South America Cruise Reviews

We were very impressed with the service on Oceania.  My special dietary requests were handled the very best ever.  We enjoyed the fish dishes and tried to have some daily, either at lunch or dinner.  Don Klein gave very detailed talks about the Amazon and that made the trip much more interesting.  I would encourage people that are between 60 and 85 to choose Oceania.

This cruise has so much variety in landscape, culture and weather.  We saw so much and learned so much!  There are a lot of sea days, so if you want a new port every day, this isn't the cruise for you.  This was on of my top life experiences in terms of what I saw...especially the Chilean fjords,  glacier alley and the penguins in their own habitat.  You get a taste but not the "full on" beauty of the jagged peaks of Patogonia.

We were fortunate and had terrific weather, the highlights were Stanley and Puerto Montt. Food was pretty good for the most part, I had a great stateroom steward. Most of the entertainment was enjoyable and truly entertaining. The decor of the ship was very tasteful and attractive.

The shore excursion staff was less than helpful and, because of them, I will think twice about booking Princess. It took two days to get our dining arrangements changed (there were three of us traveling together but we had been booked in separate dining rooms). They ignored us the first day, the second day finally responded, but none too friendly.

Gentleman in the computer room was very helpful and accommodating when passengers needed help or made mistakes and so they were charged unintentionally for the internet. That was a plus. I noticed him refund and explain what had happened to more than one passenger, including me.

Shows got filled up quickly, so often there wasn't space, even 20 minutes ahead for the early show. That was a great inconvenience. It seems there is a better way to handle it. It can be difficult for elderly people, the clientele of this particular cruise, to stay up until the 10:15 show. 

The cruise line encourages passengers to use their stateroom restrooms, however I didn't feel the public restrooms were kept up very well at all compared to other cruise ships I have been on. Nor were there very many. 

There were not as many onboard activities and games as I have seen on other cruise lines. That was a minus. It would have been very nice to have more of a variety of activities and have them more often. The activities staff was excellent, however.

Princess did a very poor job of tendering in two ports, especially Punta Arenas, Chile. That was one of the worst tender experiences I have ever had. They did a terrific job in Puerto Montt. The problem with poor tendering is that it takes port time away from everyone on the ship who paid to come to see that destination.

Overall, the destination was amazing, but Princess was lacking. I will book other cruise lines before I book them again. 

The ship is beautiful. The food was very good, from the Terrace Cafe to the Main Dining Room. We enjoyed the Polo Grill immensely. The staff was amazing. They could not have been more attentive and friendly.

Great Ports,  Great staff on board,  Bakery did fantastic,  Wish we had magnifying mirror in cabin  bathroom. Tender  was put in water just below our room on 3 days.  Very noisy.  This cabin heard lots of creepy noises and water running through some pipe in corner of room. They only make towel animals on request.   Only 2 great entertainers the whole 14 days  Singers and dancers need better choreography.  Clocks had wrong time on ship until about the last 2 days.  Food was  average.  In the 2 weeks we got the same menu twice.   On the whole we had a good time.

We had good weather and very good entertainment in the evening.  Very good lectures for every port stops from historical and geographical point of view.

Some negative side of trip that ping pong tables on the ship were in very bad shape with unpredictable reflection of ball from the table because of it and as a result a lot of frustration.

When you some days on ocean you would like to watch couple hours ships TV, but the loaded program was very poor assembled because the same movies you can watch 14 days on the road that was not a fun. 

It was a great tour, good weather, excellent tours, knowledgeable guides, and nice bus rides.  It was great to see S.A. through the eyes of nationals - their excitement about their country radiated in what they said.

I still prefer Norwegian Cruise Lines - trips are always well done!!!!

Overall we enjoyed the cruise. We really liked the 14 days and having so many days at sea to relax and enjoy the ship/activities onboard. It was nice to have the Port export onboard to explain what was available in each port. Better maps should have been provided in his presentations and by the cruise line to give to passengers before getting into the ports.

We were very disappointed in the gift shop on the NCL Sun. Terrible offerings if any for Cape Horn items. Photo gallery only had an Alaskan Photo album for sale none with South America. Again, very disappointing and unacceptable for such a Bucket List type cruise.

