Polar expedition cruising, explained

An expedition cruise is not a cruise in the sense most people mean. There is no casino, no formal night and no port with a shopping street. There is a ship of between eighty and two hundred people, a team of naturalists, a fleet of zodiac boats, and a landscape that is either the Antarctic peninsula or the high Arctic.

Why ship size matters more than anything

International regulations allow a maximum of one hundred people ashore at any Antarctic landing site at one time. A ship with one hundred passengers lands everyone at once. A ship with two hundred lands in two shifts, so you spend half of each landing waiting on board. A ship with five hundred does not land at all; you look from the deck. When we say small ship, this is why.

When to go

The Antarctic season runs November to March. November has pristine snow and courting penguins. December and January have the longest days and the most chicks. February and March have whales in numbers and the sea ice at its lowest, which lets ships go further south. The Arctic season is June to September, with Svalbard for polar bears and Greenland for fjords and icebergs.

The Drake Passage question

Most Antarctic voyages cross the Drake Passage from Ushuaia, two days each way in what can be the roughest water on earth. Some itineraries fly one or both directions to King George Island instead. The flight saves four days and a great deal of seasickness and costs more. For most of our clients it is worth it.

Suites and what to ask

The best cabins on expedition ships are not necessarily the largest. Ask about the deck: high is better for views, low and midship is better for stability. Ask whether the balcony is usable, which in Antarctica means sheltered. And ask how many zodiacs the ship carries relative to passengers, because that number decides how long you wait to get ashore.