Regal, March 9--22 cruise

[Suzy Q]

We returned yesterday from our South American odyssey. I will answer questions, if I can, and will write a review, if any one is interested.

SQ

[nancycoop1]

Suzy - We are cruising on the Regal on April 19th from Manaus. I would love to hear about your impressions of the ship. Do you know if they offer a coffee card? Thanks for offering to share info with us.

 

Nancy

[Suzy Q]

Yes, on the coffee card....bought one. Something like $26.70, some odd amount, for 15 cups. Interesting tho, we asked at the Purser's Desk and got a blank look and were told they didn't have such a thing. Went to one of the bars, asked and got it!

 

More later.

SQ

[dileep]

Did you see Cruise Critic's Associate Editor Melissa Baldwin on board?

http://www.cruisecritic.com/virtual/virtual.cfm?ID=20&page=1

[Suzy Q]

dileep--that wasn't our trip. She was in Stanley on Valentine's day.

[Suzy Q]

March 5, 2006-- Arrived in B.A. early and had to wait for driver. Drove to Claridge. Room not ready but we were invited to help ourselves to their buffet breakfast while we waited. Unpacked, met Carlos at 12:30. He reviewed our plans and itinerary. Four-hour city tour that afternoon. Saw, Plaza de Mayo, Montserrat, La Boca, Recoleta, Recoleta cemetery (Evita), La Madera, San Telmo antique market. Etc. Wanted to look for leather, but it was Sunday, only one shop open and Carlos said they were pricey.

Claridge-- Has Internet café/business center. Room very small (even the soap is small) Great water pressure in the shower. However, noises from the next room came through our bathroom vent. Hint--close bathroom door. Had to call again after waiting two hours for additional bath towels and pillows. Spa at Claridge 70 pesos for 50 minute massage! Very good massage. Staff very friendly. Comfortable mattress.

March 6, 2006—Had breakfast, checked out, stored luggage and drove to Jorge Newberry airport for flight to Iguazu. Aerolineas Argentinas. Easy check in. Take off was 1 ½ hours late. Arrived at Iguazu airport, Argentina side. Airport is small but nice, two carousals. Oliver waiting for us. Everton driver. Drove to Sheraton International Iguazu. 15 minutes from airport. Easy check in. Walked to train, which is near Sheraton, walked to Devil’s Throat. Amazing! Iguazu (pronounced ee-gwa-SUE, means Big Waters. Back to Sheraton, showered, Oliver picked us up for drive to Brazil for buffet dinner and show. Table was front-center! Right next to stage. Show was “Latina Americana”. Buffet had tons of food, drinks were not included. Difficult to get to food, probably 500 people. However, great seats for show made a difference and a positive experience. DH had tons of good meat. Music and dancing from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia & Paraguay. Back at Sheraton by 11:15PM

Sheraton— Expensive, great room, view of Falls, you can hear the Falls from balcony, nice bathroom, comfortable mattress, friendly staff. This hotel is inside the park. You use your key card to activate electricity in your room. Our last night here, we sat in their very busy bar, at the bar, and had a couple of drinks. There were two guitarists playing and other guests laughing & having a good time. Internet café, I think maybe 5 stations for about $1.15 for 15 minutes. Buffet breakfast included. There is a very small shopping area across the front driveway. Took us about five minutes to go through it.

March 7, 2006--After breakfast, Oliver and Everton picked us up. Drove to Brazil shopping area. Very large store with everything from T-shirts to jewelry to knick-knacks. Very clean bathrooms. (Note to ladies—bathrooms in the park are not very clean.) Next stop was helicopter ride. Very short but great. Outside helicopter tour office Maqa (sp?) Indians from Paraguay selling little trinkets. Walked Brazil side of Falls and had lunch with view of Falls. Back to Sheraton for short break then walked upper and lower circuit of Falls. Ended at boat ride INTO the Falls. Too fun. This is not the jungle boat ride at Disneyland! Short walk to jeep ride through subtropical rain forest and then back to Sheraton.

