#49 - Northward to Argentina

​We departed the waters of the Antarctic continent and, as we cruised north, the icebergs made less frequent appearances. Each day the weather got warmer and the sunsets got earlier and the end of our 3-week "floating home" drew nearer. We had one more week on the cruise and three more countries to visit, including Falkland Islands-UK, Argentina and Uruguay, before disembarking in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Highlights:

1. Visiting the temple in Montevideo and Buenos Aires (Erik)
2. Shipflicks DVDs (Megan)
3. Finding the Asian bar on the buffet (Tyler)
4. Pretty much everything (Anna)
5. Food Glorious Food (Jacob)
6. Family dinners (Tera)
7. Kevin the cruise shore excursion guy (Erik)

(click below right to read more . . . . )

1. (Erik) - Visiting the temple in Montevideo and Buenos Aires  - On our last port visit of the cruise, we added the Montevideo Temple to our "foreign temple visit list" of many.  Then, when we disembarked in Buenos Aires, we went to the Buenos Aires temple and spent the entire weekend there, staying at the temple hostel.  It was a very busy place, especially the Saturday morning and afternoon. We attended the temple three days in a row while staying right across the street.  That was a new experience for us, and one which I hope we can do again.
2. (Megan) – Shipflicks DVDs  - I loved the shipflix DVD’s on the cruise. There were free movies and TV shows that we could check out, watch, return, check out some more, etc, etc. There were over 1 thousand DVD’s and we had access to all of them. In our cabin, we always had 2 or more movies in our room, and we watched at least one a day. One day we watched 4 movies!!!! Tyler, Anna and I watched almost every Doctor Who episode with David Tennant playing the doctor, we watched at least 20 other movies ranging from Spiderman to Sense and Sensibility, to National Treasure and Mask of Zorro. I think movies to check out should be a requirement on all cruise ships. 
3. (Tyler) – Finding the Asian bar on the buffet  - The food on the cruise was the best. At the beginning of the cruise, I was content with sticking with the main meal station, the salad station, and the pasta station. I hadn’t really looked elsewhere in the buffet, until I did, and found the Asian buffet. Paradise! Every day for lunch they had food from a different country, from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, and more. Asian food is by far my favorite, and so once I found that, I didn’t really want anything else. It was super fun to try all the foods that I remember from living in Asia, as well as trying new things.
4. (Anna) – Pretty much everything  - Also we got free room service with no extra service charge and that was kind of the best thing in the history of ever. One of my favs was the stuff that you could continually see out of the windows, warm and cozy in the room, while in Antarctic waters. First off, the mountains and fjords of Chile were breathtaking, the glaciers were crazy awesome and the icebergs lazily floating by were really beautiful. BUT THE WILDLIFE OMH. Humpback whales by the dozens were breaching, blowing, swimming at the surface as far as the eye could see. In one of the Antarctic bays, there were at least 45 minutes where we, sitting on the balcony, could see at any given moment seven or eight blow spouts or fins from humpback whales chilling in the water. Insane. One of them passed near enough to the ship that we could see the specific markings of the tail and make out the blowhole, all while we were watching from deck 6. We saw seals poking their heads out of the water, penguins porpoising through the water in groups of two or three, and penguins sitting on icebergs as we sailed by. I’m not a bird person, but apparently, we saw some super rare southern hemisphere birds flying among the snow and waves. Just, sitting by a huge window out onto some of the clearest, smoothest water I have ever seen, a whale swimming by, barely making ripples, with my regular ice cream order in my hand, WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. 
5. (Jacob) Food Glorious Food  - My favorite thing about the cruise was undoubtedly the food. I love food, and the Lido Market had everything that I liked from pasta to pepperoni pizza to peas to pineapple pie (okay, there wasn’t any pineapple pie, but that’s something that starts with ‘P’, so....), and most of the Lido Market was open 24/7. The room service was also incredible, and that was also open 24/7, and you could ask for hot chocolate with a lemon and pineapple pie with 2 grams of extra sugar on the side in a fancy teaspoon, and they would have all of that; just as you asked, in 20 minutes. Not to mention the dining room, where they would have a regionally inspired dish, from Thai to Dutch to Spanish. Of course, the other food was amazing too, because I would usually get two appetizers (usually soups), an entrée, and three desserts. FOOD IS SO GOOD!
6. (Tera) – Family dinners  - I love having regular family dinners, and in "normal life", that is something that I work really hard to make happen regularly amidst busy schedules. The cruise makes this sooooo easy. We just walked in at our reserved time, and there we all gathered, waiting to be served and waited upon while we enjoyed each other's company. So fantastic! We all arrived eager to share the day, and then, in between courses, added in some activities we all started to look forward to: sharing family history stories, Chinese whispers game, balancing forks on cups, “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” quizzes, balancing spoons on our noses, turning glasses into ringing bells, and many other games that we began to anticipate each evening. Then we hopped up, tummies and souls fed, and set off for an evening of fun entertainment, quiet reading, or focused productivity. No dishes or clean up of any kind. No grocery shopping. No packing away leftovers. Definitely a welcome indulgence!
7. (Erik) – Kevin the cruise shore excursion guy  - One of my favorite things about the Holland-America cruise ship was the tour guide who spoke about every port and detailed all the things you could do if you weren’t taking an onboard tour package. Often on other cruise lines, there is almost zero effort to assist those passengers disembarking by themselves. But Holland America went out of their way to inform all passengers about things to do in every port.  Kevin was very well-informed and very helpful.