LIVE from the STAR PRINCESS - March 9th-24th, RIO to FT LAUDERDALE

[Pia1913]

Bem Vindo, as they say in Portuguese, and welcome to Rio; the beginning of 15 wonderful days enroute to Ft. Lauderdale. For the few that don’t know, we’ve just completed the first leg of this cruise from Santiago to Rio and I decided to start a new LIVE just for this itinerary.

 

　

It was very hot and humid in Rio today, where we arrived about 4:00 AM. Rain was in the forecast, but we never saw a drop. The departing passengers needed to do a face to face immigration appearance, but those of us continuing on were given in transit cards and told we could get off whenever we wanted. Our group of 12 disembarked shortly after 8:00 to begin our all day private tour. The roll call person who coordinated this tour found the agency through a Cruise Critic recommendation. Boy, did we luck out! For future reference it was toursbyNeyla.com and we had Neyla herself.

　

We started with a city tour (passed around the soccer stadium which holds 200,000) and then off to view Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. We also went through some other areas before arriving at Sugarloaf Mountain. We got there early enough; no waiting. To get to the top you need to take two difference cable cars. Neither Mike nor myself are cable car devotee’s, but we survived. Phenomenal views up there and a souvenir shop where Mike was happily able to purchase a golf shirt with a Brazil logo. This is a must do for us from every new city and this is the first time we’ve been here. When we came down it was already noonish, so we went to a buffet restaurant just across the road. Incidentally, the lines waiting to get in at that time were snaked around 2 blocks. This was a different buffet since you selected your items, put the plate on a scale and paid by the kilo. Mine was cheap. I had spaghetti and broccoli. After lunch we proceeded to Corcovado and the Christ the Redeemer statue. In order to get up there we were in our van going up steep and winding roads, until we reached a point that we had to switch to Parque Nacional vans. After that we had elevators and escalators to finally reach the top. There was a lot of rolling fog, but we managed to get a few good photos. I hope. The crowds were unbelievable, but things moved very well. We eventually ended up at the magnificent St. Sebastian Cathedral, which holds 20,000 people. Those stain glassed windows are huge and awesome. Of course we visited a supermarket to replenish our wine. :)

　

This was a wonderful, albeit exhausting day, but so happy to be here and have experienced it. Several of our group our going out to a samba show tonight. Not us.

　

Since we are in port overnight, there will be a local folkloric show in the theater at 8:15 and 10:15. The MUTS movie will be Cirque Du Soleil: Delirium, shown at 8:00 and again at 10:00. In Vista the movie Letters to Juliet will also have two showing; same times as the one on MUTS.

 

 

Need to relax a bit before dinner. A nice glass of wine is in order. See you in the morning.

[cruisingallover]

look forward to this leg ;)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Enjoy Rio and the rest of your cruise Pia.

 

 

Itinerary

Date Port Arrive Depart

Wed 09/03/11 Rio de Janeiro / Brazil

Thu 10/03/11 Rio de Janeiro / Brazil 14:00

Fri 11/03/11 At Sea

Sat 12/03/11 Salvador de Bahia / Brazil 08:00 18:00

Sun 13/03/11 At Sea

Mon 14/03/11 At Sea

Tue 15/03/11 Fortaleza / Brazil 07:00 16:00

Wed 16/03/11 At Sea

Thu 17/03/11 At Sea

Fri 18/03/11 At Sea

Sat 19/03/11 Bridgetown (Barbados) / Lesser Antilles 07:00 17:00

Sun 20/03/11 St. John's (Antigua) / Lesser Antilles 09:00 18:00

Mon 21/03/11 Charlotte Amalie (St. Thomas) / US Virgin Islands 07:00 18:00

Tue 22/03/11 At Sea

Wed 23/03/11 At Sea

Thu 24/03/11 Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades) / USA 07:00

[DonahCBrown]

G'day from the Sydney contingent - sounds like you had a very satisfying day! Have a great trip and we'll follow as best we can after we board tomorrow.

