World cruise 2025 number 2!!

[N0trub]

Thank you for sharing i am enjoying your posts sincerely

[Moondoggy]

[Fourthirteen]

Loving these posts. Please keep it up!

[1William]

I am enjoying this tread. Thanks.

[bibbi]

Waiting for Asia! Especially Japan (if on the route…).

[RichardBartlett]

Originally Posted by bibbi

Waiting for Asia! Especially Japan (if on the route…).

We miss Asia as we skim below Australia then to Africa.

You'll probably need to wait for 2026 ! Negotiations are in place TBC

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[77T]

As a "Frequent Voyager", Richard - how much flexibility does the individual have in negotiating the future price?

Or is there none?


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[RichardBartlett]

San Antonio day ll
So we were up at 07.00 as excursion assembly started at 07.45. once on the bus we had 1.5hr drive through the wine region to Valparaiso. A scenic drive but not overly interesting.

The onboard guide Christian was quite fantastic. He talked the whole way through the trip and back to the ship.

Anyhoo. It was the original traditional cruise ship port and a much better port than S.A but due to various issues esp price a lot of cruise lines switched a few years back.

A bit weird as it was mainly drive by stuff and IAH not a huge amount to see.

After there, we went to the tourist town a few km away. The flower clock area was nice but the tourist part, Dalia said it reminded her of 1980's Soviet union.
Walking around there are Lots and lots of tower block apartments, cheaply made and thrown up. Nice beach. Lots of restaurants but again not a lot to see.

So we leave south America . Overall there were some solid memories made. Buenos Aires for example is beautiful. The journey through the fiords will stay with me but a lot of the main cities in SA we saw are a mess.
Next up is another bucket list
Easter island! Oh boy this is a biggie for me. Its a tender port and apparently extremely difficult to get ashore. One cruiser has been 3 times but only got there once .

Five days so unless something happens or questions etc I'll go quiet.

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[RichardBartlett]

Originally Posted by 77T

As a "Frequent Voyager", Richard - how much flexibility does the individual have in negotiating the future price?

Or is there none?


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Small amount. Depends on demand and availability

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[Beo3]

Thank you for sharing your trip Richard.

I truly enjoy living vicariously through your postings!

[RichardBartlett]

A life on the ocean wave

So tomorrow is Easter island which is a tender port. The tickets are released at 08.00. the day before so up this morning at 06.30 to join the queue. The seasoned cruisers know getting a first tender is better than winning the lottery.

I joined with about 50 ahead at 06.40

Now at that level T1 isn't a problem but with people getting tickets for friends (limited to 4 pp) that's possibly me out.

And so it came to pass. I got T2 which tbf is ok as 1&2 tend to tender pretty much together in any case.
Sadly our excursion party are on T3 so we will need to wait ashore. The sea is forecast to be calmish so fingers crossed!

Second picture is at 08.05 when I was just about to collect tickets and the queue was right round the pool gallery and beyond..



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[Maleg]

Originally Posted by RichardBartlett

A life on the ocean wave

So tomorrow is Easter island which is a tender port. The tickets are released at 08.00. the day before so up this morning at 06.30 to join the queue. The seasoned cruisers know getting a first tender is better than winning the lottery.

I joined with about 50 ahead at 06.40

Now at that level T1 isn't a problem but with people getting tickets for friends (limited to 4 pp) that's possibly me out.

And so it came to pass. I got T2 which tbf is ok as 1&2 tend to tender pretty much together in any case.
Sadly our excursion party are on T3 so we will need to wait ashore. The sea is forecast to be calmish so fingers crossed!

Second picture is at 08.05 when I was just about to collect tickets and the queue was right round the pool gallery and beyond..


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You'd think there would be a better way to collect your passes without having to queue up for hours while on holiday. It's not like you're getting to see Taylor Swift, it's just the boat ride to the beach.

Are they weeding out the weak and faint hearted?

