Things To Do on our Antarctica Expedition Cruise
Each night, a memo was slipped under our door explaining what activities would be available to us the next day so we could plan what we wanted to do. There was ALWAYS something fun to do! I was impressed that Hurtigruten, my Antarctica expedition tour company, offered such a variety of activities, from art, history science and more!
There is bound to be something of interest for everyone. Just check out our offerings!
On Going Activities Available
- At any time, you can go out on the deck to look for wildlife or icebergs.
- Most waking hours you can enjoy the:
- Gym
- Sauna
- Hot Tub
- Explorer Lounge (for relaxing, watch for wildlife, and/or to get a drink)
- Library
- Coffee/tea area (sometimes there were freshly made cookies there:)
A comfy place to chill and look for whales, penguins, seals and dolphins, or to grab a drink, or read a good book, or to just hang out with friends.
On Board Lectures
On our Hurtigruten Antarctica Expedition, we had a highly skilled expedition team which included numerous scientists and historians who loved to share their knowledge (in a way we could understand). Check out these lectures! I tried to go to all of them, and I must say that the presentation skills will outstanding (with a special shout out to Niak, Stian and Jane!!!).
- Fauna
- Mollymawks, Johnny Rook & Loggers: Birds of the Falklands
- Whales in our waters
- Seals of the South
- Why we now care about whales
- Penguins
- Flora
- The origins of the Landscape of South Georgia: African or South American
- Antarctica: A world made of ice
- Phytoplankton (surprisingly fascinating!)
- The geological history of Antarctica
- Climate change and impacts for Antarctica
- History
- Falklands
- Shackelton’s South Georgia – Two Part lecture
- Amundsen vs Scott: Race to the South Pole
- Antarctic conspiracy theories
- Home for the huskies
- Fridtjof Nansen: the greatest man ever
- Their own life
- 3 years at FID: A zoologist on South Georgia Island – Rob
- A volunteer’s view of the Falklands South Atlantic Campaign ‘82
- Life at the Southern End of the World : Jaizi
- My Journey into Nature: Stian
Science Center and Science Activities
We had lots of opportunities to learn about the flora and fauna we would see. I loved how Hurtigruten scheduled lectures or workshops jsut before we would be exposed to whatever cool thing we were about to see. It truly enhanced our enjoyment and experience. I could tell that every little detail of our adventure was considered to bring us the best experience possible.
The Science Center is where we had some lectures and workshops. The walls were covered with posters and photos so we could learn to identify the flora and fauna. There were also microscopes where we could see the phytoplanktons for ourselves.
Check out these Science Activities!
- Citizen Scientist – Help On Board Scientists
- Science Boat( Groups) : underwater drone footage and sounds
- EBird Citizen Science project
- Seaweed Citizen Science project : Raft watch (seaweeds can form ‘rafts’)
- Science Center Activities
- Sea Bird Identification
- Intertidal zones
- Whale Identification workshop
- Sailor’s knots workshop
- Ice
- Wildlife workshop: bring pics to ID
- Feathers
- Why volcanic eruptions can be so different
- Plankton
- Rocks
- Science recap and watch underwater drone footage
- On Deck Wildlife watch
- NASA Globe Cloud Observations (Yes, you can help NASA! They can see the upper clouds, but on this project you ID the clouds underneath the upper story clouds and report to NASA)
Many days, there were assorted artistic activities you could participate in. My personal favorite was the watercolor workshop. I never thought I could paint or draw, but frankly, I am quite proud of what I produced (a better artist’s work is pictured above). Some of us made watercolor journals, like pictured. I stuck to individual paintings I could turn into cards. Even if my work was awful, I found it so relaxing, so much so that I plan to paint now that I am home, simply for the complete relaxation it offered me!
There were other creative workshops including photography, creative writing, origami and more.
Check them out!
- Watercolor
- Modeling clay penguin sculptures
- Origami
- Creative writing workshop
- Knitting corner
- Photography workshops and pro advice from onboard photographer Kim
Check out Jiazi’s beautiful book of watercolor images of the flora and fauna we saw on our trip. Jiazi was our watercolor workshop leader, and helped us to create artworks we were actually proud of! Thanks, Jiazi!
Here are two of my watercolors. Below is our ‘Penguin Parade’ of clay models a group of us made.
But, wait! There’s more!!!
They even had some fun activities that had folks laughing! I saw people racing around for the scavenger hunt (I was too busy concentrating on my watercoloring).
Here’s a list of some other fun activities offered:
-
- Jane’s bedtime story (2x)
- David’s piping (David was a guest who had his bagpipes with him) – 2x
- Shackelton Movie – Two Parts
- Scavenger Hunt (2x)
- Jane’s Planes: Paper plane contest
- French movie
- Storytelling: Selkies
- Yaghan Cultural Presentation
- Captain’s Toast to start and end our adventure
- Tour of the artwork and symbolism of the MS Fram
So as you can see, there was never a want for something to do. Every night you went home ready for bed after a very full day!
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