abbydancer2003

Hi. Sorry for the late reply. Real life has interferred in a big way, but I've got an hour til I leave for the airport, so here goes. The picture shows the locket, plus one of the charms. The pen is there to give you a sense of size. It's a giveaway to get you into the Effy store. Usually, the locket is in your room and there's a flyer (for lack of a better term), with a list of the charms and when you can get them. Each is available for an hour a day, usually 10-11 am or 7- 8 pm, depending on schedule. I often ignore and leave the locket, but sometimes I do it for fun.

Hi. I'm rather late to this, as I started reading on Saturday in Newark airport. I just finally finished reading (yesterday was my mom's memorial gathering and that took all day). I have a few comments. 1. The room, We were on the Summit at the same time in a Sky Suite, and it seems to me they made the room less practical from the pre-revoluitionized Infinity. They took out part of the closet to make the bench thing, and eliminated the grab bars in the way too high tub. And does Ms. Hoppen have a thing against actual shelving? We ended up putting the desk chair on the balcony and moving a balcony chair in. 2. When you described your DW's bruschetta in Tuscan, I'm pretty sure she was given the buratta cheese salad, as that matches exactly what I got when I ordered that. This last cruise I did order the bruschetta, and it was a grilled slice of bread with olives, etc on top. (Didn't love either one). 3. December 63 - you briefly mentioned them. Were they on this cruise? Thanks for an enjoyable read. I will be updating mine again, probably today.

Thank you all. I appreciate all your comments, very much. Here's the next sea day Summit Day 3 - Sea Day 2 - Friday 1 We were up around 8 today, our second full day and second of the two pre-port sea days. We ordered some coffee from our butler. When he arrived, we noticed he had nowhere to put it. There was no little table in the room. On both the Summit and previously on the Infinity, there had been one. So Pratip placed the coffee on one of the camp chairs at the back of the bed and came back with a table. Apparently, it’s supposed to be there. This was my view enjoying the coffee. We did finish getting ready in time for breakfast, so we went to Luminae. First, I stopped at Al Baccio for an almond croissant. There was a small line, but Pratip was there, and he asked what I wanted. When I told him, he went over to the staff and quickly got me three. When we arrived at Luminae I put one of the croissants on my bread plate, and gave one to Mema (assistant waiter) and one to Monick. I had on of my usuals, scrawled eggs with cheese. Monick brought it, and we both noticed it didn’t have cheese, so she took it back and tried again. (This will become a recurring theme on this cruise). The corrected version. After breakfast I stopped at the Effy store for the charm of the day. Occasionally, I do fill the lockets. The salesman there was nice enough to give me the ones I missed yesterday, and two of each. So, since I have two lockets in the room, I’ll do one for one of my nieces. Today, we’re meeting Arie and Cheryl to play Catan this morning. We met that at the Oceanview. His base game has a lot of add ins so today we added another one. We’re now playing with 3 or 4. And, as usual, Arie won. We chatted with them for a while and then went to lunch. It took a little while to order but we were in no hurry and we like it when the room empties out. I started with the Bibb lettuce salad, always good, and then ordered my “butterflied” half Luminae burger. Glen ordered the turkey gyro, which was made totally wrong. Instead of tziki and hummus there was curry or mustard. Gary, who was at the table near us reported the same thing. For dessert I had the coconut panna cotta. It was pretty good, but I’m not sure I’d order again. After lunch I went to the casino to meet Jenny and Charlie to plan our after port calls slot pull. We found the casino host and he agreed to provide some prizes. We then tried a couple of machines, and picked the same one that we’d used on the Infinity. It’s located in the anteroom of the casino so lots of room for people. I did try it and another one, and ended up about a dollar ahead, so I cashed out. After that, I went to the retreat sundeck for a while. It was kind of windy, but nice. At around 5, we dressed and I went to Friday night services. I ran into Arie and Cheryl on the way, so talked to them for a bit. The services had 4 people, so we did a very quick one - a couple of blessings, ate the bread and wine, and called it done. On the way back, I ran into Jenny and Charlie, so I sat with them for a little while. Once back in the room, my sister did a FaceTime with us, so we talked to her, all of my nieces (two are in California with her, and the third was on FaceTime on her sister’s phone from Romania, where she’s doing a college program) and my mom. It was nice talking to everyone. Since it was formal night, we got reserved seating in the theater. The show tonight was Life, and I’ve seen it before. It’s OK, but just a collection of songs. The cast however, was good, so that was nice. After the show, we went to the Captain’s Club Welcome event. Arie and Cheryl were there with a table for us, and the Dance band was playing. We talked to a couple of officers in the way in, and danced a bit. After the presentation of most traveled people, and a couple of thank you speeches the band continued, so we danced a bit more. I also found Clare, who is the HR director. She’s a friend from our 2021 trips, so it was nice talking to her and introducing her to Glen. Finally, at about 8:45 we went to dinner. I started with a spinach salad and had the lamb from Blu for my main. For dessert I had the mascapone cheesecake, which is always good and confuses people who order it for the first time. From there it was back to the room and calling it a night.

Hi all, I was going to update tonight, but have to call my sister and then going to bed early. To update you all, my mom passed away yesterday (sleeping so not chocking to death as she feared), so I've been dealing with some of that during my posting time. (Also have this weeks class assignment, but I will finish that tomorrow for sure). I will get a post out tomorrow and try to do two a day for the last 3 days of the cruise. My friends here on the ship have been great.

Thanks, but I used to teach Unix, so this class is for fun (and review in case I want to ever take Red Hat up on their offer to teach for them if I get the certifications on my own.) We are too. Glen can teather either his phone or Ipad, so will use Ipad if he's leaving it in the room. I don't know why the concierge on the Infinity said what she did.

