Around the Horn South American cruise on NCL Sun - pictorial review

[relaxatsea]

Love these pictures, especially the penguins! Our cruise did not go to the Falkland Islands, so this is all new to me and very interesting.

[tammyjw305]

Cormanants on the rocks near the ocean

More geese

Caught a view of the ship

Cannon from the war

After hiking around (and some was wet where we had to hop over small streams), we came back to visit these guys one more time.

[tammyjw305]

View of town

We waited in line for the shuttle and returned to town. We walked along the coast, looking for the solar system art that we read about before.

The Falkland Islands are disputed between the UK (an overseas territory) and Argentina. Argentina calls the island group: Malvinas Islas. I read they receive mail monthly from the UK, and the school is like a one room schoolhouse. These signs were asking Argentina to leave them alone. We later learned on a walking tour in Buenos Aires that Argentina sent a poorly trained army and the sent British army was well prepared. In the picture before, you can see they drive on the left side of the road.

The two whale bone statue

War memorial

[tammyjw305]

 

We found the Solar System. An artist was commissioned to create it. They are to scale to each other here, and then to scale in distance from each other as you continue to walk down the road. They go way up into the mountains; we only walked to Mars. To back up, the shuttle returned us to the visitor center, and then we walked right -- if you were in the tender facing the visitor center.

 

 

Little Earth with the sun behind it.

 

 

 

Mercury and Venus looking back toward the sun.

 

 

Shipwreck

[tammyjw305]

Birds

Back in town after visiting Mars. British phone booths and postbox drop

Ship mast

[tammyjw305]

We did some shopping. We got our youngest, who loves penguins, a penguin knitting kit. His sitter was trying to teach him, and he was practicing with other yarn. However, I think he has given up. Maybe she will knit itt for him :). We had about 9 GBPs in change left from previous trips to London, so we took this in a coin purse. They were not patient in this store of me looking for pound coins. In the next store, I also got a penguin t-shirt and husband some Diddle Dee jam; here we used a credit card. They wanted to see our id; which did not go well because my husband signed for it and showed his id. Then we realized that we had given them the card with my name. We have the same acct with each a card, so it is all the same to us. So, I signed above his signature and showed my id. We took our driver's licenses on this trip to have an id to take ashore. We also stopped at a grocery for some British candy and got: Turkish delight, a little Haribo bag, and British smarties (husband), and I found Cadbury Diam -- my favorite! Here the grocery store was super patient, and I was apologizing for have to count out change. We used most of our British pence. At the first store, we got 1 pence change in Falkland Pounds -- it had a penguin on the back :). I have a coin and bill currency collection, so I also try to save some local currency.

With shopping done, we headed back to the visitor center (which also looked to have nice merchandise) to catch the tender. One more note -- the visitor center does not have free wi-fi, but has it. You have to buy a pre-paid wi-fi minutes card. We did not try to figure this out.

 

Back at the tender, there was quite a line that was starting to get in the way of people walking through. There was a food stand next to it selling hamburgers and other things. We were hungry by this point but almost back on the ship. No tenders were coming. I believe they finally radioed, and the ship sent three.

The tender port sign

[tammyjw305]

To finish off our day at the Falklands, when we were back on the ship, we waited in a LONG line for the Great Outdoors (portion of the buffet that was on open) for a 3:30 lunch. Then, we did gemstone trivia; it was hard. We had dinner at the Sports Bar. I loves the wings. Other ships have them 24 hours a day in the Blue Lagoon or O'Sheehan's, but this ship only has them after 5:30 in the Sports Bar. We had gone one other day during the cruise and got service okay. However, today, we could not get service. They were only interested in their bar drink buying customers. I went to the bar twice to ask. The second person did send a waiter out. Since this is the only option and time for wings, I expect they would be willing to take orders... We shared the spinach and artichoke dip, and I had the hot wings. Husband had the chef salad. When leaving, we grabbed some popcorn to enjoy during the 7:30 show.

[relaxatsea]

Thanks for the great report and pics of the Falklands. I loved the Solar System!

[tammyjw305]

March 19, 2017 -- Sea Day

 

I do not have any notes or many pictures from this day, so the review will be short...

We had breakfast in the MDR, sharing a table with a couple from the UK and a couple from Germany. We enjoying sharing a table and meeting new people.

We then went to the cake challenge. My husband wanted to be a volunteer, so acting super excited to be picked. He was teamed up with the Hotel Director, Brian Walters, who we have cruise with before.

Cruise Director's crazy cake

 

 

 

Brian claimed they won since the Head Chef did cake making for a profession.

[tammyjw305]

Just an interesting picture

Tonight we had Teppanyaki reservations. We booked our specialty dining online before the trip; however, they do not allow Teppanyaki booking before boarding since it has very few seats and few seatings per night. We have not been here before since it does book up quickly. We booked right after boarding, and this cruise had more nights so more oppty. I'm not an adventurous eater, and this was adventurous.

Let the show begin

[tammyjw305]

Scrambled egg snake -- for the rice

Onion volcano

Rice

There was a soup and a seaweed salad. I had filet for my meat; the sauces were good. Husband had seafood. For dessert, I had green tea cake and green tea ice cream. Both interesting. The ice cream was not bad; I guess ice cream is just good. I did not like the cake; husband did. Husband had fruit sashimi.

[relaxatsea]

Great pictures of both of you at Teppanyaki! I also enjoyed Brian's cake making!

 

This is a great review, and thanks so much!

