Antarctica
December 21, 2025 to January 8, 2026
Mike and Judy Henderson
We went to Antarctica over the Christmas holidays in 2021/22 and enjoyed the cruise. But we didn't get to South Georgia Island, and only touched on the Falkland Islands. This cruise takes us to South Georgia and gives us more exposure to the Falklands, hopefully including Port Stanley.
Let me introduce our mascot for the trip - Peter, the Christmas Penguin.
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Preface 10/3/2025: We signed up for this cruise in November 2023. At that time, Silversea offered a Door-to-Door fare which included business class air and limo service from your home to the airport, and on the return, limo service from the airport to your home. Now that we're getting close, I started looking closer at the limo service. They use Blacklane so I did some research on Blacklane. Turns out Blacklane is not a limo company - they're a booking company, like Expedia, and they arrange for a private contractor to pick you up.
Then I started looking at reviews for Blacklane. It was not a pretty picture. Too many reviewers had situations were the limo didn't show, and when they were able to get in touch with Blacklane they were told that Blacklane couldn't get a driver (and car) for the reservation. Additionally, reviewers said that when they tried to call Blacklane no one answered and they had to leave a message through the app - and didn't get a response in a reasonable time.
That was a killer as far as I was concerned. I could imagine being packed and waiting for the limo and it doesn't show.
I contacted Silversea asking for a credit for the Blacklane limo service but Silversea refused to offer anything. I guess to be fair, Silversea probably paid Blacklane for the limo service, so they'd lose money if they gave us a rebate.
In looking at the Silversea fares today I do not see any offering limo service any more. I suppose they decided many travelers already had favorite and trusted limo services.
We arranged for limo service through Carey, which is the limo service we use for our travel. Never had a problem with them.
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We went to Antarctica back in 2021 and I put together some notes on clothing on our blog of that tour. I'm going to copy a part of that webpage here. The information is still relevant for anyone who might consider taking this trip. If you want to skip this section, click here.
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An Antarctic cruise is different from a warm weather cruise. Even though it will be summer in the Antarctic we expect it will be cold (average temperature about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, but could be much colder). Dressing properly for that cold is important. Additionally, we could encounter rain or snow while on an excursion. Getting wet in cold weather is dangerous, so the clothing chosen should be waterproof. [Update: You WILL get wet in one or more zodiac trips.]
Silversea has a web page with packing recommendations for the Antarctic trip, and I found this checklist on one of the blogs mentioned earlier.
Judy and I live in Southern California, where it never gets very cold, so we do not have the kind of clothes required for Antarctica.
At Marshalls, a discount clothing store, we purchased knit beanie hats with fleece lining, socks that are thick and long for use with the boots, neck gaiters, and for me, several long sleeve T-shirts for under-layer and a set of thermal underwear. I'll bring some sweaters to wear over the T-shirt layer and a puffy vest.
Silversea provides a parka for each person, and we decided to rent boots from their supplier, who will deliver the boots to our suite on the ship. The rental cost of the boots is somewhat high but we have no use for boots after the cruise, and if we bought our own, we'd have to pack them to and from the cruise, which would take a lot of suitcase space. [Update: The boots are pretty heavy but they work very well. My feet were never cold and I only wore one pair of socks. Renting was absolutely the best way for us - we got good boots and didn't have to carry them in our luggage.]
They also recommend a lightweight rain jacket for arrival in Santiago, and we both have those. Note that Santiago will likely be quite warm since it's summer there - expect temperature in the high 80's during the day. [Update: You probably don't need this rain jacket.]
We each bought a pair of waterproof pants from Columbia and I bought three pair of athletic pants from Marshall's to wear under the waterproof pants. I'll wear athletic pants along with the long underwear if it's really cold. If that's too hot, I'll leave off the long underwear. [Update: You absolutely need waterproof pants. You will get sprayed in the zodiacs.]
I also bought some gloves that hopefully will keep my fingers warm, but allow me to use my iPhone and camera to take pictures. [Update: None of my gloves worked well to use the camera or iPhone - I had to go bare-handed. When not using a camera, I stuck my hands in my pockets. Bring gloves and put them in your pocket, in case you need them.]
