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| 14 night Patagonia Holiday aboard Celebrity Eclipse: Part 1, Bogota, Santiago, Valparaiso and Puerto Montt | Page: 1 2 3 4 5 |
Cruising: Dec 23rd, 2023 to January 4th, 2024
Whole trip: Dec 20th, 2023 to January 8th, 2024
Here is a trip report from an awesome trip I got to do over the Christmas 2023 holiday with Sandra and her dad Hugo. We embarked on a 14 night cruise from Valparaiso, Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina. While these two cities are fairly close to each other "as the crow flies", getting from one to the other by ship requires navigating around the tip of South America, across the Strait of Magellan in the region known as Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. I am quite new to cruising - this was only my third cruise after the short feeler to Ensenada and then a 10 day trip in the eastern Med with my mom (not counting the stationary cruise for Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi) - but a trip like this is in my mind what cruises are meant for. There is literally no other way to have this experience than by a ship!
The screenshot below illustrates our route. Below that you will find the daily listing of our itinerary. As you can see, we actually had a lot of sea days, as one may expect. There were only 5 ports visited over 14 days, not counting the start and the end. That's on average almost 3 days between each port.
But this was actually fine with me, especially after the mental insanity of the Mediterranean cruise (not saying it was not good, it actually was, but it felt like cramming for a history exam). Here we got to enjoy a slightly more relaxed time line. Also, you can notice that we actually arrived in our final port, Buenos Aires, on day 14. This is because originally the ship was supposed to head to Montevideo, Uruguay first. However that port got cut and replaced with the overnight in Buenos Aires. This change happened actually before we booked the cruise, but I know about it from comments on the CruiseCritic forum. This was actually fine with us. We got an extra day in Buenos Aires, while still getting a taste of Uruguay with the prior stop in Punta del Este.
DAY DATE PORTS OF CALL ACCESS ARRIVE DEPART Sat 23 Dec Valparaiso, Chile D N/A 06:00 PM Sun 24 Dec At Sea - - - Mon 25 Dec At Sea - - - Tue 26 Dec Puerto Montt, Chile T 08:00 AM 06:00 PM Wed 27 Dec Chilean Fjords - - - Thu 28 Dec Strait of Magellan - - - Fri 29 Dec Punta Arenas, Chile T 07:00 AM 05:00 PM Sat 30 Dec Ushuaia, Argentina D 10:00 AM 07:00 PM Sun 31 Dec Cape Horn, Chile - - - Mon 01 Jan At Sea - - - Tue 02 Jan Puerto Madryn, Argentina D 08:00 AM 05:00 PM Wed 03 Jan At Sea - - - Thu 04 Jan Punta Del Este, Uruguay T 07:00 AM 04:00 PM Fri 05 Jan Buenos Aires, Argentina D 08:00 AM - Sat 06 Jan Buenos Aires, Argentina D - 09:00 AM
I have some more details about the trip, including detailed cost and my thoughts on Celebrity Eclipse, on the last page so make sure to read to the end.
Our trip actually started in Bogota. Sandra traveled there a few days ahead of me to spend time with family, and importantly, to make sure that Hugo packed all the necessary - but not unneeded - items. Given we were all going to share the same cabin, we knew that space will be at premium requiring us to be smart about items brought along. I arrived to Bogota via Houston, with neither flight being particularly eventful. However in Bogota I encountered a surprisingly long line at immigration. But this dog was more bark than bite, and the line actually moved quickly. I suspect the line was due to the Colombian expatriate community converging on their home for the holidays.
We then had one full day in Bogota which I spent by playing a tourist - something I have not really done in a while! We visited bunch of museums all of which were the first time for me. We started with the Gold Museum (Museo del Oro). This museum is really neat. It ought to be called "the museum of Colombian history told through the story of gold", as "Museum of Gold" does not really give justice to the vast range of exhibits found inside. Besides gold pieces, this museum houses numerous artifacts from the native cultures that inhabited this land prior to the Spanish arrival.
We also visited the Casa del Florero, which is the Museum of Colombian Independence. The war of Colombian independence started on July 20th, 1810 when a group of locally-born "criollos" went to borrow an ornamental vase (called a florero) from a local Spanish businessman living in this house, who, as they actually expected, refused to lend it. This incident was then used to stoke an anti-Spaniard sentiment among the criollo population which eventually led to the uprising and the independence. This museum did not have too many exhibits, and it is more of a place to visit for the house itself, to appreciate how the local well-off population lived some 200 years ago. The balcony overlooks the popular Plaza Bolivar.
