Embarkation in Bali compared to Valparaiso

[asctony]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

I see you’ve proved my point.  😂
 

No one visits South America or Southeast Asia? The people who live there may not appreciate your perspective.  😂

FYI - Sorry to disagree with that OP.

 

I have been to South America Valparaiso back in 2009.

Been to SEA many times. Just got back from the Med, Barcelona. There are many people who cruise who have visited these areas. Yes, have met many of them. 

Boarding in Barcelona was very easy & fast.

Getting off the ship in Barcelona was the worst we had in years. Cruise ship personal were totally confused. Another story. May never happen again. 

[zitsky]

52 minutes ago, asctony said:

FYI - Sorry to disagree with that OP.

 

I have been to South America Valparaiso back in 2009.

Been to SEA many times. Just got back from the Med, Barcelona. There are many people who cruise who have visited these areas. Yes, have met many of them. 

Boarding in Barcelona was very easy & fast.

Getting off the ship in Barcelona was the worst we had in years. Cruise ship personal were totally confused. Another story. May never happen again. 

What people are missing is that I didn’t say “it was a long time to embark and it’s all the fault of the terrible employees”.  But it was a bad experience with no apology from anyone.

[asctony]

3 minutes ago, zitsky said:

What people are missing is that I didn’t say “it was a long time to embark and it’s all the fault of the terrible employees”.  But it was a bad experience with no apology from anyone.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Happy Holidays

Happy Cruising 

[someguyfl]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

Who told you that Valparaiso was “seldom visited”?  I don’t go often but I’ve been there twice in the last 5 years.  Lots of South Americans might disagree that no one goes on cruises to Valparaiso.

It's a fact that Valparaiso is a tiny cruise port compared to places like Miami, Seattle, Southampton, Civitavecchia, etc... The Celebrity Eclipse is *BY FAR* the largest ship to visit Valparaiso in 2023, and it only visited ONE TIME.

 

On any given weekend, they might have a couple of visits from smaller cruise ships like Viking, and maybe at the most one cruise ship with 2000ish passengers.

 

This particular route (Valparaiso to Buenos Aires or Buenos Aires to Valparaiso) is only done by Celebrity 2x total per year as part of repositioning.

It's Absolutely a rare cruise, and it's amazing that some people can't appreciate that they are getting access to something that is so rare and that not everything will be as smooth as you expect in highly developed markets.

[someguyfl]

On 12/24/2023 at 4:29 PM, mom says said:

If long lines at embarkation are a reason why you would cancel an entire cruise, have you considered arriving at the port terminal later in the day, after the initial scrum?

I have heard this advice before, and believe it may make sense for other terminals, but I suspect this is valid for Valparaiso and other 'exotic' cruise embarkation locations.

 

The reason why is because:
1) People who come earlier are much more likely to have done the early check-in (and therefore have a higher chance of being prepared for boarding at the terminal with their passport already scanned, already taken the medical questionnaire, bag tags attached etc .... Later in the day, the staff will be dealing with a higher % of people who need their hands held. There is very limited staff in a small location like this.

2) There is a concept in computer science referred to as "Head Of Line Blocking", which basically means that things can progress very quickly when most requests/users are easy to process, but if you have say 10 threads (staff processing customers), and 5 of them are dealing with people who need their hand held, the line will slow down even with plenty of 'easy' to process customers ... as time goes on, the likelihood of each thread (staff) being stuck with a difficult customer increases until eventually all 10 threads are stuck, and now the whole line stops moving, even if half the line has 'easy' passengers...

3) People are much more likely to try and do an 'excursion' before embarkation in a location like this ... go out and visit Santiago or Wine Country or a walking tour of Valparaiso or something like that ... and show up towards the end ... Probably almost nobody does this in Fort Lauderdale or Port Canaveral.

[zitsky]

5 hours ago, someguyfl said:

It's a fact that Valparaiso is a tiny cruise port compared to places like Miami, Seattle, Southampton, Civitavecchia, etc... The Celebrity Eclipse is *BY FAR* the largest ship to visit Valparaiso in 2023, and it only visited ONE TIME.

