New to cruising, second voyage in 2010

Second cruise for my wife and I will be Valpariso to Buenos Aires departing March 14th on Norwegian Sun; Having done Alaska on this ship it now seems right to do Antarctica on the same vessel. We are pretty familiar with the ship, but would like to hear from vetran CC'rs about what shore excursions we should take and who with...we are already on to GV tours in Puerto Montt, but would like some other ideas from seasoned CC members.:)

Not sure what specific ports are on your particular itinerary...but in Jan...we were on the Infinity doing essentially the same route as it seems like you will be doing...to get some recommendations for various shore excursions...you should go and check out the South America boards since we don't know where your interests lie...lots of information there. It was an wonderful cruise with fascinating ports. And if you are doing pretty much the same route that we did...sailing from Valparaiso south and around Cape horn and finishing the cruise in BA...I don't think you're gonna even see Antarctica let alone 'sail by' it. There are some sailings on various cruise ships that do a 'sail by' of Antarctica...but I don't think the NCL Sun is gonna get down that far. If that is what you have your heart set on...you should check to see if it really does.

That Infinity sailing has led my husband and I to speed up our own timetable to get down to Antarctica and we are currently booked on an expedition ship so that we can do actual landings there.

Happy sailings.

Hi LUV2CRUISE450

Thanks for your reply. we have an itinerary including Puerto Montt, Puerto Chacabuco, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, The Cape, Falklands, Puerto Madryn and Montivideo.....................all of these are a darn sight closer than UK to Antarctica, so I'll take that as a result. Really looking forward to this one; Using the van man on arrival and transfer and GV tours in Puerto Montt. The rest has yet to be determined.

Again, thanks for the input and from such seasoned cruisers!

Kind regards

Ron and Veronica

Ron & Veronica....Welcome to CC and cruising!!

Your itinerary differs from our Infinity sailing just a little bit...when we did that sailing...the NCL Sun was in various ports with us several times.

And when we initially were checking out the excursions available thru the ship...it was kind of an eyeopener since it seemed like most excursions were in the $100. to $200.pp range (and a few were even more money!) So budget for excursions!

The tour that we did in Puerto Montt with GV Tours was a very busy but very interesting day. I am sure that you will enjoy it...when we docked..both Gail and his wife Veronica were outside the gates holding up a sign that said GV Tours. I guess that he had quite a few bookings that day since there were 2 other guides with them (with 4 vans waiting)...we ended up in the van with Veronica and it was a great tour with a nice lunch.

In Punta Arenas...we were on a wait list for the Isla Madgalena penguin tour thru the ship...but outside the port...there are many drivers who are willing to drive you to see the sights...so we ended up going to Seno Otway with a few other people off the ship and seeing the penguins there. It is smaller than Isla Magdalena but there were several hundred penguins and they have a sort of boardwalk there and you walk along that as your 'path' meanders thru the colony and we were happy with the amount of penguins that we saw there.

In Ushuaia...we along with several of our dinnermates decided to just get off the ship together and find a 'tour' or outing that interested us...we ended up negotiating for a small van with the driver out to Tierra del Fuego National Park...very enjoyable and then had them drop us off in town afterwards so that we could explore it a bit (we all kind of went our separate ways in town since some wanted to shop and others wanted to get a bite to eat etc) and just walked back to the ship whenever we were ready.

Anyway...by checking out the South American boards...you will come up with many ideas for your own excursions.

For our day of debarkation in BA...we ended up booking the ships 'city tour' with a visit to an estancia since we had a very late departure from BA...this way...we didn't worry about what would we do with our luggage...it just came along in the buses! And then at the end of the excursion..they dropped us off at the airport.

Enjoy your sailing and ports!!

Betty

If you stop in Punta Arenas, don't miss having a drink or just going up to the 11th floor in the Hotel Dreams. The view of Magellan Strait and Punta Arenas is magnificient if the weather is good.

If you get to the Plaza de Arms, Sara Braun's house is the same as the Jose Nogueira hotel and acorss the street from the Hotel is a little restaurant called La Fabria or something. Great to get some empanadas. Spent two days there before Antarctica fly/cruise.

New to Cruising

Try typing "cruisediva" without the quotes in the address bar and hold the Cntrl Key while you hit the ENTER key.

