00:00The Antarctica expeditions to Silversea are hugely important.
00:08It's one of the sort of crown jewels that Silversea has.
00:12No matter how seasoned of a travel you are,
00:14you still have this reverence for this great white continent
00:17that's at the bottom of the earth.
00:19The Australian television personality Andrew Dinkton
00:23famously said, if Antarctica was literature,
00:27it would be Shakespeare.
00:28If Antarctica was music, it would be Mozart.
00:31If it was art, it would be Michelangelo.
00:33And yet it is something far greater.
00:36It is the only place on earth that is still as it should be,
00:39and it should remain that way.
00:42Putting a hotel in the southernmost part of the world
00:45maximizes the actual overall vacation experience for the guests.
00:50When you think about what we're trying to do here,
00:52it's about creating the most streamlined and comfortable journey
00:57for the guests to Antarctica.
01:03What we've done is we've created a full mock-up,
01:06exactly one completed room.
01:08It's a fantastic opportunity to put everything together
01:11and confirm everything is exactly as we want it.
01:14So now that I'm seeing kind of what's happening, it really becomes real.
01:20We brought on a lot of knowledgeable, experienced professionals,
01:23and they've made tremendous progress.
01:24They've worked really, really hard.
01:26It's going to be terrific.
01:27I mean, it really goes to the core of who we are,
01:32really looking for ways of creating fantastic experiences for the guests.
01:38Some of the major obstacles that we knew we were going to have to solve
01:41was the logistical problem of getting the rooms from Argentina to Puerto Williams.
01:46Those modules come down in 81 trucks.
01:50The journey itself is seven days, then 36 hours ferry to Puerto Williams,
01:56and then they're installed like Lego until it's built.
02:03We have constantly been trying to figure out how do we take friction out of the guests' experience,
02:07as well as making sure we're living up to delivering the best vacation experiences in the world.
02:13And all of this played in our minds as we reimagine the new journey
02:18once our hotel is up and running.
02:22Our guests will fly from Santiago to Puerto Williams direct,
02:26the only flight exclusively for Silversee.
02:31We are partnering with DAP.
02:34Well, the DAP Airline is a family-owned company.
02:38In fact, the first flight that our airline did was to Puerto Williams, like 45 years ago.
02:45We are now introducing a larger aircraft to fly from Santero to Puerto Williams directly
02:49in a faster way and more comfortable way.
02:53It would just, again, add another level of sophistication and convenience to the guests' experience.
02:58The design process was really exciting for us because we wanted to make sure that this is a very unique property.
03:09We believe that really being true and authentic to where we are and what we're doing
03:15is how guests can immerse themselves in the experience.
03:19We are situated right in front of the Beagle Channel, so guests can walk from the hotel down to the shores.
03:28We will have kayaking. We will have hikes.
03:31There are wonderful trails on the grounds of the property as well as nearby.
03:36It's got these incredible views and sceneries and also offers opportunity, you know, to engage in nature.
03:43You have many amazing things around the island. You have the southernmost lakes, lagoons, rivers.
03:48It's amazing what happened in that small pieces of land. The forests are unique in the world.
03:54We have always seen the potential of this place, the nature beauty of the place, which is astonishing.
03:59We love the people. We love the surroundings.
04:03So what we hope to infuse throughout their experience is that this is a moment of anticipation, of hope, of excitement, of what's yet to come,
04:13while still just allowing them to experience a place that likely they never would have otherwise.
