Polar Plunge with Viking

[Fropa]

I'm looking at possibly booking with Viking for Antarctica in January 2023. A polar plunge in the itinerary is important to me, but I can't find anything that says if they try to include one. Anyone travel with them this last season that knows for sure? Thanks.

[Nitemare]

You will likely get better answers about Viking Cruises on their board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/689-viking-ocean/

[PerfectlyPerth]

On 7/6/2022 at 2:03 PM, Fropa said:

I'm looking at possibly booking with Viking for Antarctica in January 2023. A polar plunge in the itinerary is important to me, but I can't find anything that says if they try to include one. Anyone travel with them this last season that knows for sure? Thanks.

It's worth noting that even if an expedition company has a polar plunge listed in their itinerary it may not happen. As with everything on a polar expedition everyone needs to be flexible in attitude. The weather, sea & ice conditions can change at any time and the captain & expedition leader will make changes to the itinerary. I recollect on one of my trips one of the polar plunges was cancelled as a leopard seal insisted on swimming round the gangway for an hour! 
 

My advice is to not have a list of "vital moments" in your wish list. (I say the same to people who have very exact lists of shore landing locations). You will only end up focused on them and then be disappointed when they don't happen. 
Instead reduce your expectations, relish the trip hour by hour and day by day. That way every experience is amazing. 

[Fropa]

On 7/7/2022 at 4:54 AM, PerfectlyPerth said:

It's worth noting that even if an expedition company has a polar plunge listed in their itinerary it may not happen. As with everything on a polar expedition everyone needs to be flexible in attitude. The weather, sea & ice conditions can change at any time and the captain & expedition leader will make changes to the itinerary. I recollect on one of my trips one of the polar plunges was cancelled as a leopard seal insisted on swimming round the gangway for an hour! 
 

My advice is to not have a list of "vital moments" in your wish list. (I say the same to people who have very exact lists of shore landing locations). You will only end up focused on them and then be disappointed when they don't happen. 
Instead reduce your expectations, relish the trip hour by hour and day by day. That way every experience is amazing. 

Thanks for the response PerfectlyPerth. I agree with what your saying and understand nothing can be guaranteed on an expedition cruise. My thought is if there is something you really want to do it's better to find a trip that includes it and know it may not happen rather than book a trip that doesn't include it and know it won't.

[PerfectlyPerth]

16 hours ago, Fropa said:

Thanks for the response PerfectlyPerth. I agree with what your saying and understand nothing can be guaranteed on an expedition cruise. My thought is if there is something you really want to do it's better to find a trip that includes it and know it may not happen rather than book a trip that doesn't include it and know it won't.

The thing with plunges is quite often it's not mentioned in an itinerary at all. It may just happen because a particular location, the weather and ice conditions (and lack of hungry seals) looks good and the expedition leader decides to do it then and there. 
 

Or if a landing happens at Deception Island - people often do a walk in plunge from the shore. If landing time permits. 

[scottjeanne]

Polar plunge was awesome.  Well worth checking into it.

[Fropa]

4 hours ago, PerfectlyPerth said:

The thing with plunges is quite often it's not mentioned in an itinerary at all. It may just happen because a particular location, the weather and ice conditions (and lack of hungry seals) looks good and the expedition leader decides to do it then and there. 
 

Or if a landing happens at Deception Island - people often do a walk in plunge from the shore. If landing time permits. 

Good information, thank you. The hungry seals would definitely make for a good story when telling people why you didn't get to plunge.

 

[Fropa]

1 hour ago, scottjeanne said:

Polar plunge was awesome.  Well worth checking into it.

That's cool that you got to take the plunge. Was that with Viking or another company?

[PerfectlyPerth]

1 hour ago, Fropa said:

Good information, thank you. The hungry seals would definitely make for a good story when telling people why you didn't get to plunge.

 

On one of my trips we had a polar swimmer on board doing a series of 1km swims to raise awareness about pollution & environment & over fishing etc. 

During one swim there was an urgent radio call from the captain - who from high up on the bridge could see what the support crew down on the zodiac couldn't. A fast moving big bull fur seal heading towards the swimmer !!!! He swam a record fast few metres back into safety of the zodiac 🤣🤣

[Fropa]

1 hour ago, PerfectlyPerth said:

On one of my trips we had a polar swimmer on board doing a series of 1km swims to raise awareness about pollution & environment & over fishing etc. 

