Customer Reviews

St. Andrew’s Bay South Georgia probably stands out as the most memorable. To be able to walk among the hundreds of thousands of King Penguins, Sea Elephants, Fur Seals, Albatross and other sea birds with a backdrop of glaciers and mountains ending at the sea was beyond imagination.

The trip met all of our expectations. The weather was beautiful, and we saw everything we came to see, including an Emperor penguin! The trip was bi-lingual, with about 80% of the people German speakers from Switzerland. As such, we weren't able to engage the other people as much as we would have wanted.

Hard to pin down one, seeing all the adorable penguins was nice, the majestic scenery when ship was sailing, some of icebergs and glaciers with the blue in it, the polar plunge (although that was about 15 seconds), waiting in Punta Arenas for two days due to bad weather before we could fly over to King George Island,

See above

We were sitting in the lecture theatre listening to the speaker and a whale came up and jumped right outside the window super close to the boat. My husband was so excited he shrieked with happiness.

Kayaking with humpbacks appearing underneath and around us

Highlights were the icebergs! That is what drove me to Antarctica and we were not disappointed. Of course the penguins were icing no the cake. Kayaking was superb! We don't remember signing up (did Swoop comp us?) and we loved every moment of it!

Kayaking

The trip was well organised and went as well as the weather allowed. The highlight was undoubtedly the day we walked on the main continent twice, saw whales, did a Polar plunge and went sliding down a hill near Neko harbour. The group was great, a lot of groups formed but everyone was friendly to each other. Every one of the crew was also helpful, cheerful and friendly. The penguins were cute, the icebergs immense, the seals all over the place and the whales frustrating

The first landing

South Georgia, by far. That was the primary focus of our trip, and one of the reasons we selected this cruise as it spent 4+ days around South Georgia. Unfortunately, the weather pushed us out after a couple days. Bottom line, I'd go back to S. Georgia as a destination in and of itself - we both thought it surpassed Antarctica on a number of levels (scenery, wildlife density, historical, etc.)

Walking among the penguin colonies.

The trip was even better than expected... The highlight was crossing the polar circle and seeing ice bergs the size of skyscrapers--who knew ice could be so incredible!? The landscape was amazing--like walking around in a painting. And the wildlife was unreal! It was everywhere and so untouched. The people were fascinating--loved the diversity in age, country and interest. I learned a lot from them! Someday, I'll tell my grandchildren that I went to a place that was so untouched by man--that it was nature at its best. Biggest surprise was that our ship didn't have a stabilizer! Haha.

December 19 when we found ourselves encircled with a pod of about 12 whales that were communicating with each other as they surfaced and checked these yellow coated camera-happy humans out… it was a warm, sunny, still afternoon and truly indescribable the paradigm felt.

We enjoyed everything about the trip - new sights, new people new experiences. Landscapes and wildlife were fantastic and everybody on the ship was friendly and a joy to be with. We have already regaled our grandchildren and would urge them in due time to go on something similar. One highlight was being joined by a Leopard Seal asked zodiaced as was every penguin encounter and our visit to Grytviken.

There were so many. One really incredible one was when a minke whale played near the zodiacs for over an hour, coming up to look at us and even breathing on us

Stepping off our zodiac boat onto Antarctic land for the first time and seeing two chinstrap penguins waddling towards us... We later explored Half Moon Island and saw three types of seals in addition to hundreds of penguins. Talk about a first impression!

The penguins were so fun to just watch as they carried on their regular activities- building nests or heading down to the water. The landscapes and wildlife were magnificent. We saw 3 species of penguins and several types of seals and also whales. The people on our ship came from various countries and we enjoyed getting to know them. We had an opportunity to stop and get off on a piece of floating ice - that was fun!

Hard to pick one. The terrain in Antartica is hard to describe and the wild life in South Georgia was almost beyond belief. We had an awesome snowshoe at Fort Point and the hike and pilgrimage to Shackleton's grave was remarkable. We had wonderful meals with expedition staff and fellow travelers. The hotel staff even entertained us at a few meals.

The trip was amazing. I took 3 girlfriends with me and we had a blast. Spring Break 2017! (J/K it was not a Spring Break holiday) We met so many amazing people who had fabulous stories to tell, and the crew was just as fun too. My highlight was landing on the continent in Paradise Bay and going to Deception Island. That water is freeeezzzinnngggg. We repeatedly said we felt like we were on an ocean safari we saw so much wildlife everyday. We also had the most amazing weather. LOVED IT!