Live From!: South America - Rio to Santiago

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

And so I continue....

 

(Any questions posted since the internet was down is not in these posts. I will do those tomorrow.)

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Okay, so here are some answers to your questions and other comments:

 

• Yes, I’m typing everything from word and then pasting it in. Sadly with Facebook, e-mail and Cruise Critic so prevalent in my life now, the “free” internet goes fast.

• Patrick was great as I’ve stated already. One thing, the lunch is barely edible. Plan on eating beforehand and eating after. Have you ever heard of Baked Chicken flavored potato chips?! At least the chicken “flavor” was free range chickens! We had a good laugh over that one. Otherwise, a great excursion.

• I would plan on bringing two pairs of sneakers. Luckily when they got wet I had another pair.

• I have never seen anything like the “don’t shake hands” signs again. Even at the Most Traveled Passengers lunch we were encouraged to shake hands with the Captain.

• Yes, there is now a woman singer at Crooners (or what they call The Promenade Bar) so not sure what happened to the guy you were talking about. She’s not very good, although I think she’s getting over a cold. I much prefer the bands in The Wheelhouse to someone’s rendition of Phantom of the Opera every night! (Note: She did get better once her cold was done but again, how many times can you hear Phantom?!?!)

• And yes, embarkation was a mess once you got in the checkout building. We just found someone that understood what Preferred Boarding was and put us right in line. We lucked a lot more than some. Talking to Sammi, the cruise director (that’s how she introduces herself every time!), since Princess doesn’t go there very often they don’t have any pull with the port authorities. Azmara is there every week and they get preferential treatment.

• They announced that the Sunday games were being shown through the internet and NOT through ESPN so we couldn’t watch them in our room. It was a little better to get all the network commercials instead of the same ESPN international commercial every break. It drives me insane that we have to watch promos for the upcoming cricket matches EVERY SINGLE commercial break. BUT, at one point we lost the signal and suddenly we were back on ESPN again. I think it was a money thing. But I would not be worried about the Super Bowl. The only concern is where you will be in your cruise at that time. If it’s too cold out, you won’t want to be up at MUTS. There is no better place to watch football than out on deck on MUTS (unless you are at the game!). But they WILL show it somewhere. Oh, (I never realized that I say “Oh” a lot when I’m typing!!!) you should also pay attention to time zone. When in Rio and Montevideo we are 3 hours ahead of EST. The Super Bowl usually comes on around 6:30pm in Boston so that would put it at 9:30 (start time!!) if you are in the Rio time zone.

• When you check in they take your passport (with Brazilian Visa) and the Argentinian reciprocity fee receipt for the entire length of the cruise. The good thing is that you don’t have to worry about it when you get to Argentina. I would suggest taking photo copies of all of it if for some reason you need it. We always have copies of our passport when we go ashore.

• Laundry turn around has been very quick. I sent it out on Sunday morning (after 9) and got it back Monday evening. Again, there aren’t many Elites onboard so that could be a reason. I’ve done laundry twice already on this cruise.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

So we made to the city at the end of the world, Ushuaia. The mountains around the town are gorgeous!

 

We decided that since we’ve been on the boat for so long, we would do 2 ship sponsored tours. Do I want those hours of my life back? No, I guess not. Could our time have been spent better? Absolutely!

 

Now we knew going in that these weren’t going to be super wow excursions so our expectations were low. Our first excursion was the Beagle Channel Wildlife Cruise. We looked at birds on a rock, more birds on a rock (with a sea lion), sea lions on a rock and finished with a light house with birds on a rock. The Hubby got some nice pictures and we learned a little about the history of Ushuaia but other than watching the sea lions interact, there wasn’t much else to look at. Okay, we thought, “a light excursion with not much effort, that’s what this trip is about”. After a brief stop onboard for some lunch, we were ready for the next one. Again, we picked these with the attitude that it’s better than doing nothing. We choose the Southernmost Railway and Ensenada Bay. So we hop on a bus that gives us a brief tour of the city and off we go to Ensenada Bay. Here is it quite beautiful with lovely snowcapped mountains across the bay. Nice. Then we get on the train. It’s basically this rickety train that brings us around the nature reserve and tells the story how Ensenada became a penal colony and this train took the prisoners out to chop wood to build the prison. Again, a low key excursion with low expectations. It was fine. The $160 price tag was not fine. I felt it was a rip off for what we got. But we were willing to pay that before so I’m not going to worry about money.

