abbydancer2003

Day 15 - Puerto Montt 2 Saturday 3 This is our second time and Puerto Montt, and the first planned one so we had a tour arranged with some people from CruiseCritic and Facebook. We were meeting at 7am near guest services, so we ordered a continental breakfast. Our butler was busy so it was delivered by room service. We were ready to go at 6:50, so we met the group at 6:55. They were calling tender tickets by then. So much for the first tender. At about 7:10 we moved, but only to a conference room where we waited about 20 minutes. At about 8:00 am, we decided to go to Michaels Club to get a tender from there, and we’d meet the group. We waited a few minutes for Milca to come back and take us to a tender. I think it ended up that most of the group was on a midship tender and we were on the forward tender that left right afterwards. It was about an hour later than planned when we left and the day didn’t get a whole lot better. First thing was what to skip. This was a fairly short port call (last tender is at 2:30) so we had to skip something. Everyone agreed to skip the lunch. So after that we were on our way to the volcano. Apparently, you can’t always see it, but we could as we drove. We drove around a lake and then up the hills to the volcano. We went to the visitors center with a great view of the top. The visitors center is above the cloud level, and in front was a whimsical snowman. Great view of the volcano from the back of the visitors center. After a 20 minute, stretched to 30 minute stop, we headed back down the hill. About 20 minutes later, we pull over to the side of the road, as the brakes failed. Smoke was coming out of the back of the bus, and the guide asked for any bottles of water to help cool them down. It was unclear that the bus would work, and we were 3 hours from last tender, and 90 minutes out of town. They decided that the first bus would drop it’s people at the waterfall and come back and get us. Apparently the company was going to send a new bus to the waterfall. It would be about another 30-40 minutes. Fortunately after about 10 more minutes, the brakes were cool enough and we went to the waterfall. We walked along a path (ran into the folks from the first bus coming back). We walked out to the waterfall. They were more like rapids. (Next month, there will be waterfalls). Some more rapids. We also found a brown fox. I was able to get a shot of the fox leaving. After we saw enough we walked back to the entrance. We talked to one of the organizers, and her husband showed us pictures of waterfalls in Australia. We agreed that these weren’t much. To be fair, it was the end of summer so the falls were at their lowest. On the way back, we stopped along the lake for a group photo. There was a nice final view of the volcano across the lake. The guide suggested that we stop in the sister town of Puerto Varas. However, without the stop, we’d get there a little after 2 and the stops were never as short as we were told, so we elected to skip it. Instead, guide said we’d drive through. So we did. He did no guiding through, ie telling us anything. So what was the point, other than some traffic? We got to the dock just after 2. Walking by the security checkpoint, we just walked around it, since we knew from last time they weren’t really using it. We got on either the first or second tender to leave since we got in line, and were back about 2:30. They were still running tenders, but you can’t count on that ie, if there are still people in line, they continue, but if everyone else is back in time, then you’re screwed. We dropped our stuff and headed to the buffet. I had pizza and salad, and Glen went to the grill for hotdogs. Following that, we went to Michael’s for tea time. Then it was back to the room to rest bit and watch more of the Hobbit movies. Then a rinse and repeat moment. We headed to Michaels, then back to room for more movie. I did get a nice view of sunset. At 8:30 we went to dinner. I started with the hearty salad with apple and brown butter dressing. I had lamb loin for my main. It was good. For dessert, I’d forgotten that I picked a random day to celebrate our 26 year dating anniversary. (Was actually in January) so they gave us a chocolate cake. Glen had some of it, but I had the olive oil & lemon custard. We went back to the room after dinner, and finished the movie, and then went to an earlyish bed, since we’d been up early. Tomorrow is the Chilean Fjords, but they go from 5:30 am to 8:30 am, with sunrise after 8. It will be completely dark through most of it.