[RichardBartlett]

Originally Posted by Maleg

You'd think there would be a better way to collect your passes without having to queue up for hours while on holiday. It's not like you're getting to see Taylor Swift, it's just the boat ride to the beach.

Are they weeding out the weak and faint hearted?

I guess it's the fairest way. Last WC we had an insider who got us the tickets the day before on the QT..

As regards the weak. Might not be a bad idea. World cruises are about old people walking slowly getting in the bloody way!


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[RichardBartlett]

Easter island

Ok up at 07.00 breakfast and ready..waited for customs to clear the ship , jumped on the tender and we were on land by 08.40.

A bit of faffing around for compulsory park tickets and the guide and we were off.

It's a beautiful island steeped in history and it's a place I saw in pictures at school and dreamed of. The WC brings that to reality

We had a half day excursion to the lesser famous stops as the official excursions are booked solid so it's a bit of Piccadilly Circus today with all the coaches full of old fogies walking slowly and getting in the way.

We saw some very interesting stuff.
Note I always limit the pictures to 9 so what you see here does not represent the experience of being here...

Full day tour tomorrow.

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[1William]

Nice pictures.

[RichardBartlett]

Easter island day ll

It's a fabulous place. We fell in love with the island it's natural beauty and steep history. Tenerife is very similar except for EA has far far more rain so it's a lot greener.
Plus total inhabitants number around 8000 against 950,000 so it has not been concreted over like so many paradise islands have. (Tenerife has been ruined for the locals imho)

Coupled with the lack of a fixed cruise terminal ( last week two cruise ships could not disembark passengers...) means it's holding back mass tourism, so most of the ancient sites were very sparsely populated with us stupid tourists which adds to the peacefulness and tranquility of the island.
Although there is talk of a harbour to be built which will destroy the island imho.

Today we toured the southern coast line which has an amazing amount of the Moai statues.
The final stop was a beach but as we'd not been informed I saved Easter island the sight of my torso, the islanders no doubt breathed a huge sigh of relief. It's a nice beach with clear blue warm water but it's just a nice beach with clear blue water.. nothing wrong but we are heading west to islands which that's literally all they have so a waste of time as we could visited more sacred sites but it's no Biggie and overall an amazing two days

I took well over a hundred pictures today but as per, limit to 9 on here.

To sum up.

It's totally worth a visit and suggest sooner rather than later...Dalis favourite WC island to date was western Samoa but that's been topped by Easter island by some margin..

Pitcairn island in 2 days next which no one is allowed to step foot on so it's a once round the island and off . Strange but that's how it is.

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[Vivalas]

Wow amazing pictures! What a trip

[Tri-Tip]

Great photos Richard. To me, visiting Easter Island would probably be the highlight of the trip as far as ports go...so much history.

[Moondoggy]

[77T]

I really enjoyed you EA excursion, albeit vicariously.

This shot of yours (or hers?) is inspired.



I camped-up a copy and fiddled with it a bit because, you know, that's what I do...hope it's ok with you.



Thanks for sharing so much of your voyage.

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[RichardBartlett]

Feel free to comment, edit or adjust.

All the pictures are mine taken on my pixel 8 ; unedited, digitally altered, Photoshopped or filtered in anyway not even by Google ;-)


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[Romeojk]

Awesome. Thanks again. Great pics and story


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[RichardBartlett]

Originally Posted by Tri-Tip

Great photos Richard. To me, visiting Easter Island would probably be the highlight of the trip as far as ports go...so much history.

It was a huge stop for me.(And all the EI first timers)

As a child sitting in class hearing about these statues in some place I couldn't find on a map.

Because of the tender it's really hit and miss. Everyone was checking the weather and tides hoping against hope that we'd get ashore one day at least.

To actually get both and just to see what we saw was amazing.

