Any Conern on Santiago pre/post cruise stays?

[CCWineLover]

Given the issues currently going on in Santiago, Chile . . . .

For those of us who are headed there for a cruise (or finishing up there), have you given any thought to making different arrangements for staying in Santiago pre/post cruise?

We were lucky to receive word from the ILoveChileTours group, who gave us their thoughts today, and although they said our Andes Tour would be on as scheduled in December, advised us to make sure we stayed out of town in Santiago.  We are staying in Vitacura (at the Doubletree), so hopefully that will be alright.  Wondering however, if Valparaiso or other ports might suffer issues as well in the next months.

[Mandalay1903]

Thanks, CCWineLover, for passing on the information you received from ILoveChileTours about Santiago. We're booked there for a one-night pre-cruise stay before our Zaandam cruise begins next week. My PCC said there was no official guidance from HAL yet, and Delta posted travel advisories only through 10/25.  Hard to predict what might happen in the future.  Be sure to check in with the US State Dept. website, too. Best of luck with your future travels.

[alexandra cruiser]

We just stayed at Hilton in Santiago last mo,,,but now would only stay at cruise booked hotel with sim.transportation.

Heard having probs in Valparaiso also. we had to take cruise bus from port in Val. to Sant.for flight,was going to take private taxi but changed our mind. I agree to keep checking with state dept.and cruiseline.Must admit I d be uncomfortable going next week,unless it gets better.Sorry,hope you got trip ins. ,,just in case. If working with ta,,maybe they can help.

[TeeRick]

20 hours ago, alexandra cruiser said:

We just stayed at Hilton in Santiago last mo,,,but now would only stay at cruise booked hotel with sim.transportation.

Heard having probs in Valparaiso also. we had to take cruise bus from port in Val. to Sant.for flight,was going to take private taxi but changed our mind. I agree to keep checking with state dept.and cruiseline.Must admit I d be uncomfortable going next week,unless it gets better.Sorry,hope you got trip ins. ,,just in case. If working with ta,,maybe they can help.

Not sure if Trip Insurance covers Civil Unrest and Riots.  Just usually Terrorist Acts.  Look at the definitions in the contract.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Not sure if Trip Insurance covers Civil Unrest and Riots.  Just usually Terrorist Acts.  Look at the definitions in the contract.

 

Thank you all for your helpful tips.   We are going in December.  We have a tour planned to the Andes from Santiago hotel in Vitacura before our cruise out of Valparaiso.   The tour operator, ILoveChile Tours, has been most helpful.  In fact they sent a note to us on 10/23 giving us their view of the situation.  Specifically of interest is their comment on where to stay in Santiago.

 

Dear friends!
We want to inform you that in Chile we are having some civil unrest. Government increased the price of public transportation in Santiago and people did not agree. Today we are having pacific protests in Santiago downtown. The president just announced new social proposal and protests are going down. We have had some vandalism and violence in the modest and poor areas of Santiago mostly during the night. The policy and military are in the streets taking care of safety. Santiago and other cities are safe.
We are doing our tours normally. We are not cancelling our tours. We will keep you updated and informed closer the day of your tour.
If you are going to stay in Santiago downtown, we recommend you to change your hotel to Providencia, Las Condes or Vitacura district to avoid protests and noise.
Please let us know any concern. You can send us a WhatsApp message for a quick chat.
We are looking forward to meet you soon!  

[Mandalay1903]

Thank you, CCWineLover for passing along this information from your tour operator.  Their comments are in line with what we've been following in the news. I appreciate their suggestions for hotel locations. We're booked through the cruise line at a hotel in the Providencia district one week from tonight, and their comments are very comforting to us. Enjoy your Andes trip and South America cruise!

[kimanjo]

We too, are watching the situation carefully.  Our hotel is in Providencia.  Will arrange transfer with Seabourn from pier to hotel.  Other than that, not much else we can do but assume Seabourn is monitoring and does not want to put passengers in harms way as much as we don't want to be...  

 

Our cruise departs Nov 19,  ( Lima to Santiago) so we've got a few weeks.  There are a few zodiac excursions on this cruise,  because we're young-ish and active, we wouldn't mind having ALL the ports turn into zodiac excursions instead of unsafe Chile ports. We don't even mind changing ports as long as we're informed as to what's going on. I talked to my TA, and she has heard nothing from SB so far.  

 

We're really looking forward to this.  Hoping all works out for the citizens of Chile and for us as well.

[TeeRick]

CCWineLover - thank you for the important info.   For those going soon please keep us informed of the situation and best of luck!

[TayanaLorna]

Following

[Mandalay1903]

We arrived in Santiago on Delta today and had transport and hotel (Sheraton Santiago in Providencia) provided by HAL. Everything work very well and on time. We saw no issues. Our shuttle attendant warned of walking in areas where there may be a riot (today anticipated between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.), not because of a fear of violence but because the police use teargas liberally.

 

We had a delightful jet-lagged day here today walking the streets near the hotel, but lots of stores and shops were closed because of the national holiday here. I expect tomorrow's transfer to the cruise ship to go smoothly. Nothing I saw or heard about today would deter me from coming here to catch a cruise.  Nice-looking city suffering from a severe drought and some dissatisfaction with their government.

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, Mandalay1903 said:

We arrived in Santiago on Delta today and had transport and hotel (Sheraton Santiago in Providencia) provided by HAL. Everything work very well and on time. We saw no issues. Our shuttle attendant warned of walking in areas where there may be a riot (today anticipated between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.), not because of a fear of violence but because the police use teargas liberally.

