Poseidon ExpeditionsReviews of poseidonexpeditions.com

This company is great! Helpful people, so friendly. The ship MS Sea Spirit is a real ship … i would subscribe it as an old lady with a wonderful staff and Crew. Don’t miss it!!!

Als Wiederholungstäter freuten wir uns schon sehr auf diese Reise. Wir wurden sehr herzlich begrüßt und willkommen geheißen. Viele Mitarbeitende vom Team kannten wir schon von unserer vorherigen Reise, und die Wiedersehensfreude war riesig auf beiden Seiten. Wir haben so viel gesehen und erlebt und sagen DANKE an alle, die diese lang ersehnte Reise für uns unvergesslich gemacht haben. Und die nächste Reise haben wir auch schon gebucht bei unserem Besuch in Hamburg!

We were on the Jan 7, 2023 expedition to the Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica on Sea Spirit. And, unfortunately, my wife was injured on the trip, through no error on the part of the ship or expedition staff. The stops in the Falklands and South Georgia were absolutely wonderful - great wildlife, good guides, and clear guidelines on access and safety. And, in particular, the expedition staff (lead by Aaron) was superior in their efforts to get us to land on South Georgia despite poor wind and wave conditions - They were able to divert to other alternative landing and zodiac sites when the planed landing site was not available to land. In general, reading about expected results in these expeditions before our trip, it is not unusual to only be able to land in slightly more than half of the planned sites - both the Poseidon literature and the staff were clear about that. This size of ship is ideal in that you can get into places that other boats cannot go and, because there is about a 100 person limit in the number of people who can go to shore at a time, you do not have to wait for others to come and go before you get your turn. My wife is an experienced hiker, doing 3-5 mile hikes a few days a week. She was blown off her feet by a sudden and unexpected 40+ knot wind gust and unfortunately landed on her shoulder. I personally witnessed two other passengers knocked over (they were not hurt) in the same area closer to the waterfall. The expedition staff and ship doctor responded immediately, got her back to the ship, and did the immediate task of putting her shoulder back into the socket. Once it was determined that her arm was severely broken, the ship's doctor and expedition leader worked diligently with the insurance company to schedule a medical evacuation from King George Island. As others have stated, we had to wait for 1.5 days for the weather to clear enough to allow a plane to land (since there are only research stations on the island, there is no place to stay and wait for the weather to improve). But the same weather would have precluded any landing on the Antarctic Peninsula at the same time. I should also add that the emergency surgical care she received in Punta Arenas, Chile was equivalent to what would be available in the US. Overall, I would recommend this trip - and this ship and their expedition staff/crew - to anyone who wants to see the Antarctic up close and personal. We are already looking at potentially booking just the Antarctic part of the trip to finish our adventure.

