Live: Emerald Princess - South America including Machu Picchu Explorer Land Tour

[Valley Girl of VA]

dance lessons - yes

if you are not going to Antarctica, then make sure to go see Torres del Paine...it wont dissapoint

 

Which tour operator did you use when you went to Torres del Paine?

 

Thank you

Jane

[eqj60]

Ok so PENGUINS.....here’s the deal. We did two shore excursions that involved Penguins. One in the Falkland Islands and the other in Puerto Madryn. Both excursions involve driving about 2.5 a 3 hours IN EACH DIRECTION. Here is what you get:

 

Puerto Madryn - Magellanic Penguins by the thousands spread out in the desert every couple of feet based upon their nesting areas

 

Falkland Islands provided you go to Volunteer Point - Magellanic Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, King Penguins all in one place.

 

Pros for Puerto Madryn....drive is easy, Penguins are everywhere....you have to be careful not to step on one...they are in the desert....who would have ever thought hat you would see a penguin in a desert.

 

Cons for Puerto Madryn - you cannot go all the way down to the beach.....only one species of penguin.

 

Pros for Falkland Islands - multiple species of penguins.....you have to be careful not to step on any....they group together which looks cool....you can go all the way down to the beach and watch them enter and exit the water (they are tiny torpedoes).

 

Cons for Falkland Islands (this is for Volunteer Point)....the drive up there is tough. 5 people per Land Rover and it is 2.5 hours of driving wii about 1.5 hours of that really EXTREME 4x4 off road driving....to be honest, there is no road. The caravan drivers pretty much make it up as they drive along.

 

Given the chance to do it again, we would definitely pick the Falkland Island Volunteer Point penguins again. The drive was crazy but exciting, and the multiple species of penguin was a bonus...especially the king penguin. Very colorful and large.

 

Thank you so much for all the great info. We board Jan 3 aND now we have to get to volunteer point!

[bassmaster150]

Which tour operator did you use when you went to Torres del Paine?

 

Thank you

Jane

 

Princess shore ex....note that you tender into the port, then bus to the airport to get on a plane for a 1 hour flight. Once there it is about a one hour drive into the park by bus.

[nicecruiser]

Happy New Year!!! Thank you, Bassmaster, for sharing your journey with us. How is the tendering process organize on Emerald - we will be doing this cruise in 2018 :) and wondering how it is? Any issues/delays for non Elites/non suites guests?

 

 

Thanks a lot and Happy traveling!!!

[bassmaster150]

Happy New Year!!! Thank you, Bassmaster, for sharing your journey with us. How is the tendering process organize on Emerald - we will be doing this cruise in 2018 :) and wondering how it is? Any issues/delays for non Elites/non suites guests?

 

 

Thanks a lot and Happy traveling!!!

 

They issue tender tickets. Princess shore excursions go first followed by the tender ticket people. We were always on a princess shore excursion so I cannot speak to the ticket process and how that went. All was smooth on our end. However, in Puerto Mott, it was a bit busy coming back. Long lines but that was probably because there were two ships in port. Us and a silverstsr ship

[bassmaster150]

IMPORTANT UPDATE - PENGUINS part 2.....I did forget to mention one thing. Apparently several on the boards here have mentioned that they were unable to stop in the Falklands due to the weather and that you have to tender. I should have listed that in the cons part of the Falkland Islands. I only say this to make sure everyone keeps that in mind as they make their plans to go see penguins. I would hate for someone to miss out on other penguin opportunities because I said that Volunteer Point is the best (ok it really is the best) and then the boat can’t stop in the Falklands because of weather. Please plan accordingly.

[azbirdmom]

Thank you so much for all the great info. We board Jan 3 aND now we have to get to volunteer point!

 

If you can't get to Volunteer Point or can't take the very long 4 wheel drive, Bluff Cove is a nice alternative. They have three kinds of penguins at Bluff Cove too, but just a small number of Kings. The Gentoos in particular were curious little things and some would hop right up to us to check us out. We liked it so much we are doing it again in February.

