Day at Sea

               Tuesday, 13 Dec 2022 – We went to breakfast at 10:00 AM; afterwards, Sally had a nap.  Tonight, was Elegant Night.  Sally wore a long, black, Sparkly dress; Jesse wore a tuxedo.  We had a group photo taken on the atrium stairway.  We danced a little while before returning to our cabin.  Before bed, we watched the “Avatar” movie on TV (good again).

Carnival Valor Embarkation

Monday, 12 Dec 2022 – Twelve of us sat in hotel lobby for what seemed like a long time.  Finally, the coach came and drove us, plus luggage, to the Carnival Cruise Terminal.  We checked our bags; then stood in line to board the Carnival Valor.  We were on Deck 2, Cabin 366.  We ate dinner on 3rd Deck at 8:15 PM.  Dress was casual, and most of the group wore their yellow cruise shirts that Verna had provided.  (We did not get the memo, so we didn’t wear ours!)  We sat at a table with Verna & Earl, Ella V, Jon & Carol, and Dorothy & Brooks.  Carol & Dorothy joined the wait staff in the “Welcome Dance.”  Sally didn’t get to sleep until after 3:00 AM.

En Route to New Orleans, & Dinner at Nubian’s

          Friday, 9 Dec 2022 – It had been over two-and-a-half years since our last cruise ended abruptly on 15 Mar 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.  We finally decided to book a 5-Day Caribbean cruise to help Verna and Earl celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, along with several other family members and friends.  The outcome of this cruise would decide whether we would be booking more, longer cruises in the future!

By early afternoon, we were all packed to start our drive to Memphis.  However, it had snowed 8 inches during the night.  Even if we had managed to clear our driveway, the snow that covered our street was much too deep for our vehicle to negotiate.  So, we waited for the Homeowners Association’s contractors to clear the snow from our driveway and street.  They finally made it to our street and started clearing it around 3:00 PM or so.  Scott stopped by our house after work.  By then, the snow was mostly cleared from our driveway and street, but there was a snow berm remaining at the end of our driveway which prevented us from reaching the street.  Jesse and Scott managed to clear a path through the berm, wide enough for our vehicle to get through.  (Thanks Scott!)  We finally left home at 4:30 PM.  It had snowed only as far south as Sioux City, IA, so our route was clear after that.  Jesse wanted to get to the other side of Kansas City before stopping for the night.  After making it to Kansas City, we fooled around the last one-half hour looking for the Best Western where we had stayed previously.  There were several Best Westerns in the area, and our GPS was not much help.  We finally found it, actually located in Independence, MO.  We checked in at about at 11:11 PM.

Saturday, 10 Dec 2022 – After enjoying the delicious complimentary breakfast, we left motel at 10:40 AM.  It was cloudy all day; raining before we arrived in West Memphis.  After checking into the Quality Inn, we drove to Walmart to purchase wine and swim googles (which we forgot to pack).  For dinner, we purchased chicken sandwiches and Oreo milkshakes from Burger King.  Afterwards, we decided to drive to the Amtrak station in Memphis to check out the location, parking, etc.

Sunday, 11 Dec 2022 – Got up at 3:30 AM, and left the motel at about 4:30 AM for our drive to Verna’s.  We left our heavy winter coats and a suitcase containing our winter clothes at Verna’s.  Then we loaded most of Verna and Earl’s luggage into our vehicle.  Catherine, Mario, Karanie & Jay (Jesse’s nieces and nephews) soon arrived at Verna’s also.  They loaded Verna & Earl’s remaining luggage into their vehicle.  Then, Verna & Earl got into our vehicle and we drove to the Amtrak station.  There, we checked our luggage and boarded the train at about 7:00 AM.  Karanie took care of storing our vehicle.

All of our group of about 20 were seated in the same section.  We sat on second level in second seat on the right (behind Verna & Earl).  Jesse bought coffee and juice, and we ate the fruit that Sally had brought.  Later, we all enjoyed chicken salad and crackers for lunch, provided by one of Verna’s friends.  We arrived in New Orleans at about 2:40 PM.  Pre-arranged coach transportation soon arrived and drove us to the Maison Dupuy Hotel. 

We (Jesse & Sally) took a taxi to Nubian’s house, arriving at about 4:55 PM.  (We had tried unsuccessfully to book an Uber.)  Nubian had invited everyone to dinner at her house, and Jesse was making six lemon icebox pies, so he needed to get there early and Sally went with him.  Later, the rest of the family and friends arrived.  We all enjoyed a fine catered meal, lemon icebox pie, and drinks.  Afterwards, we returned to our hotel.

