Chilean Fjords: Big Ship vs Little Ship (Sapphire Princess, Azamara Quest)

[Mercruiser]

We were having a discussion in a previous thread about the routes taken through the Chilian Fjords by various ships. Next week, we are sailing the Chilian Fjords on Azamara Quest from Santiago to Buenos Aeries. While waiting for our cruise, I've been monitoring the Quest's progress (heading from Buenos Aeries to Santiago) on one of the cruise mapping sites. While doing so, I also noticed that Sapphire Princess is running the same route as Quest. This provides an opportunity to compare a cruise on a big ship (Island Princess, 2214 passengers) versus a small ship (Azamara Onward, 710 passengers.

 

Shown below is a side-by-side comparison of the routes taken by the two ships over the last few days. On the left, we have the track taken by the Island Princess. Notice how Island Princess goes to to open ocean on two occasions. This allows Island Princess to cruise faster, by being in the open ocean where there are no obstructions. It also makes a less appealing cruise, IMHO. I'd rather be looking at land on both sides of the ship than be out on the open ocean seeing land that is 30+ miles away.

 

On the right, notice how Azamara Quest stays in the Chilian Fjords "inside passage" the whole way. IMHO, this makes a much better cruising experience. There is land to look at and photograph, at all times. As an additional benefit, there are little to no waves, compared to being on the open ocean.

 

Edited January 19 by Mercruiser

[Torquer]

Very interesting comparison.  However, I think your analysis may be flawed in claiming that the differences in the route is due to the size of the ship.  It may be that Princess wanted a shorter cruise.

 

According to Cruisemapper, both ships left Punta Arenas on January 16.  The Princess ship goes straight to San Antonio with no further port stops and gets there January 20.  The Azamara ship has port stops in Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Montt and gets to San Antonio on January 22.  So there are two extra days of cruising so it makes sense that can get into the fjords more, and in fact the two extra ports are in the fjords.  I am following a blog for a similar size Holland America ship to the Princess ship, it takes 6 days to go between those two places and goes to the two extra ports Azamara goes to.

 

All that said, I agree with you that spending time in the fjords is better than cruising the open ocean.  We are preparing for a cruise next month on Oceania (about 50% more passengers than Quest), and we spend 7 days between Punta Arenas and San Antonio, so even one more day than Azamara.

[Mercruiser]

Torquer,

 

Thanks for your response.

 

I think my hypothesis is correct: Smaller ships are more likely (than big ships to) to take the "inside passage", versus heading out to sea. But you make a good point that my one example does not prove the hypothesis.

 

We will get a better comparison next week when Azamara Quest and Norwegian Sun (1936 passengers) follow the exact same itinerary through the Chilean Fjords.

 

22 Jan - Depart San Antonio Chile

24 Jan - Puerto Montt

25 Jan - Puerto Chacabuco

28 Jan - Punta Arenas

[Mercruiser]

I was studying these itineraries in detail while planning for this cruise a year ago. I signed up for a 7-day free trial on Marine Traffic that allowed me to see 1-year of historical data for any ship.

 

Here is Island Princess' track from Feb 5 2023. This is not so interesting of a cruise compared to what I'll show next.

 

 

Now lets look at a series of Oceania Marina tracks. WOW! I'm especially impressed with this Marina itinerary. They spent a lot of time exploring the fjords around Puerto Aisen.  Which Oceania sailing are you going on?

 

I want to try Oceania, but have not done so yet.

 

[Torquer]

13 hours ago, Mercruiser said:

Which Oceania sailing are you going on?

 

I want to try Oceania, but have not done so yet.

We sail on Oceania Marina next month on February 14 from San Antonio, through Antarctica, to Buenos Aires.  Thanks for the tip about the free trial of Marine Traffic.  I will probably do that after our cruise to get detailed map information about our completed cruise route.  Keep up your interesting research!

