Trip Review: Land of the Ice Bears Summer 2011

[katherinezh]

As promised, a review of our summer 2011 trip.

 

In June 2011, we took our two children – aged 6 and 9 – on Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic’s “Land of the Ice Bears”/”Land of the Polar Bears” trip. We had a wonderful time, with a few caveats (see the end of this review). I’m writing this for other families with younger kids, though there may be useful information for “regular people” too.

 

The 30-second summary: The National Explorer is a very comfortable ship, with largely outstanding staff. Fellow guests are a pleasant, intellectually curious bunch. Spitsbergen is gorgeous, icy cold and primitive. Take this trip first and foremost for the beautiful remote landscape, and only secondarily for the wildlife, sightings of which can be more sporadic than Lindblad’s marketing materials & reservations staff suggest.

 

Target age/kid type: I highly recommend this trip for nature-oriented, intellectually curious kids who enjoy adult company. It may not be a great choice for high-energy kids who need to run around a lot, as there is usually only one opportunity a day to get off the ship and stretch your legs. Several of the naturalists said the “sweet spot” is 8-12 years old – young enough for unbridled enthusiasm but old enough to enjoy lectures and activities aimed at an adult crowd. That being said, our 6 year old had a great time, loved the nature lectures, wildlife spotting and shipboard life, and we had no hesitation bringing him along. I also suspect that the teenagers aboard had more fun than they let on.

 

Activities for families: Our trip was advertised as a family sailing and there were about 15 kids aboard ranging in age from 6 to 19. (About 70% of the passengers were older singles and couples; 15-20% families; and 10% 30- and 40-something singles and couples.) The staff organized one activity for the kids daily (e.g. zodiac driving lessons, a nature talk, a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship). There were lots of games up in the observation lounge; we played Scrabble and Sorry while watching the ice go by. Two super teachers were aboard as National Geographic Fellows, and they led a daily 30-minute kids’ session, sometimes in addition to the activities mentioned above. The kids kept nature journals, tracked the ships progress around the island, learned to identify the different bird species, etc. We hadn’t expected this component of the trip and thought it was great (this program does not happen on non-family trips, I believe).

 

Highlights for us were the walks on the beautiful, empty beaches and the two afternoons kayaking through the icy waters. (Although separate nature walks for the families would have been a great bonus, and something I hope Lindblad will consider. There were enough children to make it worthwhile, as there were many naturalists leading walks - who varied greatly in their interest and willingness to engage with the kids.)

 

Food: The food was good and there was lots of it. The staff made clear on our first day that they were happy to make the kids pasta, peanut butter sandwiches, etc. if they weren’t so keen on patagonian tilefish or reindeer stew. So eating with picky kids was easy.

 

Everyone on the staff - from housekeeping to the restaurant to the crew to the naturalists – were welcoming, friendly and accommodating to our family. Lindblad has for the most part pulled together a super gang of crew and staff. And they seemed really happy to have kids aboard.

 

Wildlife sightings: We saw many wonderful things: polar bears, whales, seals, birds, walrus… Some of these were close enough to the ship to see with the naked eye (the whales, especially, liked to swim alongside us). But nearly all of the polar bears are only visible through binoculars. For very young children who have trouble managing binoculars, this will be disappointing, so it may be helpful to manage your child’s expectations ahead of time. (We had told ours that we would be very lucky to spot a single bear over the course of the trip, so they were delighted to see several).

 

Over the course of the trip, we had about 2 good sightings of each of the major animals (polar bears, whales, walrus, seals). By “good”, I mean close enough to be visible without binoculars. We heard several guests complain that they were expecting to see much more wildlife. I don’t know if this is because they had unrealistic expectations or because Lindblad’s marketing material makes it seem like close-by sightings are common. The crew told us that our experience was average for those trips. And it was pretty amazing to see these animals in this environment. Just don’t expect to be the ship that has a polar bear up close or eating a seal; that doesn’t happen often (or so they told us).

 

Cabins: Cabins were comfortable and impeccably clean (I walked in one morning to find May, our super-friendly housekeeper, dusting the ceiling). The beds & pillows are great; you can control the temperature in your own cabin; bathroom is a decent size for a ship; storage is well thought out (though I did wish for more hooks for jackets, binoculars and towels.)

 

Unless you are springing for one of the three suites, there are only minor differences in the cabin sizes. The key difference is in the size of the opening to the view. (porthole, window, bigger window, glass door). There are many lovely places on the ship to sit; we spent hardly any time in the cabins.

 

We were torn between booking cabins with a balcony, so we could enjoy the view privately, or cabins with a porthole, which can be made completely dark. (Although the other cabins have “blackout curtains” over the windows/doors, they still glow in the midnight sun). We chose porthole rooms, and were very happy – they were totally quiet, quite light with the porthole open and pitch dark with it closed. I recommend this for families with younger kids as it is much easier to adjust to the time change and 24-hour sun if you can sleep in a very dark room. These rooms are very quiet – we got little noise from other cabins and none from the dining room right upstairs.