March 8, 2006—Slept in and had breakfast. Oliver picked us up and took us to airport. There is a nice shopping area inside the airport. Took off on time. Service on plane consisted of a drink and half a sandwich. Aerolineas Argentinas, easy flight.

Claridge part two—asked for larger room and it was fine. Got extra towels and pillows immediately. Massages and then walked to Italian restaurant, Broccolino, excellent food. Claridge is only about two blocks from Florida Street—pedestrian shopping area. It was about five blocks to restaurant.

March 9, 2006—Checked out of hotel, stored our bags there, met our guide, and drove to Rose Garden in Palermo district. Train ride then boat ride around the Delta. Back to Claridge, retrieved luggage and caught a taxi. Taxi driver sets off but does not know where the cruise terminal is! At each stoplight he yells at the cab next to us asking for directions. Then he turns to us and asks us! We finally arrive. Long lines. Princess check-in, Princess takes your passports, metal detectors, etc. Finally, we are onboard. We are met by our cabin steward and handed a glass of champagne. We have late seating at table #125.

A little bit about our cabin and the ship—we had a mini suite. It is a very large cabin. Tons of storage. Two four-drawer areas in the main cabin. A four-drawer nightstand on each side of the bed, two shelves over the refrigerator, the closet area and nine more drawers. Safe and a shelf over that. Bathroom has two mirrored cabinets each with four shelves. Shower with full sized tub. Balcony is nice with one straight back chair, a second chair with pull out legroom and a small table. Hair dryer in main cabin. No alarm clock. There is a loveseat (uncomfortable), two chairs and a small table. Bed is perpendicular to balcony so you are facing the scenery. Pillow menu and bathrobes on request. Room service—took any where from10 to 35 minutes. Internet café—12 stations. You can’t key swipe these. Must buy time at the Purser’s Desk. Library—small, ratherdisorganized. Casino—The Dome on deck 14. It is closed for several days while you are in Chilean waters. Purser’s Desk—very friendly, helpful and patient. Café del Sol—food pretty good, friendly staff, older “line” type buffet, not the “island” style. Omelet station in AM. Palm Court Dining Room-food pretty good, service excellent. The Head Waiter (Nikoli sp?), Waiter, Edwin, and assistant waiter were outstanding. Entertainment –We thought it was pretty good. The singers and dancers work very hard. I like the production numbers. There was a juggler/comedian and a magician/comedian. These are not really magic or juggling performances, but comedy. Usually a good-natured victim from the audience adds to the humor. There were a couple of onboard guest lecturers, Leah Adams was great. There is, of course, bingo. Dance lessons. Ceramics. Computer classes. As an aside, there were motion activated hand sanitizers in the Café del Sol, Internet café, & near the elevators as passengers returned on port days. Coffee card—purchase from bars, costs something like $26.70 for 15 cups. I thought the ship was in pretty good repair. Although oddly, I didn’t have to attend line dancing as I was stepping in and out of our shower stream as it went from scalding to frigid. Room steward—below average. We tipped him after he introduced himself as we asked for extra ice and two extra bath towels each day (not each cleaning). He accomplished this for about three days then never again. Clean glasses were not to be counted on. Forgot to replace dirty pool towels. One day the bathroom wastebasket was missing, appearing later that night. He knocked on and opened the cabin door several times for his evening duties. I know they have a record of passenger’s late or early dinner assignment. This would be around 8PM. Second seating is at 8:15PM. Any way, none of this was critical and certainly didn’t detract from our experience.

March 10, 2006—Montevideo—Had private tour arranged but “family emergency” necessitated substitute driver (and additional cost). This was still fine and we saw the city. Interestingly, our first driver spoke good English. Unfortunately, our car died at the first photo stop! Replacement driver (not so good English) and car were sent and we were off. Whew. Legislative palace was the most beautiful thing we saw. Stopped at post office to buy pretty stamps.

