Silversleuth Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

We had an excellent experience going with Viking Lines last year. Zodiac trips to shore almost daily, excellent guides and talks by distinguished scientists, very good accommodations and meals. The ship, Octantis, has two submarines on board for a look beneath the sea. Just signed up for another visit, same ship, extended excursion, next year.

::Ed::

Silversleuth Loc: San Francisco Bay Area

We had an excellent experience going with Viking Lines last year. Zodiac trips to shore almost daily, excellent guides and talks by distinguished scientists, very good accommodations and meals. The ship, Octantis, has two submarines on board for a look beneath the sea. Just signed up for another visit, same ship, extended excursion, next year.

::Ed::

mrtkarlin Loc: Ashland, Oregon

Thank you all so much for the suggestions and considerations. Lots of research to do.

JimGray Loc: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Does the double negative mean there are birds in Antarctica? Penguins are birds and there are a lot of them in Antarctica. We also saw skuas and cormorants as well as some other species of birds in Antarctica.

A word about the kinds of cruises - Lindblad cruises are expensive, but they emphasize photography. On a cruise to South Georgia, we had 4 photographer guides with 46 passengers. On a Quark cruise to Antarctica, we had one photographer guide for about 90 passengers and he was busy taking photos and processing them and was not very available. Nevertheless, I would recommend Quark. Another organization we used for southern Chile was Far South Expeditions. I would recommend them. They are headquartered in Punta Arenas, Chile.

mrtkarlin Loc: Ashland, Oregon

Thanks for these suggestions JimGray.

ricardo00

According to an announcement last year, some Lindblad ships will begin carrying OM photographic gear for people to use. Not sure how well this works in reality (ie. is there enough gear, etc), but an interesting idea.

https://cruiseaddicts.com/lindblad-expeditions-and-om-system-team-up/

Knsh55a Loc: MN

Hurtigruten Cruises great expedition leaders and trip!

Knsh55a Loc: MN

Hurtigruten Expedition Cruises - great leadership, lots of landings - ship the Fram!’

runakid Loc: Shelbyville, TN

Meunch.

runakid Loc: Shelbyville, TN

Viking has two ships for the trip- $10K- not specific to photographers- 14 days- they have kayaks, small boats, zodiacs AND a sub on each of their ships
No kids under 18- each room has a king sized bed and a porch
300 guests
new ships. 2022
stabilizers- etc
Free great to wear for landings
Free airfare

Muench is probably the best known for his locations and service and guides
He does Antarctica and South Georgia as a combination dn as separate trips
Photographers only

runakid Loc: Shelbyville, TN

You could do Viking plus add on Patagonia extension [5 days] for the same price as Muench

KerryF

Just got back from Antarctica on Poseidon Expeditions (https://poseidonexpeditions.com/antarctica/falklands-south-georgia-antarctica-ultimate-wildlife-expedition/228/). This trip hits all your locations plus some more. Saw more birds than you will know what to do with! Here is a link to a video of our trip that Poseidon created of the trip. What you will see in the video is what we actually saw on that trip, there are no shots from different cruises or a different time.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqsztnf8wcy8b30/SeaSpiritAntarcticPeninsula-SG%2BFalklands1-22Mar2023.mp4?dl=0

Additional info: 105 passengers and 72 crew members. We did two landings a day (weather permiting).

Knsh55a Loc: MN

# of passengers dictates how many landings per day can be made. Small ships can make 2 landings per day. Larger ships can make 1 landing per. Big cruise ships make zero landings with possible exceptions of Stanley in the Falklands. You want to make as many landings as possible - to see penguins, seals and associated bird life.

https://iaato.org/visiting-antarctica/during-your-visit/

mrtkarlin Loc: Ashland, Oregon

Thanks again for all your insights and recommendations.

Latsok Loc: Recently moved to Washington State.

Check out the info about Ushuaia, Argentina (the Southern-most city on earth). Most of the guided trips to the Antarctic Peninsula, Falklands, and Southern Chile depart from there and they have a variety of options. We recently (last month) got back from a cruise to that part of the world in a bigger cruise ship, and while meandering through Drake's passage, and the ins-and-outs of the Antarctic Peninsula islands, we saw many smaller ships that went much closer to the Antarctic shores than we did. Most of them sailed from Ushuaia, and the town has loads of information about the excursions with world-class guides. Some of these ships were launching zodiacs to the shores. But- that's just so you can say you actually "walked around" in Antarctica. The most you may see will be penguins, and large orange trails in the snow. That would be penguin poop! 😂.

I got some good pictures of birds, penguins, and a variety of whales, which I took right off the ship and near Stanley, Falkland Island. Its pretty hard to get a very sharp image on the ship, due to the motion of the ship and the near hurricane-strength winds, either handheld or using a monopod or a tripod. None the less, I'm happy with my pictures and will try to post some as soon as time permits.

You are probably too late to do that trip this year, as the waters around the Arctic are probably freezing over and the guided trips are coming to a alt until sometime around November. Falklands may still be an option but probably extremely windy and chilly. .