After dinner on Tuesday, December 30, once everyone had boarded to the ship following the landing excursion, there were some announcements about the next two days and navigating the return trip through the Drake Passage. We were scheduled to return to Ushuaia on the morning of Friday, January 2, but the weather forecasts were not exactly looking favorable for the overnight hours of January 1 into January 2! So we were told to expect a little bit rougher of a time than we'd experienced a week earlier and that they'd be trying to get us there as quickly as possible to stay ahead of the worst of the conditions.
We left Antartica on the night of Tuesday, December 30, sailed at sea all day on December 31 and January 1, and arrived back is Ushuaia around dinner on January 1, about 12 hours ahead of schedule. Traveling through the Drake Passage was definitely more intense this time; it was difficult to walk in a straight line at any given point in time and during the night, I almost rolled right out of bed during one really rough stretch!
We enjoyed the final two days at sea despite the Drake Passage craziness and the ship had different New Year's Eve and New Year's Day festivities going on. New Year's Eve is our anniversary, so we had a great day together on the ship and then rang in the New Year doing what many other people were doing: watching the series finale of Stranger Things! It started at 10 pm for our time zone, so we paused it at midnight for the countdown to 2026 and then finished the episode to kick off the new year. New Year's Day was pretty laid back and we spent part of it packing because we had to have our luggage outside our cabin ready to to picked up at 9 pm. We strategically put all of the cold weather stuff in one suitcase so that we wouldn't have to open it again until we got home, since the remaining week of our trip would involve warm temperatures! Some people got off the ship on the evening of January 1 to explore Ushuaia for a few hours, but the weather wasn't great and most things weren't open, so we didn't bother. We'd spent our first nine nights on the ship without experiencing the dark since the sun never set, but we did get actual darkness on our tenth and final night when we were in Ushuaia!
On January 2, we got off the ship just before 8 am and boarded a bus that took us on a brief tour of Ushuaia and then dropped us off at the airport. This was kind of chaotic, because the small airport simply cannot handle the sheer number of travelers! It took SO long for us to get through security!
Our flight was on JetSmart, which is pretty much on par with Frontier Airlines, with one big difference. Despite there being an announcement about one carry-on and one personal item, people were allowed to board with multiple bags and suitcases, creating super crowded overhead bins, which slowed down the boarding and resulted in us leaving late. So annoying! Why have rules if they're not going to be enforced? Thankfully the flight was fine, we made it back to Buenos Aires safely, and our luggage arrived, so all's well that ends well! We flew into the international airport, as some people had connecting flights back home (we had originally flown into Ushuaia from the domestic airport in Buenos Aires), so once we had our bags, our time with HX was over and we were back on our own again! We took an uber to our hotel for two additional nights in Argentina and were more than happy to order room service and call it a night!
Over the past week and a half, I've gotten some questions, so here are a few answers for you:
- Neither of us experienced any sea sickness!
- All breakfasts and lunches were buffet and while the majority of dinners were buffet, a few of the evenings were a la carte.
- The landing excursions required us to hop out of the zodiac into shallow water or onto rocky terrain (someone asked if there were docks, which there are not).
- The company provided hiking poles, muck boots, and waterproof jackets, but we brought the rest of the winter gear with us.
- As I shared several posts back, we weren't too impressed with the service, and I'm disappointed to report that our opinion remain unchanged over the course of the cruise. While there were individuals here and there who were absolutely lovely, the staff weren't especially helpful or friendly and the communication wasn't always great in terms of directions/instructions/schedules.
- This was an expensive trip - make no mistake, it was worth every single penny to us! - but sometimes a big price tag comes with a sense of entitlement on the part of the guests and as the cruise went on, people started following the rules less and less until meal times and excursions were a bit of a free-for-all with people showing up whenever they felt like it. The staff didn't seem to ever enforce schedules, which was incredibly frustrating for those of us who were adhering to the rules.
- The guests on the ship were from all over; presentations/lectures were offered in English and Chinese!
Despite little annoyances along the way, this trip was phenomenal. Antarctica was absolutely everything we'd dream of and more...stunning is every way! If we should ever have the opportunity to visit again, we will jump at the chance! I cannot say enough about how much we loved it!
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