Seabourn 2023-24 Antarctica departures missing from the port of Ushuaia schedule

[Woodrowst]

In a little over a year (January 9-21, 2024) my wife and I are scheduled to take an Antarctica cruise on the Venture.  It departs from Ushuaia, Argentina.  For some reason it is not listed on the schedule for the port of Ushuaia.  In fact, no Seabourn departures on either the Venture or Pursuit are listed on the port site for the entire 2023-24 Antarctica season.   Does anyone know why the Seabourn departures on the Port Ushuaia schedule are missing and and if this portends any problems?

 

 

[jjs217]

I would like to see Seabourn change to Port William, Chile instead of using Ushuaia.  I just got off the Venture (the one with the problems) and two days in a row, Ushuaia shut down the port for about 3 hours.  No one on board could get off, and those of us stranded ashore couldn't get back on board.  It was a mess.  Never heard the reason.  Rumors were flying that the port was shaking Seabourn down for more money.  Again, that was a rumor.

[cruiseej]

We just sailed from and to Puerto Williams in Chile, just a few miles down the channel from Ushuaia. It's really a very small town. There's only space for a dock, built for the Chilean navy, but they are building a new cruise ship pier. The airport is also small; strike that -- there is no airport, just a landing strip with no terminal at all. (We walked from a shuttle van onto the plane and visa versa.) The airstrip is so short that the planes need to fly from Puerto Williams to Punta Areanas to be refueled before flying on to Santiago; the planes would be too heavy to take off from the short runway if fully fueled. That all said, it seems to week beautifully for the two Silversea ships using Puerto Williams this year. I'm just not sure there's enough infrastructure to handle many more ships.