Emily from Lexington, Kentucky USA and her parents travelled with Antarpply on the MV Ushuaia December 19 – December 29, 2022.
Trip Report MV Ushuaia - Late December 2022
www.tripadvisor.com.au/ShowTopic-g1-i12337-k14237658-Trip_Report_MV_Ushuaia_Late_December_2022-Antarctic_Adventures.htmlHere’s a review of my December 19 – December 29, 2022 trip to Antarctica on the MV Ushuaia. I hope to answer some specific questions I had before my trip as well as give a general overview. I (late 20s) traveled with my parents (mid 60s). We were on the ship’s 11 day / 10 night Classic Antarctica Itinerary (find it here
antarpply.com/en/). The ship also does a one day shorter version which is cheaper and loses a day in Antarctica. If you can afford it, I’d recommend the longer version to have that extra day in Antarctica. We booked directly through Antarpply, but some people on the boat were on third company tours.
One thing to note is that I’m not a cruise person (and neither are my parents), and we’re all pretty introverted. Our main previous crusie experience was a small Galapagos crusie ship. So things that may have bothered us or tired us out (the amount of downtime, lots of rich food, having to be social at every meal) might not bother someone who knows they like cruises.
The ship: We chose this ship primarily due to its small size and relatively low cost. We had ~75 guests on board, and they cap it at about 90. I believe only 100 guests can be on land at once, so smaller ships should have more landing opportunities. It is a former research vessel, so it is not a luxury ship and doesn’t have many amenities, but we’re not cruise people so we thought it was fine.
It also doesn’t have stabilizers, which many of the larger and fancier Antarctica ships have. As we hadn’t done many cruises before, this wasn’t even something we’d considered. But the Drake Passage crossings were extremely rough (I and many others got seasick one direction despite wearing scopolamine patches). The ship doctor told everyone they should take medication (Dramamine was available if you hadn’t brought anything). There is also a risk of falling and breaking something during the crossings; we all slid around a bit and thumped into things some despite safety precautions like always keeping at least one hand free and not showering during the passages. If you are very concerned about breaking a bone or the risk of someone else on the ship getting hurt and altering plans, it is something to consider when choosing a boat.
People generally liked the food a lot and complemented the vegetarian options. I thought it was all good but very rich. There were lots of snacking opportunities and always fruit at the bar. When I was seasick, I could also get crackers. I think you can also call down to the bar to send food to your room if you’re feeling seasick (useful for solo travelers).
Our room for 3 people was fine, but we received a last-minute upgrade into a suite from the triple room (presumably because they had resold the triple room to 3 unrelated people). I never saw the actual triple rooms.
The travelers were a very mixed group, probably mostly in the late 20s to mid 50s range. Lots of solo travelers, plenty of couples of all ages from mid 20s to maybe 70s, lots of teachers because it was over the normal winter break period. There were also two kids (middle and high school aged?) and two college students, all with their families. Everyone was generally very friendly.
The trip:
The guides were mostly Argentinian, and the tour is officially bilingual (Spanish and English). Major announcements were always in both, but things like lectures often ended up with two parallel sessions in different areas. There also ended up often being an Italian-language zodiac since one of the guides spoke Italian and there were a group of Italian guests.
I got the impression the ship was conservative on landings and zodiac outings, possibly due to the recent zodiac accident. Definitely not a complaint.
One of my biggest complaints is that information wasn’t always well conveyed. You’d suit up for a landing and get down to the common room, wait around, and then it’d get canceled half an hour after the original start time. I think if you asked someone, you could often get more updates and the reasons for them. But I think keeping everyone more in the loop would have been great. We seemed to end up leaving Antarctica in a rush a bit early, and we were all unsure why. Then, we heard from other guests that the ship was worried about beating a storm back. When we got back to Ushuaia, another ship had been delayed from leaving due to the same storm. They could’ve told us all and we would’ve all understood it was necessary. For landings, there were also sometimes opportunities to hike a bit and we weren’t told this in advance, and some people commented they would’ve dressed differently if they’d known.
Itinerary:
We arrived in Ushuaia a few days early due to flight prices, but I’d recommend everyone leave some buffer. I’d flown to Buenos Aires on one ticket, then arranged a transfer to the domestic airport, and then flown to Ushuaia on Aerolineas. My parents also had two separate tickets but managed to do it all at EZE airport. I had no complaints with Aerolineas, but my parents flight to Ushuaia was delayed several hours due to some sort of mechanical issue. Flying into Ushuaia was scenic but rough.
In Ushuaia, we did a tour of Tierra del Fuego National Park and the city with a guide through GetYourGuide. It was very nice. We also happened to be there during the World Cup final, so lots of celebrations.
On the ship, there were lectures pretty much every day. I won’t mention them all here, but I think they were decent quality.
Day 1 – Board the ship, general info session, last chance to arrange things and shower before starting the crossing around midnight
Day 2 – Crossing, some birds
Day 3 – Finished the crossing in mid-afternoon, plans to land at Deception Island and do a polar plunge after supper but canceled due to wind
Day 4 - Mikkelson Harbor and Curtiss Bay zodiac cruises in morning and afternoon. Mikkelson Harbor was a planned landing but it was too icy. Saw penguins, a humpback whale, a seal, and other birds (you’ll see I’m bad at identifying birds)
Day 5 – Liege Island zodiac cruise. Then passed through Freud Strait on main ship, very scenic. In evening, first landing at Hydruga Rocks. Chinstrap penguins and cormorants nesting, seals, 1 Adélie penguin. The zodiac rides to and from the island were a bit rough, damp, and windy, and I think they might have canceled if people hadn’t been getting stir crazy.
