NCL Sun Review - Buenos Aires to Santiago - Jan 2nd to 16th

[OzCanuck]

We returned this past weekend from our two week trip on the Sun, doing the westbound itinerary, Buenos Aires to Santiago. I wanted to write a quick review and answer any questions I could for people. As usual I did a couple of time lapse videos and will post them in due course.

 

As a background, I will now call myself a seasoned NCL cruiser – this was our 8th cruise with NCL, all in suites, all with our now 4.5 year old child. We turned to cruising after he was born as it is very easy (most of the time). We usually choose the 2-bdrm suite (non-haven if possible), but this cabin doesn’t exist on the Sun, so instead we had a forward penthouse SG category – Cabin 9201, directly under the bridge.

 

Overall, we really enjoyed The Sun. It is a smaller, older ship of course – and is showing wear in a few places. But generally we are easy to please and try not to let the small stuff get us down.

 

We flew in to BA on New Year’s Day – so we really only had the evening to explore a bit, walking down to Puerto Madero from our hotel (The Plaza). It was very lively and still quite messy from the celebrations the night before. Had a sandwich and enjoyed the good weather then headed back to the hotel.

 

We took a taxi to the pier around 11:30 (was 45 pesos or so). Even though we were in a suite, there really was no “priority” access – at any point in the whole process. Basically just herded around and finally put on a bus with everyone else. When we finally boarded we were whisked away to La Cucina to check in at the Concierge Lounge.

 

La Cucina is located on deck 5 and you have to try really hard to find it. Of course as that is where suite breakfasts and lunches were served, we got to know the two easy routes fairly well. The breakfast and lunch staff were exceptional. They always anticipated what we needed for our son and we were seated and served quickly virtually every time. It was never, ever busy – maximum of 4-5 tables I think.

 

First impressions of the cabin were great. We chose this SG because of the layout. The other layout has a massive balcony but doesn’t have the curtain separator to the spare bed. With the central ‘pillar’ it seems more like a one bedroom suite. Huge bathroom, bathtub, etc. Coffee maker was a bit hit or miss. It uses the same cups as the full Lavazza machine, but they never seemed to make a nice coffee. Didn’t stop me from drinking many of them however.

 

Our butler was Domnic. He was quite attentive and helpful – but we didn’t really have much need for him on this trip. We did order breakfast in two times and it was served spot on 6 am exactly as we had ordered it. He also worked hard to get us movies for our son and find the right balance of evening appetizer treats for us (trying to err on the healthy side.)

 

Karin, the concierge, was excellent. She was very visible every single day, always asking how things were going. We worked her hard for dinner reservations and for a few other things as well and she came through on everything. All in all she did a great job. We did have a problem on check in – we had booked the suite and received the ubp, udp, grats and shorex credit package. However, none of them showed up when we checked in. I wasn’t worried as I had back up for everything. We just let her deal with it, talking to Miami and getting things sorted out, reprinting our keycards, etc. etc. I can only imagine how painful it would be resolve this stuff if you didn’t have the concierge handling it for you.

 

After we got settled we explored the ship, did the muster drill and then had a few drinks before our sail away dinner at La Cucina.

 

Have to stop now, but will resume with quick reviews of the restaurant, activities and ports.

Any questions, please ask.

[Clay Clayton]

Glad you had a great time on our favorite ship....just subscribing so I can relive our favorite cruise thru someone else's eyes.

[Merriem]

We sail the 30th, and in 8003....really pleased you are starting a review. Thanks in advance.

[SuzyLovesNCL]

We sail Valpo to BA in mid-March, in the suite next door - 9202. We opted for the big balcony as it is just the two of us. Good to know who the butler and concierge will be, but don't recognize either of those names.

 

A few questions:

1. I have the same amenities you do, and can't figure out how to "document them" to bring along in case they are magically missing when I check in ... What did you have to show that you got the UDP, UBP, etc?

2. As my DP has difficulty walking great distances, we are trying to determine if we should bring along a wheelchair. My questions are - which ports were tendered, and how long were the walks at each port to reach the tour buses?