 

On any given weekend, they might have a couple of visits from smaller cruise ships like Viking, and maybe at the most one cruise ship with 2000ish passengers.

 

This particular route (Valparaiso to Buenos Aires or Buenos Aires to Valparaiso) is only done by Celebrity 2x total per year as part of repositioning.

It's Absolutely a rare cruise, and it's amazing that some people can't appreciate that they are getting access to something that is so rare and that not everything will be as smooth as you expect in highly developed markets.

It’s one hour from a major city.  Civitavecchia is an hour from Rome and they managed to have a good boarding experience.  And Italians are not known for their organizational skills.  But I’ll accept your point that it is smaller.

Edited December 26, 2023 by zitsky

[NMTraveller]

🤣

9 hours ago, zitsky said:

I see you’ve proved my point.  😂
 

No one visits South America or Southeast Asia? The people who live there may not appreciate your perspective.  😂

I must be a no one sigh 🤣

 

What is your sail date?

Edited December 26, 2023 by NMTraveller

[zitsky]

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

🤣

I must be a no one sigh 🤣

 

What is your sail date?

It was 12/23 for South America.  

[hcat]

10 hours ago, zitsky said:

It’s one hour from a major city.  Civitavecchia is an hour from Rome and they managed to have a good boarding experience.  And Italians are not known for their organizational skills.  But I’ll accept your point that it is smaller.

Cv is a major cruise port.. was not always well organized..used to be a tent. 

 

 Maybe you should  stick to cruises from the "usual"  ports..but of course it will not be new and exciting!

[wrk2cruise]

I'll support the OP that when we boarded Infinity in March of 2023 Valparaiso boarding was the worst of my 60+ Celebrity cruise by far.  Most of the port staff were trying hard and were polite.  The line to checkin probably had 200-300 people in it.  Fortunately we can checkin in the Retreat area which was a roped off area in the corner of the warehouse but was still made to feel uncomfortable by the checkin staff.

[sanger727]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:46 AM, zitsky said:

I see you’ve proved my point.  😂
 

No one visits South America or Southeast Asia? The people who live there may not appreciate your perspective.  😂

 

A vast majority of travelers never go to Bali, even those that visit SouthEast Asia. I seriously doubt many Indonesians are able to cruise given that the average salary there is less than $10,000 a year. I'm surprised that isn't common sense. If you aren't grateful for what you have, nothing here anyone says can change that.

 

Compare 20-35 million visitors a year to Thailand:

How Many Tourists Visit Thailand Each Year? – Thailand Trip Expert

 

compared to 1 million visitors to Bali:

Indonesia: foreign tourist arrivals to Bali 2023 | Statista

Edited December 26, 2023 by sanger727

[zitsky]

5 hours ago, sanger727 said:

 

A vast majority of travelers never go to Bali, even those that visit SouthEast Asia. I seriously doubt many Indonesians are able to cruise given that the average salary there is less than $10,000 a year. I'm surprised that isn't common sense. If you aren't grateful for what you have, nothing here anyone says can change that.

 

Compare 20-35 million visitors a year to Thailand:

How Many Tourists Visit Thailand Each Year? – Thailand Trip Expert

 

compared to 1 million visitors to Bali:

Indonesia: foreign tourist arrivals to Bali 2023 | Statista

So because fewer people visit Bali I should expect poor service and complete chaos? 

[GottaKnowWhen]

36 minutes ago, zitsky said:

So because fewer people visit Bali I should expect poor service and complete chaos? 

I would suggest, again, that you relax and enjoy. Travel is an adventure that few are able to experience!
Maybe you get poor service, slow embarkation, in Valparaiso or Bali or Ravenna (my own recent experience) because the shore-side staff just don’t do this every day and are not a smooth operation. Or maybe you get super service, fast embark, etc because you are an infrequent and prized special traveler. Or maybe you find just another port. Whatever happens, suck it up, take a few deep breaths, and look forward to your upcoming cruise.

