patrickmoran

Celebration

An agent told my wife that the pilot had an accident and was in the hospital. Eventually AA cancelled the flight and were rebooked on a flight out Sunday night. We hate middle seats and were able to get an aisle and window combo in the rear. I have no idea what they did with the other 300+ passengers because I had checked and the flight was booked pretty full and other flights Saturday, Sunday and Monday maybe had 20 open seats each.

Finally made it home today. We arrived at EZE Saturday as scheduled. We collected our luggage and walked over to Terminal A for our late night flight on American. We had 8 hours to kill. American check in and desk didn't open for 3 hours. The line to check in was crazy long. We had 2 of the few seats available in the terminal. Finally I asked Anne to ask a roaming agent about our flight. Guess what, it had been delayed for 21 hours! We weren't leaving Saturday night! AA didn't notify me. Anne had me check the app and yup we're leaving Sunday night. All right, I've got travel insurance and it's not the end of the world. Book a hotel, get a taxi and head into center city. After more drama Sunday night, we finally leave BA and get home. I'll post my report regarding landings later this week, probably Thursday while watching football.

The food was good. Breakfast and lunch were buffet style, as were 2 dinners. Hot food on the buffet was lukewarm at best. At breakfast you can order eggs or omelette through the waiters. The plated dinners were very good. I had the beef, lamb and pork main dishes. I never tried fish or vegetarian dishes. I liked the wines that were served. They served a variety throughout the trip. There was a red and a white available for lunch and dinner. Generally I did not like the coffee. Too bitter for my taste but then I don’t like Starbucks coffee. Lunch desserts were small and lacking flavor. Service was good. You could make reservations but I never could figure out why. You walk up to the stand and give them your cabin number, wash your hands, then get seated. Most tables were for 2. All of these comments are about the main dining room, Aune. The chocolate shakes at the Freidham were very good. I liked the hamburgers but had to get them with the toppings of my choice on the side. Service was slow since there were only 2 servers and 1 (?) chef. If the restaurant was full it could be very slow. We usually would do an early dinner there when we had a late landing. That worked well.

We’re back in civilization and have Wi-Fi. I can officially report the Wi-Fi on the ship sucks. I got my emails but opening any attachment was nearly impossible. I could post text and pictures to FB but even a 20 second video took hours to upload. I could see the headlines for my newsfeeds but opening them was hit and miss, mostly miss. If you NEED Wi-Fi, don’t go. If you’re getting away, then not a problem. I did see people making calls so maybe the ship has something I wasn’t aware of. Not a big problem for me but I would have liked to FaceTime with the kids.

My phone number is 502 939 5437. Email is patrickmoran150@gmail.com. Feel free to contact me.

Return flights to EZE are scheduled to arrive at 12:15 and 3:25 pm. We are flying out at 11:50 pm the day that we arrive. A flight at 10 pm won’t be a problem.

Temperature is usually around 32°F. Wind has been calm to 20mph. Generally cloudy and can be snowing.

We’ve had 2 landings and 1 canceled because of conditions. The 2 landings were in the afternoons, starting at 2pm. It takes about 6 hours to get everyone ashore. You are allowed 1 hour ashore. During the 1st landing there were moderate waves and we got soaked. It is imperative to have waterproof pants and gloves. I would recommend ski goggles also. The jacket that H provides is waterproof but not insulated. I wore 3 layers under the jacket and was warm. I wore 2 pairs of long underwear and 2 pairs of socks and was fine. They assign the passengers into groups and rotate them for landing times. Our group was last for the 1st landing and 1st for the 2nd. Generally you will see many penguins at each landing. I saw whales during the 1st. There is the occasional seal and bird. It is early in the season. The 2nd landing site was challenging to get up onto the snow pack and a more strenuous walk. Besides landings, H provides cruising. They use the boats to sail around. I haven’t done that yet. Biding my time. Extra excursions for snowshoeing, kayaking and camping are available at extra cost. I wasn’t interested so I can’t provide any further details.

I feel safe. Covid isn’t the danger it was 2 years ago. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted and had Covid twice this year. My symptoms were mild even though my immune system is compromised. Staff wear masks all the time and most passengers are wearing them.

Each morning they announce the Covid count. We had 1, 2, 3, then 6 so far. Mask wearing went from casual to most everyone wearing them. Staff wear them all of the time except on excursions.

We had no say in the upgrade. The first we knew about it was when we got our room keys. You could call H and request no upgrade unless consulted. For us, the upgrade was great. I believe we got it is because the ship is not full. The captain said we had 385 passengers. They can have up to 500 and the ship’s capacity is a bit higher than that.

