Large Ships shore landings on Antarctica peninsula

[60614]

How do the bigger ships (300 - 400 pax) deal with the 100 person limit on shore landings in Antarctica?  It seems like a good reason to avoid the larger ships, as you would have a lot less time ashore since your ship must be divided into 3 -4 landing groups.   Of course there are obvious tradeoffs in luxury and comfort, but am I missing something about the logistics of shore landings?

[Nitemare]

Not missing a thing.  You get half as much time ashore as you would on a 200 person ship

[kaisatsu]

It’s common for the larger ships to use a single landing site for the full day. So while a 200-pax ship may do both a morning and afternoon activity, the larger ships may need the full day to rotate through all the passengers. Especially in the event that local conditions change (e.g. swell increases) causing delays in landing operations.

 

Some ships try to offer additional sea-based activities like zodiac cruising and kayaking at the same time as landings, so that people don’t have to spend as much time on the ship, but this is hit or miss.

 

Honestly, I’ve heard people who went on larger ship say they felt they had plenty of time, but I’ve never heard that from anyone who’s done both a larger ship and a smaller ship. Personally, I did a ~200-pax ship after having done a ~100 pax trip before that, I definitely noticed the difference. The downtime from the 200-person rotations probably made a more relaxing trip, but it was definitely half the time ashore.

 

Edited Saturday at 11:48 AM by kaisatsu