[NMTraveller]

On 12/26/2023 at 4:34 PM, zitsky said:

It was 12/23 for South America.  

When do you get on the ship in Bali?

 

[zitsky]

10 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

When do you get on the ship in Bali?

 

In another year.

[NMTraveller]

Getting off of the ship in Bali was very easy and painless.  Very nice.😊 

[zitsky]

7 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Getting off of the ship in Bali was very easy and painless.  Very nice.😊 

Thanks.  What about getting on the ship?

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

Thanks.  What about getting on the ship?

I don’t know.  I recommend sailing the other way 😂😂😂😂

[owensamo]

We disembarked in Valparaiso on 12/23 and it was easily one of the weirdest disembarkation I've ever had (in over 20 cruises across 3 cruise lines and various continents). The gangway itself was rather... sketchy - and harder to navigate than the one we had in Manta which was gangways attached to shipping containers. This is the first time I was aware there were doors on deck 4 on a S-class ship!

 

Considering our tour guide in Lima said they get 20 ships a year during their "high season" - which was just starting when we got there, I imagine Valparaiso (which is technically a smaller port than Lima) probably has similar traffic and only a few of those are turn-over days. The port itself is not a dedicated cruise port - it's primarily a shipping port so handling the turn-over on these ships is not very common (unlike Civi or Miami or even Los Angeles). We had a post-cruise tour ending at the airport, but the disembarkation was a mess (though slightly better organized than it could have been) and once we arrived in the port building, there was *no* information on where to go, so it was a challenge getting to the bus. It was annoying, but honestly not unsurprising. It was also obvious on the tour that it wasn't a commonly run tour - the guide was fine, but the bus driver had issues and didn't know where he was going all the time so we ended up with a near mutiny on the bus to get to the airport (we had plenty of time once we got there, but it was an... interesting tour). 

 

All of this to say - if you're embarking/disembarking at a less commonly used cruise port (like Valparaiso, Lima, Bali, etc.), pack your patience and tolerance as things can take time. But the goal is to have everyone on the ship by departure, so once you're in line - you'll get there. The staff is probably just as frustrated by the hassle as you are. Embarkation is a short, anxious time, but once you're on board, you'll have an amazing cruise! We were thrilled with the service of the staff on our cruise - I hope you are enjoying the ship, and I highly recommend attending all of Milos's Beyond the Podium talks! He's probably the best entertainment on the ship! 

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, owensamo said:

We disembarked in Valparaiso on 12/23 and it was easily one of the weirdest disembarkation I've ever had (in over 20 cruises across 3 cruise lines and various continents). The gangway itself was rather... sketchy - and harder to navigate than the one we had in Manta which was gangways attached to shipping containers. This is the first time I was aware there were doors on deck 4 on a S-class ship!

 

Considering our tour guide in Lima said they get 20 ships a year during their "high season" - which was just starting when we got there, I imagine Valparaiso (which is technically a smaller port than Lima) probably has similar traffic and only a few of those are turn-over days. The port itself is not a dedicated cruise port - it's primarily a shipping port so handling the turn-over on these ships is not very common (unlike Civi or Miami or even Los Angeles). We had a post-cruise tour ending at the airport, but the disembarkation was a mess (though slightly better organized than it could have been) and once we arrived in the port building, there was *no* information on where to go, so it was a challenge getting to the bus. It was annoying, but honestly not unsurprising. It was also obvious on the tour that it wasn't a commonly run tour - the guide was fine, but the bus driver had issues and didn't know where he was going all the time so we ended up with a near mutiny on the bus to get to the airport (we had plenty of time once we got there, but it was an... interesting tour). 

 

All of this to say - if you're embarking/disembarking at a less commonly used cruise port (like Valparaiso, Lima, Bali, etc.), pack your patience and tolerance as things can take time. But the goal is to have everyone on the ship by departure, so once you're in line - you'll get there. The staff is probably just as frustrated by the hassle as you are. Embarkation is a short, anxious time, but once you're on board, you'll have an amazing cruise! We were thrilled with the service of the staff on our cruise - I hope you are enjoying the ship, and I highly recommend attending all of Milos's Beyond the Podium talks! He's probably the best entertainment on the ship! 

