The Log Dog Blog: Antarctica: HX Part One

Having given it some thought, I've decided to break up our trip to Antarctica into different posts, which will make uploading and sharing pics/video clips manageable.

After having gone ashore yesterday, we can officially declare:

WE'VE VISITED ALL SEVEN CONTINENTS!

If you're wondering how we got here, that's what this post is all about! We'll spend five days actually visiting Antarctica (I will write a separate post for each of those days), but we'll spend a total of ten nights on the ship because of the sea days that are necessary to actually travel between South America and Antarctica.

The name of the travel company is HX Hurtigruten Expeditions and it specializes in expedition cruises to Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska, and the Galapagos Islands, with a focus on science, nature, and wildlife (our ship has an on-board science center!).

As I shared in my last post, we checked in with HX at a hotel in Buenos Aires, received a briefing about the trip, and spent the night, before heading to the domestic airport first thing the following morning. We flew from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, which is the the world's southernmost city and is considered the "end of the world" for its location in the Patagonia region of Argentina. It's a gateway to Antarctica and where we boarded our ship.

We spent about 48 hours at sea before Antartica came into view, crossing the Drake Passage which is a famously rough stretch of ocean. We were fortunate in that our crossing was fairly mild, but we still got tossed about when walking around the ship! (short video clip below)

When we finally reached Antarctica, which is currently experiencing summer and 24 hours of daylight, we were out on our balcony after midnight, admiring the the scenery and spotted several pods of humpback whales swimming not far from the ship! What a gift! (a few short video clips below)

While admittedly all of my other cruising experience is limited to ten Disney cruises, this one definitely has a different vibe - not in a bad way at all, just different. There are science presentations and excursion briefings and wildlife talks as opposed to trivia, karaoke, and movies. All meals are at assigned times and are super casual in terms of dress (we saw two people wearing penguin onesies at dinner yesterday). I absolutely love this come-as-you-are approach! Another thing that's fantastic is there is no forced conversations with strangers because you are only seated with people in your travel party. This is the best! Having to sit with strangers for meals is one of the things that convinced me I wouldn't enjoy cruises and every single time we're on a Disney cruise, we have to go to guest services and make a special request to have a private table. For me, it's one of the very few complaints I have about Disney cruises, so this cruise has been amazing in that regard! Our ship currently has 431 passengers on it (as compared with the larger Disney ships, which hold about 4,000 guests!) and is much smaller in size, presumably for easier navigation through narrow channels and around icebergs. There are also restrictions in terms of how many people can physically be on Antartica and HX only allows 100 people on shore at any given point in time. Guests are assigned to an animal group (the group names are animals found in Antarctica; we were in the Giant Petrels group) and that's how the zodiac tours, landings, and mealtime schedules are organized. So overall, the logistics have been pretty impressive. Having said that, the service is extremely lackluster. Our room steward is great and most of the excursion staff have been friendly and extremely knowledgeable. But the employees on the ship? They earn a very generous "Needs Improvement" rating. Disney Cruise Line service is phenomenal and while some might say that I had unrealistic expectations because I've only cruised with Disney, I wholeheartedly dismiss that theory. C and I are very low maintenance travelers. We don't require much in terms of attention or assistance. So when I tell you we aren't particularly happy with the service on the ship, that should say something. Although we came on this trip to visit Antarctica, not to be pampered, the ship is absolutely beautiful and the cost certainly suggests that this is a luxury experience. Luckily, Antarctica is everything we hoped it would be and more, so we will deal with lame service and enjoy every second we get to be here!

on our balcony

our last look at Ushuaia before setting sail

HX handled the transportation of
our luggage and it was waiting outside
our cabin when we arrived

our room!

the lounge has tons of seating and
incredible views

the lecture hall in the science center

spotted a rainbow

the day before our first excursion,
passengers had to take their outerwear
(jackets, snow pants, hats, scarves, gloves)
to a designated area and vacuum
everything to reduce the chance of foreign
material (seeds, food crumbs, etc.)
being inadvertently carried onto Antarctica