 

Thanks in advance - looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

[Merriem]

We sail Valpo to BA in mid-March, in the suite next door - 9202. We opted for the big balcony as it is just the two of us. Good to know who the butler and concierge will be, but don't recognize either of those names.

 

A few questions:

1. I have the same amenities you do, and can't figure out how to "document them" to bring along in case they are magically missing when I check in ... What did you have to show that you got the UDP, UBP, etc?

2. As my DP has difficulty walking great distances, we are trying to determine if we should bring along a wheelchair. My questions are - which ports were tendered, and how long were the walks at each port to reach the tour buses?

 

Thanks in advance - looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

 

You can print them out when you look at your booking.

[Turtles06]

You can print them out when you look at your booking.

 

You can also ask NCL to send you an Amenities Invoice. This lists all the perks you have.

 

Definitely agree with the OP on the wisdom of bringing documentation of such things.

 

OP: looking forward to the rest of your review; thanks for taking the time to post. This is an itinerary we are thinking about very seriously.

[OzCanuck]

A few questions:

1. I have the same amenities you do, and can't figure out how to "document them" to bring along in case they are magically missing when I check in ... What did you have to show that you got the UDP, UBP, etc?

2. As my DP has difficulty walking great distances, we are trying to determine if we should bring along a wheelchair. My questions are - which ports were tendered, and how long were the walks at each port to reach the tour buses?

 

1. They were on my cruise confirmation directly from NCL. And on the amenities summary.

 

2. Stay tuned, but in a nutshell:

Montevideo - dock - walk to bus what about one ship length

Puerto Madryn - dock - walk to bus was about 50 feet

Falklands - tender - private tour, was right in the parking lot, very close

Ushuaia - dock - didn't utilize a tour, and wandered out late so buses were all gone

Punta Arenas - tender - about a ship length, through the customs/immi hall and outside

Puerto Chacabuco - tender - very close to pier

Puerto Montt - tender - a little less than a ship length

 

You may struggle with a wheelchair, especially at the tender ports. Though, as I recall, most piers were wheelchair friendly. Maybe Puerto Montt was an exception - very steep ramp up from the tender dock.

[systables]

Thanks for your post. We are taking the same cruise and ship direction later this month on Jan 30th. Will be leaving Atlanta in less than 10 days from now.

 

 

 

Some topics we are interested in knowing. Weather?? Entertainment (good and bad)??? Since you were under the forward bridge, was the glaciers you saw going travelling in westward direction towards the starboard (right) or port site (Left)??? We have a aft but closer to mid ship balcony on the starboard side…And wanted to know would there be anything we would missed if we stayed primarily on our balcony during some of the cruising days?? Did you see any dolphins, or whales from the ship (where)??

 

 

 

And as you mentioned, what activities and shore excursions you did, and your preferences of restaurants (I would also love to hear from those that started their cruise on January 16th, on feedback on the new a la carte menu that was scheduled to start January 16t)h.

 

 

 

One last item.. did you take the NCL transportation after the cruise to the Santiago Airport? Any thoughts??

[SuzyLovesNCL]

Thanks so much for the quick reply, and the great info!

[OzCanuck]

Dining

 

As mentioned above, we were in suites so we had suite breakfast and lunch in La Cucina. On a couple of port days we missed the suite lunch but still returned early enough that we needed to eat before dinner, so we braved the pizza/pasta stations in Moderno and ate in the Sports Bar.

 

I am happy to say that I successfully completed a 14 day cruise without actually utilizing the buffet (but I did walk through it once). Additionally, we had the UDP and utilized it every night except one when we hit the Four Seasons. Didn’t purchase any cakes from Carlos, and we didn’t have any tapas in Las Ramblas –they just didn’t look that appetizing.

 

For the other 13 nights we ate at:

 

Teppanyaki – 1 time

 

We have never braved Teppanyaki on our cruises so far. Not because of the cost, but because of my son. I didn’t think having a toddler would be fair to the other guests. He is almost 4.5 now and has eaten at many, many restaurants so we thought we’d give it a try. If there were any issues, I would walk him from the restaurant lest we disturb others.

