Explorer Feb 1-17 Buenos Aires to Santiago Live

[RJ2002]

Thanks for the update on oversell.  

 

Looks like you guys are off to a great start...  enjoy!!!

[Stumblefoot]

4 hours ago, RachelG said:

Why is he wearing long sleeves when it is 80?

And, where is his cowboy hat?

[RachelG]

3 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

And, where is his cowboy hat?

It is here, just wasn’t on his head at that particular moment.

[Hambagahle]

As I think I  remember from our 4 days in BA that "important looking" building is the "Pink House" ??  Where the President of Argentina lives???  Or am I remembering wrongly?  Anyway - it is a great city.  Have fun!!

[Boatmans Lady]

Have a fantastic cruise and thank you for taking us along.

[jimbri]

Have a wonderful trip!

[forgap]

2 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

As I think I  remember from our 4 days in BA that "important looking" building is the "Pink House" ??  Where the President of Argentina lives???  Or am I remembering wrongly?  Anyway - it is a great city.  Have fun!!

Yes, Évita spoke from the balcony on the left side and Madonna sang “ Don’t cry for me Argentina...”. 

[Portolan]

On 1/28/2019 at 8:53 PM, cohner said:

 

 

Please ignore the quote header above...inserted without request and can't be deleted.

 

Anyway, we arrived in BA yesterday having boarded a plane in Washington (DC, that is) on Wednesday at 30 degrees F, arriving in BA Thursday with it at 5 degrees F at home and 80 F degrees here!  Good timing on our part.  Should be a great cruise!

[GOARMY]

Will follow your cruise with interest.  Hope (pray) for calm seas around The Falklands.  Twice we booked this excursion; twice turned away due to weather and sea conditions.  But, the rest of those cruises were wonderful. 

 

GOARMY!

 

 

[Stumblefoot]

10 hours ago, RachelG said:

It is here, just wasn’t on his head at that particular moment.

Okay.  Whew!  Had me worried there for a bit.

 

When I saw your pic I thought he must have been wearing long sleeves to protect himself from the sun, then I saw his head. 

[RachelG]

Yes, Hambagahle and forgap, I confirmed that the important looking building is the Pink House, sort of like an Argentina White House but not exactly.

 

thanks boatmans lady, jimbri, and goarmy for the well wishes.  I really hope we make it onshore at the Falklands.  I have not shared the poor odds with George yet.

 

stumblefoot, George had his hat on all day today.

 

portolan, glad you all arrived safely, and I presume are onboard.  Do you know when the meet and greet is going to be?

[RachelG]

February 1, 2019–embarkation in Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

After a great night’s sleep with a comfortable bed and perfect air conditioning, we awoke at about 7 am because the sun was up and shining brightly.  

 

We had a morning walking tour booked with buenostours.  Our guide arrived at 9, and we commenced to walk all over.  It was hot and humid.  We saw parks, old buildings, embassies.  We walked by the memorial where the Israeli embassy was blown up several years ago.  Our guide is also an actor and was in a recent film about the capture of a Nazi war criminal by Israeli special forces which took place here.  I had read the book, and now there is a film I will try to find.

 

Ultimately we ended up at Recoleta cemetery which we explored thoroughly , finding Eva Perón’s tomb as well as a lot of other interesting stuff, anthropologically speaking.  

 

After 3 hours of walking in the heat and humidity, we were ready for lunch. Our guide took us to an authentic Argentinian steakhouse which was amazing.  Our starter was this amazing grilled cheese covered with roasted red pepper and tomatoes, very simple but unique and delicious.  We followed with a very tender and flavorful top loin steak.  This is the first steak in South America that I have actually liked.  Lots of locals, and the owner saw George’s cowboy hat so was immediately interested and wanting to know his opinion of the beef.  He even took George to the back where they cut up the carcass.  Here the carcass is delivered whole, not aged at all, and the restaurant cuts it up.  The whole thing for 3 people with a great wine was $50.

 

We walked back to the hotel in the heat, grabbed our luggage, got a cab, and headed to the port.  So far so good.  We drop off the luggage and go inside to a mass of humanity.  The immigration people were having computer issues, so everyone was waiting.  Thank heavens we had eaten lunch.  I would have been getting weak by this time.  A lot of people had not, and I heard much grumbling.

