Are expeditions different from excursions?

[vbmom87]

I was looking at the Hurtigruten website and for their trips it says excursions are not included. In reading this forum I read references made to taking several expeditions in a day while on the cruise itineraries. I am just wondering if there is a difference between an expedition and an excursion? I am also trying to figure out how much one needs to budget for excursions on an Antarctic expedition cruise. I could not find that info on the Hurtigruten, unless I just didn't know where to look. If anyone has a link, please let me know.

 

Also are the costs listed on the Hurtigruten site in Euros?

[SarniaLo]

In Antarctica with Hurtigruten you will make one or two landings each day (you will go ashore using the Polarcirkel boats, and when you are ashore you will be suggested what to see and sometimes offered a guided walk). All the landings are included in the price.

I think additional, optional excursions (that you will have to pay extra for) are only relevant for Falklands and South Georgia (and sometimes pre- and post-trip excursion in Ushuaia). On a trip that covers only the Antarctic Peninsula you won't have any extra fees to pay for your landings and activities.

 

If you are looking at the hurtigruten.com website, the prices are indicated in euros.

[vbmom87]

In Antarctica with Hurtigruten you will make one or two landings each day (you will go ashore using the Polarcirkel boats, and when you are ashore you will be suggested what to see and sometimes offered a guided walk). All the landings are included in the price.

I think additional, optional excursions (that you will have to pay extra for) are only relevant for Falklands and South Georgia (and sometimes pre- and post-trip excursion in Ushuaia). On a trip that covers only the Antarctic Peninsula you won't have any extra fees to pay for your landings and activities.

 

If you are looking at the hurtigruten.com website, the prices are indicated in euros.

 

Thank you.

[BORDER REIVER]

The way I understand it, is that the expedition is the whole jouney over multiple days ...e.g. Shackleton's expedition, Scott's expedition.

Excursions are usually extras that are sometimes included and sometimes cost extra. On a standard cruise there would be a choice of doing various excursions at a port of call, varying in time from a couple of hours to a full day. I think that some operators do an coach excursion to a local National Park from Ushuaia.

[2552phxcrzr]

Someone who'se recently been on the Fram can verify this ... I have not sailed Hurtigruten to the Antarctic, but I follow the blog posted by the expedition staff. In addition to the included-in-the-cruise-fare landings, I believe they have what might be considered an excursion ... limited number of people can do it, (pretty sure for an additional fee)... usually done in the Lemaire Channel ... it's a PolarCirkle cruise following the ship as the Fram transits back out (or maybe in). Of course, whether it is offered depends on ice conditions (they couldn't do it on Jan 31).

 

here's the link to the blog: http://mvfram.blogspot.com/2012/02/closing-in-on-drake.html

 

(P.S. I did also see on their website where there are optional excursions for a price in the Falklands.)

[SarniaLo]

Someone who'se recently been on the Fram can verify this ... I have not sailed Hurtigruten to the Antarctic, but I follow the blog posted by the expedition staff. In addition to the included-in-the-cruise-fare landings, I believe they have what might be considered an excursion ... limited number of people can do it, (pretty sure for an additional fee)... usually done in the Lemaire Channel ... it's a PolarCirkle cruise following the ship as the Fram transits back out (or maybe in). Of course, whether it is offered depends on ice conditions (they couldn't do it on Jan 31).

I haven't been in Antarctica on the Fram recently, so indeed it would be nice to have someone confirm that, it would certainly be a new thing (the fact that people would have to pay for that).

However, I have been on the Fram in Antarctica in Feb2009, and in Spitsbergen in September 2011. We had several of these "Polarcirkel cruises" on different occasions, and they definitely were included in the price (and done by everybody, in turn). A friend of mine was on the Fram last December, and he was treated to a Polarcirkel ride near the Lemaire Channel, along with every passenger (this day on the Fram's blog : http://mvfram.blogspot.com/2011/12/14th-december-2011-65-11-south.html ). As far as I know, the Polarcirkel Cruise are offered as a "consolation prize" when the weather conditions can't allow for a landing, or - in our case in Antarctica - when there is some extra time to kill before the next landing.

 

There has been mention as well in the blog of the opportunity for some people to camp overnight on Antarctic ground, and this is for a very small number of people only. I have read somewhere (but I can't remember where :() that there was a draw to pick the happy few, but I don't know if they have to pay extra for this or not.

 

This would be easy to confirm with Hurtigruten directly, actually.

[Sparky333]

Here's what happened on our Fram cruise in the Antarctica 2 weeks ago - one day we were unable to make landings either in the morning or afternoon because of weather. Around 4:00 they announced over the public address that they were offering a special excursion for only 32 people to cruise in polar cirkels at a price of $175 pp. You wore a special survival suit not your normal landing gear.

 

Since more than 32 signed up they did a drawing to see who got to go.

 

Then, maybe an hour later they announced that all of us would be doing polar cirkel cruises (as SarniaLo said - a consolation since we had no landings that day). I assumed ours was shorter and we didn't wear survival suits so there was a difference. But if I had paid $175 to do that special cruise and then everyone else got to do it for free (even if a shorter version) I would've been annoyed!

 

However like everyone else said, the normal landings (ours were 2 a day) are all included in the price - no extra charge other than that one special circumstance. We did have several optional excursions we could sign up for before and after in Buenos Aires and Ushuaia. The only one we did was a National Park visit in Ushuaia at the end of the cruise since we had several hours to kill and it was a Sunday so all the shops in Ushuaia were closed. It was a very beautiful park and we were glad we chose to do it but it was not cheap -- it might've been around $90 pp for only a few hrs.

[SarniaLo]

Here's what happened on our Fram cruise in the Antarctica 2 weeks ago - one day we were unable to make landings either in the morning or afternoon because of weather. Around 4:00 they announced over the public address that they were offering a special excursion for only 32 people to cruise in polar cirkels at a price of $175 pp. You wore a special survival suit not your normal landing gear.

 

Since more than 32 signed up they did a drawing to see who got to go.

Thank you for claryfying that. I guess the same goes for the overnight camping trip then (paying excursion + drawing if too many people).

I find it a weird idea actually... As you said, if I had paid $175 for an excursion that everybody gets to do for free (even a shorter version), I would feel a bit cheated... And if I was among those not picked up in the draw (or if I couldn't afford the extra $175) I would feel very disappointed. Did you get to talk to one of the 32 people to see how their ride was?

[vbmom87]

These small cruise ship expedition type cruises sound amazing!!! I sure hope we can pull this off in the next couple of years.

[Sparky333]

No, I never did hear if their "special" polar cirkel cruise was $175 worth of amazement or not. By the time we got out it was later and the pack ice had started closing a bit so we really didn't get to go too far. So I'm sure they had a better time. I know they're in business to make money but...charging like that felt somehow wrong.

 

However, if they had offered camping overnight I'd have paid anything to do that!!!

[Sparky333]

vbmom -- I hope you can do it - it was really an amazing trip. One of my favorites ever and I never expected to say that (I hate to be cold for one thing!). It seems like a once-in-a-lifetime but I'll definitely be going back again.

 

Hurtigruten's Fram is not the smallest ship you could go on so you might not get to spend as much time on landings as with a ship with less than 100 pax. But I never felt like that was a problem for me personally - some landings were a couple hours, some longer, some only an hour. The trade-off though in having a really comfortable ship and maybe having more stability at that size to not feel the Drake Passage as much (I don't really know but am guessing bigger might be better) and a significant price difference over some of the other smaller ships (like the Quark and National Geo. Lindblad tours) made it a good trade-off in my opinion. I loved Hurtigruten and would highly recommend them.