Walking Among Penguins Delivers Thrill Twice Denied in Falklands

Days 22- 24, 2026 Grand World Voyage

Sunday to Tuesday, Jan. 25-27, 2026; Falkland Islands and South Atlantic Ocean.

After missing the Falkland Islands twice before due to rough seas, I couldn’t have wished for a better third chance. The sky was blue. The seas were calm (at least for the morning). The King Penguins were magnificent as they ignored those strange humans invading their beaches.

The Falkland Islands are known for the estimated one million penguins who nest here each summer, including Gentoo, Magellanic, Macaroni, Rockhopper and the ones we came to see today: King Penguins.

These second largest of the penguin family (after Emperors) come to Volunteer Point in the Falkland Islands each September to breed, lay their eggs and take turns incubating them on their feet. Most of the eggs had hatched by our visit, and we saw a number of young penguins still sporting fluffy down that somewhat resembled the wool of the sheep that grazed among them.

Most of the King penguins keep to a large group to protect the young (surrounded by white stones to keep the humans away), but others seems to prefer resting on their bellies.

Other adults wandered around the dunes and down the sand to the beaches so they could feed in the ocean, bringing back food for their young.

We spent an hour wandering the designated area, also seeing Gentoo and Magellanic penguins, sea birds and the aforementioned sheep.

Everywhere were burrows where the young would disappear when humans got close.

The landowner limits visitors to 200 a day and requires a warden for each four tourists, generally the driver of the four-wheel-drive Land Rovers that make the two-hour (each way) trip. We traveled the island’s main paved road and then a well-maintained gravel road for the first hour. The last seven miles took another hour as we carefully found our way over boggy land.

I had organized a private tour for our group of eight through Adventure Falklands, and we were fortunate to all get on the first tender to shore, so we arrived before the ship-sponsored and other groups.

When we arrived back in Port Stanley in midafternoon, the wind had kicked up. Of course, we had to make a stop at the island’s only beer brewery, but didn’t stay long at the outdoor picnic tables.

By the time we reached the pier, a couple of hundred people were in line for tender service that had been paused because of the rough seas for the two-mile passage to the anchored ship. Rather than wait in buses out of the wind, we opted to visit a nearby hotel for wine and snacks. But suddenly, we looked up and saw the line had almost disappeared. Chugging our wine, we headed back to learn that the wind had died enough to resume tender operation so the line moved quickly. Waves splashed over the windows of our second-to-last tender.

Two days earlier, we celebrated my sister Elaine’s birthday with a dinner in the main dining room. Holland America’s chefs make a delicious birthday cake and the waiters sing a resounding Indonesian version of Happy Birthday. This year, I requested a Concord cake for Elaine – her favorite from the Cake Me Away cake buffets in the Lido – and they delivered.

Balloons on our cabin door and a cupcake delivery from the captain and crew contributed to the day’s celebration. (Someday they might figure out that we each are known by our middle names.)

The next night, we joined a President’s Club dinner with several of the officers, including the captain. Capt. Rens promised us that in Antarctica he would “burn donuts” with the ship. Elaine, a car enthusiast, explained that we burn rubber and do donuts, but he disagreed. We’ll have to see….

But Ron, the food and beverage director also from the Netherlands, quickly checked Google to find out how to burn donuts. The answer: If you jog for 40 minutes, you will burn one donut. Best line of the night.