 

Barbara

[OldBoot]

I will look for the Solar system display when we are in port in a few months. It looks like you had a full and fun day in the Falklands.

[tammyjw305]

Yes -- Brian was very competive on the cake decorating.

 

See if you get can make it to Jupiter (but I have no idea how far away it was...)

[tammyjw305]

March 20, 2017 -- Puerto Madryn, Argentina

 

More Penguins!!!

I wanted to see penguins on this trip. My early research was not looking very optimistic. There was something from Puerto Montt that required a boat, in Punta Arenas, one place that was a shorter bus drive had closed down, they had another that required a rough 30-60 minute boat with some feedback that the boats were not in good shape, Falklands might missed due to weather and rough seas, and Puerto Tombo was a 3 hour drive from Puerto Madryn. I decided on Puerto Tombo and to book the cruise ship excursion to be sure to get there. A few on our role call drove with no issue and faster than the bus drive.

I booked on myncl early. When you book online now, you cannot just reserve and use onboard credit to pay later; you have to pay then with a credit card. After I booked, they changed the Latitudes program to offering a discount on shore excursions. We read about people getting money back. When we were boarded (we had a long list of to-dos right after boarding and boarded late), we asked about a refund for the discount and also had planned to book a tour on the last day in Buenos Aires with tour, luggage storage, and drop off at the airport after. They gave us onboard credit for the discount and we got the second excursion booked.

The excursion was at the crack of dawn. We took entertainment for the bus.

Large dinosaur. Our tour guide mentioned it coming up, so we got our cameras ready.

 

We saw several Guanaco

I guess the sun was in my eyes. We stopped to visit the restroom here, while our tour guide got our tickets. We had great weather here too! Warming up -- short sleeves. The tour guide noted it was normally windy.

A few teaser penguin pictures before my bedtime.

Penguin nest; they nest in holes in the ground.

 

[tammyjw305]

Penguins continued

 

The nests

They liked the shade under the walkway

[tammyjw305]

With molting, he looks like he has a long neck

Molting from the side

 

Birds; I don't remember what kind.

Aw...

[tammyjw305]

Pretty surf

Enjoying a day at the beach

So many! Puerto Tombo has around 1 million penguins; about 75% were still there when we visited.

Swimming

[tammyjw305]

This penguin was here for a while letting people pose for pictures. I was afraid to get too close :).

Do you see the armadillo?

[tammyjw305]

Hawk

 

More animals posing by their sign

 

[tammyjw305]

Details about the penguins. We saw Magellanic penguins here and at the Falklands. On the Falklands, they have other types of penguin at Volunteer Point. I heard that those that went really enjoyed it. We decided not to try the 4x4, long drive.

After our time in the penguin reserve, we had time for a restroom break and to grab our lunch from the bus rider. I believe they had a gift shop too. We went back to our seats to eat. The box lunch had a sandwich, chips, apple, and a dulce de leche brownie and a bottled water. We left while still eating and had to find a place to hold our lunch box when done. Our tour guide / bus driver stopped at a rest stop for a restroom break on the way there but drove straight the almost 3 hours back. It was quieter on the way back; I read a full Reader's Digest. When back to Madryn, they offered to either drop us off still in town at the beginning of the pier or at the ship. We were ready to go back to the ship, so stayed on. Quite a few people did get off. View of Madryn from the ship.

[relaxatsea]

Great pics! Love the landscape and the penguins!

[buggins0402]

Thanks...this confirms my initial Penguin hunt thoughts! Puerto Tombo is a must do. I love your pictures.

[tammyjw305]

Thanks!

[tammyjw305]

March 21, 2017 - Sea Day

 

I have no notes or pictures from today, so a really short entry going from memory.

 

Today was the crew talent show with the famous fountains segment. We made bead lizards key chains with the cruise director's staff; they were hard. We collected signatures for prizes at the end of the cruise. Our prize at the end of a deck of cards. On a 7 night cruise, we got 2 pens, a flashlight, and a deck of cards. We must have a participated less, and "prices" must have gone up. We also played their golf putting game.

We had dinner at Four Seasons (where the tables are close together). The couple next to us was showing each waiter certificates in an envelope. I read about people on another cruise line getting a rounding the Horn certificate, so I wondered. After they showed it to someone else, I politely (I was nosy) ask what they had. They showed up, and they had rounding Horn certificates. They were very nice certificates. I asked where they got them. They noted Guest Services, and that they were platinum plus. We figured it was worth a shot, so we stopped by after dinner. He looked something up on the computer, said he had to check something in the back, and then told us they would deliver them to our room. Yay!

Let me also take this light day chance to review the TV. It is flat screen now, but not too much bigger than the previous box one. We had 2 movie channels in English and one in Spanish. On the English ones, there were Spanish subtitles. This drove my husband crazy. He kept trying to read and translate them. I guess when we normally watch movies with subtitles, we are supposed to be reading them or we don't understand. He could not make himself ignore them. It did not bother me. I watched Sully; I had not seen it. I also watched part of Jack Reacher. The Spanish channel did not have English subtitles, unfortunately. We got a TV schedule from guest services at the beginning of the cruise; this included a channel guide and movie schedule (which was not complete accurate). We also had two sitcom channels that had only 2 episodes of each series -- eek! I watched the first Friends three times. The barn-dium Chip and Joanna episode, and Mike and Molly - Molly gets a hat. They need more than 2 episodes. We always go to the Not so newly wed show, but missed it for some readon this time. I caught it on tv later.