[Mercruiser]

10 minutes ago, Torquer said:

We sail on Oceania Marina next month on February 14 from San Antonio, through Antarctica, to Buenos Aires.  Thanks for the tip about the free trial of Marine Traffic.  I will probably do that after our cruise to get detailed map information about our completed cruise route.  Keep up your interesting research!

Sounds wonderful. Oceania Marina looks to have a great itinerary. I hope to try Oceania soon.

 

Have a great cruise.

[Mercruiser]

Here is an update on Sapphire Princess' recent southbound track from Valparaiso to the Antarctic. This itinerary completely ships the Chilean Fjords altogether. This is a tradeoff of including the 5-day RT to the Antarctic in 16-day Valparaiso to Buenos Aeries cruise. You have to cut things out to make it fit in 16 days. 

 

I am on Azamara Quest right now, enjoying our mostly inside passage cruise. Between Valparaiso and Montt, there is no sheltered water route. We had large swells all the way down to Puerto Montt. The barf bags were stationed all over the ship.  We were not bothered by the swells, but many were. 

 

We have 11 hours of open water cruising today, before ducking back into the Chilean Fjords for the remainder of our journey to Punta Arenas. I'll post Quest's and Norwegian Sun's tracks when completed. 

 

[Mercruiser]

Glacier Detour

 

At 8:00 am, our Captain announced that we are running 2 hours ahead of schedule. So with 2 hours in our pocket, we will spend it making a detour to view a tidewater glacier (I don't remember the name).

 

 

Here is a map showing the glacier location (red dot). A side trip like this, is something that a small ship like Quest will do.

 

Now let's see what Norwegian Sun, our traveling companion, is doing. The orange ship is the Norwegian Sun, showing her track in blue. The Sun did not detour to see the glacier (red dot). Looking at her progress, Sun had plenty of time to make this detour, but her Captain chose not too (or maybe is not allowed to by Corporate).

 

Also note the Sun has exited the Fjords. There were large swells when we were on the open sea. I'm glad we are staying in the Fjords. The water in the Fjords is calm and the scenery is way better.

 

Edited January 27 by Mercruiser

[Mackdogmolly]

@Mercruiser, thanks for this interesting post! 

[hawkesbaynz]

Interesting thread. We were on that Oceania Marina cruise last February. We went to the pleasant town of Castro as there was bad weather at Puerto Chacabuco. The Chilean Fjords were fantastic. Amazing eating dinner on a beautiful Summers evening watching the scenery go by from the window in the Marinas fantastic restaurants. Shipwrecks and all!

 

We passed by a glacier at 5am in the morning. Actually one of the worst days of weather. I got up topside whilst DW rolled over in bed. There were better glaciers in Antarctica for her.
 

We had great weather for the entire cruise including Drakes Passage, Antarctica and Falklands.

 

Enjoy Princess and Celebrity cruises too. Have Azamara booked too. However no line could beat Oceania’s itinerary for SA. 

[Mercruiser]

15 minutes ago, hawkesbaynz said:

Interesting thread. We were on that Oceania Marina cruise last February. We went to the pleasant town of Castro as there was bad weather at Puerto Chacabuco. The Chilean Fjords were fantastic. Amazing eating dinner on a beautiful Summers evening watching the scenery go by from the window in the Marinas fantastic restaurants. Shipwrecks and all!

 

Perhaps this is the shipwreck you speak of. We passed this while dining in the specialty restaurant. In contrast, the Norwegian Sun missed this scene while cruising offshore in 4 meter swells.

 

This scene reminds one that constant vigilance is required to sail in the Fjords. All it takes is a few minutes of in inattention to put your ship on the rocks.

 

I suspect this is why many cruise ships prefer to sail 30 miles offshore. Out there, you can sail in the wrong direction for over an hour before hitting anything 

 

Edited January 27 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

16 minutes ago, hawkesbaynz said:

 

We passed by a glacier at 5am in the morning. Actually one of the worst days of weather. I got up topside whilst DW rolled over in bed. There were better glaciers in Antarctica for her.
 

Our favorite glacier was the Perito Moreno in Argentinian Patagonia. We went on a 10-day DIY car trip to Patagonia before the cruise. It was wonderful and easy to do.

