctic-visitor-figures-2019-20-FINAL.pdf

 

DON

[fstuff1]

On 5/20/2022 at 4:01 PM, donaldsc said:

 

These are the rules for landing on Antarctica -

However, in Antarctica you’ll need to bear in mind that only 100 passengers are permitted to disembark at one time according to regulations set by IAATO, so for ships carrying over 200 passengers that will mean you will not be able to disembark every day.

The regulations also state that ships carrying 500-plus passengers may not land at all, so if you have a cabin on one of these, you’ll have to content yourself by watching the frozen continent pass by your porthole." 

 

The fact that Seabourn may have lots of staff and lots of zodiacs is irrelevant.  They can only put 100 people on the continent at a time.  Now they can put 100 people on land and have 100 people doing zodiac cruises but your statement about 2 landings per day is correct but misleading.  All of the Antarctica trips try to do 2 different landings per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) but still 100 people at a time.

 

Also check out this document from the IAATO WEB site - https://iaato.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IAATO-on-Antarctic-visitor-figures-2019-20-FINAL.pdf

 

DON

 

ship bigger than 500?

doh.,. that means the major cruise lines (ie: NCL, Celebrity) can't do any excursions directly onto the continent?

 

[Nitemare]

14 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

ship bigger than 500?

doh.,. that means the major cruise lines (ie: NCL, Celebrity) can't do any excursions directly onto the continent?

 

That is definitely true.  They do "drive bys" where they point at the land and the penguins.  And with the new Polar Code, fewer big ships will even be able to approach the continent

[donaldsc]

18 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

ship bigger than 500?

doh.,. that means the major cruise lines (ie: NCL, Celebrity) can't do any excursions directly onto the continent?

 

 

The big ships from NCL etc. have never been able to put excursions directly on the continent.  There are no docks in Antarctica so all landings have to be done using zodiacs which hold maybe 8 or 10 people.  Can you imagine off loading a 500+ passenger ship 8 passengers at a time.  

 

DON

[fstuff1]

7 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

The big ships from NCL etc. have never been able to put excursions directly on the continent.  There are no docks in Antarctica so all landings have to be done using zodiacs which hold maybe 8 or 10 people.  Can you imagine off loading a 500+ passenger ship 8 passengers at a time.  

 

DON

 

tenders wont work?

[pavementends]

On 6/7/2022 at 2:24 PM, fstuff1 said:

 

ship bigger than 500?

doh.,. that means the major cruise lines (ie: NCL, Celebrity) can't do any excursions directly onto the continent?

 

Yes that's exactly what it means.

 

Although cruise lines have smaller expedition ships that do have landings.

[Hlitner]

19 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

 

tenders wont work?

It is not a matter of working, but complying with an International Agreement that is intended to protect the Antarctic environment.  There are no tender piers,  On the smaller expedition ships, passengers are taken ashore in small Zodiac craft.  Folks need to wear special gear including high top waterproof boots since they may need to walk in shallow water.  And since folks are likely to have their boots soiled with some penguin poop there is also the requirement for the boots to be cleaned/sanitized.

 

The reality is that larger ships have not actually landed folks on Antarctica...but rather are known as "drive by" cruises.  But now, they are not even allowed to get close to shore since the requirements to get close call for shops that meet Polar 6 standards.  These are very special rules such as the ships having a double-hull as well as other environmental and safety standards.