1982CruzStart

Sette Mari was a bit of a disappointment. The appies were good, picture of partial eaten ones below. They were lightly deep fried zucchini slices, deep fried mozzarella balls with marinara sauce, chunks of parmessan cheese, black olives and 2 pieces of bruschetta (my DH's favorite hence the empty plate). The prosecca was very good. We both had the veal scallopini, mine with lemon and his the marsala. Both were on the tough side and neither had much flavor. Disappointing. Service was slow but we weren't in a hurry so not a problem for us.

Last for now. Lunch was in Compass Rose. We both had the tuna tartar for an appy. A picture of it but no picture of my boring but very tasty burger. Boring as I eat it without a bun so not much to look at. We are headed to Sette Mari for dinner if we can get in and will post pictures if I don't go brain dead and forget. Skipping the Captain's welcome.

We went out to a look out point that had beautiful views. Guess who didn't get a decent picture. There is an Uruguayan artist that has a home just before the lookout that is similar in style to Gaudí.

We went into an area full of pretty large homes that was developed by a wealthy native son. The size of lot is controlled and the lots are sold in order to fund a museum he wanted to build. The museum has no other source of funding. When it needs more money it sells a lot. I would have liked to see it but museums are not my DH 's jam so I occasionally pick tours that work for him. The most interesting thing to me is that in this city they have only names for their streets, ok no big deal may cities do that but they do NOT have any house numbers. Each house has a name that is its address. The owner can change its name anytime it suits them as there is no registry for the names. I guess if you don't want your mail that is one way to avoid getting bills.

Sorry to ramble on but the first chance to post with reasonably reliable internet. Going to do what I can while I can. Did a bus tour of Punta del Este. It is a very touristy city with building after building that are just vacation homes for foreigners. Some modern and some from the 70's. Here is the Hanging bridge. At least that is what I think she called it. The guide was very good but I don't have an ear for accents so I don't always hear what is said.

We both had the scallops that were also delicious but not worth taking a picture of. The entree was 5 small to medium scallops. Not impressive to look at but wonderful to eat. I had mine with a caper butter sauce on the side. Also had a few asparagus spears and shared some sauted mushrooms.

Now a little food porn. First the crab and avocado salad appetizer. Then the chicken and goose liver parfait. My DH said the crab was delicious, the avocado and sauce indifferent. My parfait was delicious.

BTW Uruguay has 3 official flags. 2 showing in the picture above.

Congressional building for Uruguay. Someone had the nerve to climb the stairs which caused some shrill whistling and sent a guard rushing over to tell them it was a no no.

For my Canadian readers, our embassy in Uruguay. So impressive. Not. But then again having an Embassy in Uruguay is questionable for a country our size considering Uruguay is a country of 3.5 million people. Couldn't get pictures of the mega mansions of the American and British Ambassadors let alone their actual Embassies.

Next is the first government building that has now been turned into offices and condos. Quite a beautiful building

Here is the current government building in Montevideo. This is the third one in modern history.

We took a wine tour that was to leave the ship at 9. Nothing like drinking wine before 11. We did a little tour around the estate first and into the underground cellar then onto drinking wine. We took this tour as we had never tried Uruguayan wines before. We had good pours of 5 wines. 4 were nice but for us not worth the price to buy. 1, the late harvest, was undrinkable. I like late harvest but I couldn't drink it all. The tasting was accompanied with what was billed as lunch. For me a problem as I need to avoid flour and everything was made with flour but the cheese. Lunch was a few cubes of cheese. That was going to be it as I stupidly booked a tour for the afternoon tour. It was a bus tour around the city which I wanted to see but give me wine and a moving bus and let's just say I didn't see all the sights. I will post a few pictures like the previous one.

The internet has proven to be a challenge for me but I will try and post a little now while it seems to work on my phone but not my tablet. Embarkation was pure chaos though short lived. Norwegian Star was loading at the same time using all the same space and immigration personnel. We were intermingled making it a challenge to figure out where we should go. When we finally got in the right line and got up to speak to immigration their system seemed to go down. So we just waited with no explanation as to what was happening. At first wondering if it was just us and there was something wrong with our passports. Finally onboard, a quick lunch at the grill then access to our suite an hour early. Luggage followed fairly quickly and we spent time unpacking. Sadly without a glass of champagne as they didn't have enough to put in everyone's suite. That would have to wait until Montevideo.

I am doing an experiment to try and get into posting pictures. Please bare with me. This is a statute from our tour of Montevideo.

