Granny's 2008 Adventure

[dalliowner]

Hi

Was Veronica Mcswiny`s husband with her ?? If it is the same one her husband was the Captain on a P&O Cruise ship "Victoria" some 10 years ago.She was brilliant

[GrannyLorr]

yep, her hubby is with her, very funny man to talk too......he checks out her itinerary to see if he wants to go with her or not.....siad he was in the merchant navy but also spoke about P & O......didnt mention being a Captain though!! :eek:

[dalliowner]

No, he probably wouldn't mention it! But he was one of the most popular Captains in the P&O Fleet, very amiable and sociable ! Ask him about "The Green Flash" !! But don't have too many!

Is Veronica playing any Chopin? She plays his works superbly, don't miss it !

[JaneBP]

I'll add this here. Veronica's husband was also a Captain and then Fleet Captain for Princess as well. They are both delightful, as many know. She played Chopin last night and will again in a day or so. Speaking of her itineraries, she leaves in Rio and heads to the Far East to join the Spirit for two weeks. His favorite cities are Istanbul and Venice.

[AuntieAnne]

Back home in the cold and missing the Pride and all my old and new friends. As I expected, the CCers on board were terrific. Some I got to know better than others, and hope to rectify that on future cruises. Granny, keep those posts coming. They're wonderful. Were you a writer in another life? (If not, you should consider it. Might help you raise that $19,990 John won't spend on your baubles.)

 

Sailing along with you to Lisbon through these boards. Hope we cruise together again.

 

AA

[GrannyLorr]

Sunday 17th February

Welcome to Brazil!! And what a welcome we got!! They say tourism is their main income; maybe they don’t need much income? Certainly are not very welcoming to tourists…..of course this is the “Officials” I am talking about.

A few days ago we were supposed to be going to Itajai (I have been told we didn’t miss much!) The Captain made an announcement that we wouldn’t be going there, and said not to ask why….just a “domestic” problem. Rumour ever since is that the Officials were asking for too much money…..the cigarettes and alcohol weren’t enough…..well as I said…that’s the “rumour”. We also had an “Exclusive Seabourn” excursion arranged for Itajai, cant for the life of me remember what it was now….but missed that of course. We aren’t going too well with our excursions lately. The one we chose in Montevideo was cancelled due to lack of participants (and friends who had previously done this cruise said it was a highlight of their cruise)…..then in Punta del Este, the Sea Wolves Island was cancelled due to the weather…..and then Itajai cancelled completely…….

Just back to the weather for a moment……as Itajai was cancelled as a Port, we had 2 sea days……2 ROUGH sea days……yep…..John did his usual trick, but now thinks he has worked out what is causing it. Not long before we left home his doctor changed his blood pressure medication, and said it was a new one, and could upset the tummy! So he is using that as an excuse……actually he didn’t take his medication the second day of rough weather and was fine…so maybe he is right! The seas were 15 feet waves….I loved it but had trouble walking…..always seemed to be going uphill! I was exhausted by the end of the two days. We didn’t bother trying to get to the Veranda at all on those days, neither did a lot of other people so the Restaurant was busier than usual.

So…..our new arrangements are that we stop in Angra dos Reis for a few hours, then to Ilha Grande for the rest of the day, where they would take the water toys out and that would be our “Exclusive Seabourn” treat for this cruise.

The Herald the night before said to go to the Magellan Lounge from 8am. for a tender to Angra dos Reis. Think we got there about 8.30am….and got tickets for tender #3…so lots there before us. We sat…..and sat……..before we had left our suite, I had seen 4 patrol boats leave the ship and go past our window…I actually took a photo of them….so assumed that all the “Officials” were on board. Nope…..after sitting for ages, Captain Anderson came in and asked if anyone wanted to sing or tell a joke…..we were starting to get past the joking stage, when another announcement was made that another boatload of “Officials” were on their way…….when they finally arrived and made their way up the back stairs and through the Magellan Lounge, they didn’t get any friendly smiles or waves!! They also looked very sour…..there were either 5 or 7 of them….cant remember now. This was around 10am…….and we were supposed to be leaving at 12 noon.

