Seeing the grandeur of the landscape and the amazing wildlife observations.

Life changing

Yes

The team worked very hard to ensure safety by teaching necessary loading and unloading skills. They were helpful and patient to get every traveler off and on board the Mortimer safely.

Lecture staff knew a great deal about their areas of knowledge. Staff on the land were incredible skilled and great teachers on how to try new activities. Dave Stark led exceptional excursions on snowshoes. Monica and Mack were very helpful during the overnight camping, Elo was lovely leading the paddling and the snorkeling team of Darren, Freya and Alan helped us get into the unfriendly waters with patience and kindness. Fi was an excellent photography coach and gave us many great tips.

The ship was clean, comfortable and had many lovely amenities. The kitchen and dining room staff provided amazing meals and accommodated me when I was dealing with seasickness. The BBQ evening was so much fun! Leland was always a bright and shining face each morning taking care of our cabin each day. Maricris was lovely in the dining room each morning. We would absolutely travel on this ship again.

Fran, who coordinated all of the excursions each day should be sainted and paid triple whatever you are paying her. She worked magic with the schedules and we all got to do the activities that drew us to the Peninsula. You are incredibly lucky to have her!

-We seemed to fill out and submit duplicates of forms (particularly medical clearances from our family physicians) multiple times. I recognize the diligence that must be in place for a trip of this magnitude, but we often loaded and sent forms only to have repeat requests for things we had already sent. I am not sure if this is a Swoop or Aurora issue. -It was sometimes difficult to connect with representatives (due to the time differences with North America). We appreciated chatting with both the lovely Kate and Sarah overseas, and then a lovely lady in Ontario, Canada. More North American ( and particularly Canadian!) reps would make phone conversations easier. Although I am now recently retired, these calls overseas would have been more challenging if I was still teaching full time. -In one of the final Aurora documents, it talks about the camping adventure ("in your own sleeping bag"). I know this sent us, and a number of other passengers into a bit of a panic as we were all travelling to Argentina, thinking we needed to have brought our own bags from home. Phrasing to state "using your own sleeping bag, provided by Aurora onboard" could avoid this confusion. We know of at least 5 parties who all experienced this panic... -Suggesting people build in flex time travelling to and from Ushuaia is really important due to the unpredictable nature of airlines in S. America. We had allowed enough time prior to the trip (almost 3 days) in case of delays, but should have considered building in time between flights on the way home. Due to the distance involved, I would also encourage passengers to build in flex time between flights, as the time our agents allowed between connections was not enough.

As well prepared as we could have been, given that not many people in general have travelled to this region of the world. We brought more clothes than needed, but didn't know what the weather in Ushuaia would be like, so brought our own Canadian winter coats. Could have left them at home, with the great outer clothing provided by Aurora.

Go with flexibility as your key tool. We were blessed with incredible weather, but knowing that no plan is foolproof because of the remoteness of the area and the unpredictable weather is really helpful.

The beauty, remoteness, and unbelievable wildlife, make you appreciate how blessed we are to have sites like this on Earth. Taking the steps to protect the land and animals is critically important to keeping it safe for the natural inhabitants, researchers and visitors in the future.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Within 12 months