Spectacular Ross Sea (including helicopters)

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Overview
Highlights
- Visit the sub-Antarctic New Zealand Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Campbell Island
- Explore Cape Adare
- Discover Flora and fauna in the Ross Sea
- Visit Cape Evans
- Sailing along the Ross Ice Shelf
What's this trip about?
Details
Travel Themes
Destinations
Activities
Trip includes
- Voyage aboard the indicated vessel as indicated in the itinerary
- All meals throughout the voyage aboard the ship including snacks, coffee and tea.
- All shore excursions and activities throughout the voyage by Zodiac.
- Program of lectures by noted naturalists and leadership by experienced expedition staff.
- Free use of rubber boots and snowshoes.
- Ship-to-shore helicopter transfers (with no specific amount of helicopter time guaranteed)
- Pre-scheduled group transfer from the vessel to the airport in Ushuaia (directly after disembarkation).
- All miscellaneous service taxes and port charges throughout the programme.
- Comprehensive pre-departure material.
Itinerary

Our passengers embark on Ortelius
Highlights
Bluff & Invercargill
Highlights
Bird Watching
We plan to visit the sub-Antarctic New Zealand Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Campbell Island, with a luxuriant and blooming vegetation. The fauna on Campbell Island is fantastic with a large and easily accessible colony of Southern Royal Albatrosses on t...
Sailing south to the entrance of the Ross Sea we may opt to set a course sailing by Scott Island depending on the weather forecast.
Highlights
Scott Island
Cape Adare is the place where people for the very first time wintered on the Antarctic Continent. The hut where the Norwegian Borchgrevink stayed in 1899 is surrounded by a large colony of Adélie Penguins, which are now in autumn moult.
Highlights
Cape Adare
Adelie Penguin
Borchgrevink's Huts
Sailing southward along the west coast of the Ross Sea, we may attempt a landing at the specially protected area of Cape Hallet with a large Adélie Penguin rookery. Further south we find Terra Nova Bay where we aim to stop at the Drygalski Ice Tongue and the Italian M...
In the Ross Sea we intend to visit Ross Island, guarded by Mount Erebus, Mount Terror and Mount Byrd with all the famous spots which played such an important role in the dramatic British expeditions of the last century such as Cape Royds with the cabin of Ernest Shack...
Along the Ross Ice Shelf we sail to the east.
Highlights
Ross Ice Shelf
We still sail along the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating mass of land-ice, with a front 30 meters high. In the Bay of Whales at the eastern side of the shelf, close to Roosevelt Island (named by the American aviator Richard E. Byrd in 1934 for President Franklin D. Roosevel...
These days we sail through the Amundsen Sea along and through the outer fringes of the pack-ice, while we take advantage of the west-going Antarctic coastal current. The sailing along and through the ice is very lively, with sightings of single straggling Emperor Peng...
Peter I Island or in Norwegian Peter I Øy is an uninhabited volcanic island (19 kilometres long) in the Bellingshausen Sea. It was discovered by Fabian von Bellingshausen in 1821 and was named after the Russian Tsar Peter I. It is claimed by Norway and considered a te...
En-route to the Antarctic Peninsula
In the Antarctic Peninsula we plan to visit Detaille Island. Detaille Island was discovered by the French expedition of Charcot (1903-05) and named for a shareholder in the Magellan Whaling Company. From 1956 till 1959, The British Antarctic Survey had their “Station ...
En-route to Ushuaia
Highlights
Bird Watching
Drake Passage
In the morning, we disembark in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world located at the Beagle Channel
Highlights
Ushuaia
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Dates & Availability
Check Current Availability, prices, specials with Oceanwide Expeditions.
The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.
Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.

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Logistics
What's excluded
- Any airfare, whether on scheduled or charter flights
- Pre- and post- land arrangements.
- Passport and visa expenses.
- Government arrival and departure taxes.
- Meals ashore.
- Baggage, cancellation and personal insurance (which is mandatory).
- Excess baggage charges and all items of a personal nature such as laundry, bar, beverage charges and telecommunication charges.
- The customary gratuity at the end of the voyages for stewards and other service personnel aboard (guidelines will be provided).
Accommodation
History of Ortelius “Ortelius” was built in Gdynia, Poland in 1989, was named “Marina Svetaeva”, and served as a special purpose vessel for the Russian Academy of Science. The vessel is re-flagged and renamed “Ortelius”. “Ortelius” is classed by Lloyd’s Register in London and flies the Cyprus flag. As Plancius, Ortelius was a Dutch / Flemish cartographer. Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598) published the first modern world atlas, theTheatrum Orbis Terrarum or Theatre of the World in 1570. At that time, the atlas was the most expensive book ever printed. Perfect for any expedition The vessel has the highest ice-class notation (UL1 equivalent to 1A) and is therefore very suitable to navigate in solid one-year sea ice and loose multi-year pack ice. “Ortelius” is a great expedition vessel for 116 passengers with lots of open-deck spaces. The vessel is manned by 22 highly experienced international nautical crew, 19 international hotel crew, 8 expedition staff (1 expedition leader, 1 assistant expedition leader and 6 guides/lecturers), and 1 doctor. Ortelius: a vessel with comfort and character ”Ortelius” offers a comfortable hotel standard, with a u-shaped, a bar and a lecture room. Our voyages are primarily developed to offer our passengers a quality exploratory wildlife program, trying to spend as much time ashore as possible. As the number of passengers is limited to approximately 116 on the “Ortelius”, flexibility assures maximum wildlife opportunities. “Ortelius” carries 10 zodiacs. The zodiac engines are 60hp Yamaha.
Passengers:116 in 53 cabins Staff & crew:50 Length:90.95 meters Breadth:17.20 meters Draft:5.4 meters Ice class:UL1 (Equivalent to 1A) Displacement:4090 tonnes Propulsion:6 ZL 40/48 SULZER Speed:14.5 knots maximum
In the case of cancellation by the contracting party, OE is entitled to charge the following cancellation fees to the contracting party:
- up to and including 90 days prior to departure: 20 % of the total price;
- from 89 days up to and including 60 days prior to departure: 50 % of the total price;
- from 59 days up to and including the day of departure: 100 % of the total price .
Other (deviating) cancellation policies / fees (for example in the case of group charters, block charters or whole boat charters) may be applicable; these are valid only if confirmed by OE in writing (in e.g. the original offer made, travel confirmation, (block) charter agreements or in communication sent later) and these cancellation policies shall prevail over those of the cancellation policy
In the case of flight and hotel reservations, a 100 % cancellation fee will apply for those involved costs unless this is a non-refundable ticket / hotel accommodation; in that case the terms and conditions of the related airline company / hotel will apply.
If the contracting party after booking wishes to introduce changes into the booked trip, this is considered a cancellation and the cancellation costs. In case of minor changes, OE is entitled to charge reservation costs of at least 50 EURO per alteration.
OE STRONGLY RECOMMENDS the contracting party in the case of a (travel) organisation: the client(s) of the (travel) organiser to take out a cancellation insurance to cover the costs of any cancellation of the trip
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