Silver Explorer Nov 23 South America..

[kimanjo]

Has anyone done this itinerary before???  The 3 days at Puerto Natales, is this hiking, zodiac explorations?

Is this considered an expedition cruise.  I can really find nothing, but I'm interested in it if its not just cruising, but active exploration.

 

ANY info would be great!

 

 

[jpalbny]

We did the segment prior to this - Guayaquil to Valparaiso (which was fantastic, BTW). Our friends have done the next segment on to Ushuaia. I will ask them what it was like in PNT. We have flown through there but went up to Torres del Paine. I would imagine that you could (and that SS would) have some excursions in Torres del Paine, as it's only a 2h drive from the town to the park, and the park (weather permitting) is spectacular!!

 

BTW you are not really there 3 days - the itinerary is misleading. You arrive at 8:30PM on day 1, and leave 7:30AM day 3. So you really have one day there.

 

We were just in Torres del Paine in January. I have pictures in SmugMug and I did a blog on the trip too - if you want an idea of what is there. Links are in my signature. Obviously you may have a different experience visiting by cruise ship, but the park still looks the same. 🙂

[kimanjo]

Thanks so much!  Could you ask your friends about their segment?  I am wondering if it is really just a "positioning" segment to get the ship to Ushuaia (all drive by's) or real expedition with active excursions.

 

thanks again, will check out your links

J

[jpalbny]

It sounds like it's a legitimate cruise in and of itself, and not just a throwaway repositioning cruise. But a little more scenery (we obviously didn't have glaciers to cruise by, on the northern itinerary). We also did some LONG excursions on our cruise, where there were 4+ hours on the bus each way. The destinations were spectacular, and worth the bus ride (Atacama Desert, Ariquepa, etc) but it made for some long days. From my friends:

 

It was a lot different then the one we did together. The biggest difference was that it was a lot more of just cruising the Fiords with zodiacs going close to the glaciers when possible. There was definitely a lot more hiking involved (if that is what you chose to do). One of the hikes was Torres del Paine. That was a fantastic day. We chose not to do the ranch bbq but we missed out on all the condors that live in the mountain by the ranch. Everyone raved about that. The excursions that we did were definitely a lot closer to the port with the Torres being the furthest. Bottom line, I found this cruise so breathtaking and relaxing that I was pushing DW to do it one more time before they removed the Explorer from the circuit.  

 

So my take would be that there is more scenery and nature, and less culture, on this trip than there was on ours. We had a nice mix of wild and civilized, nature and anthropology, short and long excursions. 

Edited April 14, 2019 by jpalbny

[kimanjo]

23 hours ago, jpalbny said:

It sounds like it's a legitimate cruise in and of itself, and not just a throwaway repositioning cruise. But a little more scenery (we obviously didn't have glaciers to cruise by, on the northern itinerary). We also did some LONG excursions on our cruise, where there were 4+ hours on the bus each way. The destinations were spectacular, and worth the bus ride (Atacama Desert, Ariquepa, etc) but it made for some long days. From my friends:

 

It was a lot different then the one we did together. The biggest difference was that it was a lot more of just cruising the Fiords with zodiacs going close to the glaciers when possible. There was definitely a lot more hiking involved (if that is what you chose to do). One of the hikes was Torres del Paine. That was a fantastic day. We chose not to do the ranch bbq but we missed out on all the condors that live in the mountain by the ranch. Everyone raved about that. The excursions that we did were definitely a lot closer to the port with the Torres being the furthest. Bottom line, I found this cruise so breathtaking and relaxing that I was pushing DW to do it one more time before they removed the Explorer from the circuit.  

 

So my take would be that there is more scenery and nature, and less culture, on this trip than there was on ours. We had a nice mix of wild and civilized, nature and anthropology, short and long excursions. 

 

Thank you very much.  DH will cruise agree to cruise ONLY if it's active.   If we cruise European ports, we will walk 7-9 miles a day.  Hike when we can.  When we were tendered in Santorini, we walked up and down the "donkey stairs".  When we got back to the ship, I napped, and he when back for more ( to time it to see how long it actually takes without me taking "scenic vista breaks").

 

We are also looking at Galapagos and eventually Antartica.

[Stumblefoot]

50 minutes ago, kimanjo said:

...to see how long it actually takes without me taking "scenic vista breaks".

I didn’t know it was supposed to be a race! 😁 We prefer your style, albeit with lots and lots of scenic breaks.