And we continue with our January adventures…. As they rolled to a close! It’s time to catch up as now there have been more adventures.
So, Holland America has as an excursion option on disembarkation day the choice of having a private car and tour guide for eight hours – ending at the airport. For a solo person the car for two would be great. It’s likely a car the size of a Toyota Corolla I suspect. As we have six pieces of luggage with us (two checked each plus carry on) we realized we needed something bigger so we booked a “private minivan” which is supposedly large enough for three or four couples. I tell you, the van that picked us up this morning was big enough for about 12 people with 22 days of baggage but there was only ourselves in it.
Ours was listed as “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Minivan) Ending at the Airport.” I suspect you’d want “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Car) Ending at the Airport.” I’ll describe now how it worked for us. We think it was worth it and I’ll explain way, but also use this as an excuse to describe the experience.
The cruise port in Buenos Aires is pretty chaotic. So, from beginning to end.
As is the case for all disembarking passengers luggage goes out the night before by midnight. They haul your “checked bags” down, you bring down your carry-on. You have to carry your carry-on down in the morning to the cruise terminal shuttle and then carry it to the terminal. For these private touring transfers you are in the last group to disembark – at 8:30 for us. They give you enough tags for your bag and they call you when it’s time.
Upon arrival from the terminal you get off of the bus and go into the terminal and find your other luggage, which if like us would be Blue group C, a fairly small section towards the near end of the baggage claim area. Then you take your baggage (there are no carts) out through customs. At customs you must put everything through an X-ray machine (they will put it up for you but really didn’t help taking it down). In general there were not luggage trolleys available.
For us, this was a matter of maneuvering, between The Boss, myself, and my mother, one 76 pound rolling bag, one 65 pound rolling bag, one 40 pound rolling bag, a couple of fairly heavy duffel bags, a rolling carry on, a few shoulder bags and one backpack out through a fairly good sized building.
Then you spill out onto a wide covered apron near the street where a HAL person will direct you through a crowd to a corner of the building where there were numerous people carying signs with your name on them.
Pro tip – pack less than we did. Take advantage of the unlimited laundry offer.
So, we found our guide and he directed us across a dip in the concrete to a van that was luckily waiting on the best patch of curb available. The driver loaded our luggage and we were on our way.
Logistically, the way it works is on embarkation day the HAL excursion desk leaves you an envelope with a form for you to fill out regarding anything you may want to see on your private tour. In reality, our guide had a list of eight main areas he shows to everyone but if we had anything special we wanted to see it should go on the list. I was looking at something that wasn’t steak for lunch so I researched, and we wanted to see the Evita Peron Museum, so I researched that as well. Otherwise, he covered the five main areas we wanted to see including the cemetery and Plaza Mayo along with Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, We also added Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore which was also among our favorites.
So as I was saying, they picked us up and we were on our way. We spent the morning heading towards the central and then the more southern part of the close-in city and then after lunch we headed towards the northern part of the city. Finally, we went to the airport.
We stopped by Teatro Colon which unfortunately was closed except for the main hallway due to some electrical work being done. We could have done a tour here for forty five minutes in English but it would not have happened anyway.
One note – our guide, and most of the guides, are fully licensed and many of them have college degrees for being tour guides. With his badge our guide was able to visit most attractions without paying a fee, although we had to pay the international rate. he also seemed to know somebody on every single block. Martin was approached many times for the typical Argentinian kiss on the cheek greeting. Oh, but one other thing – even though he has free admission everywhere at attractions where they sell an electronic guide or otherwise he is often forbidden from providing his own commentary. More on this later.
We spent a bit of time in the square behind the theater talking about the buildings in the neighborhood including the palace of justice. Then, back into the van.
I snapped this photo of The Obelisk on our way to our next stop, Plaza Mayo. Santiago and Punta Arenas both had Plaza de Armas; Buenos Aires has the same thing, Plaza Mayo. Most Spanish colonial cities have something similar.
This heavily-touched-up photo I took of the pink house – their presidential mansion. It sits on Plaza Mayo along with the national bank and the cathedral and a number of other buildings.
This is the inside of the cathedral on the square. As it was Pope Francis’ seat when he was in Buenos Aires there is now a small Pope Francis museum attached apparently but we did not visit it. There is actually a bit to see here including The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence. If anybody is curious I’ll look it up when I get around to reviewing my notes.
Back in the van. Let me tell you, it’s nice to only wait for two others climbing into a van. Martin wanted to take us to the San Telmo neighborhood but as we visited it yesterday we suggested moving on. Instead, he took us straight to the La Boca neighborhoodwhere we drove past the very famous soccer (futbol) stadium. Every building in La Boca seems to be painted in its colors. Here we got out of the van and went for a coffee in what I would call a “coffee speakeasy.”
This was my cafe cortado. Mmmm. Anyway, the entrance to the coffee shop was through a souvenir shop behind a painted door and up some stairs in the back. You would not know it was there.
La Boca is a neighborhood that was settled first by Spanish immigrants and later by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Along the port there there is a walking street, Caminito, leading to the small port where today many artists sell their wares.
Caminito is actually a combination between an outdoor market, walking street, and outdoor gallery.
Our guide Martin highlighting one of the artworks.
The back of a meat-selling restaurant.
After this part of the tour it was time to say goodbye to the South and head north. Along the way we passed the new port district along the eastern side of the district, much better than the cruise port neighborhood. It reminded me of the newer parts of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district or some of the developments along the Chicago River in Chicago.
Martin insisted we stop at this – it was not on our radar at all. Two years ago, long time Cruise Critic readers will remember, around the time of one of the January Antarctic sailings there was a tornado that hit this part of Buenos Aires collapsing part of the roof in the cruise terminal. In addition to collapsing the cruise terminal it did some damage to this, Floralis Genérica. This has only been reopened for the past two weeks. Prior to 2023, it opened in the daytime and closed at night; now it is just… open, but hopefully it will soon return to its opening and closing status.
After the flower we visited Recoleta Cemetary where Evita and her family are entombed. Of course, our guide told us the story about this as well. She was not actually entombed there until years after her death of course and there are many many mausoleums that are more grand than hers. If anybody is interested, please let me know and I will share more photos.
And then finally we visited Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore.
This bookstore is great, obviously. It’s like a large Barnes and Noble if you speak Spanish. If not, then it’s just pretty. The English language section is on the ground floor on the left. There is a gift and merchandise section in the lobby. On the third (top) tier for a fee you can see an exhibit regarding the history of the museum and they will serve you snacks. Or you can pay for a coffee and sit on the stage.
I bought a dual-language cookbook here, it was on sale in the lobby. We also somewhere along here stopped for lunch.
I’m not going to say lunch was a mistake, but it certainly was an adventure. I think our guide’s intention was to take us to one of the market restaurants or somewhere similar, but prior to the day of the tour when we provided our list I gave him the name of Niño Gordo – “Fat Baby” in English. This had the potential to be a legendary lunch except for two factors – one, we had eaten ourselves to death on the few days prior and two, halfway through the meal the power went out!
Our guide was actually a young guy – in his mid-twenties, and perhaps when I assessed him as an adventurous recent college graduate in a cosmopolitan city I was wrong :-). We took him to an Asian – Argentine fusion spot. As you can see above, we were seated in a section that had low seats, near the floor, with light spilling in from the tabled area and from the bar area. We ordered several dishes to share including kimchi, an Argentine-Asian beef dish, and a fish dish. It was going great, but around the second course the power in the kitchen goes out and half the restaurant goes dark. Not long after that, the air conditioning above us starts dripping on us – because it was off and no longer blowing the condensation elsewhere. So, surprise.
We finished our lunch and then made our way to the airport. The airport is a bit crazy though. The key here that worked out well for us is with the private car or van our guide snagged us a luggage trolley, walked into the airport with us and showed us where our check-in counters are, and showed us where the security desk is.
One thing I’m going to note now –
EVEN WITH PRIORITY STATUS EZE IS A FOUR HOUR AIRPORT IN THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. UGH.
