Antarctica Landings

[ed1aa]

My wife and I are looking at the January 13, 2021 Antartica and Patagonia cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires.  We have one question, does it make multiple landings in Antartica?  We can not really tell from the Seabourn site.  Most of the posts in this forum seem to show multiple landings.  Please advise, just trying to confirm.  

 

Thanks.

 

Ed

[margbem]

4 minutes ago, ed1aa said:

My wife and I are looking at the January 13, 2021 Antartica and Patagonia cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires.  We have one question, does it make multiple landings in Antartica?  We can not really tell from the Seabourn site.  Most of the posts in this forum seem to show multiple landings.  Please advise, just trying to confirm.  

 

Thanks.

 

Ed

We are seriously considering this one too. 

[Chairsin]

On Seabourn’s Antárctica cruises they designate a certain umber of days as “the Antarctic Experience.” What they do is set aside these days to cruise the peninsula area and Gerlache Strait with a number of landing sites as options. Each day depending on weather conditions etc. they. announce plans for the next day at a pre dinner gathering in the Grand Salon and designate the order of the color codes landing groups. Then the next day you go ashore with your group - stay an hour or so and return so the next group can go ashore so they never violate the maximum number of passers on shore at one time. In some cases the morning groups go and then the seas get to rough and they have to convert the following landing for that day to just zodiac rides or in some case cancel the zodiacs all tougher. I don’t know if any Seabourn cruises where there have been more than 9ne landing per day. .  

[highplanesdrifters]

In the past you also had the option of purchasing a kayak excursion, highly recommend it. But be aware that kayaks often get canceled due to weather. We signed up for 4 and went twice. When you go on a kayak excursion you are given the option of picking the time of your shore excursion regardless of color code.

[tv24]

It all depends on weather.  We did this cruise a year ago and it was one of the best experiences of my life.  Truly extraordinary.  We had one spectacularly clear day when we were able to land.  We walked around for about 2 hours.  On another day there was no safe place to land so they took us around in zodiacs for about an hour and we saw a lot of wild life, whales, seals, penguins.  One other day was very cold and stormy and some passengers were able to go ashore during the morning, but we stayed on ship because it was touch-and-go.  Our kayak day was cancelled due to bad weather, but lots of other passengers enjoyed their kayaking on other days.  And everyday there were spectacular views of bergs and glaciers, unlike anything I have seen on my many travels.  And we were totally safe at all times.

[Fletcher]

If you do Seabourn Quest you will get just one landing per day as long as weather conditions allow.  On some days everyone gets to land but on other days the weather might mean that only some people get to land.  This is the major difference between the Seabourn Quest and a genuine expedition ship such as Silver Explorer or National Geographic ships (Explorer and Orion) - they have fewer passengers so they land everyone in the morning, reposition and land everyone again in the afternoon.  It's a choice you take - the space and luxury of the Quest or a more immersive experience in other ships.  However, the Seabourn Quest team are fabulous and will make every effort to get everyone ashore.  Kayak trips are often cancelled.  If beach landings are difficult, they will sometimes just give everyone a zodiac cruise. 

 

The Quest is a compromise or a hybrid but I don't have any regrets choosing it - we did the South Georgia run over the Holiday season 2017/18. The new Seabourn expedition ship will change things.  Probably the best ships in Antarctica right now are Silver Cloud and the three Ponant ships - Lyrial, Austral and Soleal.  Oh and there's Scenic Eclipse which is the new kid on the block.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Fletcher

[NJBelle]

I really like Seabourn for regular ocean voyages, so hesitated before I started to write this.  But, I would want someone to tell me this: 

Seabourn just done ONE landing a day when you go to Antarctica.  Ships like Silversea, Nat Geo, and Ponant do TWO landings a day (all, of course, if possible).  The brochures do not make this clear, but when you consider that the rules for Antarctica are that only 100 passengers can be on land at one time, then you realize the ships that only take 200 passengers can do TWO landings, while the 400 passenger Seabourn ship can do just one.  One landing may be fine for some folks and I totally get that, but I LOVED Antarctica and wanted to have as much land time as possible.

[frantic36]

 

This is why if something is important to have on a cruise like two landings/port in Antarctica that a passenger or their TA should research and ensure they are sailing on a ship that fits the purpose. I have known since Seabourn started doing Antarctica that they only do one landing. I always research a new cruise line I am thinking of sailing on, that's why there are some I won't sail on or I adjust my expectations.

 

Julie

 

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by frantic36

[Fletcher]

For me, one landing per day was enough.  I actually preferred to anchor myself to the back of Seabourn Square, camera akimbo, and gulp in the scenery and the hot chocolate.  Tramping around the rather squalid living conditions of the penguins was something I tolerated once a day.  And then there was all the hassle of climbing into all those layers of clobber.  And climbing out again.