Summit Day 2 Sea Day Thursday 1 We were up in time for breakfast today. Before going, we put out our fist bag on laundry. Needless to say, we were, thanks to our friends, nowhere near 30 items. Before we left, though, we asked Pratip to bring a second laundry bag for a pressing of his jacket. After that, we arrived at Luminae just before they closed. I started with: (pretty boring, I know) And pancakes with blueberries. Good, but there is too many. (And had my usual side of bacon. Pretty good on this ship). After that we went to the retreat lounge. I have a class project due on Sunday, and because of what the class is (Linux for those who know - if not, don’t worry about it - I only said it for the curious) I had a second laptop with me. I put the internet on that, and worked that for a while. I took a break to go to the casino, and use the restroom. No water. I thought I just couldn’t get those sinks to work, so I went every restroom on deck 4. No water in any. So I went back to the room, which doesn’t have an automatic sink. No water there either, so I guess the water was out. It took about an hour all told to come up. At some point during all this Conner gave us new room cards. Apparently, they are for the Aqua suites, and they just came in yesterday. He did say to call them if we try to use our Aqua perks and they don't take it. After doing the first part of my project, I dropped the laptop off, and the next stop was lunch. I started with the Frissie lettuce salad with poached eggs and lardons. The egg is hiding under the lardons and there are pickled shallots. I’m not a fan of the lettuce, but I’m thinking next time, I’ll look up a salad Lyonnaise, and see if I can switch the lettuce, since lardons were great. For my entree I had the usual day 2 steak, and for dessert I had my favorite - white chocolate mousse with balsamic etc. Still pretty At some point I got a text from Arie about today’s games. We agreed to meet upstairs to play Splendor and Fluxx. We did two Splendor and one Fluxx, and and then I went to Al Baccio with them. I did see Maureen there, who is a Zenith member who seems to like the same cruises I do, since this is the 4th one together. It was nice to say hello. Around 4:45 I headed back to the room to get ready for dinner and the officers Soiree in the Retreat Lounge. There, we met a few officers, and then talked to Gary & Susan, who were the people Beth and I met in 2021 on this ship. A little while after they headed out the the Chef’s Table dinner, Connie brought the captain by, and we had a nice chat about our time on the Infinity last month, and about our amazing visit to Valparaiso. Once that completely broke up, we danced to the party band, and then went to Cellar Masters to listen to the solo guitarist do a Beatles set. We didn’t love it, so we went back and listened to another set of the party band. After that dinner. I started with the baked brie from Blu, which still looks a little more fried, but this was pretty good. It was the best of the 3 baked bries from Blu that I’ve had this year. I had a veal chop with polenta from the main dining room, which was decent, and it had polenta. I finished with the hazelnut cake from Luminae. The cake was OK, but the gelato was really good. After that we went back to the room. I called my sister, because earlier, I’d had a text from her that my mom had been sent home for home hospice care and it was a S** show - she was home but her meds were not there, and there were a few other things. By the time I called, it had been straightened out, and mom was on care with meds, etc. Two of my three nieces, a couple of cousins and and a good friend of my mom’s were also there. (A cast of thousands). So we put in The Two Towers and watched that for a bit before bed. Tomorrow another sea day.

Yup. On the Infinity last month, our premium internet package included 4 devices at a time. We were told it was fleetwide for both premium and basic internet. Apparently, it's not, since if I want to go to my laptop, I have to switch to that device. Hope that helps.

Summit Day 1 - Wednesday 1 Today is the start of the cruise. Adventure part 2 begins. We were up by 7 am and had left over sausage and pancakes using paper plates, so there wouldn’t be dishes to do. After breakfast we finished packing everything, and put the bags in the hall, and then moved them to the driveway at 8:30. A few minutes later the driver arrived in his 7 seat SUV. He also had a luggage hitch thing where my bag went. The only issue is that it’s soft sided, so the front is a little caved in, because he had to tightly secure it. The drive took just over 2 hours, including a brief stop at a Dunkin Donuts for the restroom. I wanted to get a donut but there was a very slow moving line, so we passed. We arrived at the port area around 10:45. The ship is there. We pulled up around 10:50, still within our 10:30 window, but barely. We took our bags to a porter, who noticed we had suite tags, so he moved our bags to the suite drop off outside. We were then asked to wait for someone to get us. It took about 5 or 7 minutes. We were led to the suite area where we showed our passports etc. We could have gone into their small lounge or go directly to board. I did see a crew member in there who looked like it could be one of my favorite concierges, Connie. We however, chose to go onboard. Note that it was just after 11 and they were doing general boarding. Usually Princess in LA doesn’t board until well after 11. We went up the escalator and joined a fairly long line. Midway down the line there was a left and right side - regular and suites. We took the suite side. Probably saved us 3 minutes. The whole line took 10-15 minutes. The person who put us on the elevator told us to turn left once on the ship, which would have taken us to the retreat lounge. However the person at the gangway said to go right, which takes us to Rendezvous, which is our muster station. Since that’s the way to our room, we went that way, checked in and dropped our stuff. It was about 11:30 by this time. I looked at the cards in the room for our team, and, while I don’t know the butler or room steward, the retreat concierges are Connie and Conner (cute, huh?). So the person I saw in the terminal was indeed Connie. We put our stuff in the safe, and then headed out to let our room steward finish the room. First stop was Al Baccio to say hi to Arie and Cheryl, and then we headed to the lounge. We met Conner, and he helped us arrange dinner at Tuscan at 7’30 tonight for the first night discount. Arie & Cheryl said 7:30 at the latest. Apparently in the computer 8pm was the earliest, but Conner was able to get us 7:30. We sat down, and I recognized one of the bar people. She’s been on the Equinox, so I think that’s where. I asked her for a latte, and she said she’d go to Al Baccio for it. When she brought it down, she had me open it. That’s the logo for the retreat. Turns out on this ship, you get one device, and you can’t concurrently use your loyalty internet, as you could on the Solstice. Nor do you get four devices as on the Infinity. So it’s back and forth. At around 12, Conner left and Connie came in. She was busy answering questions but eventually, as she walked people out she saw me. (I’m sure she knew I was there). Of course we hugged. (Glen’s comment later was why do people keep hugging you?). She also told us Luminae was full, so we should wait for lunch, which we were going to do anyway. A couple came in soon after. She was in a scooter, and I realized I knew them from our 5 day 2021 cruise. It was nice speaking with them. For future reference they are Gary & Susan. At 1pm we headed to Luminae. It was crowded still and somewhat loud. A server came up to us and I realized she was our assistant waiter from 2021. Her name is Monick, and she’s very nice. I hope she stays our server. I started with my usual starter, the pea soup. And the lunch sized (sort of steak). For dessert, I asked about ice cream, and she said just the basic chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. So I ordered the peach colitafores, which I don’t love. During the meal, Monick came back and said they also had cherry brandy and butter pecan, so I switched to the cherry. (No wonder they promoted her). After that we went back to the room, and our luggage arrived, as does Pratip, our butler. The room is similar to the Infinity, but has a few flaws. For example, the mirror is mounted so low that the sink can’t get to full hot without bumping into it. Also, they replaced one section of closet with a bench with two small cabinets underneath it. And the part of the closet with shelves has fewer shelves and drawers. And the TV faces the bed, and can’t be rotated to face the couch. We had a cruise critic meeting at 3:30, so we went up for that. We also had a 4:00 helipad for captains club members. So I figured I’d go to the CC thing first and then to the helipad. There weren’t many CC people but I did find Jennifer and Charlie, friends from the Silhouette. We agreed to go to the helipad together, and I texted Glen to meet us there. We met Arie and Cheryl as well, so we watched the sail away from Miami, We passed a Royal and a Norwegian ship on the way out. After the helipad, we went back to the room. Earlier, an IT guy was there there to attach our DVD player, but didn’t have the cables. We do, but we didn’t know he was coming. So our butler called him back and he set it up. Mostly what we needed was him to attach the HDMI cable, since the TV doesn’t move away from the wall. To use it, we had to open our 15 foot extension cord and run it across the room from the desk. At 7pm we decided to go to the Rendezvous lounge and listen to their recorded ballroom music. It was instrumental arrangements of old standards, much as it had been on the Eclipse last summer. Not really danceable. At 7:30, we were meeting Arie and Cheryl at Tuscan. They arrived just before we did. We ordered the antipasto board fo share, as everyone does. I had the Kalameta bruschetta and Caesar salad to start, and today I had the skirt steak with the gorgonzola and peppercorn sauces. For dessert, I had their strawberry shortcake dish, which was very nice. Glen had tiramisu. After dinner, we went back to Rendezvous and listened to the dance band, Ocean Beats. They were good and played good dance music. They’re from Buenos Aires. Following a set there, we called it a night. Tomorrow is the first of 6 sea days.

