South America cruise and Machu Picchu land tour

[Suzez]

I have been looking at this cruise for some time now. I would be interested to hear of anyone experience of this. We have cruise with Princess several times now. What I am most interested in is when is the best time to go? Also, the amount of traveling between locations on the land tour(6 days) and the cruise around Cape Horn as in was is a nice cruise or was it bad seas? Thank you :)

Edited January 19, 2015 by Suzez

[paul929207]

Which cruise are you thinking of? Between Buenos Aires and Santiago? Or one of the longer ones?

 

We have been around the Horn twice and the seas were fine both times. It did get rougher as we ssailed up the coast of Chile. However, that was well into the cruise so few people had a problem with it.

[boone2]

Like a mill pond going around the horn. My husband was a bit disappointed actually. We went on a 29 night on the star in 2013. During February/ March . Did Machu piccu independently. Got 6 days for half the price of the cruise ship tour. Not to be missed. One of my favourite places in the world so far

Terry

[Suzez]

Which cruise are you thinking of? Between Buenos Aires and Santiago? Or one of the longer ones?

 

We have been around the Horn twice and the seas were fine both times. It did get rougher as we ssailed up the coast of Chile. However, that was well into the cruise so few people had a problem with it.

Yes I think thats the one, althoguh it wont be until 2017 at the earlier. We are stilling looking at options here.

[Suzez]

Like a mill pond going around the horn. My husband was a bit disappointed actually. We went on a 29 night on the star in 2013. During February/ March . Did Machu piccu independently. Got 6 days for half the price of the cruise ship tour. Not to be missed. One of my favourite places in the world so far

Terry

 

What dissapointed him? The tour or the cruise? I like the idea of the package as it has all the transfer. As we have not done a huge amount of traveling it keep it easy for us. Was the weather okay in Feb/March time? That is when we are thingkn ing of, but that depends on when they sail

[Runbarb55]

We took the la to rio in 2013. We loved it. We took the princess Machu Picchu tour. It did cost more but I can can tell you it was 5 star all the way. The Tambo del Inca is one of the nicest Hotels I have ever been in. The whole tour was a delight. We never take Princess tours because you can do it independently so much cheaper but have no regrets. It has a limit of 65 people and there are 4 buses and 4 tour guides and 2 coordinators with you at all times. The food was great and different every night. it is a very tiring tour filled with so much. At one point I skipped the afternoon of looking at the ruins (not MP) and they got me a cab and I spent the afternoon at the Tambo Del Inca in the 3td floor indoor -outdoor infinity pool. Best money you will ever spend.

We did the cruise a little differently. We sailed from La to Lima. We left the ship in Lima and the tour coordinator came to the port and drove us to the city. We met up with the others who flew from all over to take the tour. after the Macho Picchu tour ended, we reboarded the ship with the others and finished the cruise in Rio. It was cheaper to have a ocean view cabin to lima than to fly. We moved to a balcony for the second half of Santiago to Rio leg.

Going around the horn is really interesting crossing the equator is fun.

They say it can be rough but our cruise was smooth as glass. There is nothing as fun as being out on the promenade deck in your formal wear with a glacier behind you and snow gently falling.

Hope this helps

We also had the wonderful experience of sailing out of Buenos Aries on our balcony drinking champagne as our neighbors played "Don't cry for me Argentina"

[ECCruise]

What dissapointed him? The tour or the cruise? I like the idea of the package as it has all the transfer. As we have not done a huge amount of traveling it keep it easy for us. Was the weather okay in Feb/March time? That is when we are thingkn ing of, but that depends on when they sail

 

Maybe Boone2 will chime in, but I think they were referring to the disappointment that the seas were like glass, nothing about the cruise or the tour.

 

We've also done this, but independently (which was closer to 1/3 the cruise line's price). Were more in control, felt less isolated from what we were seeing than we would on a big group tour. And the savings from Machu Picchu paid for a huge hunk of the cruise portion.

