Current Itinerary: Tomorrow (Dec 6): Fly to Sweden (First flight is in 1st class on an A380 [Lufthansa] to Frankfurt then onto Stockholm, but will be traveling to Finspång. Dec 10th: Fly to Rio de Janeiro (Flight from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro is on a new Boeing 747-8 and I have a seat in…
Category: 2016 South America Cruise
South America Cruise – Post #2
First class had it’s own queue, so getting on the A380 was quite pleasant… Only 8 seats here, so should be a very enjoyable flight. No overhead bins? That’s because I have my own personal locker….
South America Cruise – Post #3
By some miracle I managed to make my connecting flight to Stockholm. If you ever think it’s a good idea to fly through Frankfurt….it never is. My flight from Houston arrived at gate C16 48 minutes late. Then I had to walk to gate A15, through passport control (luckily no queue there) then security (tremendous…
South America Cruise – Post #4
Arrived in Stockholm… Picked up hire car, a brand new (only 10 kilometers on it) Audi A4. Managed to connect Bluetooth which is great because T-Mobile has free 4G service here until the end of the year so I’m streaming music and using my Sat Nav on my phone. Now if I can just adjust…
South America Cruise – Post #5
Arrived in Norrköping with the obligatory stop enroute at the US Embassy…. (McDonald’s). A couple of pictures of my room at the Elite Grand Hotel…
South America Cruise – Post #6
I wandered around Norrköping for a little while this evening in my free time (sunset was around 4 PM). Here’s one picture I took during my walk.
South America Cruise – Post #7
The original plan was to drive to Stockholm this evening and relax and explore in the morning…. Original plan…. Luckily I found out that the plan changed before the 4 PM cancellation penalty on the hotel in Stockholm. I returned to the Elite Grand Hotel for the third night.. Driving to Stockholm will hopefully commence…
South America Cruise – Post #8 – Day 0
After working in the morning I drove to the Stockholm Arlanda airport. For those who think my day job is glamorous – I didn’t even get to see anything in Stockholm, not even from the car. Halfway to Stockholm from Finspång it started to snow. Luckily I had plenty of time to arrive to the…
South America Cruise – Post #9 – Day 1 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Arrived in Rio de Janeiro early… In fact I passed through customs, immigration, and an ATM, took a taxi and arrived at my hotel at 0800. The hotel room was as described and looked exactly like the picture. To my surprise it wasn’t raining (unlike the weather forecast that called for rain for…
South America Cruise – Post #10 – Day 2 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I started the day by taking the metro to Cinelandia and taking the free walking tour. http://riofreewalkingtour.com/?/passeio/11/downtown_and_lapa_historic_tour The tour was excellent and visited many of the places I wanted to go. We started outside the Municipal Theater and saw the aqueduct in Lapa, the Selaron steps and ended at the…
South America Cruise – Post #11 – Day 3 – 1st Day of Cruise – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I started the day by packing my bag, checking out of the hotel and storing my bags there. I took the public bus to the Botanical Gardens as it was one of the things open early in the morning. From there I took a bus (almost to CInelandia – because I accidentally typed in…
South America Cruise – Post #12 – Day 4 – 2nd Day of Cruise – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The museums in Rio don’t open until noon, and I’ve seen a lot of Rio already. I walked to the bonde station (???? trolley) near the Petrobras HQ to visit Santa Teresa neighborhood in the morning. I took the trolley back, visited Paço Imperial (Imperial Palace) and the Naval museum. No sailaway video today…….
South America Cruise – Post #13 – Day 5 – 3rd Day of Cruise – Buzios, Brazil
Arrived in Buzios on time, this is a tendered port, but with the ship not being overly large and not being very full the tendering process was very smooth. I took a tour that drove to a couple of viewpoints and one beach. The one beach was nice, with red/pink sand, some rocks with algae…
South America Cruise – Post #14 – Day 6 – 4th Day of Cruise – Ilha Grande, Brazil
In the morning the weather looked like it would rain all day today, but as soon as I got to shore the weather cleared up and it was a wonderful day. The tour was a bit of a bust, but I continued hiking to a waterfall. I managed to get a few good pictures without…
South America Cruise – Post #15 – Day 7 – 5th Day of Cruise – Santos, Brazil
Last day visiting Brazil. The port is Santos, Brazil – famous for Pele. I took an excursion through the ship to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The drive through the forest to Sao Paulo was very scenic and included many tunnels and bridges between the mountains. We drove by the Municipal Theater, Catedral sa Se, stopped…
South America Cruise – Post #16 – Day 8 – 6th Day of Cruise – Sea Day!
Finally vacation starts… Today is one of only two sea days on the trip, so it was a chance to recover. I received a letter today confirming dinner with the hotel director the next night. If you cruise on NCL pay attention to the information the first day of the cruise, typically they mention dinner…
South America Cruise – Post #17 – Day 9 – 7th Day of Cruise – Sea Day!
Yet another relaxing day at sea. Tonight I had dinner with the hotel director. He was a very interesting fellow and had been with the company for many years. I believe he had a degree in hospitality. He said when he first applied, he applied as a waiter. They asked him how many years he…
South America Cruise – Post #18 – Day 10 – 8th Day of Cruise – Punta del Este, Uruguay
I know what you are probably thinking…. Uruguay??? It’s not exactly on most American’s radar. However this was quite a nice country to visit. I ganged up with four others that I met during the Cruise Critic meet and greet on the first day of the cruise. Once we got off the ship they gave…
South America Cruise – Post #19 – Day 11 – 9th Day of Cruise – Montevideo, Uruguay
Today’s stop was in Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a pleasant city with free museums within walking distance (and they hand out a walking tour map at the port). I went to a free walking tour at 11 AM, the guide was very good. The tour guide was very humorous. Information on the free walking…
South America Cruise – Post #20 – Day 12 – 10th Day of Cruise – Buenos Aires, Argentina
The ship arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina today. Although our passports were already stamped December 22nd and returned to us before arriving in Uruguay. I’ve never seen that before. I have seen passports returned before the end of a cruise, but after returning to a Schengen country, and once in a Schengen country no further stamps…