I have been derelict in my postings, due to just being busy. Headed out again in the next couple of minutes so will try and catch up later today or sometime tomorrow. No food porn from Chartreuse last as i forgot my phone. It is so hard to get good help. Dinner was great. More later.

We were at the Alvear Palace Hotel and it was just the luck of the draw as we didn't request any kind of upgrade.

Our lovely suite has 3 TVs and we haven't been able to get any of them to work. One we could get sound but no picture, one we could get a picture but no sound and the last we didn't try as we would have to lay in the bathtub to watch it. Oh well nothing good to watch anyways ir at least that is what i am telling myself. Well my morning started with a cool shower and not on purpose. I guess too many people all trying to shower at once to get to breakfast so couldn't get the water to run anymore than lukewarm. Not really what i wanted but i have heard that is better for your skin than having a hot shower but still not keen. Our bus is scheduled to leave at 12 and i know there is at least one at 12:15 and quite possibly ones before or after. The breakfast area seemed to be full of Regent guests. Not long now so can't wait.

will do.

can't wait. thanks for taking care of her for us.

Well after many hours flying and visiting 3 airports we made it to BA. The flights weren't too bad just long. Had to change planes in Montreal and then do a little shuffle in Sao Paulo where we got off the plane and walked (probably did us good after all the sitting and lying around) to go through security, and then after about 2 hours we got back on our same plane with a different flight crew. Not sure the point of doing the security thing as we have been 30,000 or so feet in the air and pretty sure we couldn't have picked up anything since our last security check. There were 4 couples on the flight from Vancouver heading to the ship with 2 of us couples headed to the Regent hotel. I guess the others made their own arrangements. We have a lovely 1 bedroom suite with a large living area, a spacious king bedroom and a large bathroom with separate shower and a jacuzzi tub, and best not to forget the bidet. I am already struggling to stay awake and it is only 6 pm as i just can't sleep on a plane no matter how comfortable the lie-flat beds are and these weren't bad. One meal on the first flight was pretty good - the salmon and the other flight was inedible - the tenderloin. Air Canada use to serve a decent filet in BC but that sure wasn't the case on either flight. For lunch from SP to BA you could have cold chicken or cold chicken. It was okay. DH said his chicken from the first flight was really good. Bye for now. We are in discussions on where to grab a bite for dinner. We take the 12 pm bus to the ship. Talk to you later.

Please add as much as you want, i appreciate all contributions. I think it makes for a more enjoyable thread the more others add. See you onboard.

I am hoping to post about this once in a lifetime trip that takes us cruising around Antartica for 3 days as well as down the east coast of SA and back up the west coast. I wanted to take an expedition cruise but it wasn't in the cards, so for me this is the next best thing. We originally booked this cruise for 2022 but it was cancelled and we jumped on changing to this one. As time and internet allows i will post commentary and if i can remember how to do so, i will post food porn and other pictures. Heavily into packing mode today as we take the first step tomorrow to get to our gateway city and spend the night. We had challenges with our flights through Regent Air and though i understand how tough these past couple of years have been on them, this was the worst experience with them. On the upside I have flights that get me to Buenos Aires and back from Santiago so to this point we are good. Crappy seats on some of the flights because 1)Regent Air ignored our requests for seat changes and 2) the airline we are dealing with wouldn't allow us to change them directly online until after the last and final change to our itinerary. Well we are in business and not on the wings so how bad can they be. Best itinerary change (not) was having us spend over 24 hours in a stopover city and arriving in BA on sailing date where we might have missed the ship. Loved that one. Because i couldn't talk to RA directly it was a frustrating time trying to get them straightened out. I will try not to bore you (and me) to death but no promises. Will be back in touch as the trip unfolds.

I would probably chose to do Voyager for the extra 2 days, less money and ending in Lisbon rather than Barcelona as i prefer Lisbon over Barcelona but only slightly. We board Voyager in a couple of weeks and admit to being a little disappointed in her after being on Explorer the last time we sailed because of the differences pointed out by Flossie about Splendor. As well the cabins on Voyager were showing their age in 2019 and as far as i know not too much has been done since. We are going on Voyager again because it is going where we want to go. We chose our itinerary first and then the ship. We did book a cruise in 2024 specifically to go on one of the newer ships as we are not sure how much more cruising we will do and i wanted to sail on 1 of them, 1 last time. It turns out to be on Grandeur because the timing and money were right.

I don't know for sure but my guess is that they will take you to the same hotel as it is more efficient to have everyone in 1 hotel for transfers, breakfast etc. Will be interesting to see if you get a response from someone who has experienced it.