Antarctica Cruise

In fact, I share my 'ABCs of Antarctica' with everyone who asks; amazing, beautiful, cool, dazzling, enchanting, fantastic, groovy, heavenly, intriguing, jaw-dropping, keen, lovely, memorable, neat, out-of-this-world, powerful, quiet, reflective, spectacular, terrific, unforgettable, vibrant, wow, xciting and yipee-zipeee!

I had no hesitation calling her back when I was ready to book the trip. I was not disappointed in any way. I would definitely book future trips with ExpeditionTrips.

The trip met or exceeded expectations in every way. I cannot think of one thing that could have been better. Connections, tour guides, expedition leaders, hotel, ship, itinerary were all terrific. Even the weather and the Drake Passage were more than cooperative. The staff, guides and crew were above and beyond. Everyone was as nice and helpful as they could be. It is impossible to pick a most memorable part since it was all wonderful - scenery, wildlife, remoteness, ship, crew, passengers, etc.

We have wanted to take this trip for a long time and finally decided to go ahead. No one we know has ever been to Antarctica and we had never been on any type of cruise before so we did not know what to expect. However, it certainly lived up to and exceeded what we thought it would be like. There are so many things that were memorable� the vastness of Antarctica, how unspoiled it is, the lovable penguins and their chicks and the noisy elephant seals. We really liked watching the penguins in the ocean, they are so sleek, fast and graceful - so unlike their cute little selves on land. Our number one memory is when two humpback whales came right up to our zodiac to 'check us out' - what a thrill!

They were informed, professional, and went out of their way to find out the answer, were courteous, intelligent and human all at the same time. They never expressed an opinion, just gave facts.  It was an absolutely wonderful experience.

Antarctica was, for us, the 'last continent.' We've traveled extensively and the Antarctic was literally the 'ends of the earth' for us. We enjoyed every moment of the five days we were actually there, and it was everything we thought it would be; 'awesome' in every sense of the word.

I recently received your Antarctic brochure for the 2006-2007 voyages. I had taken this trip this past February and had planned to write to you upon my return, however, time seemed to have gotten away, but it so surpassed my expectations that I am belatedly sending my comments about this wonderful experience.

This was a very special trip for me for several reasons. First, I had wanted to travel to Antarctica for almost twenty years (I have an article in my travel file dating back to 1988!), but as a teacher, my vacation in the summer was not the time to go to Antarctica, so I put it on hold until I retired. During that time, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, for which I now use a walker. I thought Antarctica would remain a dream and a series of articles in my file. Fortunately, I saw an advertisement for Antarctica in AARP, which caused me to take another look at the possibility of such a trip. That ad was for a huge ship, which, I felt would not be able to get too close to shore, and since I did not think I would be able to go ashore with my limited mobility, I probably would not be able to see very much. Then I discovered Corinthian II. I fully expected to experience Antarctica from the deck, but I felt that was better than not at all, and on this small ship, we would be much closer. So, along with my 82 year old mother who insisted we take this trip for my 60th birthday present, I set out on this journey. What I didn't expect was an expedition leader like John Frick. John went above and beyond, so that I not only was able to cruise around the icebergs in the Zodiac, but was also able to set foot on shore on two occasions! It really was a dream come true.

Onboard the ship, the naturalists were very solid, very professional, and well regarded. Overall, everything was in line or exceeded our expectations. The only thing left to chance was the weather, and somehow Mother Nature conjured up a terrific 10 days of calm seas, blue skies, and low wind. We finally saw snow/sleet/rain on the last day to reinforce how lucky we had been during the entire trip!

All of the crew was excellent and highly recommended for their service, especially given the constraints of living aboard a small/midsize ship for that period of time. The endurance and energy level of everyone from John Frick to the people deep in the galley that we (almost) never saw was phenomenal.

Although not an official part of the expedition, we were not as impressed with the lecturers from Yale and Harvard. While we knew going into this that they had a large alumni contingent traveling, there was no way for ExpeditionTrips to foresee that the quality of their lectures would be substandard, especially given their academic credentials.