Albatros Expeditions Anmeldelser 49

Avoid this tour operator, as they appear to have serious operational limitations and as result fail to deliver on the sold voyage itineraries. We booked at 10 day trip to Antarctic Peninsula and South Shetland Islands on Ocean Victory. We spent less than 1 day in the Antarctica, instead of 4 outlined in the itinerary, visiting only one anchorage, and not visiting South Shetland Islands. .
We booked a trip with Alabatros Expeditions with some hesitancy given their incident history (see cruise mapper) and many negative reviews. We certainly have lived to regret our decision. The subsequent dealings with Albatros have been frustrating at best and it is clear that Albatros has no interest in showing any accountability, hiding behind their terms and conditions, and generally have little regards for their customers. The response and communication from Albatros Expeditions/Polar Latitudes to us and a large group of passengers who have collaborated in seeking compensation have been shockingly unprofessional, and Albatros has refused to provide fair compensation. These are expensive trips, do not gamble your money away with this dubious and unscrupulous company.
To add to it all, our accommodations were not watertight. Our balcony door (4th floor) would not lock, and when we reported concerns to the front desk, we found a large towel placed along the bottom of the door to stop water intrusion. Not exactly a safe set up in the rough waters of Drake Passage, where waves do reach deck 4. In short, this not a trustworthy operator.

Polar Latitude / Albatros Expeditions has misleading advertising regarding their abilities to provide their itinerary as advertised. They underdelivered on our expedition by deciding to only take us to Antarctica for less than one day of the four days they advertise. There was weather to deal with, but that is common / expected in the Drake Passage, and other companies were able to offer a more complete experience to their guests at the same time. Other boats were also crossing when we were being diverted away from Antarctica.
When a large group of unhappy passengers corresponded with the company, providing lots of evidence as to why they should have been able to proceed as advertised, they ignored us to begin with then once they finally responded did not show transparency or accountability for their poor decisions. At the end of the day, the boat that we were on was not able to handle the Drake Passage as advertised.
I would steer clear of this company, based on what I have learned about their ability to deliver the product they sell (from my experience & past performance discovered in our research). They had the choice to deliver the product, and when not able to, to make it right for their customers by compensating appropriately & they chose not to.
This was a disappointing 'once in a lifetime experience' and they overpromise and underdeliver on it.

This company is disgusting, they want you to use their slow a$$ wifi, they wont let you bring your own internet, they say it interferes with their ship, when it has been proven many many times that it does not. And they say their policies prohibit bringing your own internet. When there is absolutely nothing in their policies that prohibit it, Avoid this cruise like the plague it is, nothing but greedy trash. Was thinking about using them for a family trip but dang sure won't be after the video of them confiscating a starling from someone, guess you won't be able to bring a satellite phone with you since it "interferes with their wifi/ship" sorry sorry company, hope they go out of business. These companies needs to learn to quite being so greedy. Avoid at all costs. Not worth your time, and now I know why they have such a low low rating.

Captain is a tyrannical greedy thief who seizes personal items off of passengers who don't want to pay extortionate prices for internet under the guise of staff and passenger safety. All lies.

If you don't want your personal items stolen off you stay away from this company.

They took away the wifi so I had literally nothing to do. This is sus by the way.

I spent $8000 on a non-refundable ticket for the January 20, 2026, South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula voyage on the Ocean Victory with Albatros Expeditions. Before purchasing, I specifically obtained permission from the company to stream/live broadcast during the trip, as that's my profession as a livestreamer—the entire point of booking this expensive cruise was to fund and document the adventure through my work while sharing the experience with my audience.

Nowhere in their policies, terms, FAQs, or communications was it stated that live streaming or broadcasting would be prohibited onboard. I was never warned about any restrictions on content creation beyond standard photography/video rules.

