Sailing from Rio or Buenos Aires?

[clojacks]

We are researching doing a South American "Around the Horn" sailing in either early 2015 or early 2016. One of our debates is sailing out of Rio versus sailing out of Buenos Aires. Would sailing out of Rio and being able to experience Rio offset what we might miss by not sailing out of Buenos Aires? Our intent would be to arrive 2 to 3 days early from wherever we sail out of. So the question also becomes would you prefer 2 to 3 days in Rio versus 2 to 3days in Buenos Aires AND miss a couple of ports after the Horn I am assuming.

[Pam in CA]

I've done both and while I loved BA and have sailed from there a couple of times, Rio was the more interesting city for me. When I sailed from Rio with HAL, we took a 4-day pre-cruise tour to Iguazu Falls plus a couple of days sightseeing Rio. Fabulous cruise and one of the best I've ever taken.

 

The negative to sailing from Rio is the Brazilian visa which is expensive and a PITA to get. Personally, my HAL cruise (and ship) were much better for this itinerary than the Golden, which I'd taken previously. Some of the ports don't have the facilities to handle 3,000 people plus our HAL itinerary had an extra day of scenic cruising through the fjords.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Pam in CA

[clojacks]

I've done both and while I loved BA and have sailed from there a couple of times, Rio was the more interesting city for me. When I sailed from Rio with HAL, we took a 4-day pre-cruise tour to Iguazu Falls plus a couple of days sightseeing Rio. Fabulous cruise and one of the best I've ever taken.

 

The negative to sailing from Rio is the Brazilian visa which is expensive and a PITA to get. Personally, my HAL cruise (and ship) were much better for this itinerary than the Golden, which I'd taken previously. Some of the ports don't have the facilities to handle 3,000 people plus our HAL itinerary had an extra day of scenic cruising through the fjords.

 

This may be a dumb question, but, is Princess the only one who sails "around the horn" now from either Rio or BA? I know Royal runs short cruises out of Rio, but nothing around the horn. I can only find cruises from Princess that go all the way around from Rio? I guess I'm kind of curious what the Visa issues are Pam? Is that something that each individual passenger has to deal with or does the cruise line?

[skynight]

We sailed from Rio and stayed in the Sheraton Leblon, which is at the southern end of the beach arc in an enclosed compound. Through the CC roll calls two pre tours were arranged through a tour guide named Manu Perclat. He was very good and speaks perfect English. The pier area in Rio is a little crowded/confusing, but we did board without issue. You will require a Brazilian Visa (assuming you have a US passport) to enter Brazil. Go on line to the Brazilian Consul website for details. It was a little complicated, but if you follow all the directions exactly you shouldn't have an issue. You must complete everything on line. Don't wait until the last min. Once we completed our on line application we used a service to actually do the footwork to obtain the visa. The visa cost, service fee and courier cost was about $200 per visa. When boarding in Rio the Cruise line takes your passport. It is returned with all the stamps toward the end of the voyage.

 

Other cruise lines such as HAL, Celebrity, Oceania, as well others sail around Cape Horn.

[DougH]

I much preferred Buenos Aires over Rio. On two cruises I spent 3-4 days pre cruise in BA and loved wandering around. I stayed in the CBD in the Hotel Claridge and while it had small bathrooms I found the price and location pretty good. Rio was a two day stop on one of the cruises and I will admit my negative option my be colored by lots of rain and one day with many staged demonstrations protesting the future Olympics. There were some interesting sights but I didn't feel nearly as comfortable walking around as I did in BA.

 

The sail into/out of Rio is far more spectacular than that of BA. (And at the time the Brazil visa was a pain to get and expensive)

Edited April 4, 2014 by DougH

[runnerodb83]

I vote for Rio. We stayed at the Porto Bay in Copacobana and it was very nice and reasonably priced. Although Copa is a bit rougher of a neighborhood than Ipanema, we never felt in danger, just leave the expensive stuff in your room (at home is best) and if you have to carry anything, put it in a plastic bag from a store, thats what the locals do. I also carried a "dummy" wallet with a few Reis (brazillian money) and some old gift cards that had nothing on them. My wife wore plastic ring and i kept my money in a "belt" that is actually a belt that allows money to be tri folded, the long way, and slid in. This all felt like overkill when we were there, we didnt really walk around late at night, but as I said, never felt in danger walking on the beach, in the neighborhoods, or on the subway. I carried a credit card in a lanyard around my neck too.

