Antarctica with Albatros Expeditions
Albatros Expeditions 19-day Antarctica trip review at-a-glance
+Antarctica is one of the last places on earth that is virtually untouched by man - its tranquility is unmatched by anywhere else in the world.
+South Georgia may have been even better than Antarctica, the number of penguins, seals, and birds completely awe-inspiring.
+/- Our ship, Ocean Victory, was brand new and well furnished with decent food considering the challenges of provisioning for 300 guests and staff on a 19-day trip. On the downside, it was lacking in entertainment options so the days at sea started to drag during the second half of the trip.
-The expedition experience was extremely oversold by Albatros with the actual time off the boat a fraction of what was promised at booking. Rarely did we do the advertised two expeditions a day and when we did, it was almost never with both a cruise and landing.
-Albatros and the expedition guides lacked clear communication and seemed disorganized throughout the trip. Lack of honesty from the expedition team caused erosion of trust over the voyage.
Verdict: My feelings toward the trip can really be separated into two - how I feel about the places we visited and how I feel about the company that took us there. Antarctica, South Georgia, and Falkland Island are three of the most stunning places around. I usually travel for food but the utter lack of Michelin stars did not stop these locations from being amongst my favorite in the world. From the untouched beauty of Antarctica to the densely packed wildlife of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, these were memories that will last a lifetime. If you are thinking about making the trip down to Antarctica just go. Forget the cost. Forget the time investment. Just go.
Whether you should go with Albatros expeditions is another story. It is difficult to say where the fault lay. Did Albatros overpromise and advertise a trip that just could not be delivered? Or was the expedition team just incapable of executing on the itinerary sold? Whatever the reason, the trip fell well short of what we were sold. We were told we would spend four days in Antarctica with a goal of 2 expeditions each day with each expedition including both a Zodiac cruise and a landing so there was (actual quote) “no waiting on the ship”. In actuality we were only in Antarctica for three days, all expeditions were canceled on one of those three days and the expeditions never included both a cruise and a landing. The weather certainly played a part in this but the amount of time spent on expeditions, even if we did exactly as the crew planned, was far below what we were promised (many expedition sites did not even have options for landings).
In the end, Antarctica expedition companies can hide behind weather to explain almost anything (seriously, go read the terms and conditions for your trip, they can do anything they want) so going with a company you trust to go above and beyond to deliver the trip you were sold is the single most important thing when booking a trip. After my experience, I would not trust Albatros to do that.
Price I paid: $9,995 for 19 day trip to Antarctica, South Georgia and Falkland Island with Albatros Expeditions
Antarctica background
While I am usually writing about food, given the number of questions I have received on Antarctica and the lack of information online (and many of the existing information being sponsored), I’ve decided to dedicate a very long post to our trip.
To give an idea of cost, we paid $9,995 for a 19 day Antarctica, South Georgia, and Falkland Islands trip through Freestyle Adventures in a French Balcony room on a brand new boat Ocean Victory. While there were certainly people who paid more on the boat, I would say this “last-minute” deal was pretty standard pricing and the most common amount paid. With my job, there was only a very narrow window where we could do this trip so we were comfortable with the price given we were booking a few months ahead of time. If you want a real last-minute deal and have lots of flexibility, take a flight to Ushuaia and ask around as they sometimes are selling empty cabins on ships leaving that day at insanely low prices.
The actual booking process for expeditions to Antarctica is relatively bizarre. Many of the low to middle price operators do not allow direct bookings and instead use a network of travel agents to sell tickets for them. These agents are more than happy to bomb your emails with various “last-minute” discounts and packages but largely offer the same thing. Reviews for both the tour operations and their travel agents are difficult to find so you are mostly operating on blind faith with a huge purchase which is a pretty novel experience for me. I can read 45 blog posts before dropping 325 GBP on a meal at The Fat Duck but couldn’t find a single review for the trip we are spending $20,000 on. Agents must get a pretty sizable commission and pricing is generally fairly consistent so competition is fierce but there is not much differentiation - in the end “handling of your booking” by your travel agent will mostly be limited to answering questions and passing along information from the operator.
