Quest Antarctica Season Cancelled Too Soon?

[TPAtravelfan]

Was the Quest Antarctica season cancelled too soon?  Both Chile and Argentina open up to vaccinated travelers on November 1.  NO quarantine required.  

These trips should have been a go!

 

https://www.afar.com/magazine/chile-and-argentina-reopen-to-us-travelers?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100721 ChileArgentina&utm_term=Daily Wander (Have opened newsletter before)

[Fletcher]

Chile and Argentina both OK - no quarantine on return - for UK citizens from Monday.  So maybe, yes, they cancelled too soon.  But there might be other reasons behind the cancellation.

[M&PGermany]

If Seabourn weren't a part of the Carnival Corp. I'd be really worried about their future. They will operate only 2 ships over the winter season. 😱 Not enough to keep a company alive.

Even Hapag-Lloyd will (try to) operate all ships, Silversea has 6 or so in operation...

 

[TPAtravelfan]

They must not have sold enough cruises to make it worth their while.  Otherwise, we'd have no problem getting into Buenos Aires and out of Santiago.  it would have been business as usual for the Quest.  Too bad, I wanted to do the Quest one more time down there.  Now the new Venture is roughly the same price for a cruise half the number of days.  Seems like a financial decision to me.

[sfvoyage]

1 hour ago, TPAtravelfan said:

Now the new Venture is roughly the same price for a cruise half the number of days.  Seems like a financial decision to me.

 

That should be more more competitive for Seabourn and more appealing to the the demographics of the new customers they are trying to attract:  working professionals with more money and less time.

 

After all, just about all expedition ships start and end in Ushuaia with feeder charter flights, instead of wasting a week sailing up or down the Chilean coast plus the extra stop in Montevideo.

[Fletcher]

4 hours ago, sfvoyage said:

 

That should be more more competitive for Seabourn and more appealing to the the demographics of the new customers they are trying to attract:  working professionals with more money and less time.

 

After all, just about all expedition ships start and end in Ushuaia with feeder charter flights, instead of wasting a week sailing up or down the Chilean coast plus the extra stop in Montevideo.

I see your logic about the workers with more money and less time, but as someone for whom the reverse is true I didn't think the cruise down Chile and then up to BA was a waste of time.  It was nice to relax, acclimatise, admire the scenery, enjoy the ship etc before the 'hard work' started south of Ushuaia and then wind down, enjoy the ship, work on photos etc on the way up to BA.  The flights worked well for us so that we flew direct to the ship and back again without bothering with hotels anywhere.  And we avoided the hassle of the cramped charter flight.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Fletcher

[sfvoyage]

49 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

I see your logic about the workers with more money and less time, but as someone for whom the reverse is true I didn't think the cruise down Chile and then up to BA was a waste of time.  It was nice to relax, acclimatise, admire the scenery, enjoy the ship etc before the 'hard work' started south of Ushuaia and then wind down, enjoy the ship, work on photos etc on the way up to BA.

 

I know what you mean.  When I sailed on the Quest, I quite enjoyed the week sailing down the Chilean coast, interacting with the expedition team members and learning from their lectures, as they helped build up the momentum and excitement until "The Antarctica Experience" (on the other hand, the reverse routing would have been anti-climatic).

 

Having said that, when I return to Antarctica, it'll be on an expedition ship bypassing the unnecessary ports.

[cruiseej]

I would like to see the Chilean fjords one day, but with one of us still working, we couldn't ever do Seabourn's 24-day cruise encompassing South Georgia Island. We selected a Silversea cruise because it was 18 days, even though we would have preferred to go on Seabourn. Unfortunately, next year's Venture cruise to South Georgia, 20 days to/from Ushuaia, costs more than $15,000 more than the comparable 18-day Silversea cruise. As much as we'd like to sail on the Venture, that's too big a price differential for us, so we're sticking with Silversea for this voyage. 

[TPAtravelfan]

We previously did the Quest from Rio to Valparaiso (Santiago), including the Antarctica experience, which was a 28-day trip.  That was a great itinerary which felt like 4 separate cruises since it covered warm Brazil, temperate Argentina, Antarctica and then the Chilean fjords and Chile's great natural sites.  We went white water rafting and and horseback riding on separate excursions and they were some of the best we have done.

 

We were looking forward to seeing South Georgia Island this year on our 24-day Quest itinerary, but we won't be doing the Venture.  The thing we liked best about our previous Quest Antarctica trip was it DIDN'T feel like an expedition trip.  We dressed for dinner, formal some nights, and enjoyed all of the accoutrement of a typical Seabourn ultra-luxury Cruise.  In one of the most remote spots on the planet.  Shackleton would have been SO envious!  

 

Too bad they couldn't fill the Quest.  The Venture won't deliver the Quest experience, but you can bet we'll find a ship that will!

[Fletcher]

12 hours ago, TPAtravelfan said:

Too bad they couldn't fill the Quest.  The Venture won't deliver the Quest experience, but you can bet we'll find a ship that will!

I'm a big fan of the Quest, too, having once taken a Holiday cruise to Antarctica and South Georgia.  It was a sort of hybrid experience, nothing like a true 100/150-pax expedition ship of old, and I loved aspects of it, such as the deck space and dining options.  But with the Quest out of the polar picture, I'm not sure you will find a ship that will deliver the same experience.  The trend these days is the Venture approach, with Silversea's adaptation of the Cloud and the Wind, the Scenic Eclipse, the new Lindblad vessels, all the Ponant fleet plus Aurora and the new Swan Hellenic ships.  These are sleek luxury expedition vessels which have largely done away with any formal dining etc.  Personally I'm happy with that.

 

I've just booked a Svalbard trip on the Venture!  Yikes!

Edited October 28, 2021 by Fletcher

[TPAtravelfan]

We did Svalbard on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager several years back and found it to bean eerily desolate and beautiful place.  Not sure I would compromise the features and accoutrement of a luxury ship to get there again though.   

[Fletcher]

Today I have counted four Ponant ships, three Lindblad/NG ships and two Silversea ships in the Ushuaia/South Georgia/Peninsula triangle.  Seabourn really did miss the boat.  

[cruiseej]

Also the new Crystal Endeavor, departing Ushuaia on its first Antarctica voyage tomorrow. And the new Atlas World Navigator, sailing its first voyage starting Friday. And the new Quark Ultramarine, sailing on its first Antarctica trip next week. And the Hurtigruten Roald Amundsen, also departing on its first Antarctica voyage next week. And other ships from Hanseatic, Vantage, Hapag-Lloyd and several other smaller cruise lines are on the tracking map headed to Ushuaia for voyages starting later this month. Seabourn is pretty conspicuous by its absence.

Edited November 18, 2021 by cruiseej