t60

I take the cross packing a little further. With two suitcases, I pack exactly half of each with my clothes, half with his. This way, we both have enough for at least 5 days without the other suitcase. Came in handy in China when I got one bag 4 days late!

we use the same system, also ad a change of clothes in the hand luggage. Packig cubes make this method soooooeasy

Very helpful to have this information all in one place

Thank you for sharing all this with us, I know how much work and time it takes

Sandy in Spain

snip.....Is it sad that a year and a half out, I'm already making my cruise packing list?

Always best to be prepared :)

Excellent suggestion! I am not extremely social, but I like to remember and follow up with people I have interacted with. And you always find amazing, interesting people on a cruise you would like to keep in touch with.

I make my own business style cards and laminate them I usually title the card with name and date of the cruise, then add a route map to one side and/or a small head shot photo of myself and OH, then of course our email address. If there is space I might add a short message like <Lovelt o meet you>. <Happy Cruising> etc

Just read your great blog and it brought back lots of memories of our cruises in this area. The first time we visited the Falklands before Ushuaia, the port Authorities there would not let us dock at all, so we ended up with longer day light time cruising through the Fjords Since then we've cruised west to east so visiting Argentina before the Falklands.

What are your thoughts on wearing National Dress on one of the formal nights?

We did a cruise with Fred Olsen (once) they have a British night, people dressed in Union Jack, dress, t shirts, waist coats, braces, hats, plus everyone given a song sheet and a flag....it was really cringe worthy...I suppose it was what they called national dress.....never again

hi, I am doing the 14 nights cruise Oct 15th to 29th.

 

any tips for excursions with local operators?

We're looking at this for Feb 2017, please let us know what your October cruise was like when you get back.

Any tips, excursions, what to avoid, what to see, info on flight would be greatly appreciated.

Sandy in Spain

You can get in the water with the dolphins BUT you are not allowed to swim with them, touch or feed them, you just bob about in the water wearing a life jacket while the authorised person slaps a dead fish on the water and the dolphins rise out of the water to take the fish and you take the photo. The dolphins do o do tricks of any sort. The dolphins are all wild and not coralled in anyway, so they are free to swim in any part of the river they chose, but obviously they get to know the places where they can get a free snack. There are many places along the amazon where they feed the dolphins. Visiting the dolphins is usually included in other trips and is not a tour on its own. Quite often you are taken to small jetties where locals hand you sloths, caimans, squirrel monkeys and other small animals to pet, hold and take photos for a price, these are all illegal and the authorities are trying to stop these practices. If I can remember how to do it I'll post some pix of the dolphins. There is also an interesting legend regarding the pink dolphins and their shape shifting activities, dancing and seduction of young ladies. Apparently it's a local legend that if an unmarried woman becomes pregnant, the pink dolphin is blamed :-) We saw many dolphins in the river when we visited in March this year and around Manaus

Sandy in Spain

edit: to save me adding pix, google swimming with pink dolphins Manaus, there are plenty of pix there to show you what happens

We cruised along the Amazon Feb/March this year., no problems with mossies because of the acidity of the Amazon water. Lots of beetles and moths land on the ship overnight, you have to be up early in the morning to see them, before the crew start washing down the decks. Wild life is much deeper in the jungle than most tours take you, although rescued animals can be viewed at the Army zoo in Manaus. Parintins Boi Bumba presentation for tourists- most people find this good BUT everyone says it is spoiled by the number of people holding up Ipads etc to video the show and blocking peoples views. Our visit to Boca da Valeria was cancelled, there have been complaints about children with animals, extra people/traders being bussed in to the village etc etc (although we did speak to people who had been before and they said the small canoe trips done by the villagers were good value) people who did the overnight in the jungle lodges at Manaus were disappointed with standard of the tours there. Manaus and Santarem were great ...we used private guides in both places, expensive but worth the money as we weren't herded en mass into large tour boats. We stopped at a traditional Indian village along from Manaus, only to see all the kids sat at a long table on their iPads as soon as our visit was over, Manaus is a hi tech place and there is so much history and things to see an overnight is not long enough