The Sea spirit definitely has the most charm, with an amazing crew, expedition team, restaurant, bar & housekeeping. Even stabilizers for rough seas. This cruise also had an great photographer who gifted everyone with a memorable video (hats off to Piet). Sadly enough, it was a few antarctic scenes short from being epic. As well travelled, nature & wildlife lovers and photography enthusiasts, we search to spend the most time outdoors looking for wildlife. We chose this cruise as Poseidon advertises this as an expedition, with an itinerary going half way down the Gerlache strait and a detailed summary describing this as the most beautiful and calm area booming with wildlife. The trip started with the Falklands and the gorgeous sights at South Georgia. An extraordinary place! Where it all went wrong is that an elderly passenger had tripped and fractured her arm during a mediocre hike. Resulting in an evacuation being necessary. With no contingencies in place to offload a passenger at King George harbour, the ship had to remain a drift for an evening and almost 2 full days, untill a plane had confirmed taking off. Resulting in a four day itinerary for the Arctic region being reduced to one day, with most highlighted destinations such as Portal point and Wilhelmina bay being unreachable in the time left. The only option to reach the peninsula was 'Cierva cove' where they chose to do a ten minute photostop on a rocky beach. Doing so, the 'official step on 7th continent' was made before having to head north again. Technically we have not set foot on snow or ice.. on the arctic continent.. Out of shear luck a group off humpbacks crossed paths and a quick zodiac cruise saved the day. Apart from that, wildlife sightings in that regions were minimal. In my opinion this still is a luxury cruise, not an expedition. With the targeted audience being those at retirement age or with money to spend, and such an audience comes with a higher risk level for injuries to occur. Having no contingencies in place to offload a passenger at the Shetlands is a higher risk Poseidon takes, risking a journey to come full stop. An IAATO shared 'waiting station' at King George Island would solve this issue. Before boarding you have to sign off on being fully vaccinated and in good healthy conditions. The person that was evacuated had physical conditions where she broke bones easily. She had been helped down the stairs from day one and bragged about recent injuries at the dinner table. She was also the first covid case on board and in a weakened state, placing her under doctors supervision. In a recent comment Poseidon waves responsibility for the health form to ultimately be up to the passenger, but this in my opinion contradicts their own guidelines. Whether this person forfeited her medical form or not, the doctor failed to screen her and declare her unfit for certain activities. Quote: The Customer is obliged to have themselves examined before the journey, if necessary with the involvement of expert medical advice, whether participation in the journey with its specific contents and its route through extreme climatic conditions is actually compatible with the Customer’s respective physical condition, constitution and current state of health. In these cases, the traveller agrees to be examined by a doctor/ship’s doctor who will check the traveller’s fitness to travel and, if necessary, determine that the traveller is unable to travel, which shall be binding for both parties. This is where Poseidon failed in my opinion, they have taken the health declaration form too likely and risked a cruise with a 100+ people having to wait adrift for one person that did not meet the medical and physical requirements to participate in activities. The obvious response to any further complaint about being stranded there will be 'due to bad weather', however there were calm seas near the original destinations further south. They rushed in a few extra landings so the minimum required was met and the continental landing (roughly ten minutes) has also been ticked off the list. That simply doesn't feel right and justifyable to those that spent a lifetime saving for a once in a lifetime destination. Still, most other guests wil rate this as excellent for the luxurious dining and services rather than the actual destination. Most don't even know what they have missed, such as Portal point and Wilhelmina bay for ex, or what wildlife it harbours. For me this luxury cruise missed its most highlighted final destination.

Sea Spirit staff and crew provided a fantastic trip 20 day tour of the Falklands, South Georgia, and the Antarctic Peninsula January 21-27. Every staff from the ship crew, hotel, restaurant and especially the expedition staff did their utmost to give us the best experience possible. Some days we even had three landings or zodiac cruises. Small ship great crew highly recommend. One addition thought Aaron the expedition leader besides leading the trip did his very best to be transparent about why decisions were made and how they were made. I appreciated this extra effort on his part.

I was on the January 7-27, 2023 trip to Falklands, South Georgia, and Antarctica. Not worth the money. There are just too many "iffy" things about Antarctica expedition trips to spend this kind of money, whether for this company or another. Nothing is guaranteed and the passengers will take the full hit of anything that goes wrong (COVID, injuries, weather, antarctica site bookings). Our Falklands excursion went fine enough (but this is the least scenic of the places you'll visit), then we got what I would estimate as about 80% of South Georgia and 40% of Antarctica that was planned on the original itinerary. We had to leave South Georgia a day early because of approaching rough weather, then the 2 sea days in our official itinerary to get to Antarctica turned into 4 because of slow travel across the southern ocean, causing us to lose time in antarctica. But the most horrendous part of the trip was when a passenger fell and injured her shoulder, forcing us to sit in a harbor waiting for a medical evacuation. Poseidon proposed some excursions nearby, but this is a very windy area and all of those disembarkment opportunities were called off. Had we not been forced to sit and wait, we could've penetrated deeper and further down the Antarctic peninsula, where the waters are more sheltered. I was very disappointed that we didn't get more than 10 minutes on the continent itself. Why there isn't a better system for dealing with evacuations is beyond me, especially when injuries seem very possible -- even probable -- given the rough nature of the ship travel and the activities and landings. All passengers are required to have evacuation insurance, and yet every single passenger on the ship is severely and negatively impacted if even one individual needs to be transferred off the cruise. Poseidon offered lectures on board during the sea days, most of which were quite interesting and well-presented. The expedition staff consisted of about a dozen members with various expertise, but I note that many of them have large gaps in knowledge outside of their own area of expertise. I had some zodiac outings with expedition leaders highly enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but I also had some outings with expedition leaders who did nothing more than drive the zodiac around and who offered little if any information about what we were seeing.