 

After about 30 minutes, with the crowd swelling behind us, they let us go through security.  But customs still wasn’t open.  We waited maybe another 15 minutes, went through customs, then a first.  We had to board a bus to take us through the cargo port to get to the ship.  Once onboard everything was perfect.  We were quickly checked in, off to our suite where our luggage arrived immediately.

 

I had to unpack quickly as muster was 5:15, and by the time we got to our suite, it was after 4.  Felt sorry for the huge line of people after us.  

 

They have revised muster, such that they don’t require you to take your lifevest anymore.  I suspect someone tripped, fell on the straps and broke some bone.  Anyway, it was pretty fast and painless.  Evan, the assistant CD, was in charge of our muster station, and he was pretty funny.

 

Sailaway was scheduled for 6:30, but we had reservations in Prime 7 at that time.  We were seated at a window seat, so had a perfect and comfortable view of sailaway.  This Prime 7 is the largest aboard any Regent ship, and is beautiful as well as not as dark as the ones on Mariner and Voyager.

 

Our dinner was a mixed bag.  The starters were great, but there was a bit of a communication issue as far as the main.  I ordered lobster taken out of the shell, and I wanted to give George part of it.  He ordered crab.  We ended up with my de-shelled lobster, his crab, and an entire other lobster, which made him look like a huge pig.  And of course, we couldn’t eat all of it.  My asparagus was terribly over cooked, which is easy to do, but they cook it every day.  They continue to use canned corn, even though frozen is much better.  Anyway, it was a just ok meal.  Not what I would expect from Prime 7.

 

We then went to the boutique to try and find another pair of dress pants for George since he packed exactly one pair for a 2 week cruise.  They had exactly 0 pairs of dress pants.  They had shirts, sports jackets, shorts, swimming trunks, but no dress pants.  So I guess George had better not spill anything.

 

Now a rant.  If you don’t want to hear, feel free to skip to the next paragraph.  One of my biggest irritations with this ship is that you have to put your keycard into a slot at the doorway in order to have electricity in the suite.  I have seen this a lot of hotels in Europe, but it seems penny pinching on a ship of this category.  And it is really annoying.  I have figured out a work around, but still annoying.  Rant over.

 

Tonight’s show was a sort of sampler of what is to come.  If it is any clue, the entertainment will be great.  The singers and dancers were great.  Plus the girls weren’t anorexic, just healthy fit.  Evan Bosworth, the assistant CD, has an amazing voice. And Lorraine is the CD.  We have sailed with her many times before, and much enjoy her style.

[RachelG]

A few pics from today.  

 

The Israeli embassy memorial 

 

 

 

A really big tree

 

Lunch place

 

 

 

 

 

Eva’s tomb

Edited February 2, 2019 by RachelG

[Hambagahle]

Keycard in slot...I first saw this in Indonesia about 25-30 years ago.  And it does make sense and saves energy.  However if not having the card in the slot means no AC then it is annoying - you don't want to return to a room that has got hot in your absence.  If we find this to be the case we just leave one keycard in the slot (or even any other card of the same size because normally anyway the slot is just that and not a card reader) and then leave the room and the room stays cool.   That said being European I am a fanatic about turning lights off when I leave a room - which my American husband is not...

[Boatmans Lady]

10 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

Keycard in slot...I first saw this in Indonesia about 25-30 years ago.  And it does make sense and saves energy.  However if not having the card in the slot means no AC then it is annoying   That said being European I am a fanatic about turning lights off when I leave a room - which my American husband is not...

 

We are great turner offers and would turn all our lights and TV off, only to return to the lights on, the TV talking to itself.

We came to the conclusion that the suite staff are taught to do it this way, but we continued to play the on off game to the end of our cruise.

[RJ2002]

Rachel, happy to see you guys made it onboard, despite the hiccups.   Now it's time to really enjoy!  Great pics from BA!