Mid-voyage, staff members (who did not identify themselves as crew at first) aggressively questioned and confronted me about streaming. I wasn't intentionally filming other passengers or invading privacy—any people who appeared were only those who approached me, engaged in conversation, or came into frame naturally. If they didn't want to be on camera, they shouldn't have initiated contact. Meanwhile, virtually everyone else on the ship had their phones and cameras out constantly for photos, videos, and personal use—no one else was targeted.

There was another streamer onboard—an older white man—who was also told to stop streaming. However, they allowed him to continue without further interference. In my case, they not only demanded I stop but shut off my shipboard internet access entirely to enforce it. When I switched to my personal Starlink device (which I had brought onboard with no prior prohibition mentioned), security forcefully detained me, locked me in the brig (ship's detention area), and confined me there for the remainder of the cruise.

The only apparent difference between me and the other streamer is that I'm Black. This unequal treatment felt discriminatory and deeply unfair. I was robbed of $8000, prevented from working (my livelihood), denied the ability to enjoy what should have been a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and subjected to aggressive handling and isolation.

If Albatros Expeditions didn't want streamers or live broadcasters onboard, they shouldn't have accepted my $8000 payment, granted prior permission to stream, and then abruptly changed the rules mid-voyage without warning or consistency. This ruined what was supposed to be an incredible experience and left me feeling violated and out thousands of dollars.

I strongly advise anyone considering Albatros Expeditions—especially content creators or those from underrepresented groups—to think twice. The ship, itinerary, and Antarctica are amazing, but the company's handling of this situation was unacceptable and potentially discriminatory. 0/10 – never again.

Both my friend and I have traveled with Albatros Expeditions on separate trips — one to Antarctica and one to the Arctic — and unfortunately, both experiences were extremely disappointing.

My friend spent over ten thousand dollars on a multi-destination expedition. When Albatros Expeditions’ ship broke down, the entire trip was cancelled. Rather than taking responsibility, the company refused to offer any refund and simply told passengers to “use their travel insurance.” In effect, Albatros Expeditions kept the passengers’ money without delivering the promised service, showing no accountability whatsoever — a shocking stance for a company that brands itself as an “expedition” operator.

My own experience this summer with a Greenland booking was equally frustrating, though for different reasons. The payment process was an ordeal. Their website’s payment link consistently failed, yet none of their European staff seemed aware of the issue. Over the course of several weeks, I tried to complete the payment from three different countries, using four browsers, three computers, and multiple major U.S. credit cards — all resulting in the same error messages.

The email response I received from the agent was a canned one from online:

99% of credit card rejections occur due to the following reasons:
Missing 3D Secure authentication
Daily, weekly, or monthly transfer limits exceeded
Insufficient available credit
Debit card restrictions or limitations

When I confirmed all details were correct, they began blaming my banks and cards instead. I spent over 12 hours, made more than 15 calls to my banks, and exchanged more than 30 emails with their product coordinator (Albatros Expeditions wouldn't let me include the name here), who repeatedly insisted their website was fine and “complies with EU regulations.”

At that point, I no longer wanted to proceed with the trip, but Albatros Expeditions refused to allow cancellation (they would keep my deposit.) This, again, mirrored the lack of accountability seen in my friend’s situation.

Eventually, after contacting their U.S. office (since the European one was entirely unhelpful), a senior staff member (Albatros Expeditions wouldn't let me include the name here) acknowledged that their payment system has had a known glitch. He advised me to manually adjust the last digit in my booking number to “-03” or “-04” — and only then was I able to complete payment immediately.

In summary, Albatros Expeditions charges customers thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of dollars while providing:

A malfunctioning and unreliable website

Undertrained staff who lack technical knowledge

A refusal to take responsibility when problems arise

Minimal customer support that consists mainly of shifting blame

This level of service is simply unacceptable for a company operating in the premium travel market. Booking with Albatros Expeditions is, frankly, worse than losing your money outright — it also costs you time, stress, and frustration.