The next stop was the coin production museum (Museo Casa de Moneda). This is a nice place to see historical coin presses.
Next on the program were two art museums. We first visited the Botero Museum. Fernando Botero is the iconic Colombian painter and sculptor of objects of plump proportions. Apparently the original plan was for his entire art collection (including works of other artists that he owned) to be housed in Medellin (where many of his statues can be found) but due to some bureaucratic issues, much of it actually ended up here in Bogota - good for us! This museum is housed in a large colonial building containing a central courtyard. Given that I really like the uniqueness of his style, I very much enjoyed this visit and will make sure to come again on future trips to Bogota. There was painting of a chubby blue bird that I particularly liked, although did not photograph for some reason. The fat Mona Lisa is another good one. Then just across the street is another art museum, Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia. This is another museum not to miss. It contains various modern art pieces, some of which are bit on the strange side, as one may expect. The architectural style of the building is a highlight in itself. We then ended the day with a visit to the Sanalejo restaurant owned by one of Sandra's classmates. I had an excellent ajiaco (typical Colombian chicken, potato, and corn soup) here.
Our LATAM flight left Bogota shortly after 11pm on the 21st, and got us to Santiago de Chile at 7am the following day. We then proceeded to the hotel, Hyatt Centric Las Condes. Our original plan was to stay at the Grand Hyatt where we stayed on our 2015 trip but that hotel is now apparently Mandarin Oriental! Can I say that I have stayed in a Mandarin Oriental if it was known under a different name before? Besides changing some color schemes, there probably isn't much difference from when it used to known as a Hyatt. So instead we found this Hyatt Centric, and it was actually an excellent choice. The location, Las Condes, is hip neighborhood full of various restaurants. The hotel lobby had the slightly eclectic decor one may find in an Andaz. The rooftop has a pool, but it's quite tiny and we did not actually see anybody using it. But at least we got nice bird eye views of the city from up here. We then walked around a bit to get acquinted with the neighborhood - and to eat. Sandra then took her dad on a sightseeing trip of Santiago. I opted against this as I was still in the middle of writing my second book but joined for for dinner in a Chilean restaurant called Confitería Torres. I don't remember what I ordered - I think it was some kind of a duck - but I remember being quite happy with the dish.
The next morning we took a taxi to Valparaiso, which is located about 1.5 hours west, on the coast, from Santiago. Sandra and I also visited here back in 2015. The driver dropped us off at the cruise terminal. I remember this part being quite unclear as to where exactly to go. I was expecting a well marked cruise terminal, like found in Galataport in Istanbul or the passenger terminal in Abu Dhabi, but this boarding area was really just a small building in an otherwise busy industrial port. We were directed to get dropped off at a parking lot passing the building itself. Porters there loaded our suitcases onto trolleys and directed us to walk back to the building, where we did the actual check in. We were then loaded onto buses that took us to the ship. On the way, we got a good glimpse of our home away from home for the next 15 days.
A bit of a queue later, and we were on board the Celebrity Eclipse! Of course the first thing we did was go check out our room. We were in "Deluxe Veranda" cabin #7211. This was one of the slightly larger balcony rooms located midship at the section where this ship widens so our balcony was oriented at an angle, facing the front of the ship. This was actually nice as it gave us a slightly better view of where we were going - and of sunrises. The room was also sufficiently spacious. I was a bit concerned about this, knowing there will be three of us in a single room, but honestly it was no problem. I took the sofa, which our room attendant converted into a pull out bed every night. Sandra and Hugo had their own bed. We stored the suitcases under the beds. The closet was also sufficiently large for all our outfits. All our suitcases showed up, although if remembering right, one arrived much later than the other two. We had met folks on our prior cruises whose luggage got lost during embarkation, so I knew the risk existed of ending up on a 15 day trip with just the clothes on my back. But luckily this was not an issue here.
We spent the rest of the evening exploring the ship, and just watching the port operations. We noticed another cruise ship in port - the Viking Jupiter. Little did we know that we will essentially be following each other for most of our journey! In fact, later in Ushuaia, our larger ship (The Viking holds only around 750 guests compared to around 3000 aboard the Eclipse) ended up acting as a wind break to allow the Viking to dock in port.
