Scott Barronton (00:00)
Some trips are defined by where you go. Others are defined by how you're able to experience that place once you get there. Antarctica is one of the few destinations where those two things are directly connected. We recently returned from an Antarctica cruise with Atlas Ocean Voyages, sailing aboard the World Voyager, a small expedition ship with fewer than 200 passengers.
and that detail ended up being one of the most important parts of the entire experience. This was also one of our hosted group trips through Sunshine Travelers experiences. So we experienced it not just as travelers, but alongside a group that had been planning this journey for a long time. And for this trip, we were very intentional about how we chose the cruise line. We focused on three things, the ship size, the itinerary, and overall value.
and Atlas gave us the strongest balance across all three. As part of this ongoing series, we're sailing the world's largest cruise lines on their most interesting itineraries and sharing what it's like to live on board, comparing ships, service, accommodations, and itineraries based on experience, not marketing.
Speaker 2 (01:16)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.
Speaker 1 (01:19)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.
Speaker 2 (01:27)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.
Speaker 1 (01:36)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.
Scott Barronton (01:47)
So Melissa, in today's episode, we're talking about Atlas Ocean Voyages and specifically the World Voyager. And for this trip, ship size ended up being one of the most important factors. What stood out to you when we first stepped on board?
So when we first stepped on board, it felt like we were the only ones. And I think that's what stood out. Like different from a cruise line where you wait in these long lines and it's all these people and it's like a mad rush to get to the muster station and do all the things. Not that you didn't have to do that, but it honestly felt like you were the only one. And let me explain what that meant. So we were taken directly to the ship on a bus.
⁓ our large pieces of our check-in luggage had already been dropped off for them at the airport. So all we had with us with our carry-ons, if you had stored it under the bus, which you had done with your larger camera equipment, they'd already whisk it away to the ship. And if you were carrying it, they basically helped you, like took it from you so that you could focus on getting up the gangway. And so then once we were on board, we were taken directly to the lounge, said,
They were told to sit down. They served you champagne, canapes, which we were stuffed from the lunch they had just fed us. They were getting our photos so that they could activate your onboard card so that you'd have your room key and then when you could get on and off. But the interesting thing was they didn't worry about your credit card either then. They didn't need your credit card right away, to do onboard credit or anything like that. And then very quickly after that, you were taken to your stateroom.
They showed you around, showed you all the features. It was all very easy, but it was very thoughtful. And like I said at the beginning, it honestly made you feel like you were the only one boarding a yacht. And then the second thing I'd like to point out is how quickly everything felt very familiar. And it was in direct contrast to...
the cruise that we took in the fall on the large cruise ship, And on larger ships, can often take you several days to figure out where things are. And this ship happened almost immediately. And we're going to talk about some specifics of that in a second, but that definitely came down to the size of the ship.
Yeah, we've experienced a really wide range of ships. We've been on 16 passenger yachts, which is about the smallest that it gets. And we've been on ships with thousands of passengers and this ship sits just under 200 passengers, which puts it in a very specific category for us. And for Antarctica, that size behaves very differently than what most people expect.
And that's specifically because of the landing rules. Only a hundred people are allowed on land at any given time.
So with the ship under 200 passengers like the World Voyager, you essentially get everyone off the ship for these expeditions that you do. And they break it up into like two groups. So the first group will go out and do whatever expedition you're doing that day, whether it's a Zodiac tour or a landing. And then after all those people have gone,
they take the second group out and do the exact same thing. So the other thing I want to point out as we talk about Atlas Ocean Voyages and we talk about the World Voyager is that the other itineraries that this ship will do is to the Arctic regions in North American summer. Basically, I think right now...
two ships and then they have one ship that goes to Europe. So some of these things wouldn't apply to those because that's an Antarctica specific rule, but everything else will, especially for the Mediterranean. So think about getting on and off a ship as you're going to your Mediterranean cruise ports, or just think about the experience on board. If you choose to do one of those with Atlas, it would be very similar.
Yeah, we've heard stories of mega ships that have these 5,000 passengers on their little small floating city. And when it gets time to go into port, people are waiting in these really long lines or they have to wait till late in the morning to be able to get off the ship, to go out and do their, experiences. same thing, trying to then get back onto the ship as they wait in these really long lines, trying to get into the
ship at the end of the day. so I would say think about this even if you don't have interest in Antarctica some of this stuff will be specific to that but then some of this will apply to like I mentioned the Arctic regions. The other advantage that you would have in a ship like this to go to the Mediterranean for example is that you're gonna go to ports that are different from the large cruise ships.
because these are basically yachts. So you're going to go into some of the smaller places as well. And then they do have a few unique Caribbean itineraries as well. So everything else that we're going to talk about would apply to anywhere else that they are sailing. But specifically for Antarctica, if you've got a ship that's like the 200 to 500 passenger range, they're trying to get everyone on and off landings.
within the same amount of time that we were. and this is what we learned from the expedition team, is the ships have a certain amount of time that they can spend in any one place. And so if you got 200 people and they all need to get off and go do their whatever, well, you've got a ship with 500 people. They have the same rules about the numbers that can be out at any given time.
but they only have the same amount of time. And so they've got to rush things through. Yeah. And we should point out, again, we talked about this extensively in Antarctica specifically in the last episode where it was just about Antarctica. We should probably clarify that it's up to 499 because if you get to that 500 number, they are not allowed to land in Antarctica. But I can't imagine, and there are ships that do this that are like in the 430s to 450s.
