Highlights were whales breaching beside us, penguins swimming in front and beside kayak, wonderful artistic ice forms- floes and icebergs, interesting history, really lovely other guests who we made great friends with, great lectures and talks from the naturalists and others. It was run very safely- much more so than when we went to the Arctic about 25 years ago, with a different company. All the people leaving and returning to the boat were signed in and out. Kayaking was a big highlight for me- being so close and it was all so well run. Safety was a high priority.

Yes- it was excellent and a holiday of a lifetime- we loved it.

Yes

Swoop were excellent with booking, with very few exceptions. I particularly liked the fact that we were given a cabin as I requested (whereas other people who booked with you were not). Swoop recommended a great voyage, ship and cabin. I really liked the way that Alex realised we were overwhelmed with work prior to going and needed some help. So he rang and spent ages on the telephone, helping me, the night before departure. I will book with him again. He also helped with the arrangements when I didn't want to use any of the ship operator's places to stay in Punta Arenas, the night before we all flew to The Falkland Islands.

Safety was great and Russian crew very friendly. It was clean (and I am fussy), but slightly less so over the Christmas period. I assume staff had some time off and they were also busy with decorations etc. I will recommend the voyage to anyone who can afford it- my brother/sister-in-law, my best friend from school and my solicitor who is also a friend. There were a few problems with our cabin and things that could be improved, so I hope this is useful to boat operators: The worst thing by far, and a reason I would not goive 5 * on Tripadvisor, was that we couldn't sleep at all the first night. This was exacerbated by continually flashing fluorescent tube lights overhead of each bed, as a bed-side light. When turned off, they flickered a great deal all night. We complained the next morning and new fluorescent tubes were put in. James and I could see it was still faulty and we waited until dark enough when portholes closed to demonstrate. When I went back to the boat manageress Jen, she said it was all fine, as she had asked for the tubes to be changed. We nearly had a stand up argument, as they were not fine and she kept contradicting me. Our raised voices caught the attention of another crew member, who came and heard the problem and said to Jen- "Why don't we go and show Jenni (i.e me) that it is all fine now?". So, we went to the cabin and lo and behold, the client WAS right, as should always be assunmed by the operator. I do think Jen is not suitable for her job as crew boat manageress. I then had to point out we had no bedside lights now, to get to bed after turning off the main light switch. The crew member who had insisted Jen listen to me, got some turn on and off candles for us to use. Not ideal bit better than lights flashing all night. It was very hot and stuffy in our cabin- so much so that we souldn't sleep properly. The heating control did not work- after many attempts to ask maintenance to fix it- they did one heater, but the other was still incredibly noisey and needs repair. It was also impossible to get any fresh air and cool it. Eventually the accepted that and made it possible for us to have one port hole open. The fridge made the room incredibly suffy too- it created alot of heat, so we turned it off each night, which meant to