Grimaldi lines shipping to Montevideo instead of Buenos Aires
 

Hi,

We have just found out that the Europe-South America sailings with Grimaldi no longer go to Argentina, they finish in Uruguay, so we will be arriving to a different country than we had planned. That's probably grand as Uruguay sounds like a nice place to explore. We hope to be getting there in early September this year (2012).

We're not done any research on Uruguay, or on arriving into it's port with an overland truck, so any experiences anyone has that they can share would be very much appreciated!

Merv and Sarah

Moglander's Travels | The travels of Moglander, and all that sail in her.

Uruguay is a great place, you'll love it. A nice, chilled out introduction to South America. Montevideo is really just on the other side of the river from Buenos Airies and in fact Colonia is less than an hour away on the ferry.

Hi
Well, today here in BA a Croatian couple is boarding on the Grande San Paolo on the way to Germany. At Buenos Aires from some boats ago they change the terminal to one just beside La Boca and we check the port schedule now and there aren’t more boat coming to BA but yes to Zárate.
Maybe they will move all the Argentine operation there, maybe is only temporary, my first advice with Grimaldi is “never trust” with what they says, Mick is a first witness about what I’m talking about...
Anyway and for what to the OP concerns, arriving to SA with a RoRo service always is easy. Uruguay is a really nice country to explore and their people is very nice, don’t stress...:Beach:
Will try to see my contacts to inquire what was happening...
Saludos

Thanks folks! We initially had a bit of a panic and rushed to check if we needed to pre-apply for visas for Uruguay (Irish Passport holders) but all seems simple and easy.

We too are on the Saou Paoulo, and got our ticket yesterday after paying the balance. It seems it's stopping in MonteVideo and allows roro disembarcation there (we've a truck), but it may well be continuing further south.

Anyone know if we need anything other than passports and the truck registration documents to enter into Uruguay?

Anyone know if I drive the truck off the ship there, or have to pay a stevedore to do it for me? or have a feel for any other portside costs?

Thanks!
Merv.

Hi Merv

You drive on and off yourself: your vehicle is luggage rather than cargo so the temp. import requirements are the same as entering across a land border - much much simpler than getting cargo released! You'll find that they love their rubber stamps and triplicate forms - just keep smiling. The lady who dealt with my bike was very efficient, between fag breaks.

Whatever you do, don't let Grimaldi drive your truck, it'd probably end up in the water!

Enjoy.

Regards, Mick bier

We disembarked at BA in May with no hassle other than being told we would NOT be getting off the ship that day so were p*ssed riding through BA in the dark!
Oh yeah the Grimaldi ship infront of us run a ground just outside Monti and spent 2 weeks at anchor!!!

Cheers
Pete

Well, Grimaldi are indeed ignoring Buenos Aires for now. Montevideo is the disembark/ embark port for accompanied vehicles. un-accompanied vehicles can be dropped or picked up at the other ports. We arrived on the 4th September 2012, and it went fine. The paperwork could not have been easier (even if it took a while), and there were no customs inspections of any kind. Not even a customs declaration form! They wanted engine numbers AND chassis numbers which caused a bit of a wobbly for some of our fellow passangers as we had to go down into the ship with flashlights to find the details, but it all went really easily.

note: When arriving by ship, you only get 90 days visa and permission to keep your vehicle here for 90 days. if you arrive by land, it seems it is then ok to store your vehicle here for 1 year.

Hope this helps someone coming along!
Merv.

If you don't have the aduana form you will have problems when you leave the country, I would find aduana in the first city you come to!

Cheers
Pete

Hi,

We did have the temporary vehicle import form, and have since crossed over to Argentina with it, with no problems.

What amazed me was that I had to complete no forms, make no declarations, no vehicle searches etc. On the argentina border it was similar, no fuss, they just looked in through the door and into the fridge for fresh fruit or veg. less than 90 seconds checking! And we were through the border (At Salto) in less than 15 minutes. no helpers, no fuss. I was pretty impressed!

I guess I as too used to the hour(+) at African borders, with 50+ "Helpers" trying to help out.

Merv.

You're going to like South America. The funniest bit is when you do find a crowded or slow border, people complain like it's the end of civilization as we know it. I kept on waiting for the really bad borders, but I never found one--even in Central America, where there are a lot of wee little countries. Having Africa for context really helps.

I was in contact with Grimaldi last week to get a quote for shipping a bike from Buenos Aires to France (Le Havre) and they told me it was only possible from Montevideo, Uruguay. Quote was 350 euros for the bike and 2100 euros for me (cheapest cabin).

Now I have a question for you guys who seemed to have used Grimaldi in the past :

Have you only shipped a vehicle with them did you travel on the ship as well ?
I would gladly take the ship but 2000 euros is just ridiculous...

Thanks :)

They don’t take bikes as cargo without owners as passengers…

Well, apparently they do...
I've e-mailed a guy from Grimaldi and a guy at the Montevideo harour end, and they told me if unaccompanied, should be "crated and loaded as breakbulk".

Follows information received from our Principals GRIMALDI SAO PAULO:
If the motorcycle embarks together with the passenger then OK and price should be directly with Passenger Dept in the ticket. If it should load unaccompanied then client must contact a Ffwdrr in order to pack it inside a seaworthy box and we can load as breakbulk, once dims are known we can quote accordingly.
Best regards,

I'm just repeating what they told me. This might be wrong.

But then you mean to tell me that those are really the prices offered for traveling with them ? (2100 euros for the cheapest cabin). It just seems like a lot of money.