Splendour of the Seas Brazil Review (December 27, 2014-January 4, 2015)

Hello everyone!

I don't normally post cruise reviews as I'm more of a lurker on the website, but having gotten off what is a pretty unique itinerary I thought I would post some thoughts, some pictures, and the compasses from the 8-night Splendour of the Seas cruise out of Santos, Brazil, to Porto Belo, Buzios, Rio, Angra Dos Reis, and Ihlabela, Brazil.

I traveled with my friend and roommate. We're women in our early 30s from Los Angeles. The idea for the trip came while my roommate and I were watching the World Cup in July. I’d had my eye on the New Year’s Eve Brazil cruise for a couple years, but had never seriously thought about going. On a whim, I checked prices, and although they were high, it was doable. Having cruised Royal Caribbean frequently in the past I was really excited for the cruise.

Stay tuned for a review of the New Year's Eve Brazil cruise!

Pre-Cruise Planning:

Everything fell into place after I checked the cruise price. The nonstop flight from LA to Sao Paulo was available for a reasonable amount of frequent flier miles on the day we needed and we were able to snag seats on the way back on the day we needed with a one stop flight. Hotels pre and post-cruise were available for really reasonable redemption rates with some of my hotel points. Royal Caribbean had a transfer for the two-hour trip to Santos for $25 and the hotel near the Sao Paulo airport had a free shuttle bus. I do a lot of travel planning, and was pleasantly surprised that in the course of a few hours we had the cruise, hotels, flights, and transportation all booked.

The one other thing that I had to get done before leaving on the trip was getting my tourist visa. I’m really fortunate to live less than two miles from the Brazilian consulate in LA, so I did not need to use a visa service and applied in person. The process is a bit tedious, but fairly straightforward. I filled out the form online and once that was done was able to make an appointment to drop off my application. When I scheduled the appointment in October the soonest one available was about 3 weeks out since the LA consulate only takes visa applications from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday-Friday. There are a bunch of documents required—passport, money order for the $160 fee, driver’s license to prove you live in the consular jurisdiction, completed visa form with a passport size photo glued to it, and flight information. The cruise information wasn’t required but I brought it anyway to have some proof of what I was doing there and the person I talked to attached it to the visa application. I was a little apprehensive based on reviews online of the consulate, but everyone was very friendly I was in and out in 10 minutes. I received a receipt to pick up my passport anytime between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. starting one week later. For the trip to pick it up I was also in and out within 10 minutes and received a 10-year multi-entry visa. If I were to sum up the Brazilian consulate in LA I’d say it was a brighter, friendlier version of the DMV.

More Pre-Cruise Planning:

There were plans to learn Portuguese that basically fell by the wayside. I probably learned about 50 words of Portuguese but as frequently happens, November and December were very busy at work, and alas we would have to rely on other people speaking English or Spanish. Preview: this wasn’t a problem at all.

The six months from the time we booked the cruise and actually went flew by. Soon enough, it was Christmas, and time to depart for Brazil.

Brazil is 6 hours ahead of LA this time of year. We had initially thought it would only be 4 hours off because that’s what the time difference was when we booked and all the other times I've gone to Argentina and Uruguay. One day I noticed the time difference was suddenly six hours. It took us a couple of minutes of trying to figure out what had changed to make it two hours different rather than one before we had the “duh” moment that the time changes work both ways—while we fell back in the US, Brazil had sprung forward.

I've subscribed. 😜👍

Thank you so much for doing this, I can't wait to see how you got on.

We are doing the transatlantic from Sao Paulo to Barcelona in April and its so difficult to find out anything about Splendour when its in Brazil. I'm already getting really excited about our first trip to South America and I know this will be interesting reading!

Julie

Looking forward to your review. We did a similar itinerary out of Santos a few years ago & thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hope you have some pictures of the ship as we will be on her in Oct

Great start!! Looking forward to your review!:)

Following... thank you!!! This one's in my plans with either RCL or X in the next couple of years. Can't wait to see port info and what you did pn excursions as well. :D

Sorry for the delay on this everyone! Work got in the way this week but I plan to keep going on this over the weekend.

