Around tip of SA cruise advice needed

[masspector]

Looking to do a trip around the tip of SA in 2025.  I assume North America winter/ SA summer is the best time to go.  Any recommended months?  We are interested in wildlife and sightseeing.  We have friends that did a Viking cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires.  They went in February or March.  What lines do you recommend?  Viking is a little pricey for us, was considering HAL.  Any other tips and tricks appreciated.  TIA

[TayanaLorna]

We did Viking end of January to mid February.  Fabulous cruise even with missed port of Falklands due to weather.  If you want to see penguins with chick, don't go in November or March.  Weather can be dicey anytime and ports can be missed due to wind.  Viking is currently having a sale for SA & Around Cape Horn.  

[Mercruiser]

I would also like to try a Viking cruise, but the daily rate is more than I want to spend. As an alternate to Viking and HAL, I would suggest looking at Azamara and Oceania. They both have very good SA itineraries and have small ships (Azamara Journey 690, Oceania Marina 1250) compared to HAL or Princess.

 

My favorite itinerary, of the two, is on Oceania Marina. Have a look at the March 6, 2025, 18-night cruise. What I really like about the Marina itinerary is how much time they spend exploring the Chilean Fjords. Here are a couple of examples from their 2023 cruise. Notice how they explore the fjords, instead of going out to sea. (These are actual recordings of the route they took, not marketing drawings you see in the ads.)

 

 

For comparison, here is Islands Princess's actual route, on a similar itinerary. Notice how much  they go out to sea and skip parts of the Chilean Fjords.

 

 

 

 

 

[masspector]

Thanks for the input.

[GeorgeCharlie]

We did HAL's repositioning SA cruise last Nov-Dec. We were the first larger cruise ship to return to a number of the ports since COVID, so there were some organizational frustrations. We managed to get into all the ports and, other then some technical issues and onboard experiences, we had a great cruise.

 

I'm just in the process of finishing a review of the cruise.

 

[masspector]

1 hour ago, GeorgeCharlie said:

We did HAL's repositioning SA cruise last Nov-Dec. We were the first larger cruise ship to return to a number of the ports since COVID, so there were some organizational frustrations. We managed to get into all the ports and, other then some technical issues and onboard experiences, we had a great cruise.

 

I'm just in the process of finishing a review of the cruise.

 

Thanks, I will check it out

[Muckyduckway]

On 3/21/2023 at 6:23 PM, Mercruiser said:

 (These are actual recordings of the route they took, not marketing drawings you see in the ads.)

 

 

Which level of subscription has access to this feature on Marinetraffic? For some cruises the finer detail isn't that important when showing a ship's past route, but I'd love to be able to see this level of detail on our Antarctica cruise next year.

[Mercruiser]

It is the Professional Plus on a 7-day free trial. The two features of importance here are 365-day history and satellite tracking. It is easiest to look at these maps on a home or office computer with a big monitor (not on the phone app).

 

To avoid being charged at the end of the 7 days, I set a reminder for day 6 on my Google calendar. 

[Mercruiser]

BTW, we will sail this route on Azamara Quest, January 22.

[Mercruiser]

Also, Cruise Mapper provides similar detail, for free, but only for the past 5 days. There are plenty of ships in the antarctic region now, so you can look at those.