For almost two decades Antarctica was the trip that got away: I nearly had a magazine assignment to travel there, but then it didn’t happen. Ever after, the icy continent headlined my bucket list. Still, I never thought I would make it. So pricey. So far. Then my husband, who doesn’t travel anymore, said, “Take the time. Spend the money. Go.” So my daughter Brook, son-in-law Ryan, grandson Zeke, and I booked a cruise.

The stakes are sky-high when you take a dream trip. Can it possibly live up to soaring expectations? Here’s how we planned our expedition—the smart things we did, and the one misstep. Spoiler alert: Yes, indeed, Antarctica was the trip of a lifetime.

Step one was contacting Ashton Palmer, who is on Wendy’s WOW List and has been to Antarctica more than 50 times. Hearing our family’s travel style—we wanted an active, expedition-style trip—Ashton suggested three cruising options: Aurora, Quark, and National Geographic/Lindblad. We quickly ruled out the first two, as they would not let 13-year-old Zeke sea kayak. I also liked the fact that Nat Geo/Lindblad’s price was all-inclusive, whereas the other lines charged extra for certain activities and experiences.

But there was one more decision to make—which vessel to choose. The National Geographic Explorer, a tried-and-true ship, was less expensive than the newer, fancier National Geographic Endurance. We took a deep breath and booked the most basic cabins on the pricier ship, hoping the Endurance’s modern design and superior stabilization would pay off when we crossed the notoriously rough waters of the Drake Passage. The Endurance offered other extras, too, like two glass igloos on the top deck where a handful of guests could spend an Antarctic night, and an ROV that would film underwater life.

Lunch al fresco on the National Geographic Endurance. Photo: Ryan Damm

The Endurance turned out to be well worth the upcharge. The public areas on the ship were glassy and wonderfully designed for iceberg gawking and whale sightings. The food was the best I’ve eaten on any cruise ship. And our guides were true scientists, with deep knowledge of the icy continent they loved teaching us about. Happy surprise: Our sailing wasn’t full, and we were upgraded to roomier cabins with balconies. (In the end I decided the balcony would have been worth paying for, not just for the experience of sitting or lolling in a hammock, but because of the extraordinary view all that glass gave to our cabin.)

The Endurance is designed specifically for polar exploration, and ice-strengthened enough to power its way into an ice shelf, burying the full length of the ship. When the captain did that, we didn’t need Zodiacs to disembark; we just strolled down the gangplank. On our five days in Antarctica, we managed to play with all the toys on the ship—the Zodiacs, snowshoes, cross-country skis, and kayaks.

Susan and her family explored the Antarctic continent and surrounding waters by Zodiac...

...cross-country skis...

...kayak...

...and snowshoes.

Antarctica is the most spellbinding place I’ve ever been. Glaciers abound, and ice cliffs rise hundreds of feet in the air. Fissures in the icebergs glow a brilliant aquamarine. Seals recline on the sea ice, whales flip their flukes, and penguins glide into the water, springing back onto the ice as brisk as popping corn. When the ship was underway, I spent hours in the library just watching the otherworldly landscape pass by. Antarctica is the end of the earth, and it feels exactly like that.

Some ice cliffs rose hundreds of feet into the air.

This tiny Zodiac—big enough to easily hold nine people—gives you a sense of the icy scale.

Susan's grandson Zeke holds a piece of nearly crystal-clear ice.

Bits of ice break off from the leading edge of a glacier.

This one looks a bit like an erupting volcano.

The most heavily compacted portions of an iceberg appear blue.

There were a few surprises. The weather in late November was balmier than I expected: low 30s. One day, in fact, it was colder back home in Upstate New York. And who knew that Antarctica has a penguin population that just won’t quit: We saw thousands and thousands of brush-tailed penguins, and even a few emperors, a rare-enough sighting to impress even our guides. We watched them flop onto their bellies to glide down a slope, or waddle up a steep hill on their surprisingly effective, stubbly legs, faster than we could walk.

This emperor penguin was a rare and lucky sighting...

...but brush-tailed penguins were everywhere.

The penguins collect rocks to build their nests...

...and then proceed to argue over those precious stones.

The penguins nest on outcroppings of land...

then come to the shoreline in search of food.

The scale of Antarctica simply cannot be described. In Iceland and Patagonia, you can make a special trip to visit a glacier. In Antarctica, you cannot escape them; glaciers are everywhere. The ice cliffs tower into the sky. Icebergs the size of a city block float by. If Antarctica were The Godfather, Alaska—magnificent as it is—would be a TikTok video. No question, the White Continent is a forbidding landscape. There is very little to eat on land, with almost all nutrients coming from the sea; the critters that call the Southern Ocean home must be adapted to this harsh, unforgiving environment.

Our dream trip came off almost without a hitch, and the ship delivered so much more than I expected in both comfort and service. The only wrinkle was a broken ROV—no robot submersible to shoot video of underwater life. But two of the naturalists took up the slack, scuba diving in the icy waters to show us a surprising array of creatures—anemones, sea stars, feather duster worms, sea spiders. Here again, the frozen continent upped the ante, revealing an Antarctic “death star” with 50 legs.

The trip was close to perfection. We were even graced with relatively calm crossings of the Drake Passage. There’s just one thing I would have done differently: Flying home from Ushuaia, at the tip of South America, was a 36-hour slog with long layovers in Buenos Aires and Dallas/Fort Worth. (In all, it was four full days from when we last explored Antarctica to when we finally crossed the thresholds of our front doors.) If I’m lucky enough to go to Antarctica again—and I would love to be there in January when there are penguin chicks galore—I will spend a night in Buenos Aires to break up the long journey north.

And I will always remember Ashton’s advice, for this and any other dream trip: “Do everything. Don’t miss a minute. You can sleep when you get home.”

START A WOW TRIP TO ANTARCTICA

Susan Crandell is a former Executive Editor of Travel + Leisure magazine. These days, when she’s not traveling with her grandson, you can usually find her building houses with her local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Be a smarter traveler: Sign up for Wendy’s weekly newsletter to stay in the know. Read real travelers’ reviews, then use the black CONTACT buttons on Wendy’s WOW List to reach out to the right local fixer for your trip.