South America cruise

Island Princess Cruise Review to South America

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 125

Overall rating:

3.8 out of 5
Verified Review
Island Princess

58 Night Circle South America (Fort Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 09, 2020

Ship: Island Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: E217

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

Took the cruise to see Easter Island, Nazca lines, Patagonia, Falkland Islands and Carneval in Rio, which we enjoyed.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Ship tip

Need to be willing to overlook outdated ship condition. It needs a thorough renovation from air conditioning control and capability. Temperature is freezing in many bars and the theater. Cabin temp adjustment does not set in until hours later. Mostly older folks with lots of health problems to start with. Dining room floor has so many levels and steps that are easily missed. Hallway, at least on deck 8 is very uneven with dents and carpet shows signs of many ‘leaks’ The exhaust of the gray water tank is located near the theater entrance which is nauseating at best on most days and also irritating on deck 7 outside promenade. Food is okay but nothing to write home about. Ship needs more than a 10 day update though it did sail well in some rough seas. However the water shuttles (tenders) were unreliable and one wonders how they might work in real emergencies.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

4 out of 5

Cartagena, Colombia

4 out of 5

Panama Canal Transit

5 out of 5

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

4 out of 5

Manta, Ecuador

5 out of 5

Callao (Lima), Peru

5 out of 5

Pisco, Peru

5 out of 5

Easter Island

4 out of 5
There is no dock in Easter Island, so the seas are rougher in the open Pacific and the tender needs to butt-on to the ship to transfer people. This will be tough in calm seas. It is an excursion of a lifetime and hard to resist not going on land. However, so many people are in denial of their physical capabilities and go anyway when on the ship they use walking aids and then pretend not to need one in order to get on the tender. The controls and restrictions should be enforced more and not let these people endanger other by their stubbornness.

Coquimbo (La Serena), Chile

4 out of 5

San Antonio, Chile

3 out of 5
This is a difficult narrow entrance to the port and depending on weather entrance or exit may be delayed. In our case the ship was not allowed to leave for two days, of which the truth the passengers may never know. The port authorities (whim)clearly must have had something to do with it.

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
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