 

One other place you can see a lot of Magellanic penguins is on Magdalena Island off Punta Arenas. There are over 100,000 of them and it's quite amazing to see penguins for as far as the eye can see. The ferry ride over can be rough though and you spend twice as much time on the ferry boat as you do on the island, but it's quite a sight to see all of the penguins and nesting sea birds.

[Credit 00]

I was on the L.A to Santiago portion of this trip and it was an experience, The Emerald is a beautiful ship and our MDR table was right at one of the back windows in the Botticelli dining room which made every meal extra enjoyable. As an Australian I've never felt so isolated then being in South America, I have traveled allot but it's my first American tour. I loved traveling with American cruisers, it was a fun experience and I got allot of "Oh wows" when being asked where we are from. I didn't go to Machu Pichu however, we did want to explore Peru which was something quite different. At the end of the day it was a great trip and reading this thread is a good continuation.

 

BTW, Want to see the South Pole? Fly from Santiago to Sydney.

[Reina del Mar]

Thank you for your report.

 

Gaining invaluable information in the count down to departure.

 

Please keep it coming! Enjoy your trip.

[K D cruiser]

When we did this cruise two years ago, we booked a tour to Volunteer Point with Patrick Watts in the Falkland Islands. We really loved it and the great thing about his tour is it is half the price as the Princess tour. There are lots of reviews about him on Trip Advisor, but be sure to reserve it early because his tours fill up quickly. You can just e-mail him and he's very easy to work with.

 

We had booked the tour with Princess from Punta Arenas to the Magdalena Island Penguin Reserve, but unfortunately, the seas were a little rough, so the ferry wasn't running that day. It was a disappointment, but luckily, we had already seen so many penguins at Volunteer Point.

[peteandpauline]

Thank you Bassmaster! We are sailing Feb 14 SA to BA and have not booked several port's excursions. Did you perhapes notice if there were independent people solictating side trips at the "gangway". Happy New Year!

[Kybabe]

Bassmaster, really am enjoying your posts. DH and I are doing BA to SA on Jan. 31. Wondering if there is someone presenting lectures on South America history, etc. I am currently reading "Rounding the Horn" and am finding the stories about the region very interesting.

[canadianlynxie]

need some suggestions from those currently on (or who have been on) the Emerald... I need a place fairly open with low traffic to do tai chi on sea days. I prefer outside (if it's not too cold/rainy), but an inside local would be ok too. On the Sea Princess, we originally tried the sports deck, but found it too windy up high with no wind-breaking ship walls between us and the open ocean) I will check at the desk when i board (too see if there's a dance floor or aerobics room we can use on rain-days) but need a likely spot to meet ppl at that first sea day (and don't want to have to call a whack of ppl the day i board the ship, lol). Anywhere come to mind? if so, please let me know.

[Steelers36]

If you can't get to Volunteer Point or can't take the very long 4 wheel drive, Bluff Cove is a nice alternative. They have three kinds of penguins at Bluff Cove too, but just a small number of Kings. The Gentoos in particular were curious little things and some would hop right up to us to check us out. We liked it so much we are doing it again in February.

 

One other place you can see a lot of Magellanic penguins is on Magdalena Island off Punta Arenas. There are over 100,000 of them and it's quite amazing to see penguins for as far as the eye can see. The ferry ride over can be rough though and you spend twice as much time on the ferry boat as you do on the island, but it's quite a sight to see all of the penguins and nesting sea birds.

 

Agree. We think we will enjoy the Bluff Cove trip much better as did not look forward to that long bumpy ride to Volunteer Point. Much easier to reach Bluff's Cove as I understand it. We found that the only way to go there was with Princess because they book up all the capacity. About the same cost as going to Volunteer Point independently (Princess is a huge up charge from that). So, we are probably getting ripped for the Bluff's Cove, but no other way to do it that I could find. (Princess also books up America's Cup in St Maarten, so you cannot do that directly on a port day).

[bassmaster150]

Thank you Bassmaster! We are sailing Feb 14 SA to BA and have not booked several port's excursions. Did you perhapes notice if there were independent people solictating side trips at the "gangway". Happy New Year!

