TravelBluebird

So glad you made it to the Falklands!! Volunteer point was a highlight of our trip. Also, just a heads up for your Valparaiso & Vino del Mar tour—there are very severe wildfires in that area right now—a truly tragic situation: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/03/world/americas/wildfires-chile-valparaiso.html

Hi everyone! I’ve had a heck of a week catching up on work, and catching a cold (probably from the air travel home, as DH has long been over his!). Here is the next video from the trip—I taped this on the ship, and it covers the Antarctica Experience prior to Deception Island. More to follow as I catch up with all the videos I couldn’t upload on the ship. This one is a bit out of order since I wanted to do an Antarctica focused one first; the rest of the trip to follow.

Bon Voyage! We are on the last leg of our trip home. Enjoy your wonderful cruise!

No time between flights and no internet on planes! But we made our first connection fine in Lima—just had 1.5 hours between the two flights. We arrived at the gate just as boarding started—it really helped that we could check our luggage through to Atlanta in Buenos Aires so did not have to pick the bags up in Lima. There was a bus from the plane on the tarmac in Lima, and security in Lima again, but the line was short, and it was special security for ongoing flights. Our flight on Delta in Comfort Plus was flawless—on time, and even had tiny little foot rests which really helps my legs! Managed to sleep quite a bit. Dinner was chicken or ravioli, and after that giant steak in Buenos Aires, couldn’t even look at meat, so picked the ravioli. Breakfast sandwich and fruit before arrival (6 hour 45 minute flight). Customs in Atlanta was very quick; re-checked our luggage and have been in the Delta Sky Club awaiting our last flight! Easy ending to a great trip!

We really enjoyed La Boca! So colorful and so much history. We felt completely safe in La Boca—just don’t stray too far from the main tourist area, as it gets sketchy just a couple blocks away.

Buenos Aires Highlights & Tango Show with Airport Transfer was the name of our tour. it was eight hours. Honestly I was sort of dreading it such a long day before embarking on a long air flight but we really enjoyed it. We saw quite a bit of the city more than we did yesterday and there were three stops the cemetery, which we saw yesterday the main square of the city, and we got a chance to visit the beautiful cathedral and La Boca. After driving around and our three stops, our final stop was Madero Tango where we had an excellent meal of empanadas, a huge off the chart in taste in size steak with roasted potatoes and vegetables plus flan for dessert . Red wine was included and was also free Photos in next post!

So I have time to rewind the day for you. We had final breakfast at 6:45 in MDR. good thing we had it early as our group—Pink 3 — was called 20 minutes early! Quite the line to disembark with Pink 3–10 buses doing this particular excursion with airport transfer! we shuttled over to the tour buses, and that was it! We had no immigration or customs and we didn’t have to pick up our bags since they were going straight to the airport. Very convenient. Our guide was Amelia and she was very efficient as was everyone on our bus we were always the first bus of the 10 to leave because everyone was always on time.

Everything has gone swimmingly well so far today! Except for the immigration line at EZE airport. We’ve been in it for 20 minutes and have barely moved.

We had a final show this evening on Main Stage with some well danced Tango and a couple of gauchos. Our bags are in the hall and we’ll be turning in early. HUGE THANKS to all who have followed this LIVE! I’ve tried to answer as many questions as I could, but some I know have remained unanswered, such as the Panomax question and the embarkation question re where to go to start the process, and for that I am sorry. I will continue the blog through our excursion//transfer tomorrow and our trip home. Once I am at home and can start uploading videos from the trip, I will link to them here.

Thank you so much, Linda! I feel like my trip started when I started following your LIVE blog! It has been a blast indeed!

We are at a cargo pier…there are buses that take us from the ship to the cruise terminal since it would be a far walk. Tomorrow we will board the shuttle buses again as soon as we disembark, to be taken to where our luggage will be.

YAY! You know I’ll be following along! So excited to see how your cruise goes. BON VOYAGE!

Leg is still a little wonky, but much better than yesterday, so I’m hopeful that it will be a little better again tomorrow for travel.