Sea Day 7, Day 14 - Friday 2 We were up in time for breakfast, but we ordered coffee anyway. It’s nice to start the day with some coffee. We headed down for breakfast and enjoyed more coffee, pastries and breakfast. Today at 10:30 we attended a meeting with the people arranging our Cruise Critic / Facebook tour in Puerto Montt. It was set up by one of the organizers travel agent I think. The only problem was it was in a small room and there were over 50 people there. I met a few people there, and paid the organizers for our tomorrow. They then got onto later tours so we left. For some reason I thought the slot pull was today, after the meeting, but it wasn’t. So I went to the casino to start my time for this cruise (we’ll have 3 days without it plus it will close a day early. Next cruise in April will only, I think, have the standard port closures. After my first donation to the casino, I met Glen at Michaels club and I did my last assignment before the final. I did have a video to watch, so I used my headphones. We then went to lunch. I started with a salad, followed up with the half burger and potato chips and finished with the white chocolate mousse. This may be the best dessert they have. I think it’s the third time I’ve had it (and possibly the 3rd or 4th time I've posted a picture.) Following lunch, I went to the casino for my next donation. I met Glen and we went for a walk on the upper decks. It was very windy so we gave up and went back to the room for a bit and changed for dinner. We danced in Rendezvous for a while and then went to see the show, which was Star Factory. It’s a typical production show, and not bad. At least it’s not Topper, which I’ve seen way too many times. After the show we went back to the room for just a bit, and then went to dinner, after taking a sunset picture. For dinner, I tried the baked brie again and this time it was better. After that I had the marinated chicken breast, which was pretty good. I had the Cherries Jubilee and Glen had the pine nut flan. However, he had mint ice cream instead of the pomegranate because pomegranate gives him a headache. When the desserts arrived, the Cheries Jubilee had the mint and the flan had the vanilla. It was fine with us, because both were good. We have an early day tomorrow as we’re meeting at 7:00 near the conference center, so we set out a breakfast card for 6:30 am, asking for delivery by 6:30, and went to bed.

On both the Silhouette and the Equinox (I believe those are the only S class to be revolutionized, the new Retreat Lounge reminds me of an airport lounge or Denny's. Also (seemed to be more noticeable on the Equinox) the removal of carpet made it very noisy. Although on the Eq, that might have been the group of 6 that sat around one of those booths and drank heavily. At least the Equinox didn't get the extra inside cabins where the game room was.

If your accounts are linked, she should get the status. I cruise with both my husband and my sister, so I have more points them he does. We're both Elite Plus, and he doesn't have enough on his own.

Our cruise leaves in 9 days. According to the app, no food venues are open past day 5. As been said, the app isn't accurate until pretty much sailing day.

Also the interior of poet Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso. You can take pictures out the windows, which, given Valparaiso is pretty cool as well.

I don't think anyone gets an email. They just show up.

