Antarctica Landing on Rotterdam

We are going on the Rotterdam 12/2/07 sailing from Santiago to Rio. Has anyone taken the Antarctica Landing Expedition that HA offers in Punta Arenas? Has anyone scheduled their own here? I am in need of some feedback. Thanks!

I was on the 2006cruise. It was canceled on our trip. I was not booked on this one so I don't know the reason.

We are going on the Rotterdam 12/2/07 sailing from Santiago to Rio. Has anyone taken the Antarctica Landing Expedition that HA offers in Punta Arenas? Has anyone scheduled their own here? I am in need of some feedback. Thanks!

It's a charter operation, so no opportunity to schedule something on your own unless you had quite a few people (at least 35 in a Dash-7 to make it economically feasible for a charter). And this is also one of the most frequently canceled excursions in all of cruise-dom.

Be prepared for a long flight in a very small cabin on a relatively noisy aircraft. US Airways flies the Dash-8 to quite a few small airports on the East Coast for a reference. The 8 is faster on average than a 7 by almost twice.

12/2 is awfully early for Antarctica. It is still late spring until January-austral summer. Much more opportunity for cancellation due to bad weather. Make sure you can cancel with no penalties if the tour is NOT going to Antarctica. They may fly the tour anyhow, but you will be going to Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, etc. NOT Antarctica.

dup post

I just checked HAL's site to see if the shore ex for your sailing said anything different than our's has - nope, the Punta Arenas, Chile has "Antarctica Landing Expedition *Cancelled*". We've been booked for our January SA/Antarctica cruise since about Nov/Dec and that is what it has always said for that shore ex.

Sorry

I just checked HAL's site to see if the shore ex for your sailing said anything different than our's has - nope, the Punta Arenas, Chile has "Antarctica Landing Expedition *Cancelled*". We've been booked for our January SA/Antarctica cruise since about Nov/Dec and that is what it has always said for that shore ex.

 

Sorry

Probably can't get the landing rights or there aren't enough people willing to spend $6000.00 for the day. Antarctica has pretty strict limits on how many people can be on the Continent at any one time. And since the excursion (even the flyover) is canceled frequently due to unpredicatible weather, HAL probably just discontinued it.

For $6000, I would be booking a cruise to Antartica for 9-13 days instead of spending that in ONE Day for a couple of hours on land. Quite a few Antarctic expedition/research ships to the Peninsula are priced just slightly more than $3000.00 per person.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.

My sister and BIL were on the Amsterdam Antarctic cruise in 2005 and went on the plane down to Antartica from Punta Arenas. Unfortunately after a couple of hours they had to turn back as the winds were far too strong for the plane.

I am not sure if they received any credit back to them but I do know that it was quite a scary trip and one that I wouldn't wish to do.

Jennie

We didn't go on the one that was offered on our recent World Cruise. But, we did talk with those who were fortunate to go. (it was canceled from the first port but they were able to reschedule it the same day). Given the cost and the lenght of the flight they were not impresssed with the actual walk. They mostly walked in an area that had been graveled over. It's just not what they thought it would be.

As background our cruise also included sailing around Antarctica for three days. They thought seeing what they did from our ship was much more breathtaking compared to the area of Antarctica that the plane lands on. And, when you think about it, that comment makes sense as the plane can only land in an area that is quite different from the rest of the area and you couldn't safely walk on the areas that are snowed/iced over.

I would pass on this one. But, if you ever get a chance to sail around Antarctica I would.

Keith