I think it does. We have premium and it's generally been good.

Summit Day 1 Tuesday 1 Today is our last full day here. Like yesterday, we had breakfast - today it was scrambled eggs. We ate at their very nice kitchen island, because the mega Catan board was set up on the table. Arie said it’s a pain to take down, so maybe we’ll play again. After breakfast, Cheryl started doing laundry and we took a walk around their complex. As we walked along the lake, we saw the fake geese with a real bird sitting on one. Further along, we saw an interesting bird resting along the sidewalk. After the walk, we continued laundry, as they offered, and we accepted, to let us do a load. By doing that, we will have enough cloths to not be out on the day a ship load started on day 2 would arrive. Since the Catan board was still set up, we decided to play a game. Before that, though, I decided to look at air for my second cruise to Sydney (b2b Sydney to Vancouver). It’s a lot and a very long way. Someone suggested that we get on the preceding cruise Singapore to Sydney. I looked and I can get a Sky Suite. I have a holding book on board cruise, so before we played I called and booked that. Now we’re b2b2b. I also thought I’d booked air, but apparently I have to put the full deposit down. Our plan was to play part of a game and the go visit the St. Lucie locks, run a couple of errands and then have a late lunch, and snack for dinner. However, played whole game and I finally won (never won on the Silhouette in October/November). First stop was a Circle K for them to get their daily free drink. (Apparently some kind of membership gives you a soft drink a day). Then we went to the locks. It appeared they weren’t operating today. After observing them, we went to the end of the road to see if we could see the lower river. It turns out there’s a visitors center there, so we looked at some of the exhibits. I got a good sense of the reason for the locks. They apparently connect various waterways, and let boaters go across Florida at Lake Okeechobee. Saves a lot of time since they don’t have to go around the bottom. Also, the floats in the picture are removable, and moved when they have enough boats to go around. Here’s the lower end from the visitors center. Following that, we headed to a drive through bank for Arie to get small bills for the trip. And after that, we headed to Flannagans, one of their favorite restaurants for a late lunch/early dinner. It turned out that their lunch specials run until 4, and we were there just before 4, so we all had them. Glen and I did burgers, Arie and Cheryl had wings. After that, back to their house to pack, and watch a little more Lord of the Rings while snacking. We’re leaving fairly early tomorrow, so they said goodnight around 9:30. I called my sister - I guess they are sending mom home for home hospice on Thursday. Tomorrow we board.

