Introduction
In November 2024, I visited Antarctica with my family on a voyage with Antarpply Expeditions. Antarctica was hands down the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, and the trip was a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The trip took two days of sailing each way, with four full days in Antarctica itself.
Crossing the Drake Passage was rough, as everyone warns, but the payoff for surviving the Drake was insane: towering glaciers, colonies of penguins waddling around, rolling, and falling, desktop wallpapers in every direction, and the surreal feeling of stepping onto the seventh continent for the first time.
Here is a comprehensive account of my experience in Antarctica and my honest thoughts on Antarpply Expeditions, including cost, what the ship is like, and what to expect during expedition days.
Cost & Booking Details
Cost
Antarpply Expeditions is the budget provider for Antarctica cruises. Most Antarctica cruises will run over $10,000 per person, depending on time of year and cabin type. In contrast, for our cruise, we paid roughly $5,600 per person for a basic triple cabin.
This price does not include the recommended tip of $50 per person, per day, which we were made aware of only after we boarded the ship.
What Affects the Price of an Antarctica Cruise?
Provider
This is the biggest cost factor. Antarpply Expeditions is a budget provider – the ship is a repurposed research vessel. As a result, it’s a relatively no frills experience compared to some luxury cruise providers, which can run $15,000+ per person during certain times of year.
Time of year
Antarctica cruises run from mid-November to early April, with different months having different advantages (e.g. best time for seeing baby penguins, best time for whale spotting, etc.) We took the second cruise of the sailing season, running from late November to December 1.
Late November is widely considered the shoulder season, with slightly less predictable weather and rougher seas, so prices are cheaper than peak season (typically late December through February).
Cabin type
Cabin options vary. On Antarpply, travelers can choose to book with their group in a double or triple, or as a single traveler, can choose to be booked in a double or triple with strangers. The cabins can be more or less spacious depending on price.
We got a free upgrade from the basic triple (lower level, tiny porthole window, bunk beds, single room layout) to a triple suite (upper level, two full windows, three separated beds, and two connected rooms).
Booking time
We made our booking several months in advance to guarantee a spot, but many people with flexible schedules will wait for good deals in Ushuaia, the main port for sailing to Antarctica.
Last minute bookings can be very cheap. I’ve heard anecdotally of a man who got a last minute deal for the “king suite” (best room on the boat) on a luxury cruise provider for $4,000 because the room wasn’t filled.
Extras
Wifi could be bought on board for extra with the tiered, prepaid options based on gigabytes. The wifi worked reasonably well (I saw someone taking work calls using the ship wifi). Drinks (alcoholic and soda) were also extra. Daily afternoon snacks and fruit were free.
Booking with Antarpply Expeditions
The booking system for Antarpply Expeditions was outdated and manual. To make a booking, we emailed Antarpply via the email shown on their website, and responded a few days later to provide information and next steps.
To reserve the trip, Antarpply required a three separate deposits as the trip got closer, with the trip fully paid before embarkation. They only offer one method of payment – wiring money via bank account.
The booking services and customer service provided are honestly pretty poor. They don’t remind you when deposits are due. We had to reach out ourselves and remind them, which made me question the legitimacy of the company at first.
Itinerary & Schedule (10-Day Cruise)
We took the 10-day cruise, embarking Friday afternoon and returning the next Sunday morning. It took two and a half days to sail to Antarctica and two and a half days back, meaning we only had four days in Antarctica.
What the Sailing Days Are Like
During the sailing days, the schedule was relatively sparse. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served at set times every day, with a few lectures about Antarctica (animals, ecosystem, geology, etc.) and a movie to fill time.
Passengers could step onto the outside decks if the weather wasn’t too rough to look for wildlife and walk around. We were also allowed to visit the control room and talk to the crew about how the ship worked.
During the sailing days, they also strongly recommend taking seasickness meds to prevent nausea during the Drake Passage. The meds (Dramamine) have a side effect of drowsiness, so my inclination was to sleep 12 hours a day.
What Antarctica Days Are Like
Once the ship reaches Antarctica, the schedule became a bit more fluid, with breakfast and lunch times varying based on landing times.
Antarpply targeted two landings per day, subject to weather conditions and landing availability, although some days we had just one landing and one day we had three.
Even with landings, there’s still a significant amount of time spent on the boat between activities, so the lectures and movies continue, but at a lesser frequency.
Ship & Facilities: What the Antarpply Ship Is Like
Antarpply Expeditions uses a repurposed research vessel, so the facilities are very basic.
The ship had a dining room, a leisure room, and a movie room. The dining room was pretty small, so usually we had to sit with strangers for lunch and dinner. The leisure room has big windows and large couches, where people frequently napped during the day.
Our upgraded triple suite was also pretty basic: three beds, a desk, and a private bathroom with a small sink and a shower.
The ship is also specially fitted to endure the Drake Passage, with handles for stability everywhere, no locks on the doors, anti-slide mats on the tables, beds with tall sides, etc.
Food & Dining on Antarpply Expeditions
Food during the cruise was okay. There were three meals every day: a breakfast buffet (about an hour long) and a three-course lunch and dinner where everyone eats at the same time.