Delta’s check-in opens at five. American opens at six as does United (I think). Delta has fewer people staffing check-in but the same number of planes as American. American opened early. We arrived at 5pm and my mother got in line for check in right away whereas the two of us sat and had coffee for ninety minutes as we had several hours to wait. With priority our check-in was 20 minutes; my mother’s was 90 minutes. The security line was I think 50 minutes, passport control was 20 or 30 minutes. Okay, so maybe with priority it’s a three hour airport. However, as we arrived so early we had time to kill. We enjoyed a light meal at Le Pain Quiotidien along with some wine and beer prior to running the security and passport gauntlet. And then? The best thing ever. We visited the Admiral’s Club lounge where, after spending a hot summer day touring Buenos Aires, I was able to take a shower! We finally boarded for our 11:59pm flight and were happily able to sleep on the plane as well.
And all of the bags on the right (the four) made it on the plane to Miami. When we landed in Miami it was barely above freezing and there were gusty winds which slammed our plane to the ground twice. I figured we’d be in for the same at home but it was a more typical landing. Even so, brrrrr.
On approach the Potomac was full of ice. And then we spent the next week clearing snowcrete from our driveway and walks…. Back to normal.
Okay. Buenos Aires. We were in Buenos Aires on January 30 and 31. So, buckle up.
Before we left for South America Buenos Aires seemed as if it would take some logistics to handle. Instead, we learned it was similar to visiting New York City, London, Paris, Washington, Atlanta, or Montreal. Yes, there is traffic, but it is not crazy traffic. We thought it would not be easy to find places where it would be safe to walk around. We were wrong – much of the city, much of the center city, seems safe, safer than Santiago – and before we arrived in Santiago it seemed more approachable. So, arriving in Buenos Aires. Let me describe it to you.
When we planned our South America and Antarctica journey we had realized that one of us would be marathon training and mostly on a treadmill. As we planned to be out the evening we were in Buenos Aires (Friday the 30th), and as we had to fly home on Saturday night arriving on Sunday to be back at work on Monday, we decided Saturday would be a relatively easy day. It was. We slept in a bit, one of us spent the morning on the treadmill while the other got organized to fly home and walked some laps on deck, and we enjoyed some of the solitude of a ship in port for a while. Let me describe to you what this was like.
The view from the ship in Buenos Aires is lovely – not. It’s a view of a port and parking lots. At least unlike some other ports you don’t drive through huge stacks of containers to get to the cruise port. Instead, you come off the ship, you board a bus and drive past containers, and then you drive across parking lots for trucks and containers to get to the cruise port. It’s not a scenic cruise terminal. Two years ago the cruise terminal itself was struck by a storm during cruise season and nearly demolished – it has now been rebuilt which is pretty amazing.
Is it a nice terminal? I guess so? But it’s chaos outside. There is not much space for pickup; we attempted to get an Uber across the street but the terminal area has 3G signal rather than 4G or LTE so it’s hard to catch an Uber, and beyond about three blocks from the terminal it really is not a good part of town to walk as there is a tightly packed South American neighborhood-that-was-built-without-authority where as a tourist you do not want to pass. But beyond there, get about a mile or a mile and a half from the terminal, you are in a beautiful cosmopolitan city. Ignore the news about Buenos Aires’ currency catastrophe. Ignore the threats you hear; it’s like being in a Spanish-speaking Brooklyn in my opinion.
Similar to Montevideo we aimed to have a market lunch in Buenos Aires. This was another grill open to the bar in the middle of a market – this time it was Mercado de San Telmo and forgive me I do not have the name of the restaurant within the market. We actually brought my mother along for this. Afterwards we explored the neighborhood. Two blocks away there is an outdoor art market which we explored.
As was the case with a lot of other places we visited we saw street dancing in the park.
And then we enjoyed a wine tasting in a wine shop! This was another thing I specifically sought out and one of the reasons we visited San Telmo as there were another of wine merchants. We actually brought a couple of bottles home from here (no surprise really), one of which can be purchased locally here. Interestingly the shopkeeper used Google Translate to speak out his descriptions of the wines and play them back. Honestly I could have done without that.
We saw interesting sights on the streets in San Telmo. And then we moved on back to the ship for a short siesta before heading out for the evening.
As is the case with a lot of tourists we ended up at a tango show. Our destination, courtesy of a Holland America excursion, was the theater stage at Cafe de Los Angelitos.
At the theater we were offered a cafe or dessert. Still working off lunch we focused on the pavlova which seems to be the national dessert of Buenos Aires (yes, I know Buenos Aires is not a country, but with many places it seems like there’s Buenos Aires and then there is the rest of the country). This was followed by an hour tango show with a mix of modern and traditional tango dancing.
The dancing was spectacular.
As was the singing.
This was well worth it. I think I’d see tango once a week if I were spending a summer in Buenos Aires.
And then we were done. Back on the bus for a ride to a closed door restaurant.
Apparently Buenos Aires has a number of closed door restaurants – relatively small restaurants focused on serving privately. Basically they are the speakeasy of restaurants. Ours seated I think about 30 people, so two thirds of a tour bus. I didn’t take any pictures at the restaurant. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had not had a large lunch. As it was, the wine was great, the appetizer was good, but the steak dinner was the same as the others we had in South America – and I don’t remember what my partner had (she does not eat beef). It made for a long day. I think if I were to plan it again I would have planned my own tango stop followed by a more avant garde dinner somewhere, maybe even modern sushi.
We were back on the ship around 11:00 in the evening, so very early by local standards, ready to sleep for eight hours before waking up to be off the ship at 9am. And more on that tomorrow.
So, in a few different places I’ve asked after port safety in Montevideo, especially around the port / Mercado area and in general the advice is “we were there a few days ago and it was fine but as usual in a big city…” etc.
In Buenos Aires of course the advice is different – do not walk from the port area. The recommendations are to get a taxi or Uber to where we are going or at least as far as Plaza General San Martin, but much of Buenos Aires is still safe for people who look like better targets than Julia and I. Generally, but not always, we’re not the first target, especially on a Holland America cruise. Until recently neither of us wore jewelry or watches worth stealing either.
One of the things I end up doing every time we travel is I try to figure out if it’s safe for myself or a marathon runner to run outside. There is a fun little assessment I do regarding local weather conditions, traffic assessment, and comfort level. You’d be surprised where people aren’t comfortable running outside! For instance, sometimes places like Avignon, France, are lousy places for runners even in the wee hours of the morning because everybody is calling out for you!
So far, Puerto Madryn was one of our favorite places anywhere we’ve traveled for running (with obvious exceptions like Boston and New York City). Puerto Madryn has La Rambla along the sea which continues in some form or another more than three miles out to the point and to the ecological center.
An obvious turn around point for most guests when they walk or run from the ship is Monumento Indio al Telhuelche on a point of land at the end of the main beach.
This is a monument to the labor movement of the indigenous peoples in Patagonia several decades ago. It also has a lovely view.
View from the ship from three miles away.
The view beyond. I would have loved to keep going, but there was plenty to do. We turned around and ran back the other direction where I stopped near the pier for a large beer while waiting for The Boss to double my mileage.
This was a prelude to some souvenir shopping followed by lunch at Náutico Bistró Del Mar.
This was officially Mariscos de Golfo Nuevo with Golfo Nuevo being the gulf around Puerto Madryn. I’m not totally certain all of it was directly from the gulf itself but it certainly seemed fresh, cooked as appropriate, and seasoned with lemons, onions, and vinaigrette appropriately.
Perfect as we were planning to attend the Cellar Master’s dinner yesterday evening, a lunch to share with papas fritas and more large beers.
Eventually after some shopping we returned to the ship. Our original plan was to run, have a beer, return to the ship, and then head back out, but Puerto Madryn is the type of place where when it’s summer you walk around casually as you are. We felt comfortable in our fitness wear in open-door souvenir shops as well as dining outside.
We returned in time for the tango sail away!
