Impressions of our recent Voyager cruise, Buenos Aires to Rio

[boblerm]

Búzios, Brazil

 

Búzios was a sleepy fishing village until 1964 when Brigitte Bardot decided to vacation there for some reason.  After that, everyone who was anyone wanted to go there.  Today, it is an upscale beach resort.

Our tour was “Búzios Highlights”.  We tendered to the pier,

 

 

 

 

and boarded a bus.  The highlights were several scenic lookout spots, a drive by of several beaches, and a view of 2 monuments.

 

The scenic outlooks were nice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately for me, the views of the beaches that we drove by were all on the left side of the bus, and I was sitting on the right side of the bus.  Which for this tour was the wrong side of the bus.  This is the best that I could do

 

 

 

We only got a glimpse of several beaches and got off the bus at one of them.  We stayed for 20 minutes, not quite enough time to take a relaxing dip and dry off, but too much time to stand around and gawk.  Although surely @irishwitchy would have been in the water!   😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the monument in honor of the town’s fishing heritage

 

 

 

 

There is also a monument to honor the aforementioned Brigitte Bardot.  Our tour guide told us that the road was closed that would allow our tour bus to go by, but fortunately, it was only a 10 minute walk from our drop off point at the pier.  Surely, to be in Búzios and not visit Brigitte would be akin to being in Copenhagen and not visit Den Lille Havfrue.  Inconceivable!  The walk was a pleasant one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 2 other excursions available here,  one was called,” Beaches of Búzios by Trolley”, which I believe would pretty much repeat the one that I took with no stops, and “Beach Sail and Swim by Schooner”, which is a bit  misleading,  as the description says “the tour does not stop at any beach, only scenic sail by.  It is not allowed to swim from the schooner to the beaches”.

 

If one finds oneself in Búzios, the tour that I took is not a bad way to spend some time, but another option would be to take a taxi to one of the beaches.  Or both, as the tour is only 2 hours.

 

[boblerm]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

The sail in to Rio is one of the more impressive ones that I have experienced. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are taking a cruise with a sail in from the south, you might want to consider booking a room on the port side, and paying attention to the captain’s report the evening before, when he says the approximate time for the approach.

 

Our tour was “Highlights of Rio”, (Rio actually has some highlights! 😊

We drove around the city

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then a drive past Copacabana and Ipanima beaches.  Once again, I chose the wrong side of the bus (which in this case was the left side of the bus) to get a good view of the beaches.

 

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Then to Corcovado mountain, where we took a cog railway to the top.  This is the kind of place that you think you know what it is like having seen pictures of it, but you really don’t until you have been there.  It is truly spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should note that this is a very popular and crowded place, and the railway cars come at fairly long intervals.  And since it is essential that the tour group stay together for the ride up and the ride down, there are very long times standing around waiting for the train, which may be problematic for some.

[boblerm]

Bottom Line

 

Trip reports that I have done in the past have been largely positive, since when I am cruising, I tend to not sweat the small stuff.  This report has been different, in that I have been expressing a lot of negativity about the ports.  But I am not whining and complaining for its own sake.  I think that it is important that people who are considering this itinerary have some idea as to what they are likely to experience.

So the bottom line- knowing what we know now, do we regret taking this cruise?

The answer is no.  There were 3 ports that, IMO, do not warrant a cruise ship stop.  But the ports of BA, Montevideo and Rio were great enough to make it worthwhile.  2 ports, (Porto Belo and Buzios) were pleasant enough.  And the pampering that we received on board has a way of soothing any frazzled nerves that one may have experienced in port.  So all in all, we are happy that we went on this cruise.

I wish everyone happy cruising!

Bob

 

[Gilly]

@boblerm I seem to recall that, when booking a Regent cruise ending in BA some years ago (Mariner 2016 I think), we were offered the add on to Rio at a very reasonable price, which supports @Wendy The Wanderer's earlier comment about how this itinerary was regarded.  Sure enough, whilst on board, again, the offer came to stay on to Rio - though sadly, we had to disembark in BA for further travel plans (or else we might have been tempted).  The thing is, on that particular cruise, something happened (?faulty generator?) that meant Mariner was held up in Santos for some days, so we counted our blessings and were relieved to be moving on.   I'm sure someone here must have been on board during that fateful journey and can correct me/offer further details.

Anyway, that's all really a preamble to thanking you for confirming that we're not missing so much in having sailed around most of S America twice and that bit not at all 🙂   Once or twice we've thought of being completist and just joining the dots but having read your excellent report, I think we'll just say "boblerm did it for us".

Cheers!

[Kwaj girl]

6 minutes ago, Gilly said:

@boblerm I seem to recall that, when booking a Regent cruise ending in BA some years ago (Mariner 2016 I think), we were offered the add on to Rio at a very reasonable price, which supports @Wendy The Wanderer's earlier comment about how this itinerary was regarded.  Sure enough, whilst on board, again, the offer came to stay on to Rio - though sadly, we had to disembark in BA for further travel plans (or else we might have been tempted).  The thing is, on that particular cruise, something happened (?faulty generator?) that meant Mariner was held up in Santos for some days, so we counted our blessings and were relieved to be moving on.   I'm sure someone here must have been on board during that fateful journey and can correct me/offer further details.

Anyway, that's all really a preamble to thanking you for confirming that we're not missing so much in having sailed around most of S America twice and that bit not at all 🙂   Once or twice we've thought of being completist and just joining the dots but having read your excellent report, I think we'll just say "boblerm did it for us".

Cheers!

 

That was the 2016 Circle South America Grand Voyage on Mariner.  We were there.   That was the last of multiple issues for that cruise....earlier one of the ship's props took on a fishing net which slowed us considerably until we could get to a location with specialized divers to remove it (in Ushuaia,  I think).  Missed port Stanley due to that.  The 3-day stay at Santos was due to the ship's emergency backup generator malfunctioning when tested during normal pre-departure procedures.  Brazilian customs would not "clear" the parts flown in to repair the unit.  Regent had already flown in the technicians from the Japanese manufacturer.  Regent ended up renting a separate generator loaded in a  Conex container which was set up on deck where the golf driving net was located.  The technicians connected it thru the ship's funnel and they also had to shore-up the ceiling area on the affected side of LaVeranda to support the huge weight of the unit.  Thus that side of LV remained closed for the duration of the trip back to Miami where they were finally able to remove the rental unit, repair the ship's own emergency backup generator and return LV to full use. Interesting trip!

[Gilly]

19 minutes ago, Kwaj girl said:

 That was the last of multiple issues for that cruise

Oh yes indeed...! (and you didn't mention Code Red 😱 )

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Gilly