Up next in 10
I Had No Idea “Expedition” Cruising Would Be Like This
17K views
Jan 28, 2025
Before going on the expedition cruise to Antarctica I am just back from, I rather naively thought that an expedition cruise was basically a regular cruise that went to more remote destinations. I was wrong. And here is why and what would have been good to have known. ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 85 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
before going on the expedition cruise to
0:01
antarctica i'm just back from i rather
0:04
naively thought that an expedition
0:05
cruise was basically a regular cruise
0:07
that went to more remote destinations i
0:10
was wrong as you're about to find out by
0:12
the way if you're new here welcome
0:14
aboard i'm gary bembridge and it's my
0:16
goal to help make it easier and more fun
0:18
to discover plan and enjoy unforgettable
0:20
cruise vacations like expedition ones
0:23
before i get into some of the unexpected
0:25
aspects of expedition cruising let me
0:27
quickly address some of the more obvious
0:29
ones even though i probably hadn't
0:31
realized the significance of them all
0:33
when i went first of all an expedition
0:35
cruise costs much more per day than a
0:38
regular cruise an antarctic cruise for
0:40
example tools of the arctic will set you
0:43
back around 1 000
0:45
u.s dollars per day per person based on
0:48
dual occupancy of an ocean view cabin
0:50
one of the more affordable lines with
0:52
flights and the cruise second while they
0:54
go to harder and more remote places like
0:56
the arctic antarctica collapse against
0:58
greenland and canadian northwest passage
1:01
i see you can also go on expedition
1:03
crews to places the regular cruises go
1:04
like alaska iceland and the amazon
1:08
that brings me on to the third issue
1:10
where the key difference between an
1:11
expedition cruise is they use a
1:13
different kind of ship in all of these
1:15
places they're smaller to navigate into
1:17
more remote and harder to reach places
1:19
because some places actually restrict
1:21
the number of people that can visit or
1:23
permitted to do landings at any one time
1:25
they need to be smaller in antarctica
1:27
for example
1:28
only 100 people are allowed on land at
1:31
any one time and so most expedition
1:33
ships like pon and la le real i was on
1:36
only carries a maximum of 200 guests to
1:38
be able to kind of offer
1:40
the amount of landings and experiences
1:42
that everyone expects every day
1:44
larger ships in these areas tend to only
1:46
offer sail by scenic cruising for
1:48
example
1:49
then there's a practical thing that
1:50
expedition ships have to have versus
1:52
regular cruise ships they have to have
1:54
strengthened holes if they're going to
1:56
go into the arctic or antarctica for the
1:58
ice they need shallow drafts so they can
2:00
get into smaller more remote places they
2:03
need facilities like a mud room to clean
2:05
off your boots when coming back off land
2:07
they also have to have room for the
2:08
zodiacs and cranes to lower and raise
2:11
the zodiacs into the water they have to
2:13
have space to hold plenty of fuel and
2:15
food because they're going to cruise for
2:17
longer periods of time in areas without
2:19
the ability to restock most also have
2:23
much more limited facilities than
2:24
regular cruise ships usually just a main
2:26
dining room maybe a buffet
2:28
dining room a lounge a lecture theater a
2:31
photo center a small spartan gym you're
2:34
not going to find things like casinos
2:35
and other kind of fancy facilities i
2:38
also found as i planned this last
2:40
expedition cruise is that the most
2:42
established cruise lines in expedition
2:44
are very different to those in regular
2:46
cruising those well-established
2:48
expedition lines include names like lin
2:50
blatt which also run national geographic
2:52
quark uncruise abercrombie and kent
2:54
poloquest atlas aurora intrepid and so
2:58
on but slowly well in fact increasingly
3:01
quickly classic cruise lines are coming
3:03
into the space you've got celebrity who
3:04
degrades in hypergloyd pennant crystal
3:06
seabourn silversea viking most of these
3:10
regular classic cruise lines have
3:12
actually created a separate expedition
3:14
division which is also a clear signal
3:16
that things are incredibly different and
3:19
here's where it gets really interesting
3:21
and where i started to encounter
3:23
a lot of unexpected differences when i
3:26
go on a regular cruise to the caribbean
3:27
