I have been interested in traveling to Antarctica for some time. When we heard about the Viking expedition ships we compared some of the other cruise lines and chose Viking because of our previous experience with Viking Longships and Ocean ships. We were not disappointed. My wife was initially reluctant due to expectations of extreme weather and agreed to the trip mostly because of the add on extension in Pantagonia. Unfortunately the Pantagonia extension was cancelled due to covid but we did recieve tours of Tierra del Fuego around Ushuaia, Argentina which is truly beautiful.

Luckily when my wife saw her first Gentoo Penguin she was hooked and thoroughly enjoyed the expedition. The weather was temperate in the high 20's and Viking supplied boots pants and coats which made every excursion confortable. We made many stops to see penguin colonies, many different types of seals and whales and antarctic birds. Each stop involved boarding a 10 person zodiac rubber boat to reach land which was an adventure in itself, especially when dodging icebergs. We also kayaked in the ice filled waters and were selected to go down in one of the on-board submarines which had not been operational during the entire season until our cruise and not until the last available day. Only about a dozen guests got the opportunity.

The Viking Expedition crew was fantastic, consisting of numerous PhD scientists and others with much antarctic work and research experience. All were knowledgable and available for questions and quite informative. Read more