Best month for South America cruise

[mackfam]

I’ve just read through @KenTheCruiser’s awesome review of his recent cruise on the Sapphire Princess. I would like to do a similar South American cruise late in 2025 or early 2026 and it seems like Princess has the best itineraries. Looks like they are only offered between December and March each year so I’m wondering if one month is better than another weather wise? Also when are the itineraries for 2026 likely to be released for this region?

[Ken the cruiser]

Thanks! For us as we have been there twice now. The weather in late January has treated us pretty fairly on our 2 cruises there, with the first on being on the HAL Zaandam back in 2018. To put it into context, January south of the equator is like our July.

 

One note though. Princess changed their Antarctica itineraries starting in Dec 2024, where they are now roundtrip out of BA rather than between San Antonio and BA.
 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=H502

 

It will be interesting what they offer in the 2025/6 season.

 

Edited February 22 by Ken the cruiser

[mackfam]

Thanks for the info Ken. Oh no regarding the itinerary change. Hope I’ve not literally “missed the boat”.

[Ken the cruiser]

54 minutes ago, mackfam said:

Thanks for the info Ken. Oh no regarding the itinerary change. Hope I’ve not literally “missed the boat”.

It's all good. They just don't cruise for the first 3 sea days now from San Antonio before getting to Punta Arenas. But they still do the same ports and 4 days in Antarctica in 17 days as the current 16-day Antarctica cruise we just went on.

[LACruiser88]

We have been to this region of the world several times and Dec thru early April has the best weather.  There will be variations from year to year, but you can't go wrong during these times.  Enjoy!

[drowelf]

1 hour ago, LACruiser88 said:

We have been to this region of the world several times and Dec thru early April has the best weather.  There will be variations from year to year, but you can't go wrong during these times.  Enjoy!

All the lines do these during the SA Summer Season and no month is really better than another as far as the weather goes. What does count through is what the critters are doing at those times of the years. I don't have the details off hand, but whale migrations, penguin mating, seals etc. are the things to try and schedule for. Weather is going to be what you get. It can always get bad at any time. For example when we did Santiago to BA in 2015 we had excellent weather crossing the Drake Passage both ways. Talking to the crew on they said that the cruise from BA to Santiago was quite different, with 30 feet seas in the Drake Passage both ways. So be prepared for the worst weather and be pleasantly surprised when it does not appear. 

[skynight]

I did two Princess voyages around S.A. One Atlantic to the Pacific, the other Pacific to the Atlantic. Both cruises were at the end of the season when the ship continued north to Ft. Lauderdale/San Pedro. Weather was good on both cruises. December through March is summer, but be prepared for colder weather at the southern end of S.A. I remember wearing a number of layers on deck when sailing around Cape Horn. If you have the time these repositioning cruises are really nice.