Well, and we were off. The next two days were spent at sea. This was interesting in that for these two days there were literally no landmasses to be seen. It was not until the final evening when some rocky features started appearing in the moonlight. We spent much of this time becoming acquainted with the ship. Celebrity Eclipse holds 2,850 passengers at full occupancy, which means two people per cabin. But since a cabin can hold more than this - we were in fact three in a single cabin - I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least 500 more of us here, as the ship was packed! The ship has 15 decks, but deck 1 is totally off limits, and the only part of Deck 2 accessible to the guests is the medical facility - which we did not use. This deck is also from where the tender boats are launched from. Deck 3 holds the Grand Foyer, a large area where musicians played all day. This foyer is open to the top across all floors, which are accessed by glass elevators, or for the more adventurous, many flights of stairs. Here you also find the guest relations, excursions desk, and the Passport Bar. In the aft section is the bottom floor of the main dining room (MDR) called Moonlight Sonata. We had almost all of our dinners here during the early seating (around 6pm) option. I was expecting being seated at a large table for 8 as was the case on our MSC Mediterranean cruise, but instead we were assigned to a table just for the 3 of us. Honestly I prefer the communal option as it makes it easier to meet people. However, by the end of the cruise, we ended up chatting quite a lot with an elderly couple at the window-side table next to ours. Here you also find the main dining room for guests in Eclipse's "ship within a ship" Retreat level called Luminae. The forward section is occupied by the lowest level guest cabins (these are all either port hole Ocean View or inside).
Deck 4 does not hold any cabins. Instead, from the aft, you first have the second and top level of the MDR. Next you encounter two bars: the Martini Bar and the Cellar Masters wine bar, which had a more elegant look to it and was also walled off from the main passage way. Then there was the ever present casino, several shops, future cruise sales desk, a really confusing Quasar bar (it was a weird mix of a sports bar and the activity center for kids), a smaller theater called Celebrity Central, and then finally the upper floor of the main theater. Then finally in the front, bow section, you find the lower entrance to the main theater. Deck 5 is another floor without any cabins. The aft section holds three specialty restaurants: the Tuscan Grill, Murano, and Qsine (hosting an animated Le Petit Chef experience). Here you also find two other exclusive dining options: Blu for guests in their mid-tier Aquaclass level, and Michael Club lounge for guests in Retreat. This whole section is accessed by passing through the really dark Ensemble lounge. I found this whole layout really weird, to be honest, as this whole section of the ship seemed to be rather uninviting. We did however have one dinner at the Tuscan Grill. It was fine but not really worth the extra expense.
I tried, at least as much as I could, to write. This mostly involved heading to the Cafe al Bacio coffee shop also located here on Level 5. This was definitely one of my most frequented destinations. We ended up purchasing the non-alcoholic drinks package which included all the cafe lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, or Darjeeling teas one may like. Across the foyer opening was the Sushi on Five specialty restaurant. We did not try that one. Then moving forward, we come across various boutiques selling overpriced trinkets, and also the World Class bar, specializing in cocktails. This is also where the art gallery was located, which to me is another inexplicable concept. None of the offered paintings were particularly good, and I can't really imagine who would want to buy any of them. Yet despite of this, the art auction events were well attended. The deck ends with the second level of the theater. Besides theater shows, which we attended every night, this is also where the crew hosted a welcome event where we got to meet our Greece-based Captain Zisis.
The next six decks, decks 6 through 11 contain only cabins. Well sort off. As noted previously, the Grand Foyer extends all the way to the ceiling across all the decks. The forward section of these decks houses a small alcove room. The one Deck 6 had several computers I guess for people who did not have their own laptops. We did not observe the computers getting much use, however there was also some customer service person here. Deck 7, which is where were located, had a room titled "Team Earth". This was accentuated by a giant globe which was surrounded by several lounge style arm chairs. This area turned out to the domain of the "jigsaw ladies". A group of women were working on jigsaw puzzles for the duration of the cruise. In fact, many of them were doing back-to-back, starting from Los Angeles, and were complaining that they had ran out of puzzles. Their goal in my ports of call was not sightseeing but purchasing more puzzles. Had I known, I would have brought one of my puzzles - I actually like doing jigsaws, I just did not know it was so much part of the cruising culture. Team Earth extended through deck 9. Then Decks 10 and 11 had the library. It was similar to Team Earth, except with a bookshelf instead of a globe. Being opened to the Grand Foyer and also located right below a ping pong table, this library was definitely not on the quiet side.
