Canceled – Antarctica Trip Overview

On January 20, 2020 Katie reached out to our travel agent to request ideas for a trip to Antarctica. We found that there are basically two experience options for travel to Antarctica on either a large cruise ship (one that does not actually land on the continent) or a small expedition cruise ship (these involve many hours on a zodiac raft and due to capacity limits guests wait their turn to land on the continent). We attended virtual cruise overview presentations comparing the different cruise experience types.

After much discussion of the pros and cons of each experience we opted for the large cruise ship experience primarily due to Joe’s concerns regarding his back. We continued to wait and watch the various large ship Antarctica cruises that were being offered.

On February 11, 2021 we saw that Norwegian Cruise Line was offering a 14 day South America and Antarctica Cruise on the Norwegian Star. We opted for the sailing departing on Sunday 16 January 2022 through 30 January 2022.

On December 15, 2021 we received an email updating the itinerary for our trip. Although, Argentina opened to tourists on 1 November 2021 the Falkland Islands due to their size and remote location remains closed to cruise ships with greater than 500 passengers. Instead we will cruise Admiralty Bay, Antarctica.

The Star is a ship that we have sailed before and has a minor but critical difference between its sister ship Norwegian Dawn. There are four suites on Deck 12 that have a balcony rather than all glass walls. We booked the SC Penthouse with Balcony. Deck 12 is a favorite location on the Dawn Class ships due to proximity to the pool deck, buffet and kids club.