This sleek, spacious ship has a layout that allows you to enjoy your cruise from start to finish. Enjoy delicious food in the elegant restaurant, increase your knowledge of the Galápagos Islands with your fellow travelers in the Science Center, or maybe mingle out on the multiple decks.

While exploring the Galápagos, you'll have the ability to actively engage in activities and encounters. After a day in Darwin's footsteps, you will enjoy coming home to a casual atmosphere with the best service there is. MS Santa Cruz II's amenities easily appeal to all world explorers.
 

Gastronomic delights
Mouthwatering meals and creative cocktails await you aboard MS Santa Cruz II. With creativity and dedication, our cheerful staff draw inspiration from everything from the weather to the region’s flavours and local ingredients.

• Beagle Restaurant - Incredible Dining Experience
  The MS Santa Cruz II has a team of trained staff members that utilize locally-sourced organic food to prepare every dish. This ship provides a Le Cordon Bleu (a trained Gastronomy Director) and a wide variety of culinary experiences that encompass all diets and preferences. Each and every meal served onboard is exquisite.

• Panorama bar & lounge
  This large and well-lit area is not only the main bar, but also the place where most ship events will take place (welcome and farewell cocktail), and doubles as an ideal place for lectures. It’s the ideal site to chill and relax with Wi-Fi hot spot and direct access to our al fresco terrace.
   

Luxury living
Your ship gives you everything you could wish for in a home away from home: places for stimulation, relaxation, and meetings with your fellow guests. With a Scandinavian-inspired décor and all modern conveniences, MS Santa Cruz II does it in comfort and style.

• Interior and Cabins
  Onboard the ship, there are fifty cruise cabins that provide ample space for each and every guest. Each cabin has a private bathroom. There are options available for single travelers, couples, groups and families.

• Expedition Suites
  The best accommodation on our expedition ships. Spacious, private, and with wide windows to watch the world drift by, suites are comfortable and calm havens at sea.

• Expedition lounge & bar with Science Corner and library
  Facing the front of the ship, the Expedition Lounge – complete with a refreshment station and library – is a fantastic place to admire the beauty of the Galápagos’ Islands from inside. The Science Corner includes a glass cabinet, a microscope and a whale vertebrae clone, a perfect learning zone about our science activities.

• Sky deck
  The Sky deck offers spaces where guests can relax and enjoy their Galápagos expeditions basking in the sun at the very top of the ship. The sun deck and fitness room are located here.
   

Wellness and workouts
Whenever you feel the need to get your body moving, exercise facilities are on hand to get your pulse up. And whether you’re relaxing after a day of fascinating lectures, or a long hike, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to relax your body and mind.

• Fitness Room
  Our fitness center is equipped with yoga mats, set of weights, 2 treadmills, 2 stationary bikes, and an elliptical trainer for those guests who do not want to let their routine slide.

• Hot Tub
  For a nice relaxing time our two hot tubs with capacity for 5 guests each. Located on the Expedition deck are ideal.

An HX trip includes everything from daily excursions and activities to our onboard Science Center, meals, gratuities, drinks, and more. ​ All designed to give you the expedition experience of a lifetime.

Your all-inclusive includes...

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day
With a huge range of options, you can indulge in nearly anything your appetite desires. Start the day with an impressive buffet breakfast before moving on to a mouth-watering menu of à la carte choices later in the day. Of course, that includes house wine and beer and soft drinks.

A warm welcome to the sauna, hot tubs and more
Make some time to relax in your ship's onboard sauna and hot tubs -- they really make returning from the day's adventures that much more rewarding!

Delicious coffee, tea, and soft drinks all day
Choose from a variety of hot and cold drinks, from a caffeine boost in the morning to a sugar rush after lunch. Refill stations for your OceanBottle are located throughout the ship, keeping you hydrated without using any single-use plastics.

All-inclusive drinks
Enjoy a glass of wine or beer at the Pool Bar before dinner. Or unwind in the evening with a cocktail in the Explorer Lounge. Whatever you’re in the mood for and whenever you like, drinks are available throughout the day and evening at no additional cost (excluding premium drinks).

Gratuities included
Fantastic service is standard at HX Expeditions, and we’ll never add discretionary charges onto your bill. If you’d like to leave something extra, it’s always appreciated.

Experience the all-inclusive that sets us apart

Daily expeditions and activities
Handpicked experts from a range of fields will lead you on discoveries each day, whether on shore or on board. Join our Expedition Team on hikes, community visits, and small boat trips before heading back to the ship and hearing fascinating talks in the lecture hall, as well as your briefing on the next day’s schedule. Optional premium activities like kayaking are available to guests for an extra fee, depending on the destination.

Expedition gear and water bottle – yours to take home
All guests receive a polar expedition jacket, a backpack, or another piece of HX exploration kit for the area you're exploring. And as the first cruise brand to ban single use plastics, all guests receive a complimentary water bottle to refill on board and take home.