My sincere recommendation: take your business elsewhere. There are many expedition companies that are far more professional, transparent, and customer-focused. Learn from my friend’s and my experiences — Albatros Expeditions is not one of them.

Too many Corporate Freeloaders on our recent trip around Greenland. While the overall trip, staff, food and cabins were great, the experience was spoiled by a large group of head office staff from Polar Latitudes. Who are they, you might ask? Polar Latitudes are in the process of taking over/merging with Albatros Expeditions. I got the impression that the paying customers were unimportant to them, and that THEIR needs took priority. I attended a focus group with the PL senior people, and all they they wanted to know was what we, the paying passengers, thought about the merger. We made it clear that we were much more concerned about the impact their staff were having on our enjoyment of this particular trip. It felt like we were an unimportant distraction from a corporate team building event.
Having said that, the Albatros expedition, catering and hospitality staff were great. Although I would echo another review in that there was little or no evening entertainment for passengers.
Having travelled with Albatros before, this trip did not live up to expectations, and I won't be travelling with them again.

Unlikely to use this company again.

1/ passengers paid varying amounts depending on the travel agent used which soured the experience for those who paid more . Lots of travellers seemed to be “staff” travelling on freebies ..

2/ The food was awful. Hostel quality. I mentioned this to one of the expedition crew who screwed up her face and said “ we’ve been telling them for ages - you need to write to them about the poor food “. I did but never received a reply - not surprising..
Filipino service crew were great
No wine / beer served at lunch unlike similar other providers

2/ expedition crew very mixed .some ok ,most pretty average. No evening “entertainment “ ie talks or documentaries ( only one was on Tuvalu)

3/ occupational health and safety needs to be addressed. The sauna area leading to the outdoor deck was constantly wet ( not mats provided) , my partner slipped . Possible hairline fracture to his big toe, he could not walk for 3 days. No one seemed particularly interested. No safety report was lodged despite the safety officer being briefed on the incident. Very concerning. No one was able to escalate to management

Cabin was clean and well maintained

My wife and I went for Albatros Expeditions' 19-day "Antarctica, South Georgia & Falkland Islands" cruise on March 2025 on board the Ocean Victory in a Category C cabin. The following review is relative to a cruise just to Antarctica we took in 2015 with Lindblad Expeditions / National Geographic Expeditions.

Overall, while there were hits and misses, we would still recommend this Albatros Expeditions cruise.

The biggest positives were: (a) pricing was very competitive, perhaps in part due to this being the shoulder season; (b) the diversity in passengers across age, race, and nationality made for a more lively and fun cruise; (c) the captain and crew, in conjunction with the expeditions team, did a good job in getting us to spots with interesting and beautiful sights and wildlife; and (d) the layout of the Ocean Victory was excellent, with lots of viewing choices; likewise our cabin, which had an overwhelming amount and variety of storage options, as well as the broad balcony.

The biggest negatives were: (a) pricing paid by different passengers for the same type of cabin varied by a surprising amount, depending on which travel agent they booked through, and this left a feeling of getting shortchanged amongst those who paid much more; (b) while there were some highlights, the dishes put out by the chef and his team were below average, though the restaurant service team did a great job; (c) while some members of the expedition team shone, in general they were not consistent in steering the zodiacs to a position that allowed for a better view and to ensure all on board had a fair turn at that better view; also, they were not good at alerting passengers to sightings, via the public broadcast system or some other means, while on board the ship, though I appreciate that not all passengers would like this; and (d) the complimentary parka provided had poor quality zips that were difficult to move up and down; also, they did not have a detachable inside.

Our family of three completed an Albatros 18-day expedition on Ocean Victory in March 2025 to the Falkland Isds, South Georgia and the Antarctic peninsula. About 140 passengers of many different nationalities and ages were on board. So, with a capacity of around 190 pax, the ship seldom seemed crowded.

