You’d think “visit Antarctica” would be a given on a cruise to Antarctica.

Some people dream of visiting the seven continents. The problem with that idea is that one of those continents doesn’t have a whole lot going on. Antarctica, the unloved stepchild continent at the bottom of the globe, is home to beautiful ice formations, penguins, other animal life, and… ice.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Can you see why people might be more excited by a trip to Asia than they would to see the Amery Ice Shelf?

But hey, some people really, really want to see Antarctica, or at least check that seventh continent off their list. If they do, they might consider booking a trip with Atlas Ocean Voyages — then promptly stop considering it after realizing their boat might not actually bring them to Antarctica.

That’s according to Justin and Jess, two people who “quit our corporate jobs in the summer of 2023 to run our travel blog full time and have adventures.” Now, before you hate them for this description, they’re not the villains of the story here. The villains, it seems, are Atlas Ocean Adventures, who, according to Justin and Jess, changed their $30,000 booking last minute to reduce time on Antarctica, then just eliminated a visit to Antarctica altogether.

When passengers questioned this, they were allegedly told it wasn’t safe to dock (this wasn’t true, as other boats were docking at the same time) and a litany of other things that the couple says amounted to nothing more than excuses.

Then, when people complained that they weren’t getting to step foot on Antarctica, they were told that they were “technically” in Antarctic waters and that counts, which is a bit like telling your friends that you fucked Margot Robbie because you had your hand down your khakis during I, Tonya.

After enough people sent annoyed emails to the company in the weeks following the cruise, Atlas Ocean Voyages allegedly sent a 15-percent refund and a coupon that the couple claims is basically unusable. Oh yeah, the CEO also (allegedly) hit reply-all and just wrote, “Nice.”

The whole thing seems pretty fucked, and I’ve reached out to Atlas Ocean Voyages to see if those naughty, allegedly-deceptive fellas have anything to say for themselves. I’ll let you know if they get back to me — or, if they just say “Nice” to me, too.