Silversea Cruise Review: Antarctica on Silver Endeavour

Originally, we were supposed to fly to Punta Arenas the night after our stay at The Ritz-Carlton and have an overnight stay in Punta Arenas, and the following day fly over the Drake Passage to King George Island to embark the Silver Endeavour.

Instead, the morning after our stay at The Ritz-Carlton, we flew over to Punta Arenas, which was a three-and-a-half hour flight with beautiful views. From Punta Arenas, the flight to Puerto Williams was a short 40 minutes, then once we had landed, we saw her...the Silver Endeavour ready for us to embark on the two-day journey to Antarctica!

The excitement kicked in as we got into our suites and saw our Silversea backpacks, water bottles, parkas, boots and waterproof pants presented on the bed - and a bottle of Champagne ready with three glasses!

We stayed in the Premium Veranda on Deck 7 as a triple occupancy; I was worried about the space but surprisingly this was not a problem, we didn't spend much time in our suites as we utilised the spacious public areas on board such as the Observation Lounge, the Arts Café and the Library.

The second day on board we were halfway through the Drake Passage, and luckily it wasn't too bad - I was excited that I was able to experience this, others might say otherwise.

On the third day, we finally arrived in Antarctica! The weather was not safe for us to go out on the Zodiacs for a landing in the morning, but our Expedition Leader did not give up. We relaxed and got an all-clear around 5.30pm, got dressed in layers, parkas, waterproof pants and boots, got on the Zodiacs and saw our first colony of gentoo penguins! It was truly magical and I felt so lucky to experience this with my mum and some close friends.

We sailed around the Antarctic Peninsula and visited Robert Point, Yankee Harbour, Mikkelsen Harbour, Cierva Cove, Neko Harbour, Danco Island, Wilhelmina Bay, Orne Harbour, Whalers Bay, Telefon Bay, and lastly to King George Island in the six days, so we covered a lot!

Almost every day we had two excursions and at Neko Harbour, we were lucky enough to go kayaking. We kayaked through icy waters and broke through ice, watched penguins leap out of the water and, the most memorable, saw a humpback whale spouting only 20 metres away from us!

At Orne Harbour, blue skies appeared. As the sun came out, we went straight to the whirlpool on deck 6 to take in the views. Our Expedition Leader had the same idea as she announced to the ship to head to this deck for the magnificent views, and the Silver Endeavour team surprised us all with bottles of champagne; the perfect accompaniment.

As the weather was phenomenal on this day, when we had finished one of our excursions, the Hotel Director opened the marina and we all soaked up the sunshine before I took on the famous Polar Plunge! The surprises kept on coming from the team on board, as we were also greeted with a choice of hot chocolate or mulled wine whilst we were out on one of our Zodiac cruises; a lovely touch.

I was very impressed with our Expedition Leader as she would go scouting for landings to ensure we would maximise our time in Antarctica and gave us detailed briefings every day on what we had done that day, explaining why she made those decisions as well as plans and contingency plans for the next day.

I was also amazed by the Silversea Expedition Team, they had a lot of knowledge and were so helpful in getting everyone on and off the Zodiacs, as well as ensuring we saw as much wildlife as we could during the hikes such as gentoo penguins, chinstrap penguins, seals, whales and lots of species of bird.

Not only was Antarctica and the team on board amazing, but the ship was beautiful. It was so spacious and the food at The Grill and The Restaurant was delicious. Even my mum who doesn't generally enjoy eating out as she prefers her home-cooked meals, loved everything! She even had seconds - which I've never seen before.

Although each day was jam-packed with at least two excursions, and activities such as trivia, we put time aside to defrost in the steam room and sauna.

The joy of opening the blinds in a new destination with different views came to an end as we got to King George Island. The runway was clear for us to fly back to Punta Arenas rather than doing the Drake Passage again; an easy and quick flight. We stayed overnight at the Cabo de Hornos in Punta Arenas before flying back to Santiago the next day where our trip ended.

This was the best trip I've ever done and I'm ready for another Antarctic cruise - next on my list is the Falkland Islands and South Georgia!