To show how ridiculous this process is, we booked with Sarah from Freestyle Adventures not by choice but by “force”. As all agents were offering identical pricing, we asked one if they could do any better and Neil Drake (who runs the Antarctica Travel Facebook group) offered us free kayaking on board ($500 value). Since he offered the best deal, we decided to book with Neil and told Freestyle Adventures (with who we had some back and forth on questions) why we were booking elsewhere to be polite. Instead of wishing us on our way, Freestyle Adventures went and told-on Neil to Albatros because apparently offering free on-board extras was against the rule. Neil then blamed us for getting him in trouble with Albatros and Sarah (who he is apparently good friends with but not so good friends to stop him from breaking the rules to steal a booking from her) and transferred our booking to Sarah. This type of child-like behavior is not exactly what you expect for a $20,000 booking experience. Outside of the booking experience, Freestyle Adventures was mostly competent in communicating things with us with the only exception setting up a COVID test where they quoted prices in USD but then we were charged in Pesos at blue rate which is twice as high. I still would not recommend booking with Freestyle Adventures (or Neil for that matter).
Since this is a food blog, I feel obligated to comment on the food even if it wasn’t the main reason for the visit. Overall, while it won’t be winning any Michelin stars anytime soon, I thought that it was ok especially given the insane logistical challenge of catering a 19-day trip with no chances to resupply. Breakfast and lunch were buffets but dinner was usually a la carte - even when ordering a la carte the food was not cooked a la minute but they at least tried to make composed plates. In addition to the main dining room, there was a lava rocks style restaurant serving dinner on the top floor where you cook meat and fish on smoking hot rocks at the table. The menu stayed the same here over the course of the trip but we enjoyed it quite a few times nonetheless as it was a bit higher quality than downstairs.
The competence and speed of the wait staff varied greatly but they were universally friendly which made some of the technical hiccups more forgiving. One thing the hotel staff could quickly fix - in a dining room meant to sit over 200 people, there was a grand total of two tables for two people. Mingling is nice (and we met plenty of wonderful people on our trip) but they could benefit by splitting a few of the tables up given the vast majority of guests are traveling in couples.
What we did in Antarctica - Day by day itinerary
12/19 - Departure day
This being COVID times, embarkation was not as easy as walking onto the boat. Beyond requiring a PCR test within three days of boarding, we also needed to take a rapid antigen test administered on behalf of Albatros. To say this was not handled in an ideal manner would be an understatement. Rather than give the antigen tests by the pier, Albatros decided it would be better to round up guests in buses to take us to an offsite “testing facility” aka an empty school. While we waited for our bus in the cold, the expedition guides encouraged us to mingle and get to know each other which was not the best advice given no one had been tested yet.
As you would expect, testing was extremely stressful, even after multiple negative tests over the last few weeks. Option A, you test negative and you are off on the trip of your dreams. Option B, you test positive and need to quarantine in Ushuaia for ten days including Christmas Day. The stakes for a COVID test do not get much higher. Lucky for us we tested negative but a solo traveler was not so fortunate and tested positive even though he had a recent negative PCR test.
I will give the staff some leeway since COVID protocols are new to everyone but this positive test was handled as poorly as possible. First, the poor guest was removed from our bus by a simple name call, and then his seat was sprayed down with sanitizer. We were then sent off to the boat before they changed their mind, turning our bus around (without announcement) so it could return to the test center. There they told us that “close contacts” to the guest with the positive test had to also be removed. This turned out to just be the poor girl sitting next to him who didn’t even know him and only sat next to him by chance. Thankfully, she did make it on the cruise but only after being told to stand outside in the rain for multiple hours and then needing to debate her case with a doctor who only spoke Spanish and let her on because “he liked the Pfizer vaccine better” (sounds like solid science) and agreed to do daily rapid tests.
After the somewhat traumatizing experience, we settled into our extremely well-appointed cabins. The rooms were compact but laid out well with all the necessities like a mini-fridge and plenty of storage so you could really unpack and relax. The highlight of the room was the floor-to-ceiling French balcony windows which were the perfect way to take in the scenery without even leaving our room - well worth the extra $1,000 per person to upgrade from a porthole room.
One disappointing thing was there was no explanation of how anything works in the room, either by our housekeeper (Stephen, who we loved!) or instructions in the room. Making matters worse, controls weren’t particularly intuitive. We didn’t even figure out how the window works until a few days into the trip when our neighbors explained and we weren’t the only ones - someone else didn’t realize the window went down until halfway through South Georgia! While we generally loved the “hotel” side of the house, this was one area they could have easily improved on.
