Antartcic or Australia/New Zealand

[fred111]

I solved your dilemma. I booked both.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

i solved your dilemma. I booked both.

 

like:d

[LuAnn]

like:d

 

Me too...Bravo!!! LuAnn

[kobecat]

I agree...but when your DH is in his late 70s at the time...you do what you can do...a drive by was it for us....he is now "staring" 81 in the face...and we are fortunate to sail...at all these days!!!...Thanks for your input and thoughts!!! LuAnn

 

 

Absolutely LuAnn, couldn't agree more. The OP was only asking for input and I know I would be disappointed on the Celebrity cruise if I thought I was doing a "real" Antarctic cruise. I know the Celebrity cruise would be wonderful, but just not really Antarctica. I am happy on any cruise, be it drive by, float by or walk by. [emoji3]

 

 

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[GUT2407]

My point is that you've seen Australia. Obviously. So no need to do an Aussie cruise.

 

 

But keep booking them all the same.

[LuAnn]

Absolutely LuAnn, couldn't agree more. The OP was only asking for input and I know I would be disappointed on the Celebrity cruise if I thought I was doing a "real" Antarctic cruise. I know the Celebrity cruise would be wonderful, but just not really Antarctica. I am happy on any cruise, be it drive by, float by or walk by. [emoji3]

 

 

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So true!!!! :) LuAnn

[grayjay]

I'm with those who suggest Antarctica because even ift "just" driving by, it's a unique experience. If it were possible at a later date I'd suggest doing New Zealand on a land-based journey, for example in a camper, which in my opinionm would be the better choice anyway.We're considering doing NZ now on a cruise but we're 35 years older now but still I have fond memories of having had the time to explore the wonderful sihts with more time than on a ship's excursion.

My second piece of advice would be top choose another ship. For those recommending an expedition ship there's always the question of affordability and not everyone can shell out 20.000 $ plus expensive flights.

We did the Antarctica cruise on "Infinity" a few years ago and were both happy and lucky: Happy to have seen such unbelievable beauty including the hundreds of penguins on the Falklands, the icebergs, lucky because of great weather around the Horn and Antarctica itself. We rounded up the experience with a few days in Iguacu to see the famous waterfalls which wasn't too expensive either because we planned the trip ourselves and didn't use the ship's excursion offered. We're thinking of repeating the experience one more time - but this time I'd choose Holland America's "Zaandam" instead of Celebrity ( they'll have an S-class ship in 2018/19 which is much too large in my opinion for these waters). Plus HAL offers 4 days of an Antarctic experience instead of just 2 plus the Chilean fjords by finishing the cruise in either Valparaiso or Buenos Aires instead of coming back to Buenos Aires. If cost is a factor I'd choose one of their comfortable Oceanview cabins instead of the pricier balcony cabins.

Whatever you decide: enjoy this "time of your life" as you say it.

[LuAnn]

I'm with those who suggest Antarctica because even ift "just" driving by, it's a unique experience. If it were possible at a later date I'd suggest doing New Zealand on a land-based journey, for example in a camper, which in my opinionm would be the better choice anyway.We're considering doing NZ now on a cruise but we're 35 years older now but still I have fond memories of having had the time to explore the wonderful sihts with more time than on a ship's excursion.

My second piece of advice would be top choose another ship. For those recommending an expedition ship there's always the question of affordability and not everyone can shell out 20.000 $ plus expensive flights.

We did the Antarctica cruise on "Infinity" a few years ago and were both happy and lucky: Happy to have seen such unbelievable beauty including the hundreds of penguins on the Falklands, the icebergs, lucky because of great weather around the Horn and Antarctica itself. We rounded up the experience with a few days in Iguacu to see the famous waterfalls which wasn't too expensive either because we planned the trip ourselves and didn't use the ship's excursion offered. We're thinking of repeating the experience one more time - but this time I'd choose Holland America's "Zaandam" instead of Celebrity ( they'll have an S-class ship in 2018/19 which is much too large in my opinion for these waters). Plus HAL offers 4 days of an Antarctic experience instead of just 2 plus the Chilean fjords by finishing the cruise in either Valparaiso or Buenos Aires instead of coming back to Buenos Aires. If cost is a factor I'd choose one of their comfortable Oceanview cabins instead of the pricier balcony cabins.

Whatever you decide: enjoy this "time of your life" as you say it.

 

Great advice...I was actually surprised when the F&B Director on Millie told me they were pulling Infinity out of SA and moving in an S Class ship...I thought that would be too big a ship for the regulations...I guess not??? LuAnn

[gogo65]

We did Antartica in January this year on an expedition ship. It truly was once in a lifetime, we had no trouble with weather, but then again when you are on the smaller ships that leave from Ushuaia they alter the course and just visit somewhere else, so one day when we did have bad weather, they turned around and took us somewhere else, which was just as spectacular, however on the larger ships this is just not possible.

As an Australian, I love Australia, however Antartica was just surreal, if you can, do an expedition trip to Antarctica. It is very expensive around $1000pp/p but worth every cent!

