South America - Review and Comments

[wbarrister]

We just returned from a 10 day cruise to South America on Costa Cruise line. Prior to the trip I looked for and could not find any good reviews on Costa's South American cruises. It might be helpful to some of you contemplating these cruises to know a little more about them. This commentary is directed to primarily to English speaking potential travelers.

I suspect that one of the reasons there aren't many commentaries about these cruises on Cruise Critic is that few Americans are taking these cruises at the present time. Of the 2200 passengers on the Costa Victoria leaving São Paulo Brazil (Santos) there were only 23 Americans (10 of them our family) and only 10 others with English as their first language. The majority of the passengers were Brazilian (about 60%) and 20 to 25% more were Argentinians. Having said that, and before you stop reading, this will not be a negative review of our trip, to the contrary, it was very pleasant. As with all cruises there are things that we did not like but the overall experience was positive. It is certainly an interesting experience being on a ship where your language is by far in the minority.

Costa Cruise lines did something on this cruise that I have never seen before. Our cruise began and ended in São Paulo but quite a number of passengers began and ended their cruise in Rio de Janeiro and an even larger number began and ended their cruise in Buenos Aires. As a consequence, there were embarkation and debarkation procedures going on at three of the five ports. I'm still not sure how they manage the mandatory life boat drills (we did ours on the second day after the passengers loaded in Rio de Janeiro).

I'll start at the beginning: Embarkation. Embarkation clearly needs to be improved. Between the very hot weather and inadequate ventilation in the embarkation buildings it was sweltering. There were almost no signs and few people speaking English to help us figure out where we needed to go, and when. It seemed as if we went from one line to another and did things that could've been done at one place and still had things left over to do on board the ship (such as register our credit cards). At one point in the process we were given a card with a number and sent to the other end of the building to a place not clearly marked. We finally found a man with a bunch of numbered cards in his hand but he never seemed to do anything. We finally persuaded him to let us go through and found ourselves in yet another line to fill in some forms we had not been provided previously.

Once we got through the lines and onto the ship things improved. Unlike some cruise lines we actually had our luggage by the time we made our way up to our room. We hadn't eaten in a while so we went up to the 11th deck for the buffet. It was pretty typical but clearly with an emphasis on European style food. The only thing we found unusual at that moment was the fact that iced tea was not available as a "free" beverage. We were told that if you wanted an iced tea you could get it at the bar for a fee or you could make yourself a cup of hot tea (free) and then add ice.

Costa advertised the evening dining schedule as 7:30 and 9:30 but changed it to 7:30 and 10 p.m. after we got on board. It is clear the Brazilians like to eat late! We had originally opted for the 9:30 dinner but decided that 10 p.m. was just too late and moved to the 7:30 dining time. Even though we were a group of 10 it was easy to accomplish and done quickly. We were told that the South Americans generally ignored the set times and would show up at 8:30 or later for the 7:30 seating, meaning the tables were still occupied at 9:30, hence the change to 10:00. I would say that most of the food served on board was good. We have been on ships where the food was better and a few about the same but it certainly was not worse than anything we had had before. The selections were adequate and almost everything was tasty. I thought the wine prices were significantly lower than we had been experiencing on other cruise lines which was nice. We tended to eat breakfast in the dining room rather than the buffet although the dining room was part buffet and part table service. A couple of times we asked for orange juice and were directed to the buffet to get it ourselves but other times they brought juice around on trays. At breakfast you could get cappuccinos and espressos in the dining room at no charge but apparently not at dinner time.

We read a lot of cautions about travel to some of the South American cities, particularly Rio de Janeiro. We were warned not to wear jewelry, take expensive cameras, and be extra vigilant because of the threat of violent crime (general web based advice – not by Costa). It turned out that although caution is probably appropriate, as it would be in any large city, we didn't feel threatened in any way in the areas we visited. Incidentally, because we were a large group, we employed private tour guides in both Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires at significant savings over the cost of the ships excursions. I can provide specific information if requested. I ended up taking my large expensive camera everywhere and never felt at risk.

Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city particularly when viewed from the top of the mountains at Sugarloaf and at the Christ statue. Since we had the flexibility, we chose the restaurant where we were going to have lunch in Rio, a place called Porcao (the location with the view of Sugarloaf). The Brazilians refer to these places as barbecue restaurants but they are the type of restaurant where the food is cooked on grills and then the meat is brought to your table on large skewers and cut for you at the table. One type of meat after another is brought to the table and you eat it until you're stuffed. It is preceded by a buffet of salads, sushi, and other foods to get you started. These are fixed price all-you-can-eat restaurants and you should go hungry! Porcao was a little on the expensive side, about $40 per person. There are a number of others that are probably equally good that are not as expensive. Even though expensive I would still recommend Porcao. We had two other opportunities to eat the Brazilian style barbecue and all three experiences were excellent. Clearly Brazil and Argentina pride themselves as being beef countries and they deserve that praise.

