This trip was on our bucket list. We wanted to see Patagonia, Chile, and of course, Antarctica. It was a wonderful experience and we would not trade it for the world. We would highly recommend this cruise to anyone who would like to visit that part of the world.

We boarded the ship in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a working harbor and we had to take a bus from the terminal to the ship. Boarding was easy. We got to our stateroom and were wowed. We had been offered an upgrade to a Neptune Suite and since this was a 21-day cruise, we jumped at the offer. The suite was so much larger than our previously booked ocean-view room. We really got used to the special attention given to us by the staff.

We enjoyed every port and booked all our excursions through HAL even though they are more expensive. We have been on several cruises where passengers were left behind because their privately-arranged tour did not get them back to the ship at time. When you are sailing between isolated ports, it would be very difficult and expensive to travel between the ports if an embarkation was missed. Read more