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One thing to keep in mind is that getting to Buenos Aires from Los Angeles is a giant PITA! If you can find something that starts in Santiago it is a lot easier (even if they then fly you by charter to Ushuaia). I believe the Viking Polaris 19-day cruise does include Antarctic landings. Hurtigruten Expeditions has two large new ships that sail Antarctica and the Falklands (from Buenos Aires) with landings and zodiac cruising. I went over Christmas and the ship was only half full. Cabins are very nice, as is the ship (all cabins have at least a window). I'd say service and dinner meals are okay, but beer and wine are included. Breakfast and lunch were fine. Larger ship limits the places where they are are permitted to land but we did get a continental landing one day, and landed three times in the Falklands, including New Island. I think to include S Georgia you have to go to on their less-nice ship, MS Fram. https://www.hurtigruten.com/en-us/expeditions/cruises/in-depth-antarctica-falklands-south-georgia-expedition/

These are my go-to binoculars, 10x is good for distant viewing which is what you will want on cruises. You don't need a larger objective lens on cruises (such as 10x42) as there will be plenty of light and they just add weight. https://www.optics4birding.com/zeiss-conquest-hd-10x32-binoculars.html

Have a look specifically at the newest Lindblad/Nat Geo ship, Endurance.

How does that "zero percent" opinion meet with the facts that we went, and I know of at least two other HX ships that went, and both of my friends on Nat Geo/Lindblad went (one in Dec/January and one that has just left)? All three of us saw Emperors, too. The friend that went in Late Dec/Jan also saw chicks. But you do you.

That's because any Hurtigruten Expedition Antarctic itinerary is subject to the discretion of the captain and the sea and ice conditions. No guarantees on Weddell Sea. Even the Roald Amundsen went to the Weddelll Sea on my cruise in late December, due to favorable conditions we did a short 15-minute ice floe landing and saw an Emperor Penguin.

It may or may not be over by then. Another itinerary that covers S Georgia and Antarctica is the MS Fram.

Check to see whether you need to bring poles. There may be some provided by the ship.

Friends are presently on the longer Nat Geo cruise that covers S Georgia, Falklands and Antarctica, they did visit Weddell Sea for a few days. It's all weather dependent though and can't be guaranteed as far as Weddell Sea. And you probably know that most landings on S Georgia are closed due to the avian flu.

You don't have to spend a lot of time in the departure cities where most cruises begin. Most cruises will give you one night at a hotel there and the next day fly you down to the departure port such as Ushuaia. Then you have 2 days on the Drake each way. Booking late into the season (February) might get you more stable weather but there are no guarantees. Agree that there is plenty to do on the sea days. Package typically ends when they fly you back by charter to your departure city (usually Buenos Aires or Santiago ChilE. You can leave the same night.

In addition to Fredheim, which is open from lunch through dinner and has a veg burger on offer, there is always chicken/salmon/steak on the dinner menu and you can always have a green salad. There were allergen symbols shown on the menus. I think Fredheim has a veggie burger.

No reason to buy the package. You can always buy an individual bottle if you don't like the included wine offered at lunch and dinner (one red and one white).

Not an option on our cruise. It was first come first serve. I was standing by the host stand once, and it seemed like they were directing some of the Chinese guests to another dining room (I could only understand a little of what was said, obviously).

Thank you again for your thoughtful reply. It had much less to do with the window seat than the fact that the choice was to either miss the evening briefing, and hope that it was recorded which it was not at least 3x, to go down before 6 and then gobble it down (and yes, some of us took to lining up 10 minutes ahead of the seating time), or to go after 7 when again you did not have even an hour as you waited for a seat to be vacated and then to be served. What was most unfair was that one group had the full two hours to enjoy dinner (which is only from 6 to 8). I did speak to many of the Expeditions staff about the recordings not posting. The second and third time that the recordings did not post one of their staff gave me an individual briefing. One of them replied that there had been some discussion in the back offices about the timings of the briefings. From one of my conversations with a bilingual guest from Los Angeles, I understood that the Chinese were part of a tour group. It appeared that nearly half the dining room was reserved (the entire back and port sections), but that didn't mean that some did not also occupy about half of the window seats on the starboard side. Very few European heritage passengers ever had a window seat at early dinner. Some took to abandoning the Aune dining room completely and having a burger at the casual place. There was really no one to complain to about the timings. The two places I tried early on I got brushed off onto the Expedition staff about the recording issue. The cruise was still a wonderful experience, thanks to the Expedition team (and my room steward). The breakfasts and lunches were good, it was dinner that was the big miss.

In theory but it doesn't always happen.Second time only the Chinese uploaded (the night before the Weddell Sea). Again last night before our first planned Falklands landing. Which had critical information such as rain forecast, no food off ship, need to wear muck boots. Not all of this is available from another source. Mostly we have to find another passenger who went, or one of the Expedition Staff who are often busy. I watched most of it streaming and then went down to a disappointing a la carte dinner (skip the porchetta entree!)

