I am just beginning to put together the scrapbook for our holiday trip aboard HAL’s ms Zaandam around the tip of South American and on to the Antarctic Peninsula, and it dawned on me that I never got around to writing my review of this amazing journey. This was a bucket trip for my husband, and I frankly wasn’t that wild about the idea due to the specter of crossing the notoriously rough Drake Passage. As luck would have it (and now facing a life time of “I told you so”) our Drake experience was more lake than shake and we were blessed with spectacular weather throughout most of our travels.

We’re frequent cruisers on HAL, and have enjoyed all of our experiences with them. The in-processing has had occasional blips here and there, but nothing to fuss about. This go ‘round, we arrived at the port in Valparaiso a bit early and they weren’t quite ready. That said, they did have hot chocolate and Christmas cookies waiting for us in the staging area and there are certainly worse ways to while away a ½ hour or so.

Our shore excursions in the various ports were excellent. Some guides better than others, of course, but such is life. No really bad ones, and a couple who were extraordinary – like Cesar in Chaccabuco. Read more