Mine as well. Sigh. We are fully packed except for putting our clothing we are currently wearing in our suitcases, then we shall put the cases in the hall. We are Group 3 tomorrow since we have a HAL all day excursion with transfer to the airport. We managed to have all 3 of our suitcases under 50 pounds by putting heavy things in the smaller case…we purchased some souvenirs for family, and so some shuffling around had to be done. Today we toured around Buenos Aires a bit, and visited Recoleta Cemetery which really is quite something, and has the tomb of Evita, and we also visited the Ateneo bookstore and coffee shop that is in a 100 year old theater. We spent the late afternoon packing, then had our final MDR dinner, I had to revisit my favorite Miso Glazed Salmon, and DH had the Lamb Adobo, plus we really like the Salmon Tartare appetizers. We are watching the NFL play offs, and I am going down shortly to save us seats for the Gaucho//Tango show at Main Stage. Bittersweet to be leaving, LONG trip ahead of us, but its mostly sweet tonight, not bitter, because its been such a wonderful trip.

@caneableThank you! It’s been a true privilege for me to share this journey with everyone. Have a FANTASTIC time on your cruise! If you are live blogging it I will be sure to follow your trip! ps: the terminal here in Buenos Aires is very hobbled by the destruction from the storm, but today, at least for disembarking for tours, it was fairly organized.

We did this for the cruise we are now finishing up (22 days South America//Antarctica) and it worked well for my husband and I—my Iphone and Ipad and his Iphone and Kindle.

I had a bit of a rough day with what I think is tendonitis (I’ve had it before). I did go on my walking tour at 1pm; wore my knee brace I always have just in case, and was super careful. Wasn’t a fast pace, and I avoided as many stairs as I could. The walking tour of Montevideo was just what we hoped—walked all over the old town. Got to visit inside the market, the cathedral, a small art museum, and the Teatro Solis (the very beautiful theater from the 1800s that is now run by the government). We even had time to run into Starbucks to get a Uruguay mug to add to our collection. Dinner int the MDR did not disappoint (it never does). DH had Coq au Vin and I had the Rosemary Roasted Lamb with Cheese Polenta. For appetizers, it was the Crab Roll and the Grilled Eggplant, Zucchini and Asparagus. We tried to pick up our photo package but due to some misunderstanding it was not ready, and also I could not get that answer on the Panomax 360 that i’ve been trying to get for @billco Will try tomorrow with the other photo staff when we get our package. The leg thing has sapped my energy; did some pre-packing in the room and now am resting for my “small group” tour of Buenos Aires in the morning.

We were definitely curious about it! 😂

You’ve got porpoising penguins there!! They are so fun to watch in the water!! Sorry about your Elephant Island weather. We were very lucky with ours; lots of mist and grey and then the weather opened up for us at the last minute. Still, as you said, the history of that island makes it fascinating in any weather! I’m hoping to have some internet on my flight back on Monday so I can catch up with your thread, It will help with my “Antarctica Withdrawal” as I end my cruise!

Awesome! And I can enjoy @jimbo5544 LIVE as I ease back into “real life”. Which I think will be even harder after this cruise than after most!

Good morning! After 20 days of great health on this trip, l have some severe tendonitis (back leg, behind knee). I’ve taken some anti-inflammatories, also stretching this morning. Hoping to make my walking tour this afternoon, but will not get to roam around this morning with DH. Tour isn’t till 1pm so I am optimistic! Just having coffee in room. It’s 70 beautiful degrees. We are docked right near downtown Montevideo. Also received our Disembarkation instructions for our day-long tour before our airport transfer to EZE airport. One thing it didn’t mention is WHEN we are supposed to put our bags out tomorrow night.

We had a fun day in Punta del Este. Real beach town! Had to spend time doing some ship B-roll and ship tour video after our excursion so ship life tonight is running a little behind…we were also out till 4:30. Longest wait for a tender, but the tenders here are municipal run by the government, so that was out of the control of HAL. We also watched the second dance show, which we enjoyed. We are currently heading out to sea a little bit to spend the night, as Punta del Este and Montevideo are not that far apart.

I asked Guest Services and they said that the photo department would know. Huge line there tonight, so when we go pick up our photo package tomorrow, I will ask!

Well I’d love to show you the promised penguin photos from Punta Tomba, but for some reason, even when I compress them, when I try to add them to cruise critic I’m getting a black screen instead of the photo; don’t understand why. Here are 2 I was able to make work