aqua2

2 hours ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

If I understand you correctly, the airport is between Santiago and Valparaiso, so we would have to backtrack if we went to Valparaiso on our day of departure and left our luggage in Santiago?  AryMay's post, recommending not leaving Valparaiso for the last day, is well taken, then.  Will rethink our schedule.  

 

Someone recommended taking a coastline tour from San Antonio to Santiago because the scenery is so beautiful.  Any comments on this tour?  

We would leave Valparaiso for either the second or third day, flying out on the 4th.  A better plan, I think.

Yes; the airport is on the west-northwest outskirts of the city.  The coastal towns of San Antonio, Valparaiso, and Vina del Mar are all west of Santiago.  I think it took a good 45 minutes from leaving San Antonio to get to VdM and Valp'so.  And then from those towns, it is at least an hour drive up to Santiago.  

Here is a link to Google Maps of that area:  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Santiago,+Santiago+Metropolitan+Region,+Chile/@-33.4152977,-71.1914948,10.62z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x9662c5410425af2f:0x8475d53c400f0931!8m2!3d-33.4488897!4d-70.6692655

I really enjoyed the tour of Valparaiso, especially walking through the artsy part and riding a couple of the old funiculars - well worth the time.  Take a look at the map, though, for what you might think of as a coastline tour...???

We did the SA cruise this past January, ending in San Antonio, and spent 2 nights in Santiago before flying home.  You might consider an organized tour of Valparaiso on the day you disembark.  We used "Ruta Valparaiso" and were very pleased with their service.  We had an excellent tour of Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, and could have had a stop at a winery had we wanted to.  They dropped us off at our hotel (also Plaza San Francisco).  It is a substantial drive between Santiago and Valparaiso, with the airport along that route, so you would be doing a lot of highway driving over the same ground.

Taking the normal precautions that you described, you should be fine.  DH and I have spent 3 weeks in Rio on two different occasions; our son was posted there with the State Dept.  We took public buses, taxis, walked all over the place.  The particular advice that our son gave was to stay out of the favelas.  On one of our bus trips to the center of the city, we weren't crazy about the neighborhood around the bus terminal, so we didn't stick around there too long.  Go have a great trip!

We stayed at the Arc Recoleta in January, pre-cruise.  We really liked it for location, amenities, price.  I'm sure you will get lots of recommendations for a variety of hotels.

I agree with the last couple of posters - you will need to get to Cuzco, either a direct flight there if possible, or via Lima. Cuzco is worth a couple of days at least, then another day for Sacred Valley sites (Pisac, Ollantaytambo), and the train to Machu Picchu takes a while.  When we were in Peru 3 years ago, it was possible to spend the entire day at the Machu Picchu site, but I think now visits might be limited to either morning or afternoon.  You have lots of research to do to figure out how much you want to see, how much time all the travel will take, etc.  

What fun stories! And I was reminded of my real first cruise, a transatlantic from New York City to LeHavre, back in 1966. Can't really remember the name of the ship; almost every passenger was a college student heading to Europe for a junior year abroad program.  Needless to say, we had a blast despite tiny cabins with bunk beds, some miserable weather  with decks closed off.  The ship dropped off a few passengers at Southampton, then docked in LeHavre and we all proceeded to whatever our land destination was (mine was Madrid).

My next cruise after that, which got me really hooked on cruising, was in 2005 on the Tahitian Princess for French Polynesia.  I absolutely loved the size of that ship, the ambiance, the ports of call.

We were on the Sapphire last May, sailing out of Southampton; the large majority of the passengers were British, and the formal night attire was dressier than seen on many of our other cruises.  Not "black tie" as we describe it here in the US, but many men in tuxes, many ladies in very fancy dresses.  My husband and our travel partner were fine in slacks/dress shirts/sport coat or business suit. Relax and enjoy your cruise!

Thanks so much for posting your trip report.  We did the SA cruise on Star Princess in January and did not do the side trip to Iguazu Falls, but one never knows what the future may hold.

No, one ticket per person, although I don't know if they changed that later in the morning. Oh! I just got a vision of the line to get back to the ship at the end of the day... supposedly the last tender was to be at 5:00 or something; we got in line at the port at 4:00 and it took us at least 45 minutes, maybe an hour, to get on a tender.  And the line behind us grew and grew...I think the tenders ran until 6 or 6:30 to get everyone back on board.  Crazy!