But that would be a lot of people to try shuffle through. And what that's going to mean to you is that you're split into groups and you end up spending more time waiting than exploring. And then maybe on some of those larger ships, you're not landing at all. You're viewing Antarctica from the ship as it goes by. Yeah, especially if like you're not in one of the early groups.
and the weather changes or something like that, the early groups would have gotten to go and then maybe you wouldn't have had. And one thing that our ship did a good job of is basically the groups kind of rotated. So if you were in the early group at the beginning, then your group kind of went down to the bottom and then worked its way back up. That actually did a couple of things. If yours was an early group in the morning, you didn't always have to get up so early. But again, it really helps.
it's not like okay if this group is always going first and then something happens which it never did for us you know then you're not always the group that doesn't get to go or something like that. Well let's talk a little bit about the state rooms because to me that was one of the huge benefits of this ship. The state room setup is a little bit different than what we typically choose and every room on the ship is an outside cabin.
But I will say that not all rooms have balconies. Yes. So they actually have basically three classes. Some of them will have more of a porthole, but it does have an actual view of the ocean through that. And then what we had, which is what they call the Horizon State Room, and it was basically a floor to ceiling window.
But the very cool thing about it was that window let down halfway so that you could have a view without that glass. And then they have the balconies. Now in those last two categories, they have them where they are more suites as well. So you have larger space in the stateroom. But my gosh, what we had for two people, I mean, it was plenty of room. Yeah. This class category has, Melissa talked about that floor to ceiling window.
And when you let it down, it's like standing next to a balcony rail. I mean, that's kind of what it's like, but you're in the comfort of your cabin. And so in Antarctica, this was really nice. Yeah. And I think that was one thing that we like debated at the very beginning. when we booked this and we had gotten a group rate, the price difference between those wasn't a huge price difference, but the balcony was a little bit more.
it is gonna be cold. Are we gonna go out there and actually sit? And so what was great about this is that if there was something that we wanted to see and we wanted to take pictures of, we literally could let that window down. But a lot of the times we were hanging out with everybody. they would say specifically, okay, there's whales, like go to this deck, they're on this side of the ship as well. So I...
The choice that we made ended up being the perfect choice. And it also gave us more usable space in the room, which I think was more valuable than the space on the balcony. So let me explain what that means. So basically they took the space that would have been the room and then the balcony and all of that was an interior. So instead of it being a balcony, that was interior space. So it just basically gave you more room.
So it just made it nice because we had a little bit more room in the stateroom, but I loved that feature. I don't know if anybody else has that feature, but to me that was a standout. And we learned while we were on the ship is that starting soon, they're actually going to take that Horizon stateroom and reclass it as a junior suite.
So it'll come with Butler service in the future. Yeah. I think that actually starts like April 1st of 2026. I don't know what you're going to use a Butler for. because quite honestly, anything you need, you could ask your room steward for, or literally it's just steps away from you. Yeah. So, I mean, I think they're trying to make it equalized so that like, what would be kind
categorized as like a certain cabin in one cruise line to kind of like standardize those, I guess. But I'm with you. I don't know that we needed any more service than what we had, but it was a fantastic room. We absolutely loved it. Another thing that was a standout for me was the bathroom on the ship. And this is something that you guys have heard me talk about.
our reviews of other ships, especially the last one we were on with Princess where, even the cruise director made the joke about having to put the soap on the walls and then rub against the wall because the shower was so small. This one had a nice large shower, glass door, no shower curtain. Hallelujah. Had the rain head and also had body jets and there's enough space in there to move around comfortably.
One of the things is they promote the La Acetane bath amenities from this French brand. And so they were just really nice high-end soaps and lotions and shampoos, conditioners, those types of things. Yeah. I would also mention that the door did have a, like a latch on it. Cause a lot of times you think, glass shower doors. And really you needed that for the waves. It also did have a bench in the shower.
so yeah, if you were going with the Drake or you had some waves, it gave you a safe place to sit down, which I mean, normally, I mean, that's not uncommon in shower. Like you can shave your legs or whatever, but I think for that, that was probably what it was really, for, but I thought the bathroom was a great size. So you've also heard me talk about hotel sheets on the podcast because I'm very picky about that.
