Mike B

Truth in Advertising, I didn’t actually see the wheelchair lady landed this way, but I was told that it happened, and I have no doubt that it did. This was on the Midnatsol, I believe it was in December 2016. The crew gave even fully-“abled” passengers a LOT of help embarking and disembarking to and from shore. We had two kinds of landings, wet and dry. Dry landings were at least once pretty easy affairs of stepping off of a beached landing ship onto a smooth shore. But several of the landings were on rocky shore where the beach was covered with bowling ball-sized rocks, and at least two were wet landings, where they couldn’t get the boat onto the beach, and you had to wade through 6-12 inches of water on rocky shores where the bottom underwater was a jumble of big rocks. This felt treacherous and scary, but looking back I don’t think it was. They typically had four crew members assisting each passenger in such situations, and I’m not sure I could have fallen and hit the rocks even if I had deliberately hurled myself onto them! Some very feeble looking old passengers did fine coming ashore. Too many crew looking out for us to fall. they told us our landing craft were not Zodiacs, but I wouldn’t have known the difference. We sat on the outside wall of the craft facing in. It felt unstable, but neither I nor my one I saw ever had any problems, and I am pretty clumsy, I will try to find a pic of the boats and of a landing And post them. Of course this was three years ago, and equipment may have changed, but I doubt the practice of helping passengers has.

Mike B

Here is a picture of a landing on a rocky shore, and of an almost empty boat. On the landing pic, the people you see near the water ashore are all crew members waiting to assist. I’m 99% sure this was a wet landing as I described above.

Randyk47

Showed my warm weather cruise loving wife the pictures above. I said “wow!”. She said “I hope they have good internet so you can stay in touch with me.”

Mike B

Ironic that we were there during Antarctic summer. For at lest two of our days in Antarctica, we were warmer than I’d have been back home in the Oklahoma winter!

747FC

Mike B is absolutely right! During our six days in Antarctica, the temperature stayed at 32F. At the same time, it was 10F in Chicago.

mahasamatman

We thought we would prepare for Antarctica by taking a trip to Montréal in February. It was -25C (-13F) in Montréal, and never got colder than -2C (28F) in Antarctica. Needless to say, we were overdressed.

Randyk47

I can’t Mrs K beyond white to her is beach sand and ice goes in her drink.

mahasamatman

The best beaches have black sand.

Randyk47

Agree but not many in Southern Florida and the Caribbean. 😀

Bala Girl

I sailed Seabourn Quest to Antarctica in 2016. If you are going to do an expedition, why not do it in luxury. You made a great choice with Seabourn. Luckily, Drake's Passage was smooth coming and going, but friends had rough seas crossing 2 years prior. True only 100 can go ashore at a time. But being outside in 32 degree weather with possible winds coming off very cold waters made us happy to return to the ship after 90 minutes. The Quest will separate you into 5 groups, and your order of going ashore changes with each landing. Wet landings had us in water only up to ankles - our boots kept us dry. But, poor weather can cancel landings - we had to skip the Falklands because it was too windy to get us to the dock. Granted - it was a tough trip to pack for with multiple levels of temperature during our 3 weeks.
If you have reason to be worried about being evacuated - some existing acute problem - then this isn't the trip for you.
If not, just have enough evacuation coverage - I'd call International S.O.S in Trevor's, PA and see how much coverage they'd recommend. I think I took out $200,000. I personally know 5 couples who did Antarctica on the Quest before and after I did and all absolutely loved it. And, you get to see Chile, Uruguay and Argentina in addition.
GO for it and enjoy.

ac777

I went on the Silversea Expedition Antarctica Cruise..Flew from Santiago Chile to Ushuaia on a chartered plane.got a tour around Ushuaia before boarding the ship. Both times, to and from Antarctica, the Drake passage was Drake Lake.
The trip was fantastic, the crew were very friendly and the temperature in December was above 32F. Encounters with the penguins was fascinating and the various shapes and sizes of the icebergs was a sight to behold. Of course all drinks were complimentary as were the trips ashore daily while in Antarctica on the tenders. Butler service was included too. So decide on the ship and level of comfort you want but go.

Bala Girl

Sorry - I though you were already booked and were just having 2nd thoughts. So let my original reply be a recommendation for Seabourn Quest.

BadgerProf

We visited Antarctica in January of this year on the National Geographic Explorer. The Lindblad/NatGeo strategic alliance is a perfect match for our interests. If you want a ship with less than 150 passengers, interesting talks/discussions with naturalists, scientists, NatGeo photographers, etc. instead of a night club, casino, or show room, you might want to look into this option. They do a great job getting you off the ship multiple times almost every day. In Antarctica for us that meant walks, hikes, Zodiac (rubber boat) cruises, kayaking, etc. We are fortunate that we have been able to travel to all seven continents and over 100 countries. For us, our Antarctica trip was the best trip ever—hands down. Whales? Yep! Penguins? Double yep!! Incredible ice flow, icebergs, burgy bits, growlers? Triple yep!!! Calving glaciers from up close? Absolutely! The professional staff of naturalists, scientists, and photographers are all wonderful. The ship’s crew is amazing. We have done five expeditions with Lindblad/NatGeo in the last three years and all five were amazing. If you want a big ship, want to see things from a distance, and prefer seat reservations for meals over open seating, look somewhere else.

dragonlady13

We sailed with SilverSea in 2008. At the time, there were fewer options than there are now, but I figured if I was going to pay a small fortune, I might as well go in style. The staff and service was outstanding. The level of care exercised for transferring between the ships, zodiacs and shore always made us feel safe. As skiers we had a full selection of cold-weather gear but packed way more than we needed - we were very lucky and had sunny low 30's weather every day (the photographer told us the cruise before ours had white-out conditions on several days). We were not so lucky on our Drake crossings, especially on the way back. Someone aboard did have a medical condition that caused the captain to floor it on our return, making for a rougher crossing (we were warned before retiring for the night), but that did give us an extra evening in Ushuaia. If you have a serious medical condition, probably not the best choice, but definitely not a place to be missed if you can manage it.

Lemaire Channel

747FC

I'd really like to try these ships, but Mrs747FC really likes the idea of luxury mixed with expeditions. For those debating their own future expedition travels, the Quest nicely hits that sweet spot, allowing lots of time of up-close and ashore mingling with penquins, zodiac explorations, as well as kayaking around icebergs and seals. The expedition staff are very knowledgeable, as are the lecturers. We wondered whether we would miss twice-a-day landings, but found that after a few hours ashore, we were happy to be back on board, either working out in the fitness center, or drinking champagne and eating caviar. Of course, the Quest is not a big ship (450 passengers), so one is always close to the outdoor action.

Here is a video that pretty accurately describes the Seabourn Quest experience in Antarctica:
Seabourn is not at all perfect, and I'm not suggesting that it is for everyone. I've done three cruises on the Quest, with one more Antarctica voyage scheduled for next year. If anyone has any questions about Seabourn or the Quest, feel free to ask here or PM me.

PS: Can you spot a FTer in the video?