I have traveled to Antarctica three times, and the high Arctic 2 times. I can honestly say that i am qualified to give my opinion on why you should avoid the Polar Pioneer. I've been on several different expedition style ships and while some are better than others, the polar pioneer from Aurora is simply horrible. This is a company that does not care about its passengers in almost any way and they are only about profit.
While I usually don't find it necessary to trash talk a company, when passengers spend an average of $10,000 per person for a trip of a lifetime, they should be getting treated like royalty.
This is an Australian ship, perhaps Australians aren't used to customer service and putting the passenger first because several of the Australian passengers thought the ship was fine. ALL the other nationalities found it very lacking and some even became very angry by the conditions.
I shall start at the beginning and evaluate every portion of the journey. The booking process is somewhat disorganized. They do not accept American Express unless you want to pay an extra charge. While it's understandable that it does cost them a bit more to process American Express, that's just part of doing business in today's cashless world. It should not be charged to the customer and that was the first sign of disrespect that i found. The remainder of the booking process was low stress and handled in what seemed like a small staff office, perhaps 3 or 4 people in the office at most i imagine. It was personal but lacked the large corporate structure that should be portrayed by a company selling tickets of such a high dollar amount.
Upon arriving in Ushuaia, Argentina, we were expected to find our way on our own to the ship and board at a specific time. No ground transportation was arranged. While everyone was an adult and did find our way there, i found it unprofessional to just say "show up here."
We boarded the boat, now, they do advertise it as a non luxury ship and a working expedition ship. That should not mean run down, shabby and worn out. I had a double room which i shared with another passenger, this is standard practice. The room itself was an acceptable size, the beds were too tiny however for someone that is 6'1 to lay down and stretch out. the mattresses were very thin, about 2 inches thick. The linen was clean. The room had a shower but you are only provided with ONE bar of soap for the entire voyage and no hair care products. Please, again, we are paying a high price for these tickets, cutting corners like this is just unacceptable. if we asked for more soap we could have gotten more, but we shouldn't have to ask for the privilege of being clean.
The cleaning staff was very good, i don't have anything bad to say about them, but the expedition staff was snobby, egotistical, and even many times rude. It seemed like high school popularity competition. If you were not cool enough to hang out with them, then you were treated politely but mostly ignored. This was not the case with me because i'm a very loud outgoing person, but i did see this happen to several other passengers.
The russian crew that drove the boat were completely ignorant of the passengers. They did not want to interact with us in any way and they didn't hide their dislike of us. I've never run into that problem with other russian crews so i can only think this has something to do with the cruise line's policy for them.
Food, This is where my greatest complaints arise. The "chef" and i use that term lightly, has been onboard the ship for a long time, several years and it's obvious he is worn out and does not care one bit anymore.
The menu is basically non existent. While it is different food each NIGHT, there is ZERO choice. You either eat what he is serving, or you do not eat at all. Breakfast is somewhat a limited buffet with seldom enough of a quantity of food to satisfy everyone. If you are a vegetarian, which i am, there was a possibility of getting a vegetarian meal but again, It's what he chooses, or you don't eat at all.
The foods are very very heavy on carbs and they attempted to save money by reusing things from previous meals (leftovers disguised as something else) There were also many large vegetables used in soups as a "filler" to make it seem there was a lot of content when there was in fact very little.
Between meal snacks consisted of oreo cookies, or chocolate chip store bought cookies. Some other varieties also. Each afternoon however he did make one homemade snack which was usually a cake or some other sugar type snack. Also fresh fruit was available apples, bananas, oranges.
The food was simply a horrid experience, some meals were acceptable, some were horrible. There was this fish patty thing that very few passengers could stand but we all had to eat it or again, "go hungry."
Shore excursions were fine, no real problems there, that's pretty standard with all ships however. We aren't on shore for the crew or the boat, it's simply wonderful Antarctica. Never a single complaint about Antarctica
There are so many better ships out there. Avoid this one and show them that poor customer service and ships cutting corners on food and soap are not the way to treat passengers paying such high premiums.
I would expect this service to be on par for a ship that would charge $4000 per person for 10-12 days. Any more is just an insult and shows it's all about the money.
