This trip was all about the 33 ports and Antarctica. HAL is recovering from COVID like everyone but they seem to expect pre COVID world to return. Nice if incompetent staff. Many things done superbly and just as many SNAFU'S. 5 star passengers who waited many days with no hot water, heat or flushing toilet. I was lucky as cabin worked well throughout the journey. Overpriced spa, who pays $245 for ...
First Holland America Cruise. Chosen because it was the only affordable (?) cruise that went to Falklands, Antarctica and into the Chilean fjords and not around them (like Princess) or only to the Antarctic Peninsula and back to Buenos Aires (like Celebrity).
We arrived the day after most people had checked in. Embarkation was the usual mess and compounded due to the World Cup madness created ...
We chose the cruise because we wanted to be in Antarctica for New Year! This cruise did it for us. The itinerary covered all of the southern tip of South America - East and West Coasts- from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile - which was a bonus. We booked very late, hence had to make some compromises on the cabin choice and offshore trips.
Captain navigated through the treacherous waters of ...
This is a very long, detailed log-style review and covers 32 days, including 7 days pre-cruise in Argentina and 2 days post-cruise in Chile. If you just want to summary of the cruise scroll all the way down.
Oosterdam South America and Antarctica 12-20-22
I just spend a lot of time putting in my entire 26000 word log and the website would not save it, so here is the cruise summary ...
Our cruise of a lifetime to antarctica was a total waste of time and money. Hal couldn't have screwed up more if it really tried. i'll share just the highlights! our embarkation was a seven hour (two on a bus and five in the terminal) fiasco with ~ 5,000 people crammed into one room with five ships in port and then hal required all passengers to take a covid test on the third day! also, no ...
We choose this cruise for the itinerary. We had previously been on the Oosterdam and like this size ship. One thing to know about South America, is that most of the ports are industrial ports and require a shuttle to the cruise port entrance for any independent tours and in Buenos Aires, all passengers including those on Holland America Tours. Just keep this in mind when choosing the starting ...
This was a good itinerary, combining two cruises to sail through the Panama Canal, see the west coast of South America, round Cape Horn and visit the Falkland Islands before ending in Buenos Aires. I hadn’t sailed with Holland America before, but they came highly recommended by several friends so I was expecting it to be at least on a par, or better than, Celebrity. Sadly not so. Veteran HAL ...
My wife and I wanted to go thru the Panama Panel, and see Macho Picchu, which this cruise covered nicely. Missed the political upheaval in Peru by about 2 wks, so lucky there. Traveling to 3rd world countries, Ecuador and Peru, is always a worry, so we had purchased a Medjet membership for the voyage, plus the optional extraction for political upheaval. Fortunately we didn't have to use, but ...
We had planned this trip for several months then, the night before we were to leave, COVID started shut everything down(1999). We had been waiting for this trip to reappear on Holland's schedule, we were very excited that it was finally happening! (Nov. 19, 2022). We had cruised with Holland 3 previous times and had been satisfied with our trips.
Let me begin by saying the crew/staff were for ...
This was the worst cruise I have ever been on, Holland ruined a once in a lifetime experience. Poor communication prior to the cruise: yellow fever issues, requiring a covid test for boarding that was NEVER looked at upon embarkation, telling us to use the verifly app that also did not allow us easy boarding~ never used. A 2+ hour embarkation process. Holland made a big deal NO PLASTIC water ...