 

We just thought exploring the town would have been better. And when one of our Crooner friends came back with a picture of a huge king crab and said that that was lunch, I became jealous! So do 1 tour here, don’t expect much and go into town and have lunch. It would be better.

 

Back onboard MOST of the rest of the night was the same as before. Except for our ride down Glacier Alley in the Beagle Channel. I tried to find out information about the best viewing places but we were told that you could see things on both sides of the ship. Not true! I’m telling you this because I couldn’t find it anywhere on Cruise Critic. ALL THE GLACIERS ARE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CHANNEL. Our plan was to side on our (starboard) balcony, order rooms service and take our chances on seeing some of the glaciers. It was quite cold up on deck as evening was approaching and the ship was moving. So we figured if we see at least two out of the five that would be great. We saw all 5!!! So if you’re heading from East to West, get a starboard balcony and if you are heading West to East get a port side one. Then grab a bottle of champagne and check out these amazing glaciers. We have been to Alaska and these were just as impressive. And very beautiful! This was definitely a highlight. Especially after the so-so day we had.

 

One note: The cruise director kept talking about the weather having to cooperate for us to see the glaciers. I am not sure if that’s because we can’t go down this channel if the weather is bad or we just don’t see things. I guess there are a lot of ways to hit the Strait of Magellan and so we aren’t guaranteed Beagle Channel and the glaciers.

 

(I’m now caught up! Bring on more questions.)

 

(Later Note: Okay, so I WAS caught up at the time. Don't worry, I will answer the other questions soon.)

 

Oh yeah, temperature. Like I said, while watching the glaciers it was quite cold. Layers on layers on layers, including a hat and gloves. Our excursions kept us inside almost the entire time so that won’t help. I think the rest of the time I had a long sleeve shirt, a hoody sweatshirt and then a coat. Didn’t need the gloves and unfortunately I lost my hat between getting an espresso at the IC and sitting in The Princess Theater waiting for our tour to go ashore. I think I should be okay the rest of the trip. I haven’t needed the hat that often. Although I will say that weather depends on where you are from. The folks from northern Argentina are finding it very cold and bundling up like they are heading to the slopes in Vale while us Bostonians, are comfortable without our hat and gloves and sometimes without our coat. But you’re getting the idea, I hope.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Sorry that I have been away for a while but the internet was down the whole time we were in Punta Arenas. (The previous two posts were typed and ready but I couldn’t get them off to you all.)

 

Punta Arenas was fine. I think the only thing that people will remember about it is how bad the tender system was. The Celebrity ship Infinity has been following us since circling Cape Horn and was in town with us at Punta Arenas. That made for some VERY slow tender drop off. We got on the tender fine but then sat 50 meters (I’m already converting to the metric system since it’s been over 10 days!) away from the dock while they unload the folks from Celebrity. Talking to people on land, they haven’t seen two ships in port at the same time in a long time. Poor planning by Princess and Celebrity, as the port is not able to handle two ships at once. Getting back to the ship was even worse as we waited over an hour in the port terminal before we boarded the tender. Plus later in the day the winds picked up and the ride from shore to ship was quite an adventure. Disney World should add that to their theme parks!! Our tender even had their engine get knocked out and we spent about 15 minutes bobbing in the sea until he could get it started again. A lot of nervous passengers, I can tell you!!

 

We opted to not go see the penguins again today as it was a two hour ferry ride to and back from them. We had already seen penguins so no reason to do it again. I heard someone talking at Crooners later saying they saw about 5 penguins! SO glad we got to the trip in Stanley even with the rain. This was a back up plan. So we cancelled and did the mountain trek instead. We finally got some exercise. Well more than walking down to the IC and getting coffee every morning anyway! They take you by chair lift up to the top of a mountain and we all walk by down for 2 hours. It was really nice. Muddy and slippery, but just as in Stanley, that added to the adventure.

 

Nothing much to report on the rest of the night as it was the same. Drinks in the Wheelhouse. Dinner with our new friends. Drinks at Crooners. A little betting in the casino. Bed.

