BayGirl22

I don't usually use a TA but I did for Atlas and I would highly advise it. That's just how they are set up to work, let your TA deal with the back office contacting because they don't really enable direct to consumer well. 
When you were contacted was it and Atlas agent or an independent TA? I would go with the latter. Plenty of recommendations from various groups if you need to find one. 

There's a site called TheCruiseMaps dot com that will create a framed map of your exact itinerary. 

For our cruise (Atlas World Navigator) they sent us a copy of the map after. 

Just got back from an 11 night in Antarctica on World Navigator. I loved the onboard experience, I thought the staff and expedition team was very good. They made sure we never waited in lines, for instance by having us sit in the lounge and bringing small groups to the mudroom. Meals were within a 2 hour window and we could choose where to sit - many people chose the same table and waiter every night. I was solo so kind of moved around to different sections/tables and waitstaff. 

I thought the food was good and there were a lot of selections. I think I was in a picky mood and wasn't super excited about the dinner entrees some nights. But that said, I always left full and had plenty of choices. Unlike a poster above, I thought the dessert choices were great. I had too much dessert - at dinner and lunch, but I never once had ice cream so I guess we were picking different options. 

Also room service is free and the burger is good. Twice I chose to chill in my room and order in. For breakfast you can put out a hang tag for it to be delivered to the room and there were several options. I usually ended up with too much food for breakfast whether I did room service or went to the dining room. There's also a daily smoothie and wellness shot and easy for those to become habits. 
 

I liked Atlas enough to put a deposit down for another cruise, and I think I'm ruined for large ship lines now. 

Follow up after my cruise - they no longer pre stock with your preferences. My mini bar had some sodas and beers and I expect if I made a request they would stock with everything. They had 24 hour room service including drinks. I never needed drinks in my room, the bars were open from like 10am. 

Also traveled on Atlas a couple weeks ago. No weighing or issue with carryons for our Fly Bondi flights. I carried on a backpack and a purse, others had larger or similar items, no one even glanced at them. Our checked luggage was taken from the hotel to the ship so there was no chance to charge for overages. 

I also few Aerolíneas Argentinas domestic after and was given stricter weight limits, which I followed. I ended up leaving my suitcase at my hotel in BA and only bringing a backpack and carry on for the side trip. Not sure how check in was and they were not weighing bags at the gate in BA or Iguazu Falls though, so I don't know that it really mattered. 

As others pointed out, I suspect the discrepancy is with the charter companies and is what's on paper, not how its enforced for the actual charter flights. Not worth a lot of stress if the worst case is to pay a <$100 fee to have something you really want with you.

Yes legit, its a discount they've been running for a long time now. As others said, its basically 50% off per person (and doesn't apply to solo travelers). 

I just got back from an Atlas expedition to Antarctica and had an amazing time. The ships are new and modern, the crew and expedition team was excellent. They were "casual luxury on expedition" and I think they got it right. I put down a next cruise deposit onboard, I was so impressed. 

They are a newer line and started around 2021 with a bit of a rocky start. Management has changed and feedback this season has been much more positive. The ship experience is excellent, sometimes the challenge is in the early communications - especially for those without a travel agent or one less familiar with them. My recommendation is to get a good TA and let them to the legwork, won't cost you anything. Also look at whether you are going on a "cultural" or an "expedition" trip - they are labeled that way and the inclusions and vibe will be slightly different but both seem amazing. 

Just returned from the 11 day on Atlas World Navigator. We had an amazing trip and I'm ready to rebook with Atlas. Our trip was fortunate to have excellent weather so that played a role, but beyond that the Atlas team and ship was perfect for what I was looking for. We had about 130 people on our voyage and 130 crew - so it felt personal and luxurious. The ship is very nice, but has a casual vibe, not so formal that anyone felt the need to dress up. The food was good, not everything was excellent but I certainly was well fed and felt catered to. The expedition team was beyond excellent - they knew their stuff and did everything they could to make the trip educational and unique. 

I was a solo traveler in a Horizon room (window opens like a Juliette balcony) and pricing was similar to what you described. They actually didn't use the oceanview rooms on deck 3 for our trip - the expedition team stayed in those rooms and guests were on decks 5 and 6. You could debate a full balcony vs Juliette, but either room was very nice and comfortable. I was not interested in sharing a room, and Atlas solo prices were better or competitive with other lines. When I booked they had "solo cabins" on deck 3 but I chose to pay for the Horizon so I had fresh air and more space. 

As for crossing the Antarctic circle vs just going to the peninsula - yes those are not the same thing, all typical small voyages will go to the peninsula (from S America) but not all go far enough to cross the circle. Look at a map and you can easily see the difference. Atlas is clear about this on their maps and in and their trip descriptions, the 11 days go further south than work their way north, the 9 days don't go as far. (And some of the comments above are just silly - they have a different expedition team for Antarctic vs Arctic, and most cruise lines cover multiple regions and don't sail just 3-4 months a year.) 

