Falklands Islands - Worth the visit?

Hello- hoping to get some opinions. We are looking at doing the Valparaiso to Buenos Aires cruise. We are looking at a couple of itineraries. One includes a stop at Stanley (Falklands) and the other does not. The Stanley stop is more expensive. Is it worth the money?

Yes. Interesting port. The remains from the war between the UK and Argentina and the penguins make it a great port.

Just got off a Val/Antarctica BA cruise. I would put Port Stanley a close second behind Antarctica, and WELL beyond any of the other ports.

We really enjoyed our walk to Gypsy Cove, Magellanic penguins there, van ride back to town and a short time to walk the "main" street along the harbor.

You should know, however, that this is a tender port, and that stops have often been cancelled due to high winds/weather which made tendering impossible. So it's rather a gamble whether the ship will make the stop or not.

Agree with all of the previous posters, great port and several different options to view penguins if that interests you. Like cnbfrank said, sometimes the port gets missed. We were lucky and got in, the cruise after us did not.

I enjoyed the port of Stanley and enjoyed walking about the town and poking into the West store (an entire shopping mall in one small store). We did the shore excursion that went from the ship (Star Princess) by boat to the private property that had a gentoo penguin rookery. Excellent fun with a rough and tumble landrover ride over the rocky and deserted landscape. It takes 3 acres per sheep to provide enough food-- stark. It was a good stopand a good stop to drop into the conversation since most folks have heard of it but have not been there:p and the people are very friendly and helpful. I would NOT expect that you would get DIY tour to see penguins as the ship has more people than the town does and most everybody works "the ships" as our guide told us.

Go for it if possible -- you probably won't be in the neighborhood again. That being said it is one of the ports that I said been there and so glad I don't live there. A bit far away and lonely for me.

Agree with all of the previous posters, great port and several different options to view penguins if that interests you. Like cnbfrank said, sometimes the port gets missed. We were lucky and got in, the cruise after us did not.

WarEagle - when did you go on your cruise? Which month? We are going end of January 2013. Hope the waters are calm then?????

Thanks to all for your comments. I booked the cruise which included the Falklands more because my hubby wanted it.

Glad you made the decision to go to the Falklands. We were fortunate to make it to Stanley a few weeks ago (early Feb) on the Silver Spirit however only two tenders could land (rough water) so many people were VERY disappointed. The penguins at North Pond were fabulous!!! I could have stayed there all day. I only saw a little of the town but incredible drive for 2 hr. Can't image British troops walking across the island!!

WarEagle - when did you go on your cruise? Which month? We are going end of January 2013. Hope the waters are calm then?????

We were on the December 24, 2011-January 7, 2012 cruise. We had a pretty smooth cruise but Mother Nature is hard to predict. We've missed three ports in our cruising experiences (Grand Turk, Marseille, and Catalina Island) but it is a part of cruising and you deal with it and look forward to the next port.

We just returned a few weeks from our fantastic Rio to Valparaiso cruise on Oceania's Insignia. We stopped at the Falklands and took Patrick Watts' tour to Volunteer Point. Unbelievable! Don't pass up the opportunity. Some ships do miss this port because of weather conditions. However, according to info posted on this site, the frequency of missing the Falklands is not high. Moreover, Patrick Watts does not charge if the port is missed.

I thought it was a great stop. The Patrick Watt penguin tour rates at the top of any tour anywhere, just fantastic.

Today, demonstartions against their calls on the Falklands (AKA the Malvinas) prevented the Star Princess and a P&O ship from docking in Ushuaia, Argentina. .

Best place for seeing penguins other than Antarctica. Volunteer Point is far but best, Bluff Cove is good.

As many have mentioned, rough seas can making landing difficult.

We are just back from a HAL cruise Rio to Valparaiso and we were not able to get into the Falklands. According to the crew they miss it more than they make it. So if it is penquins you are looking for make sure you have a backup plan if you do opt for that itinerary.

As stated above do the Patrick Watts tour out to Volunteer Point. We saw penguins at another port of call, but it was nothing in comparison to Volunteer Point. The Falklands were the highlight of our cruise.

We are just back from a HAL cruise Rio to Valparaiso and we were not able to get into the Falklands. According to the crew they miss it more than they make it. So if it is penquins you are looking for make sure you have a backup plan if you do opt for that itinerary.

The notion of a backup for penguins is good, but the crew misled you as the failure to get into Stanley runs at less than 20%.

The Falklands are certainly worth a visit. We thoroughly enjoyed our day there when we called in on Fram on our way back from Antarctica. Bluff Cove is an excellent excursion as it provides a trip (with commentary from a 'local') across a typical part of East Island and has a great cafe and museum down at the lagoon with gentoos, kings, dolphins and cattle(!) wandering freely.

Today, demonstartions against their calls on the Falklands (AKA the Malvinas) prevented the Star Princess and a P&O ship from docking in Ushuaia, Argentina. .

What was this all about? Was this the only time a ship was stopped from docking because it went to the Falklands? Is it only the Princess and P&O ships?

The prevention of a cruise ship docking into ushuaia only happened once this season (2011/12). It was for any red ensign flagged ships, though I haven't heard much more about it recently.

As for ships not getting in well, the veendam had the worst record this season, for one reason or another when they decided to visit the weather turned bad (though once it was because they hit bad weather on route weather in Stanley was fine), so this season it was bad for them, other ships were less if not affected at all.

On our trip to Antarctica , our ship (the Infinity) missed the Falklands due to weather. So sad , as I had made arrangements with Patrick to go to Volunteer Point. It is still on my "list/' of places to go....looks fascinating!