12/20 - Drake Passage
After our departure, we hit the drake at midnight. We had no issues with seasickness but no one told us to “drake proof” our room so were woken up by the sound of things rolling off shelves - nothing broken but a rude awakening in the middle of the night. To make matters worse, the lack of the room tour came back to bite us as we accidentally opened our window while the boat was being tossed around by the drake and it wasn’t that intuitive to close as it was easy to block the motion sensor. We eventually got the window up and back to bed but rest was short-lived as the alarm on our TV set by the previous guests went off at 5AM, providing another disruption to our night’s sleep.
The first day is spent at sea so there is not much to see beyond crystal blue waters. We did spot a few whales and the many birds following the boat gave aspiring wildlife photographers like myself a chance to practice. The crew tried to keep things lively by spacing out briefings so you never had too long where you don’t have some small activity but the excitement of heading towards Antarctica was the main thing that kept you going.
I had never been on a cruise before so I was quite worried about Drake’s notoriously rough waters but I ended up with no issues with seasickness even without taking any medicine. That said, we did get the proper “drake shake” instead of the “drake lake” and plenty of people were having issues with seasickness, even when using medication. My best advice would be to bring plenty of seasickness patches and use them if you have any doubts about your sea worthiness. In a pinch, you can always visit the onboard doctor who has some even stronger stuff to fix you up.
12/21 - Drake Passage / South Shetland Islands - Expeditions 1/1
Two days at sea were punctuated with an exciting announcement - we were approaching the South Shetland Islands and the weather was looking good enough for an impromptu expedition to Deception Island (why this was treated as a “bonus” expedition when it was specifically mentioned in the marketing material for our trip, I do not know). The volcanic island did not have the Antarctic feel to it but it was still a nice stop as it provided interesting geology and offered a deserted old whaling station to view from afar. There was even one chinstrap penguin hanging out on shore who was quickly swarmed by photographers.
12/22 Antarctica Sound / Weddell Sea - Expeditions 2/2
After our mini-excursion to Deception Island, the 22nd was our first proper day on Antarctica where we began to see firsthand how its unpredictable weather can impact our trip. Our first expedition, a Zodiac Cruise to Cierva Cove, was canceled as winds were too high to launch the Zodiacs. The disappointment in the expedition being canceled was almost immediately reversed as the weather calmed down and we began to see some of the hallmarks of Antarctica - snowy cliffs, ice fields, and glaciers were aplenty with a whale sighting thrown in for good measure. The crew proved to be flexible and decided to schedule an impromptu midday Zodiac cruise in Charolotte Bay as the scenery was stunning and the weather very cooperative. This was our first real Antarctic expedition and it did not disappoint as we got up close with a crabeater seal lounging on an iceberg and cruised around its crystal clear waters.
Ice was the highlight in the bay, the blue as vivid as you see in photos and the amount of variation in shape, texture and color amazing.
Our driver even picked up a chunk of ice which they took back to the bar for ice in cocktails later and let us view the bubbles in a shard up close.
After the Zodiac cruise, we sailed further south to Portal Point, a popular snow-covered spot where we made our continental landing. Other than a spare penguin there was not much for wildlife but you still got to enjoy the Antarctic landscape and, for many people, accomplish a lifelong goal of visiting all seven continents. While I can’t credit Albatros Expeditions for it, we were lucky and one of the other guests brought a custom flag to help commensurate the moment that they were more than happy to share for photo ops.
We were part of a group that was supposed to camp here overnight ($250 per person, had to be prebooked in advance). Sadly, this was canceled even though we were able to make it on land as they were not comfortable the weather would stay safe all night. While I might be critical of some of the conservatism of the expedition team, winds were 65-70 knots with 7 meters of swell so perhaps it was the right decision. Given how quickly the weather changes in Antarctica and Portal Point was the only potential spot for camping, I feel like offering camping was more for advertising than something that really might happen on the trip. Despite missing out, we were still treated to a stunning sunset.
12/23 - Antarctic Sound / Weddell Sea - Expeditions 0/2
On the 23rd we departed Portal Point and, after a surprise antigen test in the morning, started the long trek up to Brown Bluff which is on the other side of the peninsula. This meant we were at sea the night of the 22nd and all morning the 23rd. Waters were actually quite a bit rougher here than when we went through the Drake Passage with 7m swell and 55-60 knot winds (5m and 30-40 when we got the "drake shake"). While we were quite excited to visit Brown Bluff because it is home to a large penguin colony, we ended up disappointed as the winds were too strong to make a landing.