Day 29/30 - BA to Frankfort to SF - Saturday 5/Sunday 5 The breakfast buffet closes at 11, so we set an alarm for 10. Of course we were up by 8, so we got dressed and went to breakfast. Today, I asked for an omelette, since the eggs they offer on the buffet are very runny. It took a little while but I got it. It was good. Wish I’d known about that the first time. After that, back to the room to finish packing. Before we go, a picture of the view from our room. Our ride was coming at 12:30, and it was only 11:40, So, I decided to go for a walk. I did manage to find some Alfajore cookies (Dulce de leche filled cookies). I bought a small box of 6. The store was next door to Starbucks, so I looked for a local Starbucks card, but they didn’t have any. After that I went back to the room, and 10 minutes later there was a call from the driver (about 12:15). He said not to rush. So at about 12:20 we headed down, and met our driver, Diego. He spoke English so we had some nice conversations on the way to the airport. He pointed out a few things such as the Congress building and new Shantytowns. Overall, a very pleasant drive. We arrived at the airport around 1 and the Lufthansa counters were open. After checking our luggage, we went through security. They were patting down everyone and it was a pain. Next stop after security was immigration.(We did that coming in the first time and when leaving on the cruise, but never getting off the cruise). That caused no problem and they agent who did the immigration just kept saying “bye bye”. Maybe that’s the only English she knows. We walked through the duty-free shops, found the lounge and hung out there for a while. I did take a walk through the terminal, and found this cute play structure. At 3:50 boarding began. We walked to the gate and ended up at the line for group 3. (We’re in group 2). We asked, and we were in the wrong gate area. We were at the official gate - gate 9, but group 1 and 2 were at gate 8. In any case, we were on quickly and went to the upstairs, since it was a 747. Glen said this might be the last time we fly a 747, since they’re starting to be decommissioned. Before take off, I enjoyed a mango orange juice, and I added a bit of champagne to make a mimosa I guess. It was nice. I settled in and watched A Man Called Otto. It was quite good. I had dinner, and then half watched a Harry Potter movie and tried to sleep. At some point, the flight attendants gave us chocolate bunnies. Several hours later we arrived in Frankfort. We were at an A gate and our next flight was United out of a Z gate. Getting to Z involved a lot of walking, a train to the Z terminal and a secondary security screening. We eventually found the Z gates, and the lounge. We had about an hour before boarding, so we stopped in the lounge for a bit. When it was time to go we headed towards our gate. On the way, we had to stop for a document check for US flights. Once on the plane we settled in. The flight was supposed to leave at 1:30. At 1:15 the captain said they were just finalizing paperwork and we’d be on our way. 1:30 came and went. Apparently there was a minor mechanical issue. A lens cover had fallen off something in the landing gear. After several “leaving soon” we finally left 2.5 hours late. The flight was uneventful, other than everything was served on one tray, including the nuts they give you at the beginning of the flight. We barely saw the flight attendants until breakfast. I did try to sleep some. Customs in SF was quick, our bags came quickly and other than some crazy guy in the parking van (we were picking up our car left by my sister) swearing at us the whole way, it was easy. We got home about 8, left my mom a message and went to bed. And with that, I’m done. I thank you all for your patience and for following along with me. I’m now on the Summit and blogging that. Thank you.

I haven't abandoned this. Once again, taking a class, and had a major assignment due tomorrow. I just finished it, so I'll start updating this tomorrow. My next assignment is not due until after the cruise, so I can do the reading for it between updates.

Day 28 Iguazu to BA. Friday 4 Today, we go back to BA to go home tomorrow. As part of our tour with Edson, he is taking us to the airport. We really don’t need to be at the airport much before noon, but checkouts are at 10. At about 9, we got packed up (fairly easy with one small bag - the electronics take the longest actually) and called the lobby for a pickup. The golf cart soon arrived. He dropped us at the restaurant, and then took the bags to the lobby. There was a breakfast buffet which was pretty good and pretty standard. After breakfast, I headed to the restroom and when I came out, Glen was gone. A couple minutes later he came to get me and said Edson was in the lobby. The bags were in the car and we headed back to town to pick up Sam and Kathleen. They joined us just after 10, and we headed to a different place for coffee, since we didn’t have to go to the airport for an hour. As we drove to pick up S&K, I realized the distance was a little further than I thought, so I was glad we stayed in, especially since my knee still hurts. Edson dropped us and then went to get gas for the car. The restaurant was a bit confusing - as there was a cashier, a number system and then a second counter for latte, etc. Eventually I figured it out and managed to get an expresso. I gave it to Glen and tried again. Edson came back and helped me get a latte. Kathleen had hot chocolate, but Sam gave up and got something from the Subway across the street. They told us about their dinner, and I was even more glad we did what we did. Apparently they had a good meal at one of the nearby cafes with outdoor seating, but there were kids trying to sell things and dogs trying to get their food, and apparently somebody tried to steal Sam’s Diet Pepsi. Overall, we made the right choice. We stayed there chatting until about 11:30, and then went to the airport. It took about 1/2 hour. Fortunately, Edson could drop us off. We bid him a fond farewell (he’d been a great guide) and entered the airport. Once again, not very busy, We quickly got our boarding passes, went through security and settled to wait by the gate. We were once again in group 4, so I figured out that Aerolinus Argentinas boards back to front. The flight was onetime and completely uneventful. We were in row 5 with an empty middle seat so it was pleasant. Once arriving at AEP, we exited and, after a restroom stop, headed out to the meeting point where there were, as usual, many people with signs. We didn’t see a sign with my name on, but Carlos, our driver from the ship to the hotel, found us. It was nice to see him again. We went to his car, and while driving to the hotel, he used google translate on his phone to point out some sights to us. We arrived at the hotel around 3:45 and this time our one bedroom suite was available. (This one was a little bigger and had 1.5 bathrooms. At least we have time to enjoy it.) We retrieved our luggage, and headed up. Since we hadn’t had lunch, we went to the lounge, and had a snack. We spoke with Sam & Kathleen a bit. We didn’t want too much to eat, because we’d booked a second dinner tour with Josephine and Nacho (remember our empanada lesson before the cruse?) After the lounge we got ready to go to dinner. At about 7:30 we went down to the lobby and ordered an Uber. It took a bit, but not as long as before the cruise. We ended up arriving a couple minutes after 8pm. It was nice to see them again, and dinner started right away. The dinner we booked was supposed to start with empanadas, then chorizo with brie, steak and dulce de leche flan. In communicating, she did mention she might tweak the dessert. When we sat down there was beet hummus and bread for it. The first true course was not empanadas but gnocchi with sound dried tomatoes. It was very good. The next course was the chorizo with brie and the greens with it was kale, so we had fun discussion of how to make kale less bitter. (I massage it to break it down). The main course was ribeye with either a wine sauce or a lemon ginger sauce. I had the wine sauce and Glen had the lemon ginger sauce. Both good. And for dessert, she stuck with the flan, which was great. We had that course in her living room. We stayed and talked with them until well after 11, and then called an Uber. The Uber arrived almost immediately, and we bid Josephine a fond farewell and headed off. The Uber ride back was very fast. After that back to the room. Tomorrow we go home.