Last night we attended the Cellar Master’s dinner. This appears to be focused on wine but is also one of the best meals available on an Oosterdam cruise. Food and beverage staff spoke at length and we were introduced to the entire Pinnacle Grill team – although we’ve met them all at some point.
The menu was great. Somehow we had a mix-up and two of us had scallops instead ofthe foie gras but we were both fine with that especially after yesterday’s bonus lunch.
The Pumpkin Sage Cappuccino is a delightful cream of pumpkin soup paired with a flavor-forward Pinot noir to offset it’s sweet and spicy nature.
For us the warm lobster salad was the star of the show. If it were twice the size of us then it would be perfect for a meal on a day like yesterday. This was paired with a rosé which actually wasn’t the greatest in our opinion, but we do think we would have enjoyed it better as stand alone on a sunny summer day.
The filet with the beef tenderloin and grilled shrimp was the best beef I’ve had on the ship so far but the shrimp were even better. This was nicely paired with the same MTC Syrah I had with dinner a few nights ago!
Dessert was decidedly not a tuille BUT it was the perfect size! Not huge! And Graham’s Six Grapes was a perfect accompaniment.
We both enjoyed this meal better than the Konigstafel but I actually think that’s the point. Konigstafel is to display a variety of what the king wants, Cellar Masters is to share food to pair with wine in more of a best-of. We also dined by ourselves. We’re at the point on a 22 day voyage where we are happy to not socialize as much.
One complaint?
Often it seems as if HAL glasses have spots on them. They need rinse aid of some sort.
So, a few other things to talk about:
We’ve spent a fair amount of time playing table card games, mostly blackjack, and a little bit of craps. We haven’t lost a ton of money – essentially we are even aside from an hour where I played about twelve days ago where I lost several hundred dollars and stepped away from the casino for four days as a result. In the meantime, we’ve gotten to know the casino staff really well especially while playing craps.
Last night we decided to curtail our visits to the casino as we’re winding down the trip. We spent a couple hours with our casino staff friends and gambling buddies playing craps. It was actually the latest we’ve stayed “out” on this trip so far (we’ll likely stay “out” later on the last night when we go to a closed door restaurant). It was a lot of fun.
Yesterday I mentioned running in port. I’ve largely curtailed my treadmill activities although I may pay a visit tomorrow morning. Instead, I’ve been walking an hour or more on the promenade. I’ve had some interesting step totals –
Yesterday – 21,589 (Puerto Madryn)
Sunday – 11,468 (Sea Day)
Saturday – 16,519 (Falkland Islands)
Friday – 7,991 (Sea Day)
Thursday – 15,334 (Antarctica Day 4)
Wednesday – 16,212 (Antarctica Day 3)
Tuesday – 17,667 (Antarctica Day 2, with treadmill time)
Monday – 16,944 (Antarctica Day 1)
I had planned to do a number of yoga and pilates classes, but early in the cruise after my first class I couldn’t get motivated to attend because I didn’t enjoy the instructor’s style, so I never went back. I’ve practiced yoga on Carnival and Cunard cruises, the last time being back in 2017, but I haven’t found any on this or my past two cruises that I truly enjoyed. I almost think decent fitness classes were a casualty of the Covid era.
One thing they mentioned last night which I never would have known – HAL canceled their bottle stewards after Covid. They still have a sommelier around and they have one full time in Pinnacle Grill, but not so much visibly; they just have a beverage runner in the MDR, at least on this ship. You order through your waiter. I wonder if HAL pushed bottles of wine versus elite beverage package more prior to Covid. This, by the way, is one thing I like more about Cunard; HAL has a decent wine list and I think it’s better than our experience on Celebrity nearly four years ago now but you have to ask for it. Cunard is a little more forward with their wine list. And we enjoyed (again, this is four years ago, right before all of the cuts) Celebrity’s beverage service in Blu a bit better.
But again, especially in the dining room, Pinnacle Grill, and with food in general, HAL has surprised us. The variety of food and drink available is stellar. The MDR menu isn’t as generic as we had on our Celebrity Silhouette cruise a few years ago – and thus we didn’t dine in the main dining room. Here there are often more interesting dishes offered. When you get to know the system and get to know your dining room staff, things are really in your favor. And the Pinnacle Grill breakfast experience is top notch; to think we almost missed it because our goal had been to skip breakfast every day.
Now, speaking of the Lido Market buffet – we still haven’t returned for buffet dining, even though today is Cake Day (it’s hard to handle Cake Day after a few days of a lot of eating). We’ve learned that they do not have an Asian corner on this ship as they do on Noordam and Westerdam (someone please correct me if I’m missing something regarding info and availability this winter please).
Also, today, without eating breakfast, I was craving a typical sandwich, something like a club sandwich, so we ordered room service lunch. They warned us it would be a 45 minute wait; it was a ten minute wait and the sandwich was great.
Friday was a fairly chill sea day for us, but it sure did fill up quickly. It had been two wakeups since we visited our friends in the Pinnacle Grill. Friday night we visited our friends in the Main Dining Room instead.
Crossing the Drake northward was generally a bit bouncy but nothing fell off the counters and none of us tripped or anything. The biggest tragedy was the champagne flutes acting like bowling pins in the cabinet overnight. Nonetheless, we woke up to bouncy seas, room service coffee, and a pretty chill morning. Neither of us left the cabin until 10:30. The Boss decided it was calm enough to have some treadmill time and I ventured forth to complete a number of errands.
On the to-do list –
Get our itinerary straight for our private airport transfer and tour leading up to airport drop off in Buenos Aires; I picked out a few different neighborhoods to visit and some major sites. This also meant I lined up what we wanted to do the day before more independently. I ran this through the concierge but I’m going to check with ShoreEx to see if it’s set up properly.
Have The Boss’s preferences set for Konigstafel. I actually have a photo coming on this. It’s a set menu of something like six or seven courses, but there are a handful of dishes they can sub out for a handful of fish or vegetarian courses. I tried to work this through the concierge but they were attempting an approach where they get us the menu and then menu with options (which I don’t think the dining room will get us) and then we return it during the day tomorrow (today) when we are off the ship so it gets turned back through them (the concierge) prior to dinner tomorrow night (it’s at 6, we get back on board around 4:30 today, so how is that going to work). We ended up talking to our MDR waiter Muis about this and while we were dining two tiers of leadership came over to our table to work it instead.
Do the same for the Cellar Master’s dinner in a few nights (this has not been handled yet).
Arrange appetizer delivery for yesterday afternoon.
So that was handled. Then I tried the Dive-In burger (it was good to great, fries were okay, I wouldn’t write home about it if people didn’t rave about it).
And then I joined my mother for a private behind-the-scenes tour.
Let me tell you, folks. This was something really special. I expected they’d spend an hour walking us through various parts of the ship with a little bit of talk, but instead they spent nearly THREE HOURS walking us through various parts of the ship interspersed with leaders of said area telling us about their jobs, responsibilities, and themselves for 15 or 20 minutes at a stretch!
The person who led us – this was her first tour. We were actually one of two tour groups. Each was supposed to be twenty people and they NEVER do two tour groups but I think because this was a rather long itinerary and there was good demand with a lot of sea days they set a second up. The cruise director kicked us off, and then we met:
The laundry manager and his staff.
Captain Kevin in the flesh in the bridge who then delegated his talk to another.
The provisions manager (runs the mini “warehouses” for food on board)
One of the dancers backstage during an actual production!
The chief engineer; he spoke at great length regarding all of the systems on board. I found this to be the most interesting and asked a number of questions!
The executive chef on board. He walked us through one of the three large kitchens for the main dining room as well as the Pinnacle kitchen (I bet you didn’t realize these are actually adjacent to each other and attached).
Finally, the hotel manager.
All of this was incredibly interesting. They provided us a lot of detail and allowed us to take photos everywhere but reminded us to ask in each area (there was one person on duty who declined and with good reason).
After this tour, they fed us small appetizers and sparkling wine. Then The Boss and I capped off our afternoon with a viewing of Evita (her) and a nap (me), and we enjoyed a pleasant MDR dinner.
