Oceanwide Expeditions Avis 

Amazing trip on the Plancius! Pretty lucky with the weather too

I had the best time on the Basecamp experience with Oceanwide. A two week trip with 7 full days in Antarctica. We camped, kayaked and mountaineered. We explored many islands on the Antarctic peninsula with SO MANY ANIMAL SIGHTINGS. We had whales right next to our zodiac. Crabeater, leopard and weddell seals lounging on icebergs. Penguins at every stop! The hospitality and expedition staff went above and beyond. They remembered our names, shared their stories, planned thoughtful landings, found amazing wildlife on zodiac rides, gave thoughtful lectures, served delicious food, kept the boat clean, turned laundry around in half a day, were always timely and communicative. I couldn’t recommend this experience more. I always felt safe and informed through safety briefings and daily schedules. Don’t miss this cruise if you’re adventurous, want to experience and learn about Antarctica with the best staff and other cruise goers. I can’t stop raving about this trip.

The entire trip was amazing
Accomodation food and guides
An unforgettable experience

Incredible, memorable, overwhelming memories made !
In fact when we sat back to watch the summary of our adventure holiday, before leaving the boat, there were quite a few quiet tears of WOW’ness !!

A negative experience because you didn't honor the trip—in search of emperor penguins...a cruise that, for this very purpose, cost more than standard Antarctic cruises.
I'm very disappointed...

One of the best travel experiences l've ever had - everything was just great: the amazing nature, the lovely staff, the delicious food. Expedition guides were passionate about what they were doing and went above and beyond for the guests. I’m very impressed by how professional they were, especially on one zodiac landing where it was touch and go due to weather conditions. Would 100% recommend!

This is one of those reviews where we would give negative stars if we could.
Paid tens of thousands to Oceanwide for “Around Spitsbergen and Kvitøya” — never reached Kvitøya, the main highlight, literally in the tour name. Mind you, this was not due to weather — it was a “choice” by the captain, saving the company hundreds of thousands of Euros.
Refunds? Forget it. Customer service? Non-existent.
Ghosting? Yes, they are fine with that.
Respect for paying customers? Zero.
What about EU consumer rights? Blatantly disregarded.
Oh, we shouldn't be unfair to them. They kindly offered, “as a token of sympathy”!! “a 20% discount on any available non-discounted voyage, non-transferable, non-refundable, expiring in two years”— essentially trying to sell us more trips, a self-serving offer designed to make them money instead of compensating for what they failed to deliver.
Even the CEO backed this up, citing their T&Cs over EU law! Can you believe it??!
Similar complaints online show this is systemic behavior.
Avoid Oceanwide unless you enjoy being ghosted after paying tens of thousands of Euros, being treated like trash instead of paying customers for a high-end product, and spend over a year fighting to get them to comply with EU law. They refuse to cooperate even with ECC (European Consumer Center). They act tyrannically, as they can, having already taken your money; and we are forced to fight for our rights after paying a fortune.
Or of course, book Oceanwide and experience the thrill of missing the highlight of your trip just because the captain doesn't feel like it, being ghosted, and learning that EU consumer rights don’t apply to them.
Bottom line: Oceanwide delivers a partial product, refuses to compensate, and actively ghosts customers. Zero respect for customers and the law!
Seriously... Avoid at all costs.

Answer to Oceanwide's reply:
"The decision not to land at Kvitoya was made jointly by the Captain and Expedition Leader after on-site assessment showed heavy drift ice and unsafe sea conditions"
This is a BLATANT LIE!
First of all, the Expedition Leader clearly stated that she discussed the issue with the captain for a long time pushing in favor of going to Kvitoya. All 108 passengers are witness to this.
Second, what "on-site assessment" are you talking about??!!! We didn't even get in front of Kvitoya!
And you do not even understand that we didn't have to land at Kvitoya, it's almost impossible to land there anyway; the important thing was to get there, in front of the land. And in our exchanges, you made it clear that the weather conditions was not the issue, you confessed it was not an impossibility to get there and you openly stated "decision to position the ship elsewhere to offer the passengers a full day of activities."
Who cared about a full day of activities if it meant skipping the main destination of the trip? We signed up for Kvitoya, not random "activities"!

Besides, weather conditions is NOT an excuse for a respectable company to not deliver the program promised on the itinerary- especially not the MAIN PART of it- and still get to keep all the money it has charged its guests. What you did is in fact "theft", as the voyage we got was sold at 20 % less than what we have paid for. So yes, definitely, the choice was PURELY COMMERCIAL.

You are also trying to bend the truth by saying it was "reviewed" by ECC mediator. First of all, ECC is NOT a decision body, they do not review cases or pass judgements! So your attempt to show this as if we are bringing up an issue where your being right is confirmed is DECEITFUL! Just like you tried to cover up your failing by not mentioning the missing out of Kvitoya on the triplog. As if Kvitoya was not the main destination of the voyage stated in the name! It's obvious that bending the truth, trying to cover up your failings instead of admitting them and compensating for them is your modus operandi. Unfortunately for your customers...

Wonder where "the overall rating exceeded 9.4 out of 10" comes from?
From the forms you got by giving people two free drinks?? Give me a break! We know how self-congratulatory you are, patting yourself on the back even when you skip the main destination of a voyage.

You may have good reviews when things go to plan; but the calibre of a company is shown when things go wrong. The negative reviews online show your systemic abuse of customer rights. Even the ghosting should be a red warning to anyone considering going anywhere with you.
The fact that you do not offer an ADR mechanism in itself is against EU laws and your way of forcing customers uphill so you can deny them their rights.

We made the relevant complaints to Dutch authorities to get you to comply with the law.

More details at my website politicsoftravel.weebly.com on the English blog link of October 2025

Horrible horrible customer service!
The pre-booking phase was just fine and smooth, but the calibre and quality of a company shows in the proactive way they solve problems and unfortunately Oceanwide failed miserably on this! Never in our lives did such a thing happen that the customer service did not get back to us after 2 months, not even with small companies let alone a company who has charged tens of thousands euros!
Basically we were supposed to do circumnavigation of Svalbard including Kvitoya which was the highlight of the trip and we skipped it. They wrote a "logbook" with no mention of this at all! As this was the main reason for us to take this voyage, we asked for a partial refund as it is impossible to go to Kvitoya from 2025 because of restrictions. No feedback at all in 2 months! Incredible