 

I was not overly impressed with the place. The sittings are 90 minutes long, and something went awry during the meal. They didn’t even start cooking our food until we’d been there for about an hour. Thankfully my son was very patient and had enough to do so he didn’t disturb others. Eventually, they had to walk us ALL from the restaurant to accommodate the next sitting. We had to have our dessert sitting at the Ginza seats.

 

I will say – the shrimp were AWESOME. Worth the wait. The steak – not so great. A bit overdone and chewy. The “show” itself was lame. They tapped their utensils for a minute at the start, then just cooked and served. Nothing else. Honestly I would rather have sat at a table and had the food cooked elsewhere. If we had actually paid for the meal I would have been very disappointed.

 

But, whatever – we’ve tried it once, don’t have to do it ever again.

 

Cagneys – 3 times

 

I think this was my favourite on this cruise, even though my wife had some issues getting vegetarian food. I won’t respond to any comments on this – why take a vegetarian to a steak restaurant? Well maybe because she wants to eat with her family?? Anyway, the executive sous chef, Jose, accommodated her with a special order. The whole thing was just a bit of an effort.

 

I had the filet mignon twice (5 oz) and the port ribs once. The filet was .. really, really good. 5 oz is the perfect size for this cut. The pork ribs were cooked perfectly – the meat just slid off the bone.

 

I am not a steak connoisseur so maybe I’m easily pleased. I was pleased.

 

Moderno – 2 times

 

You would think with the expansive salad bar, this would have been a good choice for vego wife. But – most of the salads had meat in them?! Whatever, she made do with what was available. Honestly – I didn’t like the meat here. There was one cut that was really good and I can’t remember what it was – some sort of spicy beef cut. I don’t eat chicken so can’t comment, and the ribs were just so-so. The fish was almost inedible.

 

One nice touch they had was the jazz duet/trio ? playing during some of the dinners. Very nice ambiance, especially as we cruised through the fjords.

 

The staff were great at Moderno by the way – very accommodating and attentive.

Le Bistro – 3 times

 

Le Bistro does have a good choice for vegetarians, the portabello tower. Sadly, they had no portabellos on this sailing so it was a depressing lump of cheese and unidentifiable veggies. I had it once, and had the tenderloin (after Cagneys it was a let-down) as well as the salmon (excellent!) Was cooked perfectly for salmon. Of course we had the fondue each time because what would please a 4 year old more than dipping stuff in chocolate??

 

They ran out of Sauvignon Blanc part way through the cruise (the crappy house brand) and substituted Matua for us. This was a very good thing. More on that later.

 

La Cucina -4 times

 

Why so often at La Cucina? We like it. My wife is vegetarian and it has a friendly vego menu. We also like it. I like the caprese salad. I like the pizza. I like the views from the Sun’s version. I also had the spicy spaghetti with sausage.

 

I know, it’s nothing to write home about but the food is consistent, relatively tasty, and is casual enough that I can let my kid have a bit of leeway on behavior. Not much. A bit.

 

Summary

 

In general, we were quite happy with the food on this trip. They are having issues with provisioning though!! No arugula, no portabello mushrooms,… they ran out of draft beer with two days to go (Well, there was miller light but I don’t call that beer). They ran out of wines.

 

Speaking of which, I was VERY happy with the OLD wines by the glass menu. It has been butchered down to 3-4 reds and 3-4 whites. Very disappointing. I was going to challenge myself to have one of everything on this cruise with the old menu – I think I’d done that by day 2 with the new menu.

 

So – are you going to starve on the Sun? No, but pick your poison well. Wish we’d swapped out a couple of nights and done Cagneys again once or twice.

 

In terms of reservations, we had NO problem. We ate early-ish, around 6:30-7pm due to my son I do not think there were more than 3-4 tables occupied in ANY of the restaurants at ANY of our meals. We had booked a couple in advance but just had Karin shuffle them around for us as the cruise progressed. She was great.

