About the expedition...

The main difference between an expedition vs a cruise is whether you actually step on Antarctica.  If you are on a cruise, you sail by ("cruising") but not get off on Antarctica or any surrounding islands.  If you are on an expedition, you are technically research scientists exploring Antarctica to advance science (or something to that effect.)  You can then land, and even visit any nearby research stations - none were open yet!

Cruise ships are the 3-4 thousand passenger monstrosities, whereas expedition vessels have capacities of less than 200.  Ours could accommodate 72 "polar explorers" as they called us, all cabins with windows (no balconies.)  The ship is not an ice breaker, but with double hull and can cut through some ice sheets, like ours did.

Titanic?  Nope.  These double hulled ships can cut through some ice sheets.

Weather controls the tourist season in Antarctica - usually Nov - Mar (Summer months.)  The number of ships and their itineraries are controlled to ensure the remoteness of Antarctica is preserved - much like in the Galapagos.

Advantage of going earlier in the season (Nov) is that there is plenty of snow, icebergs, ice sheets - and you can walk on the virgin snow.  Penguins are already there - having laid one or two eggs per pair, which they incubate for 34 days before the eggs hatch.  During this time, parents take turns to protect the eggs and to feed themselves.  This creates quite an activity around their colonies - penguins coming and going, calling their mates, defending their eggs against Skuas (gull-like birds.)  Although seals (and whales) feast on penguins, the Weddell and elephant seals resting on the ice appeared to be full and penguins ignored their presence (they are no threat on land.)

Advantage of going later in Summer is that you can see penguin chicks, but not much snow and ice.  It also means that you can go further South towards the Antarctic Circle and visit those islands that we missed.  You may also see Adelie penguins who prefer to nest further South.  (Best place to see King and Emperor penguins is South Georgia islands.)

We mainly saw Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins - by the thousands.  They find rocky areas free from snow and ice to lay eggs.  That could mean climbing higher up on land to make a nest.  It is a great spectacle to see penguins waddling up and down on just two (hind) legs or sliding on their bellies to make the journey from the nest to the water and back.

Here are some tidbits about the expedition:

• Ocean Nova - Our 72 passenger ship spends Southern Summers in Antarctica and Northern Summers cruising around Svalbard in the high Arctic.  David Berg from Sweden was our Expedition Director and made the experience memorable.
  - At cruising speed of 12 knots, it takes more than two full days to cross 600 miles of Drake Passage - weather notwithstanding.  When the weather gets rough - which it did for at least 24 hours each way - with 40 knot winds and 20 ft swell, top speeds are not possible.
• Drake Passage - If you haven't heard, named after the British Explorer Sir Francis Drake, this stretch of water remains probably the roughest in the world.  Known simply as the Drake Passage, here between the South American continent and the Antarctic continent two oceans collide – South Pacific Ocean and Southern Atlantic Ocean.  This 600 miles wide gap between Cape Horn (the southernmost point of South America) and the South Shetland Islands, situated about 100 miles north of the Antarctic Peninsula is considered rites of passage to Antarctica.  
• Getting sea sick is part of the experience, unless you load up on your favorite anti-motion sickness medicine or gadget.
  - I noticed that many crew members were using a patch behind their ear.  Per ship's doctor, one patch works for 2-3 days, at which point, it should be removed when a new one is put on (not double up.)
  - The doctor was freely handing out chewable or regular motion sickness tablets to anyone who wanted them, and insisting that we take two the first night, two next morning and two next night.  The tablets, of course, make you drowsy - so you have to choose your own "poison."
  - One woman went all out and had a patch behind each ear, took the tablets, and wore accu-pressure bracelets on both hands.  And she still had problems - couldn't tell because of what - probably over medication.
  - After you leave Ushuaia around 4 PM, you travel through calm waters of Beagle Channel (named after HMS Beagle on which Darwin traveled.)  Only after you pass the southernmost point of South America, Cape Horn around 2 am, that the sea gets rough until you reach South Shetland Islands.  It gets somewhat rough again in the mini-Drake passage between Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula (Bransfield Strait), but by then most of us were over the sea sickness.
  - I was feeling fine until dinner time so I didn't take the tablets.  Next morning wake up call, breakfast call, morning lecture call - were all ignored (as I found out later by MOST of us.)
  - To avoid motion sickness, you either lie down and close your eyes, or sit in the Panorama Lounge on the top deck and look at the horizon.
  - The window (and the reading light) were on the outside wall, so we slept with our heads in that direction.  During Drake Passage, for nearly 24 hours, the ship rolled from side to side unpredictably.  When that happened, our heads would tilt below the rest of our body.  Our stomachs would get pushed in to our chests, and then back out when the ship tilted the opposite way.  It was like we were in a washer during the soak cycle.  Though not painful, this was very annoying - not to mention aggravating motion sickness.  We soon flipped our heads towards the middle of the ship, and away from the window.  That made a huge difference in stomach churning.
  - As for me, I braved to go for lunch, took a bite of a bread just to see how I was feeling.  Sure enough, my stomach could not handle even that.  I threw up in the napkin before our server could bring the barf bag.  Within a minute, the doctor showed up and asked me when I took the tablets (I hadn't.)  He asked me to take them immediately and lie down in the room.  As you know, when one person gets sick, others around also tend to get sick - it is "contagious" that way.  I went to the room, took medication and slept the rest of the day.  I was then fine the following day (Nov 22) on until the return trip.
• Antarctica XXI - Company claims to have started flights to Antarctica for people who are short on time, wanted to avoid Drake Passage, or both.
  - Great thing about this company (Antarctica XXI) is that they have thought about everything, and provide to you at no extra cost.  All meals on board are included.  There is coffee/tea and some snacks in the Panorama Lounge and the Library 24X7.  During the cruising days, there are lectures on various topics every couple of hours, and an update for the next day in the evening.
  - Clothing -including outer garments- are personal choice so you bring your own.  That also made our group look colorful.  High end expeditions like National Geographic/Lindblad provide you winter jackets, with everyone looking the same on the hikes - human penguins marching along real penguins.  Just my thought!
  