After being at sea for most of the day in search of calm waters, we actually found them around 4PM when we were further down the eastern side of the peninsula. Despite conditions being good for an expedition, the decision was made not to do one because it would put too much stress on the Hotel/Crew staff's working hours. Apparently, the same level of flexibility asked of the guests on missing expeditions for this once-in-a-lifetime trip is not asked of the staff. The sun sets at midnight and rises at 2:30am so you would think we would have been able to find something to do with 22 hours of sun to work with. This ended up a completely wasted day made all the worse when we left Antarctica after three days instead of four.
12/24 Antartic Sound / Weddell Sea - Expeditions 2/2
The morning expedition for Christmas Eve was a Zodiac Cruise around Snow Hill Island. Snow Hill Island is famous for having a large colony of emperor penguins, similar to what you see in the March of the Penguins movie. Unfortunately, the colony itself is quite deep into the island so is not visitable without a helicopter but the hope was if we rode zodiacs around the island we would get lucky and spot the penguins foraging. Fortunately for us, we were on one of the lucky two Zodiacs that saw a trio of juvenile emperor penguins playing in the sea near some ice. This was a very special moment given how rare it is to see Emporer penguins and how unexpected it was to see them. Sadly, while the guides did their best to find the penguins for everyone (you could hear them on the radios asking where the “notables” were), not everyone got to see the penguins so while we loved this spot many people were underwhelmed.
Outside of the emperor penguins, the scenery was very similar to the prior zodiac cruise with plenty of icebergs to keep things interesting.
The excitement of the emperor penguin sighting was dulled slightly as our planned afternoon landing at Cockburn Island (which was visible in the distance from Snow Hill Island) to see a penguin colony was canceled, this time not because of weather but because there was too much ice by the landing spot (ice would seem to be a normal part of Antarctica landings but I guess here it made it unsafe). Missing another chance to see a penguin colony in Antarctica was disappointing but the expedition team at least tried to get us on land again, stopping by the nearby False Point Island.
While there was not much in the way of wildlife on False Point (the penguin and seal pictured above were the entirety of it), the landscape was fantastic with a mix of mountains, glaciers, and Antarctic ice. We even spotted some plant life which is not exactly thrilling to see but apparently quite rare. The downside to False Point was again the expedition team fenced us into a rather narrow area where we were allowed to walk. While it was described as a spot where we can stretch our legs, walking end to end at a leisurely pace was only 20 minutes (about half of which was spent taking photos of the lonesome seal). All in all, not the best stop but better than nothing.
While we didn’t know this was actually our last night in Antarctica proper, the continent must have, as it gave us a proper goodbye by treating us to a pod of orcas and plentiful penguins playing on floating ice drifts as we cruised in the ship overnight.
12/25 - Antarctic Sound / Weddell Sea - Expeditions 0/2
After Christmas Eve in Antarctica, we had three straight sea days in a row starting with Christmas Day. The first of these was labeled an "expedition" day with a potential stop at Elephant Island (famous as the island that Shackleton's men took shelter on while awaiting Shackleton's return with help) but seemed quite half-hearted. We cruised right by without much of an effort to stop because the weather was admittedly bad. We were treated to some nice views of the island as well as a large group of cape petrels which apparently was enough for them to count this as an expedition day in Antarctica - kind of a joke given Elephant Island is part of the South Shetland island which was specifically listed separately on the itinerary. The crew tried to make Christmas special but because we left Antarctica a day early it was spent couped up on the ship without much to do. The hotel staff also made the dubious decision to serve a Christmas brunch from 9:30 - 11:00 and then not have another proper meal until dinner at 7:30. Judging by how well attended the 4:00PM afternoon tea was, I was not the only one going hungry between meals.
To be frank this was the most disappointing day of the cruise. Even though the itinerary we booked said we would spend 4 days in Antarctica (part of the reason we specifically booked it) which included Christmas, this was not an expedition day in any sense of the word (i.e. we would try to make two Zodiac cruises/landings in the day). This was very disappointing given that of the 4 days of planned Antarctica expeditions, we lost one day due to bad weather and one day due to leaving early for reasons unexplained. We raised the issue with the expedition leader who said the plan was never to spend 4 days in Antarctica and the itinerary listed on the Albatros website was incorrect and not something she looked at when planning the trip. Why they don't look at the trip description on the official website when planning it is beyond me.