Day 6 – Landing at Brown Station in Paradise Bay. Our only successful continental landing. Very scenic, with penguins and a few whales and seals in the distance. Opportunity to hike a bit to a viewpoint, but some people skipped it and hung out in the flat area with penguins. Afternoon landing at Neko Harbor canceled and plans to do a zodiac cruise elsewhere also canceled. A slow day after the morning excursion.
Day 7 - Flandres Bay zodiac cruise – scenic, not a ton of animals. Lemaire Channel navigation in main ship – very scenic, seals and penguins on icebergs, saw a group of orcas harassing a humpback whale (we were told they were training the young orcas to hunt). Evening landing at Petermann Island – extremely scenic, Gentoo and Adélie penguins nesting, a seal, other birds. Another hike opportunity – very impressive scenery with icebergs and more penguins. This happened to be Christmas and the ship also did a lunch barbeque and special supper.
Day 8 – Two morning landings on Danco Island and Cuverville Island. Lots of penguins and fairly scenic but they both stood out less than some of the earlier landings. More small hiking opportunities to viewpoints and more penguins. We then started back to Ushuaia around noon.
Day 9 – Very rough crossing day. Lots of seasick people despite taking medication
Day 10 – A bit less rough and entered Beagle Channel in afternoon
Day 11 – Disembarked early after breakfast. We had a hotel room in town that day with a pretty early check in, so we hung out and recovered before our evening flight back to Buenos Aires. My parents then flew on home, while I had a bit over a day in Buenos Aires.
My top highlights: Paradise Bay, Lemaire Chanel, Petermann Island
Things I’d wished I’d known / other takeaways:
1. Zodiac cruises are usually ~1 hour. We would usually do them in two different groups, so you’d have your assigned start time and queue to load the zodiac at that time. Each zodiac would have ~8 guests. These outings were usually the coldest and sometimes windy and wet. They were fun but usually not as exciting as a landing.
2. Landings were usually longer, maybe up to 2 hours. They’d take people to shore and back on zodiacs, again about 8 at a time, so there was flexibility on how long you stayed. We often got pretty warm on these, since there was usually some opportunity to hike around. I generally think the hikes were mostly to give us something concrete to do and spread everyone out more, and you could have a great time even if you’re not up for them and just walk a bit on the flat areas. None of them were particularly hard (I’m not a serious hiker and managed fine with a few pauses to catch my breath) but the snow conditions varied. I’d say most people fell in the snow at least once, but it was generally a soft landing. Getting in and out of the zodiacs on shore could be kind of difficult, especially if you are short. There was some help but not always super useful. You were always stepping into the water but the provided boots kept you dry.
3. I never brought a bag/backpack on outings. My small point-and-shoot camera, phone, sunglasses, spare gloves, etc. all went into pockets. People with big camera did of course bring bags.
4. My phone camera was decent, but I found having something with a real zoom, even if it is not fancy, very nice especially for wildlife. My mom only used her phone and it was great for scenery and close up penguins but not as good for the whales. My dad had a fancier camera but was conservative about using it when there was rain or spray (so mostly on non-rainy/snowy landings or on the main ship and not on zodiac rides). A few people did have issues with water in their camera or lenses.
5. The weather during zodiac rides and landings was mixed. It was always right around freezing but whether there was wind or rain or snow affected how it felt. A waterproof outer layer with lots of layers underneath is key. But I think I obsessed more than needed about what the ideal layers were before the trip. It was hard to keep my feet warm on longer zodiac cruises but not too bad. If it was raining or on a zodiac ride, it would also be hard to keep my hands warm but only because my waterproof gloves weren’t really flexible enough to take photos so I’d remove them briefly and get the inner liner damp.
6. I wonder if maybe February might be ideal for landings to be more accessible (less ice) and penguins to have chicks. But I wouldn’t have waited years until I could go in February and wouldn’t recommend anyone else do that.
7. The biggest highlight for me was the scenery. Penguins are cute, and seeing orcas was amazing, but the scenery is like nowhere else I’ve been.
8. There was also just less wildlife (other than penguins) than I think I expected. We maybe saw a dozen seals total and not many different species of them. I think I thought that you’d be able to sit out on deck in the ship and regularly see animals. There are places you can go in the US where you will consistently see tons of seals or sea lions, and I guess I thought maybe we’d have a landing or two like that. It wasn’t a big disappointment for me (since I think the scenery was the biggest highlight) but something to know.
9. I enjoyed the trip but it was hard. There’s a lot of downtime without activities, and the outings even on a good day are maybe 3-4 hours total. I also got tired of the food, since I normally eat much lighter fare (my family was an outlier on this). Getting seasick on the way back also didn’t help. I was very ready to get off the boat.
10. I only think I’d go back to Antarctica if I could afford to fly over the Drake (saving time and the somewhat miserable crossing). I’m glad I went and would recommend other people go once, but I won’t be rushing to go back or take another cruise. If you’re a cruise person, I can see how you’d feel differently. But other people on our ship also seemed ready to get off and some commented that they’d only go back on a more luxurious ship.