Drake passage views
The linen press machine. This can press four sets of napkins at once and they come out the other end fairly well folded!
The view from the bridge. While in Antarctica, they had three spotters on constant rotation looking for whales. They noted 103 whales during the three days where we were sighting whales there. They claim this is an all time high but they’ve said that about so many things now I don’t believe it.
Bourbon storage. They also had a lot of beer and wine and a single case of Chimay.
The engine control room was my favorite part of the tour, possibly from my history of working in network operations centers with similar alert panels on the walls.
A happy breakfast and room service chef. I have more to come on the dining room tour. Spoiler alert – I repeated it yesterday (Friday) with our Friday evening dining experience!
On the left is the 22 day meal rotation for this cruise. Top right is the bread rotation. The right is the Koningstafel.
Yesterday we were in the Falklands. I wore three layers and a raincoat. Our truck was warm so ended up stripping to two for most of the ride. After the excursion we visited the local brewery which was popular with cruise passengers, the entertainment and dance squad from the ship, and locals dressed in shorts and t-shirts just getting out of work (it was 3:30 on a Friday after all). It was a glorious summer day! Aside from the 30 knot breeze…. That of course made return tendering a challenge but all in all it was a good day and lengthy enough for us to work up an appetite for Konigstafel!
Yesterday was what I’ve been looking forward to the most on this cruise – visiting the Falkland Islands, particularly the offroad excursion to Volunteer Point. Supposedly this is the crown jewel of excursions here in Stanley, and with good reason as far as I am concerned.
View through the windshield was often sideways
My recommendation is as follows –
If you are planning this excursion and you’ve booked for December 2027 through February 2028, go ahead and buy it now. For this coming Dec 2026 through Feb 2027 cruise season it may be “too late.”
There were two groups for this excursion, and that’s why I say it may be “too late.” The first set filled I think about seven SUVs, and I believe the second set was similar. You want to be in the first set. Departure time is 8am, immediately upon arrival in Stanley; meeting time is 7:45 (and you know that means that even though there is no real reason on HAL maybe you should be in the World Stage by 7:35). The second group has an 8:30 departure time.
The reason why you want to be in this first group – purely logistics. Both have the same amount of time at the rookery, but realistically the second group leaves the port area around 9:15 meaning you‘re back to Stanley sometime between 3:30 and 4:15. We were back at the port a few minutes before 3pm and sitting outside in the sunshine at the brewery enjoying a beer at 3:08pm, just as the line formed to be thirty people long on this glorious Friday summer afternoon (more about that later). We had time to chat with our cruise mates, enjoy our beer, and visit two souvenir shops. Then it was time to line up for the tender. There was a short line – 1 1/2 tenders full of people – but they were stalled, which is not too unusual for Stanley (more on this later). After waiting on line for about 20 minutes there were then about eight tenders full of people just standing there in the port car park.
Land Rovers at work
Anyway. The penguins are fascinating, but I was just as fascinated by the journey to get there. It seems as if half the vehicles in the Falkland Islands are Land Rovers – not necessarily late model (in fact, most are not), many heavily modified. The majority are Defenders. We saw Defenders driven by teenagers, adults, soccer moms, and old men and women who appeared as if they were long retired.
In the peat
Our squad to transport us to the beach consisted of half a dozen vehicles from Bagley‘s 4×4 Tours (if you want a private tour, go ahead and look them up on Google). Their fleet for this tour consisted of four Defenders, one Nissan Patrol, and I think a Toyota (not too sure on that, I wasn‘t concentrating on photographing it). If you’ve been reading recent Live threads for HAL or other lines you will read “somebody will get stuck” on many of them. So, we ended up in the Nissan and I asked the driver, “does this get stuck more than the Defenders?” At first he wasn’t too amused 🙂. But he did open up a bit. Turns out our driver Nathan has his own business and is an auto mechanic. He’s an interesting guy – originally from St. Helena. The other passengers in our car were put at ease after hearing about his mechanical abilities. “See that Defender? I built that.” He went on to explain that six years ago one of the better looking Defenders was assembled from multiple vehicles and new and used parts from him for one of his friends, and clearly it was still running and not getting stuck.
Rear view
He also explained to us that the Nissan Patrol rides better and is more comfortable than the Defenders (it is), something that was also shared by a couple of our beer drinking buddies at the brewery – the Fords they have are also more comfortable. However, as the Nissan weighs more (three tons instead of 2 1/2), it does get stuck more easily. When did you get stuck last? Once this year so far, in December. He explained how he managed to get stuck when alone with nobody to pull him out so I’m certain there’s some hilarity there, and now he has a two way radio as cell signal doesn’t cover everywhere!
They look like they’re in deep sometimes
So the drive actually really, really does require a good 4×4 – as in, a really good 4×4. My Range Rover Sport at home with street tires, although Mud & Snow, won’t cut it. It would have gotten us two thirds of the way there.
Garage princess
The first quarter of the drive is on dry pavement on what is called a licensed road (you need a license). Then after I think 15 miles you turn off the paved road for a gravel road. At the 27 miles point you turn off that gravel road for another gravel road. That’s the second quarter of the drive. I think around the 35 miles point point you come to a private ranch. This is the rest stop – you stop, you get out, you take a few pictures, you pee.
Typical Falklands Street vehicles
The next quarter of the drive is clearly worse, and until a few years ago it was entirely overland. The ranch is building a lower-quality gravel road across their property little by little. I feel it stretches halfway, as far as distance goes, from the ranch house to the sea. This is probably the worst road I would take The Boss’s Subaru on and not expect to break something. I’d probably take my ancient Mini on it and not really care.
Typical Old Man’s Car in Stanley
The final quarter of the drive is the most rugged.
So, as a farm kid I have memories of driving across dry corn fields at harvest time, or on hay fields. You could do this with a Chevy Vega station wagon, or our later Chevy Cavaliers. For a pasture, you’d need proper four wheel drive and an awareness of where it gets swampy (that’s where you need the tractor).
All of this final quarter is tractor-land. It’s scrubland and peat bog, constantly. The trucks are driving over peat bushes that stand almost to your knees in spots, and they have to go over them because as a path gets used it becomes boggier and boggier. There are numerous small banks to mount, many where the driver takes a 25 or 30 degree angle sideways (my seat-mates thought it was 45 degrees, but no) and many where you see the sky through the windshield. Nathan did show us exactly where he got stuck in December, too, and I can see how it happened.
Anyway, our drive there – and back – occurred without incident. If you have a sore back or otherwise, you may consider not doing this tour. Obviously as the ranch extends the gravel road the tour will become easier, but my hunch is it will take them a few years to complete – and if there’s a change in finances then this activity may change or cease.
Upon arrival you are asked to get out of the truck and walk through a foot bath, then climb back into the truck and you go park. HAL advertises a box lunch which is provided by Bagley’s in this case – one truck has sandwiches in the back, another has thermoses of coffee and hot water and cold water. The sandwiches are designed to feed you. They’re good but not gourmet. They fed us after the penguin viewing.
It’s penguins all the way down
The penguins are amazing. I believe we saw three kinds, but when I post my photos I’ll let you inspect them and correct me (if you’re impatient to wait, check my Instagram link). We saw an abundance of King Penguins, a Gentoo nesting colony, and Magellanic penguins.
Flappy Flappy
The main point of visiting Volunteer Point is to visit the large King Penguin population. This mostly consists of a large squad of penguins hanging out in a stone circle half the size of a football field occasionally squawking and flapping flippers at each other. You’re not permitted to enter the circle but they can come and go as they please. They generally won’t come too close to you but they will follow you if you’re walking where they’re planning to go.
You have to look closely to see the hatchlings!
As of this January there were some still hatching eggs and there were some youngsters hiding under their parents. I didn’t notice this on our first pass through here where we spent ten or fifteen minutes watching them.