Next announcement was that the “Officials” wanted a “Face to Face” before anyone could leave the ship, so started setting up the tables etc in the Lounge. At this stage we thought “bugger’em” we won’t go ashore anyway, so handed our tender tickets back, then started to head off back to our suite. Oh no….couldn’t be that easy now could it? Next announcement was that ALL passengers had to have a “face to face” no matter if you were getting off the ship or not. …….Miss A appeared in her dressing gown…..when she saw they were going alphabetically, she decided she may as well go and get dressed! (She starts with a “W”) I also heard that Miss A was walking up and down the hall muttering to herself!!

Well as we start with a “B” we were out of there fairly soon, but had already decided we wouldn’t be going ashore, so up to the Constellation to have a drink….just a tomato juice at that hour! Not long after Nelson comes in to tell us we have to go back and present our Yellow Fever certificates….were told they had chosen “20 random passengers” to check the yellow fever…funny thing was that most of the Aussies were checked, not sure about other nationalities…..but I also know there are some on board without the yellow fever certificate! I am writing this 4 days later and still haven’t got our certificates back…..asked yesterday and was told they still need them. Why would they still need ours, when others haven’t been checked at all??? Not as though they are holding everyones until after we leave Brazil……mystery!!

Next announcement was that ALL crew also had to have a “face to face” meeting…..so here goes another hour or more. I heard that 6 of the Crew had to leave…..they are going to the Legend and some from the Legend are coming here. Our first Stewardess, Amanda, had to leave, and she was upset…..our second Stewardess and her were best friends and room mates. Now Chantelle our second stewardess has had to pack up all her room and move to another room…..poor kids, they don’t need all this upheaval.

The whole episode has left a bad taste for us……we hadn’t had one minutes problem in so many Countries. So far been to Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay…….and have no idea how many cigarettes and booze allowed us in there, but we didn’t have any problems…….just Brazil……

Now we are in Rio. Yesterday we did the tour to Sugar Loaf…the views from the top were spectacular, Copacabana, Ipanema etc etc……but from ground level the views aren’t so good. Dirty, run down buildings, graffiti covering everything and homeless people by the hundreds. Not a place I would ever want to visit again. The famous beaches? Well I don’t think they compare with what we have at home. Today we will do the tour to the Christ statue.

Today is also another embarkation day….so a new lot of passengers. Haven’t heard how many are leaving this time. Saw Jane BP this morning, just as she was getting off the ship. Hope we are back by life drill time so we can “check out” the new arrivals. Just hope we are rid of a group of “whingers” that have been on board.

A few nights ago we had dinner with the Captain…..he only has 6 guests on his table. (Sorry Martha, didn’t open your email until after the dinner, so couldn’t do what you asked) Of the 6 guests, John and I are great….and the two other husbands weren’t too bad….but the two other women!!! OK……soup…….Vegetable soup……I think most of us had it….but one woman didn’t have green floaty bits like the rest of us…….so she decided hers wasn’t “vegetarian”…….she harped about this for ages and wouldn’t eat it…..I pointed out to her that it didn’t say VEGETARIAN….it said VEGETABLE…and I make a lot of soup…..and always use a beef, chicken or lamb stock for vegetable soup……so it probably wasn’t VEGETARIAN…..she still continued to moan and groan so in the end missed out on her soup. Now in the meantime her and her husband had preordered a “special meal” for that night. It arrived……roast duck…..am I missing something here? Well I suppose you can say that in a former life the poor duck was a vegetarian!! The other woman told us another story….you remember the story about the man who made a complete fool of himself at the Tango show? Well thank heaven they are gone now, but they were friends with this “other” woman on our table…and she told us, very proudly I might add……how the woman married to the foolish tango man, had one night stormed into the galley to see why the soup was taking so long!! She told them they must have a big pot of it so should be able to just ladle it out!!

On quite a few occasions during the evening the Captain was defending his crew…..we found it very embarrassing.

Now Cands is one here who will know what I mean by “whinging P***”…….yep they were……all from “there”. One woman laughingly told John that she complains to “keep them on their toes”…….oh well…..more we need to avoid……

A couple of nights ago we had our Deck BBQ for this cruise…great night again, great food and the weather was beautiful. Last night there was a local show and desert on deck, but we missed it all……sort of forgot about it, but also wanted an early night. We had dinner alone, so finished dining early and our Stewardess had already set our clock back the hour it needed, so was 7.30pm when I went to bed!! Talk about a Granny!