[Rockymountainsparky]

Pia, we're all buckeled up and ready to go.:D

[NSWP]

Thanks Pia, I enjoyed part 1, I hope you an the others have a wonderful part 2, from Rio to FL.

[duck addict]

Looking forward to this report. :D

 

Take good care of the Star...I get on right after you get off ;)

[ibfern]

Pia,

 

Can't wait to hear about this leg of your journey, can you post any photos of Sugarloaf mtm? It sounds lovely!

 

Safe travels,

[skyline]

:)Hi Pia, Thanks for the posts that let me come with you.

[Bowie MeMe]

Ready to change my mind that I do not want to do the RIO to FLL route. Dazzle us with your great time!

[Captain Canuck]

good review as usual

[Sandy R]

Pia... I'm looking forward to the 2nd leg of your cruise. It's fun sitting in my computer chair and sailing along with you.

[Murrumbeena]

I'm looking forward to part 2,enjoy the rest of your trip.:)

[Starshine95123]

Looking forward to reading the next part.

[Pia1913]

Good Thursday morning from Rio; day 2. We are in port until 2:00 PM and not sure right now whether we will even get off the ship. I think we already did it all yesterday. I forgot to mention that when we did our early city drive yesterday morning, we did see some of the Carnaval floats that hadn’t been taken away from the previous night. I also wanted to mention the gigantic supermarket where we bought our wine. There were 36 checkout lanes, all open and all crowded. Fortunately there were also 3 express lanes or we would still be there. 8:00 AM temperature is 78, very humid and raining lightly.

 

　

Last night’s folkloric show was loud and colorful. I have no other comment.

 

 

Today’s on board schedule is abbreviated, since most of the passengers will probably be off the ship until we sail. The movie Switch will be shown at 2:30 in the theater and that’s really all for the afternoon. The usual Welcome Aboard show will be presented twice tonight and in Vista, the movie “The Next Three Days will also have 2 showings.” MUTS will have 3 showings of Despicable Me and in Explorer’s will be Latin and ballroom dancing.

 

Donna and Tina: have a great cruise

 

Les: Hope you're getting better; will meet eventually

 

Amelia: can't do photos

 

Breakfast time.

[mississauga]

Pia, ready to sail along with you on leg 2.

 

You had mostly chilly weather 50's and 60's on leg 1 and now hot and humid in Rio. Are the different parts of South America enjoying the same season or are they in different seasons due to the geographic differences?

[denims]

Pia, thanks for taking the time to bring "us" with you!

[t60]

snip... I also wanted to mention the gigantic supermarket where we bought our wine. There were 36 checkout lanes, all open and all crowded. Fortunately there were also 3 express lanes or we would still be there.....

 

Hi Pia,

We´ll be out in Rio this time next year, can you let me have the name of the supermarket and some idea where it is, so we can stock up.....thanks

Sandy in Spain

[mema4]

I can't wait to hear about the second part of this trip.

alice

[coo359a2]

Hi Pia and Mike

 

Have a good cruise to FLL. Will try and read as we go along. We're almost ready to leave the condo for the Dawn Princess. Say hi to Ro and Murray.

[ssbeagle]

Looking forward to what you have to report on the rest of the ports. I have been wanting to see South America (already been to the Amazon but nowhere else). Unfortunately, other itineraries that I like better keep popping up. How was Delirium? Did you see it?

[caribill]

Can you try to find out who will be the port lecturer when the Star makes its Trans-Atlantic voyage in May?

 

Thanks

 

I will try to find out, but not sure whom to ask. Actually, will ask Captain at next luncheon.

 

 

Possibly the current lecturer (whom you say is excellent) will still be on board then. Maybe he could answer the question of how long he will remain aboard.

 

Thanks

[Pia1913]

Couldn’t resist; had to get off and check out the area. Back on the ship in less than an hour. Nothing out there except huge puddles. Yes, it rained heavily for a short period of time. Very hot and humid, just like home. Except that at home, we don’t walk the streets. We were told there was a grocery store across the road; needed nothing, and couldn’t find it anyway. BTW, the Costa Fortuna arrived this morning and the port terminal was teeming with people.