the mediterranean alaska and so on i
3:29
know day by day
3:31
where i'm going to be what time i'll be
3:32
getting there what i can do when i'm
3:34
there and what time i'll be leaving
3:36
many ships on these routes run the same
3:39
itinerary week after week and they will
3:40
be
3:41
at the same place at the same time every
3:43
single week
3:45
there may be of course some delays or
3:47
rate changes because of bad weather to
3:48
those itineraries our expedition leader
3:50
rafael who's been doing expedition
3:52
cruising for 12 years claimed that no
3:54
cruise he's done even to the same
3:56
destination in a season is the same as
3:58
the one before there's no fixed
3:59
itinerary there's just a set of goals
4:02
and a rough plan so for example he had
4:04
four goals for the trip that i've just
4:06
got back from to get us to south georgia
4:09
south orkneys the antarctic peninsula
4:11
and the south shetlands he then had a
4:13
rough plan of where we would be going
4:16
in each of those what we'd do when we
4:18
got there but he just didn't know and he
4:20
couldn't promise or guarantee anything
4:23
on expedition cruises like this they can
4:25
only properly plan the next day
4:28
based on the weather and ice that they
4:30
learn about the day before and even then
4:32
we had plans scrapped and changed on a
4:34
number of mornings because once we
4:36
arrived it was just not possible to do
4:38
because of wind the swell or the ice
4:41
there are no ports of call with docks on
4:43
expedition cruises like this when i was
4:45
on there are bays there's old whaling
4:47
stations research stations nesting areas
4:50
penguin colonies or places of historic
4:52
interest we literally just sell into a
4:54
remote spot gone to the zodiacs and went
4:56
exploring on a classic cruise when i get
4:59
my daily program i can be fairly sure
5:01
everything will run as advertised and on
5:04
time this is not the case on an
5:06
expedition cruise the daily program is a
5:09
guideline it's not set in stone and it
5:11
can and it will
5:13
change often
5:14
the other thing i found on an expedition
5:16
cruise which is different to classic
5:18
cruising is to expect sudden
5:20
interruptions and diversions for example
5:23
one lunch time sitting between gritviken
5:25
and santander's bay for our afternoon
5:27
landing we were interrupted by the
5:29
captain during lunch to say we were
5:31
diverting to follow some orca whales
5:34
this happened another evening during a
5:36
briefing we were having a briefing when
5:38
humpback whales were spotted and we
5:40
diverted to follow them and scrapped the
5:42
briefing while that took place another
5:44
unexpected diversion was just after
5:46
dinner one evening when the captain
5:48
announced he'd seen an area in vilamina
5:50
bay where he believed he could
5:52
physically push into the ice shelf and
5:54
let us step out of the ship and walk on
5:56
the ice which we did around 11 o'clock
5:58
at night so when you look at an
6:00
advertised itinerary for an expedition
6:02
cruise
6:03
the list of wildlife you're going to see
6:05
the places it says you will call on
6:07
understand it will be unpredictable
6:10
and definitely changeable another thing
6:13
driven home to me is that expedition
6:15
cruising unlike regular cruising
6:17
has many risks they are higher for
6:21
travelers higher for the cruise line the
6:23
ship the crew and even the places you
6:26
call on in our first briefing we were
6:28
told repeatedly that safety is paramount
6:32
because going into a remote place means
6:34
that one person's misfortune affects
6:36
everybody
6:37
dramatically if someone's injured or
6:40
falls seriously ill the ship would have
6:42
to leave the area and go and find help
6:45
we would have to turn around and had to
6:47
say to asshai in argentina or to the
6:49
falklands many hundreds or thousands of
6:52
nautical miles away it would be at least
6:54
two days to get there on a regular
6:56
cruise it's closer to civilization and a
6:58
medevac or seeking attention at the next
7:01
port a day or so away is possible and
7:03
the entire trip is not thrown off the
7:05
other difference related to this is to
7:07
go on expedition cruise like the one
7:08
hours on versus a regular cruise is i
7:10
had to have much more pre-trip medical
7:13
screening for the trip i did on punant i
7:15
had to have a full medical with my gp my
7:18
doctor who had to sign it off
7:20
saying i was fit and healthy to go
7:23
to do some optional activities like a
7:25
polar plunge or kayaking required even
