This cruise was a repositioning cruise which commenced from New York. We boarded in Rio De Janeiro. Therefore, many of the excursions were not available due to guests boarding in NY (being able to access excursions online much earlier and for kayaks and submarine trips in Antartica) as well as the "class system" perpetuated by Viking. (We booked Nordic Penthouse).

We were due to stay in Port Stanley for 2 days, however, to ensure we had the opportunity to achieve a landing in Antartica it was decided to leave Port Stanley a day early. A correct decision as one of the 3 days in Antarctic was spoiled by high winds. Our excursion to Volunteer Point (Falklands Islands) was cancelled as we were to partake in this excursion on the 2nd day. Shame we were not advised that there are private excursion companies that may have had a Volunteer Point excursion or even arrange an extra VP excursion for the 1st day in Port Stanley.

We booked our business class flights through Viking. I have back issue when sitting for any protracted period and being 6'3" I am unable to sit in economy. They were unable to provide business class from Tampa to Houston as they had "run out" of these seats until April 2023. Whatever that means! United would not upgrade, even when I was willing to pay the difference (there were at least 8 spare BC seats) Therefore I paid $1300 to buy 2 business class seats. So, we had 4 seats on the TPA to Houston! Read more