12/26 - 12/27 - At Sea to South Georgia
There is not much to say on these days. After being at sea the entire 25th, this continued on both the 26th and 27th as we made our way to South Georgia. At this point, people were getting a little tired of being on the boat as we only got off the boat for 2.5 days of the first 9 days and there was not much to do on the boat. Nightly entertainment was mostly playing movies (which sometimes were part of the entertainment section on the in-room TVs) and the lectures varied between very good (shout out to Gui whose passion for birds and penguins was infectious), to boring (random pictures of explorers, reading word for word off slides), to bizarre (why did we have a talk on scurvy?). Apparently, the usual entertainment guide was not on the boat and it showed. Their replacement, Rene, really tried and brought positive energy but he was thrown into it last minute without any time to prepare.
12/28 - South Georgia - Expeditions 2/2
Our first day in South Georgia started out right with sunny weather and a cruise (no landing) to Larsen harbor, a beautiful small inlet of the Drygalski Fjord. The hallmarks of the South Georgia landscape including its crystal blue glacier water were immediately evident. This was up there with Lake Louise, Canada as among the bluest water I have ever seen. We were not in Antarctica anymore but you still saw a smattering of ice flows peeking out from the water, a reminder that the climate was still very arctic.
South Georgia’s rugged landscape was on full display and we did spot some birds including a blue-eyed shag whose vibrant blue eye jumped out against the rocky backdrop. Our driver even stopped the zodiac against the mountains so we could take turns drinking directly from the spring running down into the harbor - I am sure it was fresh but it did taste a little mossy.
Beyond exploring the harbor, we convinced our zodiac driver to take a short detour to a small penguin colony we spotted from the ship that our guide wasn’t even aware of. While it worked out for us since we got to see the penguins (a must given the lack of wildlife in Antarctica), it seemed rather disorganized that they didn’t brief the expedition guides on what was in the area. Once again, even though we had perfect weather, this stop was cruise only rather than cruising/landing.
While Larsen Harbour was all about the landscapes, our afternoon trip to Cooper Bay delivered the cornucopia of wildlife South Georgia was known for. Even better, unlike many of our expeditions, this included a zodiac cruise and a landing so we were off the boat for around 3 hours (based on the trip description this should have been the norm but alas we get what we got)!
We were cruising first and went up close to a colony of macaroni penguins which are similar in size to a Gentoo or Adélie but sport a yellow tuft of hair like a rockhopper. They weren’t quite as playful as some of the other penguin breeds but it was nice to check another kind of penguin off the bucket list (and good thing we did as this was the only time we saw them beyond the odd one here and there).
While the Macaronies were nice, the highlight was the landing on the bay itself which delivered exactly what you come to South Georgia for - Elephant seals jousting, King penguins flapping their wings, petrols scavaging and even a fur seal being born only a few yards from our landing. This was the first real up-close encounter with wildlife on our trip and it did not disappoint with amazing sights to take in no matter which way you look. A frequent sight was king penguins traveling in trios, flapping their wings together. Our penguin expert did not know exactly why they traveled in groups of three but thought it might have been parents and their now-adult chick.
12/29 - South Georgia - Expeditions 1/2
South Georgia is known to have a “big three” of landings with the most wildlife and stunning backdrops. While most trips plan to go to all three, as we learned from Antarctica nothing is guaranteed, so we were quite excited when we successfully landed at the first of these big three, Gold Harbour. While Cooper Bay and Larsen Harbour from the day before were special, Gold Harbour, home to some 25,000 breeding pairs of penguins was on a completely different level. Words can’t really capture the awe-inspiring amount of wildlife at this place so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
We had an elephant seal use our bags as a pillow and frequently saw juvenile penguins getting fed by their parents (it’s a lot cuter in the cartoon version, in real life it is messy).
Despite the rainy weather (which prevented us from doing a zodiac cruise, cutting the length of the expedition in half), the king penguins were very active whether they were marching up from the water in very business like fashion, kissing (ok, they weren’t actually kissing it just looks like that), or finding a pebble for their mate.
I came to South Georgia for the penguins but I think I stayed for the seals, particularly the ‘weiners’. Weiner seals are elephant seal babies which have been weaned off their mother's milk. Not yet fully grown, they are essentially mischievous teenagers hanging out in small gangs called ‘wiener pods’. While they might be troublemakers, they definitely won the award for the most hilarious animal on the trip - beyond their comically large eyes and round belly, they are constantly expelling air through their nose which sounds like they are farting.