 

It seemed like there were quite a few. Not sure if hey were soliciting or if they were waiting for people though

[bassmaster150]

Bassmaster, really am enjoying your posts. DH and I are doing BA to SA on Jan. 31. Wondering if there is someone presenting lectures on South America history, etc. I am currently reading "Rounding the Horn" and am finding the stories about the region very interesting.

 

We didn’t have lectures on history of South America....there were port talks that were good though. That being said, there was a guest lecturer on board and he gave lectures on.....are you sitting down.......

 

Mass Murderers

Serial Killers with a special lecture for one of the more famous, Ted Bundy

Cults

Famous Trials

 

As weird as that sounds for a cruise ship, the lectures were absolutely facinating....it actually became a highlight of the cruise as well as my wife and I learned a lot about some of these people that we never knew.

[bassmaster150]

Ok....we are officially off the ship and on our debark tour in Buenos Aires. Will type up a full review on a different post in a few days after I get back but until then I will continue to answer questions. All in all it was an amazing adventure and I am not sure my wife and I can top this trip. Going to be doing airport jambalaya in a few hours for the long ride home.

[Bill B]

All in all it was an amazing adventure and I am not sure my wife and I can top this trip.

 

Next time do a cruise that goes to Antarctica as well. It's almost surreal... and 10x more spectacular than anything you will see rounding the horn.

[azbirdmom]

Ok....we are officially off the ship and on our debark tour in Buenos Aires. Will type up a full review on a different post in a few days after I get back but until then I will continue to answer questions. All in all it was an amazing adventure and I am not sure my wife and I can top this trip. Going to be doing airport jambalaya in a few hours for the long ride home.

 

Did you take the debark tour with Princess? If so, which one? Our last cruise to South America ended in Rio so we didn't have to make our way to the Buenos Aires airport after the cruise. We are leaning towards taking the debark Tango tour, primarily because it is longer and with our late flight it at least gives us something to do with our day. Plus I heard on our last Buenos Aires port stop that folks really raved about the Tango tour. Thanks for sharing all of the good info!

[san diego sue]

We did the debark tour a few years ago. It was tour of Buenos Aires and ending with the Tango show and wonderful meal. the show was about 2 hours long. Steaks were incredible and the wine was flowing.An incredible day to end a fabulous cruise. We had an evening flight so touring all day was perfect.

[azbirdmom]

We did the debark tour a few years ago. It was tour of Buenos Aires and ending with the Tango show and wonderful meal. the show was about 2 hours long. Steaks were incredible and the wine was flowing.An incredible day to end a fabulous cruise. We had an evening flight so touring all day was perfect.

 

The good show and steaks were what we heard about the usual tour so I'm very glad that you confirmed the same it true for the debark version!

[bassmaster150]

Next time do a cruise that goes to Antarctica as well. It's almost surreal... and 10x more spectacular than anything you will see rounding the horn.

 

That is our plan...there was a 4 hour excursion to antarctica on this cruise, but I thought it cost quite a bit for just 4 hours.

[bassmaster150]

Did you take the debark tour with Princess? If so, which one? Our last cruise to South America ended in Rio so we didn't have to make our way to the Buenos Aires airport after the cruise. We are leaning towards taking the debark Tango tour, primarily because it is longer and with our late flight it at least gives us something to do with our day. Plus I heard on our last Buenos Aires port stop that folks really raved about the Tango tour. Thanks for sharing all of the good info!

 

Yes we did. We did the tigre delta river cruise. It dropped us off at the airport at about 1:00pm We had a 6:00pm flight so there was some time that we had to spend at the airport. They wouldn't let us check in until 3:00pm, so we waited out in the general unsecure area for two hours and then we checked in and waited in the secure area. An interesting story for our return home was that on the day we were returning, the baggage handlers at the airport (the ones that load and unload the planes) decided to go on a one day strike that added about three hours of delays to our trip home. Since we had multiple connections to get home, we were a bit worried, but Latam Airlines took care of us all the way through. We had a great experience with them.

[bassmaster150]

oh....and y the way...three airports and 21 hours of travel, and we finally made it home.....it was an amazing journey the whole way through.

[susancruzs]

Thanks again for the great posts! I'm looking forward to my BA to LA cruise in March! :) Can't wait!