Fifteen dates, and a hull with a past

The MS Fram carries fifteen departure dates with us, the smallest inventory in the fleet. That is little for a polar ship of this size, and it belongs first: if your dates are flexible, the other ships in the fleet carry more.

Built by Fincantieri in 2007, she is one hundred and fourteen metres long and twenty metres wide. The operator states two hundred guests; specialist databases go up to three hundred and eighteen, which most likely reflects her maximum certificate rather than her expedition layout. We do not settle it: ask for the exact configuration of your departure. The deck plan documents one wheelchair-accessible cabin, in an outside category.

Her refit raises the same difficulty: her own ship page says 2025, the fleet page on the same site says 2022. The operator contradicts itself about its own ship.

What is on the record

On 28 December 2007, off Brown Bluff in Antarctica, the ship lost propulsion for about two hours and drifted against a glacier. Damage was limited to railings and one destroyed lifeboat, and she reached King George Island under her own power; following cruises were rescheduled for drydock.

On 11 August 2008, during bunkering at Sisimiut in Greenland, some ten thousand litres of marine diesel escaped into the harbour. A team of twenty-one firefighters worked through the night. These are facts nearly twenty years old on a hull refitted since, and we say that too. But a client who finds them elsewhere after reading our page will judge us on what we left out.

What is included, and what the operator says about it

This needs care, because the company is not careful. In March 2024 it announced all-inclusive fares across the fleet from that November. Its MS Fram page today lists daily excursions, the science centre, meals, gratuities and drinks, with an asterisk whose footnote appears nowhere on the page. Its own frequently asked questions reserve gratuities for suite guests and describe most excursions as optional, booked separately. Its terms and conditions exclude premium drinks except in suites.

Three texts, three versions. So we promise nothing on its behalf. What is stable across all three: full board, house drinks at lunch and dinner, tea and coffee all day. What is not: gratuities, excursions, premium drinks and Wi-Fi, announced as free but limited, with paid packages beyond that. Ask for the written list for the departure you choose. It is the only way to know.

Accessibility: what the operator writes

The ships are declared wheelchair accessible, with conditions. Guests bring their own wheelchair, and it must be no wider than sixty centimetres. The operator also writes that you must be reasonably agile to board the inflatable boats, because that is how expedition landings happen, not by gangway. Anyone who needs help with that transfer should know before booking, not on the day of the landing.

Rubber boots are provided where they are mandatory, in Antarctica, Svalbard and East Greenland. Hiking boots are not. Antarctic voyages require a medical form completed six weeks before departure. The minimum age is five for Antarctica and Galapagos, and landings for children under twelve are at the captain's discretion. Nobody may travel who will be twenty-four weeks pregnant or more by the end of the voyage.

The rest of the fleet

The MS Spitsbergen is the only other ship of comparable size, and her history is stranger still. The MS Roald Amundsen belongs to the hybrid generation, twice the size. And half the family is elsewhere: the Norwegian coastal route has belonged to a separate company since 2025.

Booking from Quebec

The contract for departures sold in the Americas is with HX US Inc, a Delaware company. It is governed by English law and names the courts of England to the exclusion of all others. There is no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver, which serves you better than what several other lines write. The deadlines are short: two years for personal injury, death or luggage, one year for everything else. Away from US ports the Athens Convention caps liability; otherwise it is capped at three times the total booking price.

The operator also reserves the right to change the route, alter landings, substitute a ship or cancel for force majeure. On an expedition that is not boilerplate: ice and wind decide the day more often than the schedule does.

Nothing establishes a Quebec licence for this operator. Your protection comes from here: Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from the Office de la protection du consommateur, your payments pass through a trust account, and your departure is covered by the compensation fund for travel agency customers.