Joining the Cruise

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Geo: -34.8939, -56.1568

Yesterday, we were up in time for breakfast in the hotel. It closes at 10:30 during the week so we needed to make an effort to get up still adjusting to the time change and lack of sleep on the overnight flight. It was slightly better than yesterday, but still nothing special. The waiter today was more interested in providing service than the one yesterday. After breakfast, we walked outside for just a bit and found that the market had been set up in the street in front of the hotel again. I had read that it was only on Sundays, but it was blocking the street again.

Philip and I spent the rest of the morning finishing packing and using the hotel's wifi to read and send messages not knowing how easy internet access will be for the rest of the trip. We went to the lobby and checked out about 11:45 and our driver, Pedro, arrived to pick us up right on time. We had to drag the suitcases a block to the car. That was as close as Pedro could drive the car to the hotel. He managed the bulk of the luggage, and Phil and I were left with just one apiece to pull across the cobblestones. On Saturday, Javier indicated that he would pick us up for this trip, too, but I don't know why he didn't. Both drivers were fine, and Pedro spoke better English although we did not expect our drivers to speak any English.

Check in for the Seabourn Quest at the cruise ship terminal was quick and easy. Seabourn has lots of employees available to help with checking in although the port's employees are the ones at the counter okaying the check-in and taking passports. As we were approaching the gangway, water and juice were available for the guests, and one of Seabourn's uniformed staff members offered to carry our hand luggage. We didn't need help then and were directed to the Colonnade for a buffet lunch. We still had a little time to wait for the suite to be ready when we finished lunch and walked down to Seabourn Square to wait. The rooms were scheduled to be ready for new guests by 2 p.m., and the cruise director made the announcement that they were ready shortly before that time.

On this cruise, we were upgraded a few levels, but not as much as we were on our last Seabourn cruise. The suite is just fine—one of their standard verandah suites—which is identical to the one we had on the Seabourn Sojourn last fall. Alexandra, our stewardess, stopped by soon after we arrived. She is friendly and quite animated and was eager to tell us that this is her last cruise. Her contract is up and she gets off the ship when we do to fly back to Saint Petersburg, Russia, to spend Christmas with her family. The luggage arrived to the room one piece at a time, but finally everything was accounted for.

We had the usual life boat drill this afternoon before sailing. After accounting for every passenger and demonstrating how to use the life jackets and what the alarms sounded like, the captain took the microphone. Along with the expected welcome to the cruise, he made a point of emphasizing that in a couple of days we would be in potentially rough seas and would need to make sure everything in our cabins was secured and that we used the handrails when walking about the ship.

After looking at the cruise daily newspaper, The Herald, and menu for the evening, we decided to go to the Colonnade for dinner. However, we got a call from the Seabourn customer relations office asking if we wanted to dine with one of the entertainers on the ship, a singer/dancer. We accepted the invitation, of course, and went to the Restaurant for a nice dinner with Jared Chinnock and nine other passengers.

The first port of the trip was Montevideo, Uruguay, this morning. We had a tour scheduled to start at 8 a.m. but it was a bit late starting. The captain explained that we were arriving late because of traffic at the port. We had only to cross and sail downriver on the Rio de la Plata to get to Montevideo. The ferry makes the trip every day in a bit over two hours. We had all night to get there.

Our tour for today was the "Uruguayan Wine Trail: a Study in Contrasts." We were scheduled to go to two wineries, a small family-run winery and a bigger operation. Between the time that I booked the tour and today, we had two messages separately that both wineries were changed because of critical family issues. The two wineries that we went to were wonderful substitutions. We started at the Beretta Winery which is run by the great-granddaughter of the founder and a descendent of the Beretta gun manufacturing family. Leticia was wonderfully charming and told us, with our guide interpreting, all about their history and how they make wine. After a tour of the property, we sat down to taste three wines and had empanadas to eat. The first was tannat which is unique to Uruguay. We liked it all right, but probably wouldn't go out of our way to find it again. Next, she brought out a merlot. She offered chocolate truffles to go with the last wine, a sweet mistelle.

When we were all loaded back in the bus, Leticia stepped onto the bus to wish us goodbye and safe travels. She says that she doesn't have tourists come to her bodega; everyone who comes by is simply a new friend. She stood in the driveway and waved as the bus pulled out of her property.

Next we drove on to the Juanico Winery which is a much bigger operation. The guide there welcomed everyone and offered a potty break to start the tour. Then we got back on our bus to drive through the vineyards to a lookout point on the property. They have huge fields of grapes. We returned to the winery for a tour of the cellars and for a tasting of five wines under the Don Pascual label: two whites, two reds (one a tannat wine), and a sweet wine. They had big platters of cheeses, meats, & crackers and bread & olive oil to enjoy with the wine tastings. The tour returned to the ship by 2 p.m. with plenty of time before the 2:30 all aboard. This tour had eighteen guests and one Seabourn rep on a full-size bus so there was lots of room to spread out and be comfortable. The bus seats seemed wider than usual, and they had seatbelts, too.

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