Gentoo Jackson Pollock
After the King Penguins, we wandered down into a mini-valley to visit the nesting Gentoos. The Gentoos were really, really smelly even though they were not there in huge numbers (I’m guessing there were fifty or a hundred). They had a larger percentage of youngsters, though. They had painted their whole nesting circle (similar stone henge around them) like a Jackson Pollock painting. This is where we learned that youngsters who are rather large and just fed by their parents flop out on their bellies looking dead as they digest and grow. Hilarious. Anyway, I guess at this point they’re large enough to appear full sized but not at the point where they are ready to take to the seas.
Then we decided to wander out to the beach. The main attraction here seemed to be mainly King Penguins going in small groups (three or four or five) to and from the sea or just wandering aimlessly. There was, however, a seal terrorizing the area. The seal apparently occasionally comes out of the surf and kills a penguin for sport – the guides told us it’s the same seal that has been hanging around for a while now and he doens’t actually eat what he kills.
Penguins having a beach day
So, we saw a group of penguins wandering up the beach to the no-go zone. Then we saw the seal in the surf. I didn’t get a photo of the seal when it came out of the surf, but what happened next is he came out of the surf, the group of penguins took off at a high speed run towards the dune, a ranger yelled at a lady taking photos to “get back” because the seal would bite her too, and then the seal went back into the surf (note this is all anecdotal – I was looking elsewhere when this happened).
Seal
Then we started walking up the beach towards the rocks. Nothing interesting there. Then we started wandering back over the dunes. Then we realized what we weren’t seeing – the Magellanic penguins nesting in burrows in the dunes! In most of the borrows there was a parent penguin standing guard with a younger penguin behind. They were really cute.
Baby Magellanic penguins!
Anyway, we eventually returned to King Circle and watched parent penguins feeding their babies discretely. You really had to pay attention to see them – mostly it looked like there were fat penguins with an extra set of flab just above their feet, but often you would look closely and see the parent leaning down and sharing a tasty morsel.
Hatchling and parent beak!
This was a ninety minute stop at Volunteer Point. Then we set out for the two hour drive back in the glorious summer sunshine…
On return from Volunteer Point the driver dropped us at the “cruise terminal” and we walked to Falkland Beerworks where it seemed as if everybody in town in addition to every cruise ship passenger and the entertainment staff from Oosterdam had decided to throw back a pint or two. Falkland Beerworks has authentic hand-pulled cask ales and in my opinion they are good. IPA fanatics will ask for a bottle of the Iron Lady IPA instead which seemed to be a little toasted like it had been aged in peated scotch barrels and then may be slightly disappointed.
A lot of people also recommend Victory Bar in Stanley which we did not visit. Supposedly they have excellent fish and chips. Instead, after sitting in the sun with cruise friends and observing the locals in shorts and t-shirts we made the observation “it’s very windy; we’d better return to the ship sooner rather than later!” And we left. But not without visiting a couple of souvenir shops.
When we arrived back at the “cruise terminal” there was a line on the dock for tenders and a line through the 20 foot long “cruise terminal” building ending in the glass shed (20’ by 10’) behind it. This is where we joined the queue…. As the line was paused others joined behind us, snaking out into the parking lot. A few minutes later they announced, “tendering operations are paused while the captain repositions the ship to accommodate for worsening conditions.” I later learned that the captain was very frustrated because the harbor master had allowed numerous Asian squidding vessels to drop anchor throughout the bay and harbor around Stanley and they had very long anchor lines limiting the number of safe places for Oosterdam to drop anchor andprovide shelter for tenders. End result, tendering was a game of bumper cars.
By the time tender operations recommenced, the line snaked through the parking lot, out into the street until the constable came around (which they do because there’s nothing else to do), and down the dock adjacent to the tender dock.
Tendering in the rough
It was pretty rough out there. I wouldn’t say it was scary, but the boats were throwing up considerable spray and of course it was dripping in through the hatches. When we arrived back at the ship it was with a sudden crash against the gangplank.
Arriving back on board we had time to rest, shower, and change for the Konigstafel experience! Now this I will write up in real time as I refresh myself by looking at the photos.
Konigstafel is a concept introduced by HAL over the summer last year where once per cruise they offer a “king’s table.” I will note that it is not a chef’s table which implies that the chef gets creative with whatever they have available and / or is fancy or neat. Instead, it’s a set menu throughout Holland America. From the reviews I read last August and September it has not strayed far. Accommodations for dietary restriction are limited; they only have set plates created for vegetarian modifications.
I took this photo from the behind the scenes tour I attended on Friday and on the right you can note the Koningstafel menu. Like I said, they stick to this.
We went through considerable effort to check on getting my partner’s meal changed to exclude beef tartare and lamb because she is pescatarian. They were actually willing to accommodate her, but she said if she had to do it again in the future, because there is so much food, she would probably accept the cauliflower they subbed for the steak tartare and not the modification they made to replace the lamb; she was just not hungry at that point.
The setup for the whole situation begins in the Ocean Bar where there was a jazz band playing (I think this was purely coincidence as the whole bar was not roped off for the event). They make you sign a medical questionnaire as you end up going into crew areas where they check to ensure everyone is healthy (this tells me the entire crew signs the same sheet every single day under threat of not lying and that, in part, is how they maintain a healthier ship). Then, they served us a cocktail.
The cocktail, coincidentally, consists of a sour cocktail similar to a Pisco sour! Some guests were guessing we would actually be served a Pisco sour, but we were not; it was the same menu in September elsewhere.
Update – after checking the menu, the name of the drink was not actually noted! Anyway, this is served with two canapés – crabmeat, caviar, and mint croissant which was to die far as well as caponata.
After the cocktail and canapés we decamped for a full galley tour – identical to Friday’s behind the scenes tour! It was a good refresher, but it did give me the opportunity to skip the food digester section. Also, this is where I noted that it does interfere a little with the kitchen flow and they start to use up some extra resources to make the dinner happen – perhaps this is why they schedule on a busy port day? Less lunch service, more time to prepare, and everybody heads to the Lido instead?
We sat down to an intro from dining room section heads and a bread course which consisted of sesame challah loaf including poppy seed braids. This was served with four butters – plain butter, coconut butter, Thai red curry butter, and blueberry thyme butter. My favorite was made by blending the coconut with the Thai red curry butter 🙂. Poppy seeds were everywhere of course.
An Amuse-Bouche of Asian Wagyu Steak Tartare was served. What a great use for this. The beef was soy-mirin marinated and it was heavily saline. The tempura shiso leaf was a great touch.
This was served with a smoked champ agne cocktail (there is a typo on the menu so it’s now champ agne).
Seafood starter was a Butter poached lobster tail with lemongrass coconut foam made of vanilla, champagne, and orange.
Although diminutive as it should be, perhaps my favorite course. Such good flavor. This was served with a Tattinger Brut Prestige rose.
One thing I’d note – in the reviews I read in September the sparkling rose was served in a champagne flute whereas the smoked champagne was served in a teacup style champagne glass. I think the smoked champagne was better in the flute, as Oosterdam did last night, with the Prestige rose in the teacup style champagne glass.
The one dish which surprised me was the spinach ricotta malfatti which was served with truffle garlic butter, shaved seasonal black truffle, and parmesan foam. The truffle was not overpowering like it sometimes is, and the ricotta did not form a pile of gloop as sometimes happens.
It was quite nice. However, when I see “parmesan” I think “Wisconsin,” rather than Italian equivalents, so I wonder if this could potentially be upgraded? I believe the red is a dehydrated tomato peel. This was served with Pascal Joliet Sancerre Blanc Sauvage from France (basically a white French wine that is good).
Then came a mid-dinner dessert.
Sour cherry granita with vanilla lemon sorbet. Mmmm.
Many guests would say they have happily dined up until this point. Well, folks, buckle up. This is where lamb turns controversial.
The main is a cannon of smoked lamb with pistachio crust served with date purée, lamb jus, and “Mediterranean” vegetables. I put Mediterranean in quotes because I didn’t know carrots are Mediterranean and I think after nine days without fresh provisions and two weeks without full replenishment you probably get what you get on Oosterdam.
They also really started pouring the wine at this point.
And that’s how I found myself sitting there with three glasses of wine.
