Antarctica cruise

[Anna J]

Hi everyone,

DW and I are in the process of planning a cruise to Antarctica for 2021. We have been looking at booking with Hurtigruten or Quark so far.

Have any of you gone on a cruise to Antarctica? If so, who did you go with and would/wouldn't recommend? And would you do it again?

 

[braumeister]

We haven't done it but I've researched it quite a bit over the last few years. Maybe someday.

Hurtigruten appealed to me because it's the only one I found that offers the chance to cross the Antarctic Circle. The rest generally don't go quite that far south.

We have also talked with many people who raved about Lindblad/NatGeo Antarctic cruises. We've done a few other Lindblad trips and they were wonderful, so I'm sure they would do a first class job there as well.

Just for grins, here's the greatest trip I've ever seen. There's no way I could ever afford it, but it looks fabulous:

Epic Antarctic Voyage

 

[footenote]

Epic indeed! Those rates - yowza

 

[dtbach]

Oh my! I was thinking maybe $20K. Off by more than double. I guess I'll look at some of the more "less epic" cruises.

 

[sengsational]

I went with my Dad and BIL. The ship (I went on Marco Polo) was full of people like us...quite a geeky bunch. Can't go with that group again, as Dad's gone, but certainly glad I went. If my BIL wanted to go again, I'd go, but we have our eye on Easter Island. Checkout this thread on the same topic:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f46/antarctica-travel-tips-89703.html#post1978045

 

[stepford]

DW did one of these trips a few years back with Cheeseman's. The itinerary was Ushuaia -> Falklands -> South Georgia -> Antarctic Peninsula -> Ushuaia. This trip had a very academic orientation with daily lectures and scientific experts on all the landings. DW is a college professor so she loved this.

 

[Bklyn55]

Check out Trip Advisor's Antarctic Adventures Forum. Lots of info and trip reports. Seabourn and Ponant are also options.

 

[Souschef]

I went in 2005 on the Marco Polo, the story is attached.
Go to HD and buy a pair of cheap cement boots. you will leave them, because they will be full of penguin poop

 

[sengsational]

... boots. you will leave them, because they will be full of penguin poop

On the Marco Polo, if there was person on the ship that was the responsible party for something, they got the moniker "...Master" from the captain. So education master, safety master, etc. There was one guy who made sure all the boots getting into the tenders were clean...we called him the "boot master"

 

[marko]

I actually consulted for Hurtigruten for a while after I RE'd.

They take the whole 'experience' thing quite seriously and I know you'd have a good time. They are not heavily into high luxury trips (Carnival type, Captain's dinner etc) but focus more on the adventure/experience side of cruising. They take it quite seriously.