Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

1/18/06 Buenos Aires to Valparaiso

ARBORGUY

By ARBORGUY,
in Oceania Cruises

Recommended Posts

mike35

mike35

Posted
Posted

We are booked on the Insignia that leaves Valparaiso on Jan 3, so our paths will cross. I'll try to share comments on this board from internet cafes in some of the ports (Oceania's internet fees are 95 cents/hour - a bit too steep). As for Oceania, we just got off the Insignia's Istanbul to Athens cruise, and we absolutely loved everything about the ship and Oceania in general.

 

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
milzey

milzey

Posted
Posted

we are looking at either of the two january south american cruises. Never saled this line before. When we decide we will be in touch. Did you do the 2 for 1 price? incl air? Can you upgrade air? Also we are looking at the vista suite. Anyone tried this suite?

 

regards

 

milzey@aol.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
SusanTravels

SusanTravels

Posted
Posted

I'm booked and starting to make plans. We leave from Valapariso just after a busy summer holiday weekend. Things are closed in Santiago and booked at the beach. Has anyone else made plans for the few days before we sail? Any suggestions from past cruisers?

 

Thanks, Susan

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mikiew

mikiew

Posted
Posted

We spent over two weeks south of Santiago in Pucon. It is a beautiful resort town, rented a car when we got there, took day trips.........was delightful. It is so far to come back too soon. I recommend this hotel. The Park Lake.

Wanted to add, they have great bus service in Chile, so we took the first class sleeper bus...........really nice.........and cheap. It was about $60

 

 

http://www.chile-travel.com/hotel-villarrica-park-lake/index.html#

 

NCL Seaward 1981 Caribbean

 

Sitmar Fairwind 1983 Caribbean

 

Holland American 1986 Caribbean

 

Celebrity Zenith 1993 Caribbean

 

Celebrity Zenith 1994 Caribbean

 

RCCL

 

Windstar Windsong 1997 Tahiti

 

NCL Crown 1998 South America

 

NCL Norway 2000 Transatlantic

 

RCCL Legend of the Seas 2001 Australia to Singapore

 

Cunard Caronia 2002 Southampton to Canary Islands

 

Celebrity Zenith 2003 South America

 

Royal Clipper 2004 B to B Deep Caribbean

 

Oceania Regatta 2004 Transatlantic

 

Celebrity Infinity 2005 South America

 

Celebrity Xpedition 2005 Galapagos

 

 

Upcoming:

 

Clipper Odyssey 2005 New Caledonia to Melbourne

 

Celebrity Summit2006Hawaii

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ricktalcott

ricktalcott

Posted
Posted
they have great bus service in Chile,

 

We took local buses all around Vina del Mar with no problems. In fact it really was a wonderful adventure, and we had lots of support and encouragement from both the passengers and the bus drivers.

 

A couple of things that I wanted to mention about Chile:

 

My experience was that lunch was the main meal, and they were sort of discombobulated when it came to dinner. Lots of places were closed, but there was always some place to eat.

 

We never, ever saw one menu in English. I loved that, I dragged out my Spanish, and away we went. If you are in a place where you want to practice your Spanish, you can't do better than Chile. They don't give a damn about English in much the same way that Americans don't give a damn about non-English languages on our streets.

 

I was sitting in the Lan Chile van that was going to take us from Vina del Mar to the Santiago ($15 vs $75 for a taxi) and someone came up to me and asked me in Spanish what time the van was going to leave for the airport. Now, one look at me, and you know that I'm not Chilean. Bulgarian, maybe if I cound find a eastern European looking ex-weightlifter sort of outfit, but Latino, not on your life.

 

So this guy asks me when the van leaves, in the same sort of way we would ask a taxi driver in NYC where the Golden Gate Bridge is while not giving a damn that he was from Nigeria or Ghana or Nepal or where ever. I loved it.

 

Rick

aka Ricardo the Traveler

Link to comment
Share on other sites
john2003

john2003

Posted
Posted

I certainly concur with Rick's comments about the lack of English. We had a couple of minor surprises with meals but got around Valparaiso, Vina and Santiago fine. We took the train from Valparaiso to Vina and back and the bus to Santiago. We really enyoyed Chile and Brazil with our Antarctica cruise but I can see that going independent wouldn't be for everybody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
meow!

meow!

Posted
Posted
I started a thread on our voyage from Buenos Aires to Santiago that talked a bit about shore excursions. It is at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=187305

 

Rick

Thank you so much for such a comprehensive, detailed account of your voyage to the tip of South America. Having written a couple of lengthy reports (in parts) ourselves on this cruise critic board, we surely appreciate the amount of work you have put into them, and your perseverance in typing through it.

