Antarctica had been on our bucket list for a while, and so when our Russian River Cruise was canceled and Viking announced the launch of their two new expedition ships the choice for us was a "no-brainer." The most stressful part of the journey was getting to and from the Viking Octantis. Our southbound trip from Flagstaff required three flights, twenty-nine (29) hours of travel and gaining four time zones, door to door, just to get to Buenos Aires. And follow Viking's pre-embarkation instructions as you won't see a Viking representative until you are outside of the security zone at the Ezeiza airport. There they will take your luggage and get you on a bus to the hotel. (Spending the night in Buenos Aires allows passengers to arrive at disparate times during the day.) Also remember that you will arrive during the Argentinian summer and you might want some lighter clothing if you leave the hotel to have dinner (on your own.) The Viking crew at the hotel does your first in-depth check-in, reviews what happens next and answers all the usual questions. You are also assigned a bus for the next morning.

And the next morning begins EARLY. The hotel opened the restaurant for breakfast at 3 a.m. as the charter flight to Ushuaia departs at 6:20 a.m.. An entire shipload of passengers has to board the 3½ hour flight before embarkation. (Your checked bag(s) must be outside your hotel room by 10 p.m., so pack accordingly.) When we arrived in the Ushuaia airport we made our way through the Viking passengers who just dis-embarked from the Octantis and were heading home. You do the embarkation check-in at the ship and can have a meal, but are encouraged to go into town until 4 p.m. with ship departing at 5 p.m.. This all makes sense, when you realize that the Octantis had disgorged the previous passenger compliment that morning and it was in the process of being cleaned and re-stocked for our expedition.

Once aboard we settled into our cabin and fired up the Viking app on our phone to book more dinner reservations. Pre-embarkation, passengers are allowed to reserve one dinner each in the two full service dining rooms - The Restaurant and Manfredi's Italian. We booked six more dinners spread out during the cruise. Manfredi's and The Restaurant offer more select and refined servings in a restaurant setting. The food offerings in the main food service area - the World Café - were varied, plentiful and tasty. The majority of food is served buffet style, but for beef lovers The Grill has many cuts of beef and pork, including non-meat burgers, cooked to your preference. And the omelette station at breakfast will cook two eggs in any style that you prefer. And then there's the baker -- whose day starts at 2 a.m.. He makes all breads from scratch, and the sticky buns are to-die-for. He also created a sea-serpent bread beast, complete with scales and spine ridges, around three feet long. The serpent's name was Jack, and he was in the bakery window up to the last day at sea. Read more