Our cruise missed Stanley altogether; the captain said the weather was too bad out that way.  For another tender port,  Puerto Montt, tender tickets were handed out in the Capri dining room.  Our independent excursion group met at Vines at 6:45am (!!!), which turned out not to be really necessary.  They started giving out tix at 7:00 and tender service started at 7:15, well ahead of the announced 7:30 start time. There was never a line to get tender tickets at that hour.

Yes, formal nights were on sea days; one the first week and one the second week. 

Dog, not sure when your cruise is. Soon?  Anyway, wanted to come back and tell you that on ours, Star Princess 1/3-17/19, there were only 2 formal nights, not the 3 that we all had expected.  That might affect your packing decisions.  (LOL not mine, I was planning on wearing one outfit twice on two of the formal nights.)  Still felt like I could have left one "fancier" outfit at home and saved space in the suitcase.

I have not stayed at the Courtyard Hotel in Santiago, but having just been in Santiago post-cruise, we did a tour of the city; the Courtyard Hotel (looking on Google maps) is over in the "newer" part of the city, and 30 minute drive approximately, from the government buildings, cathedral, plazas, etc. that you might want to see.  Personally I would not stay over there unless I were a business person, needing to be in that neighborhood.

We stayed at the Hotel Plaza San Francisco, on Avenida Bernardo O'Higgins, in a very good central location.  Service is excellent,  concierge desk very helpful (including foreign exchange).

Go to Café Tortoni on Avenida something de Mayo... a short walk from the Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo.  You might have to stand in line to get in, but it is well worth the wait for both the history and the wonderful milkshakes and pastries.

The HOHO bus does not stop at the cruise terminal.  And the buses can get really, really full, with long lines at a few of the stops.  Do buy tickets on line ahead of time, otherwise they only accept BA pesos cash.

If you want a unique dining experience, you might check into Casa Salt Shaker, a closed-door dining experience - if you have a BA guidebook, you will find their info in it.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening dining at Casa Salt Shaker (although no taxi was required as our pre-cruise hotel was just around the corner).

4, but we fly out to Buenos Aires tomorrow.  Yippee!!

You (they) don't have to keep doing test bookings. When they choose Add or Modify flights, all available flights according to the dates/parameters they put in will show up. Just don't finalize new choices unless you mean it.

Used last year's 3 for Free to book our upcoming South America cruise; $150 pp OBC for a two week cruise.

Just had a text from brother-in-law who is on the POA right now. They were at Kauai overnight last night, and now heading out to sea about 250 miles. Ports are closed, all ships are heading out to sea. He says it is uncertain whether they will be able to dock in Honolulu at the supposed end of their cruise on Saturday.

The sale for free drinks on Princess is called "Sip N Sail" and is being offered right now; that sale is ending pretty soon though. It is available for cabin classes balcony and above, not good for interior or ocean view. Go to Princess.com to see if it applies to a cruise you are interested in.

Thanks for posting! I really enjoyed your Highlights video.

Cruizer Diana, I looked at the photo album from that trip (in 2005). The best snorkeling that we had was at Taha'a, and from my notes it looks like we were docked at Raiatea to do the excursion to Taha'a. We also snorkeled at Huahine and Rangiroa, and the scuba dive I mentioned before at Bora Bora. At Moorea we did a dolphin encounter.

We were on the Sapphire this past May for this itinerary; never found any good reports for anything to do in and around Le Verdon. Then, leaving Guernsey, the captain announced that the dock workers in Le Verdon were on strike so we would not be docking there. Instead he chose La Rochelle, where the dock area required a shuttle bus to get into town. But so worth it! Anyway, you can find tiny bits of info about Le Verdon on the Europe ports of call board here, but not much.

 

Our best snorkling experience was in Roatan and Bonaire.

 

What was your favorite snorkel/dive in Fr Polynesia?

Oh, Bonaire! and oh, Roatan! Wonderful snorkeling and diving. In French Polynesia, we did a two-tank dive at Bora Bora. One inside the reef was just so-so, and the shark dive outside the reef was one of my all time favorites. For snorkeling, we did a guided snorkel trail where we saw clown fish (yay!!) but I can't quite recall which island. I'll come back and post again if I think of it, or if I marked any of my photos. :cool:

I checked out the link for the swim leggings - they look good! I would go with "separates" … a two piece swimsuit (your point about restrooms is so true) and two piece cover ups using a rash guard top and leggings. Then you have great sun coverage as well as comfort and convenience.

Our trip to French Polynesia was a winner! It was our first ever cruise after years of island-based diving vacations, and a great experience in many regards. Hope yours is too!