December 28, 2022

Antarctica - The Trip

An Expedition Trip to Antarctica! What could be better than that? The trip had some major hiccups that tested our ability to be flexible but nonetheless, it was an amazing trip and an incredible place to visit.

We flew out of O’Hare on December 26th, a few days after the storm that wreaked havoc on the airlines and baggage systems. On the 26th, the weather was great, and the airport seemed empty. We flew into Miami for a few hours before boarding our flight to Buenos Aires. We made the flight, but our luggage remained in Miami. We didn’t know until we were waiting for our luggage at the carousel. I went to the baggage desk and reported the missing luggage along with a few other people from our Viking cruise. We went to the Hilton in Buenos Aires and I continued trying to get the Viking representatives to help me figure out what to do. Later in the afternoon, Jim’s luggage showed up. It had been put on the next flight but mine was still missing. At this point, I had the comfortable clothing that I wore on the flight and a 2nd comfortable outfit in my carry-on bag. There was not enough time to go clothes shopping.

The next morning, we had an early flight to Ushuaia. I was panicked because our flight was supposed to land at 11 am and we were supposed to set sail at 6 pm. That didn’t give me much time to get into town to try and find clothes for cold weather. Due to an early morning Argentinean ground crew strike/slowdown, our flight left 2 hours late. After we checked in on Polaris and dropped our stuff in our room, we headed to customer service to find out how to get to town. That’s when we found out that most, if not all, of the big stores are closed for afternoon siesta. It’s a short walk from the dock to town so we decided to see what might be open. We found some souvenir shops, so I managed to panic buy some t-shirts and a few other minor items. The panicky feeling didn’t go away because once we left Ushuaia, there’s no shopping until we get back from our cruise.

Once we got back to the ship around 4:30, we attended the daily briefing and found out that there was a major storm brewing in the Drake Passage. The captain and Viking decided that we would wait two days before leaving Ushuaia cutting our time in Antarctica by two days. There was hope my luggage might still catch up with us before we left. We did spend one day in town trying to find more clothing, but many of the stores were all small up-scale stores catering to x-small and small women so finding what I needed was pretty much impossible. I did find a few more minor things and we had to buy some kind of suitcase to bring these things home.

Since this was an expedition cruise, Viking supplied everyone with an expedition jacket which we got to bring home, snow pants and big waterproof boots. At least I had outerwear to keep me warm. Viking gave me a credit for the ship store where I was able to get long underwear and wool socks. They also had a supply of clothing that people leave behind, so we went through that and found another brand-new set of very expensive long underwear that still had the tags on them. These “freebies” were more light weight so at least I had something to sleep in.

When we set sail on Dec. 30th my luggage had not arrived, and AA had no idea where it was. There were probably 10 of us whose luggage did not make the trip. Viking provided all of us with same day laundry so every morning, I put out one of my two outfits and wore the other one. We were not required to follow the semi-dressy dress code for the two specialty restaurants, which is a good thing because my two outfits consisted of flannel shirts, t-shirts, yoga pants, and tennis shoes. When push comes to shove, it’s amazing how little you really need. My two outfits got me through 13 days of travel, being washed every other day. It’s remarkable that everything made it through in one piece. Thanks to our travel agent Sharyn’s persistence, she was finally able to track down someone in a special lost luggage department, who managed to find the two pieces of missing luggage. These were transported to Ushuaia and were delivered to the ship on January 7th. Luckily, AA reimbursed me for the $750 I spent on the few clothing items, shoes, and luggage I was able to find.

I did not take any food pictures, but Viking’s restaurant staff met the high expectations I had based on previous Viking cruises. There are three main restaurants on the ship. Two specialty dinner restaurants where reservations are required and the World Café. We were able to make three reservations at each of the specialty restaurants but after eating once at both, we decided that the menus were too limited compared to what was available at the World Café and cancelled our other reservations. The selection at the World Café for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was overwhelming and so delicious. We were able to have lobster, filet mignon, crab legs, and sushi every evening. We never got bored with that dinner menu! There was abundant and tasty red wine to accompany lunch and dinner.

Once we left the dock, the trip was amazing. I’ve documented our trip through pictures and hope that you enjoy looking at them on this website.

Viking Polaris

The new Viking Polaris was our Expedition Ship for the trip to Antarctica. Three trips before ours, the Polaris was hit by a Rogue Wave while crossing the Drake Passage. Two trips before ours, the cruise was cancelled so repairs could be made to the damage on the 2nd floor on the Port side. Luckily our cruise was not cancelled.

An expedition ship is smaller so passengers are allowed to set foot on land.

Only 100 people can be at a landing site in Antarctica at a time. Each expedition ship needs to reserve their landing spot so that no two ships are at the same place at the same time. Landing spots can change day to day depending upon weather, water, wind, and ice. Only ships with fewer than 500 passengers are allowed to get their passengers ashore. Larger ships can cruise in Antarctica but not let guests off the ship.

Polaris was launched in September 2022 and has a capacity of 378 passengers and 256 crew members. Our cruise had less people since a number of rooms on the second floor were closed awaiting repairs. The ship is 665 feet long with a beam of 77 feet. The beam is the how wide the ship is. It is a polar class 6 ship which means it can operate in the Summer/autumn in medium first-year ice, which may include old ice inclusions.

Cruise Itinerary

We flew from Chicago to Miami to Buenos Aries. We stayed overnight at the Buenos Aries Hilton. The next morning, we flew to Ushaia, Argentina and boarded the ship. The plan was to set sail that evening going thru the Beagle Channel to the open ocean and cross the Drake Passage to Antarctica.

Once in the waters around Antarctica, the decision of exactly which landing sites we would head towards depended upon weather, water, wind, and ice.

The Radar Picture

Right before the planned departure during the afternoon briefing, Captain Maggie announced that we would not be heading out for two days due to an extreme storm that would hit the Drake Passage at the same time we were supposed to be crossing.

The picture behind her was the radar picture showing the approaching storm. Red and Pink on the radar is bad! The expectation is for winds of 60 to 80 mph and waves up to or passing 36 feet. Soooooo, we ended up anchoring in the bay at Ushuaia for the next 2 days. The plan changed so we would leave Ushuaia the afternoon of December 30th and arrive at Antarctica on January 1st.

We had hope that with the 2 extra days that my luggage would arrive before we left but alas, that did not happen.

Ushuaia Harbor

The harbor filled up with freighters and other cruise ships also waiting out the storm. This clip shows the city of Ushuaia and the Martial Mountains. The harbor is part of the Beagle Channel which allows ships to go from the South Atlantic Ocean to the South Pacific Ocean without having to go around Cape Horn and into the Drake Passage.