"Maybe" Live from the Star (Valparaiso to Buenos Aires) Feb 15th

[ckfajf]

So the day has finally arrived. DH and I are off on his birthday present cruise to South America. Long day ahead. Boston to Miami to Santiago, Chile. Arrive tomorrow morning! Dogs and house are in the capable hands of my sister. Passports, tickets, suitcases, electronics, summer AND winter clothes all packed.

 

Going to try to do a halfway decent "Live From" but it is my first and I don't know how good the internet (interweb we affectionately call it) will be on the ship, so please bear with me if posting is intermittent!

 

Very, very excited to be off to the lands of penguins and the Southern Cross!

 

CKF

[pompeii]

We're on this itinerary next January, so I'm looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise!:)

[Mackenzie1]

Thank you so much for your Live blog! We'll be taking the next cruise back to Santiago, so we'll wave at you when you leave!

[GweninTX]

We want to do the 49 day cruise - following along! Bon voyage!

[