Antarctica Dream Cruise need help

[thesavvyoldlady]

My husband and I have heard so much about Antarctica and we would love to cruise there. However, hubby, also lovingly known as the Crabby Old Guy, injured his knee several years ago and unfortunately can not get into one of the rubber dinghys that are used on many of the ships. Can anyone recommend a cruise line that they have taken to Antarctica that we could enjoy without the rubber boat transfer?

Thanks and hugs,
The Savvy Old Lady
http://thesavvyoldlady.com

[Bowie MeMe]

Would you be satisfied with a sail-by? Many of the main line have one or two cruise that go past Antartica without docking (New Zeland?/South America around tip) Usually only Feb/or March I think. Some of the more adventurous small boat cruise lines have dockings on the coast but they look like they may be fairly hard on bad knees and backs. You can always try taking your own heating pad and going for it!

[Denny01]

Here are two cruises I'd love go to on. We took the Infinity from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso Chile, but didn't go to Antarctica

These cruises go into Antarctica waters but you don't go ashore in anything. Rubber boats or motor launches. But it sounds like great cruises.

Celebrity Infinity
Jan 10 or Feb 14 2010:
South America. Prices starting from 1,449.00 USD on 14-Feb-2010 Cruise Ports: Buenos Aires, Argentina, Port Stanley, Falkland Is, Elephant Island, Antarctica, Gerlache Straight, Paradise Bay, Antarctica, Ushuaia, Argentina, Cape Horn, Chile, Puerto Madryn, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Celebrity Infinity
Jan 30 or Feb 13 2011
Destination: South America. Prices starting from 1,399.00 USD on 30-Jan-2011 Cruise Ports: Buenos Aires, Argentina, Port Stanley, Falkland Is, Elephant Island, Antarctica, Gerlache Straight, Paradise Bay, Antarctica, Ushuaia, Argentina, Cape Horn, Chile, Puerto Madryn, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina

[Keith1010]

There are many cruise lines that spend time sailing off of Antarctica where you have the opportunity to see beautiful scenery without having to go in a zodiac. The other poster listed a couple of them and other cruise lines offer similar itineraries. We sailed off Antarctca for a couple of days while taking a Crystal Cruise. They will be sailing there again in early 2010 and 2011. I know that other lines had ships there when we were there such as Holland America and Princess.

Keith

[cruizer2d]

Princess has a 16 day cruise ,including 4 days of cruising through the Antarctica Peninsula. It's r/t from Buenos Aires. One is 1/14/10 to 2/2/10: the 2nd is 2/2/10 to 2/19/10. There's some good info on the Star Princess roll calls, and also on the So. Amer./Antarctic Ports. Hope you get to go.

[Sea Day Cruiser]

I took the South America/Antarctica cruise on the Star Princess in Feb., 2009. It was a wonderful cruise. We were to spend 4 days cruising around the Antarctic Peninsula. We lost the last day because a bad storm was heading our way, so the captain decided to head north toward Cape Horn. We had a semi-rough crossing of the Drake Passage but I've seen rougher weather in lots of other places.

The cruise around Antarctica was beautiful. We had a great captain who explained where we were and why. He also told us when he had to make changes in the itinerary due to weather. In communicating with the passengers he was the best captain I've had on any cruise.

There were also speakers who gave lectures in the Princess Theater and narrated the scenic areas we sailed through. And we gave a ride to some Polish researchers from a Polish research station and they gave a lecture also. They came out to the ship in red zodiacs which looked so overcrowded they should have sunk. Watching them come aboard was fun.

The best part of the cruise was the Antarctica part, but the rest of the cruise was great also. Ports were Stanley in the Falkland Islands, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. The cruise began in Buenos Aries and ended in Santiago, Chile.

[Mary Ellen]

We went to Antarctica in Jan/Feb 2008 on HAL's Rotterdam. Absolutely spectacular. You'll find many on the CC Antarctica forum that will tell you that you HAVE to take a zodiac ashore. Like you, we had our reasons for not wanting to do this. They will say that unless you've walked among the penguins and smelled them, that you really haven't been there. I can assure you that even on our ship, when the wind was in the 'right' direction, we could still smell the penguins.

Part of decision to go with HAL rather than Princess was that the Rotterdam is smaller than the Princess ships. When I was researching, another CC'er who sails both lines posted about her Princess cruise. While in Antarctica she could see the smaller HAL ship getting into places there that her ship couldn't go. She wished that she'd taken the HAL cruise.

In addition to the regular ship's Captain, on Antarctic cruises, HAL also has an 'Ice Captain' on board. This is someone VERY experienced with sailing in icy waters (not something a typical cruise ship has to contend with). We also had guest lecturers on board that were penguin experts. Their talks and that of the Ice Captain were VERY well attended.

While in Ushuaia I talked to a woman who'd just disembarked from a cruise where they had done the zodiac landings. She was shocked that our cruise (20-days) was half the price of her cruise (10-days). Plus - our air to the ship was SO much easier, as we didn't have to connect to Ushuaia. She didn't know that the type of cruise we took even existed. She would have done one if she'd known.

We had expected this cruise to be 'once in a lifetime'. Once wasn't enough. We're planning on returning in 2012. We still won't be taking a cruise with zodiac landings.