scottjeanne

We were in Buenos Aires in March of this year.  Silver  Seas booked us at the Alvear Palace.  It was beautiful and centrally located.  the hop n Hop off bus stopped right outside.  The weather was warm, but not too hot-75-80 degrees.  It rained off and on.  

I have emailed guest relations multiple times and have not gotten a single response.  I am disgusted with their total lack of response.  (I used the email mentioned above for the USA)

Years ago I was in Falmouth and went to a town called Mousehole-moose el.  Too funny

I have a close friend who was  on the Danube cruise last week.  She had covid in April and had the monoclonal infusion.  The doctor told her she could test positive for 90 days, and she informed Viking of it.  They boarded the ship, went on their first excursion.  Three suited gentlemen tracked them down, made them pack their bags and escorted them to the Ritz Carlton in Budapest for quarantine.  They had a letter from the doctor explaining things, but Viking would not budge.  The next day, they reached someone at corporate who understood.  Viking came and retrieved them and drove them 3 hours to rejoin the ship in Vienna.  Not a good beginning.

We were on a river cruise and a women had a scooter.  It had three wheels not four.  she hit an uneven patch and over she went.  She was bruised but not badly hurt.  She did break her glasses.  My father uses a scooter and has also fallen.  Please use extreme caution on uneven pavement.

We were on the Cloud for 29 days this winter.  There were more staff than passengers  (272 crew and 68 passengers).  We were the last cruise before they had a month off.  they cancelled the Amazon cruise due to lack of ability to get fuel, so they send some crew home.  No problems in my opinion.

I used a travel agent for my SS cruise and did not receive any perks, gifts or discounts.  So that is not always a benefit.

17 minutes ago, diane.in.ny said:

 

Did the hotel take care of the Brazilian visas?

There are two check points each way-out of Argentina, into Brazil, out of Brazil and into Argentina.  Our tour guide handled each transaction accept the first one leaving Argentina.  They required we come into the building with our passports at that first one.  Other than that she took the six passports (two guides, one driver, three tourists) into each place and handled it.  I have no idea about the visas.  I don't think Brazil requires them anymore.

We stayed at the Hotel Alvear Palace.  It is a lovely hotel.  I am not sure of the cost as it was part of our post cruise package.

The hotel is in Argentina, but you look at the falls in Brazil.  When you travel to Brazil, you get a view of both countries.  Sorry I was confusing you.

This was the view from the hotel of the falls.  It is stunning.  The rooms are beautiful and the food was great.  It is an easy stroll right to the path/train that takes you around the Brazil side of the falls. I would not hesitate to stay there.

It is the River Empress.  This itinerary shows three different ships they use.

Yes, we are on the Castles on the Rhine tour.  We had very little choice as this is a replacement for a Crystal cruise and we already had the Passion play booked as well as our airfare.  We looked at who sailed the  Rhine itinerary for a specific week.  I don't think it is one of the newer ships (we are on the Empress).  This is our first Uniworld cruise.

We are on a Uniworld Rhine cruise that does have a Lucerne extension.  I found it quite reasonable also.

We did the Antarctic/ South Georgia cruise with Silverseas this winter and it was wonderful.  I think the decision to go ahead was very good.  Covid is not going away.  We just have to adjust to the changing regulations.

We were on a small expedition ship-it can take 199 passengers, but we had only 68.

The above picture is Bull Point on the Falklands.  We stopped at several different landings on the Falkland Islands, but no where where there was humans.  Plenty of penguins though.

We stopped at several landings in the Malvinas/Falklands.  But not  Port Stanley.

We were originally scheduled to stop there but it was changed prior to us leaving Punta Arenas.

We just returned from the Falkland Islands.  We had 68 passengers and no covid.  We did not see any other human beings since embarkation on March 2.  We had ten days at sea, but we could not go to Port Stanley.  We did go to Stromness and Grytviken, but could not go in the church or museum.

Where are you going?  We were on an Antarctic cruise and everyone could do every activity, including kayaking.  The photographer did not sell any pictures (much to our dismay).  They did include a USB with a short video on it of included photos which was great.  We had very small numbers of passengers, so reservations for any restaurant was not necessary.

Seabourn uses the Ritz in Santiago and Silver seas uses the Mandarin Oriental.  We styed two nights precruise in the MO and it was wonderful.  The facilities are lovely, silverseas has a hospitality room in the lobby for questions, tours and beverages.  There is a lovely street that is contiguous that has lots of restaurants.  You probably can't go wrong with either.

Don, as I can see that you know, the trip was truly amazing. Words cannot describe the shear beauty of the place.  And yes, South Georgia was the topping on the cake.  There was alot of hoops to jump through to get there, but not insurmountable.  And we felt very safe, since we did not see another human being other than our fellow cruisers for 29 days.  Silverseas really went out of their way to make it a seamless, luxurious trip.  they only dropped the ball in one instance (the airport in Montevideo), so I have nothing to complain about.