Cape Horn on R ships or O ships?

[marylovestotravel]

Thinking about a South America cruise with transit of Cape Horn. "O" ships or "R" ships. Any advice?

 

Mia

[Paulchili]

It’s more related to good luck with weather. We rounded the Horn on an R ship on a beautiful sunny day. In fact, it was so nice that the captain chose to circumnavigate Terra del Fuego.

In bad weather you’d be rocking and rolling on any ship.

[RJB]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

It’s more related to good luck with weather. We rounded the Horn on an R ship on a beautiful sunny day. In fact, it was so nice that the captain chose to circumnavigate Terra del Fuego.

In bad weather you’d be rocking and rolling on any ship.

yup.  very true. Need good luck with the weather.  Still would think in bad weather, which happens a lot down there a bigger ship would be better.

[Mura]

We did Cape Horn on NCL's DREAM (no longer in the fleet) -- a 1750 passenger ship.  We were lucky to have wonderful weather.  It was very cool (jacket time) but what a wonderful day!  A few days later going through the Chilean fjords we had much rougher seas.  Weather is very iffy in these climes. 

 

We had a gorgeous day on that same cruise in the Falklands, but the cruise before us (Santiago to Buenos Aires whereas we were the opposite) had terrible weather and they couldn't stop there.  Our captain said it was the best weather he'd seen in the Falklands in 25 years.  You just never know.

 

 

[vaitape]

Did this several years ago on either Nautica or Regatta, can't remember. Regardless, we were fine and there wasn't any memorable rocking and rolling. Now on our Iceland voyage last summer....well, that was different tune!

[StanandJim]

11 hours ago, marylovestotravel said:

Thinking about a South America cruise with transit of Cape Horn. "O" ships or "R" ships. Any advice?

 

I would suggest going with the larger ships for the simple reason that their additional bells and whistles will provide welcome distraction from the somewhat hardscrabble ports of the region.

Weather is an uncontrollable variable.  

[marylovestotravel]

Phil's looking forward to tieing me to the mast😱!! I was wondering how accessible the ports and Tierra del Fuego would be in a larger ship. Drake passage? Strait of Magellan.? Do you see much of the coastline or are the ships, especially the larger ones, sailing further out to sea?

 

Mia

[RJB]

34 minutes ago, marylovestotravel said:

Phil's looking forward to tieing me to the mast😱!! I was wondering how accessible the ports and Tierra del Fuego would be in a larger ship. Drake passage? Strait of Magellan.? Do you see much of the coastline or are the ships, especially the larger ones, sailing further out to sea?

 

Mia

A while go we did this trip on Crystal and their  ships are about the same size as the O ships and we seemed to get in everywhere.  A really nice trip. 

[StanandJim]

2 hours ago, marylovestotravel said:

Do you see much of the coastline or are the ships, especially the larger ones, sailing further out to sea?

Unless the cruise itinerary specifies "scenic cruising"  ships will invariably cruise out of site of land where the water is deeper and the radio reception is better.  

[Paulchili]

2 hours ago, marylovestotravel said:

Do you see much of the coastline or are the ships, especially the larger ones, sailing further out to sea?

The Beagle channel is fairly narrow. If you sail through there you will see land - if you sail through the Drake passage you will be further away from land.

I remember sailing fairly close to land and seeing waterfalls in the Beagle channel.

[floridatravelersforlife]

15 hours ago, StanandJim said:

I would suggest going with the larger ships for the simple reason that their additional bells and whistles will provide welcome distraction from the somewhat hardscrabble ports of the region.

Weather is an uncontrollable variable.  

I second that.  We were in the Drake once and in a 24 hour period it was snowing, sleeting and hailing with icicles forming on the handrails and everything else.  Glad we had a toasty ship to frolic on the inside.

[palakika]

We did Buenos Aires to Miami  three  holiday seasons ago on Marina.  It was our favorite cruise and we enjoyed being on the larger ship.  We were lucky and got to land at Falklands to see the penguins.  Our cruise went through the Magellan straits and I think the Beagle channel as well.  Highlight is the area where you see about 4 different glaciers in a row.  We had relatively calm seas until the area where you hit the Pacific Ocean.  Rough seas didn't last long.  Be prepared for cold weather in Patagonia!  The scenery is fabulous.

[marylovestotravel]

Are the ports interesting? 

[Mura]

It probably depends on itinerary.  We did Buenos Aires to Santiago on NCL in 2002 (a replacement to the Far East cruise we were to have done on Renaissance but due to the bankruptcy we changed our plans).  This is a pretty standard itinerary, I think, whatever the line.  But there were a fair number of sea days which at the time we weren't used to!  But this cruise taught us to like them.  Most of the ports were a two day sail.

 

For us, Cape Horn was a highlight as was Ushuaia, and of course, the Falklands.  Many of the ports were quite small.

 

Buenos Aires to Miami would obviously be quite different!

 

Mura

 

[Redtravel]

If you go, go big.  Good luck with the weather.