The Figgins Figlia Merlot / Petit Verdot from Walla Walla is certainly a combination I would definitely seek out again. The port and Amari were there to complement the cheese course and then the dessert course.
Cheese went great at this point in the evening. As did dessert.
This is where it started with sweets galore.
Dessert was interesting – I liked the honey cremieux with lemon curd served with bergamot gel, honeycomb guile (what is that?) and lavender honey. The croutons seemed a bit like cereal. It was good for sampling. The sweets that followed were a bit much.
I couldn’t goad The Boss into eating more than one of these but they were as expected and well presented.
When we arrived in our cabin macarons were waiting on our coffee table. Again, I was a solo diner for these.
Overall, it was a good experience. It was really enjoyable sitting and talking to our table mates, but four hours can be a long time if you are accidentally assigned seats incorrectly (we were not, I had the chance to get to know a couple of folks who have posted on Cruise Critic!). I think if I were cruising HAL again this year I wouldn’t repeat the performance, but if they were doing a different menu every year I certainly would.
It’s great after a day in port where dining is limited (our lunch yesterday consisted of a sandwich on white sandwich bread). Knowing the lamb is coming I may have held off on my Pinnacle lamb a few days ago, though.
And this morning for breakfast – we weren’t hungry; we shared a carafe of coffee and then had nothing until 1pm.
There have been soooo many good experiences lately that it’s almost been overwhelming, and now we’re winding down for the last week of vacation.
Looking ahead – what the guide says about The Falkland Islands:
“Many ships call into the Falkland Islands on their way to or from Antarctica. These stops usually turn out to be a pleasant surprise for those on board. Located 477 km (296 miles) east of southern Argentina, the Falklands are a rare mix of wildlife hotspot and delightful inhabited outpost. Comprising over 700 islands, the archipelago has a human population of around 4000, and a sea-bird population that dwarfs that. For wildlife lovers the Falklands are a fantastic destination. Unlike other subantarctic islands, they can be visited independently by scheduled flights.”
The archipelago is slightly larger than the area of Jamaica including water. Theya re around 51 degrees south latitude, the equivalent to Southern Labrador, London, and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in the north. They are, however, much colder and are constantly raked by strong winds. There are no naturally recurring trees. Temperature in the summer tends to be around 9 degrees Celsius / 48 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun shines more often than not.
The book talks about literally millions of petrels, albatrosses, penguins, gulls, and cormorants. Black-browed albatrosses, rockhopper penguins, giant petrels, white-chinned petrels, Antarctic prions, Magellanic and blue-eyed cormorants, kelp geese, upland geese, crested ducks, flightless steamer ducks.
There are mammals including Commerson’s and Peale’s dolphins, killer whales, Sei whales, elephant seals, South American fur seals, sea lions, etc.
We’re looking forward to it. We have a Volunteer Point excursion planned.
We’re also reading up on our next stops in Puerto Madryn, Punta del Este, Montevideo, and finally Buenos Aires.
I’ve been using Peter Carey & Craig Franklin’s Antarctica Cruising Guide for information on Antarctica as well as the surrounding islands including the Falklands; this includes the quote above.
For ideas on what to do in ports as well as Santiago and Buenos Aires, I’ve been using the latest version of Lonely Planet South America. This helped me give our private guide in Santiago a list of neighborhoods and sites to visit as well as for me to identify what was good for us to see on our own. I’m also using it for a similar guide in Buenos Aires. And it helped me with the museum in Ushuaia and to find Isabel Cocina al Disco in Ushuaia.
Imagine setting your alarm for 5:30 and then putting on warm clothes to go out on the bow of the ship. Brrr. A shock to the system. It was raining, so thankfully I had a hat on. It was also windy, so hold onto your camera tightly! But they did bring coffee and pastries out, so there was that. Of course, we also had coffee delivered to the room.
Lighthouse at Cape Horn
I spent about 40 minutes out there on the bow as we hovered in place by the island that makes up Cape Horn. There is a lighthouse station there as well as a small shiny monument, but otherwise it’s relatively non-remarkable in comparison to the dozens of other islands and hundreds of islands, mountains, cliffs, and rocks we’ve seen lately. It’s significant, though, as it’s the point of no return to some degree.
Cape Horn monument
We were told this was the closest Captain Kevin has ever come to the point, but didn’t he say that last year?
The full view
Cape Horn actually is an island that sits in a large bay with a number of other rocky uninhabited islands. Anyway, after a while the ship rotated 360 degrees and then we spent the morning sailing around the islands and up and down the bay until the pilot boat showed up to take our two pilots on shore. Someone on the ship reported they saw two people get off with luggage which makes sense as they were Magellan pilots, meaning they were the pilots responsible for navigating us through the Straits of Magellan as well as the Beagle Channel, so likely they had been on a few days.
This photo defies the cold
And now we’re headed south.
Sea bird
Sea life was fairly constant throughout the day. As soon as we were offshore the clouds and sun were more consistent. Instead of small spots of sunshine there were large spots of sunshine. When I walked the promenade this afternoon (four miles) there were some wet snowflakes; the temperature had dropped to 42 degrees Fahrenheit or about 5 degrees Celsius. Winds were over 30 knots; the ship has been leaning slightly much of the day and swaying a bit, but nothing too horrible and not as bad as the Bay of Biscuits.
From yesterday morning we had 608 miles to Palmer Station – I wonder if that’s the captain’s signal we will be starting our touring at Palmer Station rather than further south? Also, we enter Antarctic waters around 6:35 am tomorrow at which point we should expect a burst of wildlife. To be determined if I am awake at that time.
Otherwise, it was a relatively quiet day at sea with some napping, some game playing, and some soaking in the thermal spa. Dinner was lovely but unremarkable. I now have a glass of scotch whisky and we’re watching football in Spanish.
Okay, so I’m catching up on my writing as today is our final sea day until our Antarctic adventure begins. I went to two lectures on polar ice today and a third discussion led by the captain on our planned route once we reach Palmer Peninsula early tomorrow morning. Basically he warns us “if you’re living life to its fullest you’re going to be busy.”
Morning view, Friday January 16, 2025
Our mornings are predictably beginning fairly early here and I’m finally settling into a routine where I’m able to fall asleep and take a nap if I’m trying to live life to a fullest. Unfortunately, my Oura ring which I’m using to track my stress levels, heart rate, readiness, and sleep doesn’t seem to be able to tell when I’m taking a nap on a ship. I know it can tell how much sleep I am taking at night but it doesn’t see when I reach the same level of stillness I normally do for a nap at home – because obviously the ship is moving.
It hasn’t tracked a nap since Santiago.
Anyway, the first thing I tend to do in the morning is look outside off the stern of the ship. If it isn’t raining I hop out there and snap a photo. Beautiful, isn’t it? Then I sit at my desk here and write a little and sip coffee.
The further south we were going in the waterways of Chile the more ice we saw and the closer it came to sea level.
On Friday we went down to Pinnacle Grill for breakfast.
Pinnacle Grill breakfast
The Pinnacle Grill menu is obviously more substantial than the MDR menu. On this particular day I had the aloo masala (potato curry I think) and egg burjhi (eggs with peppers and spices I think). It was served with a dosa (lentil crepe), chapati bread, stewed lentils, and some chutneys.
For comparison, today I had the Pan Asian breakfast, you know because I have to try everything out.
Pan Asian breakfast
This was served alongside miso soup poured table side.
I’m really impressed with the variety of food served here. It’s even higher than what we saw traveling in Aqua Class on Celebrity. I know we have some perks due to Neptune Class, but this variety even extends to the room service.
Acai bowl
Anyway. We were cruising through the Beagle Passage past a series of five glaciers as we were dining that morning. I didn’t get the best photos, but that’s fine.
Many of my glacier photos were stained by the window
It was enjoyable to capture the moment and instead rest for a change.
Another day, another glacier
We were able to have a fairly active morning as we were not due to arrive in port until 1pm. This was actually delayed even though our original plan was 2pm; the captain had to wait for a couple of expedition ships to clear out before we had space on the pier.
