South America - HAL vs. other lines

[Jade13]

We would like to go on a cruise around South America next year but HAL's shortest cruise is 16 days.

 

We are still working and my Dh can only take two weeks off at a time, so our ideal cruise is 10-12 days allowing an over night flight and extra day in the port of departure for a full two weeks.

 

For those who love HAL, who else do you recommend? Perhaps there is no cruise line offering a shorter itnerary in South America. (I am running into this same problem for other areas of the world that I am interested in. While HAL says it wants to cater to younger cruisers, there are some in their 30's, 40's - and even 50's - that are World Travelers, looking for more exotic ports but can't take these World voyages to get to them.)

 

Any suggestions?

[Wormy53]

We also looked at the Hal South American cruise, because I thought a smaller ship might be nice. We decided on the 12day Princess Star cruise - we still have that work schedule too - can't wait until we can go longer!! We booked for next March. (Grabbed an aft by booking early)

Go to the SA board and read the review by dileep? It will really make you want to go soon!

[OldCodger73]

Try checking Princess. I'm not sure about this but I think they use Buenos Aires rather than Rio, so that might save a day or two.

 

For a cruise like this, arriving a day before departure is in my opinion a must.

[Fblack]

I also sail HAL often, but will use Princess when we sail South America next year. They have bigger, newer ships which we like. I also like Buenos Aires rather than Rio. I have heard of too many problems in Rio recently.

[Aussie Gal]

We used Princess last year when we went from Rio to Valpariso via Antarctica.

 

We chose Princess for two reasons. One their itinerary was out months before HAL's and we needed to have the dates sooner rather than later to enable us to use our F.F. points for the air and secondly, Princess was going in the direction we wanted - from Rio to Valpariso not vice versa as at the end our cruise we were going on to visit Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands.

 

We also wanted to start in Rio so that we could go to the Iguazu Falls pre cruise. This all worked out for us by using Princess. It was a wonderful cruise. We went on the Regal Princess which had about 1500 passengers. It is a gracious ship and another bonus for us was that it only had Traditional Dining which we prefer.

 

If you decide to go with Princess you will not be sorry as both HAL and Princess have a similar product.

 

Celebrity, NCL's and Oceania are other cruise lines with leave from B.A. and go to Valpariso.

 

Jennie