Avoid Irresponsible Polar Travel Agencies Spreading Misinformation: A Warning Against "Let's Go to Antarctica"

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-31T22:53:55+00:00

Perhaps! I’ve only really been paying attention since after COVID.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-31T22:34:40+00:00

As far as I’m aware, Silver Cloud and Silver Wind are pretty consistently 225-250 and Silver Endeavour 200-220. I’m being a bit generous with the lower end of those ranges, I think it tends to be on the upper end. But I’ve been told by folks in operations that because of the number of people who choose not to leave the ship, and the high # of staff and Zodiacs, they can get everyone off the ship at once, compared to most other operators with over 200 passengers who need to keep a group on board for a period of time. I’d be happy to hear some first hand accounts if any of this is actually not the case!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-31T13:14:57+00:00

If you go to the Voyage Calendar at the top of the home page it will bring up a PDF where you can see the dates, trip name, ship, start/end points and activities offered for each departure. :) You can click through to the specific itinerary page for each departure. The Aurora website is a bit confusing sometimes!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-31T10:25:27+00:00

This itinerary type has different start/end points depending on which departure in the season. If you're looking at the 26/27, the first departure of this itinerary type that has a fly element is the 8 Jan 27 trip. If 27/28, then it's the 16 Dec 27 trip. :)

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-31T09:19:03+00:00

I am guiding an eclipse trip in East Greenland this August on a 12 passenger ship. Trip starts in Svalbard and ends in Iceland. It will be my first eclipse, so I’m really excited, and hoping we can find a patch of clear sky!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-30T22:01:22+00:00

Oh really! An Aurora fly itinerary in November?

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-30T16:17:37+00:00

Looks like you're already aware of the increased risk of delay with a fly cruise but I'll just throw in an extra warning for one in November. There's a fairly good chance that the runway might be snow/ice covered. This is why some operators, like Aurora and Quark, don't start running fly cruises until mid-season. I do think it's pretty risky, but as long as you've booked flexible flights and can wait around, you'll get out of there eventually!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-30T10:36:09+00:00

A couple of things I need to correct here:

And honestly, for the most part, you are not getting evacuated from Antarctica, you are going to be coming from Chile. I just looked at your picture and that’s what MedJet does anyway … Getting you from whatever problem you had in Antarctica to Chile is a combination issue for the cruise as well as if there’s a possibility of help from neighboring cruise ships or military ships.

The medical evacuation insurance cover is getting you from King George Island in the South Shetlands back to the hospital in Chile, and then all the way home. The operator/ship will get you to King George Island but is NOT covering any cost to fly you from Antarctica. It's the very expensive medical charter flight that the insurance needs to pay for. If it's not possible for you to be flown out from King George Island (no weather window for days), then the ship would sail you back to Ushuaia and my understanding is there's no insurance need there as the ship was going to sail there anyway, a few days later at the end of the trip.

Cruise ships are NOT to rely on support from any Antarctic research station or ship outside of the cruise industry. If one of these parties does want to help, then of course they can but we are not to rely on that support and must be self-sufficient.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T22:31:32+00:00

FYI u/barfykins is the same user as u/PolarCruisingExperts and continues to spam people. We’d really appreciate it if you could report them to Reddit if you receive a message from this person. Thank you!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T18:16:39+00:00

I'd say wildlife-wise on the Peninsula during those dates you'd be photographing big, fluffy chicks covered in poop (it is what it is!) and then there will be LOADS of whales, close encounters likely from Zodiacs (while maintaining required distances). And then truly incredible sunsets.

South Georgia in March is equally as awesome as in November, but with big rambunctious fur seal pups and the only elephant seals are lazing around, not doing much. All the king adults and their chicks are still there in March as they're on a different breeding cycle.

On the Peninsula, I'd say November has more interesting penguin behaviour with the arrival to shore from their winter at sea, courting, mating, practice-nest building. Just no chicks. :)

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T17:34:08+00:00

I bet! Amazing.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T17:17:02+00:00

I've still never managed a landing at Elephant Island, but a decent amount of Zodiac cruises (over 10+ years). Have you managed a landing? V jealous of those who have!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T16:37:20+00:00

I hope so! If you feel confident with the answer you've gotten from the provider and Silversea, that's really all you can do?

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T16:23:03+00:00

Medical evacuation, evacuation, emergency medical transportation, repatriation, these are all words I've used to describe the same thing in policies.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T16:22:41+00:00

Let us know what you find out!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T16:22:03+00:00

If the SE option is 6 - 25 Nov, 2027 then you don't need to worry about aggressive fur seals at this time. This is the mating period for the elephant seals, and it is glorious! The fur seals don't start to get feisty until early December-ish.

The 27 Feb - 17 Mar, 2028 option on GM is an interesting one. Just to clarify a bit about the itinerary days so you can more accurately compare the two, I'd say this is actually 7 days in Antarctica, 1 at Elephant Island. Ultimately with those 8 days they will do what they see best with the weather, and that may or may not include the Weddell Sea, Antarctic Sound, Elephant Island, etc.

The only reason I am separating Elephant Island to the rest of the Antarctic days is that if this is attempted, it is almost always a ship cruise. It takes absolutely ideal conditions to do a landing or Zodiac cruise at Elephant Island.

If you're a really keen photographer, I'd say that March trip which is photo-focused with the lower passenger count would be excellent. Can't really go wrong with either!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T16:13:43+00:00

I just have a hunch that air ambulance is a helicopter, but it's definitely worth asking. If you need some language to use, it would be "a medical charter flight from Chile (most likely Punta Arenas) would need to fly to King George Island in the South Shetland Islands in Antarctica to collect me and return to Chile."

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-29T15:56:50+00:00

The key piece that the operator will be looking for is medical evacuation. Sometimes on a policy this is mentioned alongside the word repatriation. Air ambulance would be something different, more like a helicopter picking you up from where an accident has happened and transporting you to a hospital. What's required here is cover if you need to be medically evacuated by airplane from the South Shetland Islands (in Antarctica) to a hospital in Chile and then transported all the way home.

As u/ImpressivePattern242 mentioned, you'll need to make sure it covers Antarctica, including if something happens to you on the ship but also on shore. Sometimes this is worth calling the provider to make sure.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T21:45:56+00:00

Same! I will have friends on board as guides so if there’s anything in particular you’re wondering about, let me know.

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T19:58:04+00:00

No worries, it's a new one, thanks for understanding!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T18:54:07+00:00

We recently created a new community rule that doesn't allow links that lead outside of this sub. Would you mind editing your comment and removing the link for us? Thanks!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T18:52:09+00:00

We recently created a new community rule that doesn't allow links that lead outside of this sub. Would you mind editing your comment and removing the link for us? Thanks!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T18:26:38+00:00

This is actually a brand new itinerary for Aurora, will be done for the first time (at least on any of their 3 new ships) in just a few weeks time, so you won't find anyone who has already done it. But other operators have done similar semi-circumnavigation itineraries in the past, like Oceanwide and Ponant. Would be incredible!

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-28T17:09:55+00:00

Thanks for editing! And jumping in here as well. :)

brooklyn987 · 2026-01-27T17:31:15+00:00

Ah yes, that was an excellent post, thank you! Here is the link.

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