　

Just before departure, captain announced that we should expect rain from here all the way to Salvador (we get there on Saturday), and also some rocking and rolling. Right now skies are clear and sort of sunny. The forecasts have been known to be inaccurate in the past. I’ll let you know.

　

Joe May, our very eloquent port lecturer, was on the bridge doing a minute by minute presentation as we sailed out of Rio. There were good views from both sides, so we started on our friend’s balcony, the Starboard side of Dolphin, and then switched to our side; port on Caribe. Sugarloaf is seen from the Starboard side, but we saw it up close and personal yesterday.

　

Went to trivia late afternoon; lost by one. Went up to Skywalker’s for 5:00 PM Happy Hour; Cosmo and shrimp nite; my favorite. Sat around at dinner until after eight; too late to do anything, so back to the cabin we have gone. Movies have not changed for this cruise. Might be lots of boring evenings coming up. :(

 

Bill: Not Maxtone-Graham. He's going home in FLL.

 

Sandy: Don't know name of supermarket. I paid cash so don't have the receipt. We were dropped there by our tour guide

 

Caryn: No Delirium for us.

 

Bye until tomorrow.

[Susie51]

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[cboyle]

Have a good cruise to FLL. Will try and read as we go along. We're almost ready to leave the condo for the Dawn Princess. Say hi to Ro and Murray.

Say hi to Murray and Ro from John and me too!

 

We made it back this afternoon from Rio with only minor problems --- some scary turbulence on both the GIG-DFW and DFW-RDU legs.

 

There was something unusual (to me) that happened on the last night of the Santiago to Rio cruise. After we returned from dinner, there was a letter in my cabin mailbox saying that I had a credit balance on my onboard account and that I needed to go to the Passenger Services desk to withdraw that amount. In the past, a credit on one person's onboard account (e.g., mine) was applied to the balance in the other person's account (e.g., John's), if they were both being settled to the same credit card. Not anymore. :confused:

 

I went down and stood in the Elite/Suites line behind some people who seemed to be going over every item on their statement and a poor lady whose cruise card no longer worked to open her cabin door. When I finally got to the desk, I was told I could *NOT* withdraw the credit for cash *AND* I could not apply the credit to John's balance. However, I *COULD* have charges moved from John's account to my account, which I asked them to do. I was told the reason for this was that Princess has a new accounting system. From now on, I will have to charge some of the wine to my account to make sure I use up all my onboard credits instead of letting John put the wine on his account all of the time! :)

 

To compound the aggravation, when I went back to the cabin and checked the revised statement against my spreadsheet, I discovered that we had been charged twice for the same bottle of wine, once at dinner on March 6 (when we actually drank it) and again at lunch on March 9 (last day of cruise). Naturally, this was the most expensive bottle we had ordered during the entire cruise. So I had to go back to the Elite/Suites line (which was now much longer). I was told that the problem could not be resolved until the charge slips from the dining room were turned in after 11 PM, at which point I might or might not have to come back down to the Passenger Services desk to look at the slip. They said they would call me once they had the slips. :(

 

Naturally, I loved the idea of staying up late when we wanted to get a good night's sleep before our all-day tour of Rio and the late-night flight home. Passenger Services called me a little after 10 PM to say the charge for the second bottle had been voided. :)

 

Anyway, the morals of this tale are (1) make sure that each of you uses up all the onboard credits in your own onboard account and (2) get a printout from passenger services so that you can double check the charges and make sure that all of them are valid.

 

Despite this last-minute aggravation, this was another fantastic cruise with possibly the best stateroom/dining service we have had in 29 Princess cruises. We were happy to see some new dishes on the dining room menus and a new wine at the "Grapevine" wine tasting. We also enjoyed excellent private tours, thanks to recommendations from other Cruise Critic members. I will be submitting a review in the next week or so and posting the link on the roll call and on Pia's "live from" for the Santiago-Rio leg of the cruise.

 

I hope all of you have a great time on the Rio-FLL leg and no problems with your onboard accounts!

 

Carolyn