South America Cruise Reviews

This itinerary was fantastic and our most scenic cruise.  The Chilean coast is stunning with vistas of snow covered mountains, glaciers, and other dramatic scenery.  The NCL Sun was large enough to have a reasonable range of activities while small enough to get "up close and personal" with the coastline.

Embarkation and debarkation were seamless and efficient.  The cabin, restaurant and other staff members with whom we interacted were great.  

The downside of the trip was that both my wife and I came down with the flu about halfway through the cruise and our activities were restricted.  The medical care was excellent, though,  and we were in much better shape after a couple of days.  (Make sure that you have insurance for medical expenses.)

The main dining rooms served the same menus, so there was little, if any, difference between the dining experiences there.  The basic menu was varied daily with special meals being available.  Good quality, but after a few days, the menu repeated.  (I guess that NCL is on a 7-day menu plan.). The service was very good, in general.

We visited three specialty restaurants, with Cagney's Steakhouse being our favorite.  (Nicoletta provided great service.) The French restaurant did not live up to our expectations.  

I can recommend this cruise to anyone looking for a unique adventure.

I am a big fan of Celebrity.  the food is very good, personnel friendly and directed to make the experience great for cruisers.                                                                                                                    

the majority of the ports where wonderful to see and to get a local flavor of the country. Our favorites were Falkland Islands, the days at sea cruising the Chilean fjords- magnificent glaciers!. The penguin colony at Bluff Cove was great. Iguazu Falls day trip was fantasias - not to be missed!! Puerto Chacabuco was a beautiful scenic ride and very good tour guide as was the stop for lunch at a lodge with the mountains and waterfall as a backdrop.

Well worth the time and experience. The cruise was relaxed and the staff were wonderful.

Overall a very successful cruise experience with absolutely stunning scenic cruising in great weather conditions. We enjoy HAL.  Ship very comfortable and manageable size.  Staff very efficient and friendly, exception being Main dining room experiences (open dining). Entertainment of a high quality in our opinion.

We loved this ship and cruise. Had looked at all the ships that go to Antarctica, both cruise and expedition, and this was a combination of both. Had 6 zodiac excursions in 6 days and all were outstanding. Took a private tour from Stanley in the Falklands and though the trip was rough the experience with the king penguins was worth it. Ship is sooo comfortable and staff are great. Food was so good my husband gained 14 pounds. Once you travel with Seabourn you will be spoiled for other cruise lines and larger ships. The lecturers were all excellent and the couple photographers are famous and for good reason. We spent some time in Vina del Mar after and really enjoyed. Especially loved the wineries in Casablanca Valley. Contact David for a lovely private tour of his small La Revoca Winery. You can find him on Facebook and his winery is not far off the road from Valparaiso and Santiago.

best cruise in every way!

The Zaandam and crew was fine but entree choices in the main dinning room where limited and became boring toward the end of the cruise (14 days). Sea conditions where very good considering how difficult this area can be but the weather in the fjords was limiting which is the luck of the draw. Ports visited where just average but seeing Cape Horn in sunlight was worth the trip.I wouldn't recommend this trip for a new cruiser since what you see is very limited. The Norwegian fjords are much more spectacular with Alaskan glaciers far better than what we saw. If you want to see glaciers at their best try and visit Tracy Arm in Alaska.

Fellow passengers help make the trip and we really had a good group on board. Many countries where represented and we had many good dinner conversations.

Holland America needs to pay attention to the embarkation process which can only be described as FUBAR. No organization with local staff that was very poorly trained and lines that never moved. It was so bad that my luggage made it to our cabin before we did which can only be described as a new low. The whole process was a mess considering most of the information was provided with online checkin. Printing out your own paper luggage tags I think could lead to miss directed bags.

The life boat drill was a complete waste since the noise of the port made it impossible to hear anything said. When this in conducted in an active port like Buenos Aries a written statement with the information covered should be handed out as you checkin.

Beautiful destinations, great on board ship life, a Captain that made seeing Antarctica enjoyable, well informed lecturers all combined for a "perfect union" to make this one of my better cruise experiences.  While the object of my attention had been Antarctica, I came away overwhelmed by the Chilean sights  Just awesome. 

This trip was an assault on all the senses - eyes, ears, nose, taste, feel - especially nose with the penguins but that was part of the appeal. 

The quality of the naturalists/lecturers aided immeasurably in my appreciation and enjoyment.

What an unpleasant overall experience.

The crew was pleasant but appeared tired and overworked and rather resigned. When engaged in conversation, they were quite emphatic about how badly the cruise line had deteriorated since "that American company" (actually Carnival is owned by American/Israeli billionaires) took over ownership.  Experienced cruise travelers also decried the deterioration in the service, cleanliness and quality compared to years past.  This apparently is a far cry from the Costa you knew and loved.

stateroom was nice. It is a recently built Italian luxury ship. What's not to like?

Food - really bad. Buffet was rather stale and unimaginative and unchanging, sorta like gong to McDonalds every day except even McDonalds is fresher and often has better variety. reminded me of feeding the livestock when I was a kid.  Balanced diet and all that, but not very imaginative.  And just sort of shoveled out there.  