Well it’s a couple of hours since we last ate, so must be almost time for another meal.

So until next time

Bye from Granny

[johnnycruise]

Granny,

 

Sounds like the Captain invited all the "problem" passengers to his table for a little tete-a-tete. Your antics have finally caught up with you!:D

 

Hopefully you will enjoy your trip to see Cristo Redentor. I was there on a cool and rainy day and it was still a highlight.

 

Brazil has been in a row with the US for several years over reciprocal visa requirements. Maybe the Aussies just got caught in the middle of it. Not sure why all the fuss over the yellow fever certificates since that disease isn't a problem in southern Brazil. Incidents like those could compel Seabourn to rearrange its itineraries.

 

Did you have a beach barbeque at Ilha Grande or did the Pride never make it there?

 

johnny

[Tony & Trevor]

Granny,

 

Thank you so much for your amusing informative narratives. Really enjoy reading them and catching up on things.Sounded quite a 'tarry diddle' with the Brazilians!

 

Kind regards,

from a very cold , frosty England

Take care,

 

Tony

[wripro]

I don't know if this has any relevance but when it comes to procuring visas the Brazilians are playing tit for tat with the US, raising their cost as we raise ours. Maybe the US is making it difficult for Brazilians to enter the country and they are returning the favor. Even if many passengers are non American, they may consider SB an American company. As I said, this is just a guess.

[jgn]

Had the same problem with Brazil on a Regent cruise there. We all had to line up and present ourselves to the Immigration officials before we could go ashore. Jean

[cwn]

"Yesterday we were headed to Cape Horn……the seas were as smooth as a babies bottom, but at that stage we were still in the Beagle Channel. Captain Dexter announced during the day that he didn’t know if we could go around the Horn as the weather reports were pretty bad, but he would see what happens. He also said he would take us down to have a look anyway, even if we had to turn around again. Next announcement was to say we wouldn’t be going as the waves were 8 metres and the winds 70 knots. As one Aussie bloke said, "that’s only 24 feet, that’s nothing…lets go!" Well its good to be King and Captain Dexter got his way…….we kept going for a while and the seas got worse and eventually we turned around to head back to the Beagle Channel. By now the winds must have come in behind us as well as they were 60 knots……didn’t hear the height of the waves but half the time our window on Deck 4 was under water! I loved every minute of it and stood watching out the window all the time"

I know this is old news, but we just got back to Houston this morning after a three week trip to Argentina and Antarctica. A great trip, I highly recommend it....

 

On Feb 4th we reported to the dock in Ushuaia and were very surprised and pleased to see the Pride docked behind our ship, the Ice breaker the Polar Star! We will be sailing on the Pride for the first time next April Dubai to Istanbul, so we were really excited to be able to check her out at least from the outside!

 

You really hit some rough weather in Ushuaia area. We arrived on the 2nd and the weather slowly went down hill while we were there. The Ushuaia Harbor closed at noon on the 3th due to the high winds, by that night they were pushing 80 mph-hurricane force. The Polar Star had to anchor in the Channel overnight and was late docking. Things were better in Ushuaia on the morning of the 4th. We boarded at 4pm and the ship sailed about 2 hours early on the 4th due to the continuing promise of bad weather in the area. The captain told us to expect bad conditions later in the evening. However, we were lulled into a false since of security by bedtime that night as the Channel waters were calm.

 

However, about 2 am on the 5th we were off Cape Horn and in 30-40 foot seas and gale force winds. Green water was over the bow and the dead lights were on the windows on deck three. The ship was listing up to 33 degrees. This continued for the 48 hour crossing of the Drake Channel! Known as the drake Shake!!!! Lots of sick people, even with the patch. We are lucky and don’t get sick, but it really hard to enjoy things in that kind of rolling! The Captain changed the course more Easterly to avoid the worst of the seas, though what we had was bad enough!. We wound up doing a totally different itinerary than the one planned staring at Elephant Island, but did go South of the Antarctic Circle and land on the Continent! Fortunately, we had Drake Lake coming back!

