planning to book Sappire Antarctica Dec 18th 2024 sailing

[YYZnewbieCruiser]

The wife and I (late 40's) are planning on doing the Dec 18th Antarctica sailing.  We don't usually do cruises, but have been on two previous cruise where being on a ship kinda made sense.  We went on an Alaska cruise with Holland America and a Panama cruise with Princess.  So we are fairly cruise newbies.

I've been doing a lot of reading and feel that this Princess cruise will be fine instead of one of those explorer landing cruise.  My wife will kill me if I booked her on one of those cruises, lol  she is more 5th Ave than get out there hiking. 

 

Looks like for 2024 this 17 day cruise will embark and disembark in EZE instead of EZE to Chile or vice versa.  Does this make any difference in selecting a cabin in the port side or starboard?

I am thinking of booking one of the Balcony cabins, but saw that there are some Oceanview Premium(O5) cabins that are about $800-1000 cheaper per person than the balcony.  Being an Antarctica cruise the weather may lead to us not being out in the balcony too much?  Would the O5 cabins be a good choice?  Would it have more waves/turbulence being in the front of the ship?  We definitely want some view, as we don't want to be in a closed in cabin.

There is still 9-10 months till sailing,  will there be pricing changes going forward?  Right now the Balcony's would work out to around $6K pp including taxes and Premier Plus plan.  My wife doesn't drink any alcohol, but I am a big wine and scotch drinker, so the additional wine and scotch selections will probably still be worth it. 

Also, the itinerary shows the embark date as Dec 18 for EZE,  but doesn't actually set sail till Dec 19th.  Does that mean we can embark anytime on the 18th? or the 19th before sail off?  We plan to fly into EZE from Toronto a few days earlier and stay a few days after so we can check out EZE area.  A side trip I want to make is to fly out to Mendoza for couple of days to tour some vineyards(I am trying to visit all the wine regions of the world).  So just trying to plan for whether to do it before or after the cruise.

 

Any other tips and suggestions for booking this cruise?

Edited February 25 by YYZnewbieCruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We just got finished cruising on the Sapphire around the Antarctica Peninsula and to many of the SA ports you will be visiting, and I’ll let my below Live From thread in my expanded signature area speak for itself.

 

As far as cabin locations go, if an aft-facing Premium Balcony is still available I would highly recommend booking that if the price is within your budget. In fact, D741 definitely has potential, as it’s completely protected from the wind and the balcony has a favorable view of the starboard side, which is definitely a plus based on our recent experience going through the Beagle Channel as well as most of the Antarctica Peninsula channels you’ll being cruise through.

 

 
As far as pricing goes, we’ve always found the earlier you book popular itineraries, the better off you are when it comes to pricing. BTW doing a roundtrip cruise out of BA eliminates the 3 rough Pacific Ocean sea days we encountered when we left out of San Antonio on our cruise last month.

 

As far as booking a cabin in the front of the ship. That would be the worst area to have a cabin in rough seas, like crossing Drake Passage. The best place would be low and in the center of the ship. 

 

Edited February 25 by Ken the cruiser

[cadien]

On 2/25/2024 at 2:35 PM, YYZnewbieCruiser said:

Also, the itinerary shows the embark date as Dec 18 for EZE,  but doesn't actually set sail till Dec 19th.  Does that mean we can embark anytime on the 18th? or the 19th before sail off?  We plan to fly into EZE from Toronto a few days earlier and stay a few days after so we can check out EZE area.  A side trip I want to make is to fly out to Mendoza for couple of days to tour some vineyards(I am trying to visit all the wine regions of the world).  So just trying to plan for whether to do it before or after the cruise.

We also just did this cruise (without Antarctica). You can embark anytime on the 18th until Customs (which Princess doesn't control) closes for the evening. Which our travel agent said is 5pm but we didn't verify that at the terminal. Or you can embark on the 19th. If you do board on the 18th, you can leave the ship.

[BlerkOne]

I think a balcony is worth it. Some of the balconies are only partially covered which I would avoid.

 

While most people will want to spend at least some time on the open decks, with a balcony, when you see something interesting you can dash out to look. When you turn into a Popsicle, it is easy to come inside to thaw out. The temps aren't that bad, but the wind can be something else. Also if it decides to rain, snow, etc.

 

On the Antarctica cruise, my choice of sides would be the port side (and is). My cabin cost has only increased since booking.