I'm not a fan of scratchy sheets. And we've even found that sometimes even at a more quote unquote fancy or luxury hotel, sometimes the sheets are, or expensive, I guess I should say, hotel, the sheets aren't what I would consider up to par. But I'm happy to report that the mattresses were very comfortable. The sheets were very soft. The pillows were fantastic. So I loved everything about those, plus you had
slippers and you had bathrobes as well. Yeah, I agree. I thought they were wonderful. I would say my only complaint and this is really nitpicky was that the sheets were so nice and so soft and smooth that sometimes the comforter would slip down off of you during the night and you had to just constantly keep pulling it back up. hey, that's a, that's a good problem to have is that the
those sheets were that comfortable. Yeah. And we should mention that too. So you have the bathroom, storage space, the bed, know, nightstands, the TV. So in that extra space that was by the window, you did have a nice like chase lounge sofa type of a thing. So that was nice to be able to put your feet up and look out the window, another chair, and then you had a little desk area. So you use that a lot for editing pictures. So you had a desk with a chair.
and a mini fridge as well. And in that mini fridge, they'll keep your favorite soft drinks or juices or whatever. They will keep that fully stocked throughout the cruise. And because there's no additional charges for those type of things, they just replenish it. So I thought that was really neat. Yeah, and you can just ask if there's something that's not typically in there. You can tell them, OK, I want this soda.
We wanted some ginger ale for example and I think they had cokes and something in there but if you want a different kind of beer, know, of course, depending on what they stock on board but they have that for you and like Scott said, juices, that kind of thing. And we mentioned that when we got on board we went to the lounge for the registration process but then when we got to our room we had a nice bottle of champagne waiting for us there as well.
Yeah. And just to mention, I think that that and then ⁓ there was an onboard credit and those two things were from our group booking just FYI, which was a nice touch for having the group. Yeah. And then I'll just briefly mention, you're not there for the TV, but at night we would watch, some movies right as we were getting ready to go to bed. And so they had a nice selection of movies and TV shows as well as satellite TV.
that you could watch. They also live stream things that were being presented in the auditorium as well. So if you didn't want to go down there to watch some of the presentations, ⁓ you could watch them from there. And a couple of the people in our group even mentioned that some of those movies were things that
like are not even available to like even rent from somewhere So they were excited about that. So a wide variety of movies.
Well, daily life on this ship is a little bit different than a traditional cruise because everything is structured around the expedition schedule. And so most days you're aiming for two expeditions, usually one landing and one zodiac tour. And so being flexible is a big part of that. And so I would like to add that this would be true of any of the polar cruises.
which are the majority of what they do. So Antarctica and in the Arctic, this would be the condition, like what we would expect. So weather and ice conditions can change quickly and the plans adjust in real time. And this happened constantly, even though we had great weather. So we've mentioned this, we had great Drake Passage, we had great weather, but still the expeditions changed like on the fly, just because that's the nature of Antarctica.
Yeah, our expedition leader would spend a lot of time up on the bridge with the captain and really trying to understand like what the conditions were. And then when we got to a certain place, they always sent that expedition crew out first to kind of get the lay of the land and, look at things like, is there a safe way to get onto land due to ice conditions and things like that? they paid a lot of attention to that.
We did have one time where they went out and they said the conditions are too bad to go on to land. so, they had to pivot. I think in that particular case, they just turned it into a zodiac, right? That was the very first thing that we were going to do. yeah, it was a very organized and efficient process. And I mentioned earlier, they broke basically the boat into two
big groups and then when inside of that they had three smaller groups. So every day you knew which you were part of the same group. So as Melissa mentioned, they had a schedule that showed you exactly when your group would need to be ready to go out. And just so you know, so then they named them like
animals from Antarctica. So our particular group was the Weddell seals and then I think they had the Gentoo penguins and things like that. So then when they made those announcements, okay, we're ready for these because the other thing too was okay, the expedition was supposed to be at let's say 2 30. Well, they weren't quite ready or we had to move somewhere else or something like that. So then they could just make the announcement. Okay, we're ready for this group in this group and then you just kind of organized yourself in the lounge and then they would call you down.
in so many people in the boot room so that they wouldn't get overwhelmed and you weren't tripping over people down there. Yeah, that mud room was a big part of the experience. You kept all your boots and your parka down there. parka were provided by Atlas Ocean Voyages. You did get to take the parka with you when you left. And I think we mentioned it in the last episode. I think this parka was
⁓ rated for like 900 degrees below zero. because it was really, really warm. You're not going to get cold wearing this parka. at least the time of year that we went, should say. but at the end of the cruise, you got to take that parka with you. they, but they would come through every night and clean the boots, as necessary so that you're not, carrying potentially.
disease or bacteria, anything like that between the landings that we did. Yeah, and it also had the zip in like vest liner and so I kept mine in but you zipped yours out because it was just too warm and then you used yours on the ship. I would like to point out just to kind of clarify some of those things, okay, if you're thinking about Atlas for Europe, for example, you don't need the parka, they provide a backpack to take on excursions.
