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Celebrity Cruise Around the Horn (South America). Recommendations?

Jimbo59

By Jimbo59,
in Celebrity Cruises

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cruisestitch "Live from...." Rare

cruisestitch

Posted
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This is my favorite itinerary and have done it five times -- sometimes east to west, sometimes west to east.  Love the places we visited -- very friendly people who are happy to have us visit their countries.  Interesting scenery and wildlife.  Good mix of cruisers -- not a cruise that newbies would choose so there are a lot of experienced passengers on board and many international passengers so a good mix of people to talk to.  Do it.

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4774Papa

4774Papa

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We did Around the Horn in 2014 from Buenos Aires to Valpo, Chile.  It was wonderful.   We spent five nights in BA prior to the cruise.

 

We love South America, our favorite countries on that continent are Argentina, Chile and Peru.  You get to see two of those on Around the Horn.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=248878

Best time to go is in January.  Don't go in March, since Penguins are harder to see than.

 

SouthExcursions is a good tour company to use.

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Provence55always

Provence55always

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We did this trip three years ago and had a fantastic time. After the cruise we did a land based trip from Santiago. We crossed the Andes by bus stopping in Mendoza for 5 nights (did some wonderful wine tours). Continued by overnight bus 1st class seats to Buenos Aires and stayed in a wonderful Air B n B for a week. As others have said would do this trip again in a heartbeat.....

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alwaysonaship

alwaysonaship

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One additional comment about the busses ..they are fantastic. One trip we docked in Valparaiso, and took a lovely bus for $60 US down to Pucon. We spend 10 days there, rented a car and it was a lovely extension. They have very nice sleeper busses, and you can make reservations online from the US. 

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Glendakayself

Glendakayself

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We cruised B2B from Buenos Aires to Maimi in March 2017. Many people added other cruises prior to our sailing with cruises to Antarctica and Brazil scheduled prior to the BA/Valparaiso cruise. Great itineraries and we did see Penguins in March although perhaps not as many as in January. The biggest perk of March for us was being able to add the second cruise to sail through the Panama Canal and back to Miami avoiding a long flight from South America, but the ports were equally fun and exciting on the second leg.

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willma

willma

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This was one of our favourite cruises. Try and take a side trip to Iguazu Falls. You won’t regret it.

If you do this cruise don’t miss Glacier Alley in the Beagle Channel. We sailed through at dawn, and couldn’t believe that there were so few people up and out viewing. See my avatar for why this is essential. Simply stunning. 

 

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TeaBag

TeaBag

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On 8/30/2019 at 11:42 PM, Miaminice said:

Fabulous cruise!

 

you can read about what we enjoyed and mybe find some ideas in our travelogue:

https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/South-America-01/south-america-01.html

 

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your wonderful review, Oliver and Birgit.  I can't tear myself away from the computer!  We are going next March, B2B BA to San Diego and are thinking of adding on the next segment to Vancouver.  Because of your review I am wishing we were leaving a day earlier to see more of BA.  We are going to Iguazu and will only have the day we arrive in BA, jet lagged, and then Sunday and Mon till we sail.  I guess that's better than nothing but it seems there are so many wonderful things to see in BA.

 

Your review is perfect for us because we are sailing on the same day of the week and we are in AQ also, but on the Eclipse.

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TeaBag

TeaBag

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20 hours ago, willma said:

This was one of our favourite cruises. Try and take a side trip to Iguazu Falls. You won’t regret it.

If you do this cruise don’t miss Glacier Alley in the Beagle Channel. We sailed through at dawn, and couldn’t believe that there were so few people up and out viewing. See my avatar for why this is essential. Simply stunning. 

 

Thank you for this advice Willma.  We have told people about getting up at dawn when you sail through the archipelago to Stockholm because it is wonderful scenery and we would never have known to do this if we hadn't got the tip from someone else.  We will definitely do this.  And, yes we are going to Iguazu pre cruise.

