Antartica/South America Questions

[Arlenedow]

We are thinking of going on this cruise on the Regal Princess in Jan. '06. I would love to hear from someone who has done this cruise on a full size cruise ship. Did you enjoy it? How was the weather? Did you do your own air? Did you extend in Rio and Santiago and if so, did you do it on your own and what hotels did you stay at? Did you need to get any inoculations for diseases before you left?

 

Thanks for any help.Arlene

[Aussie Gal]

Arlene,

 

This is not helping to answer your question but just wanted you to know we have already booked that cruise on the Regal for January 6th and are now working out our pre and post cruise options. We are going to the Iguazzu Falls beforehand and afterwards we are off to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos. At this stage we are doing it independently.

 

My sister and brother in law are going to be on the Amsterdam on December 16th and that is a very similar itinerary so I am waiting to hear about their trip.

 

Please let me know if you decide to go ahead and book.

 

Jennie.

[Arlenedow]

Jennie,

 

Thanks for your reply. We are wait listed for a balcony on the Regal. We're #1 on the list and our TA feels certain we will get a balcony. It is hard to believe that all the suites and balconies are booked at this time.

 

I had asked my questions on the Princess board and received several negative comments about doing this cruise on a large cruise ship.

 

I haven't started looking into pre or post cruise stays although I think we would like to stay 2 days pre in Rio and 2 post in Santiago. I will have to start my investigation on shore excursions. We usually do our own and not the ship's. Perhaps we can share information. :)

 

Arlene

[Bill S]

Arlene: We did the SA/Antarctica cruise last December/Jan on HAL's Amsterdam. It was easily the best cruise experience we have ever had! We went from Valparaiso to Rio.

 

First, the weather and sea conditions were superb throughout the cruise-we had 3 spectacular days in Antarctic waters and the ice conditions were excellent, meaning we could complete 90% of the programmed itinerary,

 

South of Puerto Montt and a day out of the Falkands the temperatures were cool-so the key is to layer, we used turtlencks, a zip-up fleece sweatshirt and windbreaker with gloves/earmuffs on the coldest days (in Antarctica, where temps were in the mid-thirties).

 

We made our own air arrangements to save quite a few dollars-we used American Airlines. We arrived in Santiago a day before embarkation date and stayed at the Hyatt Regency----excellent hotel. We took a Port Compass transfer/tour over to Valpo the next day with another couple-it was done very well.

 

We left Rio on the evening of disembarkation after a day-trip to Petropolis-up in the mountains-very comfortable weather.

 

We did not have to receive any shots for this cruise since we were not going to any area in Brazil where yellow fever is a problem. The CDC has a web site with the latest immunizations requirements for travelers.

 

Although we could not disembark in Antarctica, it was still an amazing experience.

 

There are a lot of posts about peoples's experiences here-happy hunting!

[Arlenedow]

Thanks Bill for responding to my questions. After reading your reply we are really looking forward to this cruise.

 

Were there any shore excursions that you would recommend? Did you do independent tours and if so, what tour co. did you use? This will be our first experience in SA so we have a lot to learn.

 

I'm glad to hear that independent air was less expensive than the cruise line even doing an open jaws. We'll have to look into that.

 

Thanks again,

Arlene :)

[Aussie Gal]

Arlene,

 

It is hard to believe that the verandah cabins and suites have already gone and it is still 14 months to go.

 

We booked in July I think and we have an S.S. I wanted to book early so that we could more or less organize this trip and know our dates as we are going to use Qantas F.F. points for the air. We need to book 355 days out as there are very few seats available.

 

We like to do independent touring too, so perhaps we could get together with info etc. My email address is jennielynton@yahoo.com.au

 

I would love to hear from you.

 

Jennie

[Bill S]

Arlene: We used HAL-arrainged excursions for all but the the transfer from Santiago to Valpo. We wanted to use Port Compass for several excursions but could not find anyone else to "grow-a-group" with to meet PC's minimum numbers.

 

I was under the weather at Puerto Montt, so had to scrub the excursion there.

 

We took the St. Magdalena Island penguin excursion at Punta Arenas, Chile and it was great-there is a post on the board now that accurately describes the excursion. I would take it again-lots of penguins and very up close!

 

At Ushuaia, we took a wildlife catamaran cruise up Beagle Channel-and it was very enjoyable-took us out the famous lighthouse and back again with brief pauses by several small rock islands to see sea lions and birds unique to the area with great views of the snow-capped mountains that serve as a backdrop to Ushuaia. We still had time to walk around town for some shopping.

