koolforkatz

Awww, what a cutie. He does look like Jack 🥰

Lucy is just a little bigger than our Jack. What a pretty girl 🙂

Awww, thanks. That's our Jack 🥰 The only not great thing about going on holidays. Doodles are the best, aren't they?

We were in Valparaiso for 4 nights in January and stayed at the Winebox Hotel which is a hotel made of converted shipping containers. The staff were great. We had a fabulous breakfast that was included, a great rooftop bar and balconies that looked out onto the water. It is a very casual, funky place, though, so if you're looking for a North American type hotel, this wouldn't be it. We also had to uber too (very plentiful and cheap) to go out at night. You might want to try looking for accommodation in the Cerro Alegre area. Lots of nice boutique type places to stay there, fabulous restaurants and colourful murals on just about every building you see. It's a beautiful area. I would recommend Casa Galos Hotel. We had a look around inside it on a previous trip to Valparaiso and a group of us made bookings to stay there pre-Covid but then, of course, that never happened. Fauna Restaurant is really good; we ate there twice this trip. And if you need a great tour operator or transportation I would recommend Michael the German Pirate - we have used him on two trips now.

Just off the Sapphire last month. The body lotion and hand soap (I use my own shampoo/conditioner) are definitely not as nice as they used to be. The lotion in particular has a very thin consistency. Not a fan.

Holland America is also charging now if you want to choose your own room.

We just came back from an Antarctica cruise (with Princess). Sailed from Santiago to Buenos Aires. This was our second South America cruise but first Antarctica and I can't say how special and amazing it was. Absolutely breathtaking scenery - glaciers, icebergs, snowcapped mountains, whales, penguins, on and on. To see where Shackleton and his men landed was incredible. Can't recommend it highly enough. We will definitely go back.

We were in a SV on deck 8 of the Beyond last May and had no issues with soot or smoke smell. It was a great cabin. Used our balcony a lot - especially once when we became quarantined on it 😉

Thank you so much for all your responses. Sounds like Oceania might be a good fit for us, especially if we luck out and get a band on our cruise like @JoePDX mentioned. And my husband will be all over the putting! We've had many great Celebrity cruises over the years starting with the Mercury but things have changed over time especially over the last year. Sadly, I don't really feel their price justifies what they deliver anymore. However, we haven't given up on them entirely either. Just branching out a bit and have wanted to try Oceania for a long time.

Hi - as long time cruisers (30 plus) who have sailed mainly on Celebrity but also Princess and HAL, we made the jump yesterday and booked our first Oceania cruise on the beautiful looking new Vista. It is a bit of a bucket list for me because I have always wanted to do a transatlantic, although I have done a transpacific. I just have a few questions. For the drink package, we chose that as our option and I realize we have to pay $30 pp per day to upgrade. I assume we can only do this on board? Also, I haven't been able to find how the upgrade works? Is there a maximum dollar amount per drink, i.e., anything over that amount and you pay the difference? I understand the entertainment will be less than that of other lines, but is there anything going on at all? Is there live music, even an accoustic guitar? Are there any type of bands that perform that you can dance to? And I'm not referring just to ballroom. We are 66 and 74 and like to stay up a bit after dinner, have a drink or two. Maybe dance, etc. Will we find Oceania boring at night? Some nights we might just want to relax and have an early night. Others we might want to socialize or dance a bit. For those who have done transatlantics with Oceania do they offer much in the way of activities during the day? We can amuse ourselves with books and stuff but just wondered whether they had lecturers, movies, daytime shows/activities, etc. So many questions! I appreciate anyone's input on this. We had originally booked Celebrity Beyond for the crossing (we sailed on her last year and she is beautiful) but realized for not much more at all we could finally try Oceania and enjoy some really good food. Something the other lines sadly seem to be cutting back on.

Thanks. And enjoy your time in BA. It's a fabulous city.

We were just informed by Princess this morning that our pre-cruise tour has been cancelled. It was to start January 14th.

Thanks for all your posts. Sounds like you are in good hands. Did your tour end up being as many days as it was supposed to be? Safe travels to Buenos Aires.

Thanks for your posts - following with interest as our pre-cruise tour starts January 14.

See if you can get a mini suite on Emerald deck. They are completely covered and private.

Hope everything works out well for you. Princess is still telling us, based on what their tour operator has told them, that everything is okay and tour will go on as planned. We still have a level 3 government travel advisory for the area though so am keeping an eye on things. Let us know how you make out. On the positive side, I have heard Machu PIcchu isn't very crowded right now so that is a good thing.

They actually called me yesterday to tell me that everything was still going ahead as the tour operator assured them that everything was fine there now. However, the Canadian government still advises non-essential travel in the MP area which would nullify our travel insurance. Hopefully they left that advisory soon. So with just over two weeks to go, it's still a bit wait and see unfortunately.

I have also been in touch with Princess regarding our January 14 MP tour. They just keep telling me they are monitoring the situation. The state of emergency finishes on January 15 but who knows if they will extend it or not. I have heard that they expect the protests to be on a type of truce throughout Christmas and start up again in early January. Canada is still advising non-essential travel to the Cusco/Machu Picchu area which would certainly affect our travel insurance.

Thanks for clarifying @trk_koa Hope everything works out well for you.

@trk_koa - when you hear something from Princess regarding all this, would you be kind enough to post? Thanks.

We are on the following Machu Picchu cruise tour starting January 14. I contacted the cruise line but they didn't know anything. We are not sure what to do either and it is hard to plan anything. Will Princess cancel just the tour portion or the entire trip since it was bundled together? We have considered flying to Lima as originally planned and from there flying straight to Santiago and spending 6 days in Valparaiso/Vina del Mar. Have you considered other areas of Argentina to visit? Hope you hear something soon!

You get the regular shareholder OBC. We did a transpacific in 2019 and that is what we got.

We will be coming over on the first Transpacific with Celebrity in 4 years in fall 2023. I am happy to be going back but a bit concerned about all the sea days and what could happen. A 10 % requirement isn't that many people, crew and passengers combined. Hopefully Covid is farther behind us by then.

We've had deck 7 and can highly recommend it, so much so we have it booked for an upcoming cruise.

Huge balconies. They used to be categorized as Concierge Class but they recently changed them. This is one on the Constellation several years ago. They are fantastic balconies. This one was on deck 7 - the largest (not counting penthouse below). Decks 8 and 9 get progressively smaller (length wise) but are still huge.