Edited January 19, 2015 by ECCruise

[Mommypig]

We decided against the Machu Pichu land tour when last winter when we were on the Pacific Princess. Too pricey for just Four days. We are doing a 5 day Peruvian Amazon tour followed by a 7 day highlights of Peru that includes Machu Pichu and Cusco for about the same price as the Princess tour.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Carnival 24 cruise days

Princess 79 cruise days, plus 142 cruise days scheduled

Norwegian 7 cruise days scheduled

Celebrity 15 cruise days scheduled

[brian1]

hi suzez,we are thinking of doing same trip in 2016 from BA.we want to see rio but the cruise from there misses out on other ports,so will do this independantly booking our own air probably via expedia.any advise for us also on this option would be appreciated.the price for 3 days in rio with own air to BA works out cheaper than princess air just for cruisetour,cheers brian.

[joybook]

Just got off Golden Princess a couple of weeks ago - LA to Rio - 31 days. Great cruise and round the Horn was a great experience. Very cold and windy but seas were kind to us - not smooth as glass but OK. Interesting day weatherwise though - sunny, cloudy and overcast - 4 lots of hail in the space of an hour and a half - all between periods of sunshine. Many people seem to do this trip often but my attitude is to do it once and then get on and see the other places in the world. Would recommend it though to anyone.:)

[Suzez]

Just got off Golden Princess a couple of weeks ago - LA to Rio - 31 days. Great cruise and round the Horn was a great experience. Very cold and windy but seas were kind to us - not smooth as glass but OK. Interesting day weatherwise though - sunny, cloudy and overcast - 4 lots of hail in the space of an hour and a half - all between periods of sunshine. Many people seem to do this trip often but my attitude is to do it once and then get on and see the other places in the world. Would recommend it though to anyone.:)

 

How many days would you say, were in colder weather? I am thinking here, pack two wardrobes! As we are frlying from the Uk this will be challenging on weight! We may well only do this cruise once, there is so much we want to see out there. It's a big planet!

Edited January 20, 2015 by Suzez

[boone2]

What dissapointed him? The tour or the cruise? I like the idea of the package as it has all the transfer. As we have not done a huge amount of traveling it keep it easy for us. Was the weather okay in Feb/March time? That is when we are thingkn ing of, but that depends on when they sail

 

 

Sorry just got back. He was hoping for more action from the sea after all the books he had read about rough journeys around the Horn. However the cruise was fantastic. The weather was really good. We were one of the few ships to make it into the Falklands and had a perfect day there. The captain commented that a bubble of calm weather had followed all the way around from BA to LA. The only rain we had was in Patagonia on one of the 2 days a year it rains there😀

We went independently to Machu piccu as I was worried about not being able to acclimatise in the 3 day tour from the ship. No one knows how altitude will affect you and we didn't want to have the trip spoilt by altitude sickness

Terry

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Suzez]

Sorry just got back. He was hoping for more action from the sea after all the books he had read about rough journeys around the Horn. However the cruise was fantastic. The weather was really good. We were one of the few ships to make it into the Falklands and had a perfect day there. The captain commented that a bubble of calm weather had followed all the way around from BA to LA. The only rain we had was in Patagonia on one of the 2 days a year it rains there😀

We went independently to Machu piccu as I was worried about not being able to acclimatise in the 3 day tour from the ship. No one knows how altitude will affect you and we didn't want to have the trip spoilt by altitude sickness

Terry

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Hi Terry, how did you cope with the thinner air. Was it a problem?

[EightFurryPaws]

WE did the SA cruise from BA to LA on the Golden March 1---April 1, 2014.

 

Unfortunately, we were unable to go around the Horn because of rough seas.

The Captain took us through the Chilean Fjords instead and it was amazing.

The Amelia glacier was awesome. The Captain turned the ship around so everyone was able to stay on their balconies to view it.

 

Our friends did the one day excursion to Antarctica. Lots of preparation went with that trip, especially hoping it wasn't too foggy to fly, at it wasn't.

 

It's a great trip. For sure go if you are able.

