Majestic Princess - Antarctica & South America from Buenos Aires

Where this cruise calls, day by day

10 ports and 8 sea days over 17 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Buenos Aires

   ArgentinaDepart

   Buenos Aires is a turnaround port as often as a port of call, and either way you need more than a day. The terminal sits in Puerto Nuevo, close enough to walk into the Retiro area but far enough that most people take a taxi. The city rewards wandering: Beaux-Arts blocks, enormous cafes, bookshops in old theatres, and a tango scene that ranges from genuine milongas to dinner shows built for tour buses.

   • Recoleta Cemetery and Evita Peron's grave
   • Caminito and the painted houses of La Boca
   • San Telmo's Sunday antiques market on Plaza Dorrego
   • Teatro Colon backstage tour

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Benito Quinquela Martin terminal in Puerto Nuevo, roughly 15 minutes by taxi from the centre.

   Best months

   Oct-Apr

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4

   Stanley

   Falkland IslandsPort

   Stanley is a few streets of brightly painted metal-roofed houses on a hillside above a natural harbour, home to most of the Falklands' population. It reads as very British — pubs, a cathedral, red phone boxes — with 1982 war memorials threaded through it. The real draw is out of town: penguin colonies on white-sand beaches an hour or more away over rough tracks.

   • Christ Church Cathedral and the whalebone arch
   • Volunteer Point king penguin colony (long 4x4 trip)
   • Bluff Cove Lagoon gentoos and its small museum
   • Gypsy Cove Magellanic penguins, walkable-ish from town

   Getting ashore

   Ships anchor in Port William or Stanley Harbour and tender in; strong winds cancel calls fairly regularly.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Elephant Island

   AntarcticaPort

   This is where Shackleton's men landed after the Endurance sank and where 22 of them waited four and a half months under two upturned boats while he sailed for South Georgia. The island is steep, ice-covered and almost entirely inhospitable. Ships come for Point Wild, the narrow spit where the camp stood, marked by a bust of Luis Pardo, captain of the Chilean tug that finally took them off.

   • Point Wild and the Luis Pardo monument
   • Chinstrap penguins on the spit and surrounding rocks
   • Glacier fronts dropping straight into the sea
   • Fur seals along the shoreline

   Getting ashore

   Landings are effectively impossible here — ships view from the water or run a zodiac cruise if swell allows.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

7. Day 7

   Antarctic Sound

   AntarcticaPort

   The Antarctic Sound separates the tip of the peninsula from the Joinville island group and funnels tabular icebergs out of the Weddell Sea — hence the nickname Iceberg Alley. Some of them are the size of city blocks with vertical white walls. Ships that get in here usually pair the transit with a landing at Brown Bluff or a visit to Hope Bay, where Argentina's Esperanza Base sits beside an Adelie colony.

   • Tabular icebergs calved from the Weddell Sea ice shelves
   • Hope Bay and Argentina's Esperanza Base
   • Brown Bluff's rust-coloured volcanic cliff
   • Adelie penguins, the sound's signature species

   Getting ashore

   Ship transit with zodiac landings attempted at Brown Bluff or Hope Bay; heavy ice regularly closes the sound entirely.

   Best months

   Jan-Mar (best chance the ice has cleared)

8. Day 8

   Gerlache Strait (Scenic Cruising)

   AntarcticaPort

   The Gerlache runs between the Palmer Archipelago and the peninsula mainland and functions as the main highway of Antarctic cruising — most ships transit it more than once. It is wide, deep and often surprisingly calm, with mountains on both sides and brash ice slapping the hull. It is also prime feeding water for humpbacks in late season, and ships will stop engines and drift when a pod is working krill nearby.

   • Humpback and minke whales, best from late January
   • Anvers Island and the Osterrieth Range to the west
   • Brash ice and growlers in a flat-calm channel
   • Access point for Wilhelmina Bay, Cuverville and the Errera Channel

   Getting ashore

   Scenic cruising; landings happen at sites off the strait rather than in it.

   Best months

   Jan-Mar for whales; Nov-Mar overall

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10

    Ushuaia

    ArgentinaPort

    Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

    • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
    • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
    • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
    • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar

11. Day 11

    Punta Arenas

    ChilePort

    Punta Arenas grew rich on wool and on ships rounding the Horn before the Panama Canal killed that trade, and the mansions around Plaza Munoz Gamero still show it. It is windy, practical and a useful base: penguin colonies are an hour or two away by boat or road, and the town itself can be covered in a morning. Many Antarctic fly-cruises stage from here rather than Ushuaia.

    • Magdalena Island Magellanic penguin colony (boat trip)
    • Cementerio Municipal with its clipped cypresses and immigrant mausoleums
    • Nao Victoria Museum's full-size ship replicas
    • Fuerte Bulnes and the Strait of Magellan lookout

    Getting ashore

    Larger ships usually anchor and tender; a pier is used when conditions and traffic allow.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Magdalena Island colony closes outside roughly Oct-Mar)

12. Day 12 · At sea

13. Day 13 · At sea

14. Day 14

    Puerto Madryn

    ArgentinaPort

    Puerto Madryn is a modest Patagonian beach town that exists on cruise itineraries because of what surrounds it. Peninsula Valdes, a UNESCO site an hour or two north, is where southern right whales calve in the sheltered gulfs and where orcas occasionally beach themselves to take sea lion pups. To the south, Punta Tombo holds one of the largest Magellanic penguin colonies anywhere. The Welsh settlements at Gaiman still serve tea.

    • Southern right whale watching from Puerto Piramides, Peninsula Valdes
    • Punta Tombo Magellanic penguin colony
    • Punta Loma sea lion reserve
    • Welsh tea houses and chapels at Gaiman

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth at the Almirante Storni pier, a short shuttle from town.

    Best months

    Sep-Dec for right whales; Oct-Mar for penguins

15. Day 15 · At sea

16. Day 16 · At sea

17. Day 17

    Montevideo

    UruguayPort

    Uruguay's capital is a low-key, walkable city where the cruise berth is genuinely close to the old town for once. Ciudad Vieja gives you Art Deco and crumbling neoclassical in the same block, and the Mercado del Puerto is a shed full of wood-fired grills that most passengers end up in by noon. The Rambla runs for miles along the river-sea, and the beaches at Pocitos are a short taxi away.

    • Mercado del Puerto and its parrilla grills
    • Plaza Independencia, the Palacio Salvo and Artigas mausoleum
    • Teatro Solis
    • The Rambla and Pocitos beach

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth in the working port a few minutes' walk from Ciudad Vieja.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar

18. Day 18

    Buenos Aires

    ArgentinaArrive

    Buenos Aires is a turnaround port as often as a port of call, and either way you need more than a day. The terminal sits in Puerto Nuevo, close enough to walk into the Retiro area but far enough that most people take a taxi. The city rewards wandering: Beaux-Arts blocks, enormous cafes, bookshops in old theatres, and a tango scene that ranges from genuine milongas to dinner shows built for tour buses.

    • Recoleta Cemetery and Evita Peron's grave
    • Caminito and the painted houses of La Boca
    • San Telmo's Sunday antiques market on Plaza Dorrego
    • Teatro Colon backstage tour

    Getting ashore

    Ships dock at the Benito Quinquela Martin terminal in Puerto Nuevo, roughly 15 minutes by taxi from the centre.

    Best months

    Oct-Apr