They also provided a water bottle for us as well, which I think they provide for Europe as well. So some little things that are handy to use that then you can take with you. And any of my Delta friends in Atlanta, if you found the Atlas Ocean Voyages vest in the overhead compartment, let me know because it got lost on the flight.
There is also a small boutique on board that's open for a few hours each day. So it's, kind of funny because the people who run the front desk also run the boutique. So Victoria, I think was her name. And she would, move over there and do that, but they did have a limited selection of items. So you do kind of want to make sure that you have everything you need with you. Yeah. So on this one, once again, is picky, but
The pricing felt like it was crazy.
The items in the boutique weren't necessarily something we found a lot of value in. Like even the clothing you would think they would have stuff that was branded with the Atlas. It wasn't, it's like you could have bought this anywhere. And then the pricing on it was crazy as well. An example is they had these little penguin stickers that we bought.
because I put a sticker on my camera case from everywhere we go. And so I said, oh, I'll get this pack of stickers and then we can give the rest to the kids. It had like 40 or 50 stickers in there. And that was only like 2.99. But then, you buy something like a postcard and maybe it's $15 or something. Yeah, think I'm exaggerating there, but it was just crazy how they decided how they're going price stuff.
Yeah. Well, for example, I didn't bring like a sunglasses strap with me and she said, we have one more. So of course I panic bought it and it was like $18. I ended up not using it. Did say Antarctica on it. So now I have an Antarctica glasses strap, but it was just like, that's kind of strange. They had some key chains that were inexpensive, but then they had some buttons that were like really expensive. Now I think those were because they were a brand. saw them later in Ushua.
⁓ and so I think that was because it was, they had to pay more forms, but yeah, it seems strange, but none of the, like the clothing, they might have pillows or jackets, but it didn't say Atlas or Shun Voyages. So it's like, ⁓ he kind of could have picked that up anywhere. So, but they did have like some toiletries, dry bags. Those did say Atlas. They did have some stuffed penguins, the plastic waterproof phone sleeves. They had a few of those. So they had some things they also sold. Like if you wanted the Marmot,
heated gloves with the batteries. I mean, they were expensive. I think they're expensive anyway. You could have bought those, some Christmas ornaments. So was just kind of a variety of things. So, but I would say don't go thinking it's going to be a huge boutique maybe where you could get like a lot of, I don't know, branded stuff or anything like that. Well, it wasn't the point of the cruise. So it really ended up being inconsequential for us. Now,
As far as the food and dining, I would say that dining was a standout of the ship and consistently strong throughout the trip. due to the size of the ship, there was one main dining room that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then there was a counter service area that they called Paula's pantry where you could get coffees, teas, juices, and then throughout the day they had different menu items that would, would rotate. in the morning, like maybe you could go there and get a
pastry or a quick breakfast sandwich or a quiche. And then later in the day they would serve like a sandwich or wrap or some kind of sweet bite like a cookie or maybe even a pretzel or something like that. They were open early so they started at 6 30 a.m. and then they closed before dinner at six. There was also an afternoon tea each day and
They had some tea related food items in one of the lounges in the afternoon. I personally didn't ever think that that was like an afternoon tea. So if you think about it in traditional English afternoon tea, I didn't feel like that fit the mold for that. Yeah. I mean, you had to order the food off the menu. So you could say, okay, I want a scone. And then they did have sandwiches and they did, but they didn't bring it out on
like a tiered tray or even bring it around you specifically had to order it but they did have like 2500 choices of tea and they would lay them all out so for for the tea standout it was definitely you could get like teas it was also by the and i believe you pronounce it the kumsi brand which is funny enough it's a brand that Stephanie my sister has brought from her travels so she was really excited about that which is great tea
So in addition, both the lounges had a bar where you could also get coffees and teas. So if you wanted coffee and tea later in the evening, you could get it from those bars. And then you could order breakfast and some items throughout the day and drinks from the bar and have those sent to your room 24 hours a day.
Breakfast and lunch is served in the main dining room. That is a buffet, but then you could order things off the menu as well. then dinner was always served via menu and that menu changed every day. Usually there's some type of theme associated with it, like Italian or Asian or something like that. Yeah, but
They had a great variety.
So one of the interesting things I wanted to talk about was that main dining room. I think a couple of people were thrown off by their hours. But the good thing was, Paula's Pantry, if you were like an early riser and you were ready for coffee and something to eat, you could grab something then and then maybe eat something bigger later. But of our Drake Passage Days, which was basically our first day on board, that main dining room didn't open until 8 a.m. So I think it was like 8 to 10, lunch from 1230 to 230.
⁓ and then dinner from seven to nine But then on the four days that we were in Antarctica, that would open earlier because we would be planning to get up earlier and doing those expeditions. So then it would open accordingly so that you would have time if you wanted to, go to the dining room and do that as well.
