South America Cruise Reviews

The ship is great and the service is wonderful! We were fortunate that the weather let us dock in the Falkland Islands and we were able to circumnavigate Cape Horn. The only place we couldn’t go because of winds was Puerto Arenas.

VIKING DID EVERYTHING TO MAKE THE CRUISE FIRST CLASS. AREAS WE VISITED DO NOT COMPARE TO OTHER CRUISE WE HAVE TAKEN WITH VIKING. WILL ONLY CRUISE WITH VIKING.

This itinerary is high in sea days and the ports do not have a lot to see but wildlife. The extension to Iquazu Falls and Rio was the best part. If you book this cruise, book the extension.

The cruise to Antarctica was spectacular. The ports of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia, Puerto Montt were very good and worthwhile. Punta Arenas was okay. We didn't see the Falkland Islands that we really wanted to. The port of Laguna San Rafael was listed as a port but was really an anchorage where you could not get off and that was not made clear before the trip. The other ports could have easily been missed with no great loss. Oceania which was billed as a luxury cruise with the best food on the water was really like many of the other cruise lines. We were not impressed by their food or terrific service. However, seeing Antarctica made up for a lot of other shortcomings.

I have sailed on Oceania before. Post Covid seems that they are not as good as before. Less choices.

On board - outstanding, would do another Viking cruise without hesitation if the only factor. Flights - poorly planned, would never go through their flight planning personnel again. Shore excursions: Included - low quality, bus window views and very heavily dependent upon the guide. Paid - high quality, typically guides were professional and interesting, visited sites were accessible and interesting. In general the on-board Viking experience is outstanding. However, that outstanding level does not carry over to the Viking flight planners and the included excursions.

Wonderful as it was we thought a couple of days too long. Also, now having tried Celebrity, we prefer Holland America. Not that we would not do Celebrity again if they had a cruise that struck us to do.

Nice cruise, lots of tendering. Shows we're great.

We liked the itinerary that’s why we booked it. But overall cruise experience fell short for us. We have hire expectations for food and overall service. When we saw the size of the doorway and entrance to the room I went right to guest services only to be told there was nothing that could be done. We should check back in a few days to see if another room became available. So we endured the cruise with the wheelchair blocking the doorway. A dangerous fire hazard. The cabin stewerd was very concerned that we could not get out fast if there was an emergency but no alternatives were given.

The itinerary was great, Patagonian mountains and glaciers were spectacular, and the stops were very interesting, but the food choice for us, vegetarians, was very poor, and the entertainment was rather mediocre.

Quite disappointing overall. Overall lack of concern for the passengers.

Excellent itinerary met our expectations, Oceania service leaves a lot to be desired compared to other luxury cruise lines

We were going to book another Viking cruise on board the ship, but chose not to book. Our poor experience on this cruise has made me wonder if Viking is lowering their service levels, but still charging premium price.

We’re NCLH Shareholders and we were expecting service and cuisine to a higher standard than we receive with NCL. We had just come off of a 21 day NCL cruise in November 2022 and it was far superior to our 1st experience with Oceania. We spoke with passengers who had made multiple Oceania cruises and they too were disappointed in the service, excursions and cuisine on this 21 day Holiday Cruise. After completing a review on the 3rd day of the cruise and going to the Reception desk regarding why our Anniversary was ignored, we anticipated a response to our concerns. During the 21 day cruise we never heard from anyone. Shame on Oceania on the way they treat customers.

Nice ship. Good food. Celebrity had some surprising misses that you would not expect from them. The shows were the worst I have seen on any ship. Singers were below quality throughout the ship. The pool deck was unkept and not picked up(plates, dishes). Deck 10 bartenders and wait staff appeared unhappy and not motivated. The excursion choices were as poor as on any ship. The ship management appeared unconnected from the guest. However, the ship was nice, food good, room steward very good, public restrooms spotless. The negatives were surprising for Celebrity. They missed on the basics

I had a very relaxing time. They should have better activities and entertainment on the ship.

The only thing that wasn't a pleasant experience was the travel. If I take a cruise in the future, I will absolutely arrange my own airfare. Otherwise, it was a wonderful experience and a very fun honeymoon!

Overall my experience was good except running into that jerk at Port Stanley security!

Elite members no longer have 250 free minutes of Internet. Instead they give you half off of an Internet package. In other words you are now forced to buy a package if you want to have any access to the Internet. In the past I used to use my 250 and my wife’s 250 (500 total) to get a thru a week of our Internet needs. Now I have to pay extra. And for what? The Internet stunk. Very, very, very slow, but that is to be expected when you have download speeds of 1.5meg and 2,000 people accessing the line. And everyone is trying to send pictures back home! Guest services. In the past guest services always had 2 lines, one for Suites and Elites, and the other for everyone else. If you were in the elite line, anyone of the 6 or so guest services reps would call on you, making it quite fast to get your issues resolved. Not anymore! Now there is a person at the end of the counter with a sign that says suites and elites, and he’s the only one handling it. All the other reps handle everyone else. There are no queuing lines so it’s a real cluster F as to who will get called on. Bottom line don’t get in the elite line as it’s the slowest moving. Wine: Previously on trips longer than 7 days, in addition to the full booze package, Princess offered discounted bottles of wine. They offered like 7, 9, 11 or 14 or more bottles. It averaged out to around $20 per bottle and you could select bottles from the menu, up to $30. There were typically at least 3 whites and 3 reds. If you saw a $35 bottle that you wanted to try, you just paid the extra $5 (or any price of $30). NOT ANY MORE! I was really planning on this for our trip to Antarctica because I’m not going to buy a 33 day booze package for over $2,100, but Princess no longer offers this. Booze package only, take it or leave it. And now if you just want to buy a bottle of wine, the cheapest red or white I could find on the menu was $40. That’s for Canyon Road which sells for $6.79 at Total Wines. You would be far better off buying a case and paying the $15 corking fee on each bottle! Television: Only a few channels available but much better than in the past. In the past pretty much the only news you could get was via BBC. On this cruise we had MSNBC, CNBC and Fox, and so I was very happy with that. They also had a number of good movies on demand.

My husband and myself, would like to Thank everyone from the bridge, to wait staff, room steward, excursion desk, photo gallery and all the unseen employees who work behind the scenes you made our cruise spectacular.