 

The Pride’s Captain made a good decision not going out of the Channel on the 3rd. The Polar Star staff told us as bad as we thought it was on the 5th, coming back to Ushuaia on the 3rd was much worse. The passengers were confined to their cabins and food was sent to them because the ship was moving so much!

 

I am really enjoying your report. It has been fun to catch up today. A lot more fun than unpacking!

[cands]

Now Cands is one here who will know what I mean by “whinging P***”…….yep they were……all from “there”. One woman laughingly told John that she complains to “keep them on their toes”…….oh well…..more we need to avoid……

 

 

GrannyLorr,

How distressing and embarrassing for you, and the captain!

I can never understand complaining about the food on any ship.

At least you've proven that Seabourn is not unique! Until I read your post about the nasty man in the restaurant I rather had it on a pedestal. Now after the latest incident I'm thinking: "Normal cross section of international travellers".

It does worry me a little, the notion of trying to avoid these people on such a small ship!

 

Keep your chin up! I'm sure things will now start to improve again after your 'Brazillian' experience:eek: .

 

Cheers,

Steve.

[GrannyLorr]

Tuesday 19th February.

Johnnycruise….how could you ever think that poor old Granny is a “problem” passenger! I am a model passenger, just ask Captain Dexter…..well no, maybe not him….ask ummmm…….I will think of someone later I am sure!

We did make it to Ilha Grande, but no beach BBQ. They also didn’t have time to lower the marina. They just took passengers ashore in the tenders, and had the banana thingy and a big tube thingy they pulled behind the rescue boats, think there were a couple of canoes or something as well. We didn’t go ashore at all. I did get some photos from the ship though so will post them into my photo site when I get home. We had a Deck BBQ that night.

Cands, don’t worry about “nasty” passengers…….out of around 200 people there are always only a small handful…….its easy to avoid them, although all of a sudden the “rude man in the Restaurant” seems to want to be “our friend”….oh boy, really need that like a hole in the head! Was very surprised last night at the Club Reception to find they had sailed 497 days with Seabourn!!

It was exactly our 100th day yesterday, but we didn’t get our Tiffany pin……must be going to make us wait until next cruise!

Cwn…….do you mean I am going to have to take back my accusation that Captain Dexter was a chicken for not going around The Horn?........lets just hope he doesn’t read this board! Did I mention that at his Farewell Reception, he made clucking chicken noises as I walked in??

Our last day in Rio and we did the tour to the Christ the Redeemer statue. Before we got to the train station we did a bit of a tour around Rio, some we had seen the day before and other parts were new to us. Still can’t say I like Rio. Then again I don’t really like many big cities with millions of people! The beaches looked like they were covered in ants….so many people, would be hard to find a spot to sit!

During the cog wheel train up to the statue, we saw a monkey…that was my highlight! Haven’t seen anywhere near the animals I was hoping to see on this trip….maybe that will improve in the Amazon. The train took 30 minutes, then there was an elevator, followed by two escalators……so nice and easy to get to the top. There are also about 250 steps you could climb….we chose the first option!

The views from the top were spectacular….lots of pics were taken and we were very lucky to have a nice clear day. After all our warnings about pickpockets and other crime in this area, I was very surprised when a young man handed me his camera and asked me to take a picture of him with the Christ statue in the background….he then walked quite a distance away. He said no one at home would believe he had been here unless he had a photo. I thought he was a just a wee bit too trusting, so hope he doesn’t get mugged because of that! Then again maybe Granny just looks like a sweet little old lady as you all know she is!

Our tour guide hadn’t worked out the times of the trains too well, as he told us to meet again, about 5 minutes AFTER the train left……so we had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. By the time we got back to the bus the ship was phoning to see where we were as the ship was due to sail! This is why we like the “ship tours”…..if we had been on an independent tour, we would have got back in time to wave to the ship as she sailed out. With a ship tour they wait for you! The staff at the Cruise Terminal rushed us through….everything there was closed up and they obviously wanted to go home….just had to wait for a few old Seabourners. When we had started the tour there were two other huge ships in front of us…….Costa Magica and one called Mistral…..cant remember the cruiseline….cvs or something? The day before, there had been the Prinsendam and Silver Wind.