I was able to go to the gym and have some treadmill time (something I’m hoping to repeat today) before going to the aquatherapy room and the thermal suite.
View from the thermal suiteThese loungers are heated
I mean, this was a civilized way to come into port.
Anyway, unlike Punta Arenas, in Ushuaia it just seems as if you suddenly arrive on a scene. The city itself likes tucked up against the mountains on a narrow tilted shelf pouring itself out at the harbor. It looks and feels as if you’ve suddenly been dumped in Queenstown, New Zealand, or Aspen, Colorado. And it’s priced the same.
Expedition ship in Ushuaia
And there are these pricy expedition ships docked there to remind you of your mortality.
As we didn’t really have any opportunity for souvenir acquisition in our previous three stops we decided to begin our time ashore by going shopping.
Typical construction in Ushuaia – both old and new
There are a lot of shops that sell chocolate alongside t-shirts. And a number of liquor shops as well with whisky that normally costs us $60 at home going for $200 here. Fortunately the local stuff is cheaper – I think a small bottle of Patagonian gin was about $15 USD. We actually found the most interesting gifts in a coffee shop / cafe called Espirito Fueguino Cafe & Gift Shop. I now have a heavy black hoodie with a mythological Patagonian creature on the back of it; it should come in handy the next few days.
There are three museums near the port (there may actually be more, but I searched and saw three). There are two Museo del Fin Del Mundos; we visited neither. We did, however, visit the museum at the Presido, the old prison, which actually consists of about five small museums in one.
A museum in the prison
This museum has about two wings dedicated to prison life – one to the history of the prison and the prisoners who were in residence, and then one completely devoid of furnishings so you could wander around and enjoy the silence.
There were also two gift shops. And an art gallery.
Maritime art
The only requirement for a piece of art to be in the art gallery is it had to be pretty good and it had to have something to do with water. Nonetheless, it was good art, mostly South American from what I could tell. Much of it resembled European art work, or even American art work from the time periods where they were created. For instance, there were a couple of Hopper-esque oil paintings I enjoyed. I could have enjoyed standing in silence in this wing for a while longer but I wasn’t alone. It was time to go eat.
And even though it was neither Patagonian lunch time nor dinner time, we found a nice meal at Isabel Cocina Al Disco.
I think we actually spent big city prices for our meal but it was worth it. One massive 750ml beer from Patagonia Brewing Company and two large but not massive beers from a local brewery that makes a red ale. We also shared the house specialty – seafood and potatoes cooked in a disc from a plow, or a de arado, or plough in British English. In modern times they actually use a cast iron pot with high edges similar to a paella pan.
And thus the term “al disco.”
It was so good. Mussels and baby octopus and shrimp and calamari stewed in white wine-tomato broth with nicely roasted and fried potatoes.
I tell you. I researched this place months ago. I had no idea what the cast iron pot was until now and didn’t connect it until I saw “plough” on the English language menu. And Isabel is easy to get to from the port – you walk off the ship, down the pier, out through the gates, and across the street and it’s to the right one block.
Back to the ship for us.
We did not join Seabourn Pursuit
It was a beautiful late afternoon stroll back to the ship where we whiled away the evening with our feet up on the loungers in the Crow’s Nest.
This is a great pier to walk out
Ushuaia is a great cruise port – my favorite so far. Logistically it’s easy. For excursions buses and vans come straight out to the ship. Visiting town is a half mile stroll along the pier.
Views of the town are stunning
Local beer here is great, by the way. Next up, two days at sea.
Yesterday was supposed to begin with scenic cruising past Wager Island, but instead it began with scenic cruising through heavy rain and pea soup fog. Wager Island was not to be seen which certainly enabled us to understand this morning’s lecture better.
This is an accurate representation of how much we saw before noon yesterday, so instead I attended a lecture and lost $104 playing blackjack.
Amidst all of this we started seeing a lot of albatrosses and other sea birds, but mostly the albatross (photo above taken with iPhone 17 Pro). Sneaky birds didn’t come close enough for me to capture them frequently but as I spent over an hour walking laps on the promenade I certainly was able to photograph plenty of them.
Flying albatross When the weather cleared it was really spectacular.It also reminded me of New ZealandPanorama
After I spent time on the promenade in the afternoon I ended up spending forty five minutes on the treadmill. What’s great after the treadmill? Time on the bow on the 9th deck in front of the fitness center. Isn’t it beautiful? As there was a considerable breeze it also helped with cool down.
As the day began to wind down, we settled down for dinner at Oosterdam’s Italian specialty restaurant – Canneletto. The food here was great, but the views were even better.
Mountains as we head back out to sea
Along the mountains here along the edge of the sea there is a fairly wide level area, perhaps twenty minutes walk across, which reminds me of the east side of Barbados or parts of the west coast of New Zealand. Elsewhere in southern Chile it just drops off to the fjords or the water.
Most of these places seem like they have nobody around
This morning we woke to more scenic cruising. Imagine you’re sitting at the desk in your cabin looking out the window and you start seeing little bergy bits such as these going past. Still with pajamas on (I know people are going to flame me for this) I threw on a sweatshirt and walked to the far end of Deck 4 to go out to the bow because I knew we were near the glacier.
The moment I knew we were nearing something different
Captain Kevin managed to pull the ship into a narrow passage at the base of Brujo glacier.
View from the bow
He has also been keeping the bow open for most of the day for cruisers’ use for sightseeing and photography. I spent a short time out there but as I was not dressed as Nanook of the North like the folks above I eventually retreated to our aft cabin, where I continued to duck out into the rain and cold for photography.
View from our wrap-around aft veranda, 963 feet to the rear
Fortunately Captain Kevin elected to spend over an hour in this spot all while doing pirouettes and pivoting in circles so we could all have a view.
Ice pack
Periodically we would hear rumblings from the ice. I believe the glacier is about ten kilometers long. From the above it appears to be several hundred feet thick at its thickest point as well. I’m not certain without checking the map but I suspect the snowpack and ice collects beyond the initial range of mountains and squeezes through this valley to the top of the fjord. It isn’t the only one around in the immediate vicinity.
Glacer ice
In today’s overcast weather the ice had infinite shades of green and blue as well.
Bon voyage
Eventually after nearly ninety minutes spent we waved goodbye to the ice and made our way back towards the sea.
Mountains
The headlands along the fjords are much more barren today than yesterday or the day before. It’s clear that winters here are longer and sunlight is harder to find – and the scraping of glaciers is more recent.
View of the wake as we retreatCurrent view
And now the weather has turned rainy again. Fortunately, I can sit here with our plant (the ship refreshed our prior green friend for a more sturdy and robust model) as we travel south.
So today was a good sea day if a bit busier than I would normally hope to be on a sea day. Things I learned today –
If we order room service for delivery at 6am they will actually show up close to 6am.
All of the treadmills are in use by 7am; only one of us was able to run this morning and she spent 2 1/2 hours on the treadmill. Not certain if anybody stuck around long enough to notice.
The fitness instructor doesn’t care if people doing yoga want to stay balanced on both sides.
HAL likes to focus on meal pacing. Tonight they asked us if they were pacing our meals properly or if we would like to go faster or slower.
Even with a beverage package they want you to sign – sporadically, part of the time.
The cable boxes (IPTV converters) freeze when the WiFi freezes, or when Elon Musk coughs, but they can be rebooted from the hallway.
All in all, we’re beginning to understand why Holland America cruisers are so loyal. Whenever you ask someone to do something, if it’s within their authority and they have time and energy, they do it. People have been so helpful. Tonight, we had a couple of additional chairs delivered to our cabin so now we can host parties. We bought a beverage beyond the limit of our package and they told us not to worry about it. They handled our query about fixed dining perfectly – and followed up, both from the concierge and the maître d’. In short, it sounds like they were trying to tell us to “just use Club Orange and dine whenever we want.” We decided “we’d rather depend on having the same waiter every night and having the same spot near the window.” And they’re smart enough to tell us the Club Orange menu now (they were before, we just had not asked).