Infinity day 13. Turn around - Valparaiso - March 23 We woke up by 7 am. We quickly got dressed, put our toiletries in the suitcase and looked them. I kept my purse, but left everything else in the room. We were done in time to have breakfast in Luminae, so we did that. I wanted crepes with dulche de leche, but what I got was caramel. Good, but not the same. No Leche in caramel. Once we were done, we headed to Micheals and let Don and Linda know we were ready to leave. They collected us Michael’s soon after. Leaving the ship was interesting. We were told we’d have to surrender or sea pass cards and get new ones in the port (see the port manager when we got back on). However, when we tried to leave they stopped us and called someone, and a crew member came down with our new cards. Armed with those, we boarded a bus to go to the terminal. It was about a full 20 minute ride. Certainly longer than the buses in the Buenos Aires port. There was a snaked line for disembarking once in the terminal. When we got to the front, we showed our “in transit” cards and we were waved through. There was a train crossing for the local municipal train. We went to the platform and crossed to the other side. The workers let us out a side gate and voila, we’re in Valparaiso. We started walking up what looked like some interesting streets. We noticed lots of street art along walls, etc. You can’t really call it graffiti. We think this is a pot shop. After about 3 blocks we ran into Sam and Kathleen. They said that they were going to the museum at the home of poet Pablo Neruda. They knew nothing about it, but it seemed like a good thing to see. So the four of us joined him. We started walking. Valparaiso is very hilly, and we saw some interesting letters up a hill. No idea what they mean. We started walking up the hills towards the house and then had an amazing experience. We were admiring a house that looked rather Arabian and the owner, an elderly man came out to chat with us. He didn’t speak English, but Kathleen knows a little Spanish. His house is the white and blue one. He ended up inviting us in. We entered and walked up stairs to an enclosed garden. (You can kind of see it in the above picture). We then entered his house, which is kind of like a museum. Here’s his sitting room. He had a lot of pictures on the wall of the room, the picture on the lower left below is him with the Dali Lama. We learned his name is Pablo Peragallo and he was some sort of a diplomat , and was involved with the talks between Reagan and Gorbachev. When I get home, I will probably try to find out more about him (if anyone does know anything, let me know). We signed his guest book and he took a couple of pictures of us all. He’ll probably mount the pictures in the guest book. We then left. It was an amazing experience, and not likely that anything else like that will happen again for a long time. We then continued walking up hills towards the Neruda house. At some point, it got to be difficult walking, and Don & Linda decided to go back. We said goodbye. About 5 minutes later, Glen pulled up Uber, and decided to run down the hill to offer to give them an Uber back to the ship. Sam, Kathleen and I continued walking, and eventually Glen rejoined us. Don and Linda decided to walk. We finally arrived at the museum. Tickets were about 10.00 each US, so we bought tickets. Turns out the tickets were timed and we had about 15 minutes. We used that time to look around and use restrooms. At our appointed time (maybe a couple of minutes before, we entered the museum. You go into the house, where a ticket taker takes the ticket and asks what language you want. The tour, it turns out, is an audio tour, and the language is for the headset. We were given a map of the house - it’s 5 stories kind of built into the hill, and you go to each and, using the diagram in the brochure, play the audio for that section over your headset. They said that there are no pictures allowed of the interior, only the views from the windows. So here’s one. There were some interesting things in the house. He collected things so the living room had a carousel horse, and there was a bar with many different wine glasses. (My mom would love it). One of the more interesting things was the bathroom in the bar area. It had a latticed door. Definitely not for people who like privacy. After the museum we decided to walk back to the ship. Sam had downloaded maps, but those used driving directions. Glen found (we have Verizon travel pass) a walking route that seemed more direct. Soon we discovered why. It turned out the road ended a block away, and it was just steps down. Lots of steps. But that was fine, as there was a lot of street art along the way. We got to a square at the bottom of the hill and made our way to the container port. We walked along there for a while. Sam told us that they’d actually taken a second shuttle from the terminal that dropped them at the end of the port. We said the train station walk through was better. So off we went to the train station. When we got there, we showed them our transit cards, and they let us through the same way we’d gone out. Sam said it was much easier. In the terminal, they tried to direct us to the check in lines, but we showed the transit passes, and they directed us to the bus. No sign of a port manager to get the sea pass cards from, so S&K figured they’d go to the ship and deal with it. We got on a bus and took the 20 minute ride back to the ship. At the ship we were directed to a secondary gangplank because, I guess it was suites. The people in front of us took a while, so maybe it wasn’t so good. I guess S&K were able to give them their cabin number and they were able to verify the pictures. I used my new card, but Glen’s didn’t work, so they used his picture as well. By then it was after 1pm, so we headed directly to Luminae for lunch. By this time, my phone was dead, so no pictures. This time I had the pea soup, and the steak frites. Because the desserts were the pear clafoutis which I don’t particularly like, and chocolate, and main dining isn’t open for regular lunch, Marvin brought me some pistachio cakes from either Al Baccio or Ocean View. After lunch we went back to our new room and unpacked. The room is slightly smaller, with a standard balcony but things in the room work better. For example in the old room, one of the US plugs is loose and doesn’t work. The shower control is a little easier, and the phone has preset buttons (panel missing in old room). Glen then went to Michael’s to get a new card, since his didn’t work to get on the ship (oddly enough it opened the room door) and also to reregister our credit card. He came back with new cards for both of us. On the way to lunch, we’d visited our muster station, but apparently there was a problem, since after watching the video, we still had to visit. (Apparently it took Linda and Don 3 tries). Following straightening all that, we went back to the room. Glen took a shower and I went up to Qsine to see about Le Petit Chef, but didn’t make the reservation at that time. I pinged Linda about when to go, and the text got complicated, so I stopped by their room. We worked out a night. Turns out that they were going with the organizers of our upcoming Puerto Montt tour on formal night, but I didn’t want to miss it, so we agreed to go on Ushuaia night. I’ll make the reservation later. Linda also gave me a post it that said she was taking Don to a surprised dinner on the last night and did we want to go? After that I went back to the room, and dressed for dinner. We went to Rendezvous and danced for a bit. We went up toe Qsine, and made our dinner reservation, (making sure our waiter got credit) and then went to the show. This was a Brazilian singer called Camila Andrade. She was good, but nothing particularly memorable. We went back to Rendezvous after a quick stop outside to get this sunset picture. We were hoping fro a green flash, but didn’t get one. After dancing for a little while, we went to dinner. I started with tomato soup, and then had prime rib from the main dining room. For dessert I had the poached pear. We then went back to the room and started the first Hobbit movie (LOTR will be our movie set this cruise) but only watched 10 minutes since we were tired. Sea day tomorrow as we roughly retrace our last cruise.

