Iowa_Redhead

I'm just starting to put together a trip for myself to Antarctica next December over Christmas and New Years and any thoughts/advice would be highly appreciated.

A trip that looks to meet my needs (must be over Christmas and New Years so I get 3 days of holiday time to extend my trip, and has to be as budget friendly as possible) is the Quest for the Antarctic Circle trip through G Adventures (formerly Gap). gadventures.com/trips/… I'll be traveling solo and plan to reserve a berth in a triple or quad cabin.

Figuring out flights from my little regional airport is always fun. The best way I've found thus far is leaving home on 12/19, spending the night of 12/20 in Buenos Aires and then proceeding to Ushuaia on 12/21, arriving in the early afternoon. The cruise is set to leave port at 4pm on 12/22. I'm tempted to just book the flights even though it's crazy early. I kind of doubt that they'll go much lower than what they are currently ($1,700 for the main flights and $458 for the BA-USH flights) and I'm tied very tightly into a specific schedule.

Any thoughts on leaving Buenos Aires from EZE vs AEP? The flights on 12/21 are the same price and very similar times. My flight will get into BA around 3:30 pm and I'll leave around 9am. I think most sights would be closed before I got there but if I stay near AEP I can at least walk around the area a bit in the evening. Thoughts?

I just don't want to do something boneheaded because I didn't stop to ask for ideas. Thanks for any suggestions!

SelfPropelledTripod

If you haven't already, be sure to ask in the South America forum for the BsAs questions. It's a major destination in its own right, the neighborhoods vary, and it'll be great to get advice from experts. I really don't know the city at all, but in my brief time there, it definitely is a city that is alive well into the late evening, so you should have no problem, e.g., getting some good food late at night when you arrive.

Be prepared for delays. Also, I was told the Ushuaia flights sell out completely, so you want to book very early, and also if anything goes wrong and you miss a flight, it may be a long time before you get the next flight. On my trip, there were thunderstorms over BsAs and my inbound flight to EZE was a bit late, but since I had 2 nights in BsAs, it was no problem. Others on my trip had their flights diverted to Montevideo, so they missed a tour of BsAs, but otherwise were fine. But I met a guy on my AEP-USH flight who had been flying from... I think it was Sydney or somewhere to EZE arriving same time as me, but his flight got diverted to Santiago for a multi-hour delay, so he missed his same day flight to USH. He then spent the next 2 days desperately trying to find any flight to Ushuaia, and finally a single business class seat opened up on this insanely early (5:30am iirc) flight, and this was his first, last, and only chance to catch his ship. I've heard many people advise arriving in Ushuaia at least a day early for this reason, but I didn't find Ushuaia particularly appealing.

Oh yeah, Aerolineas Argentinas historically hasn't had a good on-time rating. Someone had told me, and I just looked this up:
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...ntinas-340854/
that they had improved their on-time performance from 50% to 80%. Viewed positively, that's a great improvement!

Sorry, I feel like I'm fear-mongering. You're going to have a fantastic trip!

SelfPropelledTripod

BTW, I have always (probably inaccurately) assumed GAP Adventures was a lower-end adventure travel company, due in part to bad press (probably unfair) following the sinking of their previous Antarctic ship, the MS Explorer. And given your comments about being as budget-friendly as possible, I didn't think to plug other companies. But, checking their webpage, their prices are quite similar to others, so as usual, I will plug the company I did my trip with, One Ocean Expeditions -- also a Canadian company, sailing two Finnish-built Russian scientific research vessels. These are great ships -- not fancy, but very seaworthy and great for polar trips.

Doing some research on GAP's MS Expedition -- it's a converted Danish ferry, so it should be very seaworthy. It's got a 1B ice class rating, which isn't as high as some Antarctic cruise ships, but better than a lot. And the GAP pages emphasize safety, with full immersion suits, covered lifeboats for all passenger and crew (I was amazed seeing photos of the MS Explorer sinking that passengers were in open lifeboats -- they were VERY lucky the weather was good), etc. Also not a luxurious ship, but seems very solid for polar cruising. So, I don't disrespect GAP in any way. But do check out all the options.

Iowa_Redhead

SelfPropelledTripod, that's EXACTLY the sort of advice I wanted!

I've read about the delays out of BA and that's why I'm building in over 24 hours in Ushuaia and scheduled on one of the earliest flights out of BA during the day. I'll be careful not to delay in booking the flights as I certainly don't want to risk flights filling up and causing scheduling problems.