We finally set sail and Captain Andersen was able to sail right around past Copacabana and so close to the Sugarloaf we could have reached out and touched it. It was a lovely sail away. I tried the local drink….cant spell or pronounce it….made from sugar cane. First one I didn’t like much….second was better…third and 4th even better. I think Nelson finally got the hang of how to make them by about the 5th!!

We are now into our second sea day and sailing north….tomorrow we will be at Salvador de Bahai. The shore tour there has 2 hours of walking and I would never survive that in this heat, so we will just take ourselves for a shorter walk to the craft market. Carol Frey, the Tour Manager, told us this area has an African influence due to the slave trade and there are lots of voodoo shops…..hoping to buy a couple of voodoo dolls!!

Tonight we have a Cocktail Reception, followed by a special dinner in the Veranda, for all the Circumnavigators…..should be fun. Argentinean steak is on the menu so John is happy.

The time seems to be speeding by………I really think I need to copy Miss A….11 months sounds pretty good to me!

Until next time

Bye from Granny

[Martita B.]

Grannylorr,

Glad to hear you're behaving yourself! And having a wonderful voyage ~~~:p

I do want to mention that I e-mailed Captain Dexter and included the Seabourn Cruise Critic forum web site so he could read (and chuckle) of the perils of Granny ~:confused:

Sooo the "rude man in the restaurant" has 497 days aboard the Yachts? Poor thing, he must be suffering some social grace malfunction/illness. Do not post his intitials as we would probably know him (oh I'll find out sooner or later~~he he;) )

Thanks for posting your travel log as we all enjoy reading of yours and John's travels.

Smooth seas and blue skies,

Martita B.

[Martita B.]

Grannylorr

I'm sure you are having too much fun to post your "happenings!"

Jane is now safely home and we heard from Westmount too.

Is Missy A. behaving herself?

I'm anxious to see all of you in Ft Lauderdale on March 17th. I'll be boarding early ~~cardboard box's need to be secured in my Suite ~~~;) precious cargo! My man, "Joe" has been helping me at the Port Everglades terminal for several years and will again be meeting me with his trusty "dolly!" I saw/visited with him on Jan 30th!

Continue to have a most grand voyage ~~:p

See 'ya soon,

MB

[tayl]

Hi Granny,

Just returned from a week in Puerto Escondido,Mexico.

The first thing I had to do was catch up on my "GrannyLorr Reading"!

I'm wondering if Thomas is still working as a server? He's tall with glasses. If so, please say hi from Denise. He'll remember me as the woman who gave him a dvd of a fireplace with christmas music last Dec. Just wondering how he was making out?

[GrannyLorr]

Monday 25th February

Tomorrow it will be 2 months since we left home! I have heard that during most of that time, it has rained, and rained, so “home” should look quite a bit different when we get back. We were in the middle of a very bad drought, drastic water restrictions and dead gardens……..hopefully all will be green on our return.

Since I last wrote, we have been to 3 more Ports in Brazil. Only in one did the Officials keep us lined up at the gangway for any length of time, before allowing us to disembark. Not knowing much about Brazil, I was expecting to be visiting “towns” along the coast!! TOWNS?? Huge cities!! The first one we went to was Salvador de Bahia. The only tour offered here was a “City Tour” which was mostly the “old town” and was a 2 hour walking tour at a cost of $99 each! We thought paying $99 to walk for 2 hours was a bit much….we could walk longer than that for nothing! Of course H Stern had their “shuttle” working again, and took us right to the centre of the old town……where their store is located on the main Square. The advertising concerning these Stern shuttles, is that there is absolutely “no obligation”…….but this time the passengers (all except John and I) were herded into the shop like cattle! We just flatly refused to go in. I have heard a few passengers are not happy with the arrangements Seabourn have obviously made with H Stern. They have run the shuttle service for the entire cruise and people are getting tired of seeing “H Stern” salesmen everywhere.