Back at it here. Will get you all some pictures as well to make this a little more interesting.

Pre-Cruise Travel:

Thankfully our travel was uneventful. We left on Christmas night from LAX and landed in Sao Paulo the following afternoon. There was no line at immigration, our bags came quickly, and we took the free shuttle to our hotel.

Rather than staying in Sao Paulo we stayed at the Marriott near the airport in Guarulhos. While I love exploring and traveling, we knew we’d be really tired when we got in and figured that being near the airport would allow us to just go back to the airport the next morning to catch the Royal Caribbean transfer to Santos, which was the cheapest and seemingly easiest way to get to the ship the next morning. This worked out well for us, as I ended up having to do about a fair amount of work that evening anyway and we were able to enjoy free dinner and breakfast in the hotel in the concierge lounge thanks to my many nights in hotels this year for work. I was super-impressed with the variety of food and drinks available for both dinner and breakfast, and attempted to eat my weight in pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread). They even had a set up for making your own caipirinhas! Being boring that night, I stuck with some Brazilian beer.

The next morning we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch the Royal Caribbean transfer from Santos. We left around 10 and go there just as they were boarding a full transfer bus, and were instructed to wait inside. We ended up waiting about an hour before they had enough for another bus. There was a free hour of WiFi at the airport, so the time passed easily.

We loaded the bus and were off on our 2 hour trip to Santos. I’d tell about you about what I saw on the way, but I fell asleep pretty quickly into the trip and woke up to my roommate telling me we were in Santos. Apparently the route didn’t go through Sao Paulo proper and went through some cool winding sections with tunnels through some mountains. I'll take her word for it.

Boarding:

I’d read online that boarding in Santos can be chaotic and take awhile so I was prepared for the worst. There were 4 ships in port-the Splendour of the Seas, which we couldn’t actually see from where we got dropped off, as well as a MSC ship and two Pullmantur ships-the Zenith (former Celebrity ship) and the former Sovereign of the Seas, now called Sovereign. They ended up taking our checked bags directly from the transfer bus to the ship which was much appreciated given that we ultimately had to board a bus to get on the ship. They had a guide take us down to where we checked in which ended up being pretty efficient. We were directed to the Crown & Anchor diamond and above line and just had to wait for the next agent to be available.

Oddly, during the time we were waiting for the next agent, we had a person come up to us and try to direct us back to the other check in line, telling us that the line we were in was only for diamond and above. We were both confused since our boarding passes both showed the status on them and pointed to them. Turns out, some people we had ridden with on the transfer bus weren’t sure what the line we were in was for, but were apparently sure enough that we didn’t belong in it to flag someone over and try to remove us from the line. Sometimes you just wonder about certain people…

Anyway, after the brief digression we were checked in, had our security photos taken, and got in line for the boarding photo. I should note that everyone spoke English to us the entire way from the airport transfer to the lady directing us to check in area, and the check in agents. The photo line took a bit of time because it backed onto security. Once through security we boarded a bus and were on our way to the ship, which was a short drive away. By the time we got on board it was less than 30 minutes from pulling up to the port. All in all the experience was good.

Room:

We headed straight for our room when we got on board. We were in a corner aft balcony on deck 7-cabin 7634. We had originally booked in an ocean view, but I had been hoping to upgrade. Even up to a week before the cruise a balcony guarantee was running about $1000 per person cheaper than upgrading to a specific balcony cabin. As a result, nearly all that was left of the balconies were D1 balconies on the aft of the ship when I booked the guarantee for the upgrade about a week before sailing. We were assigned one of the D1 aft balconies on deck 6 within hours of upgrading, and I called and changed to 7634 that same day.

Part of the reason I asked for 7634 was that it was a known quantity and clearly had a large balcony. I’d found the Youtube video below which gives great idea of how large the cabin and balcony were.