Sandy in Spain

When we did a similar cruise, we hardly gained any stamps in our passports. Once on board our passports were taken and most people didn't see thm again until the end of the cruise. This has been the same with our Sth American cruises, MSC, Holland America and Princess. A few days before we docked in Ushuaia we told the Passenger Services desk, that we'd like our passports as we wanted to get the 'End of the World' Passport stamps (you actually have to pay for these as well) We were given them on the day, but had to hand the passports back the same day. In Ushuais there is a small kiosk dockside where you can get you passport stamped which is not generally that busy, the busy one is on tour where you look across the Straits and walk across a creaky wooden pier, both places have the same stamps with the same logos

Enjoy, this is a fabulous cruise

Sandy in Spain

YES...this has happened on our last 2 cruises, MSC Transaltantic Brazil to Italy and Fred Olsen Amazon River cruise. It seems the only reallly active roll calls are ones with a large American or Canadian contingent. Our MSC one had very few American or Canadians, quite a few Australian and New Zealanders, plus south Americans. I started the roll call an no one else joined. The Fred Olsen cruise was virtually made up of all Brits most of whom had cruised FO before and seemed to know each other. Again I started the FO roll call and then there was another couple who were cruising as a group of 4 and weren't interested in joining us for any excursions...their loss esp when we were doing specialist private tours with a local guide and others were herded on the ships tours. We've had some really good experiences cruising with large roll calls, where we have had great private excursions and made many friends over the years. I think people not just Brits may be a bit shy, but also people just don't know about this site.

Sandy in Spain

What dates? Easter? Local Festival? Elections?

http://marathons.ahotu.com/event/ringing-in-spring

1500-2000 participants...maybe the reason

What I do is I line the inside of my suit cases with plastic garbage bags. My stuff never has gotten wet.

I use a cheapie plastic shower curtain to line our suitcases

Sandy in Spain

We have been lucky enough to have stayed i both cities, my vote would go to Buenos Aires, although there is a lot of history in Santiago as well. BA just has so much more to offer. Personally I wouldn't stay in Valparaiso, nice for a day visit.

Sandy in Spain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3612880/How-Harmony-Seas-trip-PR-disaster.html

doesn't sound great

Thank goodness for a happy outcome for you both, you did well with your negotiating skills. Hope your wedding plans now move forward without any further hiccups.

Sandy in Spain

(if you remember please post wedding photo)

The ports of call is the attraction now although even if tere was a Prt we wanted to visit and it was on an itinerary of a cruise line we didn't like...we'd probably pass on it.

Sandy in Spain

It would be lovely to see some samples of all your hard work

Sandy in Spain

Have look here, wonderful blog and photos plus expedition hip info

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2342959

Sandy in spain

Wowee, such a fabulous account of your experiences, and such great photos as well. Wonderful memories to last a lifetime...thank you

Sandy in Spain

OK thanks Sheila 49

Thanks for the info. I'm disappointed there doesn't appear to be a ballroom dancing bar/lounge area, that may well deter us from this cruise

We are considering this cruise for next April. Can anyone tell me if there are any dancing venues on board, if so, is there live music or just pre-recorded?

This is listed as a comedy themed cruise with themed workshops etc, but if anyone has been on a themed cruise before, will there be lectures etc on other topics as well for those of us who don't want to learn how to perform, write a script and so on?

Do Thomson have port lectures/talks as opposed to shopping talks?

What sort of things are offered on sea days or is it all Bingo?

Thanks

Sandy in Spain

We've done South America with Princess, MSC and HAL. Ships do dock at different locations eg Punta Arenas, one time we docked almost in town(Princess but might have had a tender, can't remember), while another time it was at a commercial dock and there was a shuttle to the city.(HAL)

I would choose HAL, we enjoyed our cruise on the smaller Zandaam

It might be worth checking what other ships are in port on the days you are visiting.

Sandy in Spain