Other reviews have quite adequately covered the cruise portion of South America & the Chilean Fjords on Viking Jupiter. My only comment would be to support the exceptional ratings given and echo the compliments given to the crew for their performance. I would add that on our cruise, we were not able to go ashore in the Falkland Islands nor were we able to go ashore on Magdalena Island (from Punta Arenas). The costs for our optional excursions were immediately refunded to our accounts and the money will be refunded after the cruise. While disappointing, safety was the highest concern of the Captain and he made decisions with that in mind. Rough seas and high winds are always a risk in that part of the world and he did the best he could to maximize our experience.

With others covering the actual cruise portion, I wanted to address our pre and post cruise extensions as they do not seem to be mentioned in other reviews. We elected to go to Rio de Janeiro and Iguazú Falls before joining the ship in Buenos Aires. From the first time I saw pictures of Iguazú Falls on a TV special, I have had a visit to Iguazú Falls on my personal “bucket list.” A visit to the Galápagos Islands provided the post cruise extension.

The Viking extension begins in Rio de Janeiro where Viking books you into the Belmont Copacabana Palace, a classic hotel right on the beach. The included tour of Rio was on the next day so on the first day, we hired a driver from the hotel to take us to places we wanted to see and knew would not be part of the next-day’s tour. I had several places I knew I wanted to see but then left it up to Mario Marino, our driver, to take us to places we didn’t even know about. His car enabled us to get to places that would be impossible with the bus the next day. He was great as a guide and added immensely to our understanding and appreciation of Rio. Read more