We had the Crown & Anchor welcome gift waiting for us, which this time was a bag of shortbread, which I thought was actually quite good, and two diet cokes and two waters. After dropping our bags off, we headed to the Park Cafe for a late lunch which had a limited menu for embarkation day and then the Windjammer to grab some more late lunch and then explored the ship.

Muster Drill:

Next up was the muster drill. They made announcements prior to the drill in Portuguese first, then English, and sometimes German and Spanish next. The drill itself was outside without ilfe jackets, and was just conducted in Portuguese and English. It was pretty quick and relatively painless. Shortly after the drill we sailed from Santos, bound for our first port of Porto Belo.

The Rest of Day 1

The rest of night 1 was a lot of fun. My roommate got her bag shortly before the muster drill and I got mine shortly after. I'm not normally a pack the kitchen sink type of person, but my roommate and I had a lot of clothes with us on this trip. On Brazil flights, American Airlines does not have the normal 1 checked bag/50 lbs per person limit without a fee, and instead allows you to check 2 bags up to 70 lbs per person in the economy cabin for free. We went with what I thought was a reasonable 1 checked bag a bit over 50 lbs a person, but there were a lot of clothes. However, the storage in the cabin was more than adequate despite the overpacking.

After unpacking we got ready for dinner and pre-dinner drinks, since we had first seating, which on this cruise was 7:30. The diamond lounge opened at 6:30 and had free drinks all the way until 10:00 pm, which was when second seating dinner started. From 6:30-10:00 pm we also had the 3 free vouchers for Diamond and above members that we could use at any bar aside from the dining facilities. The Diamond Lounge I don't think ever had any more than 15 people at a time in it, but we met some great people from various countries, and would usually spend 30-45 minutes there each night before dinner.

The person taking care of the Diamond Lounge, Amanda, turned out to be the group event coordinator on board, but apparently there weren't any groups on board for this cruise. As a result she ended up covering the diamond lounge, which hadn't apparently had a concierge for many cruises.

On the way to dinner we used one of our vouchers to get some wine for dinner at the Schooner Bar. I cannot say enough good things about all the bartenders that worked there. They were all incredibly friendly and helpful and we ended up spending a lot of time there throughout the cruise.

At dinner we were expecting to meet table mates, but were assigned a table for 2 right by the door. I think we somehow must have gotten assigned a table very late as our wait staff didn't seem to have any info on us--for example they asked our names a few days in. Our waiters were very good and got everything to us very promptly, they just seemed surprised to have people sitting at that table.

Apologies for the digression but I wanted to note the incredible efforts of all the staff on board to accommodate people speaking various languages. My understanding is that was as we expected, 85-90% on board were from Brazil. As a result, people we didn't know would generally speak to us in Portuguese first. It was amazing though to see how quickly people attempt to accommodate you. As with all of the staff we met on board, our waiters spoke great English. Within minutes of sitting down to dinner the first night, the waiter from another table heard us speaking English and came by and told us that if we needed any help with anything, he was from the US but spoke Portuguese, and checked in with us every night. The Maitre 'D in our section was from Mexico and initially greeted us in Portuguese, and we ended responding in Spanish and then English. From then on, he would greet us even when being seated at lunch, in Spanish and English. Literally the only issue we ever had with not getting something in the right language was that our welcome letter to the diamond lounge was in Portuguese. It's close enough to Spanish that it wasn't a problem, but Amanda, the group coordinator on board was completely horrified when we offhandedly mentioned that our letter was in Portuguese. In our minds this was not an issue at all, and part of the we're in Brazil experience, but I thought it was indicative of how the aim for all groups on board is to be inclusive. I also can't imagine being a karaoke host that has to do the whole show in 3 different languages but she pulled it off. Major kudos.

Also, this extended to fellow passengers. Everyone on board was really friendly and would try to speak to us in English, Spanish, whatever was necessary to get the point across. I don't think I've ever met a friendlier group of people aboard a cruise ship than the Brazilian passengers on this cruise.

