Advice on choosing a cruise line - leaning towards Polar or Quark
My wife and I are thinking about taking our first trip to Antarctica in early 2029 to celebrate my retirement (I'll be 65, she'll be 53). We'd like a combination of a smaller ship (so not the 400-500 ones, or even 200 preferably) and a bit of creature comforts. Not ultra luxury, but not bare bones, either. We're looking at around $15,000 per person and a duration of approx. 11-14 days. Probably not enough time to see SGI/FI but that's OK. I'll be retired but my wife will still have to consider her leave time balance at work. Polar Latitudes and Quark both seem to have nice itineraries that would fit the bill. I also looked at Seabourn (too expensive) and HX (too many pax), as well as Lindblad/Nat'l Geo (a little much for a blah looking boat), Atlas (way too expensive), Oceanwide (a little too spartan), and G Adventures (very much too spartan!), and Ponant (pricey, too). Our main focus is getting a decent amount of time off the boat and having a nice-ish ship to return to with some creature comforts. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!