 

BTW, just to remind people of the official Seabourn blog of the Quest's progress.  As I write this the ship is in mid-Drake.   They had three days in South Georgia with just two landings possible and in Antarctica they have landed twice I think.  The weather hasn't been especially kind on this voyage.  And the Seabourn people always put a gloss on things . . . 

 

https://my.yb.tl/seabournexpeditions/

Edited January 4, 2020 by Fletcher

[cruiseej]

We love Seabourn, and were sold on doing Antarctica when we first met some of the expedition staff during a Norway cruise and they showed a video of Seabourn in Antarctica. And almost all the passengers we've met on Seabourn who have been to Antarctica have raved about it. But we recently booked our trip to Antarctica next year on Silversea, somewhat reluctantly, because the ship has half the number of passengers and thus the potential for twice as many landings. Since we view this as a one-in-a-lifetime trip, we opted for the potential for more sightseeing over the comforts of the larger Seabourn ship. And it is hard to pass up the entertainment, not to mention the caviar, we'd get on Seabourn!

 

We likely wouldn't have booked Silversea had we not been on one trip on one of their expedition ships two years ago, to Greenland. Food, wine and service was excellent, but we felt it was a small notch below Seabourn -- although we couldn't judge whether that was Silversea versus Seabourn in general or just the effect of being on a ship with half as many passengers and crew.

 

We actually had been hoping to book one of the new Seabourn expedition ships, but the first year itineraries just didn't work for us: Seabourn's two trips that include South Georgia Island -- which everyone who has been there tells us is a must-do experience -- are both longer in days and significantly more expensive than Silversea's comparable itineraries (especially since Silversea includes air and Seabourn doesn't).

[Thecat123]

On 1/4/2020 at 11:42 PM, Fletcher said:

For me, one landing per day was enough.  I actually preferred to anchor myself to the back of Seabourn Square, camera akimbo, and gulp in the scenery and the hot chocolate.  Tramping around the rather squalid living conditions of the penguins was something I tolerated once a day.  And then there was all the hassle of climbing into all those layers of clobber.  And climbing out again.

 

BTW, just to remind people of the official Seabourn blog of the Quest's progress.  As I write this the ship is in mid-Drake.   They had three days in South Georgia with just two landings possible and in Antarctica they have landed twice I think.  The weather hasn't been especially kind on this voyage.  And the Seabourn people always put a gloss on things . . . 

 

https://my.yb.tl/seabournexpeditions/

 

We were also happy with the one landing for much the same reasons as Fletcher

[frantic36]

15 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

We actually had been hoping to book one of the new Seabourn expedition ships, but the first year itineraries just didn't work for us: Seabourn's two trips that include South Georgia Island -- which everyone who has been there tells us is a must-do experience -- are both longer in days and significantly more expensive than Silversea's comparable itineraries (especially since Silversea includes air and Seabourn doesn't).

 

Okay I am confused regarding air flight inclusion? The Seabourn Venture cruises we looked at in Antartica includes air flights from Buenos Aires...

 

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/find-a-cruise.html#soldOut=false&sort=departDate asc,price_AUD_anonymous asc&group.sort=departDate asc,price_AUD_anonymous asc&start=0&{!tag=destinationTag}destinationIds=S&{!tag=embarkTag}embarkPortCode=&{!tag=departTag}departDate=2021-12-01T00:00:00Z,2022-02-01T00:00:00Z&{!tag=durationTag}duration=&{!tag=shipsTag}shipId=&{!tag=cruisetypeTag}cruiseType=&{!tag=portsTag}portsOfCall=

 

Julie

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, frantic36 said:

 

Okay I am confused regarding air flight inclusion? The Seabourn Venture cruises we looked at in Antartica includes air flights from Buenos Aires...

 

Julie

 

Yes, the flights within South America are included on Seabourn. But on Silversea, flights from home to South America are also included.

[frantic36]

3 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

Yes, the flights within South America are included on Seabourn. But on Silversea, flights from home to South America are also included.

 

It doesn't seem to work the same for us here in Australia with Silversea so I don't factor that in.

[SFO_FT]

Just off Quest’s holiday trip to Antarctica.  Had actual landings 2 of 3 days in South Georgia and 3 of 6 days in Ant.  The other days were zodiac rides only.  The number of actual landings is dependent on the location (is there even a beach for a land8ng) and weather (do the waves allow for a safe beach landing, as well as loading from from the ship).  There can be, sometimes, days where neither a zodiac nor landing is possible.