It was the number one and matched expectations. I'm hugely interested in the how and why because some of these weigh 30 tons so moving them down a mountain isn't to be sniffed at

Other than that, Buenos Aires was the biggest surprise so far and is extremely nice.

Next stop:
Our table guest a native New Yorker was expecting to go ashore at Pitcairn so is very disappointed that he won't be but as I knew it's still disappointing but I'm kinda over it
Anyhoo huge thanks for commenting and the support.

Same for everyone who reads looks at the pictures and if they feel like it, occasionally comments :-)

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[77T]

Originally Posted by RichardBartlett

I'm hugely interested in the how and why because some of these weigh 30 tons so moving them down a mountain isn't to be sniffed at.

I saw this NOVA episode that explored that very thing:
https://www.pbs.org/video/easter-island-origins-gahb8u/


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[RichardBartlett]

Originally Posted by 77T

I saw this NOVA episode that explored that very thing:
https://www.pbs.org/video/easter-island-origins-gahb8u/


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Won't work for me here so I'll check back when home.

Thanks

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[RichardBartlett]

Pitcairn island.

Firstly were adding an hour every night as we pass timelines. Whilst an extra hour in bed several nights in a row sounds great but it can be quite difficult to adapt and we're waking up around 02.00am and we're restless till breakfast time..

This island and how it came to be famous/ infamous is deep in our (English) history.
Of course there have been a few "mutiny on the Bounty" films over the years which probably widened the world wide exposure but for us every child of my age was taught the story at school first.
I have no idea if other countries even bother to mention it outside the commonwealth countries? Let me know!

Anyhoo as mentioned; it's a sail around the island only. Whilst initially disappointing once you see the island and fully realise that the total population is less than 50 and the facilities only just support them it would be insane for a ship full of old people landing ashore
No proper roads, only dirt and if you look at the pictures there's really nothing really worth stepping foot on the island for. God knows how the mutineers felt on first look?

So 2000+ people rocking up with nothing to do would be totally totally pointless.

With that in mind a small boat chuggs out from the only island slipway to board the ship and offload roughly a 1/3rd of the population who set up stall to sell supposedly local products. Once set up they were swamped with passengers buying various bits of nonsense. Overpriced tee shirts made in some sweatshop in the far east with Pitcairn printed on or bits of wood shaped rather badly tbf to look like a fish (I'm guessing fish here tbh) fridge magnets etc etc . We're not nick nacky people and don't buy momentos so never even went to look.. however with no other source of income unless the government pays them to stay?? I'm sure the financial gain is welcomed and more power to them.

The only thing possibly worth doing is sending a postcard to yourself friend or family with a Pitcairn island stamp.

Tbf I really should have thought about this sooner as my brother would have been the only person who would have really appreciated one. Him being a history buff...
Sadly I only thought about it after they'd packed up.damn. I'll email him some photos instead.

Anyhoo the ship did a slow once round as mentioned and after they'd disembarked we set off ..start to finish 08.10 to 11.15 am


Onwards we go 2 days at sea heading west to Papeete island.



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[Kinnakeet]

I am really enjoying following your journey.

[Moondoggy]

Fascinating, thank you.

[1William]

Beautiful pictures. I like the blue water.

[77T]

Beautiful photos!

Pitcairn Islanders are wise in preserving their rock in the big South Pacific. It's been slightly altered over the years.

Pitcairn Island likely emerged from the sea ~ 1,500 years ago, although the timing is difficult to pinpoint.

The first Polynesians arrived around the 10th century and left behind artifacts that could be carbon-dated to be several centuries before European contact.

HMS Endeavour came across it first. But 1789 put Pitcairn into memorable importance due to the mutiny on the Bounty.

In 1838, Pitcairn Island was formally annexed by the British Empire and its residents given citizenship whether they wanted it or not.

Today, Pitcairn Island is known for a declining population as a lasting legacy of the mutineers. I know it was a disappointment to not set foot there but TBF you'd find little to do with its limited resources.


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