Judy has some nice gloves from her snow skiing days and will try to coat them to make them waterproof. We both purchased an extra pair of waterproof cold weather gloves, so we each have two pair. I looked at battery operated heated socks but decided against them. If you go that way, Snow Deer got the best reviews. [Update: If you go with the rental boots you absolutely do not need heated socks.]
[Update: All-in-all, we probably over packed. We used the laundry service on the ship so we always had clean clothes. I brought too much "dress" clothes. One nice shirt and pants would have been enough. I also brought too many sweaters and polo and t-shirts.]
Judy put together this packing list for us. It's a general packing list, not just for this trip.
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11/10/2025 (Monday, long before the cruise) The cruise companies all seem to be offering an auction for an upgrade on your cabin, which is a good idea for them and offers the traveler a chance to get an upgraded cabin for significantly less then it would cost to book it outright (although you don't get to choose the cabin as part of the auction - you get what they assign you.) Anything the cruise line can get for the upgrade is better than letting the cabin go empty. And often, it's a cascade. One guest upgrades to a bigger suite, and a person who had the lowest level cabin gets an upgrade to your old cabin. The cruise line gets multiple upgrade payments out of the deal.
We had participated in an auction on a Regent cruise and got an upgrade, but had noise problems with the cabin. Be that as it may, Silversea offered an auction on this cruise and I made two offers - one for the next level up and one for two levels up. I received notice today that we won the two levels up. We'll now be in a "Silver Suite" instead of the "Deluxe Veranda Suite". Our original Deluxe Veranda Suite is 295 square feet, including the 92 sq. ft. veranda. The Silver Suite is 517 square feet, including the 126 sq. ft. veranda.
We're now in suite 527 - we were in suite 542 before this - so the new suite is just down the hall.
This cruise is a bit long, 19 days, so I felt that it was worth doing the upgrade. I'll report our experience, and whether we felt the upgrade was worthwhile, later in this blog.
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12/19/2025 (Friday, departure day) - A day or two ago, we received a flight schedule change for our flight from Lima to Santiago - the flight was moved up so that we only had about two hours from arrival in Lima to departure to Santiago. That's cutting it fairly close but we didn't have a lot of choice.
Our flight from LAX leaves fairly late, about 8:30pm, so we had time to do things this morning. Greg came by about 1pm - he's going to take care of the girls while we're gone.
The Cary limo came on time (4pm) and we took our traditional pre-trip photo.
The trip to the airport was quick and easy. We thought that 4pm on a Friday would be a mess but we got to the airport in less than an hour.
We checked in with LATAM - they were not very busy and it went quickly.
Then went through security and then to the lounge. We went to the gate about 7:30, only to find that the flight was delayed until 10:30. That two hour delay means we won't make our flight to Santiago.
A bit before 10pm we were able to get on the aircraft - a Boeing 767-300. We took off from LAX at 10:50pm. The LATAM staff on the plane took good care of us but everyone went to sleep fairly quickly. I was able to sleep a bit, but Judy said she couldn't fall asleep.
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12/20/2025 (Saturday) - We arrived in Lima about 9:45am (Lima time) and I sent a text to our travel agent, Jennifer, as soon as we landed. She got back to me immediately (on an early Saturday morning!) and told me that LATAM had already rescheduled us to a flight about 5:30pm.
Since we were in Business Class on the flight from LAX we got off the plane first and were first at the LATAM counter. Good thing, because a lot of other people had the same problem with the flight delay.
Here's the line of people waiting to get assigned to another flight.
LATAM had reschuled us in economy and the agent worked hard to get us into Business Class, but couldn't. She did get us into Premium Economy, however, which turned out to be the essentially the same as Business. As long as we get to Santiago...
I don't know why, but it took a long time for the agents to reschedule each passenger. We were at the counter almost an hour. But we finally did get our tickets and headed to the main part of the airport.
First there was a counter to pay the airport tax of $11.86 per person. I had already paid that on their website before we left home so we got through that quickly.