Yes.  Despite the Cruise Critic cheerleaders jumping on me for every comment, we had a good time overall.  

Edited January 4 by zitsky

[GatorMomInNC]

On 1/4/2024 at 11:32 AM, zitsky said:

Yes.  Despite the Cruise Critic cheerleaders jumping on me for every comment, we had a good time overall.  

We are boarding in Valparaiso in April on Celebrity Eclipse (and I am also from the Triangle!).  Doing a transfer and tour from Santiago the morning of the cruise; but after reading your comments, I am now wondering if I should just go straight to the port and forego the tour of Vin Del Mar and Valparaiso... any suggestions?

[zitsky]

8 hours ago, GatorMomInNC said:

We are boarding in Valparaiso in April on Celebrity Eclipse (and I am also from the Triangle!).  Doing a transfer and tour from Santiago the morning of the cruise; but after reading your comments, I am now wondering if I should just go straight to the port and forego the tour of Vin Del Mar and Valparaiso... any suggestions?

I can’t give you a good answer for one reason, maybe two.

 

You mention Vin del Mar.  I think Casas del Bosque is a terrific winery also.

 

However we got to the terminal around 3pm and it was crazy.  A 2-3 hour wait.  We were with a friend with medical issues so we moved ahead in line.

 

I wonder if we had gotten there first thing in the morning how long the wait would be.  I’d see if anyone is still watching the old roll calls or maybe someone will post here.

 

Do you have a boarding time yet?

Edited January 17 by zitsky

[CeleryCruiser]

7 hours ago, GatorMomInNC said:

We are boarding in Valparaiso in April on Celebrity Eclipse (and I am also from the Triangle!).  Doing a transfer and tour from Santiago the morning of the cruise; but after reading your comments, I am now wondering if I should just go straight to the port and forego the tour of Vin Del Mar and Valparaiso... any suggestions?

We were also in this Xmas cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires  - We came straight from Santiago to Valparaiso early -  we left our hotel at 9:00 and were in Valparaiso port terminal at 10:30 ' ish - That time they were still disembarking and they started to build up the embarkation area in the terminal. I think a bit late - abt at noon. Luggage point was bit in an odd place and not very easy place if you have large suitcases - it is behind the terminal building and even the personnel in terminal was not able to guide us to the right place - please ask the taxi driver to drop you off after the terminal  building  not where the main doors are ( Naturally if the if the setup is still the same).   We embarked about 12:30 and get our luggage about 14:00.  We heard from others that the there were a mess going on at the port.... so my suggestion is : Be early.

[CardowMD]

There are quite a few ships using Buenos Aires and Valparaiso as turn around ports. Too bad they have not been able to get their act together over the last couple of years. 

[zitsky]

2 minutes ago, CeleryCruiser said:

We were also in this Xmas cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires  - We came straight from Santiago to Valparaiso early -  we left our hotel at 9:00 and were in Valparaiso port terminal at 10:30 ' ish - That time they were still disembarking and they started to build up the embarkation area in the terminal. I think a bit late - abt at noon. Luggage point was bit in an odd place and not very easy place if you have large suitcases - it is behind the terminal building and even the personnel in terminal was not able to guide us to the right place - please ask the taxi driver to drop you off after the terminal  building  not where the main doors are ( Naturally if the if the setup is still the same).   We embarked about 12:30 and get our luggage about 14:00.  We heard from others that the there were a mess going on at the port.... so my suggestion is : Be early.

When you got to Valparaiso terminal at 10:30 was the line already long to wait for the buses?  
 

Viking seemed a much easier transfer.  Much smaller lines and buses leaving half empty.

 

There is a chance to tour a winery in Uruguay maybe others so skipping the tour might be a good idea.

 

Other than that, @CeleryCruiser how was your cruise?