I also spent some time in South America after, which I planned myself. Its not that difficult to get air, hotel, and tours in all the major areas, using Buenos Aires as a home base. If you can handle basic travel planning you don't need to book a pre/post trip excursion for this. Before/after the cruise we had a couple hours in Ushuaia on the bus, which was a nice add; I also went to Iguazu Falls and had a stopover in Panama City on the way home. I've done the Galapagos in the past and honestly would make that a separate trip. 

I was skeptical of Atlas 1.5 years ago when they were newer. I'm happily impressed with them and have zero hesitation recommending them. 

There is a form to fill out on their site. On the top left of the Atlas page there is a section called Booked Guest. Click that page then go to My Atlas. To log on I needed a number from my TA - maybe just the booking number. Once you are there you can tell them parka and boot sizes, mini bar preferences, food preferences, and that's about it. 

This is really the only functionality on the site for planning one you are booked. Right now everything else comes later.

I'm booked on Atlas Ocean Voyages solo right after Christmas. They are a newer line that is upscale but a bit more affordable. They do have single cabins, although I personally decided to splurge for a balcony which was more, but not 2x the double occupancy price. They had some hiccups early on (started during Covid) but this season seems to have gone more smoothly and I've heard from a lot of happy customers. There is a FB group with a lot of ongoing feedback and reviews here on CC. 

That is one line that's worth looking into. There are others as well, I think Quark, National Geographic, and Ponant also have solo cabins. Any Antarctica trip is going to be pricey, and length is a factor in price. You will mostly likely find a 14 day trip then can add a few days on each end for excursions. 

On 12/5/2022 at 10:53 PM, steamboats said:

You will hardly find anything in English about A-Rosa as they are basically a German river cruise line. In the past they did sell bilingual cruises or all English cruises (meaning just a couple of dates).

 

steamboats 

Their "International" cruises are supposed to be bilingual. The others are in German only. 

We'll see in a couple weeks how true that is. Won't matter much to us, my husband speaks enough German to get us through. 

On 5/24/2022 at 5:41 PM, jump22 said:

There does not seem to be many any calls for this river cruise line. I would like to start a roll call, for this cruise.

 

 

Hi @jump22, 
Which Christmas cruise are you going on? We're on A-rosa on the Rhine cruise leaving Dec 23 from Cologne. 
Just saw this post and I haven't found much online for A-rosa. 

Amy 

Yes, I've seen that. In theory they would be. IF it were a nice business class like experience with minimal waits. From all the reports I've read and watched it seems like the experience was not good. 
I'm coming from SF so there are faster ways to BA than waiting in Orlando. 

Thanks, that's good to hear. Most of the complaints I've heard are about the flights too. Now that they are planning to flan from BA instead of Orlando it seems like that might make things smoother. Hard to tell. 

I grew up boating and I did the Galapagos on a small boat so definitely understand the Expedition style. Totally different trip than a big ship cruise.  

I'm looking at Antarctic cruises for late 2023/early 2024 and keep coming back to Atlas. The reviews are my main concern, mainly around preparation, communications, and embarkation/debarkation. I know they were a startup and have made some changes to the inclusions. The shift to fly from Buenos Aries instead of Orlando seems like it could simplify things, plus articles back in April about changes to back office org structure. 

Did anyone travel toward the end of the previous season and have feedback? Anyone booked for winter 2022 or 2023 that can update on how things are going along? Do you have clear communication on the flight itineraries now that its close to 160 days out? Better responsiveness to questions? 

Are you using the QR codes or uploading the card for manual review? 
For a few people in our group we had to manually upload a picture of the card, then with our covid tests we had to upload pictures. I had QR codes for all of this but they didn't all read right. 
The manual review only took a couple hours. When we got to the port we were fine, they went with the completed Verifly.

We are doing a bikes & bites food tour with them. Our kids are under 14 so we had to do a private tour - but the price was the same as a regular tour, they just added in gratuity. So that may be an option if the times don't line up, many of them started earlier in the morning. 
They get good reviews so I'm really looking forward to it. 

Good info, my question is similar to the OP's and I also have a tween and teen. I read somewhere you need to be 13 to have an account on the Hub app and use the messaging. Can anyone confirm? 
Sounds like my 13 year old can use the app but my 10 year old won't. I assume it only works on phones and not Apple Watches? 

TIA
 

We just got back from POA Thanksgiving week, preceded by a few days in Waikiki and followed by 5 nights at Aulani. I agree POA is not like other cruises, but if you are looking to cruise Hawaii I think its the way to go. I thought the American staff was similar to service you'd get in the US, no worse. We had some really good service in various places (like Cagneys for the suite breakfasts/lunches).

