Life on board an Antarctic cruise

It varies depending on where you are and what the plan of the day is, but generally breakfast will be around 7.30, 8am. On sea days this might be a bit later to give you a bit of a lie in and on some mornings it may be much earlier if there is an early morning landing planned.

It does take a long time to cruise between places in Antarctica - crossing the Drake Passage (two days), travelling between the Falklands and South Georgia (around two days), or South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula (around three days). But you’re never bored; they’re very good at scheduling lectures or films, a whole variety of stuff, so you never feel like you’re killing time. When you’re on the ship you’re usually on deck looking at whatever’s going by or the whales off the bow – they call you all outside when that happens. So you’re not cooped up in the cabin unless you have bad seas, and then you don’t really want to do anything except for lie in your cabin!

Every evening they will post the plans for the next day – you’ll see what time breakfast is, what they’re hoping to do, all of that kind of stuff. But if they wake up the next day and a fog has come in or there’s an amazing whale sighting, they will change that schedule, so it’s just an idea of what they’re planning.

The usual plan is breakfast, a morning landing for a few hours, come back and have lunch, afternoon landing and then dinner. Often they will do a little summary of the day either at dinner or just before – what we saw, where we went, what our plan is for tomorrow. After dinner you can see a film or a lecture. They have to be flexible; if you’re super rigid and you want to stick to a schedule you won’t be happy on one of these trips. They try and stick to schedule but they’re not going to bypass a whale to make a landing; they try and pick the best option for you to have the best experience.

There are long daylight hours in Antarctica. If it’s light out and something happens, even if it’s the middle of the night, they’ll wake you up and give you the option of coming out to see it. It’s up to you.

When you’re doing the landings you’re in the cold and wearing all that gear and walking the snow, so that’s actually quite a good workout. There’s also a gym on most of the ships. It varies from ship to ship, but it’s usually very small, with only a couple of rowing or running machines. It’s never too full though; the people that want to use it are able to. Some of the ships offer yoga as well – that can be challenging in the waves!

Generally, yes. We aim to offer twice daily ‘off-ship’ activities – both morning and afternoon. These might be going ashore, Zodiac cruises or a combination of the two. If you're visiting other islands on the way to Antarctica, you'll also have a couple of days of landings in the Falklands, and three or so days of landings in South Georgia on standard itineraries, to break up the longer days at sea.

We would take a maximum of 12 passengers on a Zodiac if it were just a shuttle to shore for a landing. For a Zodiac cruise we would take fewer passengers so everyone has a bit more room (eight to ten passengers would be the norm).

The captain and expedition leader will do the best they can to rearrange the landings in the case of bad weather. However, sometimes that is not possible and in that case, they will try to schedule a lecture or two while the ship maneuvers to its next position.

Prior to your first landing, everyone will need to properly clean all of their gear in order to prevent bringing anything unwanted to Antarctica. This will involve using a Hoover – paying close attention to the Velcro fasteners as this is a place where things can accumulate. The expedition staff will be on hand to check that your gear is all ready for the landings. After every landing, you will need to clean your rubber boots thoroughly to prevent transfer of things from one landing site to the next. There are stations set up where you can wade into water and scrub your boots (and the bottom of your waterproof trousers if these have also gotten dirty) using brushes provided.

It varies from ship to ship but in general, breakfast is buffet style – unlimited tea and coffee, a selection of fruit juices, hot options including bacon and eggs or omelettes, French toast or pancakes. Plus a selection of bread and toast and jam, honey or marmalade, fruit and cereal.

Lunch can be a three course set meal, with a choice of mains including at least one vegetarian option. It could also be a buffet, and there’s the occasional barbecue. Dinner consists of three or four courses with a starter of soup and/or salad, a choice of mains with at least one vegetarian option and a dessert, with tea and coffee.

Every time I’ve been on a polar trip, a good chunk of the people are travelling on their own. People are in Antarctica because they really want to be, so it’s very easy to meet people and mingle. If you’re in a Zodiac with only ten other people and you see something you’ve already got that bond, you never feel left out.

Most of the ships will give you an email so you can email back home, but there is no instant way of finding out any information or of talking to people for three weeks. If you’re on a longer trip it can be daunting. There is communication if you need it, but you can’t use things like your own email. I personally love it but I know some people don’t like the idea of being out of touch for that long. You are just with those people, on that ship, experiencing it – you become quite a group that way. You can’t share it with anyone else in the same way; you can’t send a photo home and say “look what I did today!”

And it’s a silly thing but – choosing what you have for dinner. The food is great, but it is what it is – you can’t say “I’m having a burger today” if they’re not doing burgers today. The food is really good and it’s a great experience, but when I got home I was happy to eat what I felt like!

Photo credits: [Top box: Christopher Michel] [Passing time: Ben Stephenson] [Lectures: Ben Stephenson] [Zodiac and iceberg: Christopher Michel] [On shore: Roderick Eime] [Seating at meals: Christopher Michel]