7:27
more quite a hard scan the other thing
7:30
that really drove home to be the risk is
7:32
we had a series of mandatory briefings
7:34
never on a classic cruise do you see
7:36
anything other than the master drill
7:38
with the word mandatory included for
7:40
example we had a mandatory briefing
7:42
before we were allowed to get off the
7:43
ship in antarctica this is required by
7:46
the international association of
7:48
antarctic tour operators ayato founded
7:50
in 1991. this includes how to behave and
7:54
be safe on land which animals stay away
7:56
from how far to stay away from them what
7:58
to do if they get aggressive and so on
8:01
we had another mandatory briefing where
8:03
we had to go and learn how to get on and
8:05
off the zodiacs for example we then had
8:08
another mandatory activity where all the
8:10
clothes that we were going to wear
8:12
externally had to be checked screened
8:14
vacuumed
8:16
there are really strict rules to stop
8:18
the introduction of foreign plants or
8:19
seeds into antarctica and moving
8:21
anything like that between the different
8:23
sites
8:24
so we had our external clothes rucksacks
8:26
and so on screened and checked in fact a
8:28
couple of times during the cruise and
8:30
when we came back from each landing we
8:32
had to vigorously and rigorously clean
8:34
our boots there were strict rules on
8:37
each landing with areas kind of laid out
8:39
and marked where we could go and no
8:41
divergence was allowed because of the
8:43
risks whether it's slipping on the ice
8:44
or the rocks or being attacked by an
8:46
animal or whatever
8:47
the risks are greater and much more
8:50
intensely enforced compared to a classic
8:52
cruise another big thing i found out is
8:54
exactly how the cruise operates and the
8:56
priorities are very different on an
8:58
expedition versus the classic cruise the
9:01
ship becomes more of a floating
9:03
expedition base than a floating resort
9:05
as it's on as it is on a classic cruise
9:08
it's basically a place to rest relax and
9:10
be briefed between the different
9:12
explorations
9:13
this led to seven big differences i
9:15
discovered across my trip to the way
9:17
regular cruises run first there's no big
9:21
entertainment team which is fundamental
9:23
to a classic cruise instead it's
9:25
replaced by an expedition team on this
9:27
cruise i was on there were 14 in the
9:29
expedition team they were naturalists
9:32
historians bird experts geologists
9:35
marine biologists experts on glaciers
9:38
they are the entertainment entertainment
9:39
is enrichment not production shows
9:41
quizzes bingo and so on enrichment
9:44
lectures on a classic cruise is one of
9:46
the entertainment activities on an
9:48
expedition cruise it is the
9:50
entertainment it is the star we did have
9:52
a bit of live music in the evenings in
9:54
the lounge by a small group of musicians
9:56
and singers but the focus was on the
9:58
talks and on the recaps
10:00
we had up to three lectures a day on sea
10:02
days we had briefings and recaps every
10:04
day based on what we'd seen that
10:06
particular day late nights and partying
10:09
are not a thing on expedition cruises
10:11
unlike on classic cruises secondly the
10:14
photographic team also plays a very
10:17
different role in expedition cruising
10:19
rather than taking pictures of me with a
10:21
captain or whatever they were always out
10:23
taking pictures of the wildlife and
10:25
making a video of the cruising
10:27
experience which of course are available
10:28
to buy still third in terms of
10:31
excursions that's a different thing as
10:33
well on a classic cruise i'm used to
10:35
choosing from a wide range of different
10:37
excursions in any particular port that's
10:40
not what happens on an expedition cruise
10:42
there was basically no choice of things
10:44
to do at a stop i could either take part
10:46
in what was on offer or not take part
10:50
there are three main things that
10:52
happened on this expedition cruise and
10:54
others first of all scenic cruising on
10:56
the ship secondly scenic cruising on
10:57
zodiacs and thirdly wet landings where i
10:59
got to hike or explore in a specific
11:02
area as i mentioned earlier the only
11:03
thing that was optional i could have
11:05
paid to go kayaking in a few spots the
11:08
magical thing for me anyway were the wet
11:11
landings as i could walk on amazing
11:13
beaches see seals penguins and walk
11:16
amongst them
11:17
i also enjoyed the cruising on the
11:18
zodiacs because i got to go and see some
