Recently, I’ve become a bit obsessed with taking a cruise to the Antarctic. I watched some videos a while back and decided we would try and do it in the next few years before we got too much older. It is very expensive though and I was also concerned that we would need very good insurance in case there were any health issues or family issues that caused us to cancel last minute.

Well, I finally took the polar plunge and booked something this week. You can probably tell by the above picture that it’s a Seabourn expedition cruise. I’ll give some more details at the end of the post, but first I wanted to explain the different considerations that went into what I booked and why I booked it.

Type of Cruise

There are larger ships that visit Antarctica (the continent adds the -a- on the end and the general area is just called the Antarctic). Cruise lines like Princess, Holland America, Celebrity etc. all have itineraries that include a visit to the area from South America. However, all of these larger ships (500+ passengers up to 2,000) cannot make any landings on the continent. They essentially do a sail-by for a couple of days and head back to Argentina or Chile.

Expedition ships are smaller (250 or fewer passengers) and are allowed to make landings by zodiac and do zodiac cruises around the land and the icebergs. Sometimes these ships even sail through the ice and allow passengers to step out directly onto the ice depending on the weather conditions and the thickness of the ice.

There’s no way I was going all the way to the bottom of the world and not setting foot on the continent so an expedition cruise was the only option I would consider. That led to another conundrum though…

Fly/Cruise or Just Cruise

Some of the higher end expedition cruise lines also offer an option to fly to the area either one way or both ways to skip the dreaded Drake Passage, one of the roughest stretches of open ocean in the world that lies between South America and Antarctica. Three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic and Antarctic) all come together and often cause 20-30 foot waves or higher.

I looked into the options of flying one or both ways to avoid this passage (mostly for my wife as I don’t mind some rocky seas), but there were a couple of issues. First, it was even more expensive by thousands of dollars as these flights are expensive to operate via charter. Second, there are often flight delays that cause arriving flights to be late and miss a day or two on the continent or departing flights to be late and cause a missed connection to your international flight home. So, after reading a few reviews of these trips, I decided it would be just a cruise on an expedition ship. My wife (and maybe me) would have to take some seasickness pills or other measures if we got the ‘Drake shake’ and not the ‘Drake lake.’ Which leads us to…

Where to Visit?

There are several different options in terms of where to visit beyond just cruising to the Antarctic continent. You can also visit South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, which have more varied wildlife and more to see on land beyond just ice and rocks. The issue with these cruises for us was just the time they would take to complete with most being 20+ day cruises with the additional two days on the front end from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia (where the cruises depart and arrive) and a day on the back end to get back to Buenos Aires for a flight home. Over three weeks was just too much time for us to be away plus these obviously tend to be more expensive, so I narrowed it down to the 10-13 day typical Ushuaia round-trip to the Antarctic continent. Perhaps one day after retirement, we’ll do the longer one or maybe a South American itinerary. So next it was time to decide…

Which Cruise Line?

Now that I had narrowed it down a bit, I looked into the expedition options. All were expensive, although some more than others. I also looked into the style and attire expected of passengers on these cruises. Despite them all being expedition-style, there are some variations. For example, French cruise line Ponant still expects passengers to dress up for dinner even after you’ve spent all day in a zodiac and cold-weather gear. That’s not for us. I narrowed it down to three favored options, Seabourn, Quark Expeditions and Scenic Eclipse. All use smaller expedition-style ships geared for polar exploring and all have around 150-250 passengers allowing for everyone to go ashore each day during the time in Antarctica. All of them have nice cabins, some with balconies, and are all-inclusive with a couple of exceptions like kayaks, submarine journeys and helicopter rides.

The cruise season runs from November until March, although typically, December-February is the peak of the season when you’ll get the best weather and most time ashore. I initially targeted a December cruise in either 2026 or 2027. In the end, I focused on Seabourn as they tended to be a similar price to the other two but had more inclusions such as every cabin (even the cheapest) having a balcony plus their two expedition ships were both under five years old. Finally, do we take a…

Group Cruise or Go It Alone

I followed a popular Instagram/YouTube couple called The Maxwells as they took a group on an Antarctic cruise with Seabourn this past December. The cruise looked great and they decided to offer another group cruise on the Seabourn Venture in December 2027. I signed up for the option to book the cruise and managed to get an offer for one of the suites. Unfortunately, it was not one of the lower priced suites and they were also charging a bit more for using a credit card.