Then we had to go through security again. No serious problems but they took Judy's very short nail file.
We found the LATAM lounge and had to convince them that they should let us in with Premium Economy tickets because we originally had Business Class.
But they did let us in. It's a nice lounge and not very busy at this time of day. We had a long boring wait - we arrived at the lounge at 11am and waited there until 4:30pm when we went to the gate. We were in group 1 for boarding so we were able to get our carry-on in the overhead bins. We boarded a bit after 5 but the plane didn't take off until about 6:15. We were on an Airbus A321 which is a good, reliable aircraft.
We landed in Santiago at 11pm. By the time we got off the plane, filled out the agricultural declaration, went through passport control, and retrieved our luggage (yes, it arrived on the same plane) it was past midnight.
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12/21/2025 (Sunday) - We found Alan, the Silversea representative, as soon as we exited customs.
He led us to the van and we drove about 30 minutes to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and we checked in. We have to have our bags out by 6:30am so we set the alarm for 6:15 and went to bed. We were exhausted from the travel and the long layover in Lima.
Our alarms went off at 6:15am and shocked us awake. We put our bags out by our door before 6:30 but they weren't collected until about 10am.
After a well-appreciated shower, we went to breakfast and will gather in one of the meeting rooms by 11am for transportation to the airport, and then to fly to Puerto Williams. Terra del Fuego (land of fire) has some unusual country borders between Chile and Argentina. The Beagle Channel is one of those borders, and Puerto Williams is on the south (Chile) side of the channel. This means we don't have to go through any passport control coming from Santiago.
There are three ways by ship around South America . The first is the Strait of Magellan which was discovered in 1520 by Ferdinand Magellan.
Just as a side note, all of the land south of the Strait of Magellan is known as Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire). The name was given by Magellan because he saw many fires of the indigenous Yaghan people on the shore.
The second path is the Beagle Channel which was discovered in 1833 by the HMS Beagle - on which Charles Darwin was a passenger. The channel is named after the ship. Argentina is on the north side of part of the Beagle Channel and Chile is on the south side.
The third path is around the cape (Cape Horn) and is the Drake Passage, the wide expanse of ocean between the tip of South America and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It is named after Sir Francis Drake who discovered the passage in 1577.
However, the passage was probably discovered earlier by Francisco de Hoces in 1526. His ship, the San Lesmes, was part of the Loaisa Expedition. As they approached the Strait of Magellan, his ship was blown southward by a storm and he and his crew reported that they saw the end of land. That's why the passage is called the Mar de Hoces (Hoces Sea) on many Spanish maps. However, it's clear that Francisco de Hoces did not sail through the Drake Passage (neither did Drake) - both Hoces and Drake returned to the Strait of Magellan and crossed to the Pacific Ocean there. Hoces and his ship were lost a few months later.
No matter what name you give it, it's a treacherous body of water, so we expect some rough seas going down to Antarctica. There's a current that flows around Antarctica, clockwise, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The Drake Passage is relatively narrow so there's a strong easterly current in the passage.
Sailors talk about the "Roaring Forties", the "Furious Fifties" and the "Screaming Sixties". Note that we will be sailing in the Furious Fifties and Screaming Sixties on this cruise. We will not cross the Antarctica Circle (about 66°33'50.7"S), on this cruise.
We were so tired last night that we didn't take a picture of the hotel room so I took a couple this morning. Of course, the room doesn't look as nice as when you first enter:-)
It's the same as the room we had back in 2021. It has two steps down to a sitting area, which I find unusual and a bit of a safety problem. If you got up at night, in the dark, to go to the bathroom and stepped in the wrong place, you could wind up flat on your face.
Note that they gave us two twin beds instead of a king or queen. But at 1am in the morning we were just happy to have a bed.
About 11am we went to the gathering place. Silversea has divided us into "groups" and we're in Group 1.
Last time we went to Antarctica, everyone went in one plane, an Airbus A321, but that was because we were going to Punta Arenas which has an airport (PUQ - 9,154 foot runway) that can handle large aircraft.