Polar Pioneer, Aurora, AVOID THIS SHIP
in Antarctica
Posted
I have traveled to Antarctica three times, and the high Arctic 2 times. I can honestly say that i am qualified to give my opinion on why you should avoid the Polar Pioneer. I've been on several different expedition style ships and while some are better than others, the polar pioneer from Aurora is simply horrible. This is a company that does not care about its passengers in almost any way and they are only about profit.
While I usually don't find it necessary to trash talk a company, when passengers spend an average of $10,000 per person for a trip of a lifetime, they should be getting treated like royalty.
This is an Australian ship, perhaps Australians aren't used to customer service and putting the passenger first because several of the Australian passengers thought the ship was fine. ALL the other nationalities found it very lacking and some even became very angry by the conditions.
I shall start at the beginning and evaluate every portion of the journey. The booking process is somewhat disorganized. They do not accept American Express unless you want to pay an extra charge. While it's understandable that it does cost them a bit more to process American Express, that's just part of doing business in today's cashless world. It should not be charged to the customer and that was the first sign of disrespect that i found. The remainder of the booking process was low stress and handled in what seemed like a small staff office, perhaps 3 or 4 people in the office at most i imagine. It was personal but lacked the large corporate structure that should be portrayed by a company selling tickets of such a high dollar amount.
Upon arriving in Ushuaia, Argentina, we were expected to find our way on our own to the ship and board at a specific time. No ground transportation was arranged. While everyone was an adult and did find our way there, i found it unprofessional to just say "show up here."
We boarded the boat, now, they do advertise it as a non luxury ship and a working expedition ship. That should not mean run down, shabby and worn out. I had a double room which i shared with another passenger, this is standard practice. The room itself was an acceptable size, the beds were too tiny however for someone that is 6'1 to lay down and stretch out. the mattresses were very thin, about 2 inches thick. The linen was clean. The room had a shower but you are only provided with ONE bar of soap for the entire voyage and no hair care products. Please, again, we are paying a high price for these tickets, cutting corners like this is just unacceptable. if we asked for more soap we could have gotten more, but we shouldn't have to ask for the privilege of being clean.
The cleaning staff was very good, i don't have anything bad to say about them, but the expedition staff was snobby, egotistical, and even many times rude. It seemed like high school popularity competition. If you were not cool enough to hang out with them, then you were treated politely but mostly ignored. This was not the case with me because i'm a very loud outgoing person, but i did see this happen to several other passengers.
The russian crew that drove the boat were completely ignorant of the passengers. They did not want to interact with us in any way and they didn't hide their dislike of us. I've never run into that problem with other russian crews so i can only think this has something to do with the cruise line's policy for them.
Food, This is where my greatest complaints arise. The "chef" and i use that term lightly, has been onboard the ship for a long time, several years and it's obvious he is worn out and does not care one bit anymore.
The menu is basically non existent. While it is different food each NIGHT, there is ZERO choice. You either eat what he is serving, or you do not eat at all. Breakfast is somewhat a limited buffet with seldom enough of a quantity of food to satisfy everyone. If you are a vegetarian, which i am, there was a possibility of getting a vegetarian meal but again, It's what he chooses, or you don't eat at all.
The foods are very very heavy on carbs and they attempted to save money by reusing things from previous meals (leftovers disguised as something else) There were also many large vegetables used in soups as a "filler" to make it seem there was a lot of content when there was in fact very little.
Between meal snacks consisted of oreo cookies, or chocolate chip store bought cookies. Some other varieties also. Each afternoon however he did make one homemade snack which was usually a cake or some other sugar type snack. Also fresh fruit was available apples, bananas, oranges.
The food was simply a horrid experience, some meals were acceptable, some were horrible. There was this fish patty thing that very few passengers could stand but we all had to eat it or again, "go hungry."
Shore excursions were fine, no real problems there, that's pretty standard with all ships however. We aren't on shore for the crew or the boat, it's simply wonderful Antarctica. Never a single complaint about Antarctica
There are so many better ships out there. Avoid this one and show them that poor customer service and ships cutting corners on food and soap are not the way to treat passengers paying such high premiums.
I would expect this service to be on par for a ship that would charge $4000 per person for 10-12 days. Any more is just an insult and shows it's all about the money.