After researching Antartica expedition cruises thoroughly over the last year or so, I am starting to swing back towards doing a highlights trip on the Fridtjof Nansen. As much as I'd love to do a 200 person ship, because I'd be travelling with my husband who would happily be more ship based and not be too fussed with amount of time on land, plus our daughter (who'll be about 15 by the time we go) which means we'll be budgeting for 3 people which can bump up costs... I think this ship would be a great compromise on what will suit everyone. And with package deals inc flights from New Zealand, internal flights, hotels all sorted... it would give me a bit of piece of mind of everything being covered and fitting together.
So a couple of things I wish to clarify to see if my research and trawling of message boards is correct: Weather permitting, would we expect to have say 2 landing stops a day so with 1 group on land each time, 1 group cruising on boats... then we might get to go on either land or the boats most days once? Or realistically (even if weather is amazing), should we expect to only to touch land once or twice over the 5 (ish) days we are not sailing the Drake? I know on the smaller ships we'd be either cruising or on land twice a day if the weather permits, so just wondering how it compares.
I gather they don't do a polar plunge as such? Or is there a run-from-land 'plunge' usually organised? I gather camping is a ballot, so very small chance of getting lucky? 30?? out of 500???
I gather food is covered, plus drinks during meals. Are there snacks, and if we needed to eat, could we get something any time - or we'd need to take a decent amount of snacks just in case? (and yes this is medically related - not just that we are hungry people!)
And in case anyone knows covid current rules - my worst fear is getting half way across the world and failing a covid test just as boarding... so as much as I'd love to go Jan 2024 (i think i saw something about discounts for 15yrs and under so this would be our last chance), does anyone have a crystal ball on this??? but no seriously - what are current rules around testing, masks etc (realistically in practice, rather than just what i read on their site)
Any other thoughts appreciated too. thanks in advance.