The general highlight was seeing the areas where so many WWII battles were fought. Being older and ex-Navy I knew a lot of people who fought there and it has been a desire for a long time to see them. The one item most memorable was the Island of Malaika. Specifically meeting the two men so instrumental in helping stop a 90 years old war and the opportunity to meet with, and talk to, the indigenous people who were involved. Knowing how we Caucasians have, often unwittingly perhaps, had negative impacts on native cultures it was refreshing to be so close to a positive outcome. As regards to the people I met, all were brand new, many were very interesting and some were people I will keep in touch with. The ship's crew and the Heritage Expeditions personnel were outstanding in every way! I will (and have) recommend the cruise to my friends and acquaintances.

Melanesia, not the Arctic. Yes it was very interesting and exceeded my expectations in many ways.

Maybe

There were several people at Swoop who assisted me but, especially, I was helped by Cassia who went way beyond what I could have expected to help me catch up with the ship! She is a jewel! There were two areas where things that Swoop did might have been better: 1) The time was too short between landing in Fiji and leaving for PNG. Thanks to an inept Fiji Airlines employee in Los Angeles I could not get a boarding pass (in the US) from Fiji and hence missed that flight to PNG even tho my bag did go to PNG. It may be that Swoop could have found an itinerary via Australia that would have illuminated the potential to this problem--I don't know if one was available. 2) I think that the extra two days recommended in Vanuatu at the end of the trip were probably un-necessary. It is true that cruise-ending schedules are uncertain but a ship's schedule is much more of a certainty than say, a bus, car, airplane or other mode of transportation merely because itineraries can more easily be changed to accommodate weather or mechanical problems. Perhaps in the future you may inform clients that ending times are always uncertain but ships less so than other modes of transportation.

I've been to Antarctica and Patagonia. I took no photos.