Overnight in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, Debarkation, & Return Home

            Saturday, 14 Mar 2020 – The ship was scheduled to dock at Rio de Janeiro at 8:00 AM.  Rio de Janeiro is a huge seaside city, famed for its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, 124-foot Christ the Redeemer statue atop Mount Corcovado and for Sugarloaf Mountain, a granite peak with cable cars to its summit.  The city is also known for its sprawling favelas (shanty towns).  Its raucous Carnival festival, featuring parade floats, flamboyant costumes and samba dancers, is considered the world’s largest.

 Rosmos, Omlet Cook, Terrace Cafe

 Juvelyn, Server, Terrrace Cafe

            Although we had visited Rio during our 2011/2012 cruise around South America, Sally wanted to visit the Christ the Redeemer Statue again, so we had signed up for an afternoon excursion,  “Highlights of Rio.”  After breakfast, we took our suitcases from under the bed and started packing.  Jesse became concerned that we had not received our airline tickets and went to check on them at the concierge’s desk.  When it turned out that our flights had not been booked, the concierge sent an inquiry to Oceania’s corporate office.  Apparently, Oceania had not booked our flights home.  In fact, the Oceania corporate office didn’t seem to know that we were on the ship.  We were booked on two back-to-back segments, and the corporate office had called Sally’s son, Mark, attempting to notify us that the second segment was cancelled due to the coronavirus!  

Claudine, Server, Terrace Cafe

Christ the Redeemer Statue

            After a light lunch, we met our tour guide, Louisa, ashore.  Although we loaded onto a full-sized bus, many of the passengers had cancelled the excursion to pack for their flights home.  Therefore, we had our choice of seats.  We could have cancelled also, but the cost would have been refunded for even more cruise credits!  From the port, we rode through downtown as we worked our way to the Cosme Velho district to reach the base station of the historic cog railway.  After arriving at the station, we rode the cog-rail toward the top of the Corcovado Mountain, and then rode two escalators the remainder of the way to the top.  It was a very cloudy day, so we could barely see the statue.  We were there for about 45 minutes.  Just as we started to descend the first escalator to leave, the sky cleared completely.  Then, we rushed back to the top, arriving just as the clouds returned!  After rejoining our bus, we rode through the São Conrado district and past Rio’s legendary beachfront, including Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.  We had distant views of Sugarloaf Mountain, although we did not take a cable car to the top as we had done on our 2011/2012 cruise.

            Soon after we re-boarded the ship, and resumed our packing, we received a phone call asking if we still wanted Oceania to book our flights home, which we replied in the affirmative.  That evening we went to our final dinner in the Terrace Café.  A little later, our stateroom steward delivered our luggage tags.  They were a number and color indicating that we had made our own air arrangements, which was not correct.  When Jesse went to the destinations desk to get it all sorted out, he was told to keep our luggage in our stateroom for the night and to check on our tickets in the morning.  Most likely, he was told, our flight home would be in the evening, as were all the flights back to the USA.