 

I'll post later tonight.

 

 

[systables]

Great review of dining option OzCanuck. Thanks again.

[Kinofdc]

Thank you for the great review!

 

<<Even though we were in a suite, there really was no “priority” access – at any point in the whole process. Basically just herded around and finally put on a bus with everyone else.>>

 

I was traveling solo in 9203, one suite away from you in the starboard corner, on the previous west bound itinerary (Dec 5-19, 2015, BA to Valparaiso), and we DID have priority embarkation. On that cruise, suite guests (and some VIPs) boarded first. I was the third person embarked on the ship. 5 other suite guests in 8203 and 8202 were the 4th-8th. In fact, we were all having lunch in La Cucina within 30 minutes after boarding began at around 11:30am (that shuttle bus did take up some time).

Edited January 19, 2016 by Kinofdc

[casofilia]

A few questions:

1. I have the same amenities you do, and can't figure out how to "document them" to bring along in case they are magically missing when I check in ... What did you have to show that you got the UDP, UBP, etc? I suggest you get an Amenity Invoice directly from NCL, Phone or email ncladmin@ncl.com

2. As my DP has difficulty walking great distances, we are trying to determine if we should bring along a wheelchair. My questions are - which ports were tendered, and how long were the walks at each port to reach the tour buses? I have read Stanley; Punta Arenas; Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Montt. I'm not going till 26/3/16.

!

 

Mike the Pommie Kiwi

[OzCanuck]

I was traveling solo in 9203, one suite away from you in the starboard corner, on the previous west bound itinerary (Dec 5-19, 2015, BA to Valparaiso), and we DID have priority embarkation. On that cruise, suite guests (and some VIPs) boarded first. I was the third person embarked on the ship. 5 other suite guests in 8203 and 8202 were the 4th-8th. In fact, we were all having lunch in La Cucina within 30 minutes after boarding began at around 11:30am (that shuttle bus did take up some time).[/size]

 

Wow. Lucky you!

 

I rarely walk around with a sense of entitlement, unless I'm in a suite on NCL! :). Showed our suite creds to everyone we came across and they just lumped us in with the masses. Finally found a guy holding up a 'SuitePriority" sign and we hung around with him. He held us back while three buses of non suite-priority folks departed, then finally allowed us to board a bus. Then we waited until it filled up with non-suite people. Well, whatever - we got on and all was well again...

[cruiser karen]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us about your cruise. We will be on the Sun with the same route as you, leaving Jan. 30th. I am also a vegetarian and my husband loves meat, and we chose the package with the specialty restaurants so I was glad you shared some information on that. My husband wants to eat at Cagney's a few times, so I was wondering how much effort it took to get them to prepare a vegetarian meal and if your wife was able to get meals with vegetarian protein sources in them, like nuts, beans or tofu. Also, You mentioned the slow service at the Teppanayaki, how was the service at the other specialty restaurants and was it faster than the main dining rooms? I don't want to sound inpatient, but I don't prefer to spend all evening sitting at a table waiting for my dinner.

[OzCanuck]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us about your cruise. We will be on the Sun with the same route as you, leaving Jan. 30th. I am also a vegetarian and my husband loves meat, and we chose the package with the specialty restaurants so I was glad you shared some information on that. My husband wants to eat at Cagney's a few times, so I was wondering how much effort it took to get them to prepare a vegetarian meal and if your wife was able to get meals with vegetarian protein sources in them, like nuts, beans or tofu. Also, You mentioned the slow service at the Teppanayaki, how was the service at the other specialty restaurants and was it faster than the main dining rooms? I don't want to sound inpatient, but I don't prefer to spend all evening sitting at a table waiting for my dinner.

 

Before I answer - tell me what kind of vegetarian you are? My wife doesn't eat anything that had a mother, basically. But is ok with cheese - and eggs (but only if they are not identifiable as such).

 

In terms of the service, we had one really, really slow meal in Le Bistro. I'm not sure what happened. 2.5 hours with a 4 year old. But - he made it through ok. Apart from that the meals were all very well paced. Even the MDR was quite speedy, for our one meal there.