Our new living room
We had a couples massage this morning. Swedish massage. We both fell asleep in the middle. The upsell was moderate to heavy, probably because they know we are suckers sometimes. We also enjoyed the large hot hydrotherapy pool mostly to ourselves – picture loungers in the water with jets and bubbles; this is where we will be when we get chilled from watching for penguins flying in boats.
“Penguins Landing in Small Boats”
We also went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet, where people clapped when I said “this is the longest we’ve taken off work in three decades…”. I met one of the cruisers who was staying at the Sheraton Thursday night who was having fits with the excursion crew in Santiago Thursday night. He was actually at the winery at the same time we were at an earlier time (I wish he were in our crew because he’s an interesting guy).
We’re all settled in for another twenty days here.
So, because I couldn’t get on the treadmill this morning I walked several laps on the promenade instead this morning even though it was windy and cold. I met a man who lives on the same road as my parents – he grew up “back home.” Turns out he lived for 17 years about six blocks from where we live in Arlington. What a small world.
Because I couldn’t do the treadmill I decided I either need to get up tomorrow morning for treadmill time or I needed to do it this afternoon. I went this afternoon instead (it’s rare for me to get motivated for this on vacation). I watched The Extraordinary Attorney Woo on Netflix while running a few miles. In this show whales act as a metaphor for Attorney Woo helping her analyze life as an autistic attorney. Whenever she has a brainstorm, or a deep thought which breaks the wall of autistic thought patterns, she sees whales or dolphins, usually splashing out of the ocean. Today, I had a pleasure of watching the whales with the ocean as a backdrop.
Reporting in on logistical matters –
People dress nice-ish on dressy nights on HAL scenic cruises. Nobody is messy but there are not too many dresses and we didn’t see too many tuxedos. The split between suits and just a dress shirt seemed to be about 60/40 towards a suit. Not too many people wore ties either (myself included; I’ll send photos sometime as I look perfectly presentable and professional without a tie).
Lamb chops
Dressy night got us a few extra menu options. Tonight’s steak options were a tenderloin and a NY Strip Steak. Orange menu got us a braised short rib. I had “rack of lamb” which consisted of two thick lamb chops. They were good and didn’t taste like they were sent from New Zealand so they may have actually been brought on the ship in Santiago. At lunch today I had crab Louie salad.
Crab Louie salad
We played blackjack for a bit this afternoon, losing more than winning but having a good time. We likely won’t play again for a few days as the next two are port days.
Tonight, after calling the cable guy, we’re watching football. We sent out laundry today and I called my kid to have a difficult conversation. It’s almost as if we’re at home. Well, we do our own laundry at home.
Weather this morning
Weather – cold and damp this morning, upper 50s (14C). Warm and sunny this afternoon, around 70 (21C) but with nice warm sun. I sat shirtless in the sun a bit and became a little pink. Tomorrow…. I frankly have no idea but it looks like upper 50s and “chance of a shower.” People report that weather can be highly variable in Puerto Montt and Puerto Chacabuco. we’ll see.
Weather tonight
17,947 steps today. Not enough sleep last night so we shall be sleeping soon.
So as is always the case, the HAL tours require a bit of patience.
First off, one of the best parts of the day is this – I woke up early and went up to the 21st floor “Executive Lounge” at the Sheraton before 7am, before the sun came up. It was spectacular. The haze that appears in the daytime was non-apparent so I spent half an hour taking photos of the town and the mountains as the sun came up.
View of the tallest building in South America with the Andes beyond
A word on the executive lounge.
We live in greater greater Washington and often end up traveling to places like New York, Boston, San Diego, and Chicago. The end result of this is we have a partially-skewed sense of pricing. Therefore, when we come to a place like Santiago where we could have a King deluxe room for two nights for $140 a night, if we can upgrade to a higher floor for $160 or $180 a night and then get the lounge for $220 a night, well, we do it. Not always, but sometimes we do, and this time we did. The end result is we had “executive lounge access.” In DC money it saved us about three meals meaning it saved us probably about $200. And here’s a pro tip – if you bring a couple of friends during happy hour they don’t charge the friends for the buffet or happy hour cocktails as well; just items ordered from the menu such as the pizzas we had on Wednesday evening.
But Santiago is a relatively inexpensive place irregardless.
Now, to the parts requiring patience.
HAL’s excursion desk told us yesterday morning to put our luggage in the hallway by 7:30 am with our cruise tags attached. This morning, their sign said, “If you have a transfer, put your luggage in the hallway by 7:30am. If you have a tour and then transfer, bring your luggage downstairs by 8:30am.” Well, with our massive amount of baggage by the time we came down to the lobby at 8:30am all of the luggage carts were in use and there was no way we were bringing our bags down, not to mention half our floor had luggage in the hallway. The end result of this was we left our luggage in the hallway and trusted HAL’s tour operator to figure it out. Thanks to the magic of Apple AirTags we saw that our luggage managed to make it into a large box truck behind the hotel by the time we left on our tour a little after 9am. From there the AirTags showed our luggage sitting at the hotel until… 3:30pm, long after we arrived at the ship. Then they moved. They were in San Antonio, the port city.
Luggage that shows up at 5:45pm
Our luggage didn’t make its way to our cabin in totality until 5:45pm. The end result was we spent our time on board – after 3pm – touring the ship, briefly visiting our cabin, chatting with the Neptune Suite concierge, and… drinking wine. Eventually our bags showed up and we went downstairs to change our dining to late fixed dining rather than anytime dining and we had a very nice dinner, better than we were expecting, and saw a set in the Rolling Stone Lounge and came up to bed. Somewhere during all of that we unpacked.
So, recommendations here –
HAL does not have a tracking system. You hand them your bags and they’re in the abyss in Chile. You have to trust people to do their job. If you have a problem with this, hire a private guide for a private transfer – the kind that has a van that seats six or eight people or fewer. This way you can show up to the terminal at your leisure and see your luggage as it is passed on board. The Neptune concierge explained to multiple people multiple times that the procedure for luggage here is labor intensive. They bring in a big truck full of suitcases. They offload it in the tents outside the terminal warehouse (it really is a warehouse). They run them through security. They put everything back on a truck. They haul it over to the ship. they offload it at the ship, and it comes on board in batches of two, four, six, or eight bags at a time. It’s crazy. Like a wing and a prayer.
But it’s a 22 day itinerary so if you can’t hit the ground running the first night it doesn’t really matter.
Things you see on the “City Panorama Tour”
Today, on the way to the port we had a short “city panorama tour” and then we went to Viña Casas del Bosque. This winery we visited is perfect for pre-ship touring. They took us through the vineyards showing us the soil and the Pinot Noir vines, and then took us past steel tank fermentation, and then past barrel aging. The wine was good but not pretentious. It was like the Central Coast of California. They excel at Sauvignon Blanc and maybe Pinot Noir (we didn’t try it). They make a decent Carmenere which they ferment from grapes grown elsewhere in Chile. And they have a tract of land dedicated to Syrah vines here. We bought three bottles there. In addition, we have two bottles of better Carmenere which we bought in town yesterday.
An excellent bottle of Carmenere
Pro tip – HAL doesn’t scan your carry-on luggage for wine in San Antonio. They’re supposed to charge $20 corkage or take it away from you until the end of the cruise, but depending on what is going on they don’t really know. Port security doesn’t speak to HAL security. Downside of this is we don’t know if they tossed our passports into the Pacific or not (well, I’m just kidding). In the future if you see me writing notes like this at 11:30 in the evening local time just assume “pro tip” means “here is something interesting.”
Wine being poured
Anyway. This is our first Holland America cruise. We‘re enjoying it. We have a lot going on at home that is causing stress and strain but the moment the ship turned towards the Pacific Ocean and started leaving wake I felt as if we were sailing away from our problems. This is what inspired me today.
Watching the wake recede behind us
Tomorrow I’ll post a bit more on our dinner tonight as well as Rolling Stone Lounge in the evening. One of us also signed up for the fitness package. We’ll see how that goes.
