I'm about to share with you the five
worst things about going on a cruise to Antarctica. I'm Gary Bembridge and
this is another of my tips for travellers. What possibly could be the worst parts
of Antarctica cruise? Here you go: First of all. the cost. It is an
incredibly expensive experience. You're likely to spend between US $10,000 and US $15,000, and that's not even on a luxury kind of
experience. The cheapest you're probably going to find something is around about,
just for the cruise alone ,around about US$ 6,5000. It is a very expensive experience, and there are a number of key costs. You
have the cruise only cost and then you have to get to Ushuaia. You're going to have
to either fly to Ushuaia or, what a lot of cruisers do, is
your fly to Santiago and then across to Ushuaia. Then you also have to have specific gear. You can hire the gear and some cruise lines will have
relationships with suppliers where you hire the equipment. But you
are going to have to invest or rent equipment. There's specific boots
you need, there's different layers you need, hats, sunglasses. There's a lot of
gear that you need and so there's a whole lot of cost involved with that. For
many people, the worst part of an Antarctica cruise is not even the cost,
it's the getting there! To get to the Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland
Islands, which is where most of the cruises go to, you have to cross Drake
Passage. Drake Passage has the roughest seas that you can imagine in
the world. It doesn't matter what time of year you go, it's very unpredictable.
Some people experience what's known as the "Drake Lake", which is a very
calm flat sea, but most people will actually experience "Drake Shake", which can be
pretty rough. We had a great crossing and had around about 4 to 5
meters swells, but it's very unpredictable. For example, the cruise
before us couldn't even leave on the first day because there were 10 to
12 meter swells. It then calmed down the next day and was almost completely flat. So, make sure that you've got seasick remedies and whatever works for you and
be prepared for rough seas. You may be lucky and not have it, but getting there
for many people is the worst. I know people who've been turned Antarctica and
spent two days in bed seasick there and two days in bed seasick going back. The other
thing, which could be the worst part of an Antarctic, is the unpredictable
nature of the weather. It can constantly change and you can't predict it - no
matter what time of the year you go, and it can change very fast. I
experienced as some days we'd have really lousy weather in the morning
until 10 o'clock and then suddenly it would clear up and we'd have blue skies. Or the
fog would come in and then as quickly the fog would disappear. It is unpredictable weather.
Also what's very important is the trip depends on the ice and how the ice moves.
There is no set schedule and they have a rough plan of where they want to try and
go, to but they have to reassess it based on how much ice and how the ice has moved.
You can't assume anything. The landings may or may not happen as they may be
cancelled because of too much swell or the weather's too lousy. It's very
unpredictable and you may spend all that money and go all the way to Antarctica and
have a so-so experience because the weather is unpredictable. Of
course, the cruise companies go to huge trouble to make sure that they find a
way of making sure that you do see amazing thing, but bear in mind the
worst part of it is it's just completely unpredictable. The other thing is it's a
very short season and there's only very few months of the year that they can
actually cruise to Antarctica. The season starts towards the end of October,
however most ships only really start going during November
because the ice by then is starting to break up and they can get through.
The season ends for most companies towards the end of February, though so go into March.
The real peak of the season is December / January as that's
also when it's warmest. It is a very short season and you don't have a lot of
flexibility about when you can go. The fact that the season is so short is also
what drives the cost and availability. One of the things that
you'll find with Antarctica is that people book way way in advance to make
sure that they can get the cabin they want at the price they want at the time
they want. Planning really early is really important. In my view one
of the worst things that you could do is to go to Antarctica on a big ship. This
is really important because the rules Antarctic are strict about
being able to land. Only ships with a about 200
passengers actually can do landings in Antarctica as you're only allowed to
have a hundred people at any one landing site at one time. They also limit the number of ships
that can go to landing site over period of time. It is very regulated and
those bigger ships going down to Antarctica are going to only be
cruising by with no landings, and they tend to stay much more up north so you're not going
to get many of the experiences that I spoke. You're not going to get
in amongst the Penguins, you're not going to get really close to whales and you're not
going to get it up amongst the seals. You are not going to get to climb up and
look at rookeries. You're basically going to do only the sail by experiences. Of
course, you're going to be able to tick the box that you one to Antarctica, but for me
it's going to be really frustrating because you're going to be so close but not really
there. One of the worst things, in my view, you could do is go to Antarctica on
a big ship. Make sure that you go on one of the smaller expedition ships, so for
example the ship that I was on which is Silversea Silver Cloud. That was great because the
ship was small enough. It also fell within all the regulations and we could
do all of the landings because we'd go out in groups of around about a hundred
at a time on the landings. Overall, the experience of Antarctica is phenomenal,
and I have to say that it beat every expectation I had. The worst things are
never ever going to get in the way of making an amazing experience. It is
incredibly expensive to go, but really it is a magical place and I would strongly
recommend do whatever you can to save to one day go to Antarctica. I hope you
found this helpful, interesting or inspiring. I would love it if you watched many more of my Tips For Travellers videos as they are designed to help you
make the most of your precious travel time and money whether it's on land, on
sea or on the rivers of the world