 

Will continue back later on today with the ports.

[Technoyd]

Thank you for the great review!

 

I am taking the reverse cruise from Santiago Feb 13th to Buenos Aires Feb 27th on the Sun. :D

 

Looking forward to more posts from you. :)

[Budget Queen]

Thank you for taking the time to share with us about your cruise. We will be on the Sun with the same route as you, leaving Jan. 30th. I am also a vegetarian and my husband loves meat, .

 

Be certain, he partakes at the Port Market- a meat lover's paradise. :) http://www.welcomeuruguay.com/montevideo/port-market.html

[tv77]

Dining

 

Teppanyaki – 1 time

 

I will say – the shrimp were AWESOME. Worth the wait. The steak – not so great. A bit overdone and chewy.

 

 

Cagneys – 3 times

 

I had the filet mignon twice (5 oz) and the port ribs once. The filet was .. really, really good. 5 oz is the perfect size for this cut. The pork ribs were cooked perfectly – the meat just slid off the bone.

 

They ran out of Sauvignon Blanc part way through the cruise (the crappy house brand) and substituted Matua for us. This was a very good thing. More on that later.

 

 

 

 

We had a very similar dining experience. LOVED Cagneys - esp the Ribs and 8oz filet with garlic butter, caramelized onions and port wine jus.

 

Had the filet and chicken at teppenyaki and thought the steak tasted different. The chicken was awesome, and once I saw the shrimp, I knew I had to try them. Ended up back there two more times for the chicken and shrimp and the chicken with noodles. The fried rice was awesome.

 

Le Bistro 1x - steak not as good as Cagneys.

 

They also ran out of Malbec on day 2, curly fries, mint (no mojitos), and maybe hot dogs / fries.

 

And las ramblas was skippable - but the sangria was awesome. They need to reconcept that restaurant as its a nice space - maybe Mexican or add hot tapas as well.

[OzCanuck]

Ports

 

Just to preface this, we used NCL excursions for four ports, a private handler in the Falklands, and the NCL based airport transfer at the end of the cruise. I don’t want a lecture on booking stuff independently, how much cheaper it is, etc. etc. On virtually every other cruise we’ve done, we’ve used private operators. Why did we use NCL on this one? First of all, we had the $75 shorex credit per port. Next – we were traveling with a 4 year old. I wanted to plan things that would fit well within his time tolerance level, with little stress for us. You can define stress in different ways. For me, the comfort of a large, air conditioned coach (assumedly vetted by NCL with proper insurance/training) outweighed the savings of going private. I was not worried about getting back to the ship in time. I was not worried about being in big bad South America either; I’ve traveled there on many occasions and can get by on my Spanish without a problem. So anyway, here goes.

Montevideo

 

We elected to take the NCL city tour (4 hours +/-). I actually did search high and low for a different tour that would be interesting, and contacted a private handler for a gourmet wine lunch – but it just wasn’t a great fit for us. Also keep in mind that I wanted to keep the excursions to 4-5 hours max. We were off the boat and in a coach very quickly, and had a very good, if somewhat general tour of Montevideo.

 

The stops included Independence Square (look for the Canadian embassy on the north side); the central park area with the big copper sculpture, and the seaside park overlooking the water and skyline. It was quite informative, we got some decent photos, and we still had time to check out the meat-based market across the street and pick up a magnet.

 

There was a ship (South Korean fishing vessel) burning away in the harbour the whole time we were there. That was kind of cool, if disconcerting. We were back on the ship mid afternoon and enjoyed a beautiful day as we sailed out of the harbor. I have a time lapse of that I will upload later on.

 

Puerto Madryn

 

This was another absolutely beautiful day in Argentina. Hot and dry. We did the NCL tour to see the Sea Lions and then on to Trelew to see the paleontology museum / disosaurs.

 

I pondered taking one of the 7-8 hour trips to see the penguin colonies and in retrospect maybe we should have done that. But – 2.5 hours each way in a coach would have been gruelling. I probably would have just had to dump the tablet on my kid and let him play games the whole time. Not great parenting.

