Once we got on the ship, our trip was seamless. I have gluten and dairy allergies and the executive chef and all of the staff were wonderful about making sure that I was not "contaminated", which I deeply appreciated. Nothing worse than getting sick while on vacation! The food on the ship was incredible...so many choices and we kept discovering different places to eat and areas of the restaurants as the trip progressed. The staff were incredible. The room was beautiful. The activities were great, and the the scenery and itinerary, were fantastic. A trip of a lifetime. The only issues we had were in booking the cruise. Because it is a new cruise, the agents all told us different things. As a result, I ended up buying ski/snow pants and didn't need them. The ship provided them in our cabin for the duration of the trip. We also got large, heavier material wellington type boots for the explorations with snow. These were fantastic, and we used them, but I highly recommend also bringing regular hiking boots for the non snow walking. The snow exploration boots provided are warm, but very heavy. Good only for certain excursions. The ship also provides foul weather/warm snow jackets, which I highly recommend using, but I was also happy that I brought a regular windbreaker warm jacket as an extra. We were also told by the agents that we needed a medical exam. We got it, which wasn't easy for my husband since he didn't have a designated doctor, so they made him do a full physical and bloodwork - then we found out that this should have only been for the actual Antarctica cruise. I think the agents are good, but the website and materials given on this particular cruise just need to be made more clear. Don't let this dissuade you. This is one of the last undiscovered areas of the earth. No people for at least a week. We didn't see another boat, road or anything like civilization for at least 8 days of the trip. Which is just what we hoped for. Highly recommend seeing the penguin island excursion, know that on some days if the wind is high, itinerary might change, or you might not get into the kyak or submarine, but that is ok.... no one wants that in high wind. It is cold, and breathtaking, but warm enough while on the inside of the boat for a blouse or thin, long sleeved shirt. I brought sweaters for dinner, which I could have left home. Boat life is much more casual on an explorer ship, which was also cool. Only a few women even wore makeup! Very relaxing. We almost want to book it again...maybe we will!