PGIslander Events - Poker Run

Our boat club, the PGIslanders, had a Poker Run in our canals.  It was a cool day on the water, but we had fun collecting our cards at the different stops along the way with our friends, Bernadette & Marty and Maggie & Bob.  Later we went to the Civic Association for dinner and prize announcements.

 

This Way!

A Wonderful Afternoon on the Water

Marty

Collecting Cards

A Winning Hand

Peace River Trio

 We enjoyed two hours of folk music at the Civic Center last night singing along on some of the songs with the Peace River Trio.

Peace River Trio at the Civic Center

 

Viking Jupiter Photos - Explorer Lounge and Dome

I have added these photos of the Viking Jupiter to aid our memories when we get older and forgetful. One can view the deck plans and a 360 degree virtual tour of a ship similar to the Viking Jupiter here: Viking Jupiter Deck Plans  

Explorers' Lounge, located at the bow on Deck Seven was our favorite part of the ship.  Walk up a glass stair case to the Explorer's Dome housing a planetarium!  

Viking Jupiter Deck Seven

Explorer Lounge Panorama

Explorer Lounge Bar

Explorer Lounge

Explorer Lounge -  Mamsen’s

 Mamsen’s

 Mamsen’s for a Breakfast Waffle

Waffle with Fruit and Goat Cheese.  Cappuccino 

 Mamsen’s Fire Place Illusion - Water Vapor + Colored Light

Explorer's Dome

Explorer's  Dome

Explorer's Dome

Wintergarden

Check the deck plan. The Wintergarden is just aft of the Explorers Lounge. Tea is served at 4 PM each day.

Main Pool and Hot Tub with Roof Retracted

Main Pool 

Ice Carving Demonstration

We enjoyed delicious Poncho Via hamburgers and Philadelphia Cheese Steak sandwiches from the Pool Grill and beer from the Pool Bar.   

Breakfast on the Aquavit Terrace

 

We mostly ate at The Restaurant but enjoyed dinning at the buffet style World Café with fresh-air sitting on the Aquavit Terrace around the Infinity Pool.   

To be continued ...

Viking Jupiter Photos - Living Room

 

Living Room Stairs

Concert Every Evening

Living Room

Many Excellent Lectures and Musical Entertainment 

Thoughts About Cruising on Viking during Pandemic Times

We are safely home from 20 days aboard the Viking Jupiter.  Here are our thoughts:

Joanne doing her daily temperature check

Everything about Viking is       outstanding! 

Unfortunately, some people are not careful or just plain unlucky.  Upon boarding in Valparaiso, some folks tested positive for COVID. We guess the number positive to be 12. Although they were restricted to their cabins until they could be transferred to a sanitary facility ashore, we were among a few to be considered in close contact (shown by our tracking devices) with one or more of them preventing us from taking our shore excursion in Valparaiso.  Two days later in another port, we hiked on the Osorno Volcano and had a wonderful lunch in Puerto Varas with a spectacular view of snow-capped volcanos across Lake Llanquihue.

Unfortunately, Chilean and Argentinean health authorities prevented us from going ashore at our next three ports.  Even though this was a  disappointment, we enjoyed fabulous views of the Chilean fjords, Amelia Glacier, the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn.

Daily "spit in test  tube"
PCR tests - we had 20!

After eight COVID-free days and two brief tours in Punta del Este, Uruguay, one passenger, either not careful or unlucky, tested positive!  Although the passenger was transferred to a sanitary facility ashore in Montevideo, Uruguay, the country of Argentina denied us entry so that we could catch our flights home from Buenos Aires.   Viking knocked themselves out adding additional no-cost tours and an incredible onboard Tango show in Montevideo.  Viking chartered a plane to fly us to Miami.  Following an overnight stay at a hotel arranged by Viking, we elected to rent a car and drive to our home in Southwest Florida.

All in all, even though this was not the cruise we signed up for, we enjoyed an incredible Viking experience for a 5 star review. 

Postscript -  Lack of a mask specification (anything seems to be OK, a tee shirt pulled up and over one's mouth, for example) and lack of enforcement of the mask mandates in airports coupled with the caviler attitude toward the pandemic by some in the United States makes flying a little more risky than it should be in our opinion. 

Review: A Passenger's Review

I posted to these sites but my review/comments have not shown up:

Trip Advisor: 

Comments: Comments

Cruise Critic: Cruise Critic

Last Tango in Montevideo

 

January 9 Sunday 11 PM 

Tonight Tango Cervila performed in the Star Theater traditional to modern styles of tango, the most sensual dance in the world. Sensual and sensational!  Junior-Cervila

Viking decided to charter a plane to get us home for its passengers on this cruise! We are flying to Miami International Airport on Monday morning. At this point, most passengers are glad that we have a way home. Many have jobs waiting for them and other important appointments and activities.

All this is great for us. Not so great for the incoming passengers who boarded yesterday for the reverse trip around South America. These folks had their flights changed to board in Montevideo, Uruguay because Argentina is not allowing cruise boats to enter Buenos Aires. Even though these passengers all tested negative for COVID, upon being tested by the Viking ship's laboratory, four incoming passengers tested positive. They have been escorted off the ship, put in hotels to recover and will eventually fly home when they test negative. However, The Captain told the remaining new passengers that they have to stay in their cabins and will not be able to take any tours until the local authorities determine otherwise.. Whew! We are glad we can leave to take our charter back home. We have to be ready to go to the airport at 3 am.