Hi Scapel

thanks for your recommendations, we shall be sure to follow up and share the pleasure.

Safe landings for January and a Happy New Year to you and yours

Best regards

Miglio2

Second cruise for my wife and I will be Valpariso to Buenos Aires departing March 14th on Norwegian Sun; Having done Alaska on this ship it now seems right to do Antarctica on the same vessel. We are pretty familiar with the ship, but would like to hear from vetran CC'rs about what shore excursions we should take and who with...we are already on to GV tours in Puerto Montt, but would like some other ideas from seasoned CC members.:)

Ron & Veronica...Your cruise is a little late to really do a 'sail-by' the actual Antarctic peninsula or continent. However, all is not lost...on your visit to Falklands try to get a tour to either Gypsy Cove, a Magellanic Penguin rookery...or better yet out to Volunteer Point by 4x4 where you can see King Penguins who's irregular breeding schedules might show you some woolies, the king chics. It's a great stop just anyway, a little bit of England and if you can see some penguins it makes it even better. Puerto Madryn is the jumping off place for the Valdes Peninsula, a major breeding ground for birds, seals, though, again, it is past most brooding times. If you get the chance to go to Trelew there is a wonderful Paleontology museum with a small but exquisite exhibit of some major finds in the Patagonia area. It is a real jewel. I don't know if you'll be able to get to Punto Tombo where there is a huge Magellanic Penguin rookery...chics will have been fledged by then. Enjoy. If you want to do Antarctic, consider one of the smaller, expedition ships...they generally get you well acquainted with the area...good stuff.

SeaSloth

Ron & Veronica...Your cruise is a little late to really do a 'sail-by' the actual Antarctic peninsula or continent. However, all is not lost...on your visit to Falklands try to get a tour to either Gypsy Cove, a Magellanic Penguin rookery...or better yet out to Volunteer Point by 4x4 where you can see King Penguins who's irregular breeding schedules might show you some woolies, the king chics. It's a great stop just anyway, a little bit of England and if you can see some penguins it makes it even better. Puerto Madryn is the jumping off place for the Valdes Peninsula, a major breeding ground for birds, seals, though, again, it is past most brooding times. If you get the chance to go to Trelew there is a wonderful Paleontology museum with a small but exquisite exhibit of some major finds in the Patagonia area. It is a real jewel. I don't know if you'll be able to get to Punto Tombo where there is a huge Magellanic Penguin rookery...chics will have been fledged by then. Enjoy. If you want to do Antarctic, consider one of the smaller, expedition ships...they generally get you well acquainted with the area...good stuff.

 

SeaSloth

Ron & Veronica

p.s.

If you look for a future Antarctic cruise on an expedition ship consider one of the earlier season sailings...Nov or Dec. You would see many more penguins with chicks still being cared for by mom and dad.

SS

Second cruise for my wife and I will be Valpariso to Buenos Aires departing March 14th on Norwegian Sun; Having done Alaska on this ship it now seems right to do Antarctica on the same vessel. We are pretty familiar with the ship, but would like to hear from vetran CC'rs about what shore excursions we should take and who with...we are already on to GV tours in Puerto Montt, but would like some other ideas from seasoned CC members.:)

Some links you might like.

WINDOWS LIVE SITE

http://cid-f6fe23a6e5a9ec3f.photos.live.com/summary.aspx

See if this works

http://cid-f6fe23a6e5a9ec3f.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/SOUTH%20AMERICA%20HORN%20CRUISE%20FEB%202004

http://cid-f6fe23a6e5a9ec3f.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/ANTARCTICA%20NOV.%2022-DEC.4%5EJ%202009

Dear Scapel and Mrs Scapel

Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us, the room was particularly chilly as we watched the Antarctic slide show, there is snow outside our house just now,:) so that added to the majesty of it all.

Half way through I was beginning to wonder what clothes we were going to need and then "bingo" there you were with a stop by stop fashion show! so now we have a good idea, despite being earlier or later in the season, I guess the weather is going to be cold somewhere along the route.

Again thank you for this insight; it arrived on the day NCL invited us to confirm our details and invited us to sign up for shore excursions.. we will wait a little while and see if we receive anymore recommendations of dealing direct with non ship organised excursions

enjoy your next cruise, we are so excited about ours and are counting down the days

With warm regards

Ron & Veronica