Friday, February 9, 2018- Cruise Day 17; Ilhabela, Brazil

Friday, February 9, 2018- Cruise Day 17; Ilhabela, Brazil

We awoke at anchor in Ilhabela harbor along with a the Celebrity Infinity.  We got up pretty late at 8:30AM because we didn’t set any alarms.  This is a tender port, and the first tenders were leaving the ship at 9:00am, but priority is given to Elite passengers, and passengers with Princess excursions.  Since we didn’t have an excursion scheduled, we figured it would take a while to off load all the excursion passengers.  We had breakfast in the Horizon Court and then got ready for a day in the sun.  We had glorious sunshine and the temperature was 92 degrees.  Unfortunately, it was also pretty humid, so it didn’t take much walking around to have the energy zapped from us.  We got ashore at 10:30am, and by 12:30, we had walked down the waterfront to see a few beaches, some sculptures of the Stations of the Cross, the municiple museum, which used to house a prison, and the villa’s cathedral.  There is a large shopping area adjacent to the tender docks with lots of shops and restaurants, but it didn’t take long for all the shops to blur into each other.  There was no free wifi that worked.  In general, you had to buy a drink or meal at a restaurant or bar, and still, there was no guaranty that the bandwidth would be adequate, so we weren’t able to upload any pictures or update our emails. 

The island is very lush and mountainous so it is very attractive, but we were warned that venturing into the jungles would invite attacks from the Borochudos, which are tiny mosquitos of legendary viciousness, so although there were many 4x4 excursions to see waterfalls in the jungle and beaches, we opted to pass on them since we will be spending several days at Iguazu Falls, which should put all other waterfalls to shame.  

There were lines to get back to the ship by the tenders, but it was so nice to set foot inside the ship’s air conditioning and have lunch and free lemonade and ice tea.  We attended an afternoon general trivia and no surprizes, we came in 2nd place, even though it was just Janet, I and Dan.  

Ben went for a run in the fitness center, and then we attended the Captain’s reception for Platinum and Elite members, which featured a variety of cheese, dried fruit, olives, and nachos with fresh guacamole.  

We attended the early show which was a combination of Todd Adamson’s electric violin and Chris Watkins’ tremendous vocal talent.  They put on another great show featuring pop and show tunes.  

We then had a relaxed dinner in the dining room which featured a very good surf and turf.  

After dinner, we watched the Magician Michael Barron’s show in the Explorer’s Lounge, which as another amazing magic show, even up close in the smaller lounge.  We sat with John and Kathy, and learned that they had brought bicycles on board after reading about people doing so in Princess Magazine.  Apparently, this is not generally allowed, but because they had contacted Princess several times regarding bringing bicycles and not being told NO, they were allowed to bring them, but were told they had to store them in their room or balcony.  But as a practical matter, when they had to try to wheel their bicycles through the narrow ship’s hallways, it was impossible to get them past the room service and room stewards’ carts.  It was also very awkward and difficult to get the bikes into the elevators.  After the first port of call, they had a meeting with the Hotel Manager, and got special permission to store their bicycles under a staircase on deck 5, where the disembarkation usually occurs.  Having bikes to ride at each port of call has saved them a lot of money in excursions, and there have been some very nice bicycle paths in many ports of call.

We also learned that Kathy works in the travel industry and was able to earn Platinum status by booking a certain number of cruises as a travel agent.  

Janet ended up winning another Wake Show drawing tonight, so she is expecting two prizes now.  We’ll have to see if she ends up more coasters, or perhaps something else. 

We have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow because we arrive in Rio de Janeiro at 7:00am, and we have two excursions scheduled including an 8 hour Best of Rio tour that leaves at 7:10AM, and the Samba Preliminaries parade at 7:45PM-4:00AM.  Fortunately, we have the option to head back to the ship after each Samba Parade group finishes, so we’ll probably head back at Midnight, instead of staying until 4:00AM, unless we are totally mesmerized by all the action and excitement.