This Blog is for New to Cruise and the well Traveled , on this site we will publish information about Cruise and Holiday information, with some insider stories in the travel press.
Sailing from Kiel and Copenhagen, the weeklong cruises sail to destinations in Norway, Germany and Denmark.
Ports of call set to be visited as part of the deployment include Bergen, Stavanger, Flam, Alesund, Geiranger, Haugesund and Hellesylt.
The season runs through mid-September, when the Diadema is scheduled to reposition to the Western Mediterranean.
The ship initially offers short cruises to Italy, Spain and France before operating longer itineraries that also sail to destinations in Portugal, the United Kingdom and Morocco.
Following its fall schedule in the region, the 2014-built vessel embarks on a repositioning cruise back to South America in early November.
Before kicking off its summer season in Northern Europe, the ship also offered a trans-Atlantic crossing that departed from Santos, Brazil.
The 25-night repositioning voyage included visits to additional Brazilian destinations, along with ports in Cape Verde, Spain, Morocco, Portugal, France, England and Belgium.
Following a series of short cruises from Santos and Itajaí in November, the 3,700-passenger ship kicks off regular cruises to Santos, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Itajaí in December.
The seven-night itinerary, which allows guests to join the cruise in every port, will be offered through late March.
In addition to the Diadema, Costa is also deploying the Costa Serena in South America for the 2026-27 season, offering cruises from Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
One of three Costa Cruises ships in South America this season, the Costa Diadema recently offered its first-ever cruise to Argentina and Uruguay.
The 3,700-guest ship debuted in the two countries as part of a seven-night itinerary that includes visits to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, as well as the Brazilian ports of Santos and Itajaí.
Sailing from multiple homeports, the cruise will be offered through early April and also includes three days at sea.
“We had great demand for this itinerary in the 2023-24 season, so we decided to increase our offering in this region,” said Renê Hermann, Costa’s Brazil president.
The Costa Diadema takes over the itinerary from the smaller Costa Favolosa, which had been sailing to Argentina and Uruguay for the past two summer seasons.
While most of the ship’s capacity will be allocated to the Brazilian market, passengers will also be able to embark in Argentina.
“We’ve also seen significant demand in the country, and we’ll have guests embarking there too,” Hermann told Cruise Industry News.
In addition to the Costa Diadema, Costa’s 2024-25 deployment in South America also includes the Costa Favolosa and the Costa Pacifica.
Sailing from Santos and Rio de Janeiro, the 2009-built vessel will be fully dedicated to the Brazilian market through late March.
Offering longer itineraries in the region, the Costa Favolosa is also offering cruises to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
The vessel’s eight- to nine-night itineraries sail from Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Montevideo and visit destinations that include Punta del Este, Balneário Camboriú and Ilhabela.
After completing its schedule of seven-night cruises in the region, the Costa Diadema is scheduled to offer short cruises from Santos before returning to Europe in late April.
MSC Cruises will base six ships in South America for the 2023-224 season the line announced today as it started its 2022-2023 sailing season from the port of Santos in Brazil with the departure of the MSC Fantasia, according to a press release.
MSC said it will deploy five vessels in Brazil and one in Argentina next season to reinforce its position as the ocean cruise market leader in South America.
The MSC Grandiosa, MSC Preziosa and MSC Armonia will homeport in Santos, the MSC Seaview in Rio de Janeiro, the MSC Lirica in Itajai and the MSC Musica in Buenos Aires.
The announcement today was made ahead of MSC Fantasia’s first of 132 seasonal sailings MSC Cruises that will operate in South America during 2022-2023 with four ships offering a 68 per cent increase in cabins compared to the 2019-2020 season.
The MSC Fantasia will be joined this season by the MSC Seashore – which MSC said was the largest and most modern cruise ship ever operating in the region.
The MSC Seaview and MSC Armonia will off a range of cruises in South America including 10 destinations in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina and both Montevideo and Punta Del Este in Uruguay.
MSC Cruises forecasts that it will welcome nearly 400,000 guests for its 2022-2023 South American season including 50,000 international travellers.
Sales for MSC Cruises’ 2023-2024 South American season go on sale on Dec. 1.
After months of limited operations in Europe, the brand has been gradually adding destinations and ships back into its active lineup for the past year.
With the Musica kicking off its summer program in the Eastern Mediterranean, all of the fleet’s 19 cruise vessels are now in service again.
Sailing from Monfalcone every Sunday, the 2006-built vessel will offer week-long cruises to the Greek Islands and Italy through November.
Passengers will also be able to board the ship in Bari before sailing to Santorini, Katakolon and Heraklion.
After completing its European deployment, the vessel is set to cross the Atlantic, ahead of a winter program in South America.
Starting in December, the vessel will serve the Argentinean market, with cruises to Brazil and Uruguay departing from the Port of Buenos Aires.
The MSC Musica originally entered service in 2006, introducing a series of four ships known as the Musica Class.
Built by the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in St. Nazaire, France, the 92,400-ton cruise ship can carry 2,550 passengers in double occupancy and features more than 236,800 square feet of common areas.
Among them are five different dining venues, including two main dining rooms and a Japanese speciality restaurant.
The vessel is also equipped with two outdoor pool decks, a large spa, a two-deck theatre, a mini-golf course, a nightclub, a casino, a cigar room and several lounges and bars.
