graveytrain

I assume the covid test was a rapid response test. Did you receive your results within 15 minutes? 

Have a great time! I can’t wait to hear more.

20 hours ago, Floriduh said:

We haven't even left the house yet and we already have something to report. After reading two online reviews we discovered that the Hop on/Hop off bus tours are NOT being offered at this time. I contacted our AQSC Reservation Agent, Robert, and, as usual, he replied immediately.

 

The tour schedule HAS changed. The HOHO bus has been replaced by free excursions that you would normally have to pay for. It appears that a "city tour" portion has also been added to the existing premium tour.

 

This does put a little cramp in our plans as we love to sit in an air conditioned bus and learn about the town. My wife has Multiple Sclerosis and not all tours are well suited for a scooter. But we will enjoy the free tour that is offered and just be happy to be cruising again.

 

Will try to attach the new tour schedule.

 

Keep checking back here as we plan on documenting as much of this cruise as possible.

 

Tim and Sandra

NEW Tours.pdf 670.57 kB · 12 downloads

Thank you so much for the update! Keep them coming!

This is wonderful news. Keep us posted. We are “rolling the dice” and waiting until the 3rd week of March to book an April 11 sailing on the Columbia River. Hopefully it will still be available.  We have several dollars tied up in FCC and do not want to book a new cruise unless we are fairly certain to sail. 

What do you think are the chances for an April 2021 sailing?  If you think it is a possibility, how late can river cruises be booked?  March? We are looking  at the Columbia River cruise on the Empress, but I don’t want to book and be issued a FCC in the event of a cancellation. Opinions?  

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review and to post the compasses! Glad you had a great family time

No, express walk off was not offered. As was stated earlier, I’m sure it was due to the steep decline in the walkway off the ship. We had a number 1 luggage tag and the luggage arrived shortly after we reached the terminal. I will mention that we disembarked the ship before any announcements were made. 

Just an update. We made our 10am flight with time to spare. We disembarked before the announcements started, grabbed our bags at the terminal, and hopped in a cab. While it is not ideal, avoiding a red eye was worth the gamble to us. Thanks to everyone for the advice. Without it, we might not have made our flight. 

I am interested, too. We are on the February 3 sailing and I plan on posting the dailies upon return.

Can’t wait to hear more! We are on the February 3rd sailing

On 1/8/2019 at 9:38 AM, ccotting said:

I have only embarked at BA (we went up the west coast back to the US) and we didn’t find the experience particularly difficult.  The ports in SA are mostly container/commercial ports so the use of a bus to get to the terminal proper will be your experience for most of the cruise.  

 

My only addition to the other posts is to encourage you to read the port information.  There is a lot of street crime in BA, we met 5 people who had been robbed on our trip.  Necklaces ripped from necks while they were sitting at a cafe, that sort of thing.  Read the boards and follow the suggestions.  

 

We did also experience some challenge getting currency to run around with but were able to do so at a commercial exchange and to return it.  There is a problem with inflation so your bank will likely not provide (no return for them).  Read the Boards about use of credit cards and bank machines.  Your hotel is fine, some places aren’t.  

 

We took the lessons and had a fine time.  We also experienced stormy weather getting to BA and arrived a day later than planned due to flight cancellations.  We always plan that night in town before the cruise, it’s good practice and wise of you.

Thanks for the reminders on petty theft and credit card usage. I am taking your suggestion and reading up on currency exchange. 

Susan

3 hours ago, JennAngel9 said:

Just off the Eclipse (embarked EZE, left from San Antonio) and wanted to chime in we were also told no walk off self-disembarkation and they were running very late on arrival and everybody appeared to be leaving about an hour after the projected times on their bag tags.  It sounds like the Eclipse disembarking late is a theme this season in South America.

 

Are you by chance staying in a suite? The Michael's Club concierge (who was excellent all cruise) had us off quickly when it was time to meet our guide.

 

Unfortunately we are not in a suite, so concierge is not an option. Do you know what caused the delay in the arrival of the Eclipse to Buenos Aires? We are scheduled to be in Montevideo on Saturday before debarkation on Sunday which does not appear to be a long distance. Due to the short distance, I’m hoping for an early arrival. 

Our trip will be greatly enhanced by the knowledge shared by each of you in this thread. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks to everyone for the reports and advice. It is very much apps. We are on the Eclipse for the February 3 sailing. I will give an update on the port status when we return. 

20 hours ago, mahdnc said:

We disembarked Infinity at  Beunos Aires in Jan 2016. Here are the disembarkation instructions that were issued:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwsk-dPJV5Lqd1Nfcl9JNUFkT1k/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Note that Express Walk Off was not made available. 

 

Our flight was late in the day and so we took a Celebrity type of the city before being dropped off at EXE

 

Thank you majdnc, the disembarkion instructions are very helpful 

11 hours ago, bigdawgs said:

Graveytrain,

 

We did a round trip BA last Feb. on the Infinity. We arrived at the port around 2:30 PM coming from Iguazu Falls (highly recommended). Check in was a breeze by that time. There is a shuttle bus between the terminal and the ship. This takes about 10 minutes. 

 

We we were able to do an express walk-off on disembarkation. We had arranged for a 7:15 AM pickup (we hired  a private car) to EZE airport for a 10:20 AM AA nonstop flight to MIA. Since it was early on a Sunday morning, the traffic was relatively light and the drive took about 35 minutes. We arrived in plenty of time to make our flight. Incidentally Choice Air refused to sell us this flight claiming that there was insufficient time to get to the airport from the ship. Therefore we booked directly with AA. 

