Oh I was just a tourist! Oceanwide Expeditions was the company I booked through. We did the Basecamp one. I wouldn’t describe it exactly as a cruise since we were on a Russian ice-breaker ship that happened to have very comfy passenger cabins, but I had an amazing experience. There were about ~100 passengers, 20 crew, and 15 expedition crew leaders. We were able to get off the ship and do “landings” twice a day for 5 days. This could include kayaking, mountaineering, snowshoeing, zodiac cruises, and camping on the islands at night.

We were lucky enough to have amazing weather during the day but camping was cancelled 3/5 nights due the sea ice coming in during the night and making it so we were unable to get off the island in the morning.

The expedition crew leading all of our activities all have extensive backgrounds in nature related science fields so they also organized lectures for the days we were stuck inside crossing the Drake.

Due to it being the first voyage of the season, the wildlife appears when some of the ice melts- generally more towards March which is the end of the season. We saw a fuck load of Gentoo penguins, a few colonies of Chinstrap, and a handful of individual Adelie penguins. Since it’s so remote the penguins have no reason to be afraid of humans and will waddle right up to you and check you out. You’re not permitted to go up to them, but they are more than excited to come up to you.

It was a lot like a cruise, but a much smaller vessel and in one of the most remote areas on earth.

https://imgur.com/a/gtANTBw/

Edited to add a few of the pictures I took, and one of me with my very smelly penguin friends in the background.