 

Weather was all over the place today which is why I keep saying layers. Cold so I needed my hat (which is still lost!) and gloves. Then those come off and I’m just wearing the jacket. Then it gets warmer still and the jacket comes of but I still have a shirt and hoodie. At times even wanted to take off the hoodie! We had sunshine, rain, wind and sleet all within a few minutes time!

 

We have 3 sea days and then it’s the end of our adventure. Won’t have much excitement to report (I hope) going forward but I will still let you know about the weather to help with packing. Overall, you need much more cold weather clothes than warm They are saying that Santiago does not get as hot as Rio so the shorts won’t come out again. Plan on more days in pants and less in shorts. Also plan on more sea days IN the ship than sitting on the deck. But I’ll do a wrap up at the end.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

First of three sea days to round out this adventure. Nothing much to report as it was VERY lazy day which was perfect. We sailed up the coast of Chile today with a view of lovely mountains all day. But it as cloudy all day so we mostly saw silhouettes of the mountains. I bet that they are really beautiful to look at if it’s sunny. I was a little sad at that because I really wanted to see them. But it was just cloudy enough that we couldn’t see them well. Too cold to hang out outside and it was quite windy too. There was no one on deck. I really feel bad for the crew that has to work those bars or the pizza and grill places. They have to stay there all day long in case someone wants to get a slice. It must be a long cold day for them. They also had barf bags situated all around the ship and we were really rocking and rolling. But I think that was excessive as it wasn’t THAT bad. I love it when the ship swings from side to side. Even in Skywalkers it was more gentle and I didn’t think it required the bags.

 

Our day consisted of sitting in Skywalkers and reading/napping all day. We then stayed for the Platinum/Elite lounge event that included some wonderful cheeses and port wine.

 

Evening was the same as other nights with drinks in the Wheelhouse, dinner in the dining room and drinks at Crooners. Although after getting shhhh’d by the entertainer too many times, we went back to The Wheelhouse where it was okay to be loud(er) and carry on a conversation.

 

Dinner was VERY late today as the South Americans tend to eat later and aren’t rushed to finish up. We arrived at the dining room at 8:55pm and there was a line. We told them we would come back. At 9:30 there was a longer line! But he had saved us a beautiful table by the window and since it was still light out we had a wonderful view. It didn’t get dark until after 10:30.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Second sea day basically the same as the first. We woke up to immense fog and the fog horn going off every minute or so. But it was warm(er). We spent the entire day on our balcony in jeans and a sweatshirt. The hubby had shorts on for a short amount of time. But we could stay outside all day. The fog burned off some time in the mid afternoon. Finished my second book and started the third. The seas were absolutely calm and flat keeping the ship very level throughout this day. It’s starting to sink in that this cruise is coming to an end. Luckily we have 2 days in Santiago as we don’t fly home until Sunday night. We are starting to get that “we just want to be home” feeling but hopefully will push it off a few more days.

The night time was the same as any other night. Since it was formal night again, dinner was in Sabitini’s with drinks in the Wheelhouse before and after.

Overall this is definitely more of a cold weather cruise than a warm one. The trip back up the coast is not as warm as the trip down was. I would plan on bringing more than one sweatshirt if that’s what you like to wear. I think people are really tired of seeing me in the same gray hoodie every day! 

And if you have been counting, we actually had 3 formal nights on this cruise as opposed to 2 as Princess.com states.

The internet will be down for the entire rest of the cruise as they won’t be able to fix it until getting into our final destination. The hubby had just bought us extra minutes as we both ran out of our free ones and they fully refunded the money back to us.

I have to say that I am loving the South American feel on this cruise. Not just in the ports or with all the Spanish and Portuguese spoken on the ship, but also in the events. A lot of the music around the ship has a South American vibe to it. Whether in the Piazza, in Explorers and especially in the Wheelhouse, more often than not you can hear a tango, a salsa or some other high spirited dance. And the dancing! I have never seen the Wheelhouse so active. Some of the passengers can really dance! Not to sound my age but I’m loving this much more than the Boom Boom Boom of the disco. (I guess calling it a disco gives away my age already!!)

