Infos about my Antarctica trip

emperor has asked about the logistical details and as there might be more of you interested, here's some info.

It's this trip with Hurtigruten with the difference that I started in Santiago and finished in Buenos Aires (it depends on the date of travel which direction you go). I can only recommend this direction as you get a nice buildup of excitement as you cruise through the Chilean fjords, visit the Torres del Paine National Park (optional), go round Cape Horn and then go to Antarctica. Coming from Buenos Aires, you'd go straight to Ushuaia and then the Drake Passage which means Chile at the end will be a bit of a letdown.
The price isn't indicative of my trip as my parents booked and paid for it (take the same numbers to get the Euro price, roughly, Ripoff Britain hits again) and my trip was the last to not charge extra for single occupancy of twin cabins (there are no single cabins).
There are brochures to download from the website.

Included in the price you get (based on my trip):
- International flights to Santiago and back from Buenos Aires as well as transfers to starting airport (I paid for my flight to Frankfurt as this wasn't included from a booking from Germany)
- one night each at a hotel in Santiago and Buenos Aires (b&b)
- Internal flights Santiago-Punta Arenas and Ushuaia-Buenos Aires
- full board on the ship as well as all landings in Antarctica
- a fancy anorak/windbreaker (it's not insulated so you'll need a fleece or something underneath but it's water and wind resistant)

There are a variety of optional excursions (city tours of Santiago and BA, national parks in Chile and Argentina, Otway Sound penguin colony or smaller city tours of Punta Arenas or Ushuaia, tango show in BA etc.) which cost extra (around the £20 mark). The national parks are very much worth it, especially when the weather is nice and you see lots of cool stuff. You book those on arrival in Santiago or on the ship, respectively.

As you board the ship and check in, you receive a dog tag/id card with a magnetic strip you should have on you all the time as it's your ID, cabin key and means of payment for extras (optional excursions, drinks at meals and in the bar etc.). You pay your ship bill on the last morning, either in cash or automatically (credit card).
You need to take your dog tag every time you leave the ship for excursions (they check you in and out) so they know who's out and came back, just in case somebody gets lost in a penguin colony (or, more likely, a bar in Puerto Natales) ;o).

One thing that weirded me out/made me insecure was that they take your passport as you board the plane in Santiago and you'll only get it back on the last morning on the ship. Seeing someone (who, quite frankly could have been anyone posing as a Hurtigruten employee) leave with a pilot case full of passports was a bit disconcerting, especially as our tour guide had specifically warned us to leave our passports in the hotel safe and not take it into Santiago as they are highly sought after on the black market... Still, as far as I know, everybody got their passport back.

During my trip, things went quite smoothly, just the getting there and coming back was tedious and very tiring.
As always with international flights, you have to pray your luggage comes along with you as it's a bit difficult to send after you when you're on the high seas (I know that there was one screw-up) so take a few essentials with you in your hand luggage.

Happy Feet

Went to see this instead of going to the pub as I needed to relax with something reasonably mindless (not that the pub isn't mindless but it still requires conversation) after a shit day at work.
It was good, a bit too Hollywoody in places but the animation is superb, especially the water effects are awesome and the penguins' movements (when they aren't being humanised) are realistic, especially the Adelies (Ramon and his gang). They really are like that in real life. ;o) The skuas and leopard seal were good, too, even the scenery looked realistic.
Bah, I want to go back to Antarctica...

Hm, it's about time I made a few penguin/Antarctica icons.