 

We took 2 excursions at the Falklands: the tour of Stanley and the Long Island Sheep Ranch-enjoyed both. It is about an hour drive each way to the ranch and back and it is a real, working sheep ranch-he owners, Neal and Glenda, allow you to see what life is like and open up their home to visitors to have tea and pastries and to see how peat is "mined" and used for heating and cooking, in addition to seeing sheep herding dogs and horses in action and sheep shearing.

 

In Uruguay, we took the day trip to Puna Del Este-it was ok.

 

We opted for the day trip to an estancia from Buenos Aries-it was fun but it was a long bus ride each way, about 2 hours. We passed on the tango show.

 

In Rio, the first day we took the all day city tour with trips up to Sugarloaf and Corcovado-I'm glad we took it but once is enough. On the second day, we took the excursion to Petropolis and thought this was one of the better excursions-very interesting and lunch was the best of any excursion.

 

There were so many excursions to choose from on that cruise-it made for difficult choices. We only had one really bad excursion, at Puerto Chacabuco-the Lake Elizalde excursion-just awful-broken bus, with a horrible back up, the main attraction was "closed" due to weather, lunch was in a over-crowded, smoky lodge, and the a good part of the trip was on a dirt, washboard road that was bone -jarring, but luckily our bus companions were all a good lot and we made the best of it. I did not hear many positive comments about Puerto Chacabuco-there really is not much there.

 

Hope this helps!

[Arlenedow]

Thank you so much Bill, for taking the time to write such a complete synopsis of your excursions. :)

 

Now I have to get business and get educated about SA and what we want to do.

 

You live in one of our favorite cities although we haven't been there in 2 1/2 years.

 

Arlene

[Bill S]

Arlene: my pleasure to assist! Come visit our fair city again: many changes in 2.5 years! The only thing better is if we had a sea port, too!

[Arlenedow]

Bill,

 

I have one more question for you. I just read a review of the cruise and these people had 50 foot seas going through the Drake Passage. Did you experience anything like that? They were on Deck 9 of the Ryndam and had water splashing on their balcony door! They also experienced a category 10 storm. This was in Jan.

 

 

The worst seas we've been in were 17 feet.

 

Arlene

[Bill S]

Arlene: we only experienced rough seas one night between Puerto Chacabuco and Punta Arenas out in the Pacific, and even then, it was not the worst we have experienced. After that, we had no rough seas the rest of the trip. It was a bit disappointing rounding Cape Horn in flat seas and clear skies! ;) Drake Passage was likewise unremarkeable.

 

The weather is the big variable on that itinerary. I've read accounts for 40' seas in that region, so it is pretty much the luck of the draw. If you haven't already seen my photos, you can check them out at:

http://www.buffnbou.funtigo.com

[pmcrusta]

One of our favorite shore excursions was one we took in Uruguay. We were on the Royal and it was in Feb. & March of 2004. We like taking all day excursions. We did the excursion that was called then "A day at the Ranch". They've changed it to something like a "experience" in Uruguay. The people at the ranch are truly lovely people. It's (the ranch) been in the family for years. And it is a working ranch. They took us all over the ranch and you really did get a feel for this country. As ranching is a big part of this counties background. Not one person did we ever hear a complaint about anything there. This is one tour that is well worth the money. With the Bar-B-Q and the grandchildren of the owner of the ranch playing and riding the horses. They show you some of their countires dances. It was great to ride the old cars (model T's) and old horse drawn wagon's out around the ranch. On this cruise the age level usually is in the middle 60's and up. At 49 I was a spring chicken, which was a hoot as far as I was concerend. We all scrambled onto whatever car or wagon you get make it on and off we went. There was around 70 of us I think. But at no time did we feel crowded. This place is huge. If you want to see this country in a more laid back approuch.

This is a nice way to do it. And as the lady that owns the ranch has children and grandchildren in the woven wool products and jewlery industry. They have a area you can even buy somethings. And I was glad I did. The quality was as good as I saw for the rest of the cruise, actually better in a lot of cases.

As for seeing penguins. We did a private tour at Puerto Madryn. It was excellet. But your a few weeks in that area ahead of the the time we were in that area. But when we went there were thousands of them. And the ride wasn't that bad. South America is a big place and most of the time it was pretty obvious, unless you were satisfied with the "tourist" type of a sight seeing tour which is OK too. But if you wanted to get a more satisfying feel for things, you were going to have to do a little traveling to get there. We were glad we did. But everyone has their own comfort zone and needs. None

are bad just, different. ;) We went from BA around the Horn and ended in FLL.

It is like I said a very interesting place to visit. Have a great cruise.