Off to fill out those comment cards and start the dreaded packing! But first, let me try and make a dent in book number 3…

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

The last sea day was pretty much the same as the second. Slightly warmer but lots of lots of fog again. We spent the morning up in Skywalkers watching the waves and plowing through Stephen King. When we went to lunch of pizza by the main pool we discovered that a lot of folks were out and about. The sun came out slightly and there were a bunch of people in bathing suits laying out by the pool. Who knew? After pizza we grabbed some deck space (away from the main pool) and even changed into shorts and a t-shirt for a while. But alas the fog came back and we went back to our deck to finish the last of the wave watching.

That last night is always depressing. Packing, saying goodbye (for now) to new formed friendships, and realizing you have to go back to real life very soon. But we always take pictures with our new (and old) bartender/waiter friends as the passengers we hope to sail with again some day.

I would apologize for not keeping you updated on a day by day basis but it wasn’t my fault. As you’ll see above, I did keep up with typing it, I just ran into a glitch of getting it too you. I do have to say that it was a bit troublesome not having any internet but at the same time it did help us “come back new”. (Did I REALLY just write that!?! ) The stock price was moving up or down no matter if I looked at it or not. And I bet Facebook was just fine without me. And if you all were patient with my updates, no worries there either! Did I worry that work couldn’t get a hold of me in a dire emergency, of course. But then again, I’m not saving babies and I’m not that important. Other people could make decisions for me and things would be just fine!

I’ll check out the questions that were posted since the internet went down and we get those answers out as soon as possible. But keep the questions coming! I’ll be more than happy to relieve this vacation over and over again. The hubby also took lots of notes and we’ve kept all the patters to review. I try to answer questions more pertinent to the South American cruise experience than just a Princess cruise but once I get internet back who knows?!? I may be on CC for 20 hours straight just because I can!!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Okay, off to bed. I apologize for the formatting of those last posts but it's getting late for me after a long day. I will describe disembarkation in my post tomorrow but it was SO simple, I couldn't believe it.

 

Until tomorrow with last day and answers to your questions.

[flamomo]

Thank you sooooo much for this "live from". Since we will be beginning our South American adventure in FLL in less than 2 weeks, you have provided a lot of helpful info ..... especially the part about the need for some warm clothes for several days!

 

Plus, it was a very enjoyable read.

[paul929207]

I have been loving your posts. They bring back wonderful memories from our adventure around SA on the Grand P two years ago.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

And so we woke up and they were making us get off the ship! We had a private tour guide picking us up so we were assigned to a group that got off the ship at 9:00. We had heard rumors on the ship that Chilean customs was really bad. Could not have been farther from the truth!!

 

We headed to the Elite disembarkation lounge and we let off the ship at 9:10. They put us on a bus as it’s a working port and it’s a quite a distance to the terminal building. (I was able to watch them load up a cargo ship from our balcony and watch it take off. Pretty cool!) Once inside, you put the bags you are carrying through and xray machine and hand your declaration card to a person standing there. Next is finding luggage. BUT, before you even do that, there is someone there letting you know that you don’t need your passport anymore. What? We are already through customs? Yup! That easy!

 

We found our luggage very easily and off we went to see the sights before I flight home on Sunday night. Unfortunately, the timing is bad to see our lovely Patriots but maybe we can stream it in the airport. We will be on the plane for the 2nd half of the game so I hope there’s good news when we land!

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Answers to some other questions:

 

• The last island at the tip of South America is basically called Cape Horn. So that is what island we circle. When we were on the south side of that island and looking north, we were truly seeing all of South and North America in front of us. It was a really cool thought. The captain wants to experience that so we have to get on the South somehow. Either keeping the island on our Starboard side or port side. His original intent was to keep the island on our Starboard side which was great for our balcony but then changed his mind. Luckily our Wheelhouse friends had a balcony on the other side. Like I said, the ship is moving very slowly so it’s not like we were going to miss it if we moved up top at any time. There is no rush. You can see it from many parts of the ship while we are there.