So when we were first crossing the Drake Passage, were pretty much fine at first. And one of the things that I think we kind of talked about maybe in the last episode or we've just talked about it is that on that very first day,
We did have to do some briefings and that kind of thing. And even though with the sickness, they tell you to look at the horizon and stuff like that, they had us go into the auditorium and then you're kind of closed in and stuff like that. And so you got to not feeling super great and didn't really want dinner. And so this is where some of the room service and the other food options came into play. Yeah, I did not feel good on that first night of the Drake passage.
And it was just one of those things. hadn't taken anything for it because
We have mentioned before that it wasn't any worse than what we experienced on our trip that we just recently did when we did the five days across, from Australia to Asia. And so one of those days, the seas were pretty rough. even though we had the Drake Lake, you could still feel the rock in the ship. And I think just being closed in that room, it got
Like we all started feeling a little bit warm, which is a telltale sign, and so I went back to the room and laid down for a while, needless to say, your body has a natural way of resetting itself. And unfortunately that means that you get sick, but then once you're sick, it's okay. It just resets. And so shortly after that, I started feeling better. I ordered some ginger ale up to the room.
And then ordered some crackers. I don't think they had saltines or they didn't understand what I was saying when I ordered them, but they did bring some kind of little, homemade crackers that they had made from their leftover bread. And they brought those up to the room. I had that. I started feeling better. And so then later that night I was starving, cause I didn't eat much lunch cause I wasn't feeling well and then had skipped dinner. And so I was starving, ended up ordering a burger from room service.
They brought it up to the room in like a little to go bag, like little handled bag or whatever. And that burger was excellent by the way. you said it was like Uber eats. Okay. Here's my Uber eats. really fast service on that. but you could order from that room service menu 24 hours a day. Yeah. So the quality of the food across the board was just.
spectacular. Definitely didn't feel like standard cruise dining. I want to elaborate for a second on the buffet. So this was not like your typical buffet. So you could grab a few things and then if you still wanted to order off the menu. there was fruits, was like charcuterie type stuff, cheese, they had a whole plant-based section, soups, build your own salads, and then some heavier entree type things.
a juice bar, wellness juices. I mean, was literally anything that you can think of. They had the honeycomb, to get the honey, they had the honeycomb, they had fresh pressed, like peanut butter, all kinds of jams and jellies, fresh butter, salted and unsalted. I mean, it was just like this insane buffet, gelatos that you could get in, lunch and dinner. Well, sorry, dinner wasn't buffet, but lunch, all these choices of desserts.
But then, dinner, it was all kinds of things. and if you were like, should I get this or this? They'd be like both. You can have both, And if you wanted a smaller portion, they'd make you a smaller portion. And they had cold appetizers, hot appetizers, soup, salads, So it's like literally ended up being like a five course, but definitely like gourmet.
And that included wine with your meals. That was not an extra if you wanted beer, wine, or even spirits on this trip. That was all included. Yeah. And, sometimes some of these, it's like where beer and wine in meals is included. If you want it other times, it's extra. our cocktails are extra. Everything was included all the time. Now, I would like to point out quickly here.
because I don't think we even mentioned on the last episode is that you are not allowed to have alcohol before the excursions. So for example, on the breakfast, on the days that we weren't in the excursions, you could have, had, where you could make Bloody Marys, they have mimosas you could make, but not on the excursion days. And they said very clearly, if we smell alcohol on you, you cannot go on these excursions. So just wanted to point that
Yeah, there was one morning where I wanted to order coffee with Bailey's in it. And he said, I can give you the coffee. I can't serve you the Bailey's because you're going to go out on the Zodiac. So, they pay close attention to that. Let's talk a little bit about price range for, this ship and this expedition. ⁓ realistically, you can think about 10 to 15,000 per person, depending on which cabin you're choosing and the timing.
Now would say we went in kind of the shoulder season. So think of November and March as being those shoulder seasons. If you're in the prime season, you're going to go up to the top of that 15, maybe even beyond if you choose to have a suite or something like that. But, that's the price range that you should budget for. Yeah. Some of the European expeditions are a little bit less expensive.
⁓ And then of course if you go longer in the Antarctic or the polar regions, it's gonna go up from there. But once you're on board in the polar regions, I guess specifically, there's not a lot of extra cost. Now excursions, all excursions are not included in the European ones. They do have one thing that's included that's kind of like a cultural immersion where you might go to a winery and have a dinner.
that's part of it, but different from the polar, you are gonna have to do your own excursions. As far as this trip, there's a few additional optional add-ons that you can choose. Things like kayaking or camping on the continent. You might choose to do the chef's table. Like those are an additional charge as well as the spa. If you want to, you could upgrade to premium wines and spirits, but...
