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.

Sorry I shouldn’t use the word cargo
What I was trying to exactly mean:
To pay € 350 you must be onboard as passenger, and your bike will be considered as accompanied luggage. Is what normally is call Ro-Ro (roll on, roll off)
If not, they are telling you… will go with a forwarder in a normal crate inside a container, with more people and red tape included. Of course, paying normal shipping prices like with any other maritime line. Also local charges at both sides can apply.

That is for 5 weeks travel, 60 euros a day for 3 meals and lodgings isn't so ridiculous is it, If you take 900 euros out of the figure for the air fare you're not paying for it comes down to 35 a day, include the 1000 you're not paying to crate and fly the moto home you're practically travelling for nothing :)

Cheers
Pete

Ok I get it, price will be different and not as RoRo.
And yes it doesn't seem that ridiculous... I thought it was more like 3 weeks travel.
Damn, 5 weeks on a ship seems like a lot of time !
I will consider it.

The way we justified the cost was to look at the total cost of the 2 options we had.

1. Ship the truck as cargo, pay for flights, hotels (for a MONTH while waiting for our truck, meals for a month etc. PLUS - An unknown of port fees, customs fees, Stevedoring fees, storage fees etc.

or

2. Go with the truck on the ship, and have a known total price. As we live in the truck full time, we didn't have another place to live cheaply waiting for the boat.

In fact, we compared notes with a guy who flew and shipped his truck, and our costs for that whole month were way less than his. It was cheaper to go with it! And yes, we paid 2k+ per person to go on board.


HOWEVER: If you do decide to ship it and fly, then you are not limited to Montevideo.... Montevideo is the only port where they will take on "passenger accompanied vehicles".

This is good info, thanks !

So the fees (port, customs etc...) are different if it is shipped as Cargo or if it is Ro-Ro ?

No port fees on Ro-Ro :D

During our 5 weeks we disembarked at 6 different ports and I think the ship was berthed for a total of 10 days.

HTH
Pete

Exactly!

My last outbound trip took forty days, but they flew by. Your fellow passengers will be like minded folk (six double cabins = ten others at most), the Filipino crew will be great guys - be sure to befriend the stewards and cook, you might even be invited to the karaoke sessions in their lounge! However the Italian officers bring to mind Allo Allo ........

Regards, Mick

Well, it does seem like a long time. But it passes really quickly, at least it did for us.

We did 2 blog posts on the trip on the boat, they may help convince you one way or the other :-)

Freighter Cruiser Grand San Paolo – a look inside | Moglander's Travels

Moglander on the High Seas | Moglander's Travels


I think recently the "craic" on the ships has toned off, or maybe we just had a "square" crew, but it was still good. I would do it again.

Merv.

Just reading about your little routine make me want to travel on the ship !
It does seem like a good option. I wouldn't mind working on that kind of boat though, as to pay for the trip.

I don't think you can "work your passage" any more. :frown:

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.[/QUOTE]

Four weeks of food and wine 3 meals a day with a good Italian chef. Plus time to chill out and visit ports every 5 days, shore leave to buy interesting foods and wine for the in between times. To celebrate crossing the equator on the bridge with champagne. Watching sunrises on deck mid Atlantic with flying fish skimming the waves. Time to catch up on books, movies, studying, maps, language, planning? Not worth 2100 euros? Sorry I find some people hard to please. And yes I did come down via Grimaldi. And would do it again.

Do not take this the wrong way, the person hard to please was only asking for info, and obviously did not know the facts of a trip like this.
And as mentioned, thought at the beginning that this was for 3 weeks travel, which makes $100/day, which is a certain budget to travel on a cargo-ship.

As you can see with my previous post, now knowing the facts I have changed my mind about this, and I actually just met a couple who traveled with Grimaldi and loved it.

Is that figure of Euros 2,100 being discussed above a per-person price or the total for two people? I'm looking at the Grimaldi site now: from Europe to Montevideo (and to Zarate, too, I'm not sure) costs 1,735 per person in an inside cabin.

That's per person. Though I'm not sure if it's one way or return.

The Grimaldi option is growing in its appeal.