My Journey to Antarctica with Atlas Ocean Voyages

Join me as I share my unforgettable journey to Antarctica with Atlas Ocean Voyages aboard the World Navigator. From crossing the Drake Passage to marveling at rare Emperor penguins, kayaking among icebergs, and even taking the polar plunge, this episode is packed with the magic and mystery of the White Continent. Hear about the intimate experience of a small-ship expedition, stunning landscapes, and the thrill of nature at its most raw and untouched. If you've ever dreamed of visiting Antarctica, this episode is for you!

Episode Highlights

• Crossing the legendary Drake Passage
• Exploring Tierra del Fuego National Park
• Encountering wildlife: penguins, seals, whales, and more
• Adventurous excursions: Zodiacs, kayaking, and snowball fights
• Life aboard the World Navigator: cuisine, camaraderie, and comfort
• Why Antarctica is a must-visit destination

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Transcript

Paula: 0:20

Hey everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. I wanted to take a hot minute and talk a little bit about a trip that I went on. Right around Thanksgiving time, actually, which considering we're in January now, it seems so long ago, but it really wasn't, to be honest with you, but I had the joy, the privilege and the blessing to go to Antarctica. This one has been on my. List. It's been on my vision board. For a couple of years And no, oddly enough, it is not my seventh continent, which is funny. But I do love a great adventure in Antarctica has just always been on that place for me. So it was really awesome to have the opportunity to, to go down and. And experience it all. I went with Atlas ocean voyages. on their ship, the world navigator. And you maybe haven't heard of this cruise line. They're new, they're a baby. Amongst cruises. I think they've only been. Maybe sailing in business for maybe three or four years, they have, I believe three ships. They've they're building some more. And they're not large ships. If you know me at all, you know that I am a cruise snob. But I do. Really enjoy a smaller ship for multitude of reasons. I don't like sharing. My vacation. A whole lot of people, even though when I go on these trips, I'm not always on vacation, but I still, I don't enjoy great crowds of people. And I also enjoy. The benefits of a smaller ship, because you can get into places where a lot of big ships cannot go. So this was what they call an expedition cruise. We flew into it, went into Buenos Aires and spent the night. Although you do get up really early in the morning to catch a private charter. So it's just, just the cruise passengers, it private charter that go down to a Schwab. It's probably a, maybe three-ish three to four hour flight from Buenos Aires down to a schwa. You're literally going to the very bottom of Argentina. And once we got there, we went to, The national park, which is a Tierra Del Fuego. And was tired. Let's be honest with you. I was tired of, you're at the end of the world for sure. So I really wasn't that super excited about going through this national park, but I was really delightfully surprised it was it's stunning. It's absolutely beautiful. The topography, the nature, it's just it's it was a great experience. So I'm really glad that I went. If you ever have the opportunity to. To swing through there. I definitely, definitely recommend it for sure. So after we had toured the national park, we were able to board. The ship and I had a beautiful balcony cabin. Which was plenty spacious. You know, you always wonder about some of the, the cruise cabins. If there's going to be room, this was a. Nine night to sailing. I believe it was. And it takes a couple of days to cross the Drake passage on your way to Antarctica. And it also takes a couple of days on the way back. And you hear stories about the Drake passage, whether it's going to be. Great, or it's going to be horrible. You hear all of those types of stories. I am. Blessed. In that I'm one of the people who does not get seasick. So that was good. I would say the way down. We were actually with the winds, with the currents, everything. It was just a really gentle, rocking motion. there's plenty of stuff to do on onboard the ship. I was a little worried about that. Thinking. I'm going to be bored. There's nothing to do, but there's tons of. talks from the staff. You really get to know all of the guides. The photographers, everybody. The cruise manager, like when you get to know everybody, because it's a small ship and there's less than what, 250 people, including the crew. So it's. It's it's, it's a very intimate experience. The food was phenomenal. I will definitely say that. Atlas is. Really. Working on becoming a leader with their culinary experiences when they aren't doing Antarctica. They do other like European destinations. And they do a lot of features that really revolve around food. So their food was definitely next level. Which I was surprised. Delightfully surprised. At for sure. And, and the, the level of talent, it was just, it was really fun to just get to know everybody. And or you could squirrel away to your quiet space if you wanted to as well. But