After dinner we went back to the Schooner Bar for some drinks, met some other passengers and eventually ended up in the nightclub. As is probably expected, things start late on Brazil cruises. The club opened *early* the first night, which meant midnight, and it ended up closing around 2:30 or 3, which was probably the earliest it closed all cruise. We met many nice Brazilians and all in all, it was a great first day of a cruise.

Preview for the rest of the cruise before I sign off for the night:

Great day in Porto Belo followed by a nasty storm that severely interrupted the tendering process. A nice sea day including formal night festivities. A picturesque day in Buzios. The main draw of the cruise: New Year's Eve in Rio, including visiting Sugarloaf, a Churrascaria right off of Copacabana beach, a visit to Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer, and ringing in the New Year with fireworks, champagne, and the ship's horn overlooking Copacabana Beach as the second of nine(!) cruise ships just off the beach. A New Year's Eve party in the nightclub that didn't start until 2:30 am according to the Cruise Compass and went until 6am. A New Year's Day boat parade in Angra Dos Reis before watching my alma mater win the Rose Bowl. Another much needed day at sea that was so hot and humid it actually cleared the pool deck of people. A nice day in beautiful Ilhabela before heading back to Santos.

Also, all the compasses which I just need to compress down before posting.

Enjoying all the detail very much, I couldn't believe it when you said you had 7634, we have the same cabin for the TA. I've already seen the Youtube video too, did you take any other photos, particularly of the balcony. Did you get much sun or is it mostly shaded?

Looking forward to the Rio post as we are going there too and looking forward to it.

Thanks,

Julie

Many thanks for the review, My partner and I along with Julie are on the April Cruise, this was very interested and well written, thank you

We are also doing the TA in April and enjoying your review -

We are with the 3 previous posters on the T/A. This has been SO enjoyable and easy to read. An excellent review. Looking forward to gaining a lot more knowledge about the ship.

Thanks for the interesting review. Great to hear how friendly the Brazilians are. Can't wait to get aboard now!

Apologies for the delay in responding. What a coincidence on the room! I have some pictures of the balcony but am having issues compressing them enough to post. Feel free to email me at kbordentravel at gmail dot com and I will send you all of the pictures that I have.

Enjoying all the detail very much, I couldn't believe it when you said you had 7634, we have the same cabin for the TA. I've already seen the Youtube video too, did you take any other photos, particularly of the balcony. Did you get much sun or is it mostly shaded?

 

Looking forward to the Rio post as we are going there too and looking forward to it.

 

Thanks,

 

Julie

Thanks Hailzmick, kernow, voyager70, tidygirl, drarill, Hoopster95, southwestie, Esahuma, twoontheisle, and VirginCruiser II for all of the very kind comments!

Starting to sound like a broken record here, but I really am hoping to post faster about posting in the future. Unexpectedly finding a new apartment on Saturday that means I'm moving Friday combined with a big work meeting this morning made that difficult.

Day 2: Porto Belo, Brazil

Late Morning/Early Afternoon on the Ship:

Thanks to the late night out the night before we didn’t have an early morning. We got into Porto Belo around 9:00 a.m. with tenders starting around 9:30 a.m. The last tender back was 5:30 p.m. We didn’t have any big plans for Porto Belo other than going to the beach. Based on my research that seemed to be the thing to do, so a late start wasn’t a big deal. Also, based on the weather forecast we expected some serious thunderstorms. It turns out the weather was glorious while we were there, but quickly turned for the worse later.

We got up and went to the Windjammer to grab lunch which was good. The food selection was enjoyable and diverse. It had the normal salad bar, carved meats, prepared salads, fruits, burgers, fries, and pizza, as well as the various entrees, and then a Brazilian food section and an area with various snacks like hummus and pita, olive tapenade, etc. I personally enjoyed the fresh papaya everyday.

