DavidandKaren11

Thank you both for your thoughts.  Yes, if there are significant port fees then maybe it's better to put the crew to work scouting.

PaulMCO - thanks for your thoughts about the air ticket - that's a good idea.  I looked up the Ultramarine this morning on Cruisemapper and it looks like they spent the night in the S. Shetlands and are now heading directly to Deception Island, but of course thats a guess.  I suppose whats in the back of my mind is did they cancel the Jan 10 cruise for the benefit of the passengers because there was no viable choice, or was there an economic incentive because they've got another charter or something else for which Covid would be less of a concern?  I don't think they could have done that even if they wanted to, but it is an unusual thing to take this expensive ship out without a trip on the calendar.

I’m concerned and I’d like others opinion. We were told Quark cancelled because of Ushuaia port out of space for Covid quarantines. Then why is the Ultramarine almost at the South Shetland Islands?  There shouldn’t be a cruise booked until the 22nd and it’s darn expensive to take this ship on a joy ride. Did they lie about this?  Also, on Facebook they said they’re back in Antarctica 2 days ago. Marketing hype? Bad taste?  What’s going on?

Like ed1aa we were on the Quark Jan 10 sailing, having been rebooked a few months ago from the cancelled Ocean Diamond  February trip.  Quark called to cancel less than 24 hours from Day 1.  We were enroute to BA when we got the call from Quark. If they had called a few hours or a day or two earlier we wouldn’t have used the 1st leg of our air tickets and been stuck with the cost. 
This is our first experience with Quark and I don’t know what to think of them. In many ways they’ve been very accommodating and of course they can’t control Covid, but are they too quick to make promises that are overly optimistic?  We started the refund process yesterday and we’re told 4-6 weeks. We’ve probably lost the business class tickets we used 1 leg of and the many incidental expenses although I’m checking the detailed terms of our travel insurance.  Every international trip we’ve booked in the last year has been cancelled or moved - I think we are going to tour the USA for the next 12 months.