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New small ship cruises, adventure trips, ships & the best deals at your fingertips. Consult this month-by-month list covering everything from penguins to pack ice to help guide your travel timing. On this customizable journey starting at 9 or 13 days, discover the different corners of Patagonia's vast territory in depth. Link 2 or 3 Explora properties in Patagonia via private jet and van to experience it all, including golden pampas, turquoise rivers, icy blue glaciers, snowcapped peaks and much more. The National Geographic Explorer is a state-of-the-art expedition ship accommodating 148 guests in 81 outside cabins. She is fully stabilized, enabling her to navigate polar passages while providing comfort.
150 passengers
11 of the best wildlife cruises for 2024 and beyond - National Geographic
11 of the best wildlife cruises for 2024 and beyond.
Posted: Mon, 25 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
A Traveler Information Form, which includes a release of liability, must be completed and signed by all travelers. Your Adventure Specialist will send you a unique link to complete this form along with a packing list and extensive pre-departure and travel insurance information upon booking confirmation. With over 100 years of Antarctic experience between us, we can help guide you to exactly the right trip for you.
More about Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Explorer
A group charter flight between King George Island and Puerto Natales, Chile is required on this trip’s itinerary; see this trip’s Exclusions. Experience the wild grandeur of the White Continent in a more efficient, expedient way, via a 2-hour flight between Antarctica and Chile. Fly over the Drake Passage in both directions, or cruise it one way, to discover all of the highlights without sacrificing the extra time. Initial deposit is 15% of cabin fare and may vary by program, and most travelers will call our office and pay the deposit with a credit card. It is up to the passengers to decide what they feel most comfortable wearing, depending on the weather and circumstances.
Adventure Activities
Normally, an expedition cruise vessel heading to Antarctica might not reach the Lemaire Channel and Petermann Island until three or four days into the trip. But with an ability to travel at nearly 17 knots, National Geographic Resolution had reached them far faster. After 2 hours of flying, be cruising the White Continent on Antarctica's first flight and adventure cruise combination. Experience an Antarctic cruise in only 8 days without crossing the Drake Passage, or choose alternate routes visiting South Georgia with only a one-way Drake crossing.
Our day of walking atop fast ice in Lallemand Fjord came fewer than 72 hours after departing Ushuaia, Argentina, the hub for most Antarctica-bound expedition cruise vessels. Not every expedition cruise vessel is capable of pushing itself into fast ice in Antarctica to give passengers a chance to walk above the frozen sea. Those that are usually only do it early in the Antarctica cruise season, when fast ice is more plentiful.
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The ship's 13 Zodiacs tuck away very close to the waterline, in an indoor "garage" with giant doors that open to the water. This allows them to be deployed more quickly than on some expedition ships. As is typical for Antarctica trips, the seven days of exploring mostly took place along the Antarctic Peninsula, a staggeringly beautiful, 800-mile-long stretch of soaring mountains, glaciers, fjords and icebergs. Built by Ulstein, a Norwegian shipbuilding company known for producing hardy vessels, National Geographic Resolution boasts an extra-strong hull that lets it bump through ice that would stop many lesser ships. It carries a polar class rating of PC 5 Category A, a notch above most Antarctica cruise vessels.
The bow of the vessel, in particular, is awash in outdoor viewing platforms that stretch over three decks. An indoor observation lounge at the bow offers views in three directions, and the ship's forward-facing bridge also is open to passengers. For starters, it has one of the best Zodiac launch set-ups I've ever seen.
In expedition cruising, sometimes the ultimate luxury is being in a small group. But in a place like Antarctica, it's all about the views, and you want a ship that is open as much as possible to the outdoors. Sadly, not every modern expedition ship has been built with this in mind. A few hours later, we landed at nearby Petermann Island, famous for a colony of thousands of gentoo penguins. The day before reaching Lallemand Fjord, after a Drake Passage crossing that lasted barely 40 hours, we had pulled into one of the most stunningly beautiful spots in all of the continent, the ice-filled Lemaire Channel. While the ship still pitched forward and back in the waves, it was a smoother rise and fall, without the big bow slaps against the waves you get with traditional bows in heavy seas — something that can send shudders through an entire vessel.
National Geographic Expeditions Launches Two New Antarctica Itineraries - MSN
National Geographic Expeditions Launches Two New Antarctica Itineraries.
Posted: Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:09:16 GMT [source]
Our Team in Antarctica
Lined with glaciers and towering cliffs, the 8-mile-long Lemaire Channel and its environs is one of the great sights of Antarctica, and we used the extra time we had gained from our speedy crossing of the Drake to soak it in. Bundled up against the cold, we followed them out that little door to romp around in the thick snow that lay over the ice like a blanket. It ran right into a seemingly endless sheet of snow-topped ice that stretched off to the horizon. Check out of your hotel and transfer to the airport to begin your journey homeward, or onward travel.
The outing continued until late afternoon, when we returned to the ship to prepare for dinner. While we were dining, Graser moved the vessel to a spot just off Petermann Island, for an after-dinner landing to see the penguins. Some were all white; some were laced with spectacular streaks of blue. Boarding the Zodiacs at a side door near the ship's waterline, we soon were darting around ice chunks of all shapes and sizes, from small transparent "growlers" just a few feet across to larger "bergy bits" as big as a house and even bigger icebergs. As I've experienced myself on a previous trip to Antarctica, the churn in the Drake Passage occasionally can be even more extreme. Waves up to 30 or even 40 feet high at times are not uncommon — something known as the Drake Quake.
Unlike drift (or pack) ice, fast ice doesn't move with currents and wind, and it is relatively stable. A few minutes later, a little door swung open at the front of the ship and out popped several of our expedition guides. From an observation deck overlooking National Geographic Resolution's bow, I watched, mesmerized, as the 126-passenger vessel pushed aside giant slabs of ice with ease. Every year, in the Antarctic summer, incredible wildlife spectacles unfold. Whales surge into the nutrient-rich Southern Ocean to gorge on krill; migratory birds fly in from afar; and activity levels in the penguin and seal colonies reach fever pitch. Children under the age of 18 are eligible for $500 off the double occupancy rate.
Home to a diverse assortment of wildlife—Weddell and elephant seals, Adelie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins—King George Island also has a human presence. Researchers from a wide range of countries, including the US, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, call the various stations home. Your flight will land at the Chilean research station where the ship will be waiting offshore. Even if National Geographic Resolution is operating at 100% capacity, with every one of its 126 berths filled, its expedition guides can quickly get all of its passengers off the ship onto Zodiacs and on their way to see penguins and other wildlife. That isn't the case with bigger expedition ships that often carry at least 200 and sometimes even 400 or 500 people.
And those adventures include a continent not often explored — Antarctica. National Geographic Expeditions has just introduced two new Antarctica itineraries that travelers can book for later this year. As is the case with all Antarctica trips, voyages on National Geographic Resolution are expensive.
Many are veteran polar guides who have exclusively worked with us for decades, chosen for their extensive knowledge of subjects like geology, wildlife biology, and climate science, including mountaineers, NASA scientists, and marine archaeologists. Exploring in small groups, you’ll hear different perspectives each day of your voyage, and because there are no assigned groups you can gravitate toward the experts who share your interests and inspire your curiosity. Two exciting new Antarctica itineraries are now available, giving travelers the chance to fly, or sail and fly, on an expedition to the continent. The two new itineraries include both an eight-day and ten-day expedition. The more passengers an expedition ship has on board in Antarctica, the more its expedition guides have to break them up into separate groups for landings, greatly slowing down the process of exploring at any single landing site.
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