Thursday was a sea day crossing the Drake Passage. According to several staff, the seas were low to moderate wave heights. The ship was rocking and you had to hang on to be safe. We are using patches and had no problem with seasickness. There were a number of lectures; one was mandatory (shore safety). The passage was going quickly so they announced that Friday afternoon we would be able to do landings. We went to bed with penguins and whales dancing in our dreams.

We had to get a Covid test at the hotel which will be charged to our ship account (65 euros each). We had a negative test from home that should have been good per H’s policy but nooo. Hotel was fine. Bed was super comfortable. Transfer is not included with cruise fare unless you get H to book your flights.

We flew down Monday night. We arrived about 9:30am. It took about 30-40 minutes to clear immigration. Got our bags and signed up for a ride to the hotel. Charged the 8,000 peso fee. We had to wait 30 minutes for a driver. Unfortunately there was a bad accident on the tollway into BA. It took 3 hours for a ride that should take less than 1 hour. we got to the hotel around 2pm. Our room wasn’t ready so we got an upgrade to a suite for no charge! Within a block of the hotel there is cluster of restaurants. We ate at the steak place. Very good. At the hotel I was able to exchange a $100 for pesos. The hotel offered $250 for $1USD, exactly the rate I wanted. Not full “blue rate” but much better than the official rate. I paid cash for dinner which was the equivalent of $85 USD with tip. We got a pound and half beef tenderloin to share for $32USD! Wednesday we were up at 5:30 am for H’s bus at 6:30 am. The charter flight was full. H provided a continental breakfast at the hotel and airline served a bigger one on the way. We got on H’s bus to the ship. We had an hour in Ushuaia since the cabins weren’t ready. Before leaving the airport, an H employee checked us in and gave us our room keys. We had been upgraded to an obstructed balcony cabin from an ocean view cabin! Dinner was a buffet and was ok but disappointing. Dinners have been better since then as I’ll tell you in the next post.

We leave Monday night from Miami for BA. We are in our early 70s and have done many ocean cruises, including one around the Horn. I plan to post regularly depending on the wifi connectivity. There is not alot of details of past cruises on the boards. If there are others on the cruise, please feel free to contribute. The cruise includes 1 night in BA at the Hotel Emperador, flights to and from Ushuaia, 10 nights cruise to Antarctica with 5 days of landings. We will fly home directly after the cruise (going to be a long "day").

Think they'll be serving leftovers the following week? We get on the Sky on the 26th.

I am glad we went. The play is in German and they have embellished the story. That took some time to adjust to. We enjoyed Oberammergau.

Thought I'd add a few comments regarding our recently completed cruise. This was our 4th Viking river cruise, first since COVID. We enjoyed the cruise and it met our expectations. We had no water level issues with the Rhine and the weather was good once we got to Strasbourg. It had been rainy for the week before. We were in a least expensive cabin and spent lots of time in the lounge and on the top deck. The food was good. Service was a bit spotty in the dining room, especially getting refills or coffee with dessert. I thinks they were a little understaffed. We did the included the shore excursions, except we went to Marksburg Castle instead of the walking tour of Koblenz. I do recommend the tour to Marksburg Castle. All the included tours were fine. The walk from the center of Strasbourg to the shuttle bus was LONG and the guides walked fast. If mobility-impaired be prepared. Staff were wearing masks the whole trip. Some crew were better at the proper way to wear it than others. Never heard about COVID cases. Of course, I didn't ask and they didn't tell. Connectivity from Basel to Strasbourg was pretty spotty. After S, it was fine. There was some fall colors showing in the trees but not much. We booked our flights through V. We flew into Munich early to go to the Passion Play in Oberammergau and stay 2 nights post-cruise in Amsterdam. This was all booked independent of V. Flights were fine. All of the horror stories you see about Amsterdam's airport are still true, at least for departing Get there at least 4 hours before your flight! I'll check back late this week to see if there are any questions.

Anyway, back to the topic on hand. How's the river level? Getting any rain? We'll be on the Rhine next month and feeling hopeful.

We always book least expensive cabin. We've done 3 Viking cruises and enjoyed them all.

There are a number of good hotels near Heathrow that you TA can book. An unfortunate additional expense but with travel so messed up right now may be best option.

Was there a ship's shuttle from the dock into central Belfast?

How was the wifi? Speed OK?

Club Class dining is probably in part of Michelangelo. M was used for staff but in April on the Regal half was Club Class and half empty.