Number of Zodiacs on different ships

Hello all you lucky people who have been to Antarctica!

Hopefully We will be one of you soon...

I have a question about Quark vs National Geographic vs Le Boreal.

I am looking into picking a cruise but would like to be out and about as much as possible and not waiting my turn to get onto a Zodiac. Which of these would be best for that, considering different passenger numbers? And how important are the Zodiac trips, or will I see as much from the ship?

And how relevant is the actual ship size as regards where it can and cannot go?

Thank you so much for your help!

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

I am in the group of people you call the "lucky ones;" I consider myself blessed to have been able to travel to Antarctica this past Jan/Feb with Lindblad/Nat Geo. It was THE trip of a lifetime.

You've asked good questions. The "limiting" question starts with the number of passengers. The rule is that no more than 100 people can go ashore at any one time. On the Nat Geo Explorer, there were 148 pax, plus the naturalists/photogs, etc.

In terms of the entire passenger complement not being able to go ashore at once, this was not a problem. The 148 of us were divided into 6 groups, and we rotated in terms of going ashore. When "your" group was not going ashore, you were out on a zodiac cruise (or sometimes out kayaking), and then you switched with the "on shore" groups. (So the number of zodiacs becomes relevant here; the Nat Geo Explorer has 13 zodiacs; each of them can hold about a dozen pax plus the driver.)

The zodiac cruises were just about as fantastic as the landings, as we got to get up close and personal with amazing icebergs and quite frequently the leopard seals or other seals that were hanging out on them, got to see penguin rookeries from the different perspective of the sea, had whales literally swim under our zodiacs, etc. I was totally surprised by how wonderful the zodiac cruising was.

I'd be happy to answer additional questions. I hope you get to go; you'll have the most astonishing time of your life!

Here are a couple of pics I took while on a zodiac cruise:

(photos by turtles06)

I realize I didn't answer your "where the ship can go" question. Ship size is important, but I think you are looking at all small ships here. Very important also is the ice rating of the ship. The Nat Geo Explorer is 1A ice rated. This meant we could, for example, spend an incredibly fun afernoon pushing thru ice in the Weddell Sea:

(photo by turtles06)

Thank you for those awesome photos! So why did you not do the South Georgia route? Just because it is always full? Or did you make a conscious decision to see more of the Peninsula?

This is a BIG conundrum for me - do I want to make sure I land on Antarctica or would I be equally as happy having seen South Georgia and only the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. I am referring to the other ships now because Lindblad seems to be one of the very few that does it all!

But it is full...

Thank you for those awesome photos! So why did you not do the South Georgia route?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

(Other considerations were time -- my partner and I are still working --- there's only so much time we get to be away, and also how many more sea days were on that route, as opposed to time being spent in or around Antarctica itself. But the bottom line is that, for us, as expensive as Antarctica was, the itinerary that included South Georgia was just out of the question. I have no regrets; it was an awesome trip.)

Turtles has given a lot of great info. If I could just add a touch:

On the Lindblad (Nat Geo) Antarctica trips, the naturalists double as Zodiac drivers. There were a couple different formats we found on our half-day activities:

--half the passengers ashore, half on the ship, switch after about 90 minutes

or

--half ashore, half zodiac cruising, again switch after 75-90 minutes (and if you wanted to just do one thing or the other, you may)

The format choice was based on how many naturalists they wanted ashore. If there was a longer hike to be had, the first format was the rule of thumb. If the hike was essentially a short walk, or no hike was laid on, the naturalists that would have been leading hikes were conducting zodiac cruises instead.

Not being a hiker, I enjoyed the Zodiacs even more. Let me see if I can include some pro-Zodiac cruising images:

OK, that didn't work (if someone can explain how to insert photos that'd be great). If you click on the question marks and open them, they will display. Not ideal. My album is here:

http://www.digitalrev.com/album?id=14300800

OK, that didn't work (if someone can explain how to insert photos that'd be great). If you click on the question marks and open them, they will display. Not ideal. My album is here:

http://www.digitalrev.com/album?id=14300800

Great album, Shawn, thanks for the link! [one of these days I need to do my own! :)]

As for importing pics into threads here, I use Photobucket, which puts in the full size image (as above); I don't know how to do those thumbnails, sorry.

pjtkl, sorry for the thread drift!

Hi Jenny,

I posted on your question in the Lindblad forum.