During one swim there was an urgent radio call from the captain - who from high up on the bridge could see what the support crew down on the zodiac couldn't. A fast moving big bull fur seal heading towards the swimmer !!!! He swam a record fast few metres back into safety of the zodiac 🤣🤣

That's a great story. It sounds like you've had some great experiences. Nice to know they were looking out for him and he got to work on his speed.

[scottjeanne]

On 7/9/2022 at 5:34 PM, Fropa said:

That's cool that you got to take the plunge. Was that with Viking or another company?

It was Silver sea.

[Fropa]

16 hours ago, scottjeanne said:

It was Silver sea.

Thanks for letting me know. I have looked at them a lot for Antarctica, but I've seen some posts saying they have fallen off in quality since Royal Caribbean bought them in 2018. 

[scottjeanne]

Fropa, Silver seas is billed as a luxury company, and in my very limited experience it met the mark.  Food was not exceptional, but it was good.  Service was inconsistent.  On the other hand, the 24 expedition crew members (for 136 or 68 passengers- we did a back to back) were truly extraordinary.  They were a wealth of knowledge and experience.  We were on the last cruise of the season and they were as excited and as enthusiastic as if it were their first.

 

Due to Covid, I used Silver seas air and pre and post extensions and they pampered us and held our hands the entire time.  The only exception was we had to disembark in Monte Video instead of Buenos Aires and then fly to Buenos Aires, which makes no sense but that was Argentinas rules.  Silver seas did not have the ground staff as they had at every other port, so it was difficult and messy.  
 

Overall, I would recommend them for the expedition experience.  It was a trip of a lifetime.

[Nitemare]

We did SilverSea for Antarctica in 2018 and thought it was amazing.  It was our most recent of about a dozen cruises we have taken and the facilities were incredible as were the staff and of course the destination.

 

Zero complaints.

[Fropa]

Thanks scottjeanne and Nitemare for information about your experiences. Silversea has always stayed near the top of my list while looking at Antarctic trips, good to know you both had good experiences with them

[donaldsc]

On 7/9/2022 at 9:32 AM, Fropa said:

Good information, thank you. The hungry seals would definitely make for a good story when telling people why you didn't get to plunge.

 

 

I would not worry about most seals but leopard seals might be a problem - check out this post.

 

https://www.science.org/content/article/antarctic-researcher-killed

 

DON

[Fropa]

On 7/16/2022 at 1:43 PM, donaldsc said:

 

I would not worry about most seals but leopard seals might be a problem - check out this post.

 

https://www.science.org/content/article/antarctic-researcher-killed

 

DON

That's crazy. You definitely can't let your guard down in nature. Thanks for the link.

[pdmlynek]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:48 PM, PerfectlyPerth said:

On one of my trips we had a polar swimmer on board doing a series of 1km swims to raise awareness about pollution & environment & over fishing etc. 

During one swim there was an urgent radio call from the captain - who from high up on the bridge could see what the support crew down on the zodiac couldn't. A fast moving big bull fur seal heading towards the swimmer !!!! He swam a record fast few metres back into safety of the zodiac 🤣🤣

Wow, I had no idea that a bull fur seal is such a threat.  What was the danger?  That the seal thought that the swimmer was a penguin?

 

But, wow, a series of 1 km swims is impressive!  Heck even 100 m in ice water is impressive. 

[PerfectlyPerth]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:41 PM, pdmlynek said:

Wow, I had no idea that a bull fur seal is such a threat.  What was the danger?  That the seal thought that the swimmer was a penguin?

 

But, wow, a series of 1 km swims is impressive!  Heck even 100 m in ice water is impressive. 

I would suggest you google "fur seal attacks" for your own research. There are ample articles out there. 
https://www.wemjournal.org/article/S1080-6032(20)30212-X/fulltext

 

The environmental awareness swimmer in question is lawyer Lewis Pugh. He does big swims all over the world and holds world records. 
https://lewispugh.com/ 

https://lewispugh.com/swims/ this link shows all the locations including the polar ones. 

[onyx007]

Yes, Polar Plunge is like any other activity and landing in the Antarctic only doable if the conditions are right, as are the overnights on land. 

 

When I did Antarctica with G-Adventure in February 2020 for example, the overnight on land was postponed due the snow condition on land and we did it at another place later on. The Polar Plunge we did was jumping of the ship (where we usually board the Zodiacs) on a leash, where we could be brought back just in case and it was a far niecer experience as we got a shot of whiskey and could go stright away in to the Sauna to warm up...it was the very last activity we did before we were heading back to the Drake passage...