 

The sea lion colony was pretty cool. Many of the females had recently calved (so recent in fact that they were still sitting in their own mess on the beach.) The little baby sea lions were learning how to flop around on the gravel. It was nice that the tide was out as we could clearly see the whole colony. Apparently when it is in you don’t see too much. Here’s a tip – if you just want to see this, then catch a cap from Puerto Madryn. Saw lots of people doing this, have no idea how much it cost but it is probably quite cheap.

 

Next was on to Trelew, a dusty little Welsh town in the desert. The museum was a bit sad. I know they’ve done their best with the exhibits but we have easy access to the Royal Ontario Museum so this dinosaur offering was not all that special. The kid was interested (especially in the T-Rex wearing a Santa hat). After that we were outta there and back to the Port. The pier is very, very, very long and the ship docked right at the end of it. We were hungry and tired so just headed on the ship to get some food.

 

If I ever find myself here again, I will do the penguin excursion to Punto Tombo.

 

Falklands

 

We had gone to the Captain’s special reception on the first sea day, and I had chatted to him about the Falklands and our chances of getting on shore. He said at that time it was 50/50 because of the winds, but he believed the winds were changing somewhat so we would be in the lee-side of the Islands, allowing him to drop the tenders. No promises.

 

We arrived super early and missed the first tenders as they started them up around 8am. We rushed to get on the next ones, having Karin the concierge walk us past the lineup and getting us on. She also was a life saver in that she found me some duct tape for my kid’s boots, which had a slight leak. Duct tape fixes everything!

 

Clearly the preferred offering here is to go to Volunteer Point if King Penguins are what you seek. We had contacted Patrick Watts and secured space to take us to Bertha’s Beach (south of the army base / airport). ‘Dave’ drove us there, and he was quite entertaining in that stoic, matter-of-fact British way. The scenery was bleak and dreary. I did a great time lapse of the drive which I will post later.

 

We went off road for about 20 minutes and arrived at the windy beach and several packs of Gentoo penguins with their furry little babies. There was also a lonely pair of photogenic Kings. After about an hour of photos we had tea and biscuits then headed back to Stanley for a tour of the town, and then on to Gypsy Cove where we saw some Magellenic Penguins in the distance (and a couple nesting ones by the boardwalk).

 

Dave dropped us off and we walked around Stanley for a while, bought some Diddle Dee jam and then boarded the tender for the rollercoaster ride back to the Sun. It was a long, cold, windy day and we collapsed in the Sports Bar with some beer, pizza and popcorn.

 

Having said that, it was totally worth it! As we sailed out of the Falklands, the wind and the waves started to pick up…..

 

Ushuaia

 

We did nothing here. We had a couple of friends who had just got off an Antarctic Expedition, so we met up with them for coffee and lunch before getting back on the ship for the early departure to cruise the Beagle Channel and the strait of Magellan. We departed into a very strong headwind. I have another beautiful timelapse of the cruise through the channel which I will post later.

 

Ushuaia was a neat little city and I would like to spend more time there sometime and take advantage of some of the scenic opportunities. But – for this visit we were content just to hang out with our friends.

 

Punta Arenas

 

We were all really looking forward to this stop. We had booked the excursion to Magdalena Island to see the penguin colony. After gathering in the theatre, riding the very rough tender over to shore and getting on the coach, we were told that the tour was canceled due to high winds. I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed for sure. The winds in Otway sound were something fierce.

 

There was an NCL rep in the parking lot trying to rebook people on other excursions but the only thing they had available was a farm visit (yawn). We just decided to walk around Punta Arenas, which was deserted because it was early on Sunday morning. Really, nothing was open. Apart from the wind it was a beautiful day – not a cloud in the sky. After exploring for a couple of hour we decided to head back to the ship and make our own fun.

 

The ride back, in an empty tender, was something I won’t ever forget. Cresting 4-8 foot waves and sliding down into the trough.. It was quite fun. They were definitely more stable with more people on them.

