Cruise Ships in Antarctica
Assuming you’re not a research scientist and heading to Antarctica for work, you are like us: considering a cruise ship to visit Antarctica. Here’s some information to help in deciding the best cruise for you.
Silversea's Silver Cloud
There are three classes of cruise ships to sail the Antarctic region: research, luxury and expedition.
Research
Research vessels are generally the least expensive option. These ships are smaller with fewer comforts you find in a luxury cruise line. Because they are smaller, many people believe these ships give you a better experience with more landings and less waiting for your turn.
Luxury
Luxury Antarctica ships are bigger, more spacious and have far more facilities. They are also the most expensive way to see Antarctica. Keep this in mind: Only 100 people can be ashore at any one time. So if the luxury ship has more than 100 people, they must be scheduled into different daytime groups. Generally, your group will be first on one day, last on the next, and so on. That way everyone is treated equally.
Expedition
Expedition ships are somewhere in between luxury and research ships. Simply put, they are not as well-appointed as the luxury cruise ships but more comfortable than the research cruise ships. Expedition ships are generally packed with naturalists and this is not a vacation ship. You might be getting up at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast, and then outfitted for your Zodiac experience.
Taking a Zodiac
Depending on your itinerary, you might want to investigate how ice-hardened your ship is. The Drake Passage is notorious for being rough. Some Antarctica cruise ships are strengthened for ice and fully stabilized. Those ship types might be better if you tend toward seasickness on rough seas.
When we traveled to the Galapagos Islands, we chose an expedition cruise with Silversea. But activities started earlier in the morning, so there was no sleeping in. Our days were packed with activities from seven o’clock in the morning to five o’clock in the evening. Afterward, we said we needed a vacation from our vacation! But we enjoyed each day, and wouldn’t have changed anything.
The cost of a cruise line in Antarctic is expensive for anyone. No matter which kind of ship you choose, you’ll have to weigh the cost against your comfort and the activities you want to do while cruising. For us, we felt we got our money’s wort from an expedition ship.
Cruise Ships
There are close to 30 Antarctic cruise ship lines that I’m aware of. I may not have found all of them, but I’ll give you a nice selection of the top ones. In our case, we are going with Silversea Cruise Line. We enjoyed our experience with them in the Galapagos. And since we have cruised with them before, we get a discount.
See whales up close from a ship, Zodiac or kayak
Below are some of the cruise ships sailing Antarctica.
Ship | Class | Passengers | Cabins | Stabalizers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Silver Cloud | Expedition | 200 | 100 | Yes |
Silver Explorer | Expedition | 132 | 65 | Yes |
Silver Wind | Expedition | 298 | 49 | Yes |
MS Expedition | Expedition | 132 | 58 | No |
Oceaon Nova | Expedition | 68 | 37 | No |
Island Sky | Expedition | 110 | 54 | No |
Ocean Adventurer | Expedition | 132 | 57 | No |
Ocean Diamond |
Expedition |
189 |
101 |
No |
Ocean Endeavor |
Expedition |
199 |
85 |
No |
Ocean Nova |
Expedition |
78 |
38 |
No |
Sea Spirit |
Expedition |
116 |
64 |
No |
World Explorer |
Expedition |
176 |
84 |
No |
Fram |
Luxury |
254 |
127 |
Yes |
Hebridean Sky |
Luxury |
114 |
58 |
Yes |
Le Boreal |
Luxury |
199 |
132 |
Yes |
Le Lyrial |
Luxury |
199 |
132 |
Yes |
National Geographic Explorer |
Luxury |
148 |
81 |
Yes |
Midnatsol |
Luxury |
500 |
278 |
Yes |
Akademik Ioffe |
Research |
96 |
42 |
Yes |
Akademik Sergey Vavilov |
Research |
92 |
40 |
Yes |
Akademik Shokalskiy |
Research |
48 |
28 |
No |
Plancius |
Research |
116 |
53 |
Yes |
Polar Pioneer |
Research |
54 |
29 |
No |
Ortelius |
Research |
116 |
53 |
No |
Spirit of Enderby |
Research |
50 |
30 |
No |
Ushuala |
Research |
88 |
46 |
No |
Avoiding the Drake Passage
The only way to see Antarctica is by cruise line. This includes sailing across the Drake Passage, notorious for its rough seas. This isn’t dangerous, but if you’re prone to seasickness, it could be a rough two days. You can avoid the Drake Passage by flying over it. You won’t save money, but you will save two days of sea passage and an queasy stomach.
The logistics of an air and cruise adventure are different than typical cruise ships. Most cruise ships include economy airfare Buenos Aires or Santiago. You stay in a hotel for at least a day, and then be ushered back to the airport for your trip to Ushuaia, which is surrounded by the Martial Mountains and the Beagle Channel. It's the gateway to Antarctica cruises.
For those who want to avoid the Drake Passage, you start in the Chilean town of Punta Arenas in southern Patagonia, which you reach by flying via Santiago, Chile’s cosmopolitan capital. You stay the night at a hotel, and then rise early the next morning for a two-hour charter flight to the Chilean Eduardo Frei Station on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands off the coast of Antarctica. There you board your ship for the rest of the cruise.
I hope this gives you a good starting place for thinking about your cruise to Antarctica.
Update: We went to Antarctica and loved every minute of it. Our adventure began with Day 0. Follow along!
You can learn how we planned our trip by reading Planning Our Antarctica Trip. Learn what we read to prepare at Reading Antarctica. And you can find out what we packed at Packing for Cruising Antarctica on Silversea.