 

Pam

Edited January 20, 2015 by EightFurryPaws

[spunkie4]

Just got off Golden Princess a couple of weeks ago - LA to Rio - 31 days. Great cruise and round the Horn was a great experience. Very cold and windy but seas were kind to us - not smooth as glass but OK. Interesting day weatherwise though - sunny, cloudy and overcast - 4 lots of hail in the space of an hour and a half - all between periods of sunshine. Many people seem to do this trip often but my attitude is to do it once and then get on and see the other places in the world. Would recommend it though to anyone.:)

 

We are booked on the Star for this cruise December 2015/January 2016. We are considering the excursion to Machu Piccu through Princess. I think it's three days. Do you do this or talk to anyone who did?

 

Seems expensive, so would welcome any comments.

 

Shirley

[Suzez]

We are booked on the Star for this cruise December 2015/January 2016. We are considering the excursion to Machu Piccu through Princess. I think it's three days. Do you do this or talk to anyone who did?

 

Seems expensive, so would welcome any comments.

 

Shirley

 

The cruise we see in the UK brochure for 2016 include a 6 day land tour. This includes an overnight in a hotel in Machu Picchu. The total number of days, is 20, the cruise being 14 nights. It's a long way from the UK to just go to Machu Picchu, so this is a good option.

[spunkie4]

The cruise we see in the UK brochure for 2016 include a 6 day land tour. This includes an overnight in a hotel in Machu Picchu. The total number of days, is 20, the cruise being 14 nights. It's a long way from the UK to just go to Machu Picchu, so this is a good option.

 

Suzez:

 

Thanks for your response. We originally booked LA to Santiago and the seven day land tour. I kept thinking about cruising Cape Horn and we decided to change to the 31 days from LA to Rio.

 

We are considering the 72 hour Princess excursion to MP or booking this in early 2017 as a land tour from Peru.

 

Shirley

[joybook]

We didn't do the Macchu Picchu tour. While we thought it would be good quite frankly it was fairly expensive and we wanted to do so much else - we went to Iguazu Falls after we got off the ship in Rio. Having done this I am certainly not sorry we did - the Falls were an experience I will never forget. I have now seen both Iguazu and Niagara.

 

About 200 did the MP trip and it would be safe to say that almost all those I spoke to said it was well worth it but of course some were not quite as enthusiastic. If it is on your bucket list then do it.

 

As far as warm clothes go I would recommend a pair of warm blue jeans, a jumper, warm long sleeve polo shirts or same but importantly a waterproof or at least a warmer shower proof jacket. Going around the Horn and also in the Beagle channel, because they both started fairly early in the morning it was very cold, but stick it out if you are up on the deck as both experiences are well worth it.

 

As I said in a previous comment we got hail a few times going around the Horn but essentially it was dry but very cold and quite windy. In the Beagle Channel it was fine but very cold probably mainly because we were up on deck from around 6.00am. Just remember you can always dry out on the ship anyway.:)

[sammiedawg]

Does anyone care to share the name of the tour group used for Machu Pichu? Thanks

[boone2]

Hi Terry, how did you cope with the thinner air. Was it a problem?

 

 

Bearing in mind I was extremely fit with daily gym workouts when we went(lapsed a little since then) and my husband not at all, he managed well, better than I did. Although I didn't suffer from altitude sickness I became extremely short of breath when climbing any heights. There is a lot of climbing to be done in Machu Piccu and the sacred valley. It didn't spoil my enjoyment, nothing could have, it was an amazing place to visit but I was surprised at how it affected me. I would have hated not to have acclimatised before our visit and I don think I would have done so with a 3 day tour. We had six days in an amazing hotel in the sacred valley and return flights from Toronto for $1200 each. I arranged our own tour of MP and all our other tours which amounted to a further $500 for the two of us so a lot cheaper and incredibly enjoyable

Terry

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[caribill]

We are booked on the Star for this cruise December 2015/January 2016. We are considering the excursion to Machu Piccu through Princess. I think it's three days. Do you do this or talk to anyone who did?

 

Seems expensive, so would welcome any comments.

 

 

Princess has two ways of doing the M.P. tour.

 

One is three days in the middle of the cruise. The other is more days either at the start or end of a cruise.

 

People we spoke with who did the tour in the middle of the cruise and those who did it prior to the cruise we were on all were very happy and satisfied they did it.

