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Affordable cruises to Antarctica???


wearesiamese
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 It is very frustrating to see the crazy high fares for most cruises which include Antarctica. I have however decided to bite the bullet and book a year plus out so I can save my pennies:) I will be turning 60 in Dec of  2020 and have decided to ease the pain of changing decades( i.e  becoming officially old)by treating myself to a once in a lifetime experience-to Antarctic and the Chilean Fjords!

  I looked primarily at  Celebrity an Holland America only as the other lines I looked at  are well above my affordability(unless someone has knowledge of one which has cruises in the price range of HAL or  Celebrity?

Has anyone on this board sailed with either HAL or Celebrity to Antarctica? What did you like or dislike? I am inclined to go with HAL  but would like to hear other members' input on this

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Lots of trip reports on this board for Landings type cruises as well as "sail by" cruises, and also threads comparing the two.

 

Princess also does the Sail By cruises to Antarctica.

 

Use the search function on this board, and on the HAL, Celebrity and Princess boards to find threads that will help

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You should look at Hurtigruten. We did and that's how we're going to go (also celebrating a 60th birthday). Some of their ships are larger than the other expedition companies',  but they still schedule a landing per day and, presumably, get closer to wildlife and land. I don't know because I haven't taken one, but I'm about to. Don't book on www.Hurtigruten.com. Go to Hurtigruten.no., which is their Norwegian site and significantly less expensive. Use Google Chrome, which will translate for you. Right now, 13 days with six of them in Antarctica can be had for about $5,500 pp including all taxes and fees. When you add it all up–port fees, etc., charged by the big cruise lines, the cost of penguin expeditions in South America–that's more than HAL or Princess but not significantly more.

 

I have found, like you have, that the other expedition companies are a lot more expensive unless you're sharing a triple or a quad.

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25 minutes ago, wearesiamese said:

I just looked and those cruises are way beyond affordability for me as a solo.. Oh well 😞

 

We went on the Zaandam last year and it was great . We just looked at January next year and the price for a 22 days in an interior is $1900 . 

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I cant afford to go anywhere atm as I just returned from Japan and went on the Westerdam ,with a 1 day Eurodam to start  from Seattle to Vancouver and will be paying  off this, and my spring 2019 trip to India and Japan, for months 😞

 

I am going with Princess as it is the least expensive I have found, with a fare that is  low enough  that it is worth missing the Chilean fjords on that trip and see them on another, as I understand they are spectacular!

And it is a bit long for me  I have not taken 3 week long trips-my longest has been 17 days on a crossing from LAX to Australia  on Crystal back in 2010..

Plus  as a solo traveler, it isn't that cheap it would be $4000+ ,and ill just have to hope I get an upgrade from my interior stateroom(ya right!) LOL

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12 hours ago, wearesiamese said:

under $8k solo

That's a pretty decent budget and I don't understand then why you say that $4000 is not doable for you.

You could actually do an expedition-type cruise for that amount if you are ready to share a cabin (for instance currently there are offers for $7K on Quark for last-minute departure on a twin shared with obstructed view, Ocean Diamond departing Dec 8th,).

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well $8k really is not affordable for me, so I have booked an inside cabin with Princess, for a lot less $ and granted, and a few less days, but still the same number of days in Antarctica.  I am much more comfortable with the lower fare .Thanks all for your help.   Antarctica 2021  ! 🙂

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well I get a bit embarrassed I guess when asked about affordability as it looks like I want something for nothing, price wise. I should have been upfront about that.at any rate I found something that I can better handle $ wise and that's what counts .I wont be posting here again, but will be on the roll call tc everyone!

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We all have our price point and there is nothing wrong with that, everybody does what they can. I didn't mean to imply you were difficult, sorry if it came out that way, but "affordable" does mean different things for different people and I think people were just asking for a number so that they could direct you best to what was possible for you.

My advice of Quark was clearly off base for you but it was aligned on the number you quoted. I understand now that this wasn't actually your budget, which there is nothing to be embarassed about.

Anyhow as I said I'm glad you found a trip you are happy with and are comfortable paying.

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If you do decide that you'd like to do an expedition cruise with landings, you can find shared-cabin solo rates for as low as €5200. If you follow some of the expedition companies (GAdventures, Oceanwide, Quark, etc) you can find significant early-booking and last-minute discounts that can make a trip like this much more affordable. I actually managed to book my first trip to Antarctica for $5100 USD.

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