I don't think that was necessary at all. But mainly all of the core expenses were already covered. the other thing that we should point out about the dining is this ship is super casual. There's no need to bring anything super dressy for dinner and they don't expect it. And again, especially for the polar regions, I mean, you might want to dress up a little bit more. You might have things that dress up a little bit more for Europe. But for the polar regions, you don't need them.
Sometimes depending on the day, I kept on my polar fleece and the leggings I wore, even wore tennis shoes to dinner. And then other times, just depending on what we're doing, I might change into a pair of pants or wear a nicer blouse or sweater, but a hundred percent not required. They actually even had two Gala Nights, but you really wouldn't have known that they were Gala Nights except for it said it on the menu. The printed menu would say Gala Night and then they would bring like an extra appetizer to everybody, or they'd bring chocolates at the end of dinner.
But other than that, wouldn't have known it was Gala Night So super casual.
So the ship also had a gym, which was nicely appointed with several pieces of equipment. It also had a spa. So that part was an extra charge, but you could use the sauna and the relaxation room that had heated loungers. No extra charge. There was also a couple of hot tubs that were out on deck that you could use as well. So those heated loungers and the sauna were amazing. I think anybody who sat in those heated loungers fell asleep immediately.
And they have like a picture window that looked out. Yes, it did. Both the sauna and that. was, yeah, it was a picture window. And so when you were in Antarctica, it was like, this is the best view in the whole world. There was a stairwell both in the forward.
and in the aft of the ship. Not all the way back, but I would say like, what would that be? Like one third and two thirds almost. And there was an elevator. So if you needed an elevator, they did have that. We only, they like forced us into it. I think when we had a couple of bags on there when we first got on, but other than that, we never used the elevator. We always took the stairs because you're basically only ever going from deck three, which is the, where the boot room was and the crew had some cabins there.
I think there were a few people who had cabins on that. And then to deck seven, which is where the upper panoramic lounge was, and you could go out onto the observation decks. We were actually on deck six. Deck four was the dining and the lounges, the auditorium, the spa and the sauna and the gym. And then five and six were the guest rooms.
There just wasn't a lot of, stairs to climb or flights to climb. just, wasn't huge. So it was just all so accessible. And don't forget, for most people that was about the only exercise they were getting during the day. Cause the ship's not that big to go from front to back. And so taking those stairs was probably the, the highlight of most people's, ⁓ exercise plan. I know it was mine. ⁓ there's also.
Melissa mentioned on deck four, have this auditorium where they would give all the briefings. It was set up kind of like a theater, big screen in the front. It's a little bit challenging on the Antarctica voyage just because of the rockiness of the boat. But I would imagine in places like the Mediterranean that would be a heavily used place throughout the voyage.
They would do, all the briefings in there. the expedition team would come in and give lectures there. And so you spend a lot of time around that. We found that they would broadcast it to the TVs right outside of it. And then that was the lounge. And so you could sit in the sofas and chairs.
and then just watch the briefings, in days where maybe the boat was a little more rocky than others instead of going down into that auditorium. would also meet in this lounge before they took people down in the groups to the boot room so that you could just kind of spread out and just relax until it was time to go down there. So that was pretty much it. It was easy to navigate and get around the ship and find plenty of places to sit in the lounge areas especially.
the furniture was very nice, very well appointed, but it was also like movable. So like if you needed to like move, little tables or make different groupings and one of the nights that we're going to talk about here in a second, they actually completely rearranged the furniture so everybody could kind of see the show as well. So I want to point out that the service was absolutely one of the standout parts of the experience with fewer guests on board. It was much more personal. And I would say that even though
I think on all the cruises that we've talked about, we've named specific people, our servers, our room steward, things like that. But I feel like even on this ship, you got to know even more of the staff as well. within a few days, most of the staff knew everybody's name, not just ours. even as passengers, you start to get to know people on the ship as well. There was one of the bar staff, Sheila,
And she would make a point to learn every person's name on the ship for every single voyage. And they said she always does that. Yeah, she just had such a bubbly personality. But what a great what a great skill and what a neat thing to be able to do. So our particular waiters, Velen and Yasa, remembered our preferences and just made each evening feel very consistent.
and it was, it was nice just to, have that consistency and get to know a little bit about them. Velen shared that her husband was also working on board as a waiter. He worked on the other side of the dining room. she showed us pictures of their baby back home in Bali, who was about a year and a half old. And they said they hadn't seen her in almost a year and were just about to go home. I think as soon as this Antarctica season finished.
So from our first meal, we typically tried to sit in her section. And then after the first day, she tried to make sure that we always had the same big group table because we were one of the, it was like two groups and ⁓ we were, one was a family and then our group. So we always kind of had to try to have the same table as well. And so we just, we loved that.