Day 27 - Iguazu Thursday 4 Today is the day we visit the Argentine side of the Falls. People with one day tend to go there, so maybe it’s better than yesterday, but that’s hard to believe. We were meeting Edson at 7, so we were up at 6. We packed up everything (which honestly wasn’t very much at all, just toiletries and sleepwear, really. At 7 we met Edson and put our backpacks and bag in the trunk of his car. Sadly it was raining. We thought the rain would hold off until tomorrow, but it chose not to. Before we headed to the National Park, we stopped at a very nice breakfast place in town. I had the combo of a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and two pastries. I got a sweet roll and a dulce de leche roll. (I’m really going to miss those when I go home). As we were ordering, Glen realized that he’d taken the hotel keys with him. Sam offered to bring them back, this afternoon, but they needed them this morning. So Edson drove Glen back. It didn’t take that long fortunately. After our very nice breakfast, we headed to the Park. It was about halfway back to the airport - I remember passing the entrance on our way in yesterday. Edson once again dropped us in front to buy tickets. He also suggested we go to the gift shop and buy thin little rain ponchos. They were inexpensive and seemed to maid of plastic bag material. Edson soon joined us and we walked into the park. Apparently on this side, you don’t drive through the park - you take a train. We walked to the station, and Edson was able to score tickets on the next train. The Argentine Park has three main areas, all accessible from the train. The furthest out is called Devil’s Throat, and is a viewing platform of the topmost water falls. Further down, is a visitors area with two nearby trails - the Upper Circuit and the Lower Circuit, each around 1.5 K or a little over a mile. Our plan is to do all three. We started with Devils throat since the train from the station goes straight there. WE headed up and were soon on the path. A note on the paths. They are all almost all latticed metal. Which means they are slippery when wet. We left the train, wand walked the path to Devil’s Throat. Not sure why it’s called that, but the view is spectacular. From there, wee went back to the train and one stop to where you could get to the two walks. Edson stopped at a map and explained that there are two pats you can walk - the Upper and the Lower circuits. Each is about a mile to a mile and a half, and brings you different views of the various falls. We decided to do the lower circuit before lunch. On our way to the trail were saw the old falling apart hotel, and could see the newer one - the Grand Melia - in the distance. Soon we found the trail entrances, and hit the lower walk. Here are some shots. I think the two the left are the dos heramas falls (two sisters): Up above, we could see the top of the upper trail. The lower trail looped around and after about an hour, we arrived back at the area called Jungle Central. This is where, in addition to the old hotel, there are 3 food venues. The first is a snack bar, and a full service Padilla. There’s also a buffet where you are charged by the weather of your plate. Because they had outside seating, we opted for the buffet. I had salad, bread, a pork in cream sauce and a chicken dish. They would have. Been good if they were hot. We did have a nice time with Sam & Kathleen, though. After lunch, Edson rejoined us, and we did the upper trail. We got some different views of the falls. These last few were taken at the viewing platform at the top of the upper circuit. Walking back from that final platform, minor disaster struck. I managed to not catch myself as I slipped and landed on my left knee. I was able to get up with help, and since that was our last stop we decided it was time to go back. I was Ok, although I did have to stop for a few moments because I got a bit dizzy from pain. However, it was clear that nothing was broken or bleeding profusely, so we were good to go on. I was able to stop for a couple of pictures. And one of the local wildlife. We soon got back on the train to the entrance. Edson went to get the car while we waited. He soon picked us up. We drove back to town, and dropped Sam and Kathleen off at their hotel. We’d asked Edson about good restaurants in town, and he said the one in our hotel was the best. I asked S&K if they wanted to come over there, but they said only if they have outside seating. I said I’d check. Edson then dropped us at our new hotel - Iguazu Jungle Lodge. It’s just over 1/2 mile down the road from where we were, but by then it was no longer center of town, and things were further apart. He waited until we checked in and then said he’d pick us up at 10 tomorrow and then get Sam & Kathleen. The hotel is built along a hill and backs up to the jungle. A staff member loaded our bags into the back of a golf cart, and us into the front, and we headed down the hill from the lobby and then up another hill to a block of rooms. We were on the second floor, with a jungle view. You can see the river in this, about mid picture. We also had a small waterfall. I couldn’t get a good enough picture, as it was a little hard to spot, but we could hear it with the balcony door open, so that was nice. This was also a standard hotel room, and very nice and airy. When we checked in, we were given coupons for welcome drink in the restaurant. So, once our clothes were slightly dried, we walked back to the restaurant, to get them. It was a bit of a walk, and my knee hurt a little, but not enough to stop me. A very nice worker, offered us three flavors of Calpirinha (the national drink of Brazil) in three flavors. Glen opted for the original, but I chose a passion fruit flavored one, and it was amazing. We had them in plastic cups so we could take it back to the room. We also asked about outdoor seating, but the outdoor section they’re building is not open yet. He was also very honest about the fact that it would be busy. So we went back to the room and I emailed Sam. He said Kathleen didn’t want to eat inside.and we didn’t want to walk the half mile with my knee hurting, so we agreed to dine separately. I called the restaurant and made a reservation for 8pm. Although they were full, they did say that if you were staying here, you could get in. After confirming that, I tried to air dry my pants, but no luck, still wet at the bottom. So we went off to dinner in wet pants. (We did put on dry socks). The restaurant was busy, but we were seated quickly. We ordered their version of Provoletti (they called it grilled cheese) which had arugula , mushrooms and tomatoes and was really good. I had a flank steak with chimichurri and Glen had entrecôte. His was a little grisly, but very good and mine was excellent. For dessert, we split a “dulce de leche” creme brûlée. It was more like a dulce de leche pudding with a brûlée’d top. It was great. After dinner we went back to the room, took a nice warm comfortable shower and went to bed with the sound of the waterfall. It turned out that messing up the hotel reservation was a good thing. Tomorrow back to BA and then our grand adventure will come to a close.