oh, talking about the food though. They do have this. It's not like a chocolate crystal, but it has like Nutella in it. And oh, That was to die for so fantastic. I maybe had one of those every single day and maybe still be in withdrawals because we're so good. So yeah, and I felt like there was plenty of space. There was also plenty of gathering spaces. Should you want. I did hit the gym. If you know me at all, I did hit the gym. So that was, that was cool. That's a smaller gym, but you can, you can get your stuff done. That's that's all. That's important. So that was the ship. They have a. Like a theater room. That they would do presentations in. They would also show movies in there. They would have performances in there. It was, it was just delightful. You could go up to the captain. What do they call that? It's not like the cockpit, but it's the bridge. There you go. The bridge of the ship and it was open bridge policy. So you could go up there and meet. Meet everybody. That was, that was working on navigating us through all of the things that we needed to do to get to where we're going. And so with Antarctica I realized a lot of different things, but. One of the things. Was it's just. It was just a quote unquote, flexible itinerary. So it's very, very weather dependent. If the weather is looking really terrible. You know, they may go to a different, different area. It's just really spurred the moment. Decision-making. And you don't know what you're going to see. For sure. It's obviously, it's a lot of penguins, which is really cool. We actually had the opportunity to see. An emperor penguin. Which on our particular route. It was incredibly rare. So of course that's the one that shows up on, but incredibly, incredibly rare. That was a real tree. And to talk to the guides that have been going there for so many years and have done so many different trips down to Antarctica you know, some of them are like, no, this is my 12th year of. Doing Antarctica, cruises and cruise guiding with various companies. And this is maybe the third or fourth time I've ever seen an emperor penguin. Like in this area. There are known to be in other areas of Antarctica, but not necessarily where we were. So that was definitely. Highlights. Seals, whales, birds icebergs. Oh my gosh. The icebergs. We're in just the color that. That it's it's that glacier blue. That just beautiful, beautiful blue. And, and the glaciers just, you know, everywhere. The experiences you never really knew. What your, your experience was going to be for the day. So once we got actually to. You would cross the Drake passage. We got to Antarctica. Then we had. We had some land landings, I guess you'd call it. And you go from the ship. Because there aren't any ports. So you take a Zodiac. To to land. And then you go, go onto land to do whatever you're going to do. And you know, it varied from various types of tracking different things like that. There was one day. They had a bunch of what they call sheet ice. And it's. It's a very rare thing as well, but it's the ice hadn't melted yet and was still super thick and it was super safe for people to go walk on. So we took a Zodiac and we went and we walked on the ice. It was covered by probably. Man. Maybe a foot of snow. But we could get right up to different. Glaciers and Just. It was really cool. In fact, when we were out there, I got sunburn because. It was probably about. 30 degrees. The sun was out. I forgot to put sunscreen on. On my head, on the parts of my hair. And that got sunburn and not bad, but enough for it stung for a couple of days. And it was just, it was, this was amazing to, to be out there, but it was really cool. Cause we're, we're trudging around. We're seeing just this. The mountains and the glaciers, and it's just beautiful. And then you would turn one direction. And you could see the storm just like coming in and coming in hot. And it, while we're out there, like it. It definitely passed over us. I would definitely say. It changed the temperature, the winds kicked up. We were all like bundling up real fast because before we were sweaty from trudging around in the snow and the sun. And it was just such a raw nature experience. And you just never knew what you were going to see in the way, like I said, the wheels. Orca is and how the Albatross and just the, the level of. You know, untouched beauty was really, really special. I'm super glad that I went the ship. Was also interesting in that the average age was about 37 years old. You know, not, not really like you're, you're super aged traveler. And I can appreciate and see why just because you have to take a Zodiac to get to land, and then once you get on land, you're. You know, you're. Moving around. You're trudging through snow. It's it's not like you're in a port. It's nature. So I would definitely say some physical acuity needs to be present and that needs to happen. One of the activities offered. Was to do some sea kayaking, which I loved. To just get out there you're and you dress up in a dry suit. And you. Go out as a group. And you've got two guides and you also have a gentleman and a Zodiac as well. That's, you know, nearby, should anything happened? You