South America Cruise Reviews

THE BUFFETS WERE VERY POOR. THE DAILY PROGRAMS, SUCH AS WIN, LOSE, OR DRAW , MAKING PAPER BASKETS ETC WERE A JOKE. THE EXCURSIONS WERE WAY OVERPRICED AND NOT VERY GOOD. THE CABIN WAS FINE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DAILY SHOWER FLOODS. THIS SHIP, WHICH I UNDERSTAND WILL BE TAKEN OUT OF SERVICE SOON SHOULD BE.

The crew members did their best, the evening shows were well performed and polished., cabin service was excellent, HOWEVER the embarkation was a total disaster, highly disorganized, it took over four hours to board the ship, very poor administration, some on board activities had no shows by the activity person, It would help for the top admisnistrators of the cruise line to undergo the process anonimously so they can experience the very poor organization to board the ship in Santos.

Ship had very nice amenities and a good layout. Very clean.

very clean in public areas. Stateroom attendent could have done a better job

We have traveled extensively and cruised 8 times. The Dream was the perfect size ship. Not to big and not too small. Our stateroom was large and comfortable. The staff keep it in perfect condition and always left us a little surprise in the form of towel animals. There was more storage space in the stateroom than any other ship we have cruised upon. We were sorry to have to leave such accomadations.

The lines were poorly managed. we waited in line 3 hours at the pier....and we were early enough....only 3 individuals checking your papers.....and that is literally all they did. We had to wait AGAIN to get our room key with AGAIN only 4 people checking every one in

I think the cruise language is very bad because almost the whole crew speaks only english and in the condition almost half of the passengers were latin american, in latin america we speak spanish not english. I think the entertainment sistem should use not only english, for me to understand they shows, they should use some other lenguage like spanish or portugues.

This is my second time on Holland America cruises and they are excellent.

THE SHIP WAS BEAUTIFUL. WE WERE VERY IMPRESSED WITH THE FOOD IN THE DINING ROOM. EXCELLANT CHOICES AND GREAT SERVICE. WE WERE UPGRADED TWO TIMES AND RECEIVED AN OUTSIDE CABIN AS WE BOOKED A LOW INSIDE CABIN. WE WILL DIFENITLY GO ON THE CELEBERITY AGAIN.

Friendly staff, Easy to find your way around the ship quickly, Large staterooms with more than enought storage room. Bigger than expected fitness center with great views of everything in front of the ship. Dining room service was extremely slow and the food was OK, but it left something to de desired. Entertainment was superb and proved to be a good way to end the day.

The ship was large but not so that you felt lost. The staff went out of their way to make you feel at home! The ship was kept very clean!!!

Very impressive and clean. We enjoyed the variety of the lounges, quality of food in the special restaraunt, night life music, quality of childcare, the excellent butler service and the friendliness of the staff. They truly tried to make us feel at home and brought us everything they could to make us comfortable...very important when travelling with a 17 month old.

The ship's crew whether it be maintenance personnel or the head waiter were very friendly. Never did expect so much enthusiam for their perspective jobs and toward the passengers. Always a friendly smile with a good morning, evening, or any other greeting for the entire 14 day cruise.

The ship is almost a private mega yacht, operated by the most highley trained, knowledgable and courtious staff at every level; one on one service throughout. The onboard nature guides are very professional, inteligent and pasionate about their careers which makes every island landing fun, exciting and truly amazing to be at one with nature and those wonderful creature on all of the Galapagos Islands, also the swin & snorkel tours are just amazing too.