We really enjoyed seeing all the islands and still had enough time to relax a little on the ship. Agree with renting a car, especially for Maui and Kauai. We also used touring apps, Shaka Tours and Gypsy Tours, for GPS-guided narrated tours of the islands. That added more of a touring feel to our drives and we learned a lot we would have otherwise missed. We did hire a tour guide for Hilo, just for a break, and in Kona we went on a snorkeling trip so didn't really drive around at all. Still I felt like we saw a lot and had a lot of flexibility.

The biggest difference in POA: cost, drinks, casino are really specific to Hawaii and didn't make a huge difference for us. In fact our drink bill was way lower than I estimated, probably because we spent a lot of time on land and got the wine package as soon as we boarded so just didn't drink a lot onboard.

I wanted to do this, and I have enough cycling experience that I would have been fine, but alas I have a family and one child wanted to see the sunrise so we all ended up driving up together. A few observations:

- Yes, its cold up there. Dress accordingly, and I think the bike tours give you warm clothes. We were inside the visitors center with the crowd until the last minute, and I thought we dressed appropriately, the ride down would have been chilly.

- Its early, but we were still on California time (for 2 weeks I woke up at 3:30 am daily) so it wasn't that bad to get up, even for my night owl kid. I don't think the time is that big a deal since its early in the cruise.

- I agree that if you/your wife are not experienced cyclists it could be a scary ride. Its curvy and downhill and parts I would consider steep. I cycled a lot in the SF Bay Area hills, but for someone from the flat midwest it would feel steep.

- What I observed/heard that I did not see before, is that the cycling tours now leave from outside the park, not from the summit. They take you to the summit to watch the sunrise then drive back down (several thousand feet) then load up the bikes. This was not clear to me when I read the tour descriptions and I would have been pretty disappointed I think. There's still a good view, but you're riding down the bottom half of the crater, not the whole crater, which is not the same. So just FYI if that matters to you or your wife.

Figured I'd update, now that we're back from our trip. We planned to do PH on Thursday, Nov 16, and as I posted earlier at 60 days out the earliest tickets available for 11am. I went online again the day before and only times from 11am and later opened up, there was no way to get tickets earlier without a tour. We only had one day to do several things, and I wanted to do Pearl Harbor first thing, so I was kind of stressing about when we would get there, having to wait around for hours, standing in line, etc.

We ended up arriving around 8am and walking up to no line. We got tickets for the 8:15 and had just enough time to get everyone over to the theatre. The people behind us were getting 8:30 and 9:00 tickets, but still not a long time to wait. We really didn't want to do a tour for 4 people, that gets costly, and my kids are 6 and 8 so I thought trying to do a lot more than the Arizona tour would be a lot for them so didn't want the passport. That was the case - I'm glad we took them to see it, the movie and memorial were educational but intense, however it was something I felt was important. But we didn't need to spend the day there as some people do. We spent a little time walking around looking at various displays and were still able to make it to the Dole plantation for lunch and then up to the North Shore for the afternoon.

I suspect we got lucky with the line because it was a weekday, and I still don't like that there's no way to get morning tickets, that seems like something they should change.

We were on NCL last week and did not cruise past the lava flow. The lava was not flowing because it was windy (or so we were told) so the viewing was cancelled. On earlier cruises I had heard the lava was flowing, we didn't hear until about 4pm that day.

This website seems difficult to narrow down what I want to look at. How would you suggest I search for "things to do in Kona off a cruise ship"?

Go to the Hawaii board (similar structure the this NCL board but under Ports of Call) and search “Kona”. You’ll see plenty of threads with tips and activities. This whole site is for cruise ships so no need to search for that term. Most posters on the Hawaii board are on the PoA.

We are booked on Fair Winds. We are in a suite so have priority tendering and plan to be down there early enough to get on the first tender. I've heard from many others in suites that had no problem. We'll pre-schedule a taxi/uber to be waiting when we get to shore. Its a 20 minute drive and that gives us 2 hours to tender and get up there.

I've not heard from anyone saying it takes hours to tender. Perhaps if you show up later it is?

Agree, lots of ideas over there. We have snorkeling tour booked with an outside provider.

Today was our 60 day mark. I've been watching for a few days and its pretty clear they aren't giving anything out before 11am 60 days out. In fact when I got on about 30 minutes early I could see all the tickets available today (starting with 75 at 11:00) but couldn't purchase yet.

I ended up getting 4 at 11:00 and we'll just plan to get there first thing and do the other parts. Maybe get into a standby line if we're ready to go earlier. I may try one more time the day before, but I really don't want to rush the whole family over there at 7am on the first day of our trip to wait in line. I just want to get the PH tour out of the way in the morning, not be still out there at 1pm. Kind of bummed there aren't more morning options, but what can you do.