11:20
of the wildlife like birds nesting on
11:22
cliffs close get closer up to icebergs
11:25
and glaciers the fourth key difference
11:27
is packing and clothes it's very
11:28
different to classic cruise the thing
11:31
that gets people worried on a classic
11:32
cruise is the dress code is it a smart
11:35
dress code is there a party night and so
11:37
on on expedition cruises it is different
11:40
first you have to pack very specific
11:42
gear for the region so for the antarctic
11:45
or the arctic i had to bring a series of
11:46
layers the base layers are kind of a
11:48
long john types of stuff then an
11:51
insulating layer then it has an outer
11:53
layer which had to be waterproof most of
11:56
these i had to provide for myself
11:59
most expedition cruisers give you the
12:01
big warm parker which is a bright color
12:04
normally red like the panant one the
12:07
idea is that everybody wears these
12:08
parkers and so on land they can see the
12:10
distance everybody very easily i had
12:13
brought my own boots because i had
12:14
bought them on a previous trip but
12:16
pennant did hire boots to say people
12:19
having to carry them because they're
12:20
pretty heavy to ensure people were
12:22
protected there was a list of mandatory
12:24
things we had to bring as a mandatory
12:26
packing list this included a head
12:28
covering a neck warmer not a scarf
12:30
because that could blow away waterproof
12:32
trousers thick socks waterproof gloves
12:35
inner gloves and the high boots because
12:37
you step off into water of the zodiacs
12:40
there's no mandatory list on a regular
12:42
cruise as even the dress code is largely
12:45
optional talking of dress code i soon
12:47
realized that on expedition cruise that
12:50
no one pays attention to the dress code
12:53
on penance the pre-cruise booklet spoke
12:55
at a length about dress codes for gala
12:57
nights smart casualness no jeans bring a
13:00
suit a tie and four more nights
13:02
nobody paid any attention
13:05
people like me were what we wanted to
13:07
it's because it's all about the
13:08
expedition it's all about having the
13:10
right clothes to go on the tour it's not
13:12
about the dress code back on the ship
13:14
fifthly interestingly dining and food is
13:16
also much less of a focus certainly i
13:18
found of course food is important and
13:20
the food is basically the same as on a
13:22
regular cruise but i've found a really
13:25
big shift in the role of dining on an
13:27
expedition cruise people want to go in
13:29
have lunch have dinner get to bed get
13:32
ready for the next day it was a chance
13:34
to of course socialize share experiences
13:36
from the day but its role
13:38
seemed much more functional i felt
13:40
anyway
13:41
sixthly unlike a regular cruise i found
13:43
that being active and mobile is really
13:46
key
13:46
to have the best and get the most from
13:50
an expedition cruise i had to climb in
13:52
and out of zodiacs often when there were
13:54
swells leap out into the shallow ocean
13:56
for the landing the landings usually
13:58
include hiking kind of up steep snow and
14:01
ice covered hills i did find expedition
14:04
versus regular cruising quite a tiring
14:06
process because it's so active often
14:08
with really early starts
14:10
next
14:11
one of the most important things i
14:13
learnt that's different between a
14:14
classic cruise and an expedition cruise
14:17
as we were advised to do this by the
14:19
expedition leader is the importance of
14:22
standing still and just looking
14:25
on a classic cruise we're all out
14:26
wanting to do things have fun enjoy
14:28
ourselves and to capture that however
14:31
what i realized on an expedition cruise
14:33
is the ultimate thing to do is to put my
14:36
camera down to stand and look at the
14:39
view
14:40
the incredible hill i've hiked up
14:42
the glacier watch the elephant seals the
14:45
antarctic fur seals the king penguins
14:47
and to slowly
14:49
take what is going in listen to the
14:51
sounds drinking the sights just stopping
14:54
standing still and taking it all in is
14:56
something that really matters on an
14:58
expedition cruise i had a number of
15:00
other incredible revelations based on my
15:02
expedition cruise which is in this video
15:05
starting with the biggest shock to me
15:07
around what man has done and is doing in
15:09
these regions see you over there
#Adventure Travel
#Cruises & Charters
#Guided Tours & Escorted Vacations
#Specialty Travel
#Tourist Destinations
#Travel Guides & Travelogues