Embarking/disembarking in Buenos Aires-Questions

[graveytrain]

We are sailing from Buenos Aires on February 3.  Does anyone have suggestions or tips concerning this port? Specifically, how long will it take to get to EZE upon disembarkation? Will we have the opportunity to self assist? Is there a shuttle in the port? Any information is appreciated.

[jelayne]

We stayed over both pre and post cruise.  There is a shuttle you must take to  from the ship to the terminal.  Took about 10 about (loading, drive unloading) but that was 2 years ago.  I did read recently that there is work being done in the port and the shuttle buses have had to take a longer route.  One  bus got lost😳 and some missed there flights. 

 

In the terminal when you are disembarking all luggage had to go through scanners & that was slow.  Lots of folks with large heavy suitcases that they had difficulty lifting on or off the scanner slowed things down.

 

Hopefully someone who has cruised out of there very recently can give you up to date info.

[smtcan]

We cruised from Buenos Aires a couple of years ago.  Embarkation was the worst we have ever experienced, there were three ships in port and the queues were chaotic.  We stood for more than two hours in a hot hall.  We stayed in BA pre cruise and Valparaiso and Santiago after the cruise, so I can't say how long a cab to the port would take.   Cabs from the airport in BA were easy to obtain from a kiosk outside.  They have fixed rates to different areas unlike the independent taxis which have a reputation for gouging travellers.

[kathynorth]

First let me say that you have booked an awesome itinerary IMO. We are just off a cruise that started and ended in BA, but we stayed overnight in BA for our cruise. You'll be headed out to sea on day 1, so need to be at the terminal for check in. Because we were staying overnight we took a side trip to Iguazu and arrived at the terminal around 6pm. Our experience was a bit convoluted because of the late arrival and we took a Celebrity excursion when we disembarked. When we arrived we had difficulty locating the checkin counters, but I'd think this would be easier if you arrive along with the crowd of fellow cruisers. After check in we needed to catch a shuttle (only way to get to/from ship) that took us 10 min for the shuttle to fill up then 10min ride from terminal to ship. There was no self disembarkation. All passengers were required to put bags in the hallway for screening as the customs check took place during the wee hours of the morning. Ship staff did their best to pair early flights with early departures, but lots of people were in line trying to swap out luggage tags on the last sea day. We had a very late flight, so took a Celebrity excursion that dropped us off at the airport. This worked well for us as we had time to eat breakfast and didn't have to deal with our luggage. When we arrived to the airport at the end of our excursion our luggage was waiting for us to check in for our flight. 

[graveytrain]

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

We stayed over both pre and post cruise.  There is a shuttle you must take to  from the ship to the terminal.  Took about 10 about (loading, drive unloading) but that was 2 years ago.  I did read recently that there is work being done in the port and the shuttle buses have had to take a longer route.  One  bus got lost😳 and some missed there flights. 

 

In the terminal when you are disembarking all luggage had to go through scanners & that was slow.  Lots of folks with large heavy suitcases that they had difficulty lifting on or off the scanner slowed things down.

 

Hopefully someone who has cruised out of there very recently can give you up to date info.

Thank you for the information. Do you have an idea of how long it took from exiting your cabin until you reached the cabin stand? We have a tight timeline for our flight

[graveytrain]

3 hours ago, smtcan said:

We cruised from Buenos Aires a couple of years ago.  Embarkation was the worst we have ever experienced, there were three ships in port and the queues were chaotic.  We stood for more than two hours in a hot hall.  We stayed in BA pre cruise and Valparaiso and Santiago after the cruise, so I can't say how long a cab to the port would take.   Cabs from the airport in BA were easy to obtain from a kiosk outside.  They have fixed rates to different areas unlike the independent taxis which have a reputation for gouging travellers.

Smtcan, thanks for the information. Did you fly into EZE?

[LKN-NC]

1 hour ago, graveytrain said:

Thank you for the information. Do you have an idea of how long it took from exiting your cabin until you reached the cabin stand? We have a tight timeline for our flight

 

We just did this Dec. 23. If you get an early departure time you should be out of the terminal in 30 minutes. Plenty of cabs are waiting. You ride the shuttle and get your bags and walk out door 1 of the terminal. No customs or passport check. they had non-stop shuttles waiting, lined up and running continuously.

 

We had an 8:00 departure for a 9:30 car pickup and were out there by 8:30. People with the 11:30 flight to Miami had no problems. We were the only ship in port, though. If  there are other ships I could see how it might be a real mess. It takes about 45+ minutes to get to the airport. It helps that Eclipse docks on Sunday, far less traffic.