Upon sailing on the MS Rotterdam to South America, I was surprised that the ship was much smaller than we have cruised on in the past. I was also dissapointed in the fact that the entertainment was so low key. Although my husband and I took this much awaited cruise to destress, confronting ourselves everynight with the same set of music played and from an era I was not, made it for boring entertainment. By the end of the cruise I could name the songs being played in order every night. There was not even an option at the disco lounge which also had horrible speaker system. It's a good thing my husband and I enjoy each others company very much, because as for the entertainment part of this cruise, it was not up to par. My biggest gripe of the whole cruise was the fact that there was a horrible noise comming from above that kept my husband and I up during rough seas, which by the way there were quite a few, and may us uneasy during the day. We finally figured out that the noise was comming from the pool, each time the ship went up and down, the water in the pool would bang on each end loudly and since our stateroom was only two floors down just by the stairs that led up to the pool area. I complained several times, calling up to the front desk where I was treated very rudely, and told that they could not confirm that the noise I was hearing was from the pool and that even if it were, they were not about to empty it since they were a conservation ship and needed to save water. After several nights of this going on I finally went to the cruise director, Michelle, and complained to her and she voiced my discomfort, but even she was not able to convice them to empty the pool. Finally, after me calling the front desk in desperation of lack of sleep, they sent someone down to listen for the noise, they finally acknowledged that it in fact was the pool water, but that they could still not empty the pool. I was so dissapointed in being treated this way, that water was more important than the sleep or comfort of a passenger. At the end they offered to put us in another room to sleep, which annoyed me more because I was told earlier on that the ship was full and there were no more rooms avaiable and yet now miraculously a room available appeared. The front desk personnell certainly needs to get attitude adjustments and training on how to treat guests. Due to that experience I do not know if I would sail on MS ships again, expecially if they prefer to conserve water than the comfort of a guest, ESPECIALLY WHEN NO ONE WAS GETTING IN THE POOL ANYWAYS DUE TO ROUGH SEAS. The water spilling over the pool area also made for hazardous conditions because the decks would be soaking wet and you would see numerous, especially since this was a majority elderly crowd, falling while walking on the sopping wet decks. You could not even lie down on the lounge chairs because you would get sopping wet from the water banging in the pool. The waves in the pool were, in my opiniom, worse than the waves in the sea. This was a long awaited cruise, since my husband and I were celebrating our 30 year wedding anniversary and were anticipating 16 nights of comfort in our beautiful balcony suite, which was the best part of the cruise, except for the noise from the pool, and felt that we could have saved so much money had we gone down to the cheaper staterooms down below and have relaxed and enjoyed the cruise more.

Loved the itinerary. The pre-cruise excursion to Iguazu Falls was amazing and so glad we went. Antarctica exceeded expectations, absolute beautiful. Very disappointed in our experience on the MARINA. We sailed on Oceania Insignia in 2019 on an Around the World cruise and expected similar service and amenities on this voyage. Staff on MARINA seemed more focused on making sure they were right instead of “making it right”.

This was a very expensive once in a lifetime cruise. To have half the most important sights eliminated was very disappointing. The issues with the ship's condition were not a big deal to me.

We had so much fun on the cruise, mainly because of the people we sailed with and the crew members. MSC has the best crew members, they’re friendly, caring and so much fun to be around.

I have just returned from your Norwegian fjords cruise leaving from Rosyth on the 8th July 2022 cabin 5008 ref DPCWYL2 I was surprised to find a cost of £25 each add to our on board account on the Tuesday when asked the custom services why, they explained that it was for our LFT at the terminal on Friday I explained the following reason why I thought I should not pay it but they said they could not do anything I had to talk to head office. So on return I contacted head office requesting a refund for the following reasons 1 the three documents received from you before the cruise Ticket, label letter and boarding time letter did not say I Had to bring a LFT. They said that for smooth boarding all I needed was passports, tickets and a vaccination certificate which I had no mention of a LFT test and I would have thought if you are charging for this it should be clearly stated. 2 I did not receive any emails from you prior to leaving for the terminal. You did send a message to my emergency number person I emailed customer services on the 7th asking  if I missed any information again if you are charging it should be clearly highlighted Barrhead travel info did not say we had to do a LFT when I asked them. 3 The staff at the terminal did not tell us there was a cost for the LFT and if they did we would have gone home and did the tests as we only live 5 mins away as we did not board for another 2 hours. So I cannot see how they can charge me for something you did not tell me about or gave me the chance to use an alternative I had available. Also how do you know all the other guests actually used their own LFT and not somebody else's So I would be grateful if you could return my £50.They offered me £25 refund only I would like to say you need to change your all inclusive drink package way of paying. I had to pay an extra £80 as I booked it on board because I wanted to put it on my on board account so I could use my £ 200 credit I had been given when booking the cruise. I had asked Barrhead if I could do this but was not advised it would cost more so I lost out on my £200 credit. So instead of £200 credit your saving is worth £40 only If I could have ordered online before I left directly to my on board account rather than paying by card it would have been better and this system does not help last minute booking customers. I would like to complain about the organisation at the terminal. We were crowded into the main hall for over 2.5 hours standing tightly together. No wonder there was an outbreak of COVID on this cruise. What happened to the colour coding of labels which was supposed to reduce congestion at booking in. As I have cancer and my wife is her mother's carer we have managed to avoid catching Covid till now, but in return we both tested positive and I had to get hospital assistance due to Fred Olson poor systems organisation we where both out of action for 10 days.

A wonderful reunion, back on Balmoral our favorite ship. fantastic staff and the inclusion of the Ocean Wildlife Encounters team, from day 1 to our return, they gave 100% we saw everything sometimes caught off guard without the camera, the sea is alive, though avian flu did show signs of its effects on wild bird life. The realisation If you want to see the whole of what Spitzbergen has to offer then you cannot do it from a cruise ship. It has to be an Expedition Cruise. Longyearbyen, has town limits, you cannot go out of unless you carry a firearm, its a deterrent against Polar Bears, You are not allowed to kill the bears and its Illegal to chase, pursue them or cause them harm.