• While sailing around the horn it was extremely windy. So it was cold(er). But we didn’t need gloves on. I was wearing a short sleeve t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a hoodie and a jacket. The jacket did not have its lining in it and would not be something you would want to take skiing. I don’t that type of jacket was ever needed on this trip. Then when we were back in the ship, off came the jacket and sometimes even the hoodie. That’s why layers works the best as the temperature changes. While on an excursion, the jacket was needed to walk to the bus. Then we would take off the jacket while on the bus. That’s how the days went.

• We did not hit Puerto Montt on this cruise. We had to sacrifice that for starting in Rio.

 

Overall this was much more a cold/cool weather cruise than a hot one. And we hit Rio which the rest of the cruises don’t. If your cruise excludes Rio, I would say 1 pair of shorts, 2 at the most, would be sufficient. With the solarium pool, you can still go swimming but there would not be much laying out in the sun.

 

BUT be very careful of that sun! Even on the sea days with a lot of fog, both of us got some sunburn on our faces. It’s much stronger than we are used to. Especially when we were very south and the temperature was cooler. The sun was still out and the ozone is missing down there. The sun is VERY strong. Keep wearing that sun block.

 

I will take a break to let the whole trip sink in and then will probably come back with some last thoughts. Again, keep posting questions if you want to know more. This is such a different cruising experience so I wanted to help others for future sailings. I still can’t believe that I did this cruise!

[DistinguishedCruiser]

Thanks for all the information. We are counting the day - better than 2 weeks now! (less than 2 weeks is Better than 2 weeks).

 

Thanks again,

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for the great enthralling read and for taking so much time and effort to keep us all informed and following along.

 

Cheers!

 

Norris

[paul929207]

Thanks for all your postss on the trip

[DreaminginFlorida]

Thanks for a great read. We also will be returning in less than 2 weeks and can't wait.

We are Beantown people also and will be thinking of you at kick off time.😉

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[peacefulcruiser]

:):) Thanks for great postings! Your comments on weather are especially helpful. Good to know I should err on the side of cold weather clothes altho we stay on until LA on the Ruby, so we have all four seasons to deal with. Go figure. Also you comments on intensity of the sun are helpful - had not considered that one at all. A cool winter season here on the west coast of FL so the tan base is not doing well. Very much enjoyed your writing style. Looking forward to your post-trip comments. Take care.

[shredie]

Sorry everyone! We lost internet halfway through "Puenta Arenas" day and it never came back. I am now sitting in my hotel room in Santiago. The satellite went down and we couldn't use internet or phones.

 

 

 

But don't worry, I was continuing my "Live From" offline and will upload later! Off to dinner now.

 

 

Don't get me started. LOL

[GoldieJ]

:) Thanks, Sox Fan, we will be following in your wake very soon.

What an informative and interesting review!

[DistinguishedCruiser]

How was the Seawitch IPA?:cool: Did they do anything special with the recipe for the South America itinerary?

[AE_Collector]

Satxdiver is doing a live on Golden heading back to Buenos Aires and had heard that the ship was hit by lightning which knocked out internet for 6 days. Looks like they have it fixed now.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2152806

 

Terry

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

How was the Seawitch IPA?:cool: Did they do anything special with the recipe for the South America itinerary?

 

No Seawitch IPA on this ship yet. I had it on the Regal and it was good. Definitely filled the void of "good beers" on Princess ships.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Satxdiver is doing a live on Golden heading back to Buenos Aires and had heard that the ship was hit by lightning which knocked out internet for 6 days. Looks like they have it fixed now.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2152806

 

Terry

 

Excited to follow another Live From on this journey!!

 

Oh, and due to mechanical issues with our plane last night, I'm still sitting in Santiago. We will fly out tonight. The plane was ready for take off with the doors closed and locked and everything! It was a long night.

 

But things could be worse right?!?!

[AE_Collector]

But things could be worse right?!?!

 

Oh for sure! But, you wrote several ays ago tat you were just ready to be home and we know that feeling too. Maybe you will get some touring in during the extra day?

 

Terry

[shredie]

Satxdiver is doing a live on Golden heading back to Buenos Aires and had heard that the ship was hit by lightning which knocked out internet for 6 days. Looks like they have it fixed now.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2152806

 

Terry

 

News to us who were on that cruise. There was no lightning, as far as I recall, no real storms at all. They just told us no Internet. Sorry. No explanation. They managed to get all the football games broadcast into the bars somehow.