I looked at One Ocean Expeditions and they look really good but the itineraries aren't quite what I want. The one with GAP goes south of the Circle (which it might not if weather gets funky, but they at least try) and as dorky as it is, that does interest me. Also, I have to be careful to be gone over Christmas and New Years day as I have just <i>barely</i> enough vacation time using all 3 days of holiday time (12/24, 12/25 and 1/1).

qwovadis

Antarctica cruises with Travel Dynamics International .http://www.traveldynamicsinternation...est=ANTARCTICA Did one of these years back was ok very rough transdermscop.com was a must.

Many bad reports on Gap Land tours in South America on the boards.Quality problems and the infamous "kitty" adding 15%
seem to be the main complaints. vacationstogo.com has deals on G I have seen though.Dress warm and be prepared for rough sailing if you get seasick easily I might give it a pass. I do not and was sick most of my trip.

Youtube.com has videos of the Celia the boat I was on will give you an idea of how rough it can get. Not sure I would want to be on a converted ferry.

Good luck!

qwovadis

Dec 08, 2010 · For more info on the dangers of cruising in Antarctica, go to Cruise Law News: ... 2:52 Add to MV Explorer sinking in Antarctica by seafevervidz …

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaij7J0Xvnc

SelfPropelledTripod

Iowa, if there are only certain trips in your time window, then just do it! I ended up very limited in my choices, as I had a large window of time, but very little flexibility. Events conspired to put me on a different ship, and it all worked out great in the end.

Qwo, I didn't know you were on the Clelia II! I'd love to hear more impressions from you on it. That was the ship I was originally booked on. It was fancier than I wanted, but as mentioned, I had very little schedule flexibility and also hadn't done my research. The travel agent upsold me on the South Georgia trip (for which I am very grateful), and I ended up booked on the Clelia II. That was the season when they ran aground, broke a propeller, limped back to Ushuaia, and canceled the next couple sailings (including mine). A year later, they got hit by a huge wave in the Drake, the bridge got swamped and they lost most power and communications.

I've always held back in criticizing the Clelia II, as I'd never been on her, the photos look wonderfully luxurious, and Travel Dynamics was very honorable to me so I didn't want to badmouth their ship. But, I'm happy to see that they've long-term leased the Clelia II to Orion cruises in Australia, and she is now sailing luxury cruises in Southeast Asia, which is more the sort of thing she was built for. The Clelia II was originally the Renaissance IV, built in Italy as a high-end luxury yacht/cruise ship. They retrofitted ice-strengthening to the hull for Antarctic cruising, but I don't think she ever had a formal ice class designation. Also, I'm no mariner, but what I've read and seen suggests she was designed for comfort in calmer conditions, rather handling extreme weather. There's great video of the incident in December 2010, e.g.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaij7J0Xvnc
shot by passengers on the National Geographic Explorer, which was in the viscinity and came to assist. Interestingly, here's video of the National Geographic Explorer, shot by passengers on the Clelia II. So, same conditions, but the Explorer seems to be handling the waves a bit better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt0hA5E7aT4
From what I can find on the net, the Explorer was originally built as a Baltic or North Sea ferry.

I'm not sure I'd want to do an Antarctic Circle trip, early in the season, on a ship with only a 1B ice class designation. (Of course, if someone offered me the trip for free, I'm sure I'd go! ) Almost 100% probability everything will go fine, but in the back of my mind, I'd always be thinking that the Explorer sank apparently when they hit harder multi-year ice that the ship's master wasn't expecting. The place where I had booked ExpeditionTrips.com used to classify some ships as ice breakers, but I don't see that listed anymore.

Iowa_Redhead

Thanks for the comments guys!

I called for a bit more information and was told that there was only 1 place open for a female in a quad cabin, and 2 in a triple. Every other trip just wasn't matching up for schedule, cost, planned itinerary, etc so I decided to just book the dang thing. It's good that I did because by the time I filled out the online form and submitted it, I was waitlisted for the triple cabin. A lady from G Adventures called me yesterday and I took the last place in the quad cabin. I'm thrilled to be on the boat but I am a little bummed that camping is already full for the one night it's available. They put a note in my file incase someone decides that camping in Antarctica just doesn't seem like a great idea anymore.

Flights were already such a pain in the butt to get organized (I'm passing through 6 airports on the way south) and they're unlikely to get cheaper by any reasonable amount I booked those too.

It's not even Valentines day and I already have my cruise, flights, travel insurance and approved time off work for December. Woohoo!

