No penguins! Unfortunate weather caused some cancellations both Stanley and at least one glacier as well as our Penguin tour. We did get a very good close up view of one glacier. Fog and rain made visibility around the Horn very poor. Many ports were very interesting especially the warm weather ones in Uraguay and Argentina since we had lovely weather there. We made the best of it but it was still disappointing. The ship left from San Antonio intead of Valpairoso . Fortunately we stayed in Valpairoso and enjoyed that city for two nights before the cruise. We maily did private tours usually with local guides. We spent two extra days in Buenos Aires as well but the city proved so interesting i wish we were able to stay longer.

Another issue for us was the two overnight flights from and to the States- made for a bit of jet lag both ways. Amazingly we managed to use air miles, however.

The ship , shows and food were as we expected —fairly average and similar to the several previous cruises on Holland America. Some excellent staff, especially port and scenic cruising commentary. Unfortunately our last cruise was with Oceania and the memory if the food made the food on this cruise seem mediocre by comparison. Read more