 

Puerto Chacabuco

 

We had booked the Simpson Valley and Coyhaique excursion for this port. We were quickly off on the tender and in the coach, and starting our drive up the Simpson Valley. It is quite beautiful with the river, waterfall and conservation park stop. You also stop at a scenic lookout overlooking Coyhaique before having about an hour to stroll around the small city. There was lots going on with a craft market and nice shops. We stopped at a bakery and had a treat before hitting the bus to go back to port. It actually was quite a long day – we had to meet in the Stardust at 7am, and the tour got back to the port at 2pm. It was advertised I think as a 4 hour trip? Anyway, it was all good.

 

Sailing out of Chacabuco is beautiful as well – the water was still, and the scenery was beautiful. There is nothing to really explore at the port area.

 

Puerto Montt

 

For this port we booked the Puerto Varas/Frutillar excursion. Again we were quickly off the tenders and on our way at 9am. The tour did a scenic downtown route of Puerto Montt (the port area is dumpy), then took the Pan American highway to Puerto Varas, a beautiful lakeside town with a view of Osorno Volcano. We strolled around in the sun for 40 minutes before heading back to the coach for the short drive to Frutillar.

 

This little town I really enjoyed and I wish we had more time to explore. We were dropped off at the German Agricultural museum, which we didn’t check out, and just walked down to the lake and around the little town for an hour before heading back. Had a couple of nice German pastries at a café as well.

 

Like I said, this quiet place was very relaxing and picturesque. The clouds were clearing around Osorno just as we were leaving so we had the opportunity to get some photos. Perhaps we should have just rented a car and driven there – better option for next time.

 

Valparaiso

 

As much as I didn’t want to do it, I ended up booking NCL transfers back to the airport. I had procrastinated quite a bit on resolving our departure so eventually just gave in. All in all it was actually a pretty good tour/transfer.

 

They gave us a scenic drive through the hills of Valpo before hitting the highway. After about 45 minutes we stopped at a banquet hall – a nice outdoor venue in a valley where we were served empanadas, wine and fruit. After that we drove on to Santiago.

 

I have visited Santiago many times so I have seen all the touristy things to see. But it was still ok being driven around to see them again – I like the city. We stopped at the Plaza des Armas, a scenic overlook, and we drove around some upscale neighbourhoods as well. For lunch they took us to a big dining hall/restaurant where we were served lunch with a cultural dance show. It was pretty good at the dancers were trying really hard.

 

Finally we departed to the airport and were dropped off around 5pm, which was good timing for our flight home at 9pm.

 

Summary

 

There is so much more to do at these ports than what we did – but not everyone is traveling with a 4 year old. The NCL excursions are exactly what you would expect – timely and efficient, if somewhat shallow and overpriced. This was no surprise to me.

 

Next up – sea days and the ship in general.

[OzCanuck]

They also ran out of Malbec on day 2, curly fries, mint (no mojitos), and maybe hot dogs / fries.

 

Yes on the Malbec! I had it the first couple of days and then gone. I guess they couldn't ship any in from ..... Argentina! The Cagney's fries were still available the whole cruise..

[OzCanuck]

Be certain, he partakes at the Port Market- a meat lover's paradise. :) http://www.welcomeuruguay.com/montevideo/port-market.html

 

And there is a really nice empanada place in the Port Market with some veggie options - but they were closed the day we were in port.

[OzCanuck]

Here is the time lapse video driving to Bertha's Beach in the Falklands:

 

[YOUTUBE]TWB2gV9yxaQ[/YOUTUBE]

[quercus alba]

Yes on the Malbec! I had it the first couple of days and then gone. I guess they couldn't ship any in from ..... Argentina! The Cagney's fries were still available the whole cruise..

Seems like that would be equivalent to running out of rum on a Caribbean cruise!

[OzCanuck]

Seems like that would be equivalent to running out of rum on a Caribbean cruise!

 

Absurd, isn't it? Thing is, they still had it by the bottle - you just couldn't get a glass on the UBP.