We enjoyed the ship specialty restaurants, our cabin and public areas. All the public dining dining rooms were very nice also.

All service in restaurants, bars, shops, cabin stewards, internet café, front desk area, Cruise Next Experts were all very courteous and eager to please!!!!

The cruise around Cape Horn was a lifetime goal.  We were prepared for bad weather, missed ports, seasickness, and all the miscellaneous mishaps that we had read from previous reviews.  None of that happened! This was definitely the best cruise ever!  Check in for the boat was easy and efficient.  The luggage arrived at our cabin about 2 hours after we did (just enough time to familiarize ourselves with the boat and have lunch).  All the staff and crew that we encountered throughout the cruise were helpful, curteous and seemed genuinely happy to have us on board.  (How do they do that when you know they just said goodbye to the previous 2,000 people on the boat?). We were blessed with possibly the best weather in recorded history for this part of the world.  Cape Horn was flat calm, the sun shone in Stanley, Falkland Islands and cruising through the fjords of Chile was an unexpected and amazing adventure.  We did have a 24 hour system that brought fresh winds and matching seas but it was a day for being at sea anywa and did not affect our ports of call.  We really enjoy the freestyle cruising offered by Norwegian.  There are plenty of activities for those so inclined, lots of music of various styles and some great shows along with some great specialty restaurants - enough to keep us as busy as we wanted to be.  We will be setting sail with Norwegian again!

Seabourn Quest was wonderful as always.  The officers, staff, and crew all make your cruise a superb experience.  The food is excellent, including the new addition of Thomas Keller's appetizers, mains, and desserts.  Seabourn also provides an all inclusive wine program that offers some very nice wine choices.  And, if you want something that is not currently offered with the night's dinner, then, the wine staff will go get it for you.  Excellent!  The Observation Bar is a great place to get cocktails, wine and other drinks while interacting with other guests and listening to great piano melodies.  The Seabourn entertainment program offers something for everyone.  We had a great cast of Seabourn Singers who performed Broadway music and a Crossroads show that featured Rock 'n Roll and Country.  Other performers included a great magician, a singer/tap dancer, classical pianist and the Seabourn Club Band.   Seabourn is the best cruise line!

Great cruise with fantastic scenery.  Excellent food.  Very professional service staff.  Only shortcoming was lack of information -- we would have liked more information and recommendations on shore tours and more detailed information on dismemberment procedures. 

The cruise met and exceeded our expectations for scenery.  Views were breathtaking and captain did excellent job of informing us each day of what and at what time we would pass by scenic locations.  Ship is just right size for this trip and staff was very polite and  helpful.

However, AC was very poor in our stateroom.  We were on deck seven and little to no AC in suite for the first three days.  We were not alone ...it was an issue in many cabins we learned from talking with other passengers.  It was pronouncedly bad when we were in warm climate portion of trip.   I have been on more than three dozen cruises and never encountered such a problem. It was terrible to try to sleep. It was not acknowledged by staff as a problem.  AC in activities area of ship was fine.

The dining room was clearly understaffed.  You had to ask repeatedly for anything from iced tea (which was awfully weak) to cream instead of milk for your table.  The waiters were very humble and kind but obviously overloaded every single night.

We took tours at every stop and found some good and some very poor and many were over priced for the quality we had expected from H-A.

In summary we loved the cruise itself  but found the ship in need of attention in cooling system and dining room.  Stateroom service was outstanding..

The cruise lived up to my expectations. We got very lucky in that the weather was perfect. I suspect that if we skipped a port or two due to the weather, I'd have a different opinion. The onboard activities were very good. Food was average to very good in the main dining room and casual dining buffet. Dinner at La Cirque was way over rated. The tasting of South America was extremely good.

This WAS the trip of a lifetime.  With about 90 passengers, you get to know just about all your fellow travelers, and we made great friends.  The staff was also outstanding.  Special mention goes to bartender Ana, always prepared and always with a smile.

 Loved the snorkeling opportunities.  Excellent, informative naturalists (though sometimes things got a bit repetitive), and helpful presentations.  The walks can be a challenge, so invest in good trekking shoes before you go.  You may want to consider below the knee pants or knee pads, because falling on the lava rock would not be pleasant and you may want to kneel to take photos. Also loved having walking sticks available.