The afternoon was supposed to be spent visiting another one of the aforementioned “big three”, Saint Andrews, which has one of (if not the largest) king penguin colonies on the island. Unfortunately, the weather was quite choppy so we were only able to see it from afar as launching the zodiacs was not possible. Rather than find a new location for the afternoon expedition, we cruised the waters around South Georgia on a make-shift whale watch which was better than nothing. We were treated to quite a few whale sightings - mostly glimpses of tails and blowholes but we did spot one breaching.
12/30 - South Georgia - Expeditions 2/2
After 11 days in the bubble of the boat, we stopped at our first “settlement” of the trip, Grytviken. Due to its extremely strict COVID rules (the entire boat must test negative multiple times and be at sea for ten days), we were only the 7th ship to make a landing at Grytviken this season. A former whaling settlement, Grytviken is now home to seven part-time residents who work on maintaining the pristine environment of South Georgia while also manning the tourist attractions. I didn’t have many expectations for this expedition but it was actually quite fun. The small town was perfect for a few hours of exploring with a church, museum, post office, and gift shop (which was unfortunately closed during our visit). Just because this was a town does not mean there were no animals though as you could see plenty of seals sunning themselves in front of the buildings, living peacefully with the handful of residents.
After mailing a postcard home (it took 1.5 months to be delivered in case you were wondering), we walked through the old whaling station which is maintained by the South Georgia government. While this might not sound like much, it was cool to see how the animals had reclaimed the station and in a different type of environment - a little wiener seal even looked like he was waving at us as we walked by!
Continuing on past the whaling station, we spotted numerous fur seal pups including an albino one playing in a small stream. The main attraction for the walk was Ernst Shackleton’s grave. While the graveyard was not much to look at, our most experienced guide, Gerard, gave a short talk and toast to the Antarctic explorer. Gerard has done over 25 seasons in Antarctica and spent time working on South Georgia (including as part of the team that helped eradicate rats on the island) so he was particularly well suited for this job.
Our afternoon stop kept with the Shackleton theme with a visit to Stromness, a now-abandoned whaling station notable for being where Shackleton finally found help after hiking across South Georgia. The station has since been abandoned and reclaimed by the wilderness but made for quite the sight from the zodiacs. The main attraction was actually a beach populated with a variable grab bag of South Georgia wildlife and a short hike to a scenic overlook.
For us, the highlight was seeing a handful of Gentoo penguins scaling a rather steep mountain to get to their colony - it really is amazing what these small flightless birds are capable of. Overall, while Grytviken and Stromness didn’t have the same jaw-dropping wildlife density as our other expeditions in South Georgia, they were refreshing. The scenery was different and, because the beaches were not as crowded, we had a bigger area to walk around and stretch our legs.
On the way out they took us for a short zodiac cruise along the shore so we can take a closer look at the whaling station. While the station shows the darker side of South Georgia history when people hunted the whales and seals to near extinction, it also served as a reminder of how far the island has come in rebuilding the wildlife population. We spent the night outside Stromness which offered a stunning purple tinted sunset.
12/31 - South Georgia - Expeditions 2/2
South Georgia apparently saved its best for last as both of the days expeditions were incredible. First, we had Sailsbury plains, the last of the big three South Georgia stops. While the beach made landing impossible (the beach was too “vertical” whatever that means), we were treated to a zodiac cruise along the shoreline which might have been the best way to take in the sheer size of the colony which was stretched across the long beach line with jagged mountains in the background. In case you can’t tell, all those small white specks on the photos above are king penguins.
The weather was gorgeous and the penguins seemed to want to enjoy it as much as we did, splashing around in the water in what our guide called 'penguin spa days’ as they were doing it to clean themselves rather than hunt for fish. As an added bonus, our Zodiac got stuck on a rock. To a normal person, boat issues might sound like a problem but here it was a treat, making our cruise extra long before they were able to dislodge us by…ramming us with a different zodiac. It certainly didn’t hurt that the spot we were stuck was absolutely crawling with penguins and seals swimming around our boat, apparently as amused with the comedy of the situation as we were. We also felt lucky we brought our GoPro on this trip as you couldn’t ask for a better underwater filming location than a stationary zodiac just off the coast of Sailsbury Plains.
