Quark Expeditions

It was a wonderful experience with Quark. Most staffs were friendly and helpful. I really enjoyed it. But also something need to improve. First, arranging the flight from Hotel Dreams to Antarctic, we were separated from our family and were scheduled on different flights. There was a 11 person group. One was separated from it and put on the first flight while others on the second. That was quite a mess. Second, I was really thankful for providing a Chinese interpreter on the ship. She was very helpful for those Chinese who did not understand English. She was very nice and offered lots of help for Chinese folks. But her translation skill was sub par, especially in translating the Captain announcements. As a Chinese, I had to take a lot of guess for her translation. Third, Shane should have been more friendly and cheerful. He always wore a long face whenever we saw him for the whole trip. Never saw him smile. He was in a customer service industry, should not be like that even if he was under pressure. Maybe he can do it with his team members, but definitely not to customers. On the last day, when an old couple asked him if they could transfer to the first flight, he was too impatient and reluctant to help. Only after they begged for almost an hour, he promised to send email to the airport and guaranteed them it would fail. But the airport approved. If he would have to do it, why not have done it earlier to save everyone's time and hassle. Not very good customer service skill. I believe Quark can solve those issue in the future. Overall, it was quite a pleasant trip with lots of cheerful, happy Quark team members and service staffs on the ship.

Visiting Antarctica is a unique experience, it is full of life, fantastic scenery, very special light and always different. This was mi third Quark Expedition, and I was very pleased with it. The leaders and the programs were superb. The ship has seen better days, but was adequate. The lecturers were not up to the standards of previous ones, some with very poor English. Recommendable.

We really enjoyed the trip. The locations we visited were superb and very enlightening. Expedition staff were exceptional - very knowledgable and impressive in their qualifications. They always strove to please. Expedition leader was fabulous. Kayaking with Becs Dryland was incredible. The one thing that could have been improved was the following: We were not aware prior to the trip that the distances between destinations would be far and variable based on weather. We had more boat time then we would have liked and would have appreciated being better prepared for the variableness of the trip. As mentioned, the destinations themselves were spectacular but in a few cases we arrived very late in the day so time was limited. Seems it may have been an aggressive itinerary. It might have been better to have fewer destinations and more exploration. it just would have been better if we were made aware of the above prior to selecting the itinerary as we may have chosen differently. Otherwise we had a wonderful time. Thank you.

I enjoyed very much the Baffin Bay Explorer trip. During the ten days we spent on the sea, we visited some fabulous sites--- both on Baffin Island and Greenland---experienced varied Arctic weather, and got a chance to explore Inuit towns and villages. The expedition staff was friendly and capable, and the food on board was delicious. My only source of complaint would be the room in which we heard presentations from the staff. It was an odd room with frustruating seating arrangement. Other than that...had a great experience.

We had fantastic experiences that we will cherish for a lifetime. The expedition team was enthusiastic and helpful. The flexibility of the schedule added to the trip. However, that same flexibility also made things more difficult at times. The ship design was the only real negative. On days that we traversed the iceberg filled fjords, there was no place to sit inside and enjoy the view. The windows in the lounge were dirty and it was cold sitting by them. Guests were always invited to come out on deck and see the spectacular view. As older travelers, we needed time to rest and it seemed we were always on our feet or in the zodiac (which we loved). A front viewing camera displayed on the screens in the lounge would have been helpful where one could relax but step outside when something special was ahead. Lastly, the internet plan did not work for people with tablets. One use and all your time was used up because the logout screen disappeared and turning off wifi completely wasn't an option as the daily schedule was posted there. If there is a work around, those procedures should be explained up front.