I chose this cruise 14 months ago because of a good offer. Its ports of call were departure from Montevideo; Puerto Madryn, Argentina; the Falkland Islands; Antarctica; Chilean Fjords; then flight from Punta Arenas to Santiago de Chile. A storm made us tread water prior to arriving in Argentina and so we lost a day in the Falkland Islands. We landed at New Island, Falkland Islands, with those first off having five hours if they wanted and me having only just over three hours. In Stanley we had just five hours ashore and NONE of the ship's expensive excursions involved trips to the 1982 war sites or the nearest penguin colony, Gypsy Cove: I organised a private driver. Antarctica was to include Elephant Island or Shakleton with kayaking; Arctowski Station, Neko Harbour, or Dorian Bay. NONE was achieved owing to 'wind'. We did manage Cuverville Island and Orne Harbour where one needed to be a mountain goat with rubber boots to achieve the steep climb BUT still without kayaking. So we missed out on obtaining an Antarctica stamp in our passport at Arctowski. We then headed to the Chilean fjords BUT did not land at Garibaldi Fjord owing to 'wind'.

The last three days were at sea with nothing to do apart from watching tv in my cabin. There were three teams on this ship: the Norwegian officers; the Philippino staff; and the expedition team. We heard from the expedition team over the PA BUT it took them two days to get organised with the daily schedule, and their estimates of departures from the ship were wildly amiss, let alone actually advising us we were not visiting the site on our schedule! I summed up the team as very amateurish, on stage looking like schoolchildren awaiting the wrath of the head teacher. Viewing a disabled person being manhandled up the gangway by one officer and two staff was quite a spectacle witnessed by at least 20 people. The officer was very defensive stating the disabled person knew the situation when he booked the cruise. This being a Norwegian ship, fish was a popular food: I am vegetarian who does not eat it but it was in the soup, the salad pasta, and the hot pasta. I survived on potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the occasional special pasta preparation from the chef. Even the fried eggs at breakfast had streaky bacon over each one. My cabin was on deck 7 of 8. It was comfortable enough and well-maintained by the staff. The ambience generally throughout the ship was very good. Just a shame the whole purpose of being on it did not materialise as anticipated. Disembarkation was farcical owing to a faulty door mechanism. Hanging around in Punta Arenas from 8 a.m. and arriving in Santiago at 5 p.m. with only a beer and a honey nutrition bar served on the flight to sustain me for those nine hours made me relieved that the whole disappointing cruise was behind me.