After leaving Rio de Janeiro we were at sea for two days en route to Buenos Aires. The onboard ship life was pretty normal for cruising. We probably didn't interact as much with other passengers since many of them did not speak English. Everyone on the crew spoke English as at least a second language and many of the crew seemed grateful to be speaking English as a very few understood a lot of Portuguese. The evening shows were good. I didn't attend all of them but they seemed to be designed for audiences that did not need to speak a specific language to appreciate. A couple of the shows featured American or English pop or rock tunes, Beatles, Elton John, etc..

The ship was in Buenos Aires for two days. My wife and I opted out of the touristy Tango shows (the rest of our family went). We chose to make a reservation at a restaurant that we picked from some of the guides online and had a wonderful meal of Argentinean steak. It turns out that most of the really nice restaurants in Buenos Aires are found in an area where the old docks were located which isn't very far from where the new docks are located and where are our ship was docked. The restaurant was probably about a mile from the ship and it took only a few minutes to get there by taxi. Taxis are inexpensive in Buenos Aires and the entire cost going and coming was about $12. No problem travelling at night by taxi. The restaurant, Cabana las Lilas, had a superb wine list and an excellent Sommelier to assist us in choosing an Argentinean Malbec as our wine for the evening. Buenos Aires apparently has better shopping values than the locations we visited in Brazil. We spent some time in their shopping district but also spend plenty of time touring the city. It is definitely a place to visit.

The only other stops on our cruise were a city in Uruguay called Punta del Este and a city in Brazil called Portobello. Punte del Este is apparently a resort destination for South Americans. It was interesting to see but perhaps the least interest interesting of the stops (in my opinion). In Portobello, Brazil we traveled to the city of Florianopolis which is a provincial capital and is the site of a major world surfing championship every year. It is an interesting relatively smaller city in Brazil. If you don't do your homework (I didn't) you might not know that São Paulo has almost 18 million people, Buenos Aries has 12 1/2 million people, and Rio de Janeiro has more than 10 million people. These are some of the largest cities in the world. When you visit these cities that you will certainly be struck by their size!

When we first looked at this trip it was during our summer (northern hemisphere). Since we live on the East Coast of the US it appeared that the time difference to Brazil was only one hour (they are east of us). When we got ready to leave it turned out there is a three hour time difference. This is because during our summer we are on daylight savings time and they are not but at the time of our trip in December they are on daylight savings time and we are not causing a two hour shift in the time difference from summer to winter - weird!

As a broad summary, I would say that our family thoroughly enjoyed this trip. The fact that there were few Americans or others speaking English might seem as a deterrent to some but really had little impact on our trip. Costa provided a separate on board representative for English-speaking passengers that held periodic meetings with us to discuss various issues on board the ship and procedures we needed to know about. She was actually a German woman but was very helpful. One limitation that, again, didn't really make a big difference to us was that Costa would only offer an English speaking guide on one of their excursions if there were 10 or more willing to go. In other words, some of the offered tours were not available with English-speaking guides. We discuss that at some of these meetings and took a vote and ultimately agreed on tours that most people wanted to take. By the way, there was not a Toga night on this cruise which we had been told was traditional on Costa cruises. New Years Eve was listed as a Gala/White evening (contrasted with Gala/Formal nights). We never did figure out exactly what they wanted us to wear but most on board wore casual clothes.

I think at this point we have been on virtually every European itinerary available and duplicated ports many times. We have done the Caribbean, Mexico, Alaska, etc. as well. South America offers new and fun territory to explore. Don't be put off by language or custom concerns. I suspect in a few years these ports will become very popular with American and European visitors.

I would be happy to respond to any specific questions or concerns.

Bon Voyage!

[G.M.T.]

Thank you, as you say, for one of the very rare South American cruise review.

 

I have a couple of questions:

 

What ship were you on and what state was it in?

 

Were there many Europeans on board?

 

How was the disembarkation in Sao Paulo?

 

I assume that, annoucements, menus, TODAY program were in the usual 5 languages.

