Antarctica 2009

[Lynne59]

We are thinking of going to Antarctica on the Amsterdam next Jan. Can someone who has done this cruise tell me how you liked it, etc. What airline did you fly down to Rio or Santiago on? Would like lots of information about the cruise. Thanks!

[RuthC]

I've gotten all confused with ships moving around, but I thought the Amsterdam was replaced with the Oosterdam on this route. However---

I've taken this cruise twice---last time was this Jan/Feb. It's fantastic! I'm sure RevNeal will be around to give you a link to his photos. They don't do it justice.
If you click on my name, and check for threads I've started, you'll find one from this last cruise. It's called The Happy Wanderer---Summertime Down South. It's a "Live from ..." thread from that cruise.

I suggest going down at least one day in advance to recover from the exhausting journey. I also learned it's better to stay over one day before flying home. This last time was 39 hours from the time I got up on the ship until I arrived home. It took two weeks to recover from that. By spending an extra day in the disembarkation port you can have a shorter, more relaxing day before you leave.

Whatever, do this cruise!!! It has to be the absolute BEST! of all the itineraries I've ever taken.

[arzz]

The following is a link to the "Live from" thread that I posted on our SA/Antarctica cruise in Jan/Feb 2007 -- best cruise we have ever done and we would do it again in a moment if there was not so much of the world that we have yet to see. And, I cannot imagine doing this on any other cruise line -- HAL is the best!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=480550

[user8]

We took this cruise on the Amsterdam in January, 2005 and it was one of the best, if not the best, cruise we have ever taken. We sailed from Valparasion to Rio.

The highlight was Antarctica. We were forntunate that the weather was perfect. You could just feel the cleanliness in the atmosphere. It was like a fairyland with all the huge blocks of blue ice floating aroung the ship, some of which were larger than our ship. It was so interesting watching the seals and penquins sunning themselves on the ice.

Our only disappointment was the day flight we took out of Buenos Aires to go to Iquazu Falls. It was a long excursion, the weather was hot, the crowds were large, and we didn't get to spend much time at the falls. They were beautiful and I am glad we went, but I would not do it again.

The rest of the stops were interesting as well. Our biggest problem was trying to pack for both the Antarctic cold and the Rio heat.

Go. You'll have a great time.

[Lynne59]

Ruth C, I tried to find your "live From...", but I couldn't find it. Could you tell me how to get it on this thread or email it to me at:
mckay3412@aol.com Thanks!

[RevNeal]

Lynne,

I adored this cruise. It was fabulous. I was aboard with RuthC this past Jan/Feb and it was wonderful. Check out my photographic galleries from the cruise.

http://homepage.mac.com/revneal/rotterdam2008/Menu264.html

AND ... RuthC's "Live From" Thread here on CC is found here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=702069&highlight=Summertime

I reported on it too ... it was a fabulous cruise. DO IT! :D

[world~citizen]

If we had to choose our favorite cruise, this one would be it. We sailed over Christmas and New Years. The New Year's Eve party was nothing compared to the impromptu celebration we had when we sailed across the antarctic circle. The Crow's Nest was never more festive!

Don't miss an opportunity to sail this cruise.

[chees]

And we can't wait!!!!! Everyone's reviews sound wonderful so we are counting the days until our big adventure.

Tina

[george@sea]

Can someone who has done this cruise tell me how you liked it, etc. What airline did you fly down to Rio or Santiago on? Would like lots of information about the cruise. Thanks!

I did this cruise in 02 aboard the Ryndam. Flew down to Santiago from NYC on American Airlines. Used HAL cruise air and will never do that again.

Crew was awesome, food was awesome. Most of the ports were very interesting. When we reached Antarctica, It was mostly overcast, except for the last day we were going through Antarctica waters.

Here's a link to some of the pictures that I took: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sobergeorge/sets/72157603604048373/

On some dinners there was some kind of theme depending on where we were.

I'll be going on the Prinsendam this coming January. Really looking forward to going. Hopefully the weather will be better when we reach Antarctica. I'm a clickaholic so I hope I can get a ton of good shots from there and of Chile.

