Thinking of going to South America and Antarctica on Princess ?

[scubacruiserx2]

6 minutes ago, Greg4502 said:

I was on the Emerald Princess, while taking this cruise. The people that did take this excursion said it was worth the money and liked it very much. A once in a lifetime thing, if you are never going back that way.

 

We're glad to hear that they enjoyed their excursion . Princess may only be able to cruise around Antarctica a couple of more years but that tours runs from Puenta Arenas , Chile so it may continue to operate from SA .

[frugaltravel]

On 10/8/2019 at 7:25 AM, steelers36 said:

It's nice to share, but this is a Princess board and the trip was on HAL???

The reference is to those who might be traveling on a similar cruise with Princess 😀

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Buenos Aires

 

 

 

Ushuaia

 

 

 

 

Antarctica

 

 

 

 

Stanley Falkland , Islands

 

 

 

 

Punta Arenas

 

 

Buenos Aires

 

 

 

Ushuaia

 

 

 

 

Antarctica

 

 

 

 

Stanley Falkland , Islands

 

 

 

 

Punta Arenas

 

 

 

Montevideo

 

 

 

 

Montevideo

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We flew into Buenos Aires on a day flight arriving in the evening. We stayed at the Amerian Hotel .

 

The Amerian Hotel

 

 

We would be staying in BA after our cruise but we were leaving in the morning for Patagonia .  An 11:30  3 hour flight further South .

 

 

 

A ham and cheese and Mate tea bag 

 

 

Beautiful lakes ,

 

 

snow capped mountains and Lenticular clouds . This is why we came here .

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Coming in for a landing

 

 

 

Finding our luggage was easy but we had to pass it through an X-Ray machine . At our rent a car place we were told that our rental car had been wrecked by the wind flipping it into a tree . We were also cautioned to park facing into the wind to avoid having the doors ripped off . Welcome to Patagonia !

 

The crosswind was about 50 mph from the left ( West ) . Shots from the car with my pocket camera

 

 

Guanaco alert

 

[Go-Bucks!]

This thread has been very interesting! I'll be on the Island Princess in January and February, 2020 circumnavigating South America including Easter Island. I'm taking an overland tour to the Galapagos islands and Machu Picchu. We'll be going to ports of Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Falkland island and Montevideo, as well as 18 others. I think this is the best SA itinerary I've ever seen. 

[HappyCruiserettu]

On 10/6/2019 at 4:10 PM, NavyVeteran said:

No one is sailing "to" Antarctica on Princess - you may be sailing "by" Antarctica. If you want to sail "to" Antarctica, you have to book a ship with no more than 500 passengers.

One can go "to" a place and never enter.   e.g., "I went to the bank, but it was closed."

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

This thread has been very interesting! I'll be on the Island Princess in January and February, 2020 circumnavigating South America including Easter Island. I'm taking an overland tour to the Galapagos islands and Machu Picchu. We'll be going to ports of Ushuaia, Punta Arenas, Falkland island and Montevideo, as well as 18 others. I think this is the best SA itinerary I've ever seen. 

 

It sounds like a great trip ! Punta Arenas has day trips to Antarctica . We went to see the Torres del Paine from there which we will show later . Also Magdelena Island for penguins which we will also show later .

[frugaltravel]

On 10/6/2019 at 4:10 PM, NavyVeteran said:

No one is sailing "to" Antarctica on Princess - you may be sailing "by" Antarctica. If you want to sail "to" Antarctica, you have to book a ship with no more than 500 passengers.

I cruised "to" Antarctica and never got off the ship. Fortunately your semantics are incorrect 😀

[scubacruiserx2]

Horses 

 

 

Sheep

 

 

 

The turn to Route 40 . We 're going to El Chalten

 

 

A Rhea beside the road

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The clouds shadow on the hills

 

 

 

 

[paradiselivin1]

19 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

We were also cautioned to park facing into the wind to avoid having the doors ripped off .

Oh my! Sounds a bit like Iceland where you are required to insure against the likelihood of wind damage. Thanks for sharing. We're doing this cruise on the Coral in December.

[scubacruiserx2]

48 minutes ago, paradiselivin1 said:

Oh my! Sounds a bit like Iceland where you are required to insure against the likelihood of wind damage. Thanks for sharing. We're doing this cruise on the Coral in December.

 

We didn't drive in Iceland when we were there but we hope to in August . Hopefully this will help you in planning or give you ideas of what to expect or see .

[scubacruiserx2]

After passing the lake we turned West into the wind which made driving easier .We really prefer the open road driving and scenery to the cities

 

 

More horses

 

 

An Estancia and our first sighting of Mt. Fitz Roy in the center

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

A shrine at the top of a hill

 

 

Getting closer

 

 

[icat2000]

So basically, Princess with its current ships in the future are not going to be able to do Antarctica? 

[scubacruiserx2]

9 hours ago, icat2000 said:

So basically, Princess with its current ships in the future are not going to be able to do Antarctica? 

 

From our understanding , Yes .

 

 

 

Anyone considering an Arctic or Antarctic cruise should be aware of the new IMO Polar Code that comes into full force on 1st Jan. 2022.

The code will effect all large cruise ships & current expedition vessels as they renew there 5 year certificates before 2022.

New buildings are built to the code & this is why many have delayed completion dates & are costing a lot more to build.

A few ships have had very expensive refits to meet the code requirements.

[scubacruiserx2]

Entering El Chalten . The peaks were backlit and we were hoping for better light in the morning 

 

 

 

We stayed in El Chalten which is a hiking area , but with bad knees we will not do much hiking . We stayed at Los Cerros in the CH. Darwin room . We had a shower and a large tub which has a window overlooking the bedroom with a selfie reflection .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Some views from our hotel before dinner

 

 

 

 

We had dinner at La Taperia which was very good . I didn't bring my camera so no food photos . This photo is from Google Maps .

 

 

At bed time the wind almost sounded like a hurricane . But it died over night and the sun was out so we jumped in the car for a ride , retracing our steps .

[travelbug615]

On 10/18/2019 at 9:22 AM, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We're glad to hear that they enjoyed their excursion . Princess may only be able to cruise around Antarctica a couple of more years but that tours runs from Puenta Arenas , Chile so it may continue to operate from SA .

I see someone posted about new safety codes for the ships sailing around Antarctica.  Are there extra  safety measures taken on oboard that you could notice on current sailings on Princess ships?

Edited October 20, 2019 by travelbug615

[scubacruiserx2]

30 minutes ago, travelbug615 said:

I see someone posted about new safety codes for the ships sailing around Antarctica.  Are there extra  safety measures taken on oboard that you could notice on current sailings on Princess ships?

 

We observed no additional safety measures on our cruise . A lot of the code is to protect the environment . We were not allowed to eat , drink ,  smoke or make loud noises outside while in Antarctic waters .

[scubacruiserx2]

 

 

 

We began heading Southeast on Route 23 taking photos .

 

 

We saw this road sign for some islands far out to sea that we would be visiting on the cruise .

 

 

There has been a dispute there between Argentina and the U.K. Malvinas is the Argentinian name and the Falkland Islands is the British one .

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Mirador El Chalten

 

 

We turned off on a gravel road to the Puerto Bahia Tunel and saw this Guanaco

 

 

[nattie]

Just to clarify, these new codes that will be effective in 2022, are only for Antarctic waters? Would "around the Horn/Drake passage" cruises be impacted also? I am very interested in a cruise around the Horn, but would be OK not doing Antarctica at all. If all of them are impacted, I need to step up my planning!

[scubacruiserx2]

41 minutes ago, nattie said:

Just to clarify, these new codes that will be effective in 2022, are only for Antarctic waters? Would "around the Horn/Drake passage" cruises be impacted also? I am very interested in a cruise around the Horn, but would be OK not doing Antarctica at all. If all of them are impacted, I need to step up my planning!

 

Our understanding is that it affects Antarctica and the Arctic Circle including Greenland . For this reason we booked a cruise that does a couple of ports there for next Summer . Around the Horn should be OK .