South Georgia was the surprise! The extra sailing days were not the easiest but it was definitely worth it once arrived. That's definitely something incredible to know that there's a place like this on this planet. Lived up to every expectation Plus more.

Life changing

Yes

Yes incredibly skill team actually probably made more zodiac operations then probably the captain of the ship would have probably liked I think the Expedition team added to so much for this experience. Excellent equipment extremely safe operators and very knowledgeable.

Wow, this team was exceptional in every level. Always regarding safety first, provided an excellent knowledge base. And very very accommodating at every step. Could not say more about the expedition team.

Beautiful ship well run in every aspect. A very skilled and proficient captain, very personable enjoyed the engagement. The hotel team cannot say enough every day through whatever the seas were like this team always came through and provided us amazing accommodation to meals. The rooms were top-notch Florida ceiling glass very safe very quiet beautiful accommodations very roomy. Cannot think more about how this could have been better.

Unfortunately weather did not allow for this but it did give us another dynamic of a day which we didn't mind. It snowed heavily which was not going to allow the camping but other than that it added for a different dimension on the ship which we were okay with.

What an excellent team that we had guiding us. Michael and Lisa were exceptional in their touring and always kept us in a perfect balance of safety and excitement everywhere we went. Extremely knowledgeable we could not think of a better time to do anything with this team. It was a smaller group which probably made it even better so we were incredibly ecstatic about that.

I think I could provide a little advice regarding photography. A lot of time and effort was spent on equipment large high-powered zoom lenses which worked really well in the planning sequence. However I would recommend no greater Zoom than 130 mm and have a camera body itself I could do the highest possible pixel count. Because you're on a moving ship you're never steady and your wildlife is also very dynamic and not static. Very hard to get an excellent photograph when you're incredibly zoomed in. You're better off having a much wider angle and having the high pixel count and cropping to get your subject later

Yes I think my perspective changed on a few things. I can appreciate the extra care taken for preserving this beautiful remote area that Aurora and the Expedition team took. Although the shore excursions could have been a little bit better by allowing us to leave some of the clunky gear that we had to have on the zodiacs aka the life vest instead of having to carry these things during our shore excursions much better to have these things stored somewhere where we can grab them on a tarp and just put them on getting back on the zodiac. Instead many times we had to lug these around made for poor photography and just did not add to the experience.

Be more upfront about the true experience, the avian flu absolutely limited the shore excursions. Don't shy away from that you need to be up front but at no time in reality do we feel it was such a terrible hindrance. It felt as if you were purposely hiding this to get us to book the trip which led us to be a little bit disenchanted with what the experience might have been. In reality it wasn't as bad as we thought it would have been but again swoop should just be more upfront about that. The other thing was the travel insurance here in the USA it is a significant cost at her that needs to be addressed up front and considered before we make something like this again. We are much more educated and better travelers because of it but swoop once again did not really bring this up until we were really into the contract.

We were very prepared, but again the south Georgia and Antarctic experience added to it. The anticipation was the right way because of the direction we went we left Argentina, headed to the Falklands to get our first exposure to penguins, then went to South Georgia which was absolutely incredible so the anticipation was building more and more each time. Even then when we arrived to the monochrome Antarctica it was even more beautiful in so many different ways. So that kept the crescendo of the experience going. Had we gone the other way around Antarctica South georgia, Falklands I think we would have constantly been a little bit less each time so I would never recommend a route of this direction. So the route we went was the right one and it worked out perfect

Yes

No

Yes