The breakfast buffet was the same every day: fruit, yogurt, deli meat, cheese, eggs, and bread, along with coffee and juice. I thought the mini croissants were pretty good and the fruit was fresh.
Lunch and dinner menus varied depending on the conditions at sea (lighter meals for rockier days) and what had already been served. Antarpply did have a good amount of variation between meals, and I don’t think any dish was served more than twice.
The quality of the meals varied. I thought their soups were generally excellent, but there were some mains I didn’t care for (too oily, too salty, etc.) The desserts were mostly too sweet.
The cruise also left out some fruit (bananas, apples, oranges) for the taking any time of day, and served an afternoon snack of mostly light pastries, some of which were very good.
Activities & Expeditions in Antarctica
On Antarpply, the expedition team targeted an average of two expeditions per day, depending on weather, location, and landing availability (only one operator can land at a given spot during a given time of day).
We had a mix of landings (self-exploration on land) and zodiacs (small boat expeditions). Unlike some luxury Antarctica providers, there was no kayaking, camping, or hiking.
Landings would typically last for a few hours. The expedition crew would go on land with us, but once there, we were mostly left to explore by ourselves within a designated area.
One benefit of having less than 100 passengers on board was that everyone got to go on land for the full time every landing. Antarctica regulations require that no more than 100 passengers from one ship land at a time.
Zodiac rides lasted about an hour or less. The expedition crew would provide explanations of what we were looking at and point out wildlife and scenery.
Personally, I preferred the landings over the zodiacs, as there was more to interact with and see (penguins, seals up close).
Our Antarctica Landings & Excursions
Our landings included:
- Two Hummock Island: We had two landings here, one in the morning (Hydrurga Rocks) and one in the afternoon (Palaver Rock).
- Portal Point (on the Antarctic continent): This was a surprise third landing thanks to fantastic weather. We got to experience golden hour and “sunset” on the continent, which felt really special.
- Bancroft Bay zodiac tour, where we saw Gentoo penguins from afar for the first time.
- Patagonia Bay zodiac tour, where we saw Anvers Island and the Lipen Glacier.
- Jougla Point: We saw penguins performing their mating rituals.
- Palmer Research Station: This was an American research station, and we were their first visitors since 2020, when the stations were shut down to tourism due to COVID. We got tours from the people who worked there, saw the facilities, and chatted with the scientists while snacking on brownies and coffee.
- Foyn Harbor zodiac tour, site of an oil / whaling ship shipwreck, with lots of birds and seals.
We were originally supposed to do a polar plunge the afternoon before sailing back to Argentina, but weren’t able to due to weather conditions.
Staff & Expedition Team
The expedition team and other staff were generally super nice people. Everyone who worked on the boat was friendly and helpful and some had a great sense of humor. It genuinely felt like everyone was there to make the experience as good as possible.
I also want to give a shout out to the doctor that helped me recover after I passed out from vertigo during the Drake Passage – he was super helpful and professional.
Antarpply Expeditions: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Much lower cost compared to luxury cruises.
- Guaranteed time on land due to a limit on the number of passengers. Antarctica requires that no more than 100 passengers from a single boat land at a time. Larger ships split passengers into groups, reducing time on land. Antarpply limits passengers to under 100, so everyone can disembark for the full landing.
- Friendly and helpful cruise staff who seem genuinely excited to be there and who want to make the experience great for you. They made an effort to remember names, celebrate birthdays, answer questions, etc.
- Cool expeditions and itinerary. There was a good variety of expeditions, and the ship’s expedition team tried their best to find interesting things to do. We got to land on the Antarctica continent and visit a research station (first visitors since 2020).
Cons
- They stamped passports without passenger permission.
- When you board the boat, you are required to hand your passport to the ship’s staff. The expectation is that the passports are held for safekeeping and that they will not be tampered with.
- However, only after I got my passports returned, I found out that they had stamped my passport on the visa page a stamp of the research station we visited. This is not a legitimate stamp and could theoretically make the passport invalid.
- I thought it was unacceptable that they did this without express permission, and now I’m forced to take the risk of my passport being invalid whenever I travel for the next nine years.
- The food is mediocre overall.
- They’re working with limitations (cooking on a rocky ship for 100 people), and they did a decent job varying meals and adjusting to conditions.
- Breakfast was the same every day, and I didn’t love that there was no choice in what you ate for lunch or dinner (besides dietary restrictions).
- Some meals were too oily and salty.
- No add-on adventure excursions. Higher-end providers offer ocean kayaking, camping, and hiking in Antarctica. Antarpply doesn’t offer any of these.
- Disorganized booking process. The booking staff took a long time to respond, and we had to remind them when deposits were due. The system felt extremely manual and outdated.
- Annoying PA system. This is personal preference, but every morning they made an announcement 30 minutes before breakfast, waking everyone up. I wish they let people wake up naturally, since breakfast is available for an hour and not everyone needs to be there immediately.
Final Thoughts: Is Antarpply Expeditions Worth It?
Antarctica was a great, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I thought Antarpply Expeditions was overall a good way to visit on a relative budget.
I’d recommend them to anyone who wants to get a taste of Antarctica without paying luxury prices and doesn’t care much about the frills.
ADJENTURING 