The expedition team hung around Sailsbury Plains for a while to see if they could find a suitable spot for landing but eventually gave up and we were lucky they did - the next stop, Right Whale Bay, was the highlight of the entire South Georgia part of the trip. While Gold Harbour might have more penguins, they were spread out which made it hard to fully appreciate the immense scale of the colony. That was not a problem at Right Whale Bay where there was a perfect overlook to view the densely packed colony. To give you an idea of scale, the picture above is only a fraction of what you could see. To make things even more exciting, King penguins are unique from other breeds of penguins in that you can see various stages of their life cycle in a colony at any given time so you could see adults, juveniles and even the odd egg tucked between the legs at once. This was one of those stops you just sit back and admire, giving up on photographs after a few minutes to just take it all in.
Since it’s South Georgia, no beachhead is complete without a smattering of fur seals, this time perched amongst the tussock grass.
1/1 - 1/2 - At Sea to the Falkland Islands.
Sadly after Right Whale Bay, our time in South Georgia was at an end and it was time to head towards Falkland Islands. On the way to Falkland Islands we drove past the Shag Rocks, a rock formation in the middle of nowhere that is absolutely covered with shag seabirds. You can not get that close since it is in open sea but it was quite the sight nonetheless.
New Years Eve festivities aboard the boat were a very loosely organized talent show. Fun enough but they could have tried a little harder to make the holiday more exciting. Much like Christmas Day, New Years Day featured a brunch and dinner only, probably to reduce the amount of work. While not ideal, they thankfully learned from Christmas when everyone was starving by dinner time and had dinner start a little earlier and offered more snacks during tea time.
1/3 - Falkland Islands - Expeditions 1/1
The first day of Falkland Islands was centered around a visit to the town of Stanely, an old English town famous for the ill-fated and completely unnecessary invasion from Argentina during the Falkland wars. Perhaps because of this, the town is full of citizens who are fiercely proud of their British heritage and not afraid to show it. The town itself looks like an old English sea-side town straight out of the 1940s with a smattering of pubs, gift shops, and fish and chip restaurants. We came on a national holiday so, while most businesses planned to be closed that day, they were so excited to have a cruise ship visit they opened up for us. The town was not the most exciting but fun enough to walk around in and included a museum dedicated to the island as well as an old church and some quirky sights like a gnome garden.
Unfortunately, the local brewery was closed but we were able to buy some gin from Falkland Islands Distiller that distills its gin the old fashion way in small batches and infuses them with locally foraged botanicals including diddle-dee berries, tea berries, and scurvy grass.
Given its coastal location and sparse population, we also got to see some birds while strolling about the streets including a pair of oystercatches who were quite successful in plucking mussels from the rocky shore.
In addition to visiting Stanely proper, we were offered to take a short ~20 minute bus ride to Gyspy Cove for a nature hike on the coast surrounded by tussock grass with a chance to spot nesting Mangalica penguins. While Gyspy Cove was stunning, the lack of organization amongst the expedition team showed again. We arrived in Stanely an hour behind schedule but were specifically told by our expedition leader the timing of everything would be pushed back an hour so we wouldn’t have less time on land. This clearly was not the case though as we were given only 30 minutes for the Gypsy Cove walk, much shorter than the 1.5 hours originally advertised. To make matters worse, we were told a cannon was the “half way point” of the walk when it was clearly only around 1/4th of the way through the hike. 30 minutes was not close to enough time to do the hike so our leisurely stroll turned into a powerwalk with almost no time for stopping.
Nevertheless, we did manage to spot a nesting penguin with a chick but it was disappointing to have so little time. The poor communication continued in Stanely as despite being given a very specific departure time from Shelly (our expedition leader), guides walked around telling people the last zodiac back onboard was almost an hour before that to “make sure we are on time”. The expedition team may have felt these white lies were necessary to organize the trip but it continued to erode what little trust we had in the team.
On the short ten-minute zodiac ride from Stanely pier to our ship, we were treated to one of the highlights of the entire trip - a pod of Commerson’s dolphins riding in our zodiac’s wake and playfully going under the boat, so close you could feel the spray from their blowhole. Even better, we had one of our favorite guides, Jeff, whose own enthusiasm for seeing the dolphins up close and personal helped punctuate how special it was.
1/4 - Falkland Islands - Expeditions 1/2
Our morning expedition for the second day in Falkland Islands was a visit to the magical West Point which had two lovely caretakers living on the premises. The zodiacs actually landed about 2km from the colony of nesting Black Brow Albatross birds so we were treated to a short walk with stunning vistas that reminded me a bit of Faroe Islands before arriving at the main attraction.