And talk about ripoff, you cannot get even water to drink at your evening supposedly fine dining dinner, without paying for it.  the menu items there were also unimaginative and not that flavorful. Again, I don't know why.  Shouldn't be that hard on an Italian ship with Italian chefs.  And I am an experienced Italian cuisine diner, both in and out of Italy, having been raised by and married to outstanding Italian cooks. Heck, they didn't even know how to set the table properly. Waiters seemed motivated and nice people, so I assume they didn't receive training.

Overall experience was not unlike being trapped in a generally pleasant but bland floating prison.  With services, food, entertainment, excursions, port calls all appearing corporate database managed down to the lowest possible cost.  And the attitude seemed to be to simply try to squeeze every last $$ from passengers, by any means possible.

Literally filthy buffet room chairs. Rest of public areas not quite so bad.

entertainment - Entertainers tried hard, but, for example, the bass was so overpowering, artists could hardly be heard. Strange experience. And markedly unpleasant.  Where did they get those sound engineers?  We chatted with many of them ( my wife does that sort of thing). they too were pleasant but seemed a bit tired and resigned. I wonder why.

"Shopping" was also a joke.  Couldn't even find a place to buy toiletries. And the stuff offered for sale was just junk at inflated prices for the unsuspecting.

And $30 for a prepaid hour of S-L-O-W internet use (Yes, i do need to check business sometimes even when on vacation. how do you think I can afford taking my wife on cruises?) seems another ripoff, given the free wifi available virtually everywhere else. Even airliners charge a lot less. Doesn't seem like a good business decision, when it simply adds to the feeling of being exploited when they have you by the shorts.

No more Carnival associated enterprises for me. Ever.

If you like cruising, check the details carefully. And chose anyone but a Carnival associated line.

I hope this info helps a bit.

I am a Russian-American woman in my fifties married to an American man. We have two children--ages 18 and 21. We have been on three cruises in the past 3 years two of which have been on Carnival. We were on the Carnival Breeze in the Mediterranean in 2012 and the Carnival Legend in Northern Europe in 2013. This year, we sailed on the MSC Divina in Brazil and the Carrib. While we loved the first two cruises, MSC was a life changing experience mostly due to the people. 

Comparison of the ships:

Food:

The only thing the Breeze has over the Divina was the food. Any person who travels on the Breeze and Divina can tell you that the food on the Divina was so obviously mediocre compared to the food Carnival offers. The Divina lacks the variety and quality Carnival offers. Also, at any given time on the Breeze you could find 24 hour pizza, hot chocolate, tea, coffee, multiple juice drinks, etc. On the Divina, it felt like half the time you passed the beverage station the only available drink was tea, terrible coffee, or water. When the juices were actually available, they were TERRIBLE. Additionally, the staff filled the juice dispensers with water whenever it wasn't filled with juice so if you went to get cup of juice, you'd get this disgusting juice flavored water. Dinner in the restaurant was always disappointing. The breakfast was good. Overall, the food is completely mediocre. My kids didn't seem to care. Also, I'd like to note that we were on a 19 day cruise and none of us gained any weight on this cruise unlike on our other cruises. So I guess bad food was a good thing!

Entertainment: I enjoyed the entertainment on the Divina far more than on any other ship. I am from Russia and lived in Italy for many years. I believe Carnival appeals more to Americans while MSC appeals more to Italians, Russians, and other Europeans. I hardly ever went to shows on Carnival but frequently attended shows on the Divina. Also, the Divina offered more latin dancing e.g. salsa, tango, etc. which I loved.

Embarkation/Disembarkation: Embarkation was easy on all three ships. Disembarkation, however was a NIGHTMARE on the Divina. There was a supposed "gas leak" in the port so the entire port was evacuated. It took us about 6 grueling hours to get off. Many people missed their flights. It was a disaster. I don't know if this is MSC's fault or the ports. Either way, MSC did not handle it well. 

Ships themselves:  Divina was the largest ship and by far the most beautiful. Next would be the Breeze and then the Legend.

Passengers: We saw the same kinds of people on the Breeze and Legend. The overwhelming majority of passengers were either British or American. Some other Europeans. The Divina was by far the most international. Because the ship departed from Rio, nearly 60% of passengers were Brazilian. The rest were a huge mix of Germans, Brits, Americans, French, Italians, Dutch etc. My two kids said that they felt like they were living in Brazil for a month. My daughter described it as the best experience of her life. They made friends from all over the world and have already made plans to visit them. If they had to guess, my kids would say that 40% of the "kids" spoke English. Most of the Brazilians did not but there were so many passengers on the ship that they were able to find a huge group of friends without a problem. (The ship had over 4000 passengers.) 

What my kids have to say:

My kids went to the 18+ club which was EXTREMELY lenient in terms of who got in. They did not ID anyone who entered the club unlike on the Carnival Ships. My 21 year old son claims that it was harder to get into the Carnival Club than in a NYC nightclub. On any given day there ware at least 30 people in the club. On the nights before sea days there would be about 100 people in the club. Anyone aged 14 and above went to the 18+ nightclub. Even the director of the ages 15-17 club was at the 18+ club. There were also middle aged people dancing. On Carnival, my daughter was apart of the 15-17 club which we enjoyed however only to make friends and talk. She said few people actually danced. MY son described the 18+ club on the Carnival Ships as a joke. He said hardly anyone ever showed.

My kids described this cruise as being the "wildest." Overall, we all loved this cruise.