Tom and Noel's South America Cruise: Rio de Janeiro 2/25

We had to get going pretty early today as our tour starts at 9 am and this is "change over day" when we get about 450 new passengers so the ship gets kind of crazy. The passengers that are leaving are supposed to be out of their rooms by 8 am but there are always some who try to push back the time, not realizing how difficult it makes things for the stewardesses who have to completely strip the rooms and remake everything including how the hangers hang in the closet. When we came back to the ship after our morning tour at about 1:30 our poor stewardess was actually running down the hall all out of breath.

Our tour today was to take the cog railway up to the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue. It was very crowded and uncomfortable with a temperature around 90 degrees and high humidity. After that part of the tour we had another drive past Copacabana Beach, which was just as crowded as yesterday. When we got back to the ship most of the new passengers were on board, sitting around with their carry-on bags waiting to get into their rooms. It always feels like we are on the wrong ship with all the unfamiliar faces. Another surprise this afternoon was that there were four new ships docked behind us along the same pier that had docked while we were on tour. Two of the ships are really big ones. It is probably a good thing that we are leaving this evening as the city will be really packed tomorrow. We should have a nice sail away party with the great views available of the beautiful harbor.

Christ the Redeemer statue