Me too, but we saw them on the way to Valparaiso. Which was only because we did Puerto Montt instead of Puenta Arenas.

Nope.

Day 26 - BA to Iguazu - Brazil Our flight this morning is at 8:50, out of EZE. I think it’s because the flight is on an A330, which is a wide body plane. We were told we needed to leave at 5:30, in case of traffic. How much traffic there is at 5:30 I don’t know. So at 4:30 we were up, and at 5:10 we gave the hotel our 3 checked big bags to store. All we have is the small Sportsac bag we use for the last night of the cruise. We got a call at 5:20 that the driver was there. So off to EZE. We kept trying to tell the driver it was a domestic flight, but the company we are using doesn’t hire English speaking drivers. Google translate wasn’t much help either. Once we got to the airport, I noticed he was taking us to the international terminal. I handed him our confirmation from the airline and when he saw that, we drove around to the domestic terminal. Since it was only 6am, it wasn’t a big deal. Also I noticed that it would have been an easy walk. We went to the counter and got our boarding passes. We weren’t checking the small bag. We went through security right away. Security was very easy as we didn’t have to take anything out or off. That said, maybe going right through was a mistake. The terminal was small, a 4 gate area with one store, one counter service food place, and a coffee cart. And it was packed. Turns out there are 6 gates with two a little further away. We had roughly 2.5 hours until our flight. It took a while to find somewhere to sit, but we finally found a couple of chairs at the gate next to ours. I took off to investigate. It turns out that between 6 and 8 there were about 6 or 7 delayed flights, so everyone there should have been gone. After about an hour, flights started boarding, and the terminal emptied out. At some point, the line for the coffee place got shorter, so I got a latte. At about 8am they started boarding our flight. We were in group four, so we had a wait. Sam and Kathleen went by us, so I’m glad they made the flight. They were in group two. I thought it was because they checked in earlier, but on the return I learned that Aerolinas Argentinas boards back to front, and we were in row 15. (About the 4th row of coach). The airport is interesting. The domestic terminal is below the international terminal. The main gates were above us. So, it was a bus ride out of the area to somewhere on the tarmac, with stairs to the plane. The shuttles were packed. In spite of shuttling enough people out to fill a wide body jet, we were on time. They did a beverage service on this just under 2 hour flight. My guess on the A330 plane is that this is a long weekend and lots of people going up to Iguazu for it, so they could fill the plane. The flight was also moved from from the Domestic Airport to the international one, probably because they need the runways of the bigger airport. In any case they offered a beverage service and the flight was on time. We didn’t check a bag, so we went out of baggage claim and found the exit, where Edson, our TBL (tours by locals) guide was waiting. We’d booked a 3 day tour with him - Brazil falls one day, Argentina the next, including round trip airport transportation. After introductions, I went back into the terminal to wait for Sam & Kathleen, as they’d checked a box with their walking sticks. Eventually we all met up. We learned that Edson had to have a driver, because, since he’s Brazilian, he can’t pick us up at an airport in Argentina. So he’d hired a driver to take us to our hotel in Puerto Iguazu, and Edson would meet us there. That worked, and about 30 minutes later, we were dropped off in the town of Puerto Iguazu. The place that Sam found was called Marin Apartments, and the entrance was between two shops. The door was locked. It turns out these really are apartments and not a hotel. After a few minutes the manager showed up and let us in. On the second floor were apartments A & B. Sam had A, we have B. They are small one bedroom places with one bathroom, a small kitchen area and a living room. The shower is electric. We have access to some of his streaming accounts. We got keys to both the room and the front door, and the instructions were to leave the keys inside. Juan, the manager, gave us a map of the area, and some recommendations for where to find dinner, groceries etc. He also asked when we were checking out. Something happened with my Expedia account and I ended up with just one night there, whereas Sam & Kathleen have two. I ended up booking a different hotel down the street for the second night. I said we’d be check out early tomorrow, and on Friday S&K will check out at 10am, which is the official check out time, since our flight isn’t until early afternoon. The apartment was OK, but we learned the next morning that the only hot water was the electric shower, which was very inconvenient to use. In hindsight, we should have stayed at the Grand Melia in the park, which would not have been ridiculously expensive if we’d booked it when we booked the trip. After settling in, we went to the street and found Edson. His car was a bit bigger than the one we’d come from in the airport, so would be fine for park visits. Before we left, Edson reminded us that we needed passports and vaccine cards. We had ours, Sam got theirs and we headed to Brazil. We ended up not needing our vaccine cards, but, when we got to the border, we did have to show the passports. There was a small wait and then we were in Brazil. It could have been worse. Soon left in Edsons slightly bigger car. Went to Brazilian border, so had to bring passport (duh) and vaccine card (didn’t need those). Bit of a wait but could be worse. We didn’t actually have to stop on the Brazil side, unless we wanted our passports stamped. We opted not to, and we were soon at the Brazilian national park. We stopped at the visitors center and bought our tickets and then went to the snack bar for lunch. It was typical snack bar fare, but because I got a burger combo I got a little stuffed coati. After lunch, we went back to the car, and drove up into the hills. We parked, and then walked to the start of a trail. First thing we saw was this: WOW! We then continued along the trail and I wondered why since we’d seen the falls. Then we saw this: Ok, maybe more than one. Continuing … And yet, we weren’t done. We also saw lots of my little stuffed coati. This continued for quite a wile. Walk along the trail, see something wow. Sometimes we got close. This was, I think the top fo the falls where what we are seeing is in Brazil - most of the falls you see from Brazil are in Argentina. By the time we got there, we’d walked quite a ways, and a lot of descent. At this end point, we could either take an elevator up or take stairs. I said I could do the stairs as long as we went slowly. Along the way we met a family who were petting and feeding the <<name>>. Glen said apparently they didn’t read the part how the animals get rabies from vampire bats. Nor did the read the part about not feeding and interacting with them. Wild animals are not pets, people. At the top of the stairs, the was another visitors center (also one at the bottom of the elevator), so Edson had us wait for him to get the car. Which was good, since I wasn’t fond of the idea of walking back up the trail. Overall the walk took a little over 2 hours. On the way back, we stopped at a hotel in the Brazilian side of the park to see the lobby. It looked like a Regency era British hotel. Very pretty. After that Edson took us back to our “hotel”. We agreed to meet at 7am, because tomorrow will be busy at the Argentine park due to the holiday weekend. We agreed to meet Sam and Kathleen to go find dinner at about 6:30 (it was 6 by this time). At 6:30 we met and decided to go to dinner at a restaurant that Juan, the manager had recommended. It’s along the river at a place where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. We took the map and started walking. We walked along the river for a while, and eventually came to the area he was talking about. There was, of course, the now common location sign. This one changed colors. We also saw a Ferris wheel on the Brazil side. And we saw a bridge between Brazil and Paraguay. Glen said he thinks, based on google maps that it’s under construction. That’s Brazil on the right, Paraguay on the left, and we’re in Argentina. At this area, just past the sign, there was a large plaza. The restaurant we were looking for was underneath the plaza, and there were small stands of people selling things lining the plaza. The restaurant is called El Hito. The food was good. Glen and I split a Caesar salad. It had chicken in it, which I now think is standard for Argentina. I had a steak with malbec sauce and scalloped potatoes. It was excellent. Over all the food was good and the restaurant nice. After dinner, I pulled out google maps and found a more direct and definitely flatter walk back. It was easy and about 1.5 kilometers. We found some nice looking bars along the way. When we got back to the hotel we said good night because it’s a very early start tomorrow as well. I then took a shower, and found the it quite inconvenient, because the unit was up agains the back wall of the shower and there wasn’t much flow. After that bed, with an amazing day in the books.