[MVPinBoynton]

We absolutely loved Aus/NZ and look forward to returning to spend more time there. It was certainly one of our favorite destinations. But for a trip of a lifetime, I would think Antarctica would be the place to go. I do worry about future restrictions on Antarctica cruising. And that won't be an issue for Aus/NZ.

 

Six years ago we had to make a decision on our first South America cruise. We wanted to cruise on the Infinity, but didn't know if we should go to the Falklands/Antarctica or the one that went around to Valparaiso. I chose it,since I was concerned about weather preventing us visiting Antarctica. It turned out that the dates I would have chosen did not make it to Antarctica due to weather.

 

I have always wanted to go to Antarctica and the Falklands, so we booked Zaandam for January. With it spending 4 days in Antarctica, rather than just 2 like the Infinity does, the odds to be able to see Antarctica should be much better. I also like the idea of being on a smaller ship for this cruise. The 22 day Zaandam cruise was actually slightly cheaper than the 14 day Infinity cruise.

 

As much as I would like to experience an expedition cruise, there is no way my wife could do it; and honestly it would probably be a bit challenging for me too. I have watched almost every video available of Antarctica cruises. I must say that cruising through the snow covered mountains and massive icebergs is more appealing to me than trudging through the snow on land. All I know is that I don't think I have been more excited about a cruise than I am about this one to Antarctica.

[lucymorgan]

I'm from Australia and we have cruised NZ a couple of times. Would love to go to Antarctica on a ship. Had a lovely surprise flying from Santiago (Chile) last year to Sydney. The shortest route is over the Antarctic ice shelf and although most passengers were asleep someone tipped me off to go and look through the emergency exit window - all the other window shades were down. This is from 30000 feet - of course nothing like being at sea level but very impressive anyway

http://vid1006.photobucket.com/albums/af188/jhumblej/ice_zpsklnroiga.mp4

[MVPinBoynton]

I'm from Australia and we have cruised NZ a couple of times. Would love to go to Antarctica on a ship. Had a lovely surprise flying from Santiago (Chile) last year to Sydney. The shortest route is over the Antarctic ice shelf and although most passengers were asleep someone tipped me off to go and look through the emergency exit window - all the other window shades were down. This is from 30000 feet - of course nothing like being at sea level but very impressive anyway

http://vid1006.photobucket.com/albums/af188/jhumblej/ice_zpsklnroiga.mp4

 

Very cool! A unique video indeed.

[ECCruise]

We've done both: Antarctica on an expedition (although lots more luxury than =X=) and NZ 3x. Even with that, I would do NZ for the fourth time before I would do an Antarctic drive-by. Just would be too frustrating to be a long distance from the places where we did our landings (13 in 6 days) on a ship that doesn't stop. As for the Falklands, you can do that on a vanilla Buenos Aires-Valparaiso sailing at a whole lot less dough than one that visits the Peninsula.

 

Look around, shop around. At the huge premium that Celebrity is charging for any sailing that has :"Antarctic" in the description, you can do a real Antarctic sailing for not an unbelievably huge premium. You might have to give up an Aqua Class balcony cabin or a Suite (both of which are superflous on an Antarctic sailing) but the experience would be night and day.

 

Disclaminer: If any of your party has mobility issues, I would not recommend an expedition.

[LuAnn]

We absolutely loved Aus/NZ and look forward to returning to spend more time there. It was certainly one of our favorite destinations. But for a trip of a lifetime, I would think Antarctica would be the place to go. I do worry about future restrictions on Antarctica cruising. And that won't be an issue for Aus/NZ.

 

Six years ago we had to make a decision on our first South America cruise. We wanted to cruise on the Infinity, but didn't know if we should go to the Falklands/Antarctica or the one that went around to Valparaiso. I chose it,since I was concerned about weather preventing us visiting Antarctica. It turned out that the dates I would have chosen did not make it to Antarctica due to weather.

 

I have always wanted to go to Antarctica and the Falklands, so we booked Zaandam for January. With it spending 4 days in Antarctica, rather than just 2 like the Infinity does, the odds to be able to see Antarctica should be much better. I also like the idea of being on a smaller ship for this cruise. The 22 day Zaandam cruise was actually slightly cheaper than the 14 day Infinity cruise.

 

As much as I would like to experience an expedition cruise, there is no way my wife could do it; and honestly it would probably be a bit challenging for me too. I have watched almost every video available of Antarctica cruises. I must say that cruising through the snow covered mountains and massive icebergs is more appealing to me than trudging through the snow on land. All I know is that I don't think I have been more excited about a cruise than I am about this one to Antarctica.

 

Have a wonderful cruise Mike...and please post/post/post pics etc!!! LuAnn

[MVPinBoynton]

Have a wonderful cruise Mike...and please post/post/post pics etc!!! LuAnn

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Hi LuAnn, do you really think there is any possibility that I won't do a long review on this cruise? :D I can't wait to start snapping away. I am so excited about this cruise.