Antarctica- January vs February embarkation

[Ryten]

An Antarctic crise has been on my bucket list for a while and there have been some great threads with information that have provided a lot of guidance. The one thing that I haven't been able to determine is whether there is any significant difference in cruising in January as opposed to February, Presumably the January cruises are favored because it would be the high summer month. I am just curious whether any of the seasoned CCers can provide any insight as to the difference in sailing in February. Thanks in advance.

[janmcn]

I recall that if you’re interested in penguins, they have left their nests and are back at sea if we took the Feb. Cruise. You might check, but I recall we weren’t aware of that when we took it but once in Chile, etc. we realized we had dumb luck and saw lots of penguins at various stops including Falklands.

[iflyrc5]

We did the Grand South America cruise on the Volendam Jan-Mar 2020 and spent Feb 4-7 in the Antarctic waters.  We had great weather - sunny and 30s for 2 full days and partly cloudy the other 2.  Our hotel director said this was his 15th trip and this was the best weather he had ever had.  The ship that was on the HAL World Cruise was there the week before us and had terrible weather and only was able to stay 2 days with lots of fog so you just never know.  We did get to walk with the penguins on 31Jan in Punta Areans, Chile, on 9 Feb in the Falklands and 11 Feb in Puerto Madryn.  This is an amazing cruise and hope to do it again in a couple years when Covid is not raging.

[lcand1923]

My cruise was late January/early February 2013.   The sailing in Antarctic Waters was outstanding.  The penguin eggs had pretty much hatched and we saw baby penguins EVERYWHERE!   The Drake Passage was calm.  I don’t think you would have as much penguin activity earlier in January because the eggs would not have hatched.

[nocl]

Except keep in mind that in the past the cruise lines went down to the peninsula.  The description now only indicates the South Shetland Islands (about 100-150 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula).  The sail by cruises with the larger ships are more limited now due to the change in the polar code for ship certification.

[rkacruiser]

I sailed on the Zaandam during a Christmas/New Year's Cruise and encountered and saw lots of penguins from the ship as well ashore.  There were some babies, but there were also birds who were still nesting.  The Drake Passage was better than I expected, although, Captain Norman delayed our departure to Antarctica by 18 hours because of a strong storm passing through the area.  We spent the time slowly going in circles in a protected fjord.  When we began the crossing and were off Cape Horn, I was in the Crow's Nest and we had enough motion that it was challenging to keep my footing.  During the evening, the storm clouds of the system that had gone through were visible to our West.  They were the meanest looking storm clouds I have ever seen.  

[john2003]

Nocl, are you sure it is true they only go to the South Shetlands? I posted under the Antarctic thread to see if I could get any certainty. Your post is a commonly held view but does not match the destination description on the HAL website. I don't understand why HAL doesn't clear up this confusion.

Edited January 8, 2022 by john2003
Clarification as quote didn't attach

[nocl]

9 minutes ago, john2003 said:

Nocl, are you sure it is true they only go to the South Shetlands? I posted under the Antarctic thread to see if I could get any certainty. Your post is a commonly held view but does not match the destination description on the HAL website. I don't understand why HAL doesn't clear up this confusion.

 I made a mistake in my post above in that I was thinking that I was in the NCL stream, not the HAL stream. NCL has updated their text description to only list locations in the South Shetland Islands.

 

Celebrity and HAL still have their old descriptions.  However, the map that HAL is now displaying does not show the cruises going to the Peninsula, unlike what they displayed during previous years when they the map showed the route going down to and along the peninsula, this map shows the ship just going down to somewhere between peninsula and Coronation island.  So they might even be considering South Orkney Islands as well. 

 

It might be that since NCL actually has Antarctic cruises scheduled soon year they have updated sooner. Where as Celebrity and HAL doesn't seem to have any until the end of the year.

 

But with the Polar code I do not seem them doing the route as described in the text.

 

 

[john2003]

Thanks for the clarification. Having read the Polar Code I remain confused. I may try to talk to the Mariner Society next week as it is crazy there is so much confusion and speculation.

[rkacruiser]

There will be those who disagree with me, I am sure, but, in my opinion, if one's cruise does not sail specifically by the continent of Antarctica or make a landing on the continent, then one has not been to this continent.  

[Turtles06]

@Ryten In late January/early February 2013, my wife and I took an expedition cruise to Antarctica.  It was a great time to be there.  Lots of activity on land -- the penguin chicks had hatched and were running around in the rookeries and being fed by their parents.  Also lots of whales, seals, flying birds.  And still plenty of sea ice.  Again, a terrific time of the year.  Of course, weather varies; also, that was nearly a decade ago, and Antarctica has been hit hard by global warming.  In terms of Antarctica itself, I would not go late in February.   (I can't speak to the timing for the actual ports on a non-expedition cruise.)

 

Enjoy whatever you choose! 

 

 

(photo by turtles06)

 

[Ryten]

I truly appreciate all the information. It looks like there really isn't a bad tome to visit the southernmost continent. Thank you for all the input and look forward to the penguins!

[visagrunt]

Choosing between January and February is a pointless exercise.  Any cruise into Antarctic waters is ultimately at the mercy of the weather and ice conditions, which are highly changeable in any month.  No amount of planning and preparation can overcome Mother Nature's decision that, "you aren't going there today."

Any time in Southern summer is the best time to go, so choose the departure that suits your needs. 

[doone]

I love penguins, I think I will add this itinerary to my bucket list, sounds fabulous!!

[tupper10]

If you are into penguins then base the time you go on what you want to see - the adults on the eggs, the babies just hatched, or the babies a bit older. The later in the season the older the babies are.  We went in Feb. but as the prior poster said the weather is - ???.   The cruise before us had all rain according to our captain- we had warm sunny weather except for the last day of our cruise when the captain left a bit early to get ahead of a storm.  It is well worth a trip though - one of the best cruises we ever took but we did an expedition cruise not a drive by.  

[drowelf]

20 hours ago, visagrunt said:

Choosing between January and February is a pointless exercise.  Any cruise into Antarctic waters is ultimately at the mercy of the weather and ice conditions, which are highly changeable in any month.  No amount of planning and preparation can overcome Mother Nature's decision that, "you aren't going there today."

So true. We did it on the Zaandam back in 2015. Had a mid January departure from Chile. During discussion with some officers and front desk folks about scheduling an ash scattering during the passage to/from the Antarctica, they remarked that if it was like the previous cruise it might be problematic. Both going to and coming from the Antarctica peninsula, the seas where very bad with 20-30 foot seas all the way there and back. Well it was totally different on our passage. Seas of only 3-6 feet, so no problem with our ash scattering. 

 

So its always hit or miss in that part of the world. Also learned that Port Stanley in the falklands is missed about 1/3 of times due to weather.