And we were. Richard hoped to be first in-line for a chance extra leg-room seats. We were first in line at 4 AM waiting at the check-in counter.  Surprise, the seats per preassigned. Surprise, we needed some kind of affidavits we didn't know about to reenter the United States. The Uruguayan ticket agents waved their smart phones around as they conferred with other. Fifteen minutes later, with our tickets in hand, the couple of hundred waiting passengers behind us erupted in a round of applause. 

The Uruguayans jumped through the hoops of bureaucracy to get each of us the seven page affidavit that required two checks, one to attest to the COVID vaccination and another to the negative PCR test, and a signature. Surprise, we were not checked for documentation in Miami other than or passports, not even customs so we didn't need the affidavits after all. Nevertheless, thankyou Uruguay! 

Viking representatives met us at the Miami airport to usher us unto a hotel bus for the short trip to the Sheraton for the night.  In the morning, we walked across the street to the mammoth rental car facility to rent a car for the drive home. Viking, always a class act, will be reimbursing us for the car expense.

This afternoon we talked about all the good times we've had over the past 20 days. Some highlights are

• The beautiful Viking Jupiter Ship – just spectacular, beautiful, comfortable

• The fabulous staff who thanked us for coming and attended to our every wish and need

• Cruising around Cape Horn - what a thrill to see the tip of South America!

• The beautiful fiords and Drake Channel

• The passengers we met – especially Diana & Larry from Idaho and Jan & Ty from Sannibel

• The onboard enrichment lectures by the astronomer, archeologist and others

• The onboard entertainment

• The sumptuous food, gourmet and specialty restaurants, wines, cappuccino coffees. My favorite dessert is Grand Marnier Souffle, entrees are hard to pick but loved all the seafood e.g., Chilean sea bass, salmon

• Spending the holidays here was great. There were so many holiday events and the ship was decorated beautifully

Viking did well dealing with all the COViD-related problems. They promise a big credit for another cruise. Therefore, we booked Bali to Singapore in March 2023. Hope the Pandemic subsides to travel to exotic places again.

Juanico Winery

Sunday January 9, 2022

We thought we would be relaxing on the Viking Jupiter for another day but Viking surprised us by adding another chance at tours of Montevideo at no charge.

We chose the Juanico Winery, the biggest and one of the best wineries in Uruguay producing about three million bottles wine each year.  

History of the Winery     Wine Lover Review

Tour Buses

Corn Plus Grapes

Vineyard

Tasting Room 

Down to Cellar

Wine Cellar from 1830

Wine Tasting

Grapes                                                        Wine to Bring Home

                  Shipping Containers  Port                                                  Guard Starboard

Colonia del Sacramento - Day 16 and Change of Plans

As we waited for our us to depart this morning for the colonial town of Colonia del Sacramento, a ship's officer boarded the bus to remind us to remember to wear our masks at all times. We didn't think any of his reminder. Now, we know that someone tested positive and that would significantly alter our plans for the rest of our trip.

Colonia del Sacramento was established in 1680 by the Portuguese to keep an eye on the Spanish across the Río de la Plata River at Buenos Aires.  Its historic quarter is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Colonia del Sacramento

Bus Trip  to Colonia

As we rode along the well maintained freeway, we passed farms with fields green with produce, corn? or soybeans? and brown as hay appeared to be been mowed recently. We saw cattle, beautiful horses, very nice farm houses along with some in disrepair or maybe abandoned little buildings. 

According to our guide, farmers and ranchers are, for sure, on the top of the economic pyramid although they are always complaining and getting government loans. Exports are beef, woodchips and soybeans in that order.  

Uruguay generates 100% renewable power: Wind, Biomass, Solar and Hydroelectric. We saw many wind turbines in the distance as we rode along.  Uruguay actually sells power to Brazil and Argentina.  It has a stable government, good middle class and is highly taxed.  They provide free education through university for all and health care.  The country has about 3 million population with 12 million cattle.  Beef is king here and they consume the highest per capita beef in the world.

Portuguese House - Tile Roof, Spanish roofs are flat

Left - City Gate  Right Portuguese stone "paved" street 

Portuguese built with stone, Spanish built with bricks. 

Left - Lighthouse behind Convent,  Right - Church

Street Scenes 

Returning to the ship in the late afternoon we learned about the COVID case and that we would not be steaming for Buenos Aires in the evening as planned.

This morning, January 7, we were informed that we would remain in Montevideo for 2 more days on the ship.  Viking is rescheduling our departing flights as we cannot enter Argentina to fly out of Buenos Aires as planned. That is the mess that one case can cause even though the COVID positive person is in quarantine ashore.

Of course, we cannot leave the ship now except for transport to the airport. We have been told that most of us will depart by Monday but we haven't heard anything yet about our flight.

Update - Saturday Morning, this morning we have our new flight schedule. We will fly out of Montevideo Monday morning on a Viking charter flight and spend the night in Miami before flying to Fort Myers via Charlottesville, NC on American. We should be home Tuesday evening.  Hurrah!