Day 12 Sea Day 6 Wednesday 2 This is the last full day of the cruise. We slept a little later than usual, so we decided to go to the Elite breakfast in Tuscan. It took a little while for them to notice us, but eventually we were seated. We shared some fruit and pastries. I then stopped by the casino, and met Glen in Michael’s for a while. After that we went to lunch. After lunch, we met Don & Linda for the last game of our first cruise. We’re all staying on through the next cruise, so no sad goodbyes. We did agree that we’d walk around Valparaiso tomorrow. After that, back to the casino. It’s been closed a lot, so I’m still playing. We went to Michael’s toward the end of tea time, and ran into Bob & Melissa. We agreed to meet for dinner at 7:30. After our snack at Michael’s we headed back to the room to start packing. We are changing rooms, so we have to get everything, except what’s in hangers, into the suitcases. Once we got most of the stuff in, we headed to Luminae for our last dinner with Bob & Melissa. It’s been great having dinner with them. For the amuse bouche, they told me that was tomato with goat cheese. It was actually watermelon. I started with a random salad. For my main, I had turkey. I think it was from Blu. For dessert, everyone but me had the chocolate dome <<chocolate dome> I had the lemon chiboust. Here’s a picture since I have no idea what chiboust is. We then said a very fond farewell to Bob and Melissa. We had a great time with them, and I finally learned how promotions work on slot machines. Who knew that an email asking to join a shuttle to the ship would work out so well. Then we went back to the room, packed up everything except toiletries and clothes for tomorrow. That included the DVD player. We’ll set it up in the room next door tomorrow. Then bed. We have to be out of the room by 8:am.

So does Princess, except in some rare occasions (launch TA of Royal Princess - I heard that was the case - and the first ever Round trip Alaska from LA - which I was on) where there were lots of Elites and then it was 2 or 3 days.

Really? The slip says "next day" and that's what it was last year. Prior to the restart, I think it was also next day.

Thanks for the update. Sorry it's so late, but glad you're where you need to be. Have fun.

good point.

Just curious - since I think you were in paid first/business, do you get anything back? Or since it was your choice, nada.

I normally fly Star Alliance, but I had a credit from an American Airlines flight that I canceled, so I used that to get us from San Francisco to PBI. I booked it with a reasonable layover in DFW. About a month ago, I got a noticed from American that the flight had changed, and my layover got very short. So I went back to the website and picked an earlier flight. Turns out I put us back on the exact flight I'd booked in the first place. No idea why they moved us. So it's not just FBC doing it.

I think it depends on the port. On our last cruise there was an elite departure lounge, and the person in the stateroom with you can join you. I think they can also go to the elite events with you, but I'm not 100% sure.

She was on our Silhouette TA in October. Agree, she's fantastic. Right now, she and her husband are in Florida doing some sort of entertainment program for several months.

Last time I was there and checked, the shuttle wasn't free. I think my friend called us an Uber. Fist time we stayed there before a cruise, we walked to the ship. (First Caribbean voyage of the Royal Princess in berth 2, right by the 17th street entrance.

Jim, If you haven't left yet, have you looked at SFO? You might be able to get to the east coast there today. I know it's a bit further, but not that much. (And if it's a redeye, I can drive you to the airport). It may not be practical at this point, but it's a thought.

Infinity Day 11 - Puerto Mott 1 Tuesday 2 march 21 Today we woke up around 8:15 and saw we were in the harbor for Puerto Montt. We dressed quickly and went to breakfast after enjoying some coffee delivered by Maria. I had the crepes with dulce de leche added. It was good, although it might have been caramel. I also had scrambled eggs and bacon. After breakfast we headed to our room gathered our shore stuff, and headed to Michael’s. Milca led us to the tender and we went upstairs. Since the tenders had been operating for a while, there was nobody up there with us. It was a quick tender ride to the dock. Along the way, we saw where we were going Some birds on a pylon And the nearby island After a search of my backpack for food items (none - but they’re serious about it), we walked outside, and then outside of the dock area. We, rather arbitrarily headed to the right, and ended up walking along a waterfront park. There were lots of playgrounds and a flag at half staff, which Glen said was a memorial to some kind of massacre of squatters who were killed by the military. It looks like it’s permanently at half staff. Nearby were busts of famous statesmen and military men I think. (I can’t read Spanish). As we continued to walk we set a goal of going to what looked like a big mall, about a mile from the dock. We saw this fun statue. At the mall we decided to go in to use the restrooms. The mail was huge, and featured all kinds of stores, some new to us and some familiar. There was even a supermarket. We wandered through and eventually located the restrooms. We noticed a lot of donut stores. Glen decided to go to an ATM so we could get some donuts, but his ATM card didn’t work so no donuts for us. One store we did see was a Dunkin Donuts and their selection was much different than what we see. Lots more decorated fruit donuts. We then walked through more of the mall and tried to get out through the department store. There were no exits there, and the only thing that looked like an exit was up a flight of stairs and dark, so we just went back the way we came. We walked back and eventually reached the pier. To get back to the ship, you have to walk through a security checkpoint. I set it off, Glen went around it, and the guys there ignored us. (I left my phone with me). We got on the next tender and again went upstairs, There were more people up there, and there was a short wait for the previous boat to clear. Once back on board we went to the room to drop stuff and then had lunch. Glen had pizza and I had a salad and some middle eastern food. I had a pasta, beef kofta and rice, with baklava for dessert. Pretty decent, although tzatziki sauce would have been nice. After lunch we went to Michael’s so I could write and work on my class, since the last week of work dropped today. After about an hour I went back to the room, since I had some short videos to watch for class. At about 6, we debated going to the 7 pm show or see the party band, but instead decided to go Michaels. Bob and Melissa were there, and I asked if they were going to Sushi for dinner. He said he’d texted me (earlier I sent a confirmation text) that they were not. So we agreed to meet for dinner at 7:15. We met them for dinner at 7:15. I started with the egg drop soup. It did say it had crab, but I thought it was just bits of crab. Instead it was crab throughout and too fishy so I switched to the French onion soup from main dining. For my main, I had the pork schnitzel from main. It was a bit dry and really needed some sort of gravy (which Marvin brought when I asked). For dessert, I tried the beggars purse from main dining. It was a fruit and nut filled crepe that was gathered like a pouch. It was a bit spicy. After that, we went to the 9pm show. It was the Broadway tribute and was a full production show. Most of the musicals were a bit older, but I’ve seen most of them. It was Ok, but I don’t need to see it on the next cruise. After the show we went back to the Rendezvous lounge and danced a bit. Back in the room, we’d finished the 8 Harry Potter movie so we watched Fantastic Beasts. Then bed. Tomorrow is the last full day of the first cruise.