I slept on the option and thought more about two things: 1) how I was going to pay for this to maximize my return in credit card points or cash back and 2) whether it made sense to book through a travel agent instead of directly with the cruise line. While I was mulling it over, I had a bit of an epiphany which led to…

How and What We Ultimately Booked

Chase Sapphire Reserve (along with a couple of other Chase cards) has great travel protections when you use the card to book all or part of a trip. You get $10,000 per person in trip cancellation coverage (for any documented medical reason including a medical issue with a family member not taking the trip) and other good coverage for things like trip interruption and lost baggage. We already have an annual plan with Allianz that covers $2,000 per person in trip cancellation. Since we usually book with points and miles that can be refunded for a small fee (or no fee), this is usually sufficient for us. Combining both of these coverages would almost cover this trip (I told you it is expensive!). I’ll take the risk and self-insure the gap between the total cost and the coverage as single trip insurance is very expensive ($1500-2000).

Knowing that I was planning to use the CSR to book, I also realized we could still use Chase Ultimate Rewards points toward a booking on Chase Travel at 1.5 cents per point until October 2027. Any points in your CSR Ultimate Rewards balance as of October 2025 received a two year extension when Chase nerfed this benefit down to 1 cent per point when redeemed for travel.

I looked up the sailing for the group cruise via Chase and the cost was slightly less than what I was being offered at the group rate because I could still book the lowest category cabin. I also noticed another Seabourn cruise leaving two days earlier on a sister ship, the Seabourn Pursuit, which suited us better because my wife’s birthday would fall when we were in Antarctica and not when crossing the Drake Passage. It was the same price so I zeroed in on that one. I spent about an hour on the phone with Chase and then with both Chase and Seabourn confirming the cruise booking.

Due to a promotion, we ended up being able to pay a reduced deposit of 15% of the cruise price. I was able to apply Ultimate Rewards for that entire amount so there was no cash out of pocket needed. Final payment is not due until August 2027, so if I have Ultimate Rewards left to use at 1.5 cents per point, I will use some or all of that toward the remaining cost. For any cash portion, I will earn 8x Ultimate Rewards booking through Chase. This was by far the best return on spend I could find for this cruise. It’s also fully refundable minus $100 future cruise credit per person up until final payment is due.

The booking also came with $800 in on-board credit, which we can use for the kayaking excursion (I don’t think we’ll bother with $1,000 per person for the submarine as I’ve read you don’t see all that much below the surface in that part of the world). Any amount leftover can be put toward a nice bottle of wine from the non-included selections or spa treatments etc. This all leaves only one more question…

How Do We Get to Argentina?

I’ve never booked a trip almost two years out before. I can’t even look at award flights or cash flights for almost a year. I did take a peak at what the options would have been if we took this cruise in 2026 and there are some decent business class options. American has flights from JFK and Miami to Buenos Aires that could price at saver level if we book right at the release date 330 days out (maybe we can even get a better deal booking with Alaska Atmos or BA Avios. We also could use some of those Chase Ultimate Rewards and book cash tickets on Delta (from here in Atlanta) or United (from Houston or Washington) if those are available. There are also flights on LATAM and Avianca with less desirable business class seats, but cheaper prices and more award availability. Worst case, there’s Aerolineas Argentina which would at least earn Delta MQDs as a SkyTeam member. In any event, I’m not going to worry about this until January 2027.

So, there it is. We have a trip to Argentina and Antarctica planned for December 2027. Hopefully, we’ll be in good health and be able to take the trip as planned. In the meantime, I’ll have lots of YouTube videos on Antarctic cruising to watch and enjoy as we prepare for our polar adventure.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links. I also recommend using CardPointers to track your credit card spending discount offers.