Montevideo, Uruguay

This morning we arrived at Montevideo, Uruguay.

Last evening we set our clocks forward one hour due to the time zone change in this port of call. At the same time, we woke up fairly early, as we needed to meet our tour at 8:10 AM this morning

We had breakfast in the Lido Café as we do each morning.

The shore excursion that we went on was a complimentary shore excursion provide by Crystal Cruises. Each segment of the World Cruise includes one complimentary excursion for both full World Cruisers and those passenger’s booked on individual segments. The excursion was called “A Day at the Races”.

After we disembarked the ship, we were taken on a thirty-minute drive by bus where we arrived at the Hippodrome. We drove through various areas of Montevideo on our way to the Hippodrome, which is a horse racing track. This facility was recently refurbished. Before we entered the facility we were given two tickets each to use to bet on the two horse races. Passengers could also purchase more tickets inside the track if they were interested in placing additional bets. We were shown around the facility. There were a variety of areas to sit at and this event was for Crystal Cruises only. We were offered various drinks including soft drinks, water, wine and champagne and then were offered various appetizers. Later in the program a variety of cooked foods were served such as chicken and beef. Ample time was provided for each person to place their bets and we saw two races.

Five horses competed in the first race and six horses competed in the second race. We weren’t given much information to determine our bets other than the name of the horse, the jockey and the trainer. We had the choice to bet either for the horse to win, place or show. So, in the end Keith took the logical approach, which was to base our selections on names of horses that we liked best. ☺ We are happy to say that this strategy worked as we picked a winning horse in the second race. At the completion of the horse race a couple of awards were given out and speeches were given by our cruise director and one of the dignitaries who was in attendance from the local government.


In terms of Montevideo it is Uruguay’s only large city. This city represents almost half of the entire population for Uruguay and is one of South Americas major seaports. It is home for much of the South Atlantic fishing fleet.

After arriving back to the ship from our tour, we had lunch in the Crystal Dining Room with two other couples who we spent the excursion with.

After lunch, we took a walk on the Promenade Deck and then later in the afternoon Keith worked out in the Fitness Center.

This evening we went to the Silk Road Japanese Specialty restaurant where we dined with Ambassador Peck and his wife Ann. The food and the conversation were outstanding We are sorry that the Ambassador and Ann will be disembarking the ship tomorrow morning in Buenos Aires and we look forward to sailing with them at some point in the future. They are both wonderful people.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive in Buenos Aires at 5:00 AM. We will have all day in Buenos Aires tomorrow and will also be there overnight. Tomorrow morning many of the passenger’s will be leaving the cruise ship while in the afternoon new passengers will be arriving to begin the next segment of the cruise. This will be a busy day for the crew, as they need to get ready for the new passengers who will be embarking the ship. At the same time, some from the crew will be going on their vacations while other crewmembers will be joining the ship at this port of call.

Keith & Anne Marie