March 11, 2006—Sea Day. Very quiet. Went to martini demonstration, hot tubs and casino. Read.

[dileep]

We spent only one night there and saw it from the Argentinian side only. How does the Brazil side compare? How was the helicopter ride? We heard the helicopters from the Sheraton? How long is the ride and what do they charge?

[Suzy Q]

Hard to compare the two sides. I was awed with all of it. Just spectacular. Helicopter ride is short, very short. Maybe 10--14 minutes. Cost is $60 per person.

[Aussie Gal]

Marianne,

 

Have printed out Part 1 and am about to read it. Am looking forward to reading all your comments and comparing them to how we found everything.

 

Am looking forward to Part 2.

 

Jennie

[Suzy Q]

March 12, 2006—Puerto Madryn—Our guide, Leo, pronounces this Puerto MAD-ryn. He meets us for drive out to Punto Tumbo at the pier. It’s about 200 km, maybe 2 ½ hour’s drive. The last 70 miles is a gravel rutted road. Bumpy. We were the second car at the park that AM and had the place to ourselves for about 15—20 minutes. Then the buses started arriving. Not too many penguins left. I’d say 100—200. However, we were inches away from them. They walk along the path right next to you. No petting or feeding! These are Magellanic penguins. On our drive out we saw a foxes, llama (ok, it wasn’t llama, but something like that). Next we drove to Trelew to visit the paleontological museum. It’s small but very nice. The director (?) showed us around and was very cordial and clearly proud of their museum. Tiny gift shop and snack area. Back to Puerto Madryn, dropped off near pier, small shopping area. Some shops were closed as it was Sunday, but many had opened for the ship. Bought chocolate, magnets, etc. Walked back to ship.

March 13, 2006—Sea day. Very quiet. Read and napped.

March 14, 2006—Stanley, Falklands— Long tender ride as ship anchors well out to avoid winds. Met at pier by our guide. Falklands are 780 islands! East Falklands is where Stanley is. East Falklands has about 2000 people and West Falklands has about 116. There are more four-wheel drive vehicles here per capita than anywhere else in the world. Drove around town then out to Gypsy Cove. Only a few penguins remaining. Drove out to area and saw ‘stone runs”—groupings of stones that look like flowing rivers. Saw dairy farm, sheep, & mine fields everywhere. 25,000---30,000 land mines planted during the “conflict” with Argentina in 1982. They don’t call it a “war”. Many houses here are “kit” houses. Ordered from elsewhere and assembled when brought here. Visited Anglican cathedral in town and walked around after tour. Bought stamps at post office. Only a handful of gift shops here.

Forgot to mention, our Captain was Angelo Vago and Cruise Director was J.J. Ullrich.

March 15, 2006—Sea day, around Cape Horn! We circled Cape Horn Island towards port. Very windy with swells. Lecturer, Joe May, announced how lucky we were to have such mild conditions! There is a Chilean navy outpost on the island. This is their territory. At one point, we were about 1.1 miles south of this island so we were 1.1 miles south of the southernmost point before Antarctica! Everyone was on deck shivering in the sea spray and taking photos. Awesome.

March 16, 2006—Ushuaia—Pronounced you-swy-AH I think, we heard so many versions. Very short day here. We were to sail at 2PM. Didn’t have a guide lined up so we grabbed one at the pier. Was thinking about a catamaran tour but didn’t see any offers. Ship may have had them all. Drove to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Saw river, lake and beaver dams. Just beautiful. Drove up towards glacier, but didn’t take ride up to it. Dropped off in town walked around then back to ship. Departure was delayed as winds were up around 30—35 plus knots on our port side pushing ship to dock/starboard side. Sailed around 3PM.