GinaTO

You made a great choice!! I have been to Antarctica with G Adventures on the M/S Expedition Dec. 22, 2010 to Jan. 1, 2011 (Antarctica Classic - we didn't cross the circle). Our entire experience was amazing. That kind of trip being more of an expedition than a cruise, I expected a bare-bones boat, and was fine with that (I'm not a fan of "luxury" anything when I travel). The boat was so much better than I expected - the cabins are roomy, the beds comfy (I'm a light sleeper, and I slept like a baby on that boat), the amenities on the boat are pleasant (big common room, bar, library..) and the food... Oh, the food... Really great meals, 3 times a day, plus snacks and tea/coffee 24 hours in the lounge. I told one person at the first meal that I have a lactose intolerance - at every meal, they had prepared a special soup or dessert for me with no dairy in it, without me ever having to ask. I was impressed, as I do not expect people to take care of that for me. The landings by zodiacs were all very well managed - I do not see the point of going on a bigger ship where all guests cannot go to shore at the same time. The landings are the reason you go there for, don't miss a minute of it! I liked the mix of people - different ages, countries, backgrounds - made for an interesting crowd. I frankly have only good things to say about GAdventures and the Expedition - the boat and the entire trip were amazing and gave us the experience of a lifetime. I have also done other trips with GAdventures, and always enjoyed them. As for flights, it is a good idea to have everything booked in advance, and also to give yourself some buffer days - some people on our trip had problems with their BA-USH flights. We did not, but LAN decided at the last minute to cancel the Miami-BA leg of our flight (we originated from Toronto). We were going to miss our BA-USH flight, and possibly not make it to the boat on time (scheduled to arrive the day before embarkation in USH, and this would have been jeopardized). Luckily, American Airlines helped us, and we made it to USH on time (our luggage never made it, but that was not such a big deal - we shopped in Ushuaia - what mattered was making it on time for the boat). Enjoy - this is truly the experience of a lifetime, and we can't wait to go back to do Falklands-South Georgia. Cheers!

Iowa_Redhead

Thanks Gina!

The flights will definitely be interesting. Local - Atlanta - Santiago - Buenos Aires (EZE). Buenos Aires (AEP) - Ushuaia. I'm scheduled to land in BA around 3pm on 12/20, and leave on one of the first flights out on 12/21 on Aerolineas Argentinas (LAN show no flights for a couple days). That gives me an evening/night in BA and then over 24 hours in Ushuaia before the boat leaves. I'm hoping that that leaves me enough time for working around any scheduling/weather issues.


I'm still so excited I can hardly sit still.

dutyfree

Why are you not flying nonstop to EZE from Atlanta as there is a nonstop on Delta everynight? Why are you going to Santiago first?

Iowa_Redhead

Because the direct flight leaves at 730 and my flight is scheduled to arrive at 725. I could take an earlier flight, but this way I can work half a day. I'm taking a the second half of december off two years in a row and I haven't even been at my job for a year yet at this point. Working that half day means not going over my vacation time. I have a fantastic boss but I don't want to be greedy.

Plus, when I looked at tickets this route was a couple hundred dollars cheaper. Combine those and it was the right choice for me.

SelfPropelledTripod

Iowa, have a fantastic trip! It'll be great!

Gina, thanks for posting your experiences. I'm also lactose intolerant, so it's always great to hear about companies handling this with aplomb. (On my trip, I notified the company in advance, as there was a form to fill out pre-trip asking for dietary restrictions. On the ship, they always had great stuff for me.)

dy1ngy

Hi Iowa
Would you have checked out the website polarcruises.com? It looks like the same ship as what you have booked, only cheaper. I can't figure that bit out.
I am likely to book the same trip as you. They've only got the twin sharing rooms left (faint!)

Iowa_Redhead

The price that I see on polarcruises.com is the same price as directly through G Adventures ($7,499 for a quad cabin on the tour 12/21). The prices are different depending on what date you go.

mrtkarabatur

One Ocean Expeditions management has some unfair and unethical pricing system. Very careful not to be ripped off with them!!! Or any agency who is working with them. One must be very careful not to be ripped of by One Ocean. They change the price that they charge you from person to person. For some people they just upgrade without any given reason so even if you have paid the same amount you can stay in a worse room then another person who have paid the same or less amount then you are. Considering the price difference between the rooms, it is a good rip off method. Different price for different people.

The crew on board are helpless and do not bother to help you in any pricing issue. The expedition crew is very good and informative regarding to the wildlife. But the hotel management is very poorly managed and One Ocean has very big lacking on fair, equal approach to the passangers.

Passanger on board

DMBTraveler

My vote is for Quark Expedition...

Would recommend going to USH early.. lots to see and do around the area. Or stay a few days after. USH airport can be crazy to leave as many of the ships return on the same day.

My Antarctica TR if you are interested

http://www.fodors.com/community/crui...-continent.cfm

Have FUN!