Spending twenty days in the Antarctic and South Georgia Island, I am happy to say that the entire experience was beyond our expectations. Hapag Lloyd is genious at marrying bold expedition cruising with a top rate hotel experience. Their ships have the highest ice class hull rating available, knowledgeable bridge officers who are experts in these regions, and a first class hotel staff. Hapag Lloyd’s commitment to the polar regions is such that there will be three out of five of their ships in the region at any one time. Our captain was adept at making changes as needed, and ventured far into the ice fields. In my cabin, I could hear the ice scraping against the hull as the ship navigated it’s way into the Weddel sea (famous for its ice, which Earnest Shackleton got stuck). As our landing site was not accessible, the captain sent out an exploration party to find a suitable ice flow, for us to visit via the zodiacs. Once there we were greeted with champagne in flute glasses with a proper bar set up! Later in the cruise, we had a cocktail party where if harvested from the Berg was chipped away for cocktails.

This was the very last cruise of the Hanseatic in the Antarctic, so I will not go into details of the ship. The good news for anyone planning a trip, ie, you my dear readers, is that the new bilingual expedition ship, the Inspiration, being built specifically for Polar cruising will be coming online in October 2019. This leaves a gap, with no expedition sailings for a year. This is an unfortunate but unavoidable problem, as the Hanseatic is leased, and the owner is recalling the ship this fall.

We had 160 passengers on our sailing, with ample time ashore. The system of our landings was well organized. Boots and parkas were fitted on a sea day. There are two proper boot rooms (one for odd cabins the other for even) where we would store our boots and life preservers in cubbies marked for our cabin after each outing. There were several boot washers so never a wait. I can’t imagine having to store boots in my cabin, as some other lines require. Or having to rent them! The crew found landing areas that did not require us to step in deep water, as I have sometimes read. The waterproof, insulated boots were perfect. Read more