We were able to book a 3-berth cabin, something that we believe is not available on some ships. The cabin, forward on deck 3 (which also accommodates some crew), was pleasingly roomy with decent wardrobe/shelving space and a larger bathroom than on many much larger cruise ships. Included was a small fridge, safe, TV, pool robes, universal power (230V) and USB sockets. Instead of a balcony, the cabin featured a recessed porthole with a heavy-duty hinged metal door which was closed in rough weather.

Our departure from Ushuaia was in calm seas with a beautiful sunset and throughout the 18 days the weather remained mostly very favourable. This fact undoubtedly raised all passengers' expedition-satisfaction ratings!

After the weather, the other important factor determining passenger enjoyment would be the crew. We were extremely satisfied with all the expedition staff. They were friendly, knowledgeable and even charismatic. Even when winds were high, the captain and expedition leader always seemed to have a destination plan B (or C) and so we believe we missed only one potential landing and even that became a (wettish) zodiac cruise instead.

The photographer on board was busy on shore excursions and at the end of the cruise his excellent photos were freely available to download and save. Also included in the after-cruise package was more information on the expedition staff, Antarctic wildlife, the sites visited and a day-to-day log of the expedition. A very worthwhile bonus indeed!

The only slight negative about the trip to report was the varying quality of the food. It did not quite live up to descriptions and photos in the company's publicity material. Often it was served tepid instead of hot, meat was sometimes toughish and even some buffet dishes/fruits were unavailable to the majority of passengers. The layout of the lunchtime buffets (where only one side of the single line of food was accessible) resulted in long queues. It must be added though that restaurant staff (in fact, all crew) were excellent.

Based on our fantastic experiences on this trip, we would not hesitate to recommend an Albatros expedition.

We joined the cruise to Falkland、South Georgia and Antarctica.The expedition team are very unprofessional.They keep saying because of avían flu so that we can't lanind South Georgia Island.But the truth is the South Georgia Government do not close those landing spots, and other company's ships they land normally.This company truly wast my time and money and my dream.

We had the most incredible trip to Antarctica! Plus, we got a fantastic deal (especially considering how expensive expeditions are) and a free cabin upgrade. Every element of the trip went smoothly with no surprises. Our ship, Ocean Albatross, was beautiful. The cabin was spacious and had everything we needed. The laundry service was cheap and fast (so there was no need to overpack). The food was great. The atmosphere was comfortable and casual (our style). And best of all, the staff and crew were so kind, accommodating and friendly. The guides and expedition leader were all amazing. We did so many shore landings and zodiac cruises, each one unique. There was no shortage of wildlife! We traveled with our 10 year-old son who had the time of his life. There were several other tweens/teens onboard. The guests were mostly a combination of families and solo travelers, mostly from the US. Overall, our trip was spectacular, a truly unforgettable trip of a lifetime!

Disco Bay 8 days Aug 16 through August 23.
As it My first ever cruise, I was little hesitant. However, I had a great experience on the Ocean Albatros. The facilities were very clean, the food choices were unremarkable and the staff was amazing. Bed was comfortable. Everything, was well organized, overall. Personally, I did not encounter anything to complainabout. The expedition guides were friendly and knowledgeable. I loved the fact that there were limited passangers on board. Ready for My trip to Antarctica and South Georgia on the Ocean Albatros in few weeks.

Ocean Albatros (ship): 8 day expedition cruise 16.8.-23.8. Disko Bay, Greenland.
Overall good experience, beautiful places.
One negative thing: our luggage got lost when we left. Not well organized system. Nobody knows where our luggage are, but we are at home….

I have just returned from a 12 day Antarctic Peninsular trip with Albatros Expeditions on the Ocean Victory. It was a real 'Bucket list" experience. All of the expedition guides were very knowledgeable about various aspects of the area - the wildlife, the geology, the history etc etc and they were all keen and able to share their knowledge. We were blessed with good weather and were able to take advantage of all the zodiac cruises and landings planned and saw the whole range of antarctic wildlife! The Ocean Victory was very comfortable - if I had any -minor - comment it would be that lunchtime food was more 'cafeteria' than 'fine dining' but it was more than adequate and the dinner menu was varied and good quality. Another comment was that some of the crockery was chipped and should not be used.

