South Africa-Pre/Post Tours

[wjfan417]

We’re considering a South Africa cruise on the Quest in December. Pre-cruise option is a 4 night Kruger National Park Safari, and post-cruise option is 2 nights in Victoria Falls, 2 nights at Chobe Game Lodge and a night in Johannesburg. Has anyone done either of these, and what did you think of them?

 

Diana

[Host Jazzbeau]

Haven't done this with Azamara, but we did Chobe and Vic Falls with AmaWaterways in 2018.  Victoria Falls is amazing and worth the trip alone.  Chobe was only ok – if you want to see the Big 5, the Kruger extension would be a good choice.

 

My blog of the 2018 river safari trip is here:

jazzbeauxafricansafari2018.wordpress.com

[note: that lion is purring happily 😀]

[Werangels]

We did our own thing which included 5 nights in Vic Falls overlooking a water hole in Vic Falls game reserve. There is so much to do including safaris in the game reserve.  Saw all the big 5 including lion cubs and a rare genet as well as being roadblocked on the road to our accommodation by 2 bull elephants having a stroll! 
 

We did the Zambezi Queen, the same boat as Jazzbeau and loved it.  Loved Chobe and had wonderful elephant sightings.  We would go back in a heartbeat. 

[wjfan417]

1 hour ago, Werangels said:

We did our own thing which included 5 nights in Vic Falls overlooking a water hole in Vic Falls game reserve. There is so much to do including safaris in the game reserve.  Saw all the big 5 including lion cubs and a rare genet as well as being roadblocked on the road to our accommodation by 2 bull elephants having a stroll! 
 

We did the Zambezi Queen, the same boat as Jazzbeau and loved it.  Loved Chobe and had wonderful elephant sightings.  We would go back in a heartbeat. 

We’re thinking about doing a couple days in Victoria Falls on our own before joining the pre-cruise.

[Werangels]

1 minute ago, wjfan417 said:

We’re thinking about doing a couple days in Victoria Falls on our own before joining the pre-cruise.

If you can I would do more.  Just to give some context - we did the sunset cruise on our first evening.  We walked the falls the following day.  We did the helicopter over the falls and the steam train dinner on the bridge.  We also did two night game drives which were fabulous as well as shopping (lots of local craft shops) and pool/relaxation time.  Seeing the falls from every perspective allows you to see the enormity of it.  
 

I will be honest, the cruise was the most disappointing part of the holiday.  We were there for a month.  

[Traveling Fools]

On 4/20/2024 at 2:20 PM, wjfan417 said:

We’re considering a South Africa cruise on the Quest in December. Pre-cruise option is a 4 night Kruger National Park Safari, and post-cruise option is 2 nights in Victoria Falls, 2 nights at Chobe Game Lodge and a night in Johannesburg. Has anyone done either of these, and what did you think of them?

 

Diana

 

I don't know if this will meet your scheduling requirements, but Enrichment Journeys is offering a 10-day pre-cruise adventure & 12-night cruise combination beginning on Jan 30th.  The cruise is aboard the Quest.

 

Here is the pre-cruise itinerary:

 

10-night pre-cruise land program in South Africa and Zimbabwe

o    Johannesburg, South Africa: 1-night hotel stay

      §   Welcome Dinner

o    Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe: 2-night hotel stay

      §   Sunset Dinner Cruise

      §   Full-day tour of the falls with visit to local community

      §   Boma Dinner

o    Kapama Wildlife Reserve, South Africa: 3-night hotel stay

      §   Morning and Afternoon Game Drive

      §   Morning and Afternoon Game Drive

o    Cape Town, South Africa: 4-night hotel stay

      §   Immersive GOLD Dinner Experience

      §   Full-day tour of Cape Town

      §   Full-day tour of Cape Peninsula

      §   Full-day tour of the Cape Winelands & Stellenbosch

[wjfan417]

7 minutes ago, Traveling Fools said:

 

I don't know if this will meet your scheduling requirements, but Enrichment Journeys is offering a 10-day pre-cruise adventure & 12-night cruise combination beginning on Jan 30th.  The cruise is aboard the Quest.