 

We had a delightful jet-lagged day here today walking the streets near the hotel, but lots of stores and shops were closed because of the national holiday here. I expect tomorrow's transfer to the cruise ship to go smoothly. Nothing I saw or heard about today would deter me from coming here to catch a cruise.  Nice-looking city suffering from a severe drought and some dissatisfaction with their government.

Thank you.  Enjoy your cruise.

[TeeRick]

17 hours ago, Mandalay1903 said:

We arrived in Santiago on Delta today and had transport and hotel (Sheraton Santiago in Providencia) provided by HAL. Everything work very well and on time. We saw no issues. Our shuttle attendant warned of walking in areas where there may be a riot (today anticipated between the hours of 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.), not because of a fear of violence but because the police use teargas liberally.

 

We had a delightful jet-lagged day here today walking the streets near the hotel, but lots of stores and shops were closed because of the national holiday here. I expect tomorrow's transfer to the cruise ship to go smoothly. Nothing I saw or heard about today would deter me from coming here to catch a cruise.  Nice-looking city suffering from a severe drought and some dissatisfaction with their government.

Wonderful news for you.  And us too!  What port does your ship use?  The news says that there is a port workers strike.  Is that true?

[GregGH]

Hi

Also watching - ours is Dec 6th on Celebrity ... I am worried about leaving Santiago for the port with any blockage of Roads ... not much left in Hotels in San Antonio it would seem - have a 2nd Hotel at the airport as a backup.

 

With the APEC conference cancelled ( no China-US Trade deal signed as anticipated ) and the large COP Environmental conference for the first part in Dec ... lots of hotels rooms opening up ...? but told to stay away from main streets and large parks.

 

Here is a link that has been posting live shots of Santiago for a week now ... this one of for today Nov 2 - but you can click on their other video's showing larger groups forming in afternoon thru the night

 

 

The Twitter posts for #Santiago have been amazing albeit scary.

 

Greg

ps-also watching Port strikes ..they had one last Monday

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/industry-sectors/port-logistics/strikes-as-chile-ports-as-unrest-spreads/

 

Edited November 2, 2019 by GregGH
added PS

[CCWineLover]

Things may be heated up again in Santiago . . .  now the US Embassy.

 

Demonstration Alert: U.S Embassy, Santiago, Chile

Wed, 06 Nov 2019

 

Local authorities report potential large-scale protests that may occur in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy this afternoon. American citizens who require emergency consular services are advised to contact the U.S. Embassy duty officer from 13:00 until the opening of business on Thursday, November 7, 2019. Actions to Take: Avoid the above mentioned areas. Monitor ...

El cargo Demonstration Alert: U.S Embassy, Santiago, Chile apareció por primera vez en U.S. Embassy in Chile.

[vnb2003]

Oh boy :(  

[Chiksi]

There were several demonstrations today. I hope it all cools down by December. But the crisis has been going on for almost 3 weeks now. It is worrisome.

[Ivy86]

I wonder if cruise lines will let us cancel cruises without penalties due to this. 

[Ivy86]

It will be safer if We book hotels in San Antonio instead of Santiago 

[june123]

following x

[Mandalay1903]

Please see my earlier post on 11/1.  We boarded our HAL Zaandam cruise at San Antonio (Santiago) 5 days ago and had a lovely time passing through the Chilean Fjords.  We finally made it to Punta Arenas today after having had to cancel our port call at Puerto Montt due to very high seas in the Pacific. We avoided swells of up to 9-10 meters but experienced swells of 5-6 meters by changing the itinerary.  Inland, the weather in the fjords was cold but very nice. 

 

All is peaceful here in Punta Arenas as far as we can tell, though the local tour guide advised us that we might see some demonstrations if we head into town. According to her, the locals want to make their statement in front of the cruise line passengers--but that may just be her opinion.

 

My understanding from passengers on the previous Zaandam cruise (Ft. Lauderdale to Santiago) had at least one previous port call canceled due to unrest in Chile.  Also, continuing passengers were either not allowed (or advised not to) disembark in Santiago due to the unrest. One other observation is that our cruise embarkation check-in procedure in San Antonio took place ONBOARD the cruise ship--in the main show room.  The local San Antonio authorities did not want the cruise line to use the fairly new cruise terminal there fearing that it might trigger demonstrations and damage there.  HAL is handling this all very well and we've heard of no disgruntled passengers.  Again, my wife and I experienced no transportation delays in Santiago due to the unrest. That said, if you go there you might find your visit to Santiago curtailed by the protests.

 

Nevertheless, we're glad we came on this cruise and are having a great time despite the weather in the Pacific.

[Ivy86]

Thank you for letting us know about the situation there. Hoping everything gets resolved soon !

[njhh]

@Mandalay1903 Thank you for providing this update on the situation in Chile! On behalf of those of us who will be cruising Chile in the coming weeks it is helpful to hear about the protest situation as well as the weather. I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise!

 

 

[TeeRick]

Yes thanks for updating us.

[teacherman]

Follow this on TripAdviser-Santiago-Forum.   People who actually live there are giving daily updates.  I do not believe the cruise line will let YOU cancel the cruise because of this.  They may decide to cancel and refund your money, but that would really take some massive civil unrest.  The situation appears to be very fluid.  You probably do not want to be staying at a hotel near to the Plaza where most of the demonstrations begin.  We are going in January and are staying at a hotel in Vitacura area which is far from the demonstrations.  At least, so far. 🤔

[Ivy86]

Can you put the link for the forum ? Thanks for the info