Day 25 - Buenos Aires 4 - Disembarkation Tuesday 4 They are kicking us off the ship today. Since we have to be out of the room by 8 and we didn’t go to Luminae for dinner last night, we decided to go to breakfast to say goodbye. We were up at 7, and out of the room by 7:45. After bidding our very good room steward goodbye, we headed to Luminae and enjoyed our last breakfast there for about 3 weeks. We said our goodbyes to all, including Maria, who stopped by. For breakfast I had a single pancake. It was good. We then went to Michael’s. We’d told our ride to meet us at 10, and they said it would be between 10 and 10:15, so we figured it’s better to wait in Michaels than the terminal. However, at 9:30 Jairo said that they’d called all boarding groups and we needed to leave. So he escorted us to the gangway. This is the first time we’ve disembarked here. In 2010, the terminal wasn’t built yet (it was a container port warehouse) and in 2019 we did a ship excursion to the airport. So this was new. At the exit, Silvia was there directing people onto buses, so we gave her a goodbye hug and headed onto a bus. We disembarked at the terminal, and quickly found our luggage. We then joined a short line for baggage X-ray. They only did one of our bags - Glen’s, and then we were out of the terminal in the pickup area. There were a lot of people there, but to our surprise, a driver was there with a sign for us. We walked to his car, and were on our way quickly. Our contact, David, confirmed that all was well with the pickup and that Carlos was taking us to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 10, and our room, which we’d seen on the Marriott app was a suite, was not ready yet. We decided to go to the bar and get a coffee. We sat there for a while, and still no room. The lounge didn’t open until 2pm so we couldn’t go there. At 1pm, since there was still no room, we checked our backpacks with the concierge, and went out to change some more money for the Iguazu trip. We thought maybe we’d get some lunch, but we couldn’t find a restaurant between the hotel and the money change place, so we went back, and at 2 headed to the lounge. We were told that they’d call the lounge when the room was ready, We had the concierge there put CNN on, and we watched that while snacking. Originally we were going to do dinner with Sam & Kathleen at a cafe, but they decided they’d had a big lunch and were skipping dinner. I started looking at restaurants and noticed that El Mirasol at Puerto Madero was open continuously from lunch time, so I thought we’d go there early because we have to leave for the airport tomorrow at 5:30 am. At 3:45 I went down to ask the concierges about making a 6:30 reservation. While there, I checked on the room and it was ready. So much for them calling. Our room is nice, it’s a 1 bedroom suite, with a separate living room. Too bad we won’t be here long enough to enjoy it. At around 6, we headed to the Puerto Madero area. We’ve been there before, so finding the restaurant was easy. Since people here eat late, the restaurant was pretty empty. We started with a bread service and it came with a spinach croquette. Doesn’t look good but it was pretty good. Next up with the current favorite appetizer of everyone Provoletta - ie grilled cheese. This was the star of the night. We split a ribeye steak. Most steaks here start around 14 ounces, so splitting is a good thing, We also thought we were ordering sides when we ordered a lettuce salad and green beans, but it turned out that there long list of sides were simply veggies to put in a single salad. As far as I can tell, there are no side orders for steaks. For dessert, I had a dulche de leche crepe. It wasn’t quite as good as Ferver, but it was very hot and still very good. Following dinner, we went back to the hotel. On the way back we had this gorgeous view. Once in the room, we packed everything we could up (we’re just bringing our little sports bag and checking everything else with the hotel), watched a bit of TV and went to bed. Tomorrow is very early!

If LA is your first port after the foreign ports you might get electronic and facial recognition. If you stop in San Diego you’ll do customs there. It wasn’t electronic in February

On the Silhouette, which is an S class ship, Blu is not co-located with Luminae and the main dining room. So they don't offer it. On M class it's right above Luminae, and shares the 2 story kitchen.

