Only few ships go into the Ross Sea. That's why I didn't mind the rather poor design of Ortelius (the lecture room practically guarantees seasickness, uncomfortable bar area, too small dining room etc.). The ship's crew responsible for operating the ship and the hotel staff all were professional, friendly and helpful. However, the actual expedition and expedition staff was quite disappointing. ...
We choose this 10 nights cruise with an early December departure (06 - 16 December), so we could do some awesome snowshoeing. The snowshoes were free to use, which was a nice bonus. We found that the hikes were really good organized to be able to choose for easy or moderate snowshoe hikes. We even used the boots provided by the ship.
Penguins galore, wow, We saw all the cute waddling Gentoo ...