            Sunday, 15 Mar 2020 – As soon as he woke up this morning, Jesse went to the concierge’s desk.  We finally got our airline reservations, along with our luggage tags.  We were scheduled to depart Rio to Miami at 8:45 PM on American Airlines; then to Dallas at 7:20 AM, 16 Mar 2020, and finally to Moline at 10:45 AM, arriving in Moline at 12:46.  The ship would be providing bus transportation to the airport at 4:00 PM.
            After breakfast, we returned to our stateroom to finish our packing.  At about 11:00 AM, the cruise director announced that the ship was having an open bar throughout the ship, but since we don’t drink very much these days, we didn’t take advantage of this.  In fact, we had already packed the bottle of wine that the ship had provided, plus the bottle that Canute & Julie had given us.
            At about noon, we realized that we might not have assigned seats for our flights, so Jesse attempted to go online to check.  That’s when we realized that our internet access had been deactivated!  We contacted customer service and were told that our seats would be assigned at the airport.  We weren’t very happy!  (This happened once before and we were both assigned middle seats on different rows.)  Jesse regretted that he hadn’t checked on our seats much earlier.  
            When we went to lunch at about 1:00 and sat at a table next to Velma & and Billy.  Velma suggested that we go to the Internet Café and ask that our account be reactivated, which she had done a little earlier.  That was great news!  Getting assigned seats was difficult since Oceania Cruises had made our reservations.  However, Jesse was finally able to get us seats on all three flights!
            Although we had been assigned to the “Red 3” group for disembarkation, we hadn’t quite finished packing when they called for our group.  We quickly finished stuffing the last items into our luggage (which was difficult because the new suitcases that we had purchased in California in January were not as large as our old ones had been).  As we started out the door with all our luggage, our steward and stewardess saw that we were struggling and ran over to assist us.  Then other ship personal helped us get our luggage off the ship and loaded onto carts.  They continued assisting us until we got to security, where they were no longer allowed.  Soon we were boarding our bus to the Rio de Janeiro Airport.  Since the airport was quite a distance from the cruise terminal, a tour guide narrated the trip.  He pointed out the shanty towns, where outsiders, not even he, could not safely visit.
            The airport was very crowded and service was very slow, with the additional 600 or so passengers from the Oceania Insignia trying to check their baggage for their flights home.  Since we were scheduled to cruise for only 74 days, we were checking three bags; however, some of the around-the-world cruisers checked as many as eight bags!  Somehow, we ended up being the last ones on our flight to check our bags, even though we had not been the last ones in line.  Then we had a long walk to the gate.  Finally, we got a ride on one of those airport golf carts, which helped a lot, but we were still the last to board the plane.  When we got to our seats, one of the flight attendants told us that we would have to take our carry-on luggage back to the front of the plane, since all the luggage racks in the back were full.  Jesse wasn’t very happy and thought that the flight attendant should have assisted Sally, which she finally did.  (Later, Sally was cold during the long flight because her heavier sweater was in the bag stored in the front of the plane!)
            About two-thirds of the way through our long flight from Rio to Miami, Sally passed out just in front of the lavatory.  Since our seats were in the next-to-last row, not far from the restroom, Jesse ran there as soon as he heard the commotion.  Sally didn’t feel it coming.  The last thing she could remember was thinking about how to open the restroom door.  At least, she didn’t fall hard and didn’t get hurt in falling.  It seemed dark, but Sally heard someone say, “What happened?  Did you fall?  Are you hurt?”  She felt weak, cold, and tired because she hadn’t slept.  At any rate, a doctor was nearby in the back of the plane; he was there almost instantly and held her hand and asked how she felt.  He seemed very kind. 
            Monday, 16 Mar 2020 – The flight attendants arranged for a wheelchair to meet us when we landed in Miami.  Jesse’s bad Achilles tendon was hurting a lot; then, just after we passed through customs, he tripped over the carryon and laptop that he was pulling along and fell, hitting his bad Achilles tendon on the carryon.  Three security guards ran over to help him up and wanted to call medical, but he told them that he was okay.  After that, the woman pushing Sally’s wheelchair had to slow down so that Jesse could walk beside them and hold on to the back of the wheelchair.  But we got through all of the stops with passports, picking up luggage, security, rechecking luggage, etc., much faster than we would have without the wheelchair getting special attention.  In Dallas, we both rode on a airport golf cart to the next gate, which was very helpful to Jesse too; he was really dragging by then and had a very swollen ankle.  Even at the Moline Airport, we rode a golf cart to the luggage claim.
            Since our friend, Katie, wasn’t able to pick us up from the airport this time, we first tried calling an Uber, which was not available, and then a taxi.  As we were riding across the I-74 bridge, it didn’t seem that there had been much progress on building the new bridge.  The driver told us that the coronavirus had really been slowing down the progress.  We arrived home at about 2:00 PM.
            By the way, although we started a 74-day cruise, what we actually accomplished was a 49-day cruise, from San Francisco to Rio de Janeiro. 

Anyway, it’s great to be home!

Búzios, Brazil

            Friday, 13 Mar 2020 – The ship was scheduled to anchor off the coast of Búzios at 8:00 AM.  Búzios is a Brazilian resort set on an ocean peninsula east of Rio de Janeiro.  It's known as an upscale vacation destination with numerous beaches.   In the early 1900s Búzios was an almost unknown village of fishermen.  It remained as such until 1964, when the French actress Brigitte Bardot visited Búzios.  Since then, Búzios became popular with the Brazil’s high society, who wanted to escape from the chaotic city life of Rio de Janeiro and enjoy over 23 beaches that the peninsula offers. Today, Búzios is a popular getaway from the city and a worldwide tourist site, especially among Brazilians and Argentineans. 

Shopping Area

            After breakfast, Jesse and Sally went ashore.  Mainly, Sally wanted to look for Aloe Vera gel, plastic gloves, and face masks.  Búzios is very modern, with numerous shops and boutiques lining the street.  However, it was hot in the sun, and we mostly walked on the shady side of the street.  We found a pharmacy which sold Aloe Vera gel, but not plastic gloves or face masks.