 

One point I cannot understand, you mentioned that there was a fouteen feet differential in height between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I thought that "water finds its own level". How is the differential maintained, but currents, or what? Does anyone know?

 

Also, from various reports on this board, it seems that a voyage in South America is a lot more adventurous than say the Mediterranean and Alaska, for example. it will take a lot more stamina to withstand the journey (e.g. very rough seas), and land excursion (no English if you don't take the ship's excursion). It is nice to read the various accounts on this board, it gives a good idea of what these trips will be like!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ricktalcott

ricktalcott

Posted
Posted
you mentioned that there was a fouteen foot differential in height between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I thought that "water finds its own level". How is the differential maintained, by currents, or what? Does anyone know?

 

I remember the figure from years and years ago, but I don't rmember where I heard it. On the cruise we took through the Panama Canal, I got into a discussion with the canal expert lecturer, who poo-pooed the very idea of height differential between the two oceans, but 5 minustes later, he was talking about how the Suez Canal succeeded as a "big ditch" without locks because the Med and the Red Sea have the same tide schedule.

When the Panama Canal was being planned, the idea was to also dig a ditch, but our cruise expert said that never would have worked because the tide schedules were not the same between the two bodies of water. Maybe, that accounts for some of all of the difference in heights.

One other thought that I had that is entirely my own is that -- if there is a larger amount of precipitation into the Pacific and its watershed, that might account for some of the height differential. Yes, the oceans would even out, but only if it stopped raining. If you picture more water being poured from a larger, endless bucket into the Pacific and given the size of the opening between the two oceans, maybe the Atlantic never has a chance to catch up and even out.

Maybe.

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ricktalcott

ricktalcott

Posted
Posted
Also, from various reports on this board, it seems that a voyage in South America is a lot more adventurous than say the Mediterranean and Alaska, for example. it will take a lot more stamina to withstand the journey (e.g. very rough seas), and land excursion (no English if you don't take the ship's excursion).

 

I never meant to cause any concern about wandering around by yourself or in a private excursion in the Cape Horn crusies. O my goodness, not. Everybody speaks enought English to help you along and show you a good time except for the Falkland Islands where they only speak British. :)

 

Rick

 

PS I once met a Canadian family who used to live underneath the DEW line. The Distant Early Warning radar facilities in Canada that were supposed to wqatch out for Soviet missles coming over the pole to blow us all away. They finally figured out that they were living at the Cold War's ground zero in that those radar stations would be the first things to go in a nuclear exchange.

 

They worried about it so much that they finally decided to move not just somewhere safer, but to the safest English language speaking place in the entire world. I mean, if you're going to move, why not do it right?

 

So, after months of research, they finally packed up their bags and moved to, you guessed it, the Falkland Islands 13 days before the Argentinians invaded.

 

I met them after they moved to San Francisco, which I thought was a prefectly nice compromise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
ricktalcott

ricktalcott

Posted
Posted

I used an Olympus c-740 which is a digital camera with 3.2 megapixels. I bought it because it has a 10x optical zoom -- about the equivalent of a 310 mm lens on the old film cameras.

 

The 3.2 megapixels is adequate for pictures, but I found that I was often wishing for more. The detail in the shrubbery in landscapes, for example is a bit less than I would wish for, but certainily in a range that I can live with. From what I hear the latest model c-770 is a bit better in this direction. In either case, buy the tube gizmo and a UV filter. Not so much for the UV effect, but as protection for the lens.

 

The camera itself is small enough that it fits into a fanny pack but not into a pocket. I find that I like the fanny pack approach because there is nothing that says "camera" from the fanny pack, so I can leave it in the car if I am out renning around during the day etc.

 

I am also a big believer in Photoshop Elements even though it took me a few on-line lessons to learn how to fix pictures. My wife, the artist, always talks about how pleased she is with her paintings when the colors "sing." Much to my amazement, I found that feeling when adjusting the color specturm of my photographs.

 

Hope this helps, (& thanks for the feedback)

 

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ARBORGUY

ARBORGUY

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi Penny,

Yes it will nice to meet you! So far I think we're the only two to acknowledge we going.

We will be arriving in BA on Sunday prior to the cruise and staying in Santiago two extra days. Hotels are still undecided.

Bill

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
BOHEMIO

BOHEMIO

Posted
Posted
Hi Penny,

Yes it will nice to meet you! So far I think we're the only two to acknowledge we going.

We will be arriving in BA on Sunday prior to the cruise and staying in Santiago two extra days. Hotels are still undecided.

Bill

 

 

Hi ARBORGUY

May be this link http://www.tripadvisor.com/Discount...4291-Chile.html, can be helpful. You can comparated the rates of hotel in Chile.

 

You can find in this site a active forum with enough information about Santiago in Chile.

 

I hope be able to help it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...