Highlight - being so close to humpbacks in a kayak (maybe 2 meters). Having someone catch that experience on a brief video was priceless as a souvenir. Similar to the giraffes in east Africa, I was surprised how much I found the penguins to be an interesting animal. I had never seen how they swim. It was excellent to meet people that have traveled as much as we have; that was very unique and enjoyable.

It is hard to describe because there were many pieces to the trip; the ship experience, social experience, as well as excursions. I didn't really know what to expect.

No

We have never used a travel agent in any of our trips so this was a unique experience for us. I typically do all of the research, find local private guides and tours. In this case it was not a viable option. That said, I wanted a fly-in, fly-out trip and if Alex had not recommended the trip he did we would not have gone this year. What ultimately helped the most was receiving a discount while my son was still 17years old. All of that to say we were very happy with Alex/Swoop.

We are young, active and curious. The most enjoyable stop was Deception Island as we could hike and spend more time on our own. Unfortunately one needed to choose a long hike or an educational tour. I chose the former and would have enjoyed both.

We did this on our own and hit snags, but I'm not sure if/how Swoop could have helped

For us it was the perfect balance of passenger types (not merely old what I envision to be cruise ship tourists) and the level of luxury was minimal, which is what we wanted. What I missed was not receiving enough educational presentations. I did not find the scientists on board to be very knowledgeable. There was only one presentation that was fantastic about Krill but unfortunately there was so much information provided at once and it was at the end of the trip - I would have liked to have more information sent in advance and a more knowledgeable crew. Example is I read about why penguins exhibit the behaviors they do (such as courtship, where they are located in the rookery, etc, however the on board bird expert did not appear to know this animal enough to point these points out. My recommendation would be to choose this ship. However the trade off might be other excursions may have more knowledgeable and interesting scientists.

I believe you are missing "be" in your first sentence of this question. That said, I'm not sure what information you are looking for here beyond what I provided in the previous question.

I would probably choose ship first (level of comfort: again this was perfect for us), learning opportunities second (staff/scientists; again this was not as high a level as I would have liked, personally), and per Alex's advice choose kayaking.

I selected "no" on arctic merely because if we do that trip (as we've done with all of our other trips), I would research carefully and likely plan this on my own. I don't believe we would take another cruise ship if we can avoid it, at this point in our lives.