Cruise The World With Us

Saturday – February 1, 2025

You may ask – “As close as you get to what?”. Well, the answer is Antarctica! Today we reached Cape Horn – the closest land mass to Antarctica. It is located at the Southern tip of South America. There is a lighthouse there which we could barely see (we were 6 nautical miles away). The lighthouse and the land on which it stands are a part of Chile. Directly to the East of that the land is part of Argentina. There are photos of the area and one I downloaded of the lighthouse property so you can see clearly how it looks.

As I write this we are docked in Ushuaia, Argentina – the Southernmost city in the world. We are about to go shopping so I’ll write the remainder of today’s (Saturday) post when we return – and there is a lot to cover. If you wish to view the videos and photos, click here.

And now back to Saturday. This may be the last sunrise for quite some time. Our travel for at least the next month will put our balcony on the West side of the ship. Perhaps I’ll be able to get some nice sunsets (if the timing is OK with our dinner and entertainment schedule).

We had a meeting concerning upcoming excursions. We. wanted to add an excursion when we reach Tahiti. There is a 4 X 4 excursion that drives around the island and into hard-to-reach areas. We found that all those are sold out so they added our name to the wait list. We also asked if we could change our excursion on Easter Island. We signed up for that one in June of 2024 when online excursions were first available. The ones we wanted at the time were sold out the first day so we took our second choice. We asked if there was any possibility to get our first choice now – no luck and the choice we did make was also sold out. Don’t know why they bothered to indicate excursions were available if they were sold out. We’ll still get to see moai statues (and will post the photos).

This morning we had another of the World Cruise games. The object was to move a tennis ball sitting on top of a 2-liter bottle using plastic pens – 2 per person. One person was on each side of a table holding the bottle and ball. Lifting the ball you had to move it to another table about 5 feet away from the first and place it on top of another 2-liter bottle. Each team was given 5 minutes to move as many as they could. Our team – Air – only did 2. I believe one of the other teams won but couldn’t hear the result. There is a video clip of the M.C. announcing but he is speaking a foreign language.

In the photos after World Cruise Games are some concerning the ship. We put in the 3 people who help us every day – our waiter (Subagia), assistant waiter (Ida) and cabin steward (Leonardo). Subagia and Ida are from Indonesia. Leonardo is from the Philippines. All three are great and will do anything they can to make our trip enjoyable. I also included floor plans for decks 5, 6, 7, 9 and 13 for someone whose name begins with Sha and ends with ron. Our cabin is on deck 9 – 9115. You can get a feel for where the spots are that we frequent – theatre, restaurant and buffet.

In the afternoon we came to Cape Horn – the Southern tip of South America. There is a lighthouse to indicate that spot that the Captain said would be 6 nautical miles from the ship. I tried my best with the equipment I have here to get a clear shot of the lighthouse but didn’t succeed. You can make it out but it is too far away for a clear shot. So I downloaded a clear photo and included it with today’s photos so you can see how it looks. This pass was with the starboard side of the ship facing the lighthouse. Later in the day we would see it again with the port side being able to view (that is the side where our cabin is located).

This afternoon there was another presentation about tango by Luxury Dance Company. Personally, I think some of what they did could be rated “R” but I guess that tango is supposed to be sensual. You decide. Regardless, the four who performed are good dancers.

For dinner Jan and I had white fish and Kelsey had beetroot risotto. Hers looked strange but she said it tasted good. I had a warm date toffee pudding (picture). Jan had a vanilla cream dessert (no picture).

Following dinner we went to the theater for a show by the main production company that sings, dances and does acrobatics. There wasn’t much singing this time but there was plenty of dancing and acrobatics. I was especially impressed by an acrobat who performed balancing on a board and roller. There are plenty of videos of their performances.

The show was over around 9:30 pm and it was still light outside. I took a couple photos of the clouds so you can see how it looked. The Captain said the ship would be met by a pilot at 1:30 am to guide us into the Ushuaia, Argentina area. From the time the pilot boards the ship it is about a 4 hour transit between many islands. We expect to dock in Ushuaia around 7:00 am on Sunday. Our stay there was originally only to be 1 day but because of the change dropping Port Stanley we will have extra time to explore the city at the End Of The World.

Here is another link to Saturday’s videos and photos.