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Tag: Antarctic Cruises

  • Huge Hurtigruten Sale for Fourth of July

    Huge Hurtigruten Sale for Fourth of July

    As Fourth of July festivities are winding down, there’s one more thing to get excited about. Hurtigruten just launched a huge sale on their website! The Norwegian cruise line has been offering excellent expeditions around the world for decades. Their prices can be steep, but that just means that right now is the best time to book with them. Here are all the details on the sale as well as a few select itineraries that you should check out.

    Freedom Flash Sale 2021

    Dubbed the Freedom Flash Sale 2021, there is the potential for some serious deals here. Itineraries are as much as 50% off right now, and the sale also cuts down deposits down to 10%. It started on July 1st, but don’t worry about feeling late just yet. It’s going until July 8th, so there’s still time to capitalize on the lowered prices! Over 50 different cruises are discounted thanks to the sale, and there are options all over the world. While there are certainly some itineraries that are still in the upper echelon of cruise prices, the sale has also made some of Hurtigruten’s reasonably-priced cruises even more affordable. There are multiple cruises below $2000. You can check out all of the options over here.

    The most affordable option

    If you’ve ever wanted to sail with Hurtigruten, this might just be the most affordable option that you’ll get! This itinerary begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina and travels all the way north to Cape Verde near Africa. There aren’t many port stops on the way, but that’s because the cruise is themed around the idea of holistic well-being. It promises a “deeper understanding of your own well-being needs”. In other words: you’ll be relaxing as much as humanly possible on this trip. Sounds nice to us! The total cost of the cruise is $1476. You can check out all the details here.

    Save money on the Ultimate Expedition

    While Hurtigruten travels all over the world, they are most well-known for their expeditions to far-off wonderlands like Antarctica. They are absolute experts of the region, so we can’t help but highlight this Solar Eclipse Cruise that is currently 20% off thanks to the sale. Departing on November 22nd, 2021, this cruise lasts for 23 days and takes you from Cape Horn to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia before heading to Antarctica. It’s an expensive trip, but it would definitely be worth it. You can book over here if you’re interested.

    We always love a good sale, and it’s exciting to see a cruise line like Hurtigruten offer such great deals. Shop around and see if any of the itineraries are right for you!

  • A Bright Future for Lindblad

    A Bright Future for Lindblad

    Recent news is pointing towards a very bright future for Lindblad Expeditions. The adventurous cruise line hasn’t sailed in quite some time, but they have managed to make it through the pandemic without suffering any major losses of ships or anything like that. They are now looking towards a future where cruising may be able to return. They’ve made some internal changes to their team and decided on a restart date.

    New president and CEO

    Lindblad announced on March 30th that it would be bringing in Dolf Berle as both the company’s president and CEO. Berle’s previous experience in leading businesses will come in handy at Lindblad, although he doesn’t have any specific experience working with cruise lines. His previous position was as the CEO of Topgolf, and he served as the president of Dave and Buster’s before that. He will be taking the place of Lindblad founder Sven-Olof Lindblad. Sven-Olof will now become co-chair of the board at Lindblad. Lindblad said in a statement, “I am very pleased to hand the baton to Dolf, who I have gotten to know well and for whom I have great respect and admiration. I am confident that his outstanding leadership, integrity and character make him the right choice to serve as our next leader.” This is definitely a move that shows that Lindblad is gearing up for some changes in the company, and we’re excited to see where they go!

    Restart date announced

    Lindblad also announced on the same day that they have decided upon the date they will restart cruise operations. They will launch a series of expeditions throughout the Galapagos and Alaska starting in early June. Galapagos itineraries will be on the National Geographic Endeavour and will last for ten days. These expeditions will start on June 4th. The Alaska expeditions will begin on June 5th on the National Geographic Quest and the National Geographic Venture. There will be both six-day and eight-day cruises.

    COVID consciousness

    The cruise line also made it clear that they have new COVID protocols in place to keep guests safe on their cruises this summer. They will be requiring vaccinations and negative COVID tests for everyone that boards their ships. You can check out all of their safety protocols over on their website. It’s clear that they are dedicated to maintaining a very high standard of safety.

    Lindblad is definitely one of the most unique cruise lines out there, so it’s great to see that they are preparing for a restart in the near future. We’re ready for it!

  • New Polar Cruises for the 2021 Season

    New Polar Cruises for the 2021 Season

    As more and more itineraries get shut down for this year, it gets less and less fun to report on them. Yeah, yeah, no one’s sailing any time in the near future, we get it. But these cancellations shouldn’t distract us from the fact that there are plenty of new itineraries being announced. In fact, two cruise lines just recently revealed some details about some polar travels that they’ll be offering during 2021. Let’s take a look.