[Nancyquilts]

I'll be going on the Prinsendam this coming January. Really looking forward to going. Hopefully the weather will be better when we reach Antarctica. I'm a clickaholic so I hope I can get a ton of good shots from there and of Chile.

I bet you'll love Prinsendam - it's our favorite ship, and the trip to Antarctica this last winter was out of this world. The captain gets the smaller ship into exciting places. Nancy

[RuthC]

AND ... RuthC's "Live From" Thread here on CC is found here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=702069&highlight=Summertime

I reported on it too ... it was a fabulous cruise. DO IT! :D
Thanks for posting the link, Greg. And yes, you certainly did post on our thread! Your contributions were invaluable. :)

[john2003]

The only thing that I would add as we were as positive about our experience (Ryndam) as other posters, would be to look into doing Iguassu before or after on your own. We flew down on points and went right through to Foz du Iguazzu (I think this is correct). then we took a taxi and stayed on the Argentine side which we did prefer. The falls are amazing. Afterwards being probably more adventursome than today, we took the bus to Rio to board. This would not be for everyone but it worked for us. Anyway try to get to falls if u can.

The flights were long and tiring.

We had great guest lecturers so I hope they still do that. I would go again in a blink.

[Mary Ellen]

We also did this cruise this past season with Ruth & Greg. This was to have been a 'once in a lifetime' itinerary for us. However, it was SO wonderful we're planning on doing this again in Jan 2011. :D As the others didn't talk about the flights, I will.

We flew into Rio on Delta (via Atlanta) a few days early and had a guide meet us at the airport for the transfer to the hotel. It was very nice to have someone waiting for us rather than having to take a taxi. Her car was very clean, comfortable, with a/c and didn't smell of smoke - I sure wouldn't count on any of those with a taxi. She also did narration of the things we were seeing along the way. Over the next few days we did 2 full day tours with her, one the main sights of Rio and the other a trip to the 'mountain' resort town of Petropolis. Both days were fantastic. We also had her for our transfers to the ship. While we also used the guide service in Buenos Aires that many, many people rave about and they were fine - nothing to complain about. However, our experience with our Rio guide was head and shoulders above the BA guide.

I had originally planned on going to Iguassu rather than just staying in Rio. This changed as the connecting flight to Iguassu was too close for comfort after our arrival in Rio. Due to the Rio airport deciding to x-ray each piece of luggage arriving on our flight (it took well over an hour and a half for us to get our luggage) we wouldn't have made the connection and no more flights until the next day. Brazilian Immigration/Customs were very quick, it was just waiting for the baggage. Next time, I plan on overnighting in Rio and then take an early morning flight to the Foz (almost all of the flights there from Rio are early). As there are severe limitations about weight/# of bags on those flights, we'll make plans to leave the majority of our luggage at the Rio hotel. Then we'll return to Rio a night before we'd board and retrieve it then.

In Santiago we stayed over a night before flying home. This was due to our flights were booked using FF miles and we couldn't get business class seats on the day we disembarked. While not what we originally wanted, this turned out to be an excellent decision and we will do this again next time.

All flights back to the US seem to leave at 10-11 p.m.. That is a long time after disembarkation. We did a HAL 8-hr tour/transfer to Santiago with Ruth and longtimecruiser. We were dropped off at the hotel and they continued on to the airport. After a nice shower/change we commented about how glad we were that we were refreshed and relaxing at the hotel, rather than sitting at the airport, hot and sticky, in the same clothes we'd been wearing all day - and then flying to ATL overnight/connecting to our flight home - still in those same clothes.

The next day we had the room until it was time to head to the airport in the late afternoon. This enabled us to shower/change shortly before checking out. Well, from this point on, things didn't go as planned. As I went into this on Ruth's 'Summertime' thread (already mentioned/linked), I won't go through all that again. We have absolutely NO complaint about how Delta handled the situation and will fly with them next time to SA. One thing I don't believe I mentioned before (as it occurred several weeks or a month or more after returning home - I have NO sense of time), Delta sent each of us a voucher for future travel. Totally unexpected and what we consider to be a nice amount. We'll be using them to fly to Orlando in December. :D Kudos to Delta.