After lunch we went and exchanged money from US Dollars to Brazilian Reals at the Guest Relations desk. Normally I would use an ATM as you get a much more favorable exchange rate, but I had some issues getting my card to be recognized with a couple of the ATMs I tried and the ATM on the ship did not dispense anything besides USD. We lost some money with the less than favorable rate, but had the proper currency.

We then headed to get off the ship on Deck 1, as every port on this cruise besides Rio was a tender port. The tender ride was the farthest of any of the rides all week, and the operation was the poorest that day. We waited about 20 minutes for a tender to come back then had a 15-20 minute tender ride on top of that. Our tender wasn’t full, and the numbers I saw when getting off showed that only half the ship was ashore. Based on how busy the pool deck was on board when we got off early afternoon, this wasn’t surprising.

Time In Port:

When we got off in Porto Belo we walked down the pier and found a gigantic map that had various landmarks pointed out, mainly beaches. We decided to walk up the coast and find a beach. We ended walking a mile or two with our feet in the water, spent a bit of time there, then turned around and headed back. I will say the beaches were pretty full, especially in the shady areas, but the walk itself was lovely.

We turned around and headed back to the pier area. There were a couple small restaurants, including a pizza place where we ended up sharing some beer. Compared to LA, prices were good--it was $6 for a large bottle that had two beers. We had spoken English when getting seated to each other so they sent for a guy that worked at the shop next door who spoke English to take our order. This probably wasn't necessary since "[insert brand of beer] por favor" was within my limited Portuguese vocabulary, but I appreciated the gesture. We spent some time there, enjoying the cold beers and the fact that after discussing the possibility of the trip for months, here we were, in Brazil.

Eventually we settled up and headed back to the tender line which seemed long, but not unmanageable at the time. It ended taking about a half an hour, with 3 tenders running at this time. The ride back was uneventful, and we went and spent some time on the balcony when we got back. This was the longest wait on both ends for tendering that we had all week.

Night 2:

We got back on the ship and spent some time on our balcony. When we got back, the weather was as nice as it had been in port. That quickly changed, and a storm moved in. Unfortunately, there were tenders on the water at the time the storm came, and they were unable to both tie back up at the pier or unload passengers at the ship. We ended up talking to a few different groups of people who were on those tenders and they said they were on them for well over an hour, that some people freaked out, but that everything was ultimately ok even if the experience was unpleasant. One thing though was that apparently an issue was that the child life vests on the tender were different and harder to put on the normal child life vests on the ship, as lots of people put life vests on children given the heavy rains. I'm also glad I wasn't one of the people stranded at the pier as the cover was not good. We left well after our scheduled departure time due to the delay in tendering.

Like the night before we went to the Diamond Lounge before dinner, dropped by the Schooner bar to get some pre-dinner wine, then headed to dinner. Our waiters greeted us and served us very promptly this evening. One thing that was surprising to me was that the menus in the main dining room were the same as the standard Royal Caribbean dinner menus. I had sailed in the Baltic this summer, and they had altered the menus somewhat significantly, so it surprised me that this cruise had the normal menus given that it was billed as a cultural immersion cruise.

After dinner we headed to see the production show. This one was called "Nas Ondas do Rock." It was a production show geared to the Brazilian audience. The main issue with the show was that there were no sets dedicated for the show, so while there was dancing, singing, etc., it was a bit harder to follow without some sort of theming that was obvious from sets or the songs.

After the show we headed to karaoke. There were very few people there since it was during second dinner seating from 10-11:30, but the staff were very enthusiastic, and brought various officers along to judge. They had song books in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and German, perhaps more. The English one left off my main karaoke standbys (no one got to hear my mediocre Hit With Your Best Shot or I Love Rock and Roll), but there were hundreds of songs. My roommate sang as well as about 12 others, and lots of staff songs to fill in when no one had signed up, but everyone had a good time.

After karaoke, it was off to the night club for some dancing. Again, the nightclub dancing opened "early" at midnight, though most people didn't show up until at least one or so, and I eventually called it a night around 2.

Next Up: Day 3: At sea. Good food, relaxation, the first formal night, the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party, and nightlife at sea.