My father and I are planning a trip to Antarctica this winter. We are currently trying to decide when exactly to go. We are looking at trips ranging from 8-12 days because I can only take so many days off of work. We want to make sure we are going at a good time in order to get the most of the experience. We have a range of options from a 11/26-12/3 trip ...to an end of Dec-beginning of January trip.
When is the best time to see baby penguins? We heard December, but would the beginning of December (11/26-12/3) be too early? Seeing the baby penguins would be a real highlight for us.
Some of the cruise options we are looking at include Aurora, Quark, and Oceanwide. Any recommendations?
We would like to do some of the additional excursions (kayaking, camping, zodiac, cross-country skiing etc.), but we don't want to pay a ridiculous amount. Does anyone know why it costs so much to do these excursions ($400-$950) on these cruises? Are there any trips that don't charge as much? Also, do all cruises do the polar plunge? I've heard about it, but I haven't seen it advertised much.
Thanks for the help!
Antarctic Cruise Dates (Nov/Dec) & excursions
Recent Activity
View all Cruises activity »
- 1 Boston: Black Falcon Terminal to Hilton at Logan by taxi or ship transfer?
- 2 What to pack for an Alaska Inside Passage Cruise in mid-June
- 3 A few questions about RCI Majesty of the Seas
- 4 Rhine River Cruise - Amsterdam to Zurick
- 5 Alaska-Oceania vs Regent
- 6
Travel Report for Azamara Journey - Asia Cruise
- 7 Venice Port and Hotel help
- 8 Regent vs Oceania Australia/New Zealand 2014
- 9 first time cruise (Carribean): what money do we take?
- 10 Cayos Cochinos
- 11 California Coastal Cruise
- 12 (Almost) Day and a half in Rome
- 13 Shared excursions on Norwegian Spirit June 16, 2013 sailing
- 14 Cheap cruises - I think it is about having realistic expectations
- 15 Royal Caribbean drink prices and the new alcohol policy 2013
- 16 Going on a Cruise? Do you still want to after you read this?
- 17 Grand Turk
- 18 Transportation from Rome airport to Port
- 19 cruise ship illness outbreaks (the Norovirus reports for 2012&2013)
- 20 Shore excursions on Paul Gaugin ship in Tahiti?
- 21 6 solid days at sea w/transatlantic trip
- 22 Carnival Triumph to be Fun Ship 2.0 refurbished
- 23 Which River Cruise company?? Amsterdam to Vienna 2014
- 24 Best River cruise company for Europe?
- 25 Anyone had problems with Affordable Tours?
Hi, I took a National Geographic Explorer trip in 2010. My trip was from Nov. 27 to Dec. 10. We didn't see any baby penguins but did see lots of penguins, some nesting with eggs. I chose this time because it was somewhat cheaper than the later cruises.
On our cruise all zodiac and kayaking was included. I would think that all zodiac trips would be included on any trip, that is how you get around from ship to land.
On our trip we had two polar plunges. The first was in a snow storm so they did a 2nd one when it was sunny and calm.
Since I was traveling single Nat Geo was the same price as some of the other cruises because they have rooms for singles.
There are some really good Antarctica trip reports here at Fodors. Just view the posts tagged for Antarctica.
Julie
Comment has been removed by Fodor's moderators
Can't speak to the additional charges for things like kayaking and such as they were not an option when we went with Quark in 2007. We did the longer trip that included the Falklands and South Georgia, leaving Ushuaia on New Year's Eve Day. We were in the Peninsula area around the 10th-15th of January and there were plenty of penguin chicks ... some very young; some a little older. If you click on my user name, you'll find my long (make that very long) review of our small ship expedition (48 pax) ... there might be some information in my post that might be useful. (By the way, we were incredibly lucky with the weather but that is very much hit and miss.)
I've booked a trip in November (http://www.travcoa.com/find-a-journey/journey-type/group-travel/small-ship-cruising/antarctic-explorer?tourTab=) I`m soooo excited! This is the trip I've always wanted to go on but somehow always thought it was unattainable. Anyway, here I am. I guess it looks like I'll be missing the baby penguins, but lots of other great stuff to. It looks like our shore excursions will be taken care of (the joys of preplanned tours!).
Amanda - I hope you have good luck in figuring out your trip! Maybe I'll see you down there