Adventures By Disney Antarctica & Patagonia Expedition Cruise

[insureman]

A little price but...

https://www.adventuresbydisney.com/central-south-america/antarctica-patagonia-expedition-cruise/

 

[Intr3pid]

Just like in Galapagos, they will use a third-party ship for this tour. Ponant - to be precise. You can book directly with them for a cheaper alternative.

This is a small ship. The big pro is that you can actually land on Antartica and do excursions. The cons are the cost and having to endure that toss in the Drake Passage.

If you don't want to pay $13K per person, sail with Celebrity, NCL, Princess, or HAL on a standard cruise. You can't land on Antartica, but - like Alaska - you can see the glaciers and wildlife from the comfort of your balcony. There are roundtrip options from Buenos Aires - as well as one-way between Buenos Aires and Santiago, which IMO is one of the most unique cruise itineraries anywhere in the world.

 

[insureman]

Just like in Galapagos, they will use a third-party ship for this tour. Ponant - to be precise. You can book directly with them for a cheaper alternative.

This is a small ship. The big pro is that you can actually land on Antartica and do excursions. The cons are the cost and having to endure that toss in the Drake Passage.

If you don't want to pay $13K per person, sail with Celebrity, NCL, Princess, or HAL on a standard cruise. You can't land on Antartica, but - like Alaska - you can see the glaciers and wildlife from the comfort of your balcony. There are roundtrip options from Buenos Aires - as well as one-way between Buenos Aires and Santiago, which IMO is one of the most unique cruise itineraries anywhere in the world.

Yup. Cape Horn and south can be a little rough at times.

 

[Travel60]

I totally disagree with Intr3pid on small ship v large ship for this trip. We did the Ponant Antarctica cruise a few years ago. It was by far the best trip I've ever done. The level of service is amazing.

We left from Ushuaia and the trip south was so smooth the captain was calling it Lake Drake. We made such good time that we got to do an extra excursion. We did 12 excursions in all. Some were on land (did you know the Andes actually go undersea then pop back up on Antarctica...we hiked on them.) Some excursions were in rubber boats to see seals or icebergs. We had minke whales swimming under and around our boats and humpbacks breaching 30-50 feet from us. I got amazing photos. One excursion was onto an ice floe. The ship is small enough to sail into a caldera ...a collapsed volcano where just the ring is above water except for a narrow opening. On shore, if you dig into the sand, it is hot.....steams...volcano still down there. We went to two (seasonal) research stations and saw about a million penguins (250,000 pair at one location).

Every night we had naturalists and researchers talk and show slides of what we had seen and what we might see the next day.

On our flight back from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires we spoke with some folks behind us who had been on a large ship. They were blown away by what we got to do and see.

Yes, big ship will be cheaper but this is a once in a lifetime trip....buy the best you can afford. National Geographic (and likely others) also do small ship cruises there that might be cheaper.

One last point...on the way back north, we paid for the smooth sailing down. We hit a storm that intensified overnight. Twice our entire mattress, with us on it) ended up in the floor. One dining room didn't open for breakfast the next morning. But, I never felt in danger.

 

[DCLDVC1]

It's on my short list after I win the Powerball jackpot this weekend.

 

[KVH]

Ah, one of the ships known to have failed their CDC health inspection in 2019 . . .

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to go around the Horn and see further south. And I've nothing against Ponant. But let's put all cards on the table, especially for a room for $25K for two people. PLUS airfare.

BTW, this is the same review cycle where 3 of 4 DCL ships got a 100 score.

{Apologies for the negativity} Did I mention the 2016 fire causing them to abandon ship?

 

[Intr3pid]

I totally disagree with Intr3pid on small ship v large ship for this trip. We did the Ponant Antarctica cruise a few years ago. It was by far the best trip I've ever done. The level of service is amazing.

We left from Ushuaia and the trip south was so smooth the captain was calling it Lake Drake. We made such good time that we got to do an extra excursion. We did 12 excursions in all. Some were on land (did you know the Andes actually go undersea then pop back up on Antarctica...we hiked on them.) Some excursions were in rubber boats to see seals or icebergs. We had minke whales swimming under and around our boats and humpbacks breaching 30-50 feet from us. I got amazing photos. One excursion was onto an ice floe. The ship is small enough to sail into a caldera ...a collapsed volcano where just the ring is above water except for a narrow opening. On shore, if you dig into the sand, it is hot.....steams...volcano still down there. We went to two (seasonal) research stations and saw about a million penguins (250,000 pair at one location).

Every night we had naturalists and researchers talk and show slides of what we had seen and what we might see the next day.

On our flight back from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires we spoke with some folks behind us who had been on a large ship. They were blown away by what we got to do and see.

Yes, big ship will be cheaper but this is a once in a lifetime trip....buy the best you can afford. National Geographic (and likely others) also do small ship cruises there that might be cheaper.

One last point...on the way back north, we paid for the smooth sailing down. We hit a storm that intensified overnight. Twice our entire mattress, with us on it) ended up in the floor. One dining room didn't open for breakfast the next morning. But, I never felt in danger.

I don't follow what you are disagreeing with. It sounds like you did land excursions, paid more, and were caught in a storm all the same. What I noted.

It's a special-interest trip - like the Northwest Passage or one to Svalbard or Churchill - amazing, eye-opening, and surreal, yet not everyone's cup of tea.

By the way, the big-ship version is not just cheaper. It's ridiculously cheaper.

 

[Travel60]

I don't follow what you are disagreeing with. It sounds like you did land excursions, paid more, and were caught in a storm all the same. What I noted.

It's a special-interest trip - like the Northwest Passage or one to Svalbard or Churchill - amazing, eye-opening, and surreal, yet not everyone's cup of tea.

By the way, the big-ship version is not just cheaper. It's ridiculously cheaper.

I truly wasn't trying to step on your toes. It seemed to me you were saying the cheaper price got you an almost equivalent experience. I was just trying to point out that the significantly (?rediculously?) higher price gets you a significantly (?rediculously?) better experience. Just me but if money was the issue, I'd rather skip a couple of years and save up for the small ship. Trip of my lifetime.

 

[AquaDame]

I truly wasn't trying to step on your toes. It seemed to me you were saying the cheaper price got you an almost equivalent experience. I was just trying to point out that the significantly (?rediculously?) higher price gets you a significantly (?rediculously?) better experience. Just me but if money was the issue, I'd rather skip a couple of years and save up for the small ship. Trip of my lifetime.

Did you do the same itinerary that ABD will be following..? Another commenter on the ABD thread mentioned the itinerary they have does not go as far nor host enough landings while in Antarctica.

 

[DCLDVC1]

It's on my short list after I win the Powerball jackpot this weekend.

Another shattered dream.

 

[Travel60]

I don't know what ABD is doing. I did the trip with a group of alumni associations that "sold out" the ship. I think they had input into the itinerary (within rules) because near the end we met a research ship and one of our travelers transferred to it....was spending several months on a project. I would guess that ABD also hopes to sell out the ship. There are rules ships must adhere to to safeguard the pristine area including, I think, no two ships in same area (we did not see another ship except the research ship). Within that they could probably have input.