 

Here is the pre-cruise itinerary:

 

10-night pre-cruise land program in South Africa and Zimbabwe

o    Johannesburg, South Africa: 1-night hotel stay

      §   Welcome Dinner

o    Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe: 2-night hotel stay

      §   Sunset Dinner Cruise

      §   Full-day tour of the falls with visit to local community

      §   Boma Dinner

o    Kapama Wildlife Reserve, South Africa: 3-night hotel stay

      §   Morning and Afternoon Game Drive

      §   Morning and Afternoon Game Drive

o    Cape Town, South Africa: 4-night hotel stay

      §   Immersive GOLD Dinner Experience

      §   Full-day tour of Cape Town

      §   Full-day tour of Cape Peninsula

      §   Full-day tour of the Cape Winelands & Stellenbosch

Thanks but those dates don’t work. I booked the December trip a couple days ago.

[Trend]

Depends on the time of year we did independently in February that is rain in Chobe and Vic Falls.

we did Singita Kruger with a company called Big Five. We saw all big five in our 3 nights the went to Vic Falls heavy rain almost washed me away as I am very small.

From there back to Johannesburg overnight the home to TO.

Will never forget it.

Cruise was lovely way to see the coast.

[MamaFej]

On 4/23/2024 at 1:18 PM, Werangels said:

If you can I would do more.  Just to give some context - we did the sunset cruise on our first evening.  We walked the falls the following day.  We did the helicopter over the falls and the steam train dinner on the bridge.  We also did two night game drives which were fabulous as well as shopping (lots of local craft shops) and pool/relaxation time.  Seeing the falls from every perspective allows you to see the enormity of it.  
 

I will be honest, the cruise was the most disappointing part of the holiday.  We were there for a month.  

What was so disappointing about the cruise, please? We have one booked as part of a two month  trip. I'm okay with the cruise paling in comparison to the land portions of the trip, but I am concerned about it being a disappointment, 

 

Thanks. 

[Werangels]

17 hours ago, MamaFej said:

What was so disappointing about the cruise, please? We have one booked as part of a two month  trip. I'm okay with the cruise paling in comparison to the land portions of the trip, but I am concerned about it being a disappointment, 

 

Thanks. 

Firstly, just to clarify for everyone when I referred to being disappointed I was referring to the Azamara cruise.  
 

Mamafej, it was as you say ‘paled in comparison to the land portions of the trip’.  I think when you were bear in mind that December is Winter everywhere in South Africa except Cape Town and it was cold (blankets by the pool rather than towels), rainy and we had many sea days with F8 seas, it wasn’t what we were expecting.  Probably our fault for not doing enough research…..  From booking, ports were changed due to unrest (which is fine) but left us with only 3 ports apart from Cape Town.  Durban and Port Elizabeth are shockingly rundown, unsafe with many, many homeless so tours are imperative.  None of the ports are pleasant on the eye.  We had a couple of excellent safari excursions and enjoyed the 2 nights on the ship in Cape Town but in hindsight we could have had a far more immersive experience on land than sea for the 13 nights of the cruise.  We didn’t visit Mossel Bay which we would have liked to but wasn’t included on our cruise.  Our land safaris meant that we were able to do early morning and night drives which obviously you cannot do from the ship.  Everything we did from Cape Town ie, Kirstenbosch, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula, Franschoek, Stellenbosch could have been done from a hotel so, the reality is we spent 13 nights on a ship for 3 ports.  We felt like the cruise didn’t really scrape the surface of South Africa however, as you are there for two months, you will have an amazing time. 
 

The sunset cruise at Vic Falls was lovely.  A very lovely small boat experience with canapés, hundreds of hippos, birds and a croc or two!  In fact, we were the only passengers which was fabulous.  
 

The Zambezi Queen and Chobe Princesses are owned by Accor Hotels not AMA Waterways and from that we took amazing lifetime memories.  

 

There were things we found disappointing on board also but that appears to be common with a number of other threads on here. I am not wanting to put anyone off and hope you enjoy your cruise and get better weather than we did.  I think it has taught us to really consider whether a cruise is the right way to see some places or not.  We love the immersive nature of AZ when there is a port each day where you can just step off the ship and be surrounded by wonderful villages and towns to explore.  
 

I hope you have a wonderful time. 

[MamaFej]

Thank you, @Werangels. That information is very helpful.

 

 

[Werangels]

Why have the comments querying which cruise I was unhappy with been removed from this thread please?  Jazzbeau our moderator had commented but is now removed.  It makes my first comments nonsensical…..

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Werangels said:

Why have the comments querying which cruise I was unhappy with been removed from this thread please?  Jazzbeau our moderator had commented but is now removed.  It makes my first comments nonsensical…..

They were removed because they caused confusion.  Your answer was very clear and got the thread back on track.