oktwirlermom

We did the polar plunge (over in less than a minute and husband wouldn't have let me heard the end of it if I didn't) but didn't camp out. reactions from those who did varied from " it was wonderful, you wouldn't believe the wildlife sounds we heard " to " you were smart to save your money. ground was lumpy and I didn't get any sleep. " They do give you a chance to change your mind either to go or not after they explain how it all works: you leave after dinner and come back before breakfast can't bring any food ashore and everything you bring ashore comes back to the ship.

hope you're ok. our charter flights changed from and afternoon arrival to a 7:10pm eta (we were told o the change in early October, our trip was in late Jan) and we were an hour late, then took about 2 hours to collect our luggage, walk to international terminal, get through the American Airlines check in line, security and passport control and walk to the gate. There was a large group from Dallas (including a travel agent) who skipped the charter flight and took an earlier flight to make the 9:15 flight, so you do have options if the charter flight doesn't work for you. (Although I don't know when these arrangements were made and it was a large group) I will say that since we had an 11:45 pm flight, walking around Ushuaia that morning and having lunch on the ship was preferential to sitting at the airport all day. My only complaint with Atlas is the uncertainty of the charter flights.

WE recently returned from our Atlas Cruise and absolutely loved it A few things I wish I knew beforehand The Argentinian peso is not stable and there is an "official" exchange rate and a "blue" exchange rate. Check with your credit card to see what they use. Most of the stores will take US dollars and most of the ones near the port in Ushiuia posted their exchange rates (which ranged from 200 to 340 pesos per dollar, "official" rate was 187) you can take liquids through security for domestic flights in Argentina , and there are no drinking fountains at the airport. Fill up your water bottle before you leave the ship. you can take a personal bag and a carryon on the charter flight, they didn't weigh our backpacks, but did weigh all the roller bags. One couple with camera equipment was told their roller bag was too heavy, so they took out a zoom lens and put it in their backpack and were able to take everything on the plane. Cruise itself was wonderful. you need to be flexible as weather conditions can change. We were in the last group on the first day and some brush ice moved into the landing site, so we got a zodiak tour instead, but there were several landings that we were able to do, so all is well.

It is the same airport, although different terminal. Our charter flight was late, we arrived at 8pm. by the time we retrieved our luggage, walked from terminal C to A, stood in line at the American Airlines checkin counter, went through security, went through passport control and got to our gate it was after 10. That was fine for our 1145pm departure, but we visited with other Atlas travelers who had missed their scheduled flight and were fortunate to get seats on ours.