Cape Town to Rio De Janerio

[rabbitneedles]

Hi
i'm considering booking the 2010 December Cape Town To Rio cruise I just have a few questions if anyone has been on this in the past. What is the weather and temprature likely to be & Will there be any formal nights.?I've phoned rssc but they didnt know.Also they are offering free shore excursions If I book by 31st May .As there are only a few ports of call anyway I am not sure if this is a good enough reason to book so far in advance.Any help would be great
thank you
Sue

[wripro]

First of all, I can't think of any two better cities to start and end a cruise than Cape Town and Rio. Since it will be summer in both those places I imagine your weather will be warm, even enroute. It's a great itinerary if you like sea days. Not sure about the shore excursion value. I thought they were going to continue to offer them in 2010 so there might be no rush to book now if you don't want to. Who knows what else they'll offer later on.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I too believe that free excursions are here to stay, at least for 2010, maybe forever, so there's no big rush unless there are other incentives. I'm surprised they are even saying that the free excursions will disappear, that's weird.

Yes, there will probably be a couple of formal nights at least.

[Grothj]

We did the same crossing on the Navigator last year (2008). It was warm the entire passage. Cape Town was very pleasant, warm but not too hot. Rio was hot - we've never been there when it wasn't!

There aren't many stops but the several we did were interesting. Wallis Bay, Nambia - we did the plane fly over of the dunes. Quite a site and well worth it. St. Helena is a very interesting island where Napolean died. We had a private excursion in a topless old bus that was lots of fun. One of the people on the trip found it and booked it. I believe it was for about 12-13 people. Crossing usually do have formal nights. I think we had 3 but I'd have to look it up to make sure. Cape Town deserves at least a couple of days before the cruise. If you have never been to Rio, a couple of days post-cruise is also worth it!

I'd say go ahead and book so you can have your selection of suites...you can also cancel within 120 days with only the $100 penalty if you don't rebook something else.

[rabbitneedles]

Thanks for advice they dont seem to be offering any other incentive at moment so I might wait a few months .It seems the offers available on the uk site are not always the same as us site. (our deposits are non refundable ) so its probably best not to book too early.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Non-refundable deposits? Oh, poor you, what a drag. Don't blame you for waiting.

[rabbitneedles]

Managed to find a uk travel agent online that has given me a good discount so i've taken the plunge and booked now. :o Regent gave us the exchange rate of $1.95 to the pound which is great value at the moment. Any info on cabin 850 grade F would be good,

Thank You

Sue