 

Ron

PS: Costa only ever has Toga parties on their Caribbean and Caribbean/Transatlantic cruises, never seen the on their European cruises. :(

[wbarrister]

It was the Costa Victoria. This was our first Costa cruise so I can't compare this ship with others in the Costa line. Generally it was in good shape and well maintained. I think it had some recent servicing, no major upgrades but general maintenance. I don't tend to notice differences unless they are glaring. The casino was larger than typical, the bars and night spots were nice. Dining rooms typical. There was nothing to make me think we were in an old run down ship even though this ship was built in the mid 90's. We were on the brand new Emerald Princess last summer. It is certainly not equivalent but I would not have a problem sailing on the Victoria again.

 

I saw the census figures at one point but don't remember specifically. The next largest group to the Brazilians and Argentinians were Italians, with a number of people from Germany and Austria. Total Europeans however was probably less than 10%.

 

Disembarkation in Sao Paulo was fine. They didn't seem to be in any particular hurry to get us off the ship, we were in a group designated for 9:45 and we finally decided at about 10:30 to just leave. They didn't have any problem with that. We collected our bags in the usual fashion, went through a brief "customs" line (no inspection, etc.) and were out on the street where our hired guide was waiting for us in a few minutes.

 

Funny about the announcements. A lot of time they were in only one or two languages, I assume Portuguese and Spanish. All critical announcements were made in many languages however. We had a TODAY program in English but I do not know how many different ones they printed. I was impressed that the English version was customized for us and included specific notices of the English language meetings and the shore excursions that would take place in English. Menus were in English for us.

 

Hope that helps.

[B16SNE]

Thanks for your interesting review! As you know we are on the Victoria on its Transatlantic trip to Italy in March. We were always a bit apprehensive on the security issues in S.America but you have put our minds at rest, as you say you have to keep caution in any city. I love my steak too (my girlfriend doesnt) so will have to have lunch in the restaurant you mentioned. How would you recommend travelling in Rio? We want go up Sugarloaf mountain, but is it easier just to grab a cab for a tour or do you think it would be safer to get a Costa excursion for more money?

 

Steve

[wbarrister]

We used a private tour guide who was excellent! Her name was Lusi and her business can be found at http://www.tour-rio.com. Contact information and prices are shown on the website. She was also able to make the arrangements for lunch. If you chose the ship tour you will lose some flexibility and although taxis are possible, I felt better being with someone who knew the area and could provide local guidance. She is totally fluent in english. She took us to the Christ statue and to Sugarloaf before lunch and other areas after lunch but you could do it as you choose. My recollection is that the ship tour was US$122 per person (lunch included) so you can evaluate her cost against that. Also you could run into the problem of finding that the tour you want to go on is not offered in english by the ship (and you won't find out until the day of the tour!). Lusi took my 85 year old mother under her wing and found ways to get her on elevators and around crowds which was especially nice (and appreciated). She met us at the ship and returned us there without problem.

 

By the way, Porcao and most of the steak restaurants have extremely good sushi and sashimi as well as other non-beef items on the buffet, enough to satisfy even a non-steak eater like your girlfriend. She will be satisfied.

[Member]

Thanks for the review. Regarding the ship itself, can you tell me more about:

(1) Inside cabin/bathroom configuration;

(2) Room service breakfast menu and time period;

(3) Dance venues size and live music variety;

 

Thanks.

[commonsense2]

nice review. thanks.

[njs]

thanks for the great review and helpful suggestions and hints

another place to explore:D

[wbarrister]

Member,

 

My sister, DUROCE on this board, may be in a better position to answer your questions. She monitors this board and will see your questions.

 

Her children (young adults) had an inside cabin which I never saw. We were on deck 10 (and 9) in outside cabins. We didn't use room service for breakfast but, again, her kids may have. Finally, although I saw the inside of the casino a few times (to my economic regret!), I didn't pay much attention to the dance venues or music. My understanding is that the young ones spent a great deal of time in them and DUROCE may be able to share some of their experiences with you.

[abitaturbodog]

Great review! I've never considered taking a cruise to SA, but after reading your review, it might be a possibility in the future. I'm glad that the language difference didn't turn you off. Did you pick up any new words? My family is still using some Italian that we learned on our Mediterranea cruise last month.

 

Ciao!

[SeaByDri]

Thank you very much for your detailed report. My husband and I will be doing the same trip on Costa Victoria on the 01/22 and it was very nice to read your opinion on that ship. :)

As a brazilian, I was also very glad that you liked the South American cruise experience. Being in Rio de Janeiro is sometimes scary - and I would not recomend to anyone to carry jewelry or cameras around - but it is such a beautiful city that should not be missed.

Florianopolis, on the other hand, is very safe and the whole island where it is in has great beaches like "Jurerê" and "Mole" that are worth visiting.