Deck 12 is the highest deck with guest cabins, although only in the aft section. This is where one finds the aft-facing sunset suites. The mid section is taken up by open air pools. Then towards the front, you find the Solarium, which contained more pools under a glass sky view. I particularly liked this part. Here was also the Spa Cafe, which had complimentary light snacks like vegetable based sandwiches, and also fresh fruit smoothies (these were free as part of our drinks package). Next was the spa and its thermal area called Persian Gardens. I very much wanted to use it, but alas Celebrity would not allow us to purchase a day pass, which was completely normal on my prior MSC trip. The front, with a nice view over the bow of the ship, was the fitness center. This one was complimentary. The next deck is not 13 but 14, and contains many cruiser's favorite establishment: the buffet. The options were good, but we honestly did not eat here too much. The ship was packed and even finding a table was difficult, not to mention trying to navigate among the crowd of food obsessed zombie-like beings with your plate full of food. The mid section is open to the pool below and this is where you find the jogging track. It was 11 laps to a mile if remembering correctly, although you could expand this by going up the stairs to the aft and bow section of deck 15. The front section housed our most popular hang out: the Sky Observation Lounge. This is a large lounge with comfortable sleepers and walls made of glass although of a weird blue hue. This was a great place to take a nap - at least until the entertainment crew showed up. This is also where you found the conference center which hosted some of the enrichment activities like watercolor painting during our voyage.
Deck 15 is not a full deck, and instead consists of an aft section above the buffet, where one finds the Sunset Bar. Outside contained bocce courts and a large grass lawn, although we did not actually see many people using either. This is also where a kiln for glass blowing figurines was located - I guess a good way to utilize waste heat from the ship engine? This is also something I did not see being utilized. Perhaps these activities are more popular with warm weather sailings. The front section had various mostly kid-oriented facilities. There was the basketball court, video game arcade, and something called X-Club, which was I guess the daycare for the youngest cruisers. The open deck in front of the basketball court offered nice picture taking opportunities, although it was also very windy here. Finally Deck 16 holds a small sun bathing section called Solstice Deck. This area was not being used much on this voyage due to the weather conditions.
On our 3rd full day aboard (cruise day 4), now fully acquainted with the ship layout, the Eclipse arrived at her first port: Puerto Montt. This town, located over 1000 kms south of Santiago, was our gateway to the Los Lagos (the lakes) region of southern Chile. It was founded during the government sponsored German colonization that took place from 1850 to 1875. To this day, the towns, especially Puerto Varas to the north of it, retain a German architectural style. Here we were signed up for a Panoramic Puerto Varas and Lake Llanquihue excursion to see the volcanoes. Getting to port involved riding in a tender boat. This was actually my first time ever in a tender. There isn't anything to it, unless the sea is choppy which wasn't the case here. Then on land we were ushered to a small tourist bus that took us towards the town of Ensenada located on the south-eastern corner of Lake Llanquihue, Chile's second largest lake. On our arrival, the town was covered in a dense fog, and it looked doubtful that we will actually see anything. Well just as we got close, the fog started to lift, and Volcan Osorno came into full view. What a spectacular sight! We also managed to get a glimpse of the Volcan Calbuco which is located to the south of the lake.
We next headed back to Puerto Varas. Here the excursion allowed people only about 45 minutes for a quick exploration, which was a shame, since Puerto Varas was still fully shrouded in the thick blanket of fog. On top of this, the all-aboard time was not for another 3 or so hours. So we instead decided to stay behind, and enjoy the town on our own. We started with lunch at a lakeside restaurant. Just after we finished, the fog started to clear up and we were treated to spectacular views of the three volcanoes (Osorno, Calbuco, and Tronador in the distance) overlooking the massive Lake Llanquihue. We then walked a bit along its western shore, before returning to town to take a city bus that dropped us off in Puerto Montt.
We were then treated to more spectacular views of the volcano on our tender ride back to Celebrity Eclipse, and got even more views as we sailed away. This was a wonderful welcome to the remote region of Patagonia.
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