Thanks. It might require staff intervention or something. Not sure. Thanks, though for checking.

Seeing lots of it now.

Thanks, but the Summit is also revolutionized, sundeck and all. Just curious, does the elevator to the sundeck work? I ran into some friends from my last cruise on the ship, and she needs the elevator, and it no longer works.

Day 24 -Montevideo 2 Monday 4 We didn’t need to get up particularly early, but we did do it in time for breakfast at Luminae. Today was my one modified Eggs Benedict of the trip. After breakfast, we headed to Michael’s. We are supposed to arrive in Montevideo around 10 (no delay from the late day in Puerto Madryn - it was always 10), so we figured we’d wait for the crowd to disperse, since we have no specific plans. Around 11, we decided it would be easy to exit. We did notice we were alongside a building, and we’d never seen that before, so we were a bit confused as to if we were at the same port. Once we were off the ship, we figured out that we were docked at a 90 degree angle from where we usually were. We were the only ship today, so I guess that’s the preferred dock. We walked out and headed the the Port Market. It turns out it’s mostly restaurants and food venues. We did run into Chelsey there, buying an empanada. She later told us the food wasn’t that good. It only took a few minutes, so we headed up the street. Since it was the same street we’d walked up previously, we made a right turn and walked to the water walk. This was a new part of the walk for us, so we found this memorial. We eventually headed inland. We tried a parallel street to the one that we walked last time, but soon realized that there wasn’t anything interesting, so we went back to the main Street. As we walked, we noticed an internal courtyard. There were a couple of people going in, and they noticed our interest, so they invited us in to see it. They were able to explain that it was originally the first theater in Montevideo on one side and the first hotel for couples on the other. They were very friendly and we appreciated the look and history. After that we walked back to the ship. On the way to the gangway, we saw them loading new drinks. Once onboard, we dropped our stuff in the room and headed up to the buffet for lunch. We did a light lunch, and then went to Michael’s for one last tea time. After that, it was time to go back to the room to do most of our packing. Tonight we were joining Linda and Don for his birthday dinner in Tuscan. The reservation was a little earlier than we’d normally do, but they are good company and have become good friends. We had two bottles of wine that were given to us, so we grabbed those, figuring we’d give them to Don as they’re on for the next cruise as well, and headed to Rendezvous. The dance band was playing so we danced a little and then headed to Tuscan. They were seated at a table for 4 near the entrance, and so we joined them. The sommelier opened one of our bottles. We started with the antipasti board for 4. Always good when there’s more than two people. My starter was the creamy burrata salad - as you can see tomato, cheese and some croutons. Linda chose a very pretty lasagne for her main. I had a ribeye with house steak sauce and gorgonzola sauce, both on the side. I also had polenta fries and some spinach. For dessert, I had the limoncello cheesecake. We finished dinner around 9, and then I headed to the shops. Earlier, I’d seen a small Kipling backpack that could be used as a shoulder strap bag. It’s a little bigger than the bag I currently use for travel, and so I thought I’d get one at the end. They only had a light blue one and a coral one left, and I think we had just enough OBC for the light blue one (coral was a little less, but I didn’t like the color). So I got that. And it was then time to go back upstairs and put out the luggage. We watched a little TV and went to bed early, since we have to be out by 8. It was a great couple of cruises, and we still have one adventure left on this trip.

Summit Day - 2 Monday 1 Today is a tourist day for us with Arie and Cheryl. Our plan was to visit Johnathan Dickenson State Park, near Hob e Sound, fairly near Stuart. There you can kayak, hike, fish, etc, etc. It also is the boat launch for the Trapper Nelson Historic District. The park has a river, the Loxahatchee. You go to the Trapper Nelson site down the river. Our first thought was to do that in the afternoon, but the weather wasn’t great. So Arie called, and apparently the only boat they are guaranteeing is the 11 am boat. At about 8:30 I surfaced and Cheryl was making apple pancakes and chicken apple sausage. Glen and Arie were apparently running an errand for her. About 9?30 they returned, and Arie mentioned he’d called the park and the only boat that was going was the 11am one. So we quickly ate breakfast, and headed to the park. We arrived in plenty of time and bought tickets for the boat ride. While waiting, we met the other two ladies doing the tour. At 11, we boarded the boat and headed along the river. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the Trapper Nelson site and were met by our volunteer guide. We learned that TN had purchased the land and trapped beaver and other game on it and then turned the site into a tourist attraction called a Zoo and Jungle Garden. We looked at various things there - former animal cages (local animals only - alligators and small game), and various structures. They also have a jeep that was used to go to town, restored from a car shop I think. And one of the buildings that’s still there. This was, I think a kitchen. They used propane. The tour ran about an hour, and then it was back on the boat. On both ways we saw jumping fish, but it was too hard to get a picture. But here’s a shot of the river. Sky looks pretty good, but … Originally we were going to kayak, but it’s apparently supposed to rain, so we headed out. Next stop in the park was the Hobe Mountain tower, a small view tower built on top of the highest point in South Florida. As you can read there are views of the waterway, ocean and park. It was indeed a nice view. That’s the ocean in the distance and the walkway to the tower. And a view from the other side of the tower. After that, we decided that we’d head back to A&C and have the leftovers from last night for lunch. Following that, we played our first of many Catan games. Arie had a couple of new things to add to the game, which made it a little more interesting. At around 5:30 we headed out for dinner. First stop was a local chain clothing store, sort of like Kohls for shorts. Then we went to one of the seafood restaurants along the water called Shrimpers. It was pretty good. I had a ground steak, with onions and mushrooms. After dinner, back to their house. We watched a little bit of The Fellowship of the Ring, and called it a night. I ended up spending about an hour on the phone with my sister, because apparently my mom stopped improving, and decided on Comfort, or Pallative care. We worked out that we agreed that was the best thing for her, and there’s no timeline, so we don’t need to go home. (My mom would have felt very guilty if we’d cancelled. After that, bed. Tomorrow is the get ready for cruise day.