First job was to change some money. We only had US dollars, and the street merchants don’t take these so we needed some reals or reis. There was a Tourist Info centre and Money changer next door to Sterns. Of course to change money they wanted to see Passports! They were safely aboard The Pride. However they accepted our ship security card so all was well. This part of town could be almost any part of Europe. Lovely old buildings, cobble stoned streets, lots of churches. Of course after struggling for the last few weeks to learn a few words in Spanish, we now need Portuguese….. so back to square one. One church also had a museum connected to it, so in we went. The girl on the entrance talked away to us for ages, then took our money….no idea what she said and at that stage had no idea what we had paid……but did make out that the church was to the left and the museum to the right…..hand signals are much better than language!! Later we found we had paid about $2.50 each for the entrance fee. We walked around the town for a while and really enjoyed it….apart from the heat! My clothes were soaked…..better get used to it I suppose, this is what the weather will be for the next few weeks. Salvador has a huge African influence due to the slave trade, and this was seen in a lot of the souvenirs, carvings, beads etc. The “old town” is high on the hill overlooking the Port, so to get back down, there is a huge elevator and also a funicular. We found our way to the elevator, and that cost about 75 cents each. At the bottom of the elevator is the “Mercado Modela”, otherwise known as a monstrous indoor market!! There were also a lot of stalls set up outside. I think we were about to be mugged at one stage…..we are a bit slow when it comes to this sort of thing. A woman came up to John, grabbed him by the thumb and started wrapping beads around his wrists….tying his wrists together. He kept saying no, and trying to get away from her…..she was very persistent……then started feeling around his chest…..he had the money holder under his shirt. Another woman came up and tried to do the same thing to me…….she may have been old but too bad, if they don’t want to accept the word NO…..so I shoved her away. John finally got his thumb back and escaped! Would have been very easy for them to have got his watch, then we might have missed the boat!! Spent a little bit of time in the market, but it was so hot I couldn’t stay too long. We were looking for a voodoo doll, but didn’t find one there. We now have lots of people on the ship looking for voodoo dolls for us. Probably end up with a bag full as we have said “buy one for us if you see one”…….

Had about a 15 minute sweat dripping walk back to the ship…….what a relief to get back into the airconditioning.

All we had seen of Salvador was a very small section…..we had no idea how big the place was until sail away. The Captain had got permission to sail along the coast for awhile, and the high rise buildings went on for miles and miles. It is a huge city of millions of people.

Next Port was Natal. Tours here were “dune buggy” rides and a City tour that really didn’t interest us at all. Just another big city. We have an island not far from home that we visit occasionally, where there are no roads, just sand tracks or the beach to drive on…..so dune buggy rides wasn’t really for us either. We just spent a nice relaxing day on the ship…….in the airconditioning.

So many people now are loving dining outdoors in the Veranda….not us…..airconditioning is how John made a living, so we have to support it!! Also seeing a few “sun worshipers” on Deck 7 and 8…….lots of white skin turning a lovely shade of bright red…ouch! There are some who I think must be “lizard worshipers”……as they seem to like their skin to resemble a lizard? There is an announcement every day from the bridge about how dangerous the sun is in this area…….some don’t listen…or care!

The last Port we visited was Fortaleza. There were 2 tours offered here. One a City tour and the other to a Cachaca Museum (the rum stuff they make here, which makes those drinks that takes Nelson 5 goes to perfect!!) We chose the City Tour, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. There isn’t much to see……a concrete cathedral……a jetty……a market…….only thing worth seeing was a theatre.

Again we were soaked by the time we got back to the ship.

That afternoon a local Folkloric group boarded and presented a show for us in the Magellan Lounge, where afternoon tea was also served. It was a fantastic show…very bright and lively….lots of quick changes. A few costumes sporting huge feather headdresses had a bit of trouble with the ceiling height! There was also one huge costume where the person had to enter sideways….the dress was too wide. Later we asked one of the waiters if he had been able to see any of the show….he said he saw a little bit, but they were all dressed in costumes like German folk dancers (he is German) he had thought being Brazilian they would be in bikinis…….oh poor Alex, he had completely missed all the g strings and feathers!

By sail away it had cooled down a lot and was really pleasant out on Deck…lovely cool breeze, so we dined at the Sky Grill that night. Nigerian shrimp for me and the inevitable steak for John. Have you seen Nigerian shrimp? Huge monster shrimp……

We are now into our second sea day, and almost to the Amazon. I think we get to the start of it around 8pm tonight. I will be spending a lot of time in the Constellation lounge now, looking for birds and animals……might even manage to get some sewing done!