It was, of course, not as fun at dinner, Michael's and the casino, but still as good otherwise.

The slip says regular delivery is next day. On the Infinity recently it was 2 days.

All I need is my upcoming cruise and 1502 more points to reach zenith.

We stay at the Renaissance (I get high floor and lounge access - all that business travel back in the day paid off) and will usually go to the Boatyard. Although, in October of 21, there was an hour wait, so we walked to Outback near the Embassy.

Day 10 Sea Day 5- Monday 2 -March 20. Today was the planned sea day and we slept in. We ordered another light breakfast from Maria. While she was there, we asked if we could get Glens jacket back early. Yesterday day we sent it in for pressing, since the formal night was supposed to be tomorrow. It was now today, since we have Puerto Montt tomorrow. An hour later she brought it back, pressed. We then went to Michaels for laptop time. And around 1 we dropped the laptops and headed to lunch. Crass, the manager, said that at dinner tonight it would be packed. That was good information. For lunch, I started with one of their Burrata dishes For my entree I had the steak of the day, and for dessert, one of my absolute favorites, key lime pie from main dining. Glen had something with chocolate: The captain made an announcement that we’d be entering the Fjords around 5 pm. So after lunch I went to the casino, and then briefly to Michaels. I ran into Bob and Melissa who were retrieving their passports. They’re keeping ours. We talked for a while and then I went back upstairs to watch Deathly Hallows Part 2. As we watched we got closer to land. By the time we finished the movie, we were in the Fjords. Here are some pictures: Entering the area: Further in: We’re not sure what this is but the land is pretty: We’re guessing oyster farms or something like that: Boats here, so a bit of civilization: And a lovely inlet. I guess we’re turning left. And, finally, distant mountains. As I catch up, after our second Puerto Montt visit, I’m reasonably sure that’s the volcano we’re visiting on the next cruise. All in all, the sailing through the Fjords reminds me a little of sailing the inside passage of Canada and Alaska. As it started to get dark and cold, we went inside and continued watching from the balcony until it got dark. I had a text from Bob that they were going to try to have dinner on their balcony tonight, so we decided to have dinner later, to hopefully have the restaurant less packed. And sometime after 8, we did. It was still busy, but got progressively less so as the evening went on. I started with tomato fennel soup with Asiago croutons from Blu (sort of grilled cheese and tomato soup in one). And I had my new go to for last formal night - rack of lamb with salsa verde. It didn’t disappoint. Glen started with the beet risotto (basically risotto with two beets on top) and also had the lamb. For dessert, I had creme brûlée from main, since all the Luminae desserts had chocolate. Glen had the Luminae baked Alaska, but didn’t particularly like it. He said the ice cream was too hard, and he thought the merengue was was not mixed enough. I tried the meringue, and to me it tasted like toasted marshmallows which I love, so I had some of it. After dinner, we danced a bit to the party band and then headed back to the room. Tomorrow is our unexpected Puerto Montt day, and we have nothing planned.