Meet your fellow voyagers and expedition staff for an informal get-together over dinner at the hotel, where you stay overnight.

Transfer to the port where staff welcome you on board the Akademik Shokalskiy. As you settle into your cabin, your adventure begins.

As you make your way through an area known as the roaring ‘40s, enjoy a series of lectures on the biology and history of the Subantarctic Islands and the Southern Ocean. Prepare for arrival at Macquarie Island. En route to Macquarie Island, observe pelagic species at your ease. Great birding opportunities may include the wandering albatross, royal albatross, black-browed albatross, light-mantled sooty albatross, Salvin’s albatross, grey-headed albatross, northern and southern giant petrel, sooty shearwater and little shearwater. Endeavour to spot the fairy prion, fulmar prion, and Antarctic prion – never an easy task – but you should get some great views.

Described by one Australian explorer as “One of the wonder spots of the world”, this is the only place in the world where the beautiful royal penguin breeds. Three other species of penguins also breed here: the king, gentoo and tockhopper. You may never forget your first experience of a noisy ‘penguin city’, where the dapper inhabitants show no fear of their strange visitors and where you are immersed in a tumult of chattering, feeding chicks, territorial disputes, petty pilfering, and courtship displays. This all happens amongst the hundreds of southern elephant deals lolling on the beaches and dunes. On arrival meet with scientists and Park Rangers based here who accompany you on all your landings.

Soaring albatrosses and petrels circle the vessel as your ship steams south through the Southern Ocean. Lectures now concentrate on the Ross Sea region, meanwhile beyond the bows of the ship drifting icebergs begin to appear in extraordinary shapes. The ship maneuvers in close for your first ice photographs as you pass the Antarctic Circle and into the continent’s realm of 24-hour daylight.

With unpredictable ice and weather conditions, a day-by-day itinerary is not possible but your expedition team assesses conditions daily and takes every opportunity to launch the zodiacs and make landings. You can anticipate wildlife viewing, visits to scientific bases and historic sites, as well as the spectacular white and blue scenery.

Your ship crew hopes to make landings in the following areas:

Cape Adare: A large flat spit of land, teeming with the staggering sight of Antarctica’s largest Adelie penguin rookery. You may witness a tumult of chattering, feeding chicks, territorial disputes, petty pilfering, and courtship displays. Curious penguins often come very close, offering superb photographic opportunities. Among the shifting mass of penguins you can find Carsten Borchgrevink’s Hut, the oldest in Antarctica, an overwintering shelter for the first expedition to the Antarctic continent in 1899.

Cape Hallett: The enormous Admiralty Range heralds your arrival. Wild and extraordinary, the mountains rear up from the sea to over 4,000 meters, bounded by colossal glaciers. Land at an abandoned base site, now home to large numbers of Adelie penguins and Weddell seals.

Terra Nova Bay: An Italian research station where the scientists are always hospitable and enjoy showing you around their lonely but beautiful home. They share with you their scientific research and also, perhaps, the best ‘cafe espresso’ in Antarctica!

Franklin Island: Desolately beautiful and rugged, this is home to a large Adelie penguin population and other nesting seabirds. A landing is attempted to explore the coastline.

Ross Ice Shelf: This is the world’s largest body of floating ice and a natural barrier, at times creating hazardous weather, with sheets of snow blown at gale force by winds off the polar ice cap. Just 800 miles from the South Pole, this daunting spectacle prevented many early explorers from venturing further south. Cruise along its dizzying 30 meter ice cliffs, perhaps lucky enough to see icebergs ‘calving’.

Ross Island:Mt. Erebus/Cape Bird/Shackleton & Scott’s Hut and visits to a scientific field station (Scott and McMurdo Stations are high on the wish list but ice, weather and station operational requirements often make them inaccessible). Ross Island was and is the ‘hub of activity’ in the Ross Sea, dominated by Mt Erebus, a monstrous active volcano named after the ancient Greek God of Darkness. The carefully preserved huts of the ‘Heroic Era’ help make the history come alive. If possible reach the bases to get a modern perspective on Antarctic Research.

Possession Islands: Rarely-visited, small and rugged, these rocks support tens of thousands of penguins. Observe the birds’ busy and humorous activity, with the Admiralty Mountains forming a superb backdrop across the water.

Take time to rest and enjoy shipboard life in the bar or library after the excitement and long daylight hours of the Antarctic. As the ship sails, you have plenty of time for lectures on your final destination and for some pelagic bird spotting.

Drop anchor in Perseverance Harbor, an occasional refuge for southern right whales who come here to calve. Walk to the nesting site of the southern royal albatross and see the strange and beautiful ‘mega herbs’ growing on the hills - huge wildflowers that have adapted to the harsh conditions, with unusual colorings and oddly-shaped leaves. Seek out other wildlife such as Campbell Island shags, light-mantled sooty albatross, and sea lions.

Characterized by towering cliffs and rugged sea stacks, these islands have borne witness to many a shipwreck in days gone by. Spend the day ashore on Enderby Island, which is perhaps the most beautiful of all the subantarctic islands; here find parakeets flitting above carpets of red, white, and yellow wildflowers, and on the beaches beyond, the rare Hooker’s or New Zealand sea lion. Land in Carnley Harbor and if conditions are suitable, climb to a shy albatross colony. Otherwise explore sites within the harbor.

Staggeringly, The Snares Islands are home to more nesting seabirds than all of the British Isles put together. Zodiac cruising the coast, learn how the islands got their name. In the sheltered bays, keep your eyes out for the endemic Snares crested penguin, the Cape petrel, and the Buller’s albatross nesting on the imposing cliffs.

Disembark in the Port of Bluff. This adventure ends as you disperse to begin others. After fond farewells, transfer to central city hotels or to the airport.