Will report again when I have some news from the Amazon

Until then

Bye from Granny.

[RachelG]

Granny, I am continuing to follow your journey with interest. What I gather from your posts is that the stops in Brazil so far have all been huge cities with no real sights of interest other than in Rio. Is there opportunity to take any excursion outside of the cities? If not, I can definitely tell it would not be my husband's cup of tea. I have wanted to do a circumnavigation of South America someday. But I don't want to have to listen to complaints from my husband the whole time, so perhaps I should reconsider.

[JaneBP]

I hope Granny will kindly let me reply on her thread.

 

>"Is there opportunity to take any excursion outside of the cities? If not, I can definitely tell it would not be my husband's cup of tea."

 

One thing is that you can do a leg or two of the circumnavigation. Then you can take pre- and post-cruise land options or design your own. I found the Seabourn offered overland stay in Buenos Aires and the time at the estancia a real delight, and I bypassed some very rocky sea days.

[GrannyLorr]

First….JaneBP, please feel free to add any comments about the South America cruise to my thread….it has been looking a bit “dead” lately! (this of course also applies to everyone else!)

Rachel asked about the shore excursions on the Circumnavigation of South America….and yes so far the ones in Brazil have really only been to the big cities. However that hasn’t been the case on the rest of the Circumnavigation. There have been many trips to the countryside, mountains, wineries etc etc in lots of other Ports. We are now in the Amazon so there will be a boat trip this afternoon which I will write about later…….a beach bbq in a couple of days, jungle canoe trips etc.

I will wait till after we have been to Manaus, to post all about the Amazon experience. We have been absolutely amazed at the size of this river……..have spent hours outside watching everything……more later.

[Martita B.]

Granny

I would like to know if the dining room drapery sheers are pulled back? While aboard the Legend in Jan. I ask Lucca if we could pull our "porthole" sheers back during luncheon? Years ago, on the Pride, Herman Diaz and I would luncheon at the same table ~~Port side at the back~~as he was a "fixture" on the Pride, Herman would arrive, open the glass door and pull the sheers back in order for us to see the ocean! Only table in the rooms with light! This ritual went on for years! When I ask Lucca to open our sheers, he said "what a great idea!" The next day I invited Maitre'D's, Karl and William to luncheon with me, same table. (they were aboard training staff) They commented as to how bright and airy "our table was." I visited with Pam about opening the sheers ~~~~she liked the idea too! Soooo during the daytime hours the dining room was bright and we could all enjoy seeing the sea! I had previously mentioned to Miss Pam, "the dining room looks akin to a lovely funeral parlor......all we need is organ music playing "The Old Rugged Cross and a body!"

The Legend dining room looked so refreshed after the sheers were opened......actually looked like it had already been in drydock!

Just wondering if your dining room sheers are still pulled.

Have fun at the Parintins party!

Happy/smooth sailing :p

Martita B.

[cruiseyguy]

I've really enjoyed reading Granny's log (I met her on her first Seabourn cruise-beginning in Singapore--someday I'll refresh her memory as to who I am) and to be fair to her and others reading her posts, shouldn't off-topic comments and posts (about drapes, visits with "Pam," etc.) be posted on the off-topic thread?

[Martita B.]

Granny invited any of us to add comments (or questions) as to her South Anerican voyage in her recent post. My question is NOT off topic.

MB

[CruisingAlong4Now]

Granny said: please feel free to add any comments about the South America cruise to my thread.

Please let's not get into an argument in the midst of this great thread. However I agree that these posts should confine themselves to the South America cruise, not general cruising or changes in Seabourn's practices. Martita, I hope that Seabourn has the shears open during all its cruises so as to brighten the dining rooms. What a wonderful idea. However, it's not really part of the SA cruise.

 

JMHO

[cands]

Hi Lorraine,

Still here! Still checking twice a day for your next post.:)

 

How's the food? Are you getting at all sick of it after all these weeks? If you just felt like grilled chops, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots, would they prepare that for you as comfort food?

 

As you can tell from the previous posts, we would all like to hear from you soon;)

 

Portholes in the restaurant! The only other ship I've ever 'sailed' on that had this feature was the Queen Mary. (Sunday brunch at long beach) How quaint!

 

Cheers,

Steve.