Experience with Oceanwide Antarctica Cruises? Itinerary?

[kaisatsu]

9 hours ago, pdmlynek said:

This itinerary surprises me in as well. The majority of ships visiting Antarctica spend some time in visiting South Shetland Islands, yet this itinerary seems to bypass them except for the out of the way Elephant Island. Surely it would have been much easier to visit some of the central South Shetlands. 

 

Given the out of way location and the extreme difficulty in landing, can you think of any reason why the cruise line would choose to visit Elephant Island?

Oceanwide is exploring options for trips farther into the Weddell Sea since reducing ice cover is making the area more accessible, especially late in the season. By the end of March, a lot of the penguin colonies in the South Shetlands will have cleared out, so there’s not a lot of reasons to visit many of those sites. So Oceanwide is most likely using the extended season to explore new areas and run some more unusual trips.

[pdmlynek]

3 hours ago, kaisatsu said:

Oceanwide is exploring options for trips farther into the Weddell Sea since reducing ice cover is making the area more accessible, especially late in the season. By the end of March, a lot of the penguin colonies in the South Shetlands will have cleared out, so there’s not a lot of reasons to visit many of those sites. So Oceanwide is most likely using the extended season to explore new areas and run some more unusual trips.

Thank you for your detailed and helpful answer.