Golden Princess Review

4.0 / 5.0
0 reviews

Golden Princess Buenos Aires to LA

Review for South America Cruise on Golden Princess
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ssbeagle
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Feb 2015

We are veteran Princess cruisers and we have several more booked. This was not one of my favorite cruises but I still enjoyed it. We arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina and took a taxi to our hotel, Hilton, and spent one night there. The Hilton is located in the Puerto Madero area and is convenient to restaurants and transportation. It is a five-minute taxi ride to the pier.

We boarded the Golden Princess in Buenos Aires. Embarkation seemed to take forever because we had so many checkpoints to go through before we even got to the shuttle bus to take us to the ship. Immigration in Argentina is very tedious and they even fingerprint you when you enter the country and again when you leave. We had a 2-mile ride from where we checked in to the ship on packed busses. But getting on the ship itself was easy and went quickly. My husband had booked a suite (which we never do) as a surprise for me. Our luggage came pretty soon after we boarded.

Exploring the ship we noticed she was in need of some repair work. There was a lot of rust on the balconies and some gaps in the ceiling in the hallways. The elevators were slow and balky at times. Often one or more were under maintenance. She will be in dry dock for 16 days later this month. We went through some pretty bad weather after we left Ushuaia but the ship handled the high waves very well.

Cabin Review

Cabin PH

Our cabin was a suite located mid-ship on deck 10. It was convenient to everything. There was a nice sitting area although the sofa was a bit tired looking and not all that comfortable. The bed was very comfortable and I asked the steward for a cover sheet to go under the duvet. The pillows (foam) were rather lumpy and I used three of them. Feather pillows are also available. We had a nice table with 4 chairs and two loungers on the balcony. There was a half-dead plant in the cabin that I asked the steward to remove and he replace it with a fresh flower arrangement several times during the cruise. Towels were plush and soft. There was a bath mat provided for the tub and shower. Lots of storage space. We did have some trouble with the temperature adjustment in our cabin. It was always chilly in there especially at night but I like it that way at night when I sleep.

Port Reviews

Montevideo

We got off the ship and walked to the shopping area which was very disappointing. There wasn't much to buy and the people didn't seem all that friendly. It is an easy walk into the city as the pier is right there. If you like BBQ it sure smelled good.

Stanley

I gave this a poor because we couldn't get on shore and missed our tour there. It was very windy and the captain said it would be too difficult to get the passengers safely on shore and then safely back to the ship. So we looked at the town from the ship and that was it. I was very disappointed as this was one of the highlights of the cruise.

Punta Arenas

It was a tender port and the weather was deteriorating I didn't want to get soaked. We were going to walk around on shore but decided not to even try.

Santiago (Valparaiso)

No tours were offered that we wanted to do and it was changeover day for the cruise. People disembarking and new people embarking. It was very smokey there from fires and we had to take a shuttle bus to the main port as we docked in a commercial working port and you weren't allowed to walk around there.

Cabo San Lucas

I was in Cabo quite a few years ago and it has really changed. No more little stalls on the pier. Instead you have all these dirty looking shops selling all the same junk. In the jewelry shops there is a lot of pressure to buy and not just let you browse. Everyone seems to have their hand out selling you something. It is a tender port and they used the local tenders which were very rocky compared to the ship's tenders. We spent over an hour walking and didn't buy a thing.

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