    Atlas Ocean Voyages

    If you don’t know much about Atlas Ocean Voyages, you’re not alone. The cruise line doesn’t have a fleet as of yet, but they plan to enter the all-inclusive luxury market with their ship the World Navigator in 2021. Oh, and they’ve got four more ships planned that will drop between then and 2023. So they’ll be busy for a while. But it’s the World Navigator that’s of importance to us.

    The details

    Well, here’s the thing. There’s not a whole lot of info about the polar expeditions that Atlas Ocean Voyages is planning. All that we really know is that it’ll be on the World Navigator and that the ship will head to Antarctica in November 2021. The actual itineraries will be announced in May of this year. The World Navigator is only set to hold about 200 people, so if you’re interested, keep your ear to the streets! (Or this site, really).

    Cruise and Maritime Voyages

    By now, we’re probably all familiar with Cruise and Maritime Voyages, also known as CMV. The British cruise line currently has a six-vessel fleet that sails around the world, and they’re expecting a new ship in 2021: Amy Johnson. Amy Johnson is actually a ship that was built in 1991 that sailed for a few different companies before getting a serious refurbish recently. It’s set to be the biggest ship in CMV’s fleet when they receive it. It’s also set sail to the Arctic next year!

    The details

    There will be three total sailings to the Arctic aboard the Amy Johnson, all happening in summer 2021. The first is a trip to Greenland and Iceland that lasts 22 days and leaves on June 20. A 38-night trip that visits Spitsbergen departs on July 22. Finally, there will be an August sailing that is much like the one occurring in June, though it stops in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

    While it may be hard to stay excited about the future of cruising, keep your head up! Not only are these companies planning their next itineraries, but they’re planning them on ships that will be brand new. If you’re the type of person who wants to visit exotic locations via groundbreaking vessels (and really, we all should be that type of person), stay vigilant and book these as soon as possible.

  • Costco Cruises to Antarctica

    Costco Cruises to Antarctica

    To be informed that there are Costco cruises to Antarctica could be doubly surprising – you may not be aware that Costco offers cruises, and you also might not know that there are cruises to Antarctica. In fact, there are cruises to Antarctica, and Costco would be happy to sell you one, at least if they could (more on this in moment). Below we outline Costco’s Antarctic cruise offerings, as it were, explaining what a cruise to Antarctica is and how you can go about finding one.

    (See update below.)

    The first thing you should know about Costco’s cruises to Antarctica is that they don’t exist, at least if you understand a “cruise to Antarctica” as, well, a cruise to Antarctica. Cruises to Antarctica must obviously sail to (or at least near) the continent of Antarctica, and while such cruises exist, they don’t seem to be offered by Costco. Rather, Costco seems to offer something more like cruises to the Arctic, even though you list “Antarctica” as your cruise destination when searching for your cruise on the Costco Travel website. And in truth Costco doesn’t really offer cruises to the Arctic either, as it doesn’t appear that any of the cruises they offer actually go this far north. (For the record, the Arctic is polar region at the northernmost point on earth, and Antarctica is the polar region at the southern end of the globe that is also a continent. The two are occasionally confused.) So, basically, there are not Costco cruises to Antarctica, or so our fairly exhaustive searching suggests, even though Costco Travel clearly implies otherwise. Perhaps Costco used to partner with one of the cruise ships that sails to Antarctica, but no longer does. And it is also possible that Costco will offer cruises to Antarctica in the future. For now, though, there appear to be no Costco cruises to Antarctica.

    Although there is no need to dwell on fictional cruises, it is worth mentioning as we conclude that what are termed “cruises to Antarctica” by Costco are actually just Costco’s cruises to Alaska, a subject we have already covered. They generally start in Vancouver or Seattle and stop at a few destinations in between (Glacier Bay, College Fjord, and so on). These are northern, cold destinations, but they aren’t technically in the Arctic, and they certainly aren’t in Antarctica. So, once again, Costco does not offer cruises to Antarctica. They offer something kind of similar with their Alaskan cruises, which for whatever reason are labeled as “cruises to Antarctica,” but these don’t involve Antarctica in anyway. Again, however, there are cruises to Antarctica, just not through Costco.

    (Update: Having now written about virtually every destination to which a Costco cruise sails, we have stumbled across one cruise from Buenos Aires to the Antarctic Peninsula. You can find it by searching the cruises to South America. So, there technically is a Costco cruise to Antarctica, it is just listed as a cruise to South America.)

  • Antarctic Cruises: Which Cruise Ships Sail to Antarctica?

    Antarctica is a distant land to sail to, and it certainly isn’t a routine destination for a cruise vacation (in contrast to places like the Caribbean or Alaska, for example). Yet people do take cruises to Antarctica, which means there must be cruise ships that take Antarctic Cruises, and indeed there are. These Antarctic cruise ships vary in style and the accommodations they offer, but they all tend to be rather small, holding only around 50 to 200 people. There probably isn’t enough demand for cruises to Antarctica to fill a huge cruise ship, and moreover a large cruise ship could be hard to maneuver in some of the more remote areas of the Antarctic region. In this article, we’ll look at a few different cruise ships that travel to Antarctica to get a sense of what they are like.