 

 

[SFCAcruiser]

1 hour ago, graveytrain said:

Thank you for the information. Do you have an idea of how long it took from exiting your cabin until you reached the cabin stand? We have a tight timeline for our flight

I disembarked in BA in December 2018 and stayed a few days in BA so I cannot comment on getting to EZE from cruise port. I can tell you that when we did depart BA city center, the cab ride from the Palermo area to EZE took about 1:15 (there was some traffic, and it was raining). Locals will estimate it could take as little as 45 minutes or 2 hours from the city center, dependent upon traffic. 

 

Our ship disembarkation was delayed, for unannounced reasons, and everyone's official "departure time" seems to have been pushed back about an hour. Ex. our 9:30 am departure group was not called until almost 10:30. Again, no explanation was provided. 

 

Once you leave the ship, you must take a port shuttle to the dreary cruise terminal; it was about a 15 minute ride. Then you claim your luggage as you do at every disembarkation, but in BA they want to x-ray it; this did not add any significant extra time for us. Right outside the door is the taxi stand. 

 

So, in summary, I hope your "tight timeline for our flight" allows enough time for some unexpected delays. Obviously you will want to get one of the first departure times. Passengers are not permitted to "self-disembark" in BA.

Best wishes

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, graveytrain said:

Thank you for the information. Do you have an idea of how long it took from exiting your cabin until you reached the cabin stand? We have a tight timeline for our flight

 We had a driver waiting to pick us up but I would say from the time we left our cabin until we got to the street outside the terminal was about and hour.  We had a driver pick us up the next morning at 8am on a Sunday and with mi I also traffic it took us about 35-40 min to get to EzE.

 

Buenos Aires is great why not stay that not in BA on debarkation day and enjoy all it has to offer.

[mahdnc]

We disembarked Infinity at  Beunos Aires in Jan 2016. Here are the disembarkation instructions that were issued:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwsk-dPJV5Lqd1Nfcl9JNUFkT1k/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Note that Express Walk Off was not made available. 

 

Our flight was late in the day and so we took a Celebrity type of the city before being dropped off at EXE

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by mahdnc

[bigdawgs]

Graveytrain,

 

We did a round trip BA last Feb. on the Infinity. We arrived at the port around 2:30 PM coming from Iguazu Falls (highly recommended). Check in was a breeze by that time. There is a shuttle bus between the terminal and the ship. This takes about 10 minutes. 

 

We we were able to do an express walk-off on disembarkation. We had arranged for a 7:15 AM pickup (we hired  a private car) to EZE airport for a 10:20 AM AA nonstop flight to MIA. Since it was early on a Sunday morning, the traffic was relatively light and the drive took about 35 minutes. We arrived in plenty of time to make our flight. Incidentally Choice Air refused to sell us this flight claiming that there was insufficient time to get to the airport from the ship. Therefore we booked directly with AA. 

 

Hope le this helps.

Larry

[graveytrain]

14 hours ago, kathynorth said:

First let me say that you have booked an awesome itinerary IMO. We are just off a cruise that started and ended in BA, but we stayed overnight in BA for our cruise. You'll be headed out to sea on day 1, so need to be at the terminal for check in. Because we were staying overnight we took a side trip to Iguazu and arrived at the terminal around 6pm. Our experience was a bit convoluted because of the late arrival and we took a Celebrity excursion when we disembarked. When we arrived we had difficulty locating the checkin counters, but I'd think this would be easier if you arrive along with the crowd of fellow cruisers. After check in we needed to catch a shuttle (only way to get to/from ship) that took us 10 min for the shuttle to fill up then 10min ride from terminal to ship. There was no self disembarkation. All passengers were required to put bags in the hallway for screening as the customs check took place during the wee hours of the morning. Ship staff did their best to pair early flights with early departures, but lots of people were in line trying to swap out luggage tags on the last sea day. We had a very late flight, so took a Celebrity excursion that dropped us off at the airport. This worked well for us as we had time to eat breakfast and didn't have to deal with our luggage. When we arrived to the airport at the end of our excursion our luggage was waiting for us to check in for our flight. 

Kathynorth, thank you for the information. We will arrive in Buenos Aires around 10am the day before we board so we will have most of the day to tour. What would you suggest? Is there an area that you liked best?

[graveytrain]

10 hours ago, LKN-NC said:

 

We just did this Dec. 23. If you get an early departure time you should be out of the terminal in 30 minutes. Plenty of cabs are waiting. You ride the shuttle and get your bags and walk out door 1 of the terminal. No customs or passport check. they had non-stop shuttles waiting, lined up and running continuously.

 

We had an 8:00 departure for a 9:30 car pickup and were out there by 8:30. People with the 11:30 flight to Miami had no problems. We were the only ship in port, though. If  there are other ships I could see how it might be a real mess. It takes about 45+ minutes to get to the airport. It helps that Eclipse docks on Sunday, far less traffic.

