National Geographic Explorer

Meals are served in the elegant dining room and the adjacent, more intimate bistro bar. Seating is open, allowing you to choose where to dine, and table sizes range from two to 12. The style is relaxed and casual—there’s never a need to dress up. More than opportunities to eat well, meal times are also opportunities to engage in the diversity of the expedition community—to join or be joined by naturalists, guest speakers, ship’s officers, and fellow guests for stimulating and entertaining conversation.

Breakfast is usually served buffet-style in the dining room and consists of a selection of fruit, eggs to order, cereal, yogurts, cheese, and cold meats, and specially prepared daily dishes, plus fresh coffee and tea. An early riser continental breakfast is served in the bistro as well, and many guests choose to take their coffee and morning pastries to the bridge or out on deck.

Lunch is also served buffet-style in the dining room and bistro bar, with salads and both hot and cold buffet choices available. Most days a light-lunch option is held in the observation lounge at the very top of the ship. When weather conditions permit, the light-lunch is held outdoors on the aft sundeck, offering a stunning backdrop and the cheerful company of our amiable hotel manager.

Dinners feature plated service. Each evening, a ship’s officer, National Geographic staff, or a naturalist hosts small tables in the chart room as well.

You may come to consider the bridge another public space, as guests are encouraged to visit the officers 24-hours a day. Guests usually first arrive for a morning coffee shortly after sunrise, and many spend every evening watching the sunset and taking in the hushed darkness of the bridge at night. Two benches provide comfortable seating options to look out and enjoy the expansive view over the bow, and you’re always apt to find naturalists scanning the sea for wildlife when the ship is underway. Binoculars are available if you want to help them search.

The lounge is the main social hub of the ship. Lounge seating is arranged to provide good views of the centre podium; and multiple plasma screens on the surrounding walls ensure optimal views of presentations, slideshows, and videos. It’s here where the expedition community gathers for lectures, photography talks, guest speaker presentations, and the evening Recap. Large windows line two sides of the room, so guests who gravitate to the lounge with their laptops won’t miss the dramatic views.

Inviting and casual, the bistro bar is a perfect spot to have a cappuccino before or after activities. A variety of beverages are available for purchase including beer, cocktails, spirits, and wines by the glass or bottle. Sodas, juices, and coffees (including cappuccinos and espressos) are complimentary.

During the day, the forward-located chart room offers you direct access to the bow for optimal wildlife viewing. Some station themselves at the chart room’s windows. While those who choose to be out on deck or on the bow come in to warm up or refuel at the 24-hour self-service beverage station, stocked with cookies, sodas, soft drinks, hot chocolate, tea, and coffee.

You’ll find commanding views and comfortable leather armchairs in the library, set at the very top of the ship. A wide range of books run the gamut from fiction to regional guides, and reference books on the wildlife and region you’re exploring. For many, this room is their favourite onboard.

Walking aft from the library, you’ll enter the radiant observation lounge. With panoramic windows running the entire length of this narrow, domed lounge, you’ll feel as if you’re almost floating above the ship while spectacular scenery dramatically unfolds outside. Stocked with cards and board games, and equipped with binoculars, it welcomes guests for early morning reading or those wanting an evening card game. A light lunch is often served here as well.

Located near reception, the global gallery is an inviting area—part shop, part gallery—that showcases an eclectic mix of handicrafts, jewellery, and artwork from the many regions Explorer explores, as well as the work of acclaimed designers. It also offers a selection of expedition clothing, and practical items including camera memory cards and binoculars.

Taking place in the Lounge, Recap is when naturalists share stories and answer questions about the day’s events, and the expedition leader presents the plan for the following day—as guests enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Explorer carries Zodiac landing craft—a full fleet—allowing the crew to get the entire expedition community out, engaged in activities quickly, comfortably, and safely. Widely regarded as the most robust watercraft available, they can run up on sandy shores and push through pack ice. While Zodiacs can carry 15 people, the crew usually limits capacity to 12 or less to ensure everyone has plenty of room, and an opportunity to get that perfect shot.

Explorer is equipped with a fleet of kayaks. Prior kayaking experience isn’t necessary—many of the guests have their first kayaking experience in extraordinary locations. Kayakers are usually free to explore where they want within boundaries set by the undersea specialist and officer of the watch.

Undersea specialist will dive many days of your expedition, even in Antarctica, with almost 200 pounds of gear, to shoot high-definition, Cousteau-like footage of the deep. Colourful nudibranchs, swimming, plant-like crinoids, and mysterious fish with antifreeze blood that thrive in the frigid sea will give you an entirely new appreciation of the marine environment.

Capable of reaching 1,000 feet, far beyond the range of any Scuba diver, the ROV allows you to literally view parts of the undersea that are as unexplored as the moon. In polar waters, for example, the fleet's specialists may be the first ever to explore and record in vast areas. By sharing videos of potentially new species with scientists, such as a large worm one of the fleet's specialist captured in the Weddell Sea, Lindblad actively contribute to science. Chances are you, like many guests, will be struck by how surprisingly colourful undersea life is in these unlikely places. And this glimpse may fundamentally change how you view the ocean.

Naturalists will use the video microscope to help explain all elements of the environment, including tiny organisms that are the building blocks of the marine ecosystem. Spellbinding images of a krill’s body, at 80x magnification, fills the plasma screens in the lounge with vivid detail, and fills every onlooker with a sense of wonder at the importance of an otherwise unobservable creature.

Perched high atop the vessel on the ship’s mast, this camera provides a continual view on the outside world that can be seen on your cabin TV. You’ll get a unique perspective on your surroundings.

The underwater microphones are deployed to listen to the vocalisations of marine mammals. Real time transmissions of their eerie, haunting sounds can be broadcast through the ship or recorded for later playback.

On warm weather itineraries where there will be snorkelling, you’ll select a mask, snorkel, fins that remain yours for the duration of the expedition. There’s no need to pack and tote your own gear, although guests who prefer to are welcome to bring their own.

Explorer offers scuba diving for up to 24 guests on warm weather itineraries where scuba diving is available. There’s no need to pack and tote your own gear, although guests who prefer to are welcome to bring their own. There is a surcharge for scuba diving which includes equipment and the services of a certified divemaster.

*Scuba diving requirements: Scuba divers must be certified by an internationally recognised dive association prior to the voyage, and certification cards and logbooks must be shown on board. Divers must have logged 25 dives in total and made a dive within the 12 months preceding the voyage.

You’ll find Lindblad's captains are engaged, knowledgeable members of your expedition who are eager to share their passion with you. Explorer’s open bridge features comfortable benches where guests often sit for hours, enjoying the view, having morning coffee, or simply chatting with the officers.

Everyone who travels with Lindblad discovers what Henry David Thoreau named “the tonic of wildness.” And to complement the inspiring destinations the ship visits, the team has designed a Wellness program. From early morning yoga or stretching on deck or in the lounge to massages and face, handy or body treatments inspired by the location, the wellness specialist will help you achieve a more relaxed and revitalised state of being.

The fitness centre with its expansive floor to ceiling windows and 180-degree vista offers a ‘million-dollar view’ along with exercise bikes, ellipticals and treadmills, free weights, yoga mats and exercise balls.

Professional wellness specialist offer soothing massages and treatments in the LEXSpa. Adjacent, there is a Swedish Sauna, perfect for quick warms ups after polar plunges or as a relaxing way to end the day.