    You might not expect to travel to Antarctica in perfect comfort (maybe you think a trip to the southernmost continent is an expedition to be endured, not a vacation to enjoy), but essentially you can, as several ships offer luxurious accommodations. On the National Geographic Explorer, there are 81 cabins, and everyone of them has views of the ocean and private facilities. Each room also has its own climate controls, which travelers probably appreciate on their journey to a region as cold as Antarctica. As far as public spaces are concerned, the Explorer has a library, an observation gallery, a fitness center, and a spa, among other things. Basically, the ship, which can accommodate 148 passengers, has many of the features that make cruise ships enjoyable.

    The Le Boreal (which has to be a redundant way to write the name, but that is nevertheless how it is referred to on the sites we researched) offers even more to passengers than the Explorer. In addition to a spa and fitness center, there is a heated outdoor pool and a “modern lecture facility and theater.” Moreover, the ship has been designed to accommodate more passengers than it allows on board, so it has a spacious feel. There are several ships that have features comparable to the Explorer and Le Boreal, so, again, it is possible to travel to Antarctica while enjoying the amenities that modern cruise ships offer.

    Not all cruise ships offer as much as the Le Boreal, but none of the ships that carry passengers to Antarctica that we were able to find are particularly unaccommodating. Even a ship like the Ushuaia, which is a small ice-strengthened vessel originally built for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is plenty comfortable. This ship is specifically designed for Antarctic excursions, which explains why it doesn’t have a spa or anything like that on board, but it still has other public spaces like a library and a well-stocked bar to keep passengers happy on their voyage south. You don’t need to stoically endure harsh weather in sketchy ships to see Antarctica.

    So, although cruise ships that sail to Antarctica tend to be small, and even though many of them weren’t originally designed with tourist trips to Antarctica in mind, they are nice and comfortable. There aren’t fine restaurants or elaborate casinos on board, but they offer all the amenities you need.

  • Antarctic Cruises: Where Can You Go?

    Antarctic cruises are often thought of as cruises to Antarctica, and, of course, they are. But “Antarctic cruise” is actually a broader term, covering cruises that sail to areas like South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, not just voyages to the continent of Antarctica. For those considering cruises to this remote part of the world, this is important to keep in mind – there are more Antarctic cruises than you might imagine from which to chose.

    Regular readers of this site might have noticed that we’ve been particularly preoccupied with cruises to Antarctica as of late. There is just something awesome about converting a cruise vacation, which is normally filled with relaxation and leisurely pursuits, into an adventure to a remote part of the globe that few people will ever visit. We’ve investigated both what you can do on an Antarctic cruise and what you can see on an Antarctic cruise (there is some overlap between the two, as one of the main things to do on an Antarctic cruise is merely observe), and now it seems appropriate to talk about where you can go.

    We’ll start with the continent of Antarctica itself, the obvious place you can go on an Antarctic cruise. However, when you sail all the way to this part of the world, you don’t just approach Antarctica from any random angle; you (generally) go to the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the world’s southernmost continent. Here you will find all the staples of an Antarctic cruises: towering mountains, countless glaciers, and several species of penguins and seals, among many other things. It’s quite an accomplishment to reach Antarctica, but if you really want to push the envelope, you might consider crossing the Antarctic Circle, which requires you to go beyond a certain latitude (66.5622° south of the Equator) before returning. (Yes, there are cruises that actually cross the Antarctic Circle.) In terms of scenery and wildlife, passing the Antarctic Circle is much the same as reaching Antarctica, but if you accomplish the former, you are truly in an elite group. Few people have traveled this far south.

    Reaching the actual continent of Antarctica or traveling into the Antarctic Circle might have appeal to a certain type of adventurer, but these are by no means your only options when you visit the Antarctic region. You could go to South Georgia, a British Overseas Territory with a particularly robust concentration of wildlife (penguins, seals, seabirds, etc.), and you could also go to the Falkland Islands, which is also (controversially) a British Overseas Territory teeming with wildlife. The Falkland Islands are especially known for their penguins (they have five different species), which are one of the main wildlife attractions of Antarctic cruises. Also in this region of the world are the New Zealand subantarctic islands, a collection of several islands that are essentially untouched by humans. There is an enormous amount of biodiversity on these islands, and many of the species of plants and animals in this area can be found nowhere else in the world. These are all distant areas of the globe, about as far south as you can possibly go, but several cruises go to every one of these places.

    As you can see, Antarctic cruises are more diverse than you might have thought, taking you not only to Antarctica, but also to several surrounding areas that have their own unique appeal!

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