Originally Posted by
bj27
The Seabourn voyages definitely seem nice - the ships seem new and quite luxurious, though those voyages seem to have a lot more guests (200-400?). I think it depends on what you'd like. I'm willing to bet the Seabourn ships probably have more in the way of amenities and space given that larger ship size, but might at the expense of maneuverability and shore excursions, but I'm not sure. I would be curious to try.
I've heard the same about the Drake. I don't personally know anyone who has done it, but most folks I've talked to have never said it's that bad.
The 2 Seabourn expedition ships (Venture & Pursuit) sail with around 200 guests for Antarctica. The logistics are very streamlined. We typically get 2 landings per day, but it could range from 0 to 3, depending on weather conditions, of course. (To be honest, 2 landings are optimal; 3 gets tiring, but luckily I've only encountered that scenario once.) Groups are colour-coded and staggered for crowd control, and landings last around 1.5 hours, but passengers can stay longer and go back to the ship with a later group if desired.
On my last holiday voyage, we had 6 full days on the Antarctica Peninsula, 3 in South Georgia, and 2 in the Falkland Islands. Demographics skew younger than on regular ocean voyages, sometimes with a few well-behaved children on holiday voyages.