 

We had a hired car organized by the hotel take us to the port, it was a bit confusing but once we got inside, it was very straight forward.

 

Buenos Aires on the other hand...that port is a nightmare with ships located a shuttle bus ride away that was an absolute disaster with narrow aisles between container piles and busses trying to pass. We felt a bit targeted walking in the main street mall of BA but nothing came of it. We did walk on our own to the 19th of July avenue and took the subway to recoleta which involved a mile walk from the subway station to the cemetary but it was a very nice neighborhood.

 

I would go back to Rio in a heartbeat, BA, if it was part of the trip. The cariocas (rio residents) are friendly, beautiful people. The folks in BA were, not, not friendly, just indifferent. We had a Rio tour through a gent named Eugenio we found on trip advisor. Half the cost of Manu and we managed to see Christ the Redemer, sugarloaf, and Santa Teresa during a city holiday...not quite sure how he got us around all the long lines.

[tamsno]

I loved the excitement of Rio and it's splendid scenery, but much of it is weather dependent and we were very lucky. I would definitely go there again. It was a 2-day Hal tour pre 30 days to Athens which is still my all time favorite cruise.

 

BA was for 3 days post 30 days around the horn from SanFran on the Star. It's great to see, but I wouldn't go again. And....the port area is a total nightmare both embarking and disembarking passengers from 2 ships crammed into one chaotic mess apparently a common occurence. Took hours to get through. And we had been bused from the ship through traffic to the terminal in the first place. It had been a great trip again with almost perfect weather until then.

 

Enjoy the experience whichever you choose.

[Pam in CA]

HAL still has itineraries that sail to Antarctica. Having done that cruise on HAL, I'd book it in a heartbeat over a Princess cruise. In this case, itinerary is the most important thing. I'm a Princess cheerleader but I'd still sail on HAL in this region over Princess.

[clojacks]

In our case, we are kind of limiting ourselves to researching the 14 day around the horn itineraries...thus why I was only seeing Princess as one of the 4 (Celebrity, Princess, HAL, and NCL, who is returning to the region in 2016) lines that we are considering. The Antarctica sailings might be something down the road, but for this time we are just looking at a simple around the horn cruise.

[runnerodb83]

In our case, we are kind of limiting ourselves to researching the 14 day around the horn itineraries...thus why I was only seeing Princess as one of the 4 (Celebrity, Princess, HAL, and NCL, who is returning to the region in 2016) lines that we are considering. The Antarctica sailings might be something down the road, but for this time we are just looking at a simple around the horn cruise.

 

Whatever you decide, make sure you spend time in Rio or BA before you sail anyways, they are both terrific cities. Santiago/Valparaso is also a great place, we wish we had spent at least 1 extra day there.

[Gimer]

Pam, that was back in 2009 on HAL Amsterdam. That was the greatest cruise. There was 38 of us that did the pre-cruise Iguazu Falls side trip. I still remember arriving in Rio on New Years Eve. What a blast, no one slept in our hotel. They danced all night and into the next day. They know how to party. Rio was outstanding.

[clojacks]

Any announcements from Princess coming this week on early 2016 SA sailings?

 

 

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[clojacks]

Just got an email today from Holland with a $300 price drop for their March 2105 SA, making them only $200 more than Princess. With NCL hopefully bringing prices out next week for the SA return in 2016, I hope to actually have some price competition to look at.

[Pam in CA]

Pam, that was back in 2009 on HAL Amsterdam. That was the greatest cruise. There was 38 of us that did the pre-cruise Iguazu Falls side trip. I still remember arriving in Rio on New Years Eve. What a blast, no one slept in our hotel. They danced all night and into the next day. They know how to party. Rio was outstanding.

Yes! Yes! Absolutely fabulous! I still remember arriving after a very long flight at the hotel, checking in and Pat saying, let's go to the bar and have a drink. We did and most of our group happened to do the same thing even though we didn't know each other yet. We all wound up going to dinner together and bonded immediately. I slept through all the NYE noise. Didn't hear a thing. :) Remember, when we got to Iguazu Falls, they tried to seat us all at separate tables for dinner and we refused, sitting at two large tables? And we all discovered Pisco Sours. One of the absolutely greatest cruises I've ever taken. Edited April 9, 2014 by Pam in CA