Budget Cruise to the Antarctic (2 Viewers)

[tittletattler]

Hi all,

If I booked one of these at a cost of £1,548 + excursions, eg, circa £200 on the Falklands, how much would I miss compared to the trips costing up to and even over £10k? Obviously I'd miss the South Georgia stuff, but apart from that......?

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If anyone is seriously interested, let me know. I'm tempted to book it ASAP. May be a further discount for a booking with four people in one cabin but I've not looked into that as yet.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[dandsblair]

I guess the key things you would miss apart from South Georgia is time to get Northern penguins and other birds on the Falklands, suspect excursion will only take you to one colony, then the lack of time on the peninsula to get Antarctic specials.
Against that you should see the seabirds like Albatrosses, Prions and petrels and hopefully lots of whales and other stuff as you sail.
If you can I really would get an outside cabin so you can view wildlife if decks are closed due to bad weather.

 

[DMW]

I can't speak for the Falklands, which I haven't visited; apart from that assuming you spend your time onboard seawatching rather than playing bingo, I think you will have a good chance of seeing pretty much everything you would see on an average "expedition" cruise doing the same itinerary. What you won't get are the experiences of visiting the penguin colonies in Antarctica and seeing them up close, but you are likely to see them at sea and on icebergs. That was my experience, anyway.

You almost certainly won't see Emperor Penguins, but that applies to most Antarctica expedition cruises; otherwise, the birds you could miss are also miss-able on expedition cruises (e.g. Antarctic Petrel).

One thing, this price doesn't seem exceptional. In previous years, at least, if you check www.vacationstogo.com, they often had discounted Antarctic cruises in this price range. The ones that have tempted me cruise from Buenos Aires, down to Antarctica, and up the Chilean coast to Valparaiso. these trips will give you access to the south Atlantic and Pacific seabirds as well as Antarctica.

 

[DMW]

This is an example of a cruise that does both coasts and Antarctica. You might have to register to see this.
https://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=18161

 

[niltava42]

I did the Princess Cruises version (goes onto Antarctic Peninsula scenic cruising) as in the link supplied by DMW in 2007

Some observations:

the price quoted by NCL almost certainly doesn't include the flights

actually landing at Port Stanley is very hit and miss... the ship has to anchor a long way out and it a c.45 minute tender journey - very much on the mercy of the weather if you can land

Magellanic Penguin is easy around Port Stanley - on a penguin excursion you will see either King/Gentoo or Rockhopper - there's wasn't time to do both when I was there

If NCL only go as far as Elephant Island then you should see Chinstrap & Gentoo Penguins there - the Adelie Penguins were around the Peninsula itself

Antarctic and Snow Petrels I only saw around the Peninsula itself

Plenty of albatross, petrels etc to seen at sea...

Nick

 

[tittletattler]

Thanks David, DMW & Nick; your responses are very useful indeed.

Essentially I was looking at an option to join another group heading out to the Antarctic on a fully guided cruise which included South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula plus various on-shore excursions. The cost of that trip is £9,400 plus flights.

I'm in the same position as many birders in that I have a family and if I wish to remain living with that family, I can't spend £10k+ on a birding trip.

So I thought I'd see if there are other options. I have to say, I'm surprised at just how cheap the option I have flagged above is. I didn't know this kind of option existed.

You guys are quite right: I'd probably miss some birds on the Falklands (although I might not!). I'd miss a couple of endemic birds on South Georgia, I'd likely miss a few seabirds around South Georgia and the specialities that Nick mentions above around the Peninsula itself.

So in essence, it all comes down whether I can live without walking amongst penguins etc whilst missing perhaps 10-15 species? I think I could, especially as each of those 10+ birds would cost about £700+ each. I'd therefore settle for the budget option which is in essence a two week pelagic plus a day on the Falklands (costing circa an additional £200).

I'll see if I can find anyone who wants to join me but do PM me if anyone is interested. I'd probably tie it in with a weeks self drive birding in Argentina too.

 

[DMW]

I think you accurately summarise the situation. A couple of other things to consider:

You could potentially fly to the Falklands from Chile as a side-trip.

The Atlantic Odyssey, if it still exists, was probably the least expensive way of getting to South Georgia, plus various other South Atlantic islands.

There are small colonies of King Penguins, Rock hoppers and Gentoos on mainland South America accessible by affordable day trips. Perhaps something to consider if you can't do a Falklands excursion.

 

[tittletattler]

Hi all,

I have received expressions of interest.

Note that if there are four people to one cabin (bunk beds), then the basic package including meals is £1,146 per person.

NCL also offer a wifi, posher restaurant, booze and excursion discount package for $300 per person (I think I've read that correctly...)

Flights from London to Buenos Aries with BA are circa £630 return and are direct. KLM fly for about £530 via Amsterdam.

Cheers, Andy.

