When it comes to cruising in Antarctica, expedition guides are on the frontline – driving zodiacs and taking care of passengers during landings, constantly sharing their knowledge, whether during an onboard lecture or standing on the edge of a penguin rookery.
But they’re just one part of a much bigger team that makes the expedition cruise run smoothly. Ship’s captains and their crew safely navigate their ships across the Drake Passage and through icy waters to take travellers to the best landing sights, while Expedition Leaders constantly update their plans to offer the perfect day for guests, no matter the weather. But what about the people behind the scenes?
After a recent cruise onboard National Geographic Endurance, we sat down with Patrik Svardmyr, hotel director for National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, to find out how to operate a floating hotel at the end of the Earth, and the challenges of making sure there are enough fresh fruit and vegetables on the menu during an extended voyage to the ice.
How did you first start working on ships in Antarctica?
I’ve worked with Lindblad since 1988. That’s outrageous, it’s so many years! I’ve evolved with the company – I did three years of chefing and restaurant management in college and in 1991 I became a head chef here, then in 1994 I was offered my current position, which I’ve been doing ever since.
What does the hotel department do on an expedition cruise ship?
We cover anything and everything to do with onboard services. That includes all the cabins for guests and crew, the bars we have, the galleys and dining rooms and the laundry. Even our wellness facilities. I’m in charge of everything to do with provisioning of the vessel.
On the NG Endurance, we have 67 staff in the hotel department, for about 138 guests. We’re the biggest department. We have some amazing people on board. Around 85% of them have been here since the ship launched in 2020, from the officers down to the pot washers. We don’t jump ships! It’s the same on our sister ships NG Resolution and NG Explorer.
It’s a pretty well-oiled machine in terms of the services we offer and so on. We’re like a big extended family. But we have a fun time and I think that’s really something that we carry over to our guests.
What are the biggest challenges as hotel manager when you’re operating in Antarctica?
We’re great problem solvers – everybody here is very skilled. On land, you’d have to wait for a technician to arrive to fix an issue, but we have everyone already here, living at the hotel. Issues always arise, whether that’s something needing fixing or a guest that needs assistance. You quickly learn that the quickest way to solve a problem doesn’t always go from A to B – sometimes the solution that goes via C is the one that makes more sense.
On a more practical level, the biggest challenges are food supply chains. We get our provisions in Ushuaia, but everything there really comes from Buenos Aires, which can be a five-day journey. By road, there’s even a part where you have to drive through a part of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. Everything needs documentation or permits, and trucks can sometimes get held up. We always have a limited time in port, so organising everything can be very difficult at times.
How do you manage food and plan menus when you’re so far from land?
We don’t organise menus on a matrix. What we have on this voyage, we might not necessarily have next time, though we always have a few favourites. But cooking is a creative profession, like painting – once you have your colours, it’s up to you what you do with them.
Our head chef knows what we have on board—our key proteins—and then he decides on what to serve over the duration of the voyage to make sure things are evenly spread out, and to use things in their prime.
We have a completely different regime than you would have at home. Remember that fresh items can be a week old by the time we receive them in Ushuaia, and then we might be going on a 20-day voyage including South Georgia as well Antarctica. If you try to keep vegetables that long at home, it’s very difficult.
The refrigerators are completely closed. They’ve got extractors to remove any gases from things like onions or apples that can cause things to ripen faster. The food is almost in a refrigerated vacuum and we only go in twice a day to avoid disturbance. It’s very different to being at home when you’re peckish and open the fridge to see what’s there, then go back five minutes later to see if anything has magically appeared. Food can spoil really quickly that way.
Our record was a partial circumnavigation of Antarctica from Ushuaia to New Zealand, which took 30 days. The food was a week old when we took it onboard, but we could still offer our guests salads with fresh lettuce at the very end of the voyage.
We also try to be as sustainable as we can with our food. All the seafood that we buy is from sustainable fisheries. We won’t have shrimp on board, but we have a lot of red king crab. That’s a highly invasive species in Norway. Nothing eats it, so the best thing to do is fish it and try to eradicate it by eating it!
Of course, Argentina is famous for grass-fed beef and lamb, but also things that you might not know about like pulses. If we’re in the Falklands we’ll buy lamb there. Their lamb is amazing – you just rub it with a little olive oil, put salt and pepper on it and you’re ready to go. But overall we follow the seasons, and what we have in the beginning of the season from Argentina or Chile won’t be available for us towards the end of our time here.
What does a typical day at sea look like for a hotel manager on an expedition cruise?
I usually get up around 5am. It’s a good time to walk around the ship, so I always start the day off with a full walk-through. I’ll check in with key members of my team, like the chief stewardess, to see if there’s anything we need to address. That might be to do with our guests, cleaning or anything really. There’ll be something that needs looking at, so I’ll make a work order for that.
Then I try to polish off as many emails as I possibly can before the guests get up. Even in Antarctica, you can’t escape emails! When guests start appearing at breakfast I might sit down with some of them for a coffee, or help take breakfast to people staying in our igloo.
The days always go quickly with jobs, meetings and emails, but I like to be very visible to guests. We always get such interesting people on board, and I love having dinner with them whenever I can.
Do you have a favourite spot on the ship to grab a quiet moment?
I love the terrace on our observation deck. The chairs up there are so comfortable, they just engulf you. Sometimes when I do my early morning walk I’ll find guests already sitting out there with a book in their lap.
Also on Deck Seven, behind the gym. That’s a great secret spot! The benches there are really sheltered. If it’s a nice day you can sit out there just surrounded by ice, or if we’re sailing you can watch the birds following the ship. It’s wonderful – your own piece of Antarctica.
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