  

  Everyone had their own jackets (not provided by the expedition) which made the group look colorful.

  - After the expedition, they provide you with a logbook showing location of each excursion and details, and a slideshow of the entire cruise.  Photos taken by the staff photographer(s) are also made available to us, in addition to the thousands we took ourselves.
  - For shore excursions (included), you need waterproof rubber boots to get off the zodiacs.  Those are also included, and with our own waterproof (ski) pants, kept us dry and warm during the hikes.  The only optional activities were kayaking ($800) and snow shoeing ($195.)  Those got booked as well.  
• Adventure Life - Their last minute email generated a lot of interest -and sign ups- so much so that 23 passengers on Ocean Nova were from Adventure Life.  
• Weather - It is futile to look at the weather at your destination when you book your trips months in advance.  As long as you are going during the "right" season, you just hope for the best.  I don't carry an umbrella even when the forecast looks like this:

• - You just hope that it is not as bad as it looks - usually it is not.  We did carry ponchos to Iguassu Falls knowing that we were going to take the boat ride in to the falls.  It was drizzling a bit that morning, so ponchos came in handy for that as well.  But that was the FIRST.
  - On the first day, I was chatting with the expedition leader David Berg and I rattled off several things that I wanted to experience ("bucket list") on this expedition.  He wouldn't promise anything (because of the weather, of course.) and said that if I could take responsibility to keep the weather nice, he will take care of the rest.  We both kept our promises and that made it such a memorable experience all around.
• Polar Plunge - so called when people voluntarily jump in to ice-cold waters around the world.  In the north, where much of the land is and places are cold enough to do it, they call it Polar Bear Club because it is a behavior polar bears exhibit.  In Antarctica, it is simply called Polar Plunge whether you jump directly off the ship's deck, or wade in water near the shore.  Polar Penguin or Polar Seal Club would have worked as well.
  - Any case, when I heard about it ten or so years ago, I thought to myself "who'd be crazy enough to do that?"  Well, I found my answer soon enough.  In June 2008, while river rafting in Nenana River outside Denali National Park in Alaska, some people went "man overboard" towards the end of the rafting session - so did I.
  - This time, of course, I was ready/waiting for it.  Because it is subject to weather conditions, the cruise director couldn't promise exactly when, where, how, but on our second day in Antarctica (Fri Nov 24) in Cierva Cove, it happened.  The water was calm, no winds, air temperature 46 degrees though the water was still at 32 degrees.  Glacial ice melting all around us.
  - There is no way to gauge how many people would actually jump on any given day.  They had estimated about 1/3 of the 72 polar explorers to be brave enough.  I was ready to jump first, but a Canadian woman insisted on going first ("Otherwise, I will never do it." she said.) so she did.  I went third.
  - They have you step in to a safety lap belt, which they then raise and tighten around your waist.  You are now tethered to a man well inside the ship, with two other men standing at the edge of the platform to help you out of the water.  All you have to do now is to wave at the camera positioned in a zodiac a few feet away, and jump.  So easy, as long as you don't think too much about it.  In less than five seconds, you are back out of the water.  They hand you a dry towel (you also have your own bathrobe that you brought along from your room.) and a shot of Vodka.  All happiness!  The ship's doctor is standing right there, checking you off the list, with only one question "do you feel your toes?"  If you have sensation in your feet, you are most likely fine.
  - In the end, after 1 1/2 hours, 48 passengers and two crew members had jumped.  A record for Ocean Nova. 
• Not pushing Social Agenda - As memorable and once-in-a-lifetime this experience is, you realize that the ship was burning fossil fuel to get us to Antarctica and for all the creature comforts we had on the ship.  Being such a reliable and efficient source of energy, you could justify the pollution we were responsible for creating.  Moreover, all the research stations supporting between 800-5000 researchers around the year also rely on fossil fuels (NO nuclear or other fuels) to support their existence and livelihood on the continent.
• One hand to the ship - This was a constant reminder.  On this expedition, don't expect to have your meal in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.  You must keep one hand free for the ship.  This was pretty obvious to all of us really quick.  With the boat rocking most of the time, you couldn't climb the stairs without holding on to the ship, or even go from your bed to the bathroom two steps away.  At meal times, crew would be there to give you a hand or bring your food to your table rather than have spills.
  - Even all furniture was tied down - including dining room chairs and tables.
  - When they told us to "Secure your cabin" - we didn't know what to expect.  Our bags stacked neatly in a corner were falling down.  We had to lay them flat.
• There were 10 research stations(owned and operated by different countries) on the entire peninsula.  They were yet to open for the season.
• Being on the rocking ship for so long, it took us full two days to get our land legs back - we felt that we were rocking even when we were on the solid ground.