This time we're going to Puerto Williams which has a shorter runway (WPU - 4,724 foot runway) and can only take smaller aircraft. Moving all the ship passengers will take multiple aircraft and that's why we have groups. It's even worse, because the Silver Endeavour is also sailing from Puerto Williams on the same day, so there are over 300 guests to move. They have four groups, with the last group leaving about 4:40pm. That's going to have them arriving at the ship after 8pm.
It was obvious to me that the people in the first group were in the premium cabins. I suspect the people in the lowest level cabins will be assigned to the 4:40pm departure.
Here are some of the people in Group 1.
And the bus. It was avery nice bus with comfortable seats.
We departed the hotel a bit after 11:30 and drove to the airport, taking the road around to the back of the airport where the charter flights originate. We arrived at the charter place about 12:05pm.
As you can see, it's right close to the airport tower.
Our flight was not scheduled to leave until 1:25pm so we waited in the lounge and talked with other passengers. Here's a picture of the Flight Information board showing scheduled flights. Eventually, it was time to leave. The aircraft is an Embraer E190, which is a good, reliable aircraft. Embraer made nearly 750 of that specific model of the Embraer E-Jet family. For the whole E-Jet family, production is about 1,750 aircraft.
On our last visit to Antarctica, I was stuck in a middle seat going down and coming back. The Embraer 190 has two seats on each side, so nobody gets stuck in a middle seat.
There were two rows of first class, only 6 seats (two seats on one side and one on the other). I'm sure the people who got those seats were in the highest class suites. If I had was in one of those suites and was assigned a seat way in the back of the plane, I'd be fairly upset.
We departed Saintaigo airport about 1:45pm. The seats were very comfortable and they served us a tasty lunch. We arrived at Puerto Williams a bit before 6pm, so it was a good four hour flight.
From the terminal we could see the Silver Wind at the dock.
It's an older ship, launched October 10, 1995, so it's 30 years old. It was renovated in 2018 and 2021 and has a capacity 274 guests, 239 crew. While Silversea did a good job renovating the ship, there's a limit to what they can do. The "standard" for cruise ships was very different in 1995 compred to what it is today - cabins were smaller and bathrooms were very much smaller. I'll talk mnore about that when we get into the cabin.
We took a small bus from the airport to the ship and boarded her. Judy's going up the gangway.
At the first station we had to show our passports for identification and they checked us on a list of passengers.
Then we went to the theater where we did the real check-in. We gave up our passports, gave them a credit card impression, and got our key cards. I asked how many guests were on the cruise and was told that it was 275. They said it was a full-house for an Antarctic cruise.
From there we went to our room to leave our carry on luggage.
Our butler, Moses (from Kenya), and room attendant, Wisnu (from Indonesia), were there to greet us.
Our suite has two rooms. First, the sitting room.
And the bedroom. They don't have enough electrical outlets in the cabin, especially in the right places. For example, on one side of the bed there's no electrical outlet. There is an electrical outlet on the other side of the bed.
The really disappointing part is the bathroom, which is tiny.
And has a tub shower, which I loathe. They're hard to get in and out of and can be slippery. I always ask for a cabin with a walk-in shower, but when you get an upgrade, you get what they give you. I know, first world problem.
Then we went up to the eighth deck and received a safety briefing. Then came back to our cabin and watched a safety video. With that, we were finished with preliminaries.
We went up to the seventh deck where the ship had set up a buffet for dinner.
I had some problems with the Internet access, but they were mostly due to me not understanding how it worked. We get the Premium access as part of our suite and it's fast and works great.
On Christmas day I asked the front desk how much it would be to purchase the premium Internet access at the beginning of the cruise and they couldn't give me an exact answer. The reason is that the cost of the package decreases each day because there are less days left in the cruise. On Christmas day, the cost for the rest of the voyage was about $300 for one device. They estimated that at the beginning of the cruise, it would have cost about $400 per device.
Our suitcases were delivered and we started unpacking. The ship departed the dock about 11pm, heading out of the Beagle channel towards the Falkland Islands.
That was the end of a busy day.