know, so great level of, you know, quote-unquote safety and just go out on these kayaks, and you're just, you're right there with the water and you could hear. The ice popping and you're so close to nature and it was a really special experience and loved it so much. Some people did. I did not do this. I looked at it and I went, Ooh, I grew up in the north. And I just, Nope, they did like ice, camping or snow camping. I'm not sure what you want to call it, but they. They leave the ship at night and they go and they dig themselves like a. I don't want to call it a grave, but it's like a trough. And then they have a sleeping bag and they snuggle up in the sleeping bag and they spend the night outside. Overnight You know, people that I talked to, they said they were glad that they did it. I only talked to two people that said they would do it again on purpose of. So just, you know, keep that in mind. Most people could have said they got really cold towards the end. But, Hey, it's an experience like when else are you going to have that? There's that. Let's see what else. Oh, yeah. I did do. The polar punch. I've never done a polar punch before. And I will. Do one again. Yeah, because I actually don't like the cold. I know that sounds weird that I went to Antarctica and I don't like the cold, but I don't really like the cold and. I did the polar plunge. That water is shockingly cold. Alarmingly cold. I think it feels, I feel like I still have PTSD. But it was an experience that check that box. I got the certificate. I will say this when I was under the water, I opened my eyes and it is the clearest blue. You will ever see it is just beautiful. And it is alarmingly cold. So that's always an option. Apparently a lot of our ship was completely crazy, not just myself, because over 90% of the ship did it. And that's rare because they said that normally it's usually like maybe 30%. Of the passengers do it. And we were all just crazy. So that was a general broad overview. Of my experience in Antartica. I highly recommend if you love nature. You will love going. You will love going. It's such, it's such a different experience. It's such a mystery. You don't know what you're going to experience that day. In fact, one of. It was our last. Zodiac trip. Out. We got into where we're going to be, and it was. It was snowing. And I don't mean like it was snowing. It was that like, Thick heavy, wet snow. And I grew up in Minnesota, so I understand what that's like. And I looked, looked outside and I was like, oh man, even though all the gear that I had was waterproof. Definitely you dress in layers. You bring waterproof. Like I had waterproof line to pants. Waterproof gloves and everything, as much as you possibly can. But I was still like, oh, I know this weather is going to suck. But we went out on the Zodiacs and we were dry and I'm like, the visibility's terrible in this stuff. Like I just, you know, I've had experienced before. And I was like, this is going to be awful. And we went out there and it was actually funny because it was snowing so, so much in the snow was so wet and thick and heavy that we ended up having. Snowball fights with the other Zodiacs. And I had so much fun. It was such a blast. You know, when else are you going to go to target and, you know, maybe have a snowball fight. And I think the most beautiful thing is that. Every single person that goes to Antarctica. Is going to have their own unique experience. So I think that is super cool. And I think that's super special. I would definitely, I would definitely recommend if you love nature at all, you would, you would enjoy this. You just have to be a little bit prepared for the length of the trip. Coming back, we did the, you know, obviously you have to cross the Drake passage again. It was a little bit more rough. Like we asked them. on a scale of one to 10 what are we at? And they were like, oh, this is probably a six. There were a couple of people in my group that were, were feeling a little bit of, you know, ill but really not beyond. They just took some, some medicine and went and took a nap and they were fine. So I feel like it was really manageable for sure. And they do everything that they possibly can to, to help ease that and to help make it enjoyable too. Would I recommend it 1000%. 1000%. if it's, if it's the trip for you. So I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully it's beneficial. If you have any questions at all about. Antarctica or Atlas, ocean voyages. Please reach out. Happy, happy to talk about. any of them. I definitely recommend this cruise line. If I was going to relate it to anybody, I would say it's probably really similar to Regent. Along the line, Regent and Silversea, like along the lines of quality service. Just personalized experience, like all of that stuff. So. just to give you. An idea of, of what they're like and who to compare them with just because they are so new. So there's that if you were thinking about Antarctica at all, I would definitely say go, I would say go sooner rather than later. And I would love to hear if you've been and what your experiences. I've been when you went. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon.