Advice / Experiences On South African Itineraries From Past Cruisers

[amygutman]

We've checked many different forums, and there is a dearth information online re: South African itineraries and most of it is specific to the Jade. From what I have read you either loved the experience or hated it with very little in between. It looks like the Dawn now has those routes from 2023 onward though no dates in 2025 have been published. We love the NCL product for our family and are looking to book A South African itinerary for 2025. Myself (50F), husband (51M) and son (13M) are very interested in safaris but river cruises would be prohibitively expensive as we'd have to book 2 rooms (most have 2 person occupancies). 

 

We would appreciate anyone with past experiences specific to NCL in Africa to give their opinion - good, bad or ugly. We have been on the Dawn before and really liked the ship.

 

Thank you in advance. Warmest, Amy

[PATRLR]

Did you read the "live" review of Jade from @Ken the cruiser?  Seems like Ken had a lot of useful, recent, information there.

 

 

[amygutman]

34 minutes ago, PATRLR said:

Did you read the "live" review of Jade from @Ken the cruiser?  Seems like Ken had a lot of useful, recent, information there.

 

 

I will be heading there right now! Thank you so much. Somehow this does not come up with my search of the boards. 
Very grateful, Amy

[Bruce Knight]

Did the South Africa cruise on the Jade in January, Found Capetown to be quite amazing!  As far as safaris go my mother and I found that a couple of those type tours where you drive a couple hours to the animal reserve and do a 3-4 drive around the park in a large open air vehicle was more than enough for us, I think to experience a true "safari" you would have to go spend 2-3 days either before or after the cruise at one of the large safari tours where you stay there overnight, just my two cents, if you have other questions happy to try to answer them! 

[julig22]

8 hours ago, amygutman said:

We've checked many different forums, and there is a dearth information online re: South African itineraries and most of it is specific to the Jade.

I believe the itinerary is new, with just the Jade with NCL so not surprising.

 

I took the Capetown RT itinerary in December and it was amazing but different than many other cruises, which is probably why the love it or hate it opinions.  I went for the itinerary and the wildlife - and was not disappointed! I think many of the wildlife excursions did sell out, so not everyone was able to go, and of course it's the luck of the draw on what you see.  We missed seeing a large pride of lions with a fresh kill by just minutes.  We knew where they were but they were well hidden.

The ports, excluding Capetown, tend to be industrial ports which isn't an ideal situation, but I had excursions booked in all the ports so not an issue for me.

I'm looking to go back, but to one of the east or west coast trips - but that's partially because I'm always looking for new places to visit so don't need a repeat.

[Bruce Knight]

Have to agree with Julig there, other than Capetown the other ports were very industrial with very little to do around the ports themselves, it is most certainly not like the Carribean where you can get off and just start walking to the beach with shops and restaurants or find folks to negotiate bargain excursions. 

[Sea Monster 2]

Just want to say that South Africa (and Southern Africa in general) deserves all the time you can give it. The best way to do safari is to go stay in a game park for a few days, or even a couple of different kinds of parks. It was the most amazing trip I’d ever taken when I went 20 years ago, and we finally went back last summer with three other families and had another extraordinary trip. This is one of those places that if you think this is the only chance you’ll have to visit, you should really try to make the most of it.  If you can add a land tour at the beginning or end of your trip, you really should.

[amygutman]

2 hours ago, Bruce Knight said:

Did the South Africa cruise on the Jade in January, Found Capetown to be quite amazing!  As far as safaris go my mother and I found that a couple of those type tours where you drive a couple hours to the animal reserve and do a 3-4 drive around the park in a large open air vehicle was more than enough for us, I think to experience a true "safari" you would have to go spend 2-3 days either before or after the cruise at one of the large safari tours where you stay there overnight, just my two cents, if you have other questions happy to try to answer them! 

Thank you so much!

That's wonderful to hear. Kind of what we thought but it may be exactly the thing we need to get just a taste of Africa without spending $50,000!

Warmest, Amy

[amygutman]

48 minutes ago, julig22 said:

I believe the itinerary is new, with just the Jade with NCL so not surprising.

 

I took the Capetown RT itinerary in December and it was amazing but different than many other cruises, which is probably why the love it or hate it opinions.  I went for the itinerary and the wildlife - and was not disappointed! I think many of the wildlife excursions did sell out, so not everyone was able to go, and of course it's the luck of the draw on what you see.  We missed seeing a large pride of lions with a fresh kill by just minutes.  We knew where they were but they were well hidden.

The ports, excluding Capetown, tend to be industrial ports which isn't an ideal situation, but I had excursions booked in all the ports so not an issue for me.

I'm looking to go back, but to one of the east or west coast trips - but that's partially because I'm always looking for new places to visit so don't need a repeat.

Great advice, thank you.

It's funny, as a veteran of many many days at sea on whale watches how many people demand their money back when they don't necessarily see any whales. They are wild animals that you can't just conjure, but still it's interesting how unrealistically upset people get. Granted you don't come to Africa with the hope of not seeing the big animals so we would be crossing our fingers but I appreciate you sharing your real life experiences.

Warmest, Amy

[amygutman]

7 minutes ago, Sea Monster 2 said:

Just want to say that South Africa (and Southern Africa in general) deserves all the time you can give it. The best way to do safari is to go stay in a game park for a few days, or even a couple of different kinds of parks. It was the most amazing trip I’d ever taken when I went 20 years ago, and we finally went back last summer with three other families and had another extraordinary trip. This is one of those places that if you think this is the only chance you’ll have to visit, you should really try to make the most of it.  If you can add a land tour at the beginning or end of your trip, you really should.

Thank you, and agree 100%.

 

We had been eyeballing a number of combination air and sea safari that includes Victoria Falls, trains and river cruises. There's definitely a time, travel and financial commitment. Ultimately we see ourselves in the next five years or so being able to block off three weeks for a true African experience. We are hoping though in the meantime to whet our appetite with this teaser.

 

Everybody's advice has been greatly appreciated and thank you for offering your honest opinions.

Warmest, Amy

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We had an awesome time on our 38-day B2B from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. I will try my best to answer them if I can.

 

 

[amygutman]

16 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We had an awesome time on our 38-day B2B from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. I will try my best to answer them if I can.

 

 

I cannot wait to read. One of the fun things about cruising is planning - will be devouring this tonight. 
 

Thank you for sharing and to @PATRLR for recommending. 
 

warmest, Amy

[amygutman]

@Ken the cruiser thank you so much -just plowed through your thread and all I can saw is "wow".

Showed it to my husband who responded with "ya know...that might be a great way to celebrate kiddo's HS graduation in a few years". We do have family in Israel and DH has wanted to see the middle east for years...My son and I can make aliya together!

So - we are actually going to out off this trip for a few years, and have our TA keep his eyes out for a similar extended itinerary for 2027. Then, 2029 - full on safari after the "taste" offered on NCL.

I can to the forum with questions, ended up with answers and a 180 on my plans. Love it - that's CC for you!

Have a great morning! Warmest, Amy

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, amygutman said:

@Ken the cruiser thank you so much -just plowed through your thread and all I can saw is "wow".

Showed it to my husband who responded with "ya know...that might be a great way to celebrate kiddo's HS graduation in a few years". We do have family in Israel and DH has wanted to see the middle east for years...My son and I can make aliya together!

So - we are actually going to out off this trip for a few years, and have our TA keep his eyes out for a similar extended itinerary for 2027. Then, 2029 - full on safari after the "taste" offered on NCL.

I can to the forum with questions, ended up with answers and a 180 on my plans. Love it - that's CC for you!

Have a great morning! Warmest, Amy

Thanks! It definitely was one of our all-time favorites, if not the all-time favorite one! One suggestion, book it as soon as they come out. In our case we booked our aft-facing Club balcony almost 26 months in advance, with a refundable deposit of course. The reason I say this is because the cost for our cabin went up over $1,400 pp within 6 months after booking it.

 

Also, if your budget can afford it, get an aft-facing cabin. It definitely was an awesome location to get some pretty cool views, as you might have noticed from some of my pictures! 😃

Edited March 28, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[foodsvcmgr]

I was strongly considering a r/t Capetown sailing for 2025 but looks like NCL will be doing one way now either sailing from or ending in Mauritius.

An interesting itinerary but horrendous airlift getting there from the US.