I loved my cruise on the Explorer. Turtles06 explained it very well. There were just a couple of times that I was on the ship waiting to do something. Usually you were in a zodiac or on shore. The day we crossed the Antarctic Circle we actually never landed any where. We sailed to the Circle and then the Captain tried to find some fast ice (ice attached to land) to take the ship into so that we could walk out onto the ice. He never did find any, so we just did a Zodiac cruise in an area they had never cruised in before. After dinner they tried again to find some stable ice but no go. We did see an Emperor penguin though. So even if you don't get off the boat the scenery is still so spectacular to see from the bow of the ship. I spent most of my ship time on the bow of the ship. I was amazed that so many people could spend the time and money to get to Antarctica and seemed to be very happy watching everything from the Bridge or the upper enclosed viewing areas.

My pictures are here:

My review is here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/cruises/trip-to-antarctica-nov-2010.cfm

One thing that I discovered when we were coming back across the Drake, was that I was very glad that I was on a ship that had a bridge that was very high off the water. We had a very rough crossing with 50 knot winds and 30 foot seas. We had to help the Clelia II when a window on their bridge was broken by a rogue wave and they lost satelite communication. When you compare ships you can see that some are more cruise type ships versus ones that are made for the ice and rough water.

Julie

We did Antarctica - South Georgia - the Falklands with Hurtigruten and loved every second of it.

The Fram uses Polarcirkel boats to transfer between ship and shore and they're really easy to get in and out of. They run constantly as they rotate the groups and keep the 100 ashore topped up.

We never felt short of time ashore and when we were onboard having been ashore or waiting to go ashore we were never short of things to see and do.

As for South Georgia... elephant seals galore and then 16,000 King Penguins literally right in front of you at Fortuna Bay is something that no-one could ever forget!

We are on the MS Bremen for 21 days next January doing Falklands, Sth Georgia then a full week on Antarctica. Under 200 pax so shore trips should be no problem. Vessel has excellent ice capability and there is a bit of luxury on board too.

http://www.noble-caledonia.co.uk/tour/tour.asp?tour=1791

for details. Maybe this will fit your requirements.

If you search youtube for 'lucky penguin' you will get a clip filmed on one of Bremen's zodiacs. A very lucky penguin indeed.

Some great replies so I won't add to the zodiac side of things as its all been covered.

Re the comment about "doing it all" - check quarks itineraries. Having already "done it all" I am heading back for my third trip that includes both side of the peninsular, crossing the circle, Sth Georgia, and Falklands.

Julie when you were helping out the Clelia we were smack bang on the other side of that storm in Sth Sandwich islands ! It was treacherous. Our radio officer gave us reports about the Clelia over dinner.

Oh - the lucky penguin video. I have sailed with the lady who took the video (the owner of the bare toes in the video) and two other passengers and expedition team member who were all in that zodiac at the time. They all have amazing videos from that moment that they took. Unfortunately the lady in question never released that video to the Internet. It was stolen from the laptop while it was in for repairs. I have seen the nearly 30 minute original and its amazing. Lucky P jumped in several times during the big chase.

If you really really want most time on land, get a ship with fewer than 99

passengers, preferably much fewer. However, many of the best places

limit well below 99 anyway, so you will always do shifts. But on these places, which are small, it probably matters less.

I went on GAdventures' "Expedition" ... see report by FlyinRedhead.

Thats 134 passengers. It was no problem. There are ships other than the ones the original poster mentioned that may be better for them. Read all the reviews here ... there are many ships not reviewed in Cruise Critic's

review section.

Great report Cougfan. I hope more people take the time to read it.

Hi pjtkl,

I would say you are probably worrying needlessly about Zodiacs. The crew want you to get ashore as much as possible.

More limiting will be the route of the ship and the weather.

Choose the ship that intends to go where you want to see, and hope the weather is fine. Let the crew worry about the Zodiacs (or the Polarcirkel boats, which are great. You sit inside them, rather than on the edge).

Choose the ship that intends to go where you want to see, and hope the weather is fine.

Good advice, and the word 'intends' is important.

Each evening we were told 'we hope to' or 'we are planning to'. Never 'we will'. This applied both to the next day's destinations and wildlife sightings.

Anyone expecting to visit a particular location or seeing particular wildlife will almost certainly be disappointed at some stage or other.