March 17, 2006—Punta Arenas—Had a private tour arranged here but (my fault) didn’t confirm and they didn’t show up. Caught a taxi at the pier for city tour at a fraction of the price. Driver not great English but we were able to communicate and it just added to the fun. Our terrible Spanish, his broken English and pantomime. Saw Magellan University, Braun-Menendez Museum, cathedral, Cemetary, Plaza Munoz, Braun Hotel. Asked our taxi driver for a lunch place recommendation, found it and ate there. Very good. There are cart vendors for souvenirs in the Plaza. Walked around a bit. Taxi back to ship. Outside our balcony there is a tug pushing the ship towards the dock to help keep it stable, as it is so windy.

March 18, 2006—Amalia Glacier. Commonly called this because it is in the Amalia channel but technically it is the Squa Glacier, named for the ship that discovered it. We are able to get to about 1 mile from the glacier. Captain turns the ship so there is a view from all sides. Here for about an hour. Head back to the Pacific. Around 6PM, the captain announces that from about 8:30 PM to midnight, we can expect high swells as we enter the Pacific. He is accurate! Dining room is half empty.

March 19, 2006—Sea day. Quiet.

March 20, 2006—Puerto Montt—Tender port—met at pier by our guide and driver. Drove to Puerto Varas, Petrohue Falls, farm with llama, Osorno volcano (it’s about 8,000 feet, we went to 4,000), Ensenada for lunch, Emerald Lake, Llanquihue Lake, Petrohue River, fish market, Angelmo, shopping along the pier. Tendered back to ship. This area is beautiful.

March 21, 2006—Sea day. Packing.

March 22, 2006—Valparaiso. We are in the next to last color group to disembark. Still, it goes quickly taking just over two hours. We take a short bus ride to the terminal where the luggage is easily found and meet our guide and driver. Drive around Valparaiso. Ride up and down the funicular (cable car). Very cool. 52 hills in Valparaiso. Drive to Vina del Mar. Beautiful seaside community. Lunch near beach. Sausalito Lake, parks, etc. Then stop at winery on the way to Santiago. Santiago city tour. Brief shopping then dropped off at airport.

March 23, 2006—Home!

Random ramblings--We were blessed with incredibly good weather on this trip. Although there was a cold driving rain when we disembarked in Punta Arenas, the sun came out around 10AM. It still remained windy there; normal according to locals, and Stanley as well was very breezy.

We arranged all of our tours privately. No ship tours. With recent tragic events, this may seem foolhardy, but we will continue this practice. All of our guides were flexible and we could tailor the tour to our wishes, spending as much or as little time at each area.

The passenger population on our trip was definitely older & retired. There was a large group of Brazilians, about 300, and a group from Aruba, about 100. People from the U.K. and Canada. A very interesting mix and we enjoyed meeting and talking with different people at breakfast and lunch.

[sultan_sfo]

Did they have any South American Dishes in Horizon Court or Dining Rooms?/Sultan

[jeanb]

Suzy Q, Is Carlos you are referring to in Buenos Aires from Private Tours? We plan to book with a Carlos for a city tour, tango show and Delta cruise in December. Should I confirm the tours just before we leave home for a Dec. 3 cruise? Buenos Aires is our last stop for 2 days.

[Suzy Q]

sultan--don't remember any of those dishes, but I eat vegetarian so wouldn't have looked too far. DH said the meat he had in Buenos Aires and at the Brazilian dinner show was outstanding. Didn't say that about the meat on the ship.

 

jeanb--yes, same Carlos. He is efficient, attentive, friendly and hard working. He will confirm all your info a week or two before. He did our hotels, Claridge & Sheraton, the domestic air and our B.A. city tours. I talked to a couple of other tour operators, and found his information and responses the best fit for us.

[jeanb]

Suzy Q -- Thanks for the information on Carlos. Did you see a Tango show? Carlos gave me 6 to choose from, can't decide which one to choose? My husband eats vegetarian too so looking for a show with a decent menu for him and a good show.

[Suzy Q]

jeanb--we did not see a tango show, per se. The dinner & dance performance we saw in Iguazu, Brazil, had a tango portion. I did a little bit of research on this before we decided on that choice. There is a huge variety of venues. Some more intimate than others. Some just sounded way too big for us. Over 1,000 people.

 

SQ