 

Hope le this helps.

Larry

This is wonderful news. I know we are gambling, but I’ll take the risk to avoid the red eye to Miami. I wish we could stay an extra day, but it is not possible with work schedule. Thanks for the information 

10 hours ago, SFCAcruiser said:

I disembarked in BA in December 2018 and stayed a few days in BA so I cannot comment on getting to EZE from cruise port. I can tell you that when we did depart BA city center, the cab ride from the Palermo area to EZE took about 1:15 (there was some traffic, and it was raining). Locals will estimate it could take as little as 45 minutes or 2 hours from the city center, dependent upon traffic. 

 

Our ship disembarkation was delayed, for unannounced reasons, and everyone's official "departure time" seems to have been pushed back about an hour. Ex. our 9:30 am departure group was not called until almost 10:30. Again, no explanation was provided. 

 

Once you leave the ship, you must take a port shuttle to the dreary cruise terminal; it was about a 15 minute ride. Then you claim your luggage as you do at every disembarkation, but in BA they want to x-ray it; this did not add any significant extra time for us. Right outside the door is the taxi stand. 

 

So, in summary, I hope your "tight timeline for our flight" allows enough time for some unexpected delays. Obviously you will want to get one of the first departure times. Passengers are not permitted to "self-disembark" in BA.

Best wishes

SFCAcruiser, thanks for the information! We will certainly obtain a early departure time. Do you happen to remember the first time available? 7AM is noted in mahdnc’s  post

10 hours ago, LKN-NC said:

 

We just did this Dec. 23. If you get an early departure time you should be out of the terminal in 30 minutes. Plenty of cabs are waiting. You ride the shuttle and get your bags and walk out door 1 of the terminal. No customs or passport check. they had non-stop shuttles waiting, lined up and running continuously.

 

We had an 8:00 departure for a 9:30 car pickup and were out there by 8:30. People with the 11:30 flight to Miami had no problems. We were the only ship in port, though. If  there are other ships I could see how it might be a real mess. It takes about 45+ minutes to get to the airport. It helps that Eclipse docks on Sunday, far less traffic.

 

 

LKN-NC, thank you for your reply. The 45 minutes to EZE gives me hope

14 hours ago, kathynorth said:

First let me say that you have booked an awesome itinerary IMO. We are just off a cruise that started and ended in BA, but we stayed overnight in BA for our cruise. You'll be headed out to sea on day 1, so need to be at the terminal for check in. Because we were staying overnight we took a side trip to Iguazu and arrived at the terminal around 6pm. Our experience was a bit convoluted because of the late arrival and we took a Celebrity excursion when we disembarked. When we arrived we had difficulty locating the checkin counters, but I'd think this would be easier if you arrive along with the crowd of fellow cruisers. After check in we needed to catch a shuttle (only way to get to/from ship) that took us 10 min for the shuttle to fill up then 10min ride from terminal to ship. There was no self disembarkation. All passengers were required to put bags in the hallway for screening as the customs check took place during the wee hours of the morning. Ship staff did their best to pair early flights with early departures, but lots of people were in line trying to swap out luggage tags on the last sea day. We had a very late flight, so took a Celebrity excursion that dropped us off at the airport. This worked well for us as we had time to eat breakfast and didn't have to deal with our luggage. When we arrived to the airport at the end of our excursion our luggage was waiting for us to check in for our flight. 

Kathynorth, thank you for the information. We will arrive in Buenos Aires around 10am the day before we board so we will have most of the day to tour. What would you suggest? Is there an area that you liked best?

3 hours ago, smtcan said:

We cruised from Buenos Aires a couple of years ago.  Embarkation was the worst we have ever experienced, there were three ships in port and the queues were chaotic.  We stood for more than two hours in a hot hall.  We stayed in BA pre cruise and Valparaiso and Santiago after the cruise, so I can't say how long a cab to the port would take.   Cabs from the airport in BA were easy to obtain from a kiosk outside.  They have fixed rates to different areas unlike the independent taxis which have a reputation for gouging travellers.

Smtcan, thanks for the information. Did you fly into EZE?

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

We stayed over both pre and post cruise.  There is a shuttle you must take to  from the ship to the terminal.  Took about 10 about (loading, drive unloading) but that was 2 years ago.  I did read recently that there is work being done in the port and the shuttle buses have had to take a longer route.  One  bus got lost😳 and some missed there flights. 

 

In the terminal when you are disembarking all luggage had to go through scanners & that was slow.  Lots of folks with large heavy suitcases that they had difficulty lifting on or off the scanner slowed things down.

 

Hopefully someone who has cruised out of there very recently can give you up to date info.

Thank you for the information. Do you have an idea of how long it took from exiting your cabin until you reached the cabin stand? We have a tight timeline for our flight

We are sailing from Buenos Aires on February 3.  Does anyone have suggestions or tips concerning this port? Specifically, how long will it take to get to EZE upon disembarkation? Will we have the opportunity to self assist? Is there a shuttle in the port? Any information is appreciated.

I’m interested!

Thank you very much! We are on the 14 day Canada/New England cruise in October.

You will have an awesome time. It is a great ship with fun entertainment.

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