 

Our first Regent cruise was with Lorraine, so I know you'll be in good hands.  We've only got two Regent cruises under our belts, but all of our P7 visits so far have also been just "OK", so understand where you are coming from.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed for your stop at the Falklands on Thursday.  

[jps1030]

16 hours ago, RachelG said:

Yes, Hambagahle and forgap, I confirmed that the important looking building is the Pink House, sort of like an Argentina White House but not exactly.

 

thanks boatmans lady, jimbri, and goarmy for the well wishes.  I really hope we make it onshore at the Falklands.  I have not shared the poor odds with George yet.

 

stumblefoot, George had his hat on all day today.

 

portolan, glad you all arrived safely, and I presume are onboard.  Do you know when the meet and greet is going to be?

It is Indeed the * CASA ROSADA" , the building of the Argentina government

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

We sailed this itinerary on Oceania about 10 years ago. Loved it!

Fortunately, we did get to visit the Falkland Islands. 

And, we had pretty calm seas going around the Horn. 

Enjoy. Hope you enjoy as much as we did. 

Sheila and Herb

[greenolaker]

I hate the system where the electricity turns off if no one is in the room and the keycard has to be put into the slot to turn on electricity. Is this true on all Regent ships?  We are going to be on the Voyager December Southeast Asia and I will be very unhappy to come back to a warm cabin, especially in that hot and humid area. What is the work around that you did to circumvent this?  

[Travelcat2]

22 minutes ago, greenolaker said:

I hate the system where the electricity turns off if no one is in the room and the keycard has to be put into the slot to turn on electricity. Is this true on all Regent ships?  We are going to be on the Voyager December Southeast Asia and I will be very unhappy to come back to a warm cabin, especially in that hot and humid area. What is the work around that you did to circumvent this?  

 

Voyager does not have this annoying feature.  The "work around" is putting something the size of a credit card (you could use a credit card) in the slot.  It worked fine for us.  I don't mind Regent trying to save electricity but many of us need to charge items when we are out of the suite and having the air conditioning go off makes no sense whatsoever.

[ronrick1943]

3 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Voyager does not have this annoying feature.  The "work around" is putting something the size of a credit card (you could use a credit card) in the slot.  It worked fine for us.  I don't mind Regent trying to save electricity but many of us need to charge items when we are out of the suite and having the air conditioning go off makes no sense whatsoever.

 

I agree about the air conditioning, but did you know last time on Regent we were told that nothing should be pulled in for charging items---the staff when cleaning your room are suppose too unplug anything that is plugged in.  They also have that policy on "O"-so it maybe company wide policy.  (However when we had a phone changing, they never unplug it).

[Travelcat2]

7 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

 

I agree about the air conditioning, but did you know last time on Regent we were told that nothing should be pulled in for charging items---the staff when cleaning your room are suppose too unplug anything that is plugged in.  They also have that policy on "O"-so it maybe company wide policy.  (However when we had a phone changing, they never unplug it).

 

I have never had anything unplugged that was charging - not our phones, iPad, Kindle, etc.  

[Bigdogwon]

I had a good laugh about only one pair of long pants, we were on Oceania a couple of years ago for a ten day Caribbean, and Tom only brought one pair of slacks, and he is like George tall with a 36 inseam, we found a pair in Tortola at Caribbean Jacks of all places. LOL

 

That huge tree is directly across the street from our favorite restaurants in BA, they had the coldest beer and the best empanadas.

 

Hope you enjoy you cruise!

[RachelG]

Greenolaker, Explorer is the only Regent ship with the no electricity unless the keycard is in the slot system.  It really is very annoying.  I always turn off the lights and tv when I leave the room.  The answer is to put any similar shaped and sized card in the slot, which is what we do.  I use some random card.  This time is my petco card.

 

bigdogwon, as you point out, George is a tall guy.  He is on orders not to spill anything, as I don’t think I can find trousers with his size in South America.  The ship was my only hope, and they failed.

[Eno-Bob]

Just got off after 4 weeks on the Explorer and you must insert your keycard, or something, in the slot to turn on the lights.  However, this does not turn off air conditioning or heat and items that we have had plugged in and charging continued to charge even with the keycard out.