Professional photos of your trip from our onboard photographer​
Every expedition is the trip of a lifetime, and we have a professional onboard photographer on each ship who’ll capture stunning images from your voyage. You will receive these as a beautiful digital album after you’ve returned home as part of your HX Expedition Logbook.

Wi-Fi at no extra cost​
We offer Starlink Wi-Fi on all our ships (if only the Norwegian explorers who founded HX in 1896 could see us now). Be aware that we often sail in remote areas with limited connection and streaming isn’t supported.

Full access to our Science Center
Often described by guests as “the heart of an HX ship,” our interactive science program is like nothing you'll find elsewhere. Join our onboard scientists, hear from experts, collect samples, and get involved in our citizen science projects. Spot something new with fellow birders or spend time studying what we find under the microscope.

Exploring our blue planet for more than a century has taught us the importance of sustainability efforts.
 

Meaningful Change
As a result, we are now supporting 41 environmental, cultural and social projects in 11 different countries. These range from helping endangered orcas in the Pacific Northwest and protecting Galápagos seabirds, to securing safe spaces for vulnerable Greenlandic children and enabling community storytelling for the Itquamavit elders in Canada’s frozen north. We hope that the ripples we create today will one day turn into the waves of the future.
 

Saying goodbye to unnecessary single-use plastic
We announced our war on plastics in 2018 when we were the first expedition company to ban non-essential single-use plastic throughout our entire operation. That means items like plastic cups, plastic straws or plastic cutlery are banned from our ships. You also won’t see our shops selling microplastic-made fleeces but stocking natural wool clothing instead. Absent too are plastic water bottles. We provide all our guests on an expedition cruise with a complimentary high-quality reusable bottle for use at water refill stations dotted around the ship. This simple act saves at least 1,000 plastic bottles a day on some of our larger ships.
 

Inspiring Environmental Ambassadors
Witnessing the beauty of our planet is sure to leave a lasting impression on you, and you’ll talk enthusiastically about these stunning destinations with friends and family for decades to come. To make sure you can speak informatively when you return home, every one of our expedition cruises has a focus on the environment. The Expedition Team give lectures that raise awareness of climate change, ocean plastic, and the measures we can all take to help ease these issues. It is our hope that engaging with nature on our expedition cruises will inspire you to do all you can to cherish and protect the precious world we all share.
 

Connecting With Communities
We are dedicated to supporting the local communities we visit, and to creating beneficial ripple effects that continue long after we’ve left. By trading locally and sourcing services such as food produce and excursions from local suppliers, we contribute to the livelihood and welfare of people. We strive not only to connect with these communities, but to share genuine friendship with them while always respecting their values and customs. As guests in their home, our emphasis is on appreciating their unique culture and ensuring our interactions are positive and upbuilding for all. You can therefore enjoy authentic experiences knowing your visit is doing good, both for you and for them.
 

A Footprint We’re Proud Of
You’ll likely encounter a range of wildlife during your expedition, doing so from a safe distance. We’ll be sure to never get too close to them, out of respect for their welfare as much as yours. By not disturbing wildlife with our presence, you’ll be able to observe their natural behaviour, in their natural habitat. We want to leave nothing but footprints and take nothing but pictures!
 

Working Together As One
Sustainability efforts aren't something we can do alone. Everyone in our industry needs to work together for a more sustainable future. We are therefore founding members of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) and members of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). These trade member organisations work to establish sustainable tourism in polar regions, fighting mass tourism by limiting ships and shore visits, and creating guidelines that protect fragile environments and rare wildlife.
 

Serving Plant-Based Food
Our menus offer an array of delicious plant-based dishes, designed to promote healthier living, and give you the chance to try tasty vegan and vegetarian cuisine. We’ve also put in place food management waste programmes on all our ships, and in 2023 saw a 22% decrease in food waste per guest.
 

Investing in Greener Tech
Building our two new hybrid-powered expedition ships, MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen, represents the biggest investment in our almost 130 years of history. They are packed with state-of-the-art technology, such as battery packs, heat recovery systems, and a cutting-edge hull design. These innovations combined reduce carbon emissions by more than 20 %, compared to other cruise ships of the same size. We stopped using heavy fuel oil more than a decade ago and campaign for its worldwide ban.
 

Doing Your Part
There are a range of simple things you can get involved in during your cruise to do your bit. Help out on a beach clean-up where the refuse we collect is brought back onto the ship to be recycled. Citizen Science projects get you to observe our natural world closely and contribute to current research. Even hanging a tag on your cabin door to say your towels and bed sheets don’t need changing can help save energy and water. You also have the option to donate to the HX Foundation which funds projects around the world. We are trying to build a more sustainable standard for expedition cruising. You can be sure we will continue with our commitment to sustainability; leading the way with greener tech, working towards protecting our planet, supporting local communities, and inspiring more to action.