 

[mikejf]

I did a similar trip before lockdown & it was fabulous. I can't recomend it enough. Being a standard cruise we didn't have a naturalist on board so some birds did go unidentified. Its worth learning the birds your likely to see beforehand if your unsure of potential id's. The photography options were great.
On our ship the booze was very expensive on board but dirt cheap on shore. They x ray'd everybody's bags after shore excursions & confiscated any bottles! We got around that by buying boxes of wine not bottles. The wifi was rubbish on board. I think It was a satellite system. On land it was good & free so we waited until we docked to use it. The organised excursions were expensive so we did independent trips using local taxi's on a day rate. Theres loads of them in the ports. Its worth haggling as the prices were all over the place!
I hope the info's useful.

 

[DMW]

If you can up your budget to around £1500, I would seriously think about the Princess Cruise I linked above, rather than the Norwegian 14 day option. It's 2 days longer and has 4 days cruising further south down the Antarctic Peninsula: since this is possibly going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip to this region, it seems a shame not to spend as much time there as you can. It seems Wings actually offers this cruise as part of a tour, with a detailed description of likely birds on each leg. There are also ebird records for the Jan 2020 cruise on the Coral Princess: look up Atlantic Petrel on ebird and you will see their track and details of the species they observed on the Atlantic side.

https://secure.wingsbirds.com/tours/cruise-antarctic-peninsula-around-cape-horn/

 

[Andy Adcock]

Hi all,

I have received expressions of interest.

Note that if there are four people to one cabin (bunk beds), then the basic package including meals is £1,146 per person.

NCL also offer a wifi, posher restaurant, booze and excursion discount package for $300 per person (I think I've read that correctly...)

Flights from London to Buenos Aries with BA are circa £630 return and are direct. KLM fly for about £530 via Amsterdam.

Cheers, Andy.

When would you go?

A lot will depend on the so called 'vaccine passports' and unless you have one, you may not be allowed to either fly or embark the vessel?

Does sound like a wonderful trip.

 

[tittletattler]

When would you go?

A lot will depend on the so called 'vaccine passports' and unless you have one, you may not be allowed to either fly or embark the vessel?

Does sound like a wonderful trip.

Cruise sails on 13th Feb.

Covid could still be an issue, of course, but then I'd like to think I'd have had both jabs many months before then.

Ping me a pm if you'd like to discuss this further.

Cheers, Andy

 

[Andy Adcock]

If you can up your budget to around £1500, I would seriously think about the Princess Cruise I linked above, rather than the Norwegian 14 day option. It's 2 days longer and has 4 days cruising further south down the Antarctic Peninsula: since this is possibly going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip to this region, it seems a shame not to spend as much time there as you can. It seems Wings actually offers this cruise as part of a tour, with a detailed description of likely birds on each leg. There are also ebird records for the Jan 2020 cruise on the Coral Princess: look up Atlantic Petrel on ebird and you will see their track and details of the species they observed on the Atlantic side.

https://secure.wingsbirds.com/tours/cruise-antarctic-peninsula-around-cape-horn/

$3K per person to have the guide on board.....

'The cruise price noted above covers only the four land excursions during the cruise plus the leaders’ time on-board ship. It does not include your berth on the ship, which must be booked directly with Princess Cruises.'.

 

[kb57]

@jensole1010 you might want to edit your email out of your post while you still can, as it's visible to all at the moment, not just Andy!

I was just reading an account recently on Cloudbirders of the Ocean Wide Expeditions - see download - and ideally you'd want to travel there on a small ship like the one described, although there are a few disadvantages, not least the fact that you are looking at over 13k euro for a high season trip. You could see a lot of birds for the £10k you're saving....looking forward to your trip report next year!

 

[tittletattler]

Hi all,

I'm pleased to be able to say that there are eight of us booked onto the Norwegian Star sailing from Buenos Aries on 13th Feb 2022 returning on the 27th..

There are four of us to each cabin. Unfortunately, only guests one and two can take advantage of the 'all you can drink' package that costs £199 each. The cost of this package for guests 3 and 4 is £1,614 each! But guests 1 & 2 can order two drinks each at a time from the bar..... (a tip from the rep at NCL).

So, those of us without the booze package are paying £1,119 each whilst the others are paying £1,318 each. Total cost per cabin is therefore £4,874 including the 2 upgrade packages.

King Penguin should be easy at Volunteer Point on the Falklands whilst Antarctic Petrel & Snow Petrel should be seen whilst we cruise close to Deception/Elephant Islands. In fact, there's very few birds that we should miss compared to the top end cruises.

I won't be looking for any more people but if anyone else does want to join us, feel free to PM for advice etc

Cheers, Andy.

 

[Andy Adcock]

@jensole1010 you might want to edit your email out of your post while you still can, as it's visible to all at the moment, not just Andy!

I was just reading an account recently on Cloudbirders of the Ocean Wide Expeditions - see download - and ideally you'd want to travel there on a small ship like the one described, although there are a few disadvantages, not least the fact that you are looking at over 13k euro for a high season trip. You could see a lot of birds for the £10k you're saving....looking forward to your trip report next year!

Seasickness too, smaller boats roll and I am not, a good sailor!

Also on smaller boats, you are far less likely to be able to use a scope?