Christmas in SA - Celebrity or NCL?

[BayAreaCruisers]

We are thinking about a Christmas cruise in South America this year. There appear to be only 2 real choices: Celebrity Infinity and NCL Crown. Both are new cruise lines for us.

 

Celebrity is 13 days and slightly more expensive, but appears to be a larger ship, NCL is 14 days (Falklands included) but cheaper and a smaller ship.

 

We have 2 kids, 11 and 10 years old (well behaved, honest!), so a good kids program will be the top priority.

 

Any opinions on which ship is better? I'm not willing to sacrifice quality for a few bucks, so I'm more interested in overall experience rather than cost.

[captgeo]

Mrs Capt and myself just returned from Christmas "around the horn" on NCL's Crown and had an absolute marvelous time. You can find my brief description on these (NCL) boards and a comprehensive journal posted by Goldryder. The Crown was able to go up some fjords in the Beagle Channel to view glaciers that a larger ship could not as well as transversing between islands in the narrow Chilean archipelago. Also, we anchored in the inner harbor at Port Stanley. We prefer the "free Style" cruising that NCL features -- eat anytime, anywhere and with whomever you want. From what we saw, they have excellent children and teen programs. In our opinion, the ship is in excellent condition; food was good to excellent and the crew one of the friendliest we've encountered anywhere. As this cruise rapidly sells out, I recommend you make a decision soon.

If you go, make sure you include Iguazu Falls -- breathtaking!

Regards,

captgeo

[BayAreaCruisers]

Thanks captgeo!

 

I definitely would include the Falls. Do you think it would be tough to schedule this after the cruise, as it would be New Year's Eve? If we go Celebrity, it would be before the cruise, so likely a little less crowded and/or more affordable?

 

It's hard to compare flights/hotels because it's too far in advance for the web sites I've looked at.

[NewCruiseFan]

I also did the NCL Crown over Christmas/New Years and was there for the 2004/2005 holiday season. Like the Capt, I enjoyed the Crown very much. Our Captain was very good about getting places early so we got to see loads of glaciers and feel relaxed about our schedule.

 

I booked my flight for that trip, and the one I took this past holiday season before the end of February. In 2004 I didn't try to upgrade until April and by then all the upgrades were spoken for. In 2005 I upgraded at the same time as booking my ticket and got the upgrade - it made a huge difference.

 

There are wonderful travel agents in BsAs who can assist, they like to book as far in advance as possible. The one I've used for both trips is Cintia Stella at Wow! Argentina - she's a doll and got me great hotel rates and inter-country flights.

 

have a great time!

[kannna]

My Dh and I were on the Millennium for the holiday cruise. It was a repositioning cruise to South America so I can not tell you about the Horn.

 

Our cruise was supposed to be on Infinity but they switched to Millennium. Millie is in the same class as Infinity and they are basically the same except for decor. The holidays were great there was caroling and a santa parade and all kinds of fun things. It seemed that the kids had a good time. There was midnight mass on Christmas eve. There were also menorahs(sp?) everywhere and there was a service for each evening of Chanuka(sp?). New years was big fun too.

 

We don't have kids but whenever I saw any they looked to be having fun.

 

Neither one of us have ever done NCL so I don't have an opinion of them either way. I can only give you our experience. Good luck on your choice.

 

: )

K

[Keith1010]

I would highly recommend Celebrity and when our children were younger we took them on six celebrity cruises with us. I think they do a nice job for the kids, with the children's programs, and a very nice job for the adults. Their food (I know it is a matter of opinion) is the best of the mass market lines and this is consistent with the ratings that they receive from others, such as the annual Berlitz Ocean Cruising Book.

 

I would recommend going to a bookstore and reading about each of the two ships. I think it provides a nice overview of each ship and might give you some idea as to which ship might be meet the needs of your family.

 

I was in South American on a cruise with my wife last January. South America was a wonderful area of the world to visit with beautiful scenery. Your trip sounds wonderful.

 

Be sure to book airline tickets quickly as that time of the year is very busy with travelers flying to South America. We have friends who go back there every Christmas so based on what they tell me I would recommend looking into air arrangements once you get within the window (around 330 days) from return portion of trip when they are available.

 

Keith

[captgeo]

Hi BayArea Cruiser:

Is that the SF Bay Area or Tampa Bay Area? We lived in the SF Bay area for many years, and now live north of the Tampa Bay area.

We docked in Buenos Aires on New Year's Day, and were bused to the BA domestic airport around 10am where we then flew (1 hour, 55 min) to Iguazu. There was little traffic on the streets, and the airport/plane were not crowded. We did the Argentine side of the falls that afternoon; being a holiday was no problem.

We booked our tour through NCL when we made our initial reservation; all arrangements went off without a hitch, and we had an excellent guide in Iguazu (pronounced e wa zoo).

I agree with the last poster; make your reservation ASAP. Airports and airplanes to and from SA were packed with Holiday travelers -- lots of families.

Best wishes...

[NewCruiseFan]

Hey, CaptGeo, you didn't, by chance, live in the Oakland hills and do the Crown 2004/2005 did you? Asking because friends I met on that cruise moved to Florida last year - it seems coincidental.

 

If my note wasn't clear, yep, like the Capt and Keith you want to book your air as soon as you can after booking your cruise. I flew to Chile in 2004, out of BsAs in 2005, to BsAs in 2005 and out of BsAs in 2005. On all segments of all flights the plane was booked to capacity and they were begging people to give up their seats.

[BayAreaCruisers]

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like we won't go wrong with either ship. Right now we're leaning toward Celebrity, mainly because we'd like to go to the falls before the cruise instead of after.

 

I take it that most people book their own flights rather than through the cruise? Celebrity added on an average of $1400 per person, which seems exhorbitant. I guess it depends on the destination. We cruised with Princess in Australia 2 years ago, and the prices through the cruise were much more reasonable.

[NewCruiseFan]

I paid $1,000 for airfare booking on my own both times plus had the ability to upgrade.