Antarctic cruising

[ChrisToni]

Quick question for those that have done the Antarctic cruise.  Which side of the ship would you recommend, and why?

[shipboy]

1 hour ago, ChrisToni said:

Quick question for those that have done the Antarctic cruise.  Which side of the ship would you recommend, and why?

Definitely the inside 😀

 

sorry, my attempt at humour

[CDNPolar]

You have to look at the proposed path of the ship, which is what we do for every voyage and then we choose the side that is going to have the most view of the continent or land that we are cruising past.

 

Note however that because of weather, the planned path of the ship could change.  We were to sail to our southern most point and then work back north, but then because of circumstances, the captain turned that around.

 

We found that we were mostly on deck taking pictures and just taking in the views.  We were rarely in the cabin looking out.

 

We also found that most of the places that we stopped, were in protected bays or cove like areas that you were surrounded by the land and icebergs on all sides, so it did not matter.

 

Personally, I don't think that it matters for Antarctica which side, it is more where on the ship your cabin is  for the crossing of the Drake Passage.  We were intentionally mid-ship to reduce the rock and roll.  We had 10-11 metre waves both ways in the Drake Passage.  

 

On Drake Passage days - both directions - we only had about 1/3 of the ship joining us for meals in the dining room.

[Goosebear Mum]

Not with Viking obviously, as it was 2008, but when I went, it mattered not one bit whether I was in a port or starboard cabin, in fact I ended up in our outside view cabin only to sleep (no balconies on that research/icebreaker vessel.)  You’ll want to be ‘up front’, ‘out back’, or ‘up top’ (!) as much as you can. Take a warm coat you can throw on with ease, for when unexpected (wildlife) sights appear.