 

 

LKN-NC, thank you for your reply. The 45 minutes to EZE gives me hope

[graveytrain]

10 hours ago, SFCAcruiser said:

I disembarked in BA in December 2018 and stayed a few days in BA so I cannot comment on getting to EZE from cruise port. I can tell you that when we did depart BA city center, the cab ride from the Palermo area to EZE took about 1:15 (there was some traffic, and it was raining). Locals will estimate it could take as little as 45 minutes or 2 hours from the city center, dependent upon traffic. 

 

Our ship disembarkation was delayed, for unannounced reasons, and everyone's official "departure time" seems to have been pushed back about an hour. Ex. our 9:30 am departure group was not called until almost 10:30. Again, no explanation was provided. 

 

Once you leave the ship, you must take a port shuttle to the dreary cruise terminal; it was about a 15 minute ride. Then you claim your luggage as you do at every disembarkation, but in BA they want to x-ray it; this did not add any significant extra time for us. Right outside the door is the taxi stand. 

 

So, in summary, I hope your "tight timeline for our flight" allows enough time for some unexpected delays. Obviously you will want to get one of the first departure times. Passengers are not permitted to "self-disembark" in BA.

Best wishes

SFCAcruiser, thanks for the information! We will certainly obtain a early departure time. Do you happen to remember the first time available? 7AM is noted in mahdnc’s  post

[graveytrain]

11 hours ago, bigdawgs said:

Graveytrain,

 

We did a round trip BA last Feb. on the Infinity. We arrived at the port around 2:30 PM coming from Iguazu Falls (highly recommended). Check in was a breeze by that time. There is a shuttle bus between the terminal and the ship. This takes about 10 minutes. 

 

We we were able to do an express walk-off on disembarkation. We had arranged for a 7:15 AM pickup (we hired  a private car) to EZE airport for a 10:20 AM AA nonstop flight to MIA. Since it was early on a Sunday morning, the traffic was relatively light and the drive took about 35 minutes. We arrived in plenty of time to make our flight. Incidentally Choice Air refused to sell us this flight claiming that there was insufficient time to get to the airport from the ship. Therefore we booked directly with AA. 

 

Hope le this helps.

Larry

This is wonderful news. I know we are gambling, but I’ll take the risk to avoid the red eye to Miami. I wish we could stay an extra day, but it is not possible with work schedule. Thanks for the information 

[graveytrain]

20 hours ago, mahdnc said:

We disembarked Infinity at  Beunos Aires in Jan 2016. Here are the disembarkation instructions that were issued:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwsk-dPJV5Lqd1Nfcl9JNUFkT1k/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Note that Express Walk Off was not made available. 

 

Our flight was late in the day and so we took a Celebrity type of the city before being dropped off at EXE

 

Thank you majdnc, the disembarkion instructions are very helpful 

[bigdawgs]

Dear Gravey....

 

Celebrity may say that express walk off is not available.....but it certainly is! There were approximately 50 passengers on our cruise who did this. One passenger had a 9:00 AM flight out of EZE. We arrived at the airport shortly after 8 AM and we had plenty of time for our 10:20 AM departure to check in, have coffee, etc. This was one of the easiest check ins we’ve had because the flight was half empty, giving us room to spread out. You have to ask yourself “what is the worst case scenario?”  We felt it was a no brainer. The flight was a very comfortable daylight flight, arriving in MIA around 4:30 PM. Immigration was very efficient and fast and we were home before dark (We live in south FL.).

 

Have a great trip whatever you decide.

Larry

 

[Jim_Iain]

Many have written on the disembarkation experience so I will concentrate on EZE.   It will take you a minimum of about 1 hour to get to airport.   I would definitely plan on NO LESS than 2 hours to get through the airport.   After checking in you will have to go through security and then immigration.   On our last trip through it took almost 1 1/4 to get through immigration.   An absolute mess to say the least.  

[zanderblue]

We disembarked at BA in December last year. It was absolute chaos. All disembarkation times were slipped back by around an hour. There were loads of pax jumping line and walking off before their time was called. Celebrity advised that the problem was the gangway was too steep and people were taking longer than normal. I’d like to think they have fixed that now. 

Big crowds trying to grab a taxi outside, best advice I can give you is move forward to kerbside and get hold of one of the guys who is handing out the taxi tickets. Tell him your destination, he will agree a price and allocate a car.

As others have said allow at least an hour to get to airport and same again to get airside.