So talking about Velen and her husband having the baby back home, this is something we've heard consistently across cruise lines. lot of the people working on board are doing this to create better opportunities for their families, but there's definitely some trade-offs. They are away from their families for long stretches of time.
there is no way for them to earn this kind of income back where they are from. One thing that I thought was especially very neat about what Atlas allows them to do is that sometime during their tenure in Antarctica, they actually do allow them to step foot on land, which I think is very, very cool.
And then two of the people, we mentioned Sheila, but one of the other girls who waited on us a lot up in where we had afternoon tea, they actually got to do the polar plunge that day with us. So for Atlas to allow their staff and their crew to still have these experiences, I just absolutely love that. So, I mean, these guys are getting to go and see an amazing place.
but then at least once during their time here to get to have some of these experiences. I applaud that. And when you take a minute to just kind of understand all of this, it really adds a different level of appreciation for the service that you're receiving throughout your voyage. I think we should point out at this point too that gratuities were actually included in the fare that we paid as well.
So it wasn't like, okay, here's your fare. You can add these gratuities. They were included, but as always, it's nice to appreciate staff that is stand out to you. And it was also really great is that because if you didn't have extra cash with you and I know currency is always an issue, you could charge that to your room and it wasn't a big deal. And they have little things where you could write, notes or write that on there. And then they would give that to them.
So I think that we ended up with about 153 passengers on board. And then I think they told us there was about 130 something staff members. So I mean, that's pretty close to a one to one ratio of staff to or crew to passengers.
And the other thing that I liked that stood out to me is that they had like a crew member of the month posted. His name was Joel. He was in charge of some of the housekeeping. I think like mainly the common areas and things like that. And so when we saw Joel, like you could tell why he was the crew member of the month. had a bubbly personality. We congratulated him on his accomplishment. And he was just like, well, let me know if there's anything else you need or anything I can do for you. ⁓ And so that was just, that was nice.
I really think, even though we've mentioned this before on others, I think there was a lot more interaction with a lot more crew members on a consistent basis because of the size as well. One of the other things that we had heard ⁓ about before the trip is that they do like a crew talent show and we were like, okay. But after getting to know some of these crew members,
and then one in particular, like you saw her every day at Paula's pantry and she seemed kind of timid and shy. but then she did like a traditional Bali dance. And then after it was like, Oh my gosh, I loved your performance. It like changed her personality completely. Sheila, who we've mentioned.
Arturo, was one of the bar staff who also helped us in the boot room we talked about in the last episode. He was a part of the talent show as well as, some of the people that we never saw that weren't kind of behind the scenes. So getting to see them showcase their talents and their personalities in a different way was just really fun. think fun for them, but just really fun for us in an unexpected way.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite evenings on the ship was that talent show and it had some really talented people. Yeah, one guy. Yeah, one guy did ⁓ like this Rubik's cube thing and he could do it so fast. But then it was like they up the challenge. He ended up doing it to where he did it with one hand. He did it with like folded blindfolded. It was just like, what? Crazy, crazy. So it was just neat to see.
their personalities in a completely different way. Another group on the ship and they're, I don't know, they're different than the rest of the crew, but it's the expedition team and they play a very central role on a trip like this. Yeah, They were very engaging.
very knowledgeable, but also very interactive. So like if there was wildlife, if there was whatever, like they were as excited to see what we were seeing as we were. It wasn't like, yeah, I've seen these whales before. I've seen this, no. Like they were, had their cameras too. They contributed a lot of pictures to the slideshow that they sent us.
There was an opportunity on board to sign up to have dinner with one of the expedition team members. And this wasn't anything that was an extra cost or anything like that, but just to get to know them a little bit more. And actually the guy that we ate dinner with, he was from Mexico. This was his first or second voyage, maybe just his first voyage on the ship. Cause he was like, I don't really know how this works.
What we found out later is that those guys are allowed to have breakfast and lunch in the main dining room, because we would see them, with their Atlas, polo or pullover or something like that. But they could only eat dinner in the dining room if they had people sign up to, talk about them. So this was just fascinating because we got to know a little bit more about, he was specifically into
guiding water sports type of things. He talked about all the things that he had done and kind of his path to get there. But then you had professors who were knowledgeable about, the animals or you could have a geologist or you could have a climatologist. So there was just all kinds of people on this team. So that was a neat part to be able to have that. Now, I think we had
16 people from 11 different countries was our expedition team. I think it's a much smaller, it's more of a cultural team, a smaller team if you do the European ones, but for the polar regions you're going to have something like that. So if you have the opportunity to do that, do it. It just gives you a connection with them deeper than you'll get just from when you go out with them to the expeditions.
And then every evening they do a daily briefing. And so they go back over like, what did we do during the day? What did we see? they had pictures, Melissa mentioned that many of them had brought their own cameras. So they had pictures that they had taken, or sometimes they would take guest photos and share those. and then they would talk about what we were doing the next day, or at least what the plan was for the next day. But
It was always remember, flexibility, flexibility, flexibility.
And so like we mentioned, you could go to the auditorium to hear these or watch them out in the lounge or you could see them in your stateroom.