 

Personally, I would not recommend doing it in the middle of the cruise. Three days is not enough to properly see the area which is really much more that M.P. itself.

 

In addition, on our cruise, fog delayed us arriving at the port for Lima for several hours, so although the Princess tour did make it to M.P., they missed their scheduled flight from Lima and effectively lost one day of the three day tour and thus did not see as much of the area as expected.

 

When we did it, it was a five day independent tour for five of us before our cruise from Valparaiso. We had a great tour, went to M.P. twice (one afternoon and the next morning), and including air fare from Lima and then to Chile the cost was significantly less than the Princess cost.

 

With only five in our group, our guide was able to take all five of use through the entire M.P. area. I do not know with a Princess tour if you get the full guided tour of M.P. experience or if you wander on your own part of your time there.

[brian1]

Bearing in mind I was extremely fit with daily gym workouts when we went(lapsed a little since then) and my husband not at all, he managed well, better than I did. Although I didn't suffer from altitude sickness I became extremely short of breath when climbing any heights. There is a lot of climbing to be done in Machu Piccu and the sacred valley. It didn't spoil my enjoyment, nothing could have, it was an amazing place to visit but I was surprised at how it affected me. I would have hated not to have acclimatised before our visit and I don think I would have done so with a 3 day tour. We had six days in an amazing hotel in the sacred valley and return flights from Toronto for $1200 each. I arranged our own tour of MP and all our other tours which amounted to a further $500 for the two of us so a lot cheaper and incredibly enjoyable

Terry

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

hi,what was the name of tour company for MP,cheers brian.

[boone2]

hi,what was the name of tour company for MP,cheers brian.

 

 

I just booked hotel and flights as a package through Expedia and then researched and booked MP independently, you have to book the train to get there as well. We stayed in the sacred valley and used a local taxi/guide to take us to the main sights and for a day in Cusco as taxis are very cheap. One of the best 6days of our lives, would love to do it again but are almost afraid to as our memories may be spoilt if it's not as good.

Terry

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Suzez]

We didn't do the Macchu Picchu tour. While we thought it would be good quite frankly it was fairly expensive and we wanted to do so much else - we went to Iguazu Falls after we got off the ship in Rio. Having done this I am certainly not sorry we did - the Falls were an experience I will never forget. I have now seen both Iguazu and Niagara.

 

About 200 did the MP trip and it would be safe to say that almost all those I spoke to said it was well worth it but of course some were not quite as enthusiastic. If it is on your bucket list then do it.

 

As far as warm clothes go I would recommend a pair of warm blue jeans, a jumper, warm long sleeve polo shirts or same but importantly a waterproof or at least a warmer shower proof jacket. Going around the Horn and also in the Beagle channel, because they both started fairly early in the morning it was very cold, but stick it out if you are up on the deck as both experiences are well worth it.

 

As I said in a previous comment we got hail a few times going around the Horn but essentially it was dry but very cold and quite windy. In the Beagle Channel it was fine but very cold probably mainly because we were up on deck from around 6.00am. Just remember you can always dry out on the ship anyway.:)

it really does sound amazing. it is high up on the list right now. Maybe 2017. We will see what else there is but still seriously considering this cruise/land tour with Princess

[cougaraz]

We just did the Valparaiso to Rio 15 night cruise this past Christmas/New Year and it was AMAZING!

 

We were unable to do the Macchu Picchu option due to work constraints, but everyone onboard who had done it raved about the first class experience.

 

The weather was a bit fickle, Valparaiso and Puerto Montt were like Southern California in the winter, nigh unto perfect. Further south, conditions were much cooler and damper, but not terrible, reminiscent of Alaska in the summer. We were fortunate, got into Stanley without issue and had an amazing day there. We hired a private guide to see battlefield sites and it was one of the best tours we've done. By the time we reached Buenos Aires, temperatures were very warm and in Rio we enjoyed a full blast of Brazilian summer! Packing wasn't terrible, just took lots of layers and adjusted to the changing conditions.

 

Rounding the horn was cold, windy and a bit of hail, but beyond that, the transit was quite smooth and comfortable.