Glad it's not raining on you in Vancouver today!  Enjoy your sailaway.....Vancouver is a beautiful harbor to sail out of and I'm not biased at all!😀

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kathynorth

kathynorth

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Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, willma said:

This was one of our favourite cruises. Try and take a side trip to Iguazu Falls. You won’t regret it.

If you do this cruise don’t miss Glacier Alley in the Beagle Channel. We sailed through at dawn, and couldn’t believe that there were so few people up and out viewing. See my avatar for why this is essential. Simply stunning. 

 

 

We were on a BA round trip around the horn cruise this past Dec. It was wonderful! Our precruise DIY to Iguazu was fabulous and easy to negotiate. We liked everything and can't think of anything that we dislike. As others have posted, spend a few days in BA pre or post cruise to give yourself time to visit all of the distinctive neighborhoods. It's easy and cheap enough to travel around the city via taxi. Be sure to have a great steak dinner with wine and if it's of interest to you, go to one on the night time Tango shows.

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crazyman3

crazyman3

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Now, we've only done this on Princess (never going to cruise with them again!) but some of it may be helpful to you.

 

Falklands: it rains a lot. Really, a lot! Take umbrellas ashore. Port Stanley is rather like England 60 years ago!

 

Montevideo: we took a tour to a local estancia. Wow! great fun! Wine tasting, a huge barb-b-q, a tractor tour, skin skiing, horse riding, milking cows etc etc

 

Ushuaia: Amazing! The southernmost city in the world. Loved the main street. The shop where they sell home made chocloate... mmm... the hit chocolate... amazing views

 

The Horn: make sure that you put on plenty of layers! Also, make sure that you're viewing from the appropriate side of the ship! Some people didn't and so missed the view!

 

Punta Arenas: we did a tour to the Fitz-something-or-other ranch and it was fun! Think Scottish scenery and a rather strange collection of engines, typewriters, stuffed birds, pianos etc etc. It was fun riding a horse there too!

 

Puerto Montt: A rather odd place. Quite dead when we arrived. Then the town started to wake up. Lots of feral dogs. Oh, we went horse riding here too!

 

Valparaiso: beautiful city! Lots of hills with funicular railways up them. Very colourful.

 

On our way through to Santiago   (we stayed on for a few days before the long haul back home) we enjoyed a wine tasting. Even better than the wine was the pisco sour. Homemade. Delicious. Sadly, we couldn't take any home.

 

Alarming moment: at Valparaiso we were all herded into a huge barn-like structure, We were 'held' against the wall, single file, by a metal fence whilst sniffer dogs went up and down. Phew! We were pleased to be out of there!

 

Would we do the Horn again? You bet! But with X not Princess!

 

 

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evandbob

evandbob

Posted
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Great comments by everyone who posted.  It may only be a one hour difference between Buenos Aires and Santiago, but we find it better to travel in a west bound direction and gain the hour, rather than go eastbound and lose it.

 

We did an EB TA to Barcelona in May, and after numerous time changes, my stomach and brain was on breakfast time while the ship was on lunch.

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Jetstreamer

Jetstreamer

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This is the kind of itinerary that cruising is designed for - getting to those difficult to reach places!  We did this cruise on the Emerald Princess a few years ago and loved it.  All the ports were interesting in their own way, got to see lots of wildlife, sailed to places we'd never visit otherwise and in our case the weather was mostly excellent (YMMV!)

 

If you have time to tag on a trip to Iguazu Falls I highly recommend it.  It is very easy to arrange independently and not that expensive in the grand scheme of things to spend a few nights there (a fraction of the price the cruise lines charge).

 

My tip for Buenos Aires - if you listen too much to the people lining up to tell you it is a dangerous city you'll never do anything!  We felt very safe moving around on our own and even walked from the port to the city which also felt very safe. Just use common sense, don't be flashy and you'll be be fine.

 

The Falklands was a highlight for us as Brits which is why we sailed Princess (Celebrity didn't stop there when we were looking). That said if you are not interested in the history and/or penguins then you probably won't miss it.

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