As the second ship to resume service for MSC Cruises this month, the MSC Musica follows the MSC Orchestra.
After a winter season in South Africa, the vessel returned to Europe on June 4, kicking off a summer program in the Western Mediterranean.
Costa Ship Shuffle for Brazil Due to LNG Supply Chain Challenges
Citing uncertainty and recent world developments, Costa Cruises has announced changes to its 2022-2023 program in South America.
According to a statement issued in the local market, the company will no longer operate the 2021-built Costa Toscana in Brazil during the season.
Instead, the Costa Firenze will debut in the country, taking over the program previously announced for the LNG-powered ship.
Citing world developments in the energy market, Costa said it decided to “assure the arrival of three vessels in South America, bringing the new Costa Firenze in place of the Costa Toscana.”
The company said that the LNG needed for the Toscana “could only be sourced through international operations.”
With the change, the 2020-built Costa Firenze is now set to offer a series of seven-night domestic cruises in Brazil.
Departing from Santos and Salvador, the program takes place between December 2022 and April 2023.
Taking the title currently held by the Costa Diadema, the Firenze will become the largest ship ever operated by Costa in South America, the company said.
In addition to the Costa Firenze, Costa’s 2022-2023 program in South America also includes the Costa Favolosa and the Costa Fortuna.
Starting in December, the Favolosa is set to offer seven-night cruises to Argentina and Uruguay. The program runs through April and features departures from two Brazilian ports: Santos and Itajaí.
Returning to the region after a ten-year hiatus, the Costa Fortuna will also be based in Brazil. Sailing from Rio de Janeiro, the vessel is set to offer eight-night itineraries to several destinations in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Both ships will also offer departures from Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Norwegian Cruise Line said it has developed three cruise tours for guests booking its South America itineraries on Norwegian Sun.
One of the cruise tours includes three days pre- or post-cruise in Buenos Aires and includes a tango lesson from professional dancers. A second adds a two-day eco-tour in the region of Iguazu Falls, as well as a visit to a working ranch.
The third tour includes a three-day adventure on Easter Island and two days in Santiago, Chile.
Norwegian Sun will cruise through South America from November 21, 2015, through April 9, 2016, sailing alternating eastbound and westbound 14-day voyages between Santiago and Buenos Aires.
On a 20-day cruise on Holland America Line’s (HAL) Veendam from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires, I decided to mix my adventures: wildlife, wines, technical classes onboard and a real thriller, a bicycle tour in Buenos Aires.
My companion and I chose this last activity because we thought it would be a good way to see the oldest sections of Buenos Aires: the La Boca and San Telmo districts. There were around a dozen participants and we were supplied with everything — bicycles with wide tires and helmets and two guides to accompany us, one in front and one in back.
One would think that anybody could ride a bike — didn’t we all do that once as kids? Judging by our experience, it turns out that riding a bike in Buenos Aires is really for daredevils. HAL warns their guests that participants should be experienced bicyclists able to ride off curbs and that helmets are required, but there were other perils. Buenos Aires is a big city and doesn’t have bike lanes in place. On our tour, I quickly found I didn’t know the local driving customs.
“Stay together,” the guide told us at the beginning of our ride, but Argentine drivers don’t seem to be accustomed to bicyclists on their streets. We learned this as a fuel truck driver making a right turn blared the truck horn for about 10 seconds before he continued his turn, splitting our long line of riders in two.
One of our group members described it as “a harrowing day, the kind of day that you will take to you grave” — but we all survived with war stories. Perhaps we should have chosen a day of wine tasting instead.
Actually, we did that as well, just outside Montevideo, Uruguay, at the Bouza Winery, a family-run business that believes that small is better. The winery features some new structures, including a large dining room with grand windows. Waiters roamed the room, pouring four tastes of wine, and served us an extravagant lunch of lamb, beef and tasty cheese. Live traditional music at lunch was provided by an accordion player and a pianist.
That experience was topped only by a later visit with penguins in their natural habitat. Three choices were offered on the Veendam. Magdalena Island, near Punta Arena, Chile, proved to be the best choice for us, as guests have more time with the penguins. In addition, access to the island via a modern ferry is easy and involves less walking than the other options.
Magdalena Island is home to Magellanic penguins, charming because they look like they are smiling. More than a thousand of them were hopping about, some digging out a new front porch, others coddling their fledglings, which were born just about 40 days earlier. Some of the adults were waddling around, while others were lifting their heads, puffing out their breasts and making a honking call. Sadly, we learned from Palmer Station employees that the arctic penguin population is dying off due to global warming, which is bringing sub-arctic penguins to the station.
The adventures continued on our days at sea. I was thrilled with the complimentary onboard digital workshops, including tips on camera operation and photo editing and organization. These new hour-long classes are offered on all HAL ships in a classroom setting. On Veendam, small classes of 10 covered using a digital camera, photo editing, movie and slideshow creation, PC organization, cloud storage with SkyDrive and navigating Windows 8. The classes began last year as a marriage between HAL and Microsoft and were so popular that they were extended through 2014.
In addition, one-on-one coaching called Techspert Time is available 70 hours each week so guests can stop by with questions. Those in need of more in-depth assistance can attend these help sessions.
HAL offers its three-week South America and Antarctica Explorer cruises on the Zaandam, embarking Dec. 18 of this year as well as Jan. 8 and 29, and Dec. 22 of next year.
.jpg)
