BEST SCENICS: To those who expect this seventh continent to be nothing more than one giant chunk of ice in search of an even larger martini, I offer Paradise Bay. Set on the Antarctic Peninsula north of the British base at Port Lockroy, it is a harbor surrounded by tall mountains whose blackness is mostly hidden beneath a thick frosting of white, all pristine. It is blue icebergs larger than office buildings floating in an even bluer sea; it is calving glaciers, penguins diving in and out of the water, whales surfacing, seals, cormorants–beneath the bluest sky anywhere. If that doesn’t convey the awesomeness, try this: When cruise ship passengers spoke at all on deck, they spoke in whispers. –A.S.
BEST PENGUIN: Chinstrap. Not that there’s anything wrong with the others we saw–primarily gentoos and Adelies–but the chinstraps were easiest to identify. You can guess why. –A.S.
BIGGEST LETDOWN: The Drake Passage. Notoriously rough, that stretch of ocean between South America and Antarctica turned out to be no rougher than your average lagoon at dawn. Both directions. This time. –A.S.
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ICEBERG IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: One shaped exactly like the Great Sphinx of Egypt. It was dwarfed by mountains and other nearby bergs, but we liked it–we really liked it. –A.S.
