South America cruise next year on Infinity

[christopherrobin]

Hello all,

 

We have just returned from our Panama Canal cruise and have booked our cruise for next year which is South America on the Infinity. Has anyone taken this cruise yet? We are sailing from Argentina to Chile. Can you tell me how long it took to get there and back home again by plane?(we live in Toronto) Also did you like the ports visited and did you enjoy the cruise? Is it a cruise to look forward to? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

Kim

[croftonbill]

we did this cruise last month.having done the valparaiso to fort lauderdale in the spring.we chose a bad date[dec10th from b.a]if i had been smarter i would have gone maybe end of nov.most of the better crew seemed to be away,and the second team was not so good.we flew from vancouver via houston and panama.i think you will find it a lot easier-maybe overnight in miami to break the trip up.buenos aires was a highlight for us-beautiful city-definitely allow few days there.if you have the time maybe take in iguazo falls.[?sp.]if you are looking for an economical hotel let me know as we stayed in a beaut.if you need somebody to give you a tour try ana@ana-luna.com great lady with good english.my wife watched "evita"before we left and could not get enough of recoleta,and the pink house.argentina is a relatively cheap place to visit with great restarants,and good wine.montevideo try and get a small group and get a taxi tour.puert madryn you can get tours from the dock,either punta tombo for the penguina,or peninsular valdez for the right whales and elephant seals.ushuia go to tierra del fuego etc.punta arenas again we took cab tour-cabs were really economic in S.A. puerto montt.go see the volcanoes,but leave time to go visit the seafood market-great place to get gifts etc.valparaiso try and arrange group transfer to santiago.as you can tell,i am not a great fan of ship excursions.if you have any questions email me at bill-massey@shaw.ca

[j!m]

kim

 

we did this cruise as a b2b in nov/dec 07

 

we sailed from lauderdale to santiago then to buenos aires

 

air canada has a flight from buenos to toronto via santiago, you spend about 1 hour on the ground in santiago. i think it was about 14 hours flying time

 

you will love the cruise, we did

 

buenos is a wonderful city

 

we enjoyed all the ports but the weather can be iffy you need layers of clothing down south

 

buenos and montevideo were hot as was santiago, the faulklands,ushaia etc were quite nasty, (windy,damp, cold)

[christopherrobin]

Wow, I didn't realize that it took that long to get down there. Is it generally a warm cruise for part of the way until you reach the Falkland Islands or more warm weather clothes?

 

Also thanks for the info on Argentina. I might have to look into that.

 

Kim

[croftonbill]

certainly warm in BA.cooler round the cape,warm again in valparaiso!

[j!m]

chris

 

on or trip it was warm in buenos and montevideo cool and sometimes cold further south, round the horn and past the fiords thereafter it became warmer

 

i took summer type clothes (we were on the ship for a month) but a couple pair long pants, couple turtlenecks, sweater, down filled vest and gor tex golf jacket. you also need hat and gloves.

 

the day we landed in falklands there was wet snow while we tendered to shore that changed to hail then rain. all the while the wind was blowin pretty good. it was nasty. we dressed in layers so if it warmed up we just took stuff off

 

went to see some penguins in falklands and most people ended up going inside a little trailer they had set up with coffe/tea/hot chocolate available

it was windy and cold

 

in ushuaia the sun would come out, it would get warm for maybe half an hour then cloud over and get windy and cold again. we were takin off and puttin back on continuously

 

it was still a great trip which we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery is awesome

 

have a great trip, we did

[christopherrobin]

Thanks guys for all your info, I am looking forward to it and by the sounds of it will need the winter clothes for a bit that we are used to in TO. Sounds like everyone enjoyed the ports of call as well. My only concern now is the 14 hour plane ride that I will try to break up so it doesn't seem that long.

Do any of you have any pics that you would like to share?

 

Kim

[j!m]

kim

 

i have about 600 pix all in jpeg but i think the files are too large to attach

 

i have tried to attach a couple and failed

 

if u would provide an email address i would be happy to send a few

 

in fact, if you provided a postal address i will send you a cd with all of them but about half are for the lauderdale - santiago part of our trip and include a lot from machu picchu

 

jim

[nhoj]

.... My only concern now is the 14 hour plane ride that I will try to break up so it doesn't seem that long.

 

Two meals, two movies, two newscasts (in English & French of course).

[alwayshappytocruise]

We just did the Infinity SA cruise BA to Valpairaso and loved it. The weather is iffy, had hot temps, cold temps and lots of wind. We're from FL so we weren't sure what to pack. Went online to one of the weather webs and checked average temps for each port of call....this really helped us. You will definately need a warm,waterproof jacket with hat and gloves. We packed one suitcase with jackets, jeans, hiking boots et, one suitcase with regular cruise type clothes and a garment bag with the dressier stuff. Don't be surprised if you can't get to the Falklands, the sea is really rough and we weren't able to tender in and neither was the cruise before us. Rounding the Horn is awe inspiring, that plus a day trip to the Andes in Santiago were the highlights of my trip. The flight is long, 10 hrs for us out of Atlanta....we splurged and flew first/business class and managed to grab a few hours of real sleep. Lots of Canadians on our trip so maybe you'll have the same luck.

[christopherrobin]

Thanks for the insight on your cruise in checking out the temps before you go. I thought that it would have been warmer but you never know how the weather will be these days. Glad that you had a great time, although to bad that you couldn't see the Falkland Islands.

Did you stay any longer before or after the cruise?

[christopherrobin]

kim

 

i have about 600 pix all in jpeg but i think the files are too large to attach

 

i have tried to attach a couple and failed

 

if u would provide an email address i would be happy to send a few

 

in fact, if you provided a postal address i will send you a cd with all of them but about half are for the lauderdale - santiago part of our trip and include a lot from machu picchu

 

jim

 

Hi Jim,

 

If you can send me some pics that would be great. The rest I will experience for myself. My email address is bna@connection.com.

Also what was your favorite port?

 

Kim

[j!m]

kim

 

i will send a few in the next few days

 

we liked all of the ports but buenos was a beautiful city be sure to arrange a tour of city unfortunately we were there only 2 days after our cruise but we did have time to have a couple of leather jackets custom made for us at what we thought were very reasonable (cheap) prices-$200 we used a company called sat tours, they did a great job,picked us up at ship, took us on tour of city then to hotel then came back and took us to dinner and tango show then back to hotel i think it cost about $500 for 3 of us for the day including dinner and show

 

we went hiking in ushuaia at the ntnl park, nothing too strenuous and the scenery was outstanding would go again in a minute

 

went on tour of city in montevideo and to a lovely little vineyard for lunch and some (yummy) wine again via private arrangements

 

puerto madryn was a disappointment but likely our fault, we should have gone to see whales or penguins, we made a bad choice

 

actually as i think about it we enjoyed all the ports for different reasons except for puerto madryn which as i have said was our own damn fault

 

santiago was interesting but a long drive from the ship for us

 

we were fortunate to get to shore in faulcklands and went on a penguin viewing tour, itsa pretty desolate place and will be packed with people because the port is small, i think there are only couple of thousand people there and when 2 ships arrive in port it is VERY crowded so be prepared

 

jim