“The arrangements worked flawlessly. Drivers were punctual and efficient. Our cruise - Spirit of Shackleton was excellent. Good ship. Good crew. Excellent food. Interesting talks. Well organised trips ashore. That we were blessed with good weather was a decided bonus!”
“Absolutely the best holiday I've experienced in my life. The company was G-Adventures, their vessel was the G-Explorer, only 130-odd passengers on board, the food was excellent, the crew were absolutely exceptional, and the four places we visited on the Peninsular were breathtaking!! We saw penguins and their colonies up close, saw various seals, an occasional whale breaching, and took a Polar Plunge (not mandatory) into the icy waters - with photos as proof!! If you have the Antarctic Peninsular on your bucket list, then go with G-Adventures (organised through Chimu). In my humble opinion, you won't be disappointed!”
“Well organised tour with all connections working as promised. Excellent expedition team, with great knowledge of Antartica, on boat and very good selection of sites to visit. Unique experience passing through the Lemaire Channel. The scenery was, at times, spectacular but we had some cloudy days and snow, as well as sunshine. The Polar Pioneer is, by no means, luxurious and the cabins are small, but the meals were good and the small boat allowed great flexibility and the opportunity for all passengers to go on all landings.”
“I was traveling solo and knew I will be rooming with another female solo traveler on the 10 day Antarctica cruise. They will try to pair solo travelers obviously by gender, but by age too. I was fortunately enough to get to room with another cool lady exactly my age from Australia. We both had a dream of visiting all 7 continents by age 30! That is probably why Chimu roomed us together. There was indeed a Chimu representative that did this cruise with us. Of the 198 passengers, a total of 123 passengers booked through Chimu as he stated it. The pictures on the website of the cruise ship looked the same in person. We did get to do a polar bear plunge and 4 of those 10 days are crossing the drake passage. Half our ship did get seasick for this small ship (1/3 of size of carnival cruises). Even people who never get sicknessness experienced discomfort and those who did take seasick pills did get sick. So be prepared! It is gorgeous outside when we got to look through our pothole the first morning. The food on the ship is good and caters to people from all the continents on this journey. There were plenty of Americans on board but most passengers were from Australia. A total of 74 people on our cruise did the Polar Plunge! We were told we probably top the most ever as 40-50 people do it. They did have a shot and a warm towel for us who did it. My Chimu representative sometimes was working remotely and could not answer the phone and/or email right away due to being out of service range. I was not charge any late fees because of this when trying to pay manually with American Express.”
“The ratio of almost one crew member per guest ensured that everything ran perfectly on Albatros Expeditions' Ocean Atlantic. The guides were brilliant, the food magnificent and our (upgraded) cabin a delight. The Chimu rep on board was very helpful. To nitpick, the weather could have been kinder for photography, but the sea was reasonably benign and the wildlife magnificent. Utterly wonderful.”
“what was promised was delivered, there were no coordination issues, the customer support Mr Jason was very prompt in responding to all queries, the only glitch would have been some of my co participants got a better pricing deal for the same occupancy, but the cruise operators Albetross were thorough professional. top importance to safety, amazing food, though the bar was on the expensive side. they were very passionate about what they are doing and caring for the ecosystem.”
“We travelled on the MS Expedition. Facilities were excellent. You don't need a 5 star accommodation to have a fantastic time. The guides had excellent knowledge and gave very informative lectures.”
