This was an outstanding experience with outstanding service
This was - by far - the best (and most expensive ;-)) Trip of my life. (This counts as I did a lot of traveling in the past 54 years!) The trip was exciting because of several topics: 1. The destination was outstanding (ok, I chose it ;-)) 2. The ship (size, condition, layout, facilities) / number of tourists: the OPTIMUM for a traveling type "expedition" 2.1 size of the ship: not "small" but sufficient (size, lounges, rooms for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Not too big so guests could stay together for communication and nobody had the risk of "being alone" 2.2 cabines in very good condition (of course depending on the money "invested") 2.3 number of guests not too big: - it was possible to get in touch basically with everyone -> big enough to "select" people / groups fitting into the own "style"/language - allowed everybody to do all activities together without giving the feeling, that the nature is disturbed too much; the guests diluted a lot while being on shore an in the wild 2.5 the size of the ship gave me also a feeling that it does not interfere with the nature too much 2.6 Even if - because of the smaller size of the ship - the power of nature (waves, wind) had a significant impact on the ship (the ship moved a lot under strong conditions on open water) I personally loved this as it gave me the feeling of an expedition and to of an "all inclusive big scale ship cruise far away from the nature"; exciting to feel the power of the nature! 3. Staff andservice 3.1 Expedition Team (ET): 3.1.1 I loved to understand that these members have been specialists on their fields (scientists, guides for kayaking) being absolutely competent and knowledgeable. Even detailed/scientific questions had been answered in any case. And if one did not know the answer he/she made a research and came back with the answer! Lectures of these guys have been amazingly interesting/competent (as far as I can judge it); I felt the passion with which the lecturer presented their topics. Absolutely outstanding! 3.1.2 The entire ET showed to be caring about the nature, which I loved to see. They communicated precisely the rules 4 being in the nature/how to behave so that the nature is not too much disturbed by the guests. If the rules have not been followed they interfered promptly to fix it. (This even could have been more intensive as some guests seemed not adhere to the rules with adequate care sometimes) 3.1.3 The ET did an amazing job to care about all guests to enable all of them to experience all activities & especially about guests, being not that fit and athletically. All of them onboarded and offboarded the Zodiacs safely and not one accident happened here. For doing that they stood in ice-cold water up to the hips to enable these experiences for everybody. Amazing! 3.1.4 The ET showed the guests that they are a real team. They worked together, everybody did care about everything (even if the tasks had been split up between the members) and I did't recognize any conflicts at all. They communicated in each minute with each other so the information flow was outstanding. In particular information about e.g. whales, in particular during the last expedition day where we all could watch the orcas coming along. Kayakers, guests on the Zodiacs and the guests on the ship had been informed in real time. So I had the feeling of the best service on all kind of topics. Even individual arrangements have been achieved ("is it possible to get back to the ship a bit earlier because of ..." (I had a job interview during the trip and ask for a special service to be back on the ship latest on a concrete time). Having problems with my teeth on Falkland Island they arranged an appointment with a dentist and organized a ride to the dentist and back again). The doctor on the ship frankly told me that he's not a dentist and to be sure about the situation he strongly proposed a visit with a specialist! Please let them know my feedback! It was AMAZING! 4. Staff for housing / cleaning / making up the rooms / cooking / serving the meals 4.1 same thing as above! Everything has been done on a level that I did not miss anything. Also here the staff communicated with each other quickly. E.g. as I told - not as a complaint but just as a comment - somwhen that my back is aching while sleeping, at the same day I had 2 toppers on my bed without having asked for it. I took the time to write all this because it was super service by everyone! Only one final thought "room for improvement": The internet connection was really slow. As - "sadly" - everybody is hanging on the smartphone to send pics/information to their families this was sometimes difficult and pulling e.g. an ebook via the network was not possible. This is the only recommendation!