Also I was much more interested in the scenery and wildlife in Namibia which has been dropped for ‘25.

Very disappointing, especially as no other options below luxury level cruises.

[deefer]

On 3/27/2023 at 12:49 AM, amygutman said:

We've checked many different forums, and there is a dearth information online re: South African itineraries and most of it is specific to the Jade. From what I have read you either loved the experience or hated it with very little in between. It looks like the Dawn now has those routes from 2023 onward though no dates in 2025 have been published. We love the NCL product for our family and are looking to book A South African itinerary for 2025. Myself (50F), husband (51M) and son (13M) are very interested in safaris but river cruises would be prohibitively expensive as we'd have to book 2 rooms (most have 2 person occupancies). 

 

We would appreciate anyone with past experiences specific to NCL in Africa to give their opinion - good, bad or ugly. We have been on the Dawn before and really liked the ship.

 

Thank you in advance. Warmest, Amy

 

We did a 12 day cruise out of Cape Town this past Jan - I did a live review here's the link if you want to take a look:

 

Live from Cape Town: Jan 14-26, 2023. NCL Jade

 

We did a precruise safari and I would absolutely recommend that.  We used Discover Africa to coordinate this and I highly recommend them.  We worked with Megan Warrington - excellent experience - her email is megan@discoverafrica.com.  She also coordinated our stay and tours in Cape Town prior to the cruise.

 

Although I found the entire trip amazing - the cruise portion just a bit disappointing, When we booked this cruise there was only 3 sea days.   We didn't stop in Durban and on day 2 of Richards Bay (it was an overnight port) we could not leave the ship because we had to do some immigration stuff for entry into Namibia - so really, it's a sea day.    For me 5 sea days on a 12 day cruise when you have to fly 30 hours to get there is too many.   We cruise for the ports - not the ship experience. 

 

We did mostly do our own excursions when in port - but had nothing planned for Port Elizabeth and incorrectly assumed we could book something last minute on the ship.  ALL ship excursions were sold out for all ports prior to us getting on the ship - if you plan on using ship excursions make sure you book them in advance. 

 

I just realized that I still have one more entry to do add to my live review - we did table mountain ship tour as an airport excursion that I did not put in yet!  Will do that in the next few days.

 

 

 

[amygutman]

5 hours ago, deefer said:

 

We did a 12 day cruise out of Cape Town this past Jan - I did a live review here's the link if you want to take a look:

 

Live from Cape Town: Jan 14-26, 2023. NCL Jade

 

We did a precruise safari and I would absolutely recommend that.  We used Discover Africa to coordinate this and I highly recommend them.  We worked with Megan Warrington - excellent experience - her email is megan@discoverafrica.com.  She also coordinated our stay and tours in Cape Town prior to the cruise.

 

Although I found the entire trip amazing - the cruise portion just a bit disappointing, When we booked this cruise there was only 3 sea days.   We didn't stop in Durban and on day 2 of Richards Bay (it was an overnight port) we could not leave the ship because we had to do some immigration stuff for entry into Namibia - so really, it's a sea day.    For me 5 sea days on a 12 day cruise when you have to fly 30 hours to get there is too many.   We cruise for the ports - not the ship experience. 

 

We did mostly do our own excursions when in port - but had nothing planned for Port Elizabeth and incorrectly assumed we could book something last minute on the ship.  ALL ship excursions were sold out for all ports prior to us getting on the ship - if you plan on using ship excursions make sure you book them in advance. 

 

I just realized that I still have one more entry to do add to my live review - we did table mountain ship tour as an airport excursion that I did not put in yet!  Will do that in the next few days.

 

 

 

Thank you so much and I will add this to @Ken the cruiser's wonderful review. It's amazing reading the details in the B2B (2B) review - and I found myself spending a lot of time pausing the review to Google a port or location or attractions. 

 

Every review has made me just want to cruise more, and though ultimately we have chosen to do a wonderfully fun Alaska-Hawaii route for our 20th and wait until our 25th for Africa (and make it a land-sea-Africa-Middle East vacation), I have been loving reading more about this fascinating continent. 

 

Thank you and looking forward to the review...will devour on my day off tomorrow!. Warmest, Amy