slewis7

I can give you prices for 2 of those excursions for my Viking June 22, 2024 cruise: Vigur $229 per person Skalanes $219 per person

So good to hear! We are sailing the Millennium on a Japan itinerary in early April and I hope we will have a similar onboard experience.

My wife and I very recently made a new booking with Viking so I have emailed my travel agent to see if we can apply the “Special Future Guest Promotion” retroactively. 🤞

I agree that this is an absolutely wonderful itinerary. My highlights were our pre-cruise visit to Iguazu, the Antarctica scenic cruising and the last several ports in Chile. The red eye flight the eve of disembarkation was painful but it was worth it. As for the Holland America shipboard experience, it exceeded all my best expectations! I especially enjoyed the food! Will sail HAL again!

Perhaps I found the wrong “Doctor my Eyes” video as Tako was not in it. He is a pretty young guy.

We just got off the Oosterdam and we enjoyed the music in the RS Lounge. The guitarist, Tako from Tokyo, is a phenomenal talent and he seems to play a ripping solo on just about every song. On my one prior HAL cruise I really enjoyed the music in the BB King Club; I much prefer it to rock. Will that type of music still be present on the larger ships?

My wife and I did a HAL horseback riding excursion today in Castro. It was a very small group of 11 passengers and a HAL rep. The ranch owner accompanied us on the van and told us about his ranch and how he obtained it. He was a very friendly fellow named Julian. After a scenic half hour ride, we arrived and Julian gave us a demonstration of training a horse. Then we all got saddled up on horses accompanied by Julian and a number of his family members. The area was absolute beautiful with some nice grades at various spots. We saw plenty of dogs and passed by a lake. It was wonderful! After a 2 hours ride we returned to the ranch. We were treated to sandwiches, fruit, nuts and honey sweetened lemon juice and then returned to the port. It was an amazing outing and by far the best ship excursion I have ever taken!

Today is Castro. Tomorrow is Puerto Montt. Castro was added to the itinerary pre-cruise when some scheduled dates were shifted and a port was dropped.

I did the El Pedral tour as well today. Seeing penguins up close was wonderful! Was that a long cruise pier or what!?

When the lecturer mentioned that book, I jumped on Amazon and was able to purchase an illustrated Kindle version of it for just $0.99! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MK5GMDG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Me and my lovely wife tried the Dive-In for lunch today. We were both quite pleased with the food. I would rate it above Oceania, Viking and Celebrity for this fare. The burger, fries and shake were all outstanding as were the sauces.

Looking ahead to Port Stanley, the weather forecast for Sunday currently shows windy conditions. Hopefully we will have calmer weather. According to the following relevant web site: https://www.falklands.gov.fk/maritimeauthority/coastal-state/local-notices-to-mariners/69-local-notice-to-mariners-01-2022#:~:text=Wind condition limitations for tendering,small passenger tenders and zodiacs. “Wind condition limitations for tendering operations When the wind conditions are sustained 30 and gusting above 30Kts, Stanley harbour will be closed for fishing vessels and all small passenger tenders and zodiacs. Additionally, the harbour may be closed at wind speeds below these limits on direction of the Harbour Master.”

@Btimmer unfortunately HAL canceled Punta del Este for this cruise. We get Castro instead, later on. Today, after a brief tour of Montevideo, we were taken to the Bouza Winery by our private guide. It is an absolutely beautiful property. We had a tour of the facilities and sampled 4 wines accompanied by delicious tapas. All 4 wines were excellent. We enjoyed it!

Our driver knew to take us to drop luggage at Costa Salguero (not the cruise terminal). We are there now awaiting a transfer. It seems like a smooth process so far.

I am excited to be joining you both here and on the ship for this very same cruise. Who knows, I may be inspired to post some of my own experiences on your thread, if that is OK. Let’s just hope us and other passengers can find out where to go today to drop our luggage, without too much trouble!