 

 

 

[Mercruiser]

We arrived in Punta Arenas about 30 minutes ago. Here is a GPS recording of our route from San Antonio Chile (Santiago) to Punta Areas. You can view these files in Google Earth (or just about any other mapping program.)

 

Here is what a small section of the track looks like in Google Earth.

 

Here are the track log files. There are a couple of gaps in the track, when my GPS logger battery died.

20240128.kmz 20240127.kmz 20240126.kmz 20240125.kmz 20240124.kmz 20240123.kmz 20240122.kmz

Edited January 28 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:23 AM, Mercruiser said:

I think my hypothesis is correct: Smaller ships are more likely (than big ships to) to take the "inside passage", versus heading out to sea. But you make a good point that my one example does not prove the hypothesis.

 

We will get a better comparison next week when Azamara Quest and Norwegian Sun (1936 passengers) follow the exact same itinerary through the Chilean Fjords.

 

22 Jan - Depart San Antonio Chile

24 Jan - Puerto Montt

25 Jan - Puerto Chacabuco

28 Jan - Punta Arenas

Now that Azamara Quest and Norwegian sun have completed their Chilean Fjords sailings, we have the opportunity to test my original hypothesis: Smaller ships are more likely (than big ships to) to take the "inside passage", versus heading out to sea.

 

Additionally, the Silver Nova followed this route a day behind Quest and Sun. Silver Nova is described by her owners as "Ultra Luxury Cruise Travel with Silver Nova". So lets include Silver Nova in this comparison.

 

Azamara Quest - Spent the most time cruising in the fjords. She only exited the fjords for 11 hours. This 11 hour part of the trip has no sheltered route available. So every ship, large or small, has to sail in unsheltered waters for this part of the trip. Quest also added a two hour side trip to visit a tidewater glacier.

 

Norwegian Sun - Spent a good amount of time in the fjords (compared to Silver Nova), but came out of the fjords two more times than Quest, and did not make the glacier viewing side trip. The part that surprised me was Sun cruised a longer distance and burned extra fuel to make these trips out to open ocean. Both the Quest and the Sun cruised pretty consistently at 17 knots, both in the fjords and in the open ocean.

 

Silver Nova - I really don't get why the Silver Nova, a self-described Ultra Luxury ship, spent so much time outside the fjords. This was not a comfortable ride for the guests. We had consistent 4 meter swells from the south and gale force winds from the north. 4 meter swells (12 feet for the metrically challenged) is not a comfortable ride. The barf bags were put out for Quests' 11 hours in these swells.

 

Here are my final grades for each cruise line (my thread, my rules):

 

Azamara Quest - A

Norwegian Sun - B

Silver Nova - C

 

Seeing the other two ship tracks, I am really happy to be on Azamara Quest right now.

 

I think the Silver Nova really did not deliver on their promise of ultra luxury expedition cruising. Her passengers missed out on some really great Chilean Fjords scenery (see posts 8 and 11) and they had an unnecessarily rough ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29 by Mercruiser

[Andi2008]

On 1/19/2024 at 4:23 PM, Torquer said:

We sail on Oceania Marina next month on February 14 from San Antonio, through Antarctica, to Buenos Aires.  Thanks for the tip about the free trial of Marine Traffic.  I will probably do that after our cruise to get detailed map information about our completed cruise route.  Keep up your interesting research!

We will be on this cruise with you and hope to meet you at the Meet and Greet. We are from Seattle area and I am even more excited about the trip after seeing the wonderful screen shots showing the route Marina has taken before. 

 

Andrea

[Andi2008]

On 1/19/2024 at 4:35 PM, Mercruiser said:

Sounds wonderful. Oceania Marina looks to have a great itinerary. I hope to try Oceania soon.

 

Have a great cruise.

Thank you so much for posting the Marina's route maps of a previous itinerary. We too will be on board the Feb 14 departure from Santiago to BA and I plan to print out your route maps to take with me 🙂

 

Andrea