            In mid-afternoon, Sally downloaded her e-mail, which included a message from Cruise Critics with an attachment outlining the cancellation of cruises by various cruise lines.  It stated that Oceania Cruise had “suspended cruise operations through April 12.”  Since nothing had been announced on the ship, we really didn’t know how this notice applied to our cruise.
            Before dinner, we went to the Horizons and danced for a little while before walking to the Terrace Café with Tom and Ruth.  Just as we sat down at a table for four, the captain announced over the speaker system that Oceania Cruise Line was discontinuing cruise operations, effective 13 Mar 2020, and all passengers would be disembarking the cruise ship in Rio de Janeiro.  Passengers who had booked their air travel through Oceania would be rebooked and notified of the final air itinerary within 24 hours.  Others would need to contact the airlines directly or their travel agents to rebook their flights home.  Since Tom & Ruth were on the around-the-world cruise, and had booked their air travel through their travel agent, they were totally shocked and not at all happy!  Throughout the meal, they were attempting to contact their travel agent.
            The cruise director also made an announcement that the boutiques would be staying open until 11:00 PM, and that any purchases on the ship would have to be made before then.  Earlier, we had been advised not to purchase items from the boutique while in Brazilian waters because a 25 percent Brazilian tax would be added on all ship purchases.  However, we still had about $900.00 worth of cruise credits which would be lost if not spent on the ship; therefore, on our way back to our stateroom, we stopped by the boutiques.  Passengers were lined up to purchase expensive watches, jewelry, clothing, handbags, and anything else they could find.  Sally said she refused to spend money just for the sake of spending it, so she went back to our stateroom.  Jesse looked at watches, but they did not have exactly what he wanted.  When we opened up our e-mail, we had a message from Sally’s son, Mark, that Oceania cruises had called looking for us.
            Although Sally had started to get ready for bed, Jesse talked her into purchasing a few items with our cruise credits.  Sally found a handbag, wallet, and two pairs of earrings.  We were standing in line behind Julie.  After a while Jesse suggested that Sally go back to our stateroom, and he would stand in line to make the purchases, while chatting with Julie.  He would use whatever funds that were left on the account to purchase a watch.  Jesse learned that the $900.00 that we were spending was a comparatively small amount, as many other passengers had cruise credits of $2000.00 or $3000.00!
            Upon returning to the stateroom with our merchandise, Jesse figured out that we still had $103.00 cruise credits left on our account.  Therefore, Jesse went back to the boutiques to make another purchase.  By then, most of the watches were sold out, but Jesse found a $100.00 coin purse ($125.00 with the Brazilian tax) that matched Sally’s new handbag.  While he was paying for the coin purse, a woman brought a bag to the counter that someone had left there.  The bag belonged to Julie, and the clerk asked if I would mind returning it to her.  When I stopped by Julie and Canute’s stateroom to drop off the bag, Julie wanted to show me how much packing she had to do.  Since they were staying in a suite, they had about four times as many clothes hanging in their closet as we had!

Ilha Grande, Brazil

            Thursday, 12 Mar 2020 – The ship was scheduled to anchor off the coast of Ilha Grande at 8:00 AM.  Ilha Grande is an island located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.  The island remains largely undeveloped.  For almost a century it was closed by the Brazilian government to free movement or settlement because it first housed a leper colony and then a top-security prison.  Cândido Mendes high-security prison housed some of the most dangerous prisoners within the Brazilian penal system until it closed in 1994.  The island is now a popular tourist destination that is noted for its scenic beauty, unspoiled tropical beaches, luxuriant vegetation and rugged landscape. 

Shopping Area

            After breakfast, Jesse took a tender ashore.  Then, after lunch, we finally wrote on the postcards that we had purchased in Iguazu Falls.  Since Sally’s rash on her back, chest, and shoulders seemed somewhat worse, she didn’t want to swim today.  (She had a rash last year, too.  Jesse thinks she has an allergy to  saltwater or a combination of saltwater and sun.)  After dinner, we talked to Julie & Canute about the rash.  They suggested that she try using Aloe Vera gel.

Parati, Brazil

            Wednesday, 11 Mar 2020 – The ship was scheduled to anchor off the coast of Parati at 8:00 AM.  Parati is a small town backed by mountains between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with a population of 35,730.  Its Portuguese colonial center has cobbled streets and 17th- and 18th-century buildings dating to its time as a port, during the Brazilian Gold Rush.

On the Dock

            After eating breakfast in the Terrace Café, we sat and talked with Canute and Julie for quite a while.  Then we went for a swim, although the water was rather cold.  After lunch, Jesse took a 45-minute tender ride ashore.  The pier was very primitive and the streets flooded at high tide every day, so that Jesse had to wade a through a few inches of water to get to the town.  Since the sidewalks were cobblestone and very difficult to walk on, Jesse did not walk very far into the town and did not see much; his foot was swollen by the time he got back to the ship.
            We arrived at the Horizons after the band had been playing for about a half-hour; when we entered, the band played an unmistakable entrance song for us!  Afterwards, we had dinner with Ruth & Tommy at a table for four in the Terrace Café.