The passengers were from a wide age range - which made for interesting travelling companions. We were provided with suitable wet weather kit - coat and boots - and every attempt was made for each passenger to be able to take all the zodiac cruises they wanted to.

I would certainly recommend Albatros Expeditions for future polar exploration holidays

I want to register on the 18 December 24 in cabin 620 to Antarctica after 35 %off on the ocean victory. How much it will cost me ? Thanks

I had a problem and after 3 emails back and forth was just ghosted. Then I wrote a review on this site about that and was asked to please email them at a certain email and they would try and solve my problem. so I did that and "Crickets". they talk big, but no follow through.

Albatros Expeditions ist im Schadensfall meiner Meinung nach extrem unfair bei der Schadensregulierung. Im Nov. 2023 wurde eine 19-Tage Cruise in die Antarktis abgebrochen. Auf Grund eines medizinischen Notfalls gingen vorher bereits 4 Reisetage verloren, dann hat ein schwerer Sturm das Schiff so sehr beschädigt, dass die Reise abgebrochen wurde und wir nach Ushuaia zurückkehren mussten. Kabinen gingen zu Bruch und standen unter Wasser, Türen und Fenster wurden schwer beschädigt.

Von 19 angekündigten Anlandungen bzw. Zodiactouren wurden genau 3 - eine davon sogar kostenpflichtig - durchgeführt. Der Rest der Fahrt war Hin- und Herschippern zwischen den geplanten Zielen.
Es wurde den Passagieren lächerliche 56% Refund angeboten - allerdings ohne Flüge, man hat nur die Umbuchungskosten übernommen. Eine lächerliche Summe da ohne Flug die Reise unmöglich wäre.

Am Schiff wurde den Passagieren empfohlen sich das Geld von der eigenen (vorgeschriebenen) Reiseversicherung zurückzuholen. Diese Behauptung ist völlig unrichtig, denn nur bei Reiseunfähigkeit des Versicherten wird so eine Leistung bezahlt. Geht das Schiff kaputt fällt dies nicht in die Zuständigkeit der eigenen Reiseversicherung.

Man sollte sich Buchungen bei diesem Unternehmen vorher gut überlegen.

2024-01-05
@Albatros - zu Ihrer eben gemachten Antwort:

Deutlicher hätten Sie es gar nicht darstellen können, wie unfair und sachlich völlig unbegründet diese Reise mit Gemeinplätzen und Floskeln gerechtfertigt werden soll.
Tatsächlich war diese Reise de facto ein Totalausfall und einen vernünftigen Vorschlag zur Regelung diese enormen Verlustes der Reisenden gibt es auch in dieser lieblosen Rückantwort nicht.
Sie ziehen sich auf die von Anfang an bekannten Gemeinplätze, deren Grundlage schon mehrfach widerlegt wurde, zurück.
Albatros diktiert und die Argumente der Passagiere werden nicht einmal angehört.

Als nachgerade erniedrigend empfindet man den Umstand, dass Albatros den "gewöhnlichen" Passagieren weit weniger Entschädigung gewährt, als jenen, die Ihre Flüge direkt bei Albatros gebucht hatten. Diese Menschen wurden nämlich sehr wohl angemessen entschädigt.

Wer soll als den extrem benachteiligten Passagieren, die nicht bei Ihnen gebucht hatten die weiteren Schäden ersetzen?
Die Reisebüros und -vermittler die keinerlei Schuld an diesem Fiasko tragen oder die Reiseversicherer, die entgegen ihrer unrichtigen Aussagen laut und deutlich informiert haben, dass diese für derlei Schäden nicht zuständig sind?