The ship is comfortable and enjoyable.  My only complaint is that the mattresses and pillows could be of a better quality.

Cruising Cape Horn on Star Princess  fulfilled a bucket list wish for us.   Really enjoyed the Star Princess.   Very friendly crew and staff.   Excellent entertainment and food.   Spectacular scenery!   Seas were rough and Windy for the days around the Horn area.  But the Captain kept everyone well informed.   Missed one port due to cross winds...unable to tender passengers but that enabled us to see the passage in daylight.  

The Land Tour to Machu Picchu was absolutely fabulous - such a "wondrous" place to visit and all the other sights that we saw were great.  The hotels were first class and the tour staff were fantastic.  The cruise portion was also great, though the shore excursions were very expensive and some were not good value for money.  Overall this was a trip of a lifetime!

First cruise for my wife and me. This 2 week cruise was a blast! Good balance between sea days and port days with an incredible choice of activities. We enjoyed the wild beauty of the open seas, Amelia glacier, rugged Chilean archipelago, and more. The on board amenities are wonderful, the food and service were amazing. The only negative was hit or miss quality of on board entertainment.

Beginning, middle and end were good but some of the other ports were just OK.

Some of the ports really had very little to offer. The excursions were overpriced and not very exciting. Montevideo was littered with cigarette butts all over the city. I can't believe the city doesn't take more pride to how they look to visitors. Skip the Falklands and just go to big local zoo to see penguins and sea lions. It wasn't worth the money or the 5 hours on the bus to see them.

While there were many impressive aspects, and our primary concern of safety was met, we felt there were areas that could have fairly easily added another star to the rating.

The bathroom glasses were not changed for the entire trip. The attendant simply dried them with a towel and left them. I'm sure that wasn't the attendant's fault -- it's the ship policy. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same glasses are still there for the next cruise.

The shows were not particularly good. The showband was great, and was usually the best part of the show. The entertainers that had shows were not very high quality. A good guitar player is not necessarily a good entertainer.

Greg Sampson was the best piano bar player I've ever seen.  And the Amber strings were always good.  When Wes and the showband members had shows they were always good, although the individual members who had shows were not that great. I got the impression that they simply used band members as the entertainment because it was cheaper than having real entertainers.

Repeated requests to find out what the pounding noise in our cabin was were passed off -- customer relations said i needed to talk to housekeeping; housekeeping said it was probably some maintenance going on but they didn't know what. 4 telephone calls, one trip to housekeeping, one trip to atrium, and finally someone came to our room and said he'd try to find out.  Eventually the noise stopped. But hours, not minutes after complaining. After my first two calls they simply didn’t answer the phone for a while.

Internet service was the worst I've ever seen. The manager just explained that we couldn't expect to get internet in our room, or in the front or back of the ship, because the ship wasn't really set up for that. I bought the 24/7/14-day package and probably got 5% of that. If I moved from one spot to another on the ship, i lost connection.  I could tell that the "counter" was still saying I was connected; but i couldn't do anything.  If it had not been under a cruise ship terms, that would be fraud.

The Garden cafe had the lowest quality of food I've seen on a ship. Whatever we had for lunch was also there for dinner and then again tomorrow. Day after day, it was the same thing. And it's laid out and managed so poorly that it's really hard to get to the food. The lines of people trying to get one thing were in the way of people trying to get something else. And it seemed like the crew wasn't aware that people were not going to eat outside in the rain. There simply was no place to sit inside. They were really fast to take things while we were eating, but slow to clean tables for someone coming in.

I thought it was really strange that we were in an area with high quality wine and local fish, but we got Mondavi wine shipped from California, and generic fish chunks. Food was generally overcooked and dry.  We ate at a restaurant off the ship whenever we could.

I was also surprised that the "ultimate beverage package" no longer included water. That seems like a ridiculous penny-pinching game.

The captain decided not to go to the Falklands "because of hurricane winds". I was watching weather forecasts regularly and they showed maximum gusts of 30 MPH. But he went all the way around the islands and wasted another day. The winds weren't that bad when we got into the area; they weren't any different when we left.