What an attraction it was. This was the first time I have been upclose to so many nesting birds and it was quite the sight to see. Mothers nuzzled their chicks in their nests and mates (Black Brow Albatrosses mate for life) reaffirmed their bonds.
There was even a small colony of mischievous rockhopper penguins living in harmony amongst the birds, the last Antarctic penguin species for us to see. I know I am sounding like a broken record but it was really incredible be able to see these birds in their natural habitat.
The inexperience of the expedition staff reared its head again when it was time to leave. Based on when your zodiac arrives, you are given a time to leave so even those who get on the last zodiac have roughly the same amount of time as the people on the first zodiac. However, the expedition team must have been concerned about timing because they started pushing our group back to the departure point well more than an hour before we were supposed to go back. When people protested that Shelly told them they had more time, the guides became unprofessional putting their hands in front of cameras, telling people they were rude, and lying about the amount of time it would take to walk back (as if we did not just do the walk). I get it is hard to manage a group of 160 people but you would have thought the expedition team of 20+ people would have been more organized - you could actually hear them saying they don’t know who belongs in what group so they will start sending everyone back early.
The early departure was made even more sour when we headed back to Ushuaia midday, canceling our afternoon expedition. This was extremely frustrating as we expressed concerns to the expedition leader at the start of the trip that the plan to arrive in Ushuaia a day early would reduce our time in the Falkland Islands. She told us it would not impact our time in the Falkland Islands and we would still get two full days of excursions. Clearly, this was a lie.
1/5 - 1/6 - At sea / in harbour
As planned, we dutifully arrived in Ushiaia harbor the night of Jan 6th instead of the morning of Jan 7th advertised in the itinerary. To put the cherry on top of the disorganized trip, winds were too high for us to dock in port until late in the night so we left Falkland Islands early for no reason at all. Guests who needed PCR tests for early flights were able to get them early in the morning and then the Argentinian government decided everyone else could get off the boat without an antigen test.
Disembarkation was bright and early the next morning with the latest buses leaving at 9AM as they needed to turn around the boat for the next group by the afternoon. My overall impression was that the last “night” of the trip was really just a way so Albatross could advertise a longer trip.
Things I wish I knew
Don’t bring a reusable water bottle - they give one to each guest.
I’d recommend some earplugs and eye shades - the sun is pretty constant at night and with the rough waters, there is always something rolling/clanking around making noise.
Drink prices on the boat were pretty reasonable (around $8 for a hefty pour of house wine) but you can also bring your own as our room had a mini-fridge. We brought on five bottles of white wine from Argentina which was a bargain to buy at the cash “blue rate” - think a quality bottle of Chardonnay for $10 that would cost you $35 in the US.
Even if you want to drink at the restaurants I would recommend buying a bottle or by the glass over purchasing the drink package which apparently costs $100 a day. Given the low cost of wine, you would need to be constantly plastered to come even close to getting value out of the drink package.
Don’t overpack. For sure bring some layers, waterproof gear etc. but you don’t need crazy outdoor gear. The temperature typically hovered around 0C/32F. Depending on the wind and sun it could feel much colder or warmer but it was not as rugged as I thought it was going to be. Definitely go through the checklist people give you but don’t feel like you need 3-4 of everything or top quality stuff to stay warm. My favorite piece was glove liners as they broke the wind on my hands but let me continue using my phone and camera.
Internet was not the fastest but functional. It was pricey but they did offer a 24-hour pass which you could log-in and out of as you please for $100 which allowed for some connectivity without breaking the bank. Facebook worked fine but Instagram was blocked on the system.
Bring lots of entertainment. E-books are a good idea and you can pick up a book or two from the onboard library although the selection is limited and you technically aren’t supposed to bring them to your room (although many people did). There are a handful of movies on the television but there is a ton of downtime to fill even if you take in all the lectures.
If visiting Argentina, bring lots of cash. The “blue rate” when we visited was around $1 USD to 200 pesos while the official rate (that your credit card uses) was around $1 to 108 pesos meaning you saved almost 50% using cash.
When in Ushuaia, eating king crab is an absolute must. It costs a fraction of what it does elsewhere in the world and is caught fresh in the local waters. I particularly enjoyed El Viejo Marino which is a hole in the wall but an absolute gem of a restaurant. Drinking a bottle of white wine and eating an extra-large king crab for around $45 is one of my favorite food memories of 2021.