One thing that I do want to talk about on the ship is they had really good stabilizers on it, which made a noticeable difference. if you go back and listen to the Antarctica episode that we did, you'll hear about the, the wave swells and the heights of those. but it really made the ship very comfortable. And I think for a ship this size to be that comfortable was really amazing.
So Melissa, what stood out to you most about this ship and Atlas?
Because our main criteria was size of the ship. And I knew this ship was going to be nice. But I think just how actually really nice everything was. Luxurious finishes, amazing food, comfortable bedding. Like we talked about the great bathroom. They really had thought about all the details. I think just to make this a pleasant journey like all the time.
just from how quickly, like if you wanted to go get a drink or whatever, how quickly those bartenders like turned that around, but then they had people coming around and bringing those to you, servicing the drinks and stuff like that. I think it was just all those details, but then everything was just really, really nice, which I just think added to that experience. And then I think that everything was included, other than the things that we had mentioned, if you wanted to do the extras, the kayaking or camping or...
⁓ spa, that kind of thing. It's an investment to visit Antarctica or to visit the Arctic, so any of the polar regions. Your pre-hotel night was included, the flight to Ushuaia was included, the day tour, the lunch, and then once you're on your ship, like all the food, all the drinks, specialty coffees, juices, wellness shots, everything is already paid for.
And that's definitely not the case on a lot of cruises. when she says wellness shots, it's not a shot needle. It's like a little shot glass of juice. Yeah. And, but that was like fresh pressed juice, every single day.
And I also want to talk about this because we didn't talk about this in the food. But the other thing that was cool is that they did like add experiences that were going to be available that like we didn't know anything about. So one of the days they were like, OK, tomorrow we're going to do some galley tours. Well, that's cool. And we've seen on other cruise lines where that's like some VIP experience that says a couple of hundred dollars per person.
You got to go down into the galley, you got to meet the executive chef, and it was nice because it was toward the end. So this was on the way back because you'd already seen, okay, he has done a fantastic job. They take you through, you can see how everything is like pristine. It was, in between the services. And he showed the bakery. So they have one baker and two pastry chefs as part of the crew. They bake everything fresh every single day.
They import the ingredients from Europe for the quality and it was noticeable. I mean, you're thinking, okay, I am how many, like 100,000 miles from, and you have fresher bread than you even have at
And so that was phenomenal. You got to go in the bridge when it was open. It was an open bridge. Again, that's something that on a larger ship, you're going to pay extra for if it's even available. So absolutely loved that.
And I would say that we had done a lot of research ahead of time before booking this group trip. And so we, had figured out a lot of the details and knew that the luxury was going to be there. we knew about the size of the ship. knew limitations around the size. So we had figured out all of these ahead of time. But I think you just can't prepare for how nice, how elevated the service would be, how elevated the finishes.
the room quality, how just great the experience was going to be on this ship We had a vegan with us. They did a phenomenal job. so if you're a vegan vegetarian, they had options for that and with cater to that. And then of course, obviously any allergies, they had gluten free, dairy free options that, that, know, like soy and almond and coconut and milk and that kind of thing. So really.
any of those things that we would be used to, preferences and choices, that was available. And so I think that was just, for us, obviously when do group trips and we go to somewhere, let's say like Egypt or Morocco or something like that, we want to vet that, but this is not something that we really could have done. So we had to do our research. So I have to say that between that,
and then the quality of the expedition team and their knowledge and just their excitement. I have to say we were a hundred percent relieved because I think everybody was just really pleased with the quality of everything. And that's one reason we're going a little bit longer on this episode is because there wasn't a whole lot of information out there about this ship and Atlas. so.
We just want to make it available to those who may be thinking about it in the future. this is very different from taking a traditional cruise line, and a traditional cruise experience. This is a luxury expedition. It's smaller, it's more intimate, and it's much more focused on the destination. And I think that the, the experience that you get really reflects that.
There's not a lot of entertainment, so you're not going to get big shows at night. They did have a husband and wife duo who came on and they like played instruments and they sang and they would do different things throughout the day, but there just wasn't a lot of entertainment at night. It is more education focused. They did do a lot of lectures and briefings and they spent time.
helping learn about the environment of where we're going. So if you're thinking about Antarctica or trying to decide which expedition cruise is right for you, we are always happy to help you. You can reach out to us directly or visit sunshinetravelersexperiences.com or sunxtravel.com to get started.
Well, this episode is part of our broader effort to experience cruise lines the way that travelers actually do long enough to understand what matters from day to day in Atlas Ocean Voyages and the World Voyager offer a very specific type of experience for Antarctica. Ship size, itinerary and how the expedition is run aren't just features. They directly shape your experience on board.
And for us, Atlas delivered a strong balance across all three of these. And yes, we would absolutely sail with Atlas again. As always, our goal is to help you travel more and to travel better.
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