 

When to go: This depends on what you care about. During our late-June trip the lower part of the islands had a little snow but were mostly brown; it was the wildflower peak; lots of pack ice; still too much ice to circumnavigate the island; polar bear sighting on pack ice, not on land. If you care about circumnavigating the island, go later in the season; the ice will largely be gone and you will see bears on land rather than on their hunting grounds. The tradeoff is less walking onshore. If you care about ice and snow, go earlier in the season – but be aware that the ship will have more limited options for exploring. The reservations staff is disinclined to discuss in detail the differences among the beginning, mid- and end- of season trips, but the onboard staff spoke openly about how the landscape & wildlife changes over the season. So push for answers if you have strong preferences.

 

Most important, I think, in booking a trip is having an expedition leader who is fresh and still excited. These guys (and all the staff) are working 7 days a week, often on little sleep. So they burn out after a few weeks. Ours was at the end of his rotation, and despite his best efforts, you could tell. I don’t hold it against him (I absolutely couldn’t have kept going the way he did), but the best time is probably week 2 or 3 of a leader – they’re in the groove but still energetic and fresh. How you figure this out ahead of time, I have no idea.

 

We had one significant complaint. Our time exploring Svalbard’s nature & wildlife was cut short by nearly a whole day. We did not embark the Explorer until midnight on Saturday. As a result Sunday morning was spent sitting in the lounge in safety briefings, so we didn’t actually start until after lunch on Sunday. By itself, this would have been ok– these things happen – but then the ship inexplicably anchored at Longyearbyen already on Friday afternoon – more than 16 hours before we were due to disembark, and more than a full day before our flight out of Longyearbyen. So we spent our last evening and morning stuck in an ugly port, rather than looking at the beautiful landscape we had come so far to see. This caused an uproar among the passengers that evening but we were given neither explanation nor apology.

 

We had been impressed with Lindblad until those last 2 days. But the early anchoring at Longyearbyen, together with some other unpleasantness (we were only witnesses, but it left an impression nonetheless) left us with mixed feelings. I did write to Lindblad to mention these issues but more than a month later have received no reply from anyone there. (I held off on this review to give them a chance to respond, but now feel I’ve waited long enough.) At any rate, do ask them when you book whether you will get a full 6 days exploring, because our sailing did not.

 

Despite the sour-ish ending, we would travel again with Lindblad. Many of the wonderful crew, naturalists and staff worked hard to give us a great trip. Spitsbergen is a beautiful place, difficult or impossible to get to without a boat like the Explorer. Experiencing it with a child or grandchild is a special thing – pure joy for us. So I do highly recommend this trip for families with interested kids. And I recommend choosing a family sailing – there will be more infrastructure to support the kids and built-in company for them to enjoy.

[Toledo Cruiser]

Thanks for your great review. While this particular trip is not on our current list, we are beginning to think about the Galapagos on Lindblad with our grandchildren. I would think that much of your advise would translate to the equator. I really appreciate hearing about the age "sweet spot". Ours are currently avid nature kids of almost 6 and 8. Just a few more years to go :)!

[Dean]

My wife and were on the National Geographic trip in July. I can only say that it is a trip that was included in my "bucket list" and I am glad we took it.

 

The Naturalists were all top people as were the photograpers. All of the naturalists were helpful in explaining what we were seeing. The speakers were outstanding and interesting. One of the speakers was the only man to go to the north pole, the south pole and Mount everest in the same year. Other speakers were outstanding photographers. The photographers were extremely generous with their time in helping the many amateurs trying to get the best phots possible.

 

The food was just average, but we did not go for the food. The cabins were large and comfortable. The crew was available to talk to and most adaptable to the wishes of our tour director in seeing the animals. We only had two "up close" encounters with polar bears and one with walruses. One seal sighting and many birds encounters. We had other polar bear sightings - but only if you had very powerful binoculars.

 

This is not a trip for children. They would be boored (at least in my opinion).

 

I would recommend it to those who have travelled a lot and wanted something different. It has been scratched of my bucket list - now on to the balance on the list.

[katherinezh]

Hi Dean, I'm glad you had a great time on your trip. I'll have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the suitability of this trip for children. Ours both said it was the most amazing trip ever (and they are very well-traveled youngsters - more than 15 countries on 4 continents in their short lives) and have asked to go back again next year (but we're waiting for Antarctica). The other children we saw on our sailing, who ranged in age from 6 to 18, all seemed to be having a great time. Between the board and card games, the zodiac driving lessons, the wildlife spotting, the kayaking, the hikes, and afternoon tea, it was hard to get bored! Best, Katherine

[janetcbl]

Your report was excellent! This trip is on our 2012-2013 "list". (We just returned from a fantastic Lindblad/NG Alaska program and everyone on the ship who had been to Svalbard raved about the experience.) I have one minor question: On the Alaska ship Lindblad supplied binoculars to borrow for the trip (we own only one pair) and that made a huge difference. Are binoculars-to-borrow available on the Svalbard trip?

[kiwihands]

On my trip there were spare binoculars on the bridge and in the observation lounge but you were not lent a pair for your personal use. I would take your own pair to make use of the opportunity to look at the birds plus a lot of polar bear sightings are a long way off.

[MRVEGAS711]

Any Pictures??

[kalimera]

Thank you very much for such a detailed review of Artic Ice Bears trip! planning same trip this summer. How did you find the beds on Explorer? Soft, firm? We're getting more picky as our backs get older!Thank you.