Princess Embarkation Question for Buenos Aires

We are headed out in a few weeks for the South America cruise on the Emerald Princess, and wondered if anyone had any recent experience as to the following:

1. We board on the 31st, but the ship remains in port and leaves the evening of the 1st. Since we are coming directly from the airport on a Princess transfer with no opportunity to stop, once we have boarded, can we leave and bring on our free bottle of wine later that day or the next day?

2. What is in the general area - walking distance ideally - of the cruise terminal in terms of market/wine store. Apart from picking up the wine, we are looking for some permitted beverages to take on board.

3.

Following; we are booked for this port next January. But...I just looked on Google Maps at where the cruise terminal is, what's around it, and read a whole bunch of the reviews. Most reviewers wrote negative reviews despite giving the facility 4 or 5 stars. Crowded, disorganized, etc. I hope some CC participants chime in with better news!

It’s been nearly 4 years since boarding the Golden Princess in Buenos Aires however it’s the same cruise ship terminal & city where we embarked to overnight before our cruise back to LA.

We stayed at a BA hotel for 2 nights before taking a taxi to the ship arriving at about 1030. There was a relatively short line outside that moved quickly to enter the terminal to drop off our luggage. Next we used the escalator upstairs to the check-in counters which had no lines & they kept our passports and gave us a receipt for them. Then it was downstairs on the backside of the terminal to board a shuttle bus to the ship.

Overall it was a smooth & quick process for us. There was a parade in town which made it difficult for us to get a taxi to the ship. And the parade could have created delays for other embarking passengers who may have arrived later & experienced a slower less efficient embarkation process.

The day before embarkation we walked around BA including the area around the terminal. We felt perfectly safe but don’t recall any large stores to purchase wine. Although we weren’t looking for wine because we had sufficient OBC to purchase an onboard wine package.

Here’s a link to photos of their terminal & what we experienced:

http://www.puertobuenosaires.gov.ar/terminal-de-cruceros/59

I don’t know the procedure to get off the ship after embarkation which requires using a bus to the terminal.

We boarded in the spring 2017 in BA. We had done a private Iguazu excursion beforehand and was taken from the domestic airport to the ship on the first day of the cruise. This is the second time we have been to BA on a cruise. I did not see any places within walking distance of the ship that sold anything much less wine. You will be free to come and go anytime before the ship sets sail the next afternoon. So you are free to leave and come as you want.

One point made in the last post is that they will collect your passport when you in process and give you a receipt and will not get it back until the last day of the cruise. Ours was returned by the room steward at which time we had to surrender the receipts. They cannot just leave it in your cabin.

When we boarded the Star in BA a few years ago, Princess was using a Hotel (The Intercontinental) to check passengers in the day before the cruise, and actual boarding day also.. We only found out about it a week or so before departure.

Just a FYI

Srpilo

One point made in the last post is that they will collect your passport when you in process and give you a receipt and will not get it back until the last day of the cruise. Ours was returned by the room steward at which time we had to surrender the receipts. They cannot just leave it in your cabin.

We experienced the same procedure when returning our passports. Even when not held by the ship, we carry copies of our passports when in ports.

Keep in mind that the BA port is a working industrial port. So you need a bus to get from the ship to/from the terminal building. You can have multiple ships checking in. The day we boarded there were an MSC and one other ship boarding. The front of the cruise terminal was chaos, but each ship had its own area. The Princess area was calm once we found it. We arrived around 11:30, well before the indicated time of 2 so no line, right through processing and out the back of the terminal building, where you board a bus that takes you to the ship. The area that the terminal is located is industrial/government/military, no stores close by (just a snack bar at the end of the terminal building that might sell a few things. The main shopping areas are several blocks away. The area is congested with heavy trucks going to/from the port. There was a supermarket a couple of blocks away, if you want to dodge the trucks. Cannot say what it carried, but we did see one.

Thanks for the info and comments. The Google Earth shot did look like it was heavy industrial/shipping. Since we have the extra in port after checking in, I will probably do a little exploring during the day. Does anyone know what hours the buses run from the port entrance to each ship?