Please be aware: Passengers were offered a discount on their next voyage, if they leave a review here. Our boat was stuck for multiple days near S. Shetlands airport and missed Antarctica bookings. 105,000 people cruise to Antarctica but no true contingency plan for someone needing to be evacuated other than holding the entire ship for days around the airport. As a result, we missed our Antarctica bookings and cut out main Antarctica landings and venturing around sea ice. Horrible contingency planning. Poseidon blamed IAATO. Poseidon receives million and the only plan is to wait around. Posiedon takes your money. Poseidon should have a plan besides losing bookings and cutting out parts of Antarctica. In addition, lack of coordination with buses on Stanly, Falkland Islands resulted in passengers being left behind for 40 minutes while most of the expedition team were a half mile away sitting at a bar. Update: Still no word from Poseidon, even though expedition crew gathered at 10 a.m. on Friday to recap and report out to headquarters. I've since run into several passengers in Ushuaia who have been in multiple communications with their booking companies. This was a botched trip that lost our Antarctica bookings along with other issues. Reply: The survey results are not surprising, since we were informed to provide positive feedback several times with incentives offered. What you aren't explaining is that Poseidon skirted its responsibility to ensure passengers were fit enough to take an expedition trip. You had passengers sign a paper before boarding to release liability but did little else. The person who required evacuation brought covid onboard. That passenger was our #1 covid case. There was no covid test in order to board, no temperature check, no nothing. Covid then spread. Sometimes announced and sometimes not. This weakened person who had other pre-existing conditions went on a landing only to not surprisingly fall. This is part of what is meant by botched the trip along with missing Antarctica bookings. The leader had to beg other ships to let us land in Antartica and none agreed. Our Antartica bookings were lost. We found a tiny patch of mainland Antartica soil to land on in order to hold a sign that said we landed. We were given 15 minutes on the small patch of land. I guess that was counted in all the activities done. When the weakened person with a pre-existing condition fell, we were told she did not need medivac but just a regular plane. In fact the passenger was walking all about the ship inside and out in rough seas and participating in all onboard activities unapologetically. While we were missing our Antarctica bookings, this is what the other 100+ messengers had to watch. I and others believe all of this could have been avoided with a more responsible expedition company. Something else also not mentioned was the special meeting that had to be called to try to address all the disgruntled passengers. Lots of different issues were raised from handling of Covid to fitness for expedition landings to no plan other than waiting days near an airstrip and losing Antarctica bookings. One even stated she no longer knew what to tell others about selecting an expedition ship, implying how disappointing this one was. Personally, I believe Poseidon is hiding behind legal documents, tainted surveys, incentivized reviews, and attempts to not take responsibility for foreseable issues. Update: Looks like Poseidon decided to edit its reply today by removing the tainted statistics. Poseidon has been receiving emails from passengers on the expedition disputing how pleased everyone was and all the activities we did. We lost all our Antarctica reservations and couldn't move to calmer seas where about 40 other ships were around Antarctica. I and others believe Poseidon did not follow through with the terms of the contract. The passenger that brought Covid onboard and then fell on landing let everyone know onboard that she broke her wrist 6 months prior, had other medical issues, and was taking medication. This is not someone fit for an expedition with zodiac landings to this region. Poseidon had the obligation to other passengers to deny entry. This is what was mishandled along with no contingency plan other than waiting around a relatively unsheltered area for multiple days. 100+ people lost a once in a lifetime experience in Antarctica on this Poseidon Expedition.

Die Organisation der Reise, inklusive der Führung mit Verschiebungen durch die Zeit von Corona, war kundennah lösungsorientiert. Das Konzept der Reise in die Antarktis ging voll auf. Das zeigte auch die Harmonie der internationalen Passagiere untereinander. Das Expeditionsteam war super, gut geschult und bei den Vorträgen fachwissend.