Poseidon Caps Antarctic Season With Rare Bailey Head Landing

Poseidon Expeditions has closed its 2025-26 Antarctic season aboard Sea Spirit, with a New Year cruise landing at Bailey Head on Deception Island standing out as the operator’s top achievement of the program. The landing took guests to one of Antarctica’s most difficult visitor sites, where more than 100,000 breeding pairs of chinstrap penguins nest.

The season also included a first Poseidon visit to King Haakon Bay in South Georgia, calls at Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base and crossings of the Antarctic Circle. With the Antarctic program complete, the company is shifting Sea Spirit into its 2026 northern schedule.

Bailey Head sets the season highlight

Bailey Head sits on Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, a volcanic setting with a black-sand beach used by chinstrap penguins moving between the shore and higher nesting grounds.

“Bailey Head is one of the most challenging landing sites in Antarctica, but thanks to perfect weather and almost no swell, our team made it happen,” Poseidon said.

After guests went ashore, Sea Spirit entered Deception Island’s flooded caldera, giving them a shipboard view of the island’s volcanic geography.

South Georgia, research-base calls and wildlife programming

Poseidon also reached King Haakon Bay for the first time, taking guests to the remote South Georgia site where Ernest Shackleton came ashore in 1916 after the loss of Endurance. The season also brought guests to Vernadsky Research Base, the Ukrainian Antarctic station. Poseidon called it home to the world’s southernmost bar.

The program included Antarctic Circle crossings, and award-winning wildlife photographer Dmitry Kokh joined several departures during the season. Kokh is scheduled to return in October 2026 on Poseidon’s Falklands & South Georgia itinerary.

Sea Spirit moves into the Arctic program

Poseidon, founded in the United Kingdom in 1999, uses Sea Spirit as its main expedition vessel for both Arctic and Antarctic programs. For the 2026 Arctic season, the company is adding alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to its standard cruise fare. It is also hosting travel advisors and partners from Europe, Asia, North America and South America during a May 5-7 showcase in Wales, with guided Zodiac excursions, presentations and meetings with Poseidon sales and expedition teams on the schedule.

Poseidon also noted a recent IATAN accreditation as part of its advisor-facing activity. Its published northern program lists the Best of the British Isles itinerary for May 6, followed by Sea Spirit expeditions to Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard through late September.