Internet is spotty so couldn't edit in time. It's a 6:30 talk, with dinner hours are 6 to 8 pm only. Chinese presentation version is at 8:15pm. So they have time for a leisurely 90 minute dinner and freshen up. Rest of us gobble it down in less than 30 minutes or line up at 7:15 and wait for a table to open for the food that's been sitting for an hour. If they would just shift our talk to 7 and give us a 6pm seating we would have a flying start even without a window seat Breakfast is fun to watch also.

Thank you for that reply. Could be that specific sailings were held by Chinese oriented travel agency and then released when not booked ? There was heavy Black Friday promotion on Facebook no solo supplement. And we are barely half full still. I spoke to another passenger who booked early at higher price and when she saw the Black Friday advert was given that lower price. Good on Hurtigruten (for living up to that part of their promise).

No reservations in either main dining. First come first serve. There's a third restaurant for suites guests. Don't know how they do it but the menu is the same. Last night I lined up 10 minutes before opening and as it was buffet was able to serve myself ahead of the crush, gobble it down time to make the 6pm talk. Dinner ends at 8pm.

Did you find your passengers were about 40% Chinese? We have 100 of 250 passengers Chinese. They line up before the dining room opens so they can have all of the window seats. Plus they can enjoy a leisurely evening meal as the Chinese language briefing does not start until 8:15pm. The rest of us can gobble down dinner in 20 minutes to make a 6:30 briefing or get stuck sitting along the back wall. Tomorrow is forecast to be our first day of good weather but there is no plan for anyone who doesn't have any special excursion out in the morning.( Despite missing one zodiac and one landing, one zodiac in heavy snow and one landing today in high winds and on ice.)So our first good morning and we are stuck on the ship. I am being asked to recommend or not Hurtigruten to a travel agent friend. I would first want to know if this preference to the Chinese market is true of all of their cruises.

Noordam is a great ship for Alaska

Another brand that is worth testing is Maven.

I'm surprised! It's about time. They did that on the last day on the Princess cruise I took recently and was also shocked.

Yes we did like several of the specialty dining venues on NCL. My travel partner is younger than you(!) with Platinum Status so we had two dinners at Cagneys which had poor service and some cold sides. The others we tried and liked were Le Bistro(2x), where the captain eats(!), Ocean Blue and even Los Lobos. Lukewarm on Food Republic. I did not feel any need to do specialty dining on HAL so can't compare.

NCL also has scooped ice cream in the buffet! Neither Princess nor HAL does that. I also like the snacks up in the Observation Lounge on the big ships. I always read up on menus before and during a cruise (either posted online, during cruise on the TV or sometimes a paper menu up at the entry room) so can plan where to eat (MDR or buffet). When we did 3 weeks repo on Bliss (LA to NYC) we would plan specialty dining around boring menu days in the MDR. I was surprised to see free sushi on HAL in the buffet.

I think HAL is relatively expensive compared to other lines, but that includes free room service (which is no longer an option on NCL). I believe it is also possible to order dinner off of the MDR menu for room service. I wonder if other frequent HAL cruisers can comment on that? I think they continue with free room service because the meal service hours are limited. Obviously making dinner reservations ahead of time for two would have helped (you admit that you did not know about). I also used the old school breakfast hang tags to order room service breakfast during the first window even if just for coffee and some yogurt. My room (old ship Volendam) did not have a refrigerator but I still kept some fruit and snacks on hand just to avoid the scrum in the buffet. BTW Princess is even worse in terms of poor management of the buffet on cold sea days. They also don't have both sides open when they should. I am not a hamburger and pizza person and prefer fish as a main vs steak so for me dinner menus on HAL work better than most lines. On NCL I am a big fan of the Indian station at the buffet (Bliss is home ported in Los Angeles part of the year, so I've sailed her a few times). MDR food on NCL is repetitive and to me, boring. But this is a personal preference. On NCL I almost feel that they 'dumb down' the MDRs to force you into specialty dining but on HAL it doesn't seem necesary.

I don't normally eat that kind of cr*p nor do I eat the bread rolls at sit down. I save my junk food calories for ice cream in the MDRs. If there is something like that needs to be hand held I do wash my hands (second choice sanitize) before picking it up. I picked up the no hands habit when traveling in places where many do come down with GI problems. I can eat pizza with a knife and fork if necessary, or just hold a corner of the crust and discard that. Pizza is often one of the safest available choices in countries with poor sanitation. Sometimes you can't trust the knife and fork either, LOL. In the morning I would get an almond croissant or a smoked salmon open faced sandwich from the International Cafe to bring back to my room, which has a sink and soap. People are just too nasty, and you can pick up Noro on other surfaces like handrails. PS I also learned the trick early on, use the knuckle instead of fingertips for elevator buttons etc.