[kathynorth]

3 hours ago, zanderblue said:

We disembarked at BA in December last year. It was absolute chaos. All disembarkation times were slipped back by around an hour. There were loads of pax jumping line and walking off before their time was called. Celebrity advised that the problem was the gangway was too steep and people were taking longer than normal. I’d like to think they have fixed that now. 

Big crowds trying to grab a taxi outside, best advice I can give you is move forward to kerbside and get hold of one of the guys who is handing out the taxi tickets. Tell him your destination, he will agree a price and allocate a car.

As others have said allow at least an hour to get to airport and same again to get airside.

 

Hi, unfortunately the gangway was very steep when we embarked and disembarked just last month. We had a late arrival and were told we'd be responsible for bringing our suitcases onboard because check in was closed. There were 3 of us, all able bodied, and we couldn't bring all our suitcases and carry on bags onboard in one trip. We needed assistance. On the way off we had just our carry ons and did fine, but lots of other people needed help since they couldn't manage their carry ons or personal items while also holding onto the railing. The person behind me inadvertently let go of his bag handle and the bag slid down the ramp until it hit the back of my legs.  These types of situations resulted in staff walking up the gangway to help as passengers were going down. This definitely slowed down the disembarkation process. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by kathynorth

[renroc13]

We just completed the BtB Barcelona to BA and BA to BA.  There is a lot going on in BA right now and the port was a major disaster for arrival on Dec 9th.  It was the first time a ship this size (Eclipse) docked.  Luckily they were able to resolve some issue by the time we disembarked after the second cruise.  The staff was overwhelmed (we spoke with senior staff) but as I said they were able to do better on the next sailing.

The luggage was hand carried out of the ship...we watched as the luggage went out below our stateroom 8252.  We did have to leave from the 5th floor and the ramps were extremely steep.  People getting onboard had no idea this would be the situation and were very surprised as they got on with carry on luggage. Apparently they are hoping BA will build a cruise port and The President was at the ship the morning we got off for the day. By the second sailing they were able to secure another place for passengers to disembark so the 1.5 hour wait was gone and we walked right off after arranging to be out 90 minutes early for our ride.

We booked a private transport to the Holiday Inn at the airport as we got a day rate...our flight was changed to 11:50PM.

We were told walk off was not allowed in this port and there were many shuttles waiting to transport us to the terminal.  Once we disembarked the luggage went very smoothly.  

[graveytrain]

Thanks to everyone for the reports and advice. It is very much apps. We are on the Eclipse for the February 3 sailing. I will give an update on the port status when we return. 

[crazyman3]

I can share our experiences with you ---although it was a Princess Ship!

 

It was raining cats and dogs! Torrential! The roads were awash. Just getting to our coach to the port was a nightmare because the water was over our shoes ----and we were under cover!

The rain brought the traffic to a halt at a cross-roads about a 5 minute walk from the terminal. We were told to disembark and head for the building. We were soaked!

Arriving in the terminal, we found long queues. Chaos. We asked for the 'suite and elite' queue but were told that there wasn't one. 

At this point I left my wife! Okay, I mean we joined a queue and I left her with the bags whilst I went exploring: 

(Cue MI music.) 'Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to find the 'suite and elite' queue and then report back...'

Success! There was one and we were soon aboard.

And, yes, the photographers wanted to take photos of us in our bedraggled state.

A fabulous cruise but a terrible start!

Enjoy yourselves!

[ccotting]

I have only embarked at BA (we went up the west coast back to the US) and we didn’t find the experience particularly difficult.  The ports in SA are mostly container/commercial ports so the use of a bus to get to the terminal proper will be your experience for most of the cruise.  

 

My only addition to the other posts is to encourage you to read the port information.  There is a lot of street crime in BA, we met 5 people who had been robbed on our trip.  Necklaces ripped from necks while they were sitting at a cafe, that sort of thing.  Read the boards and follow the suggestions.  

 

We did also experience some challenge getting currency to run around with but were able to do so at a commercial exchange and to return it.  There is a problem with inflation so your bank will likely not provide (no return for them).  Read the Boards about use of credit cards and bank machines.  Your hotel is fine, some places aren’t.  

 

We took the lessons and had a fine time.  We also experienced stormy weather getting to BA and arrived a day later than planned due to flight cancellations.  We always plan that night in town before the cruise, it’s good practice and wise of you.

[JennAngel9]

Just off the Eclipse (embarked EZE, left from San Antonio) and wanted to chime in we were also told no walk off self-disembarkation and they were running very late on arrival and everybody appeared to be leaving about an hour after the projected times on their bag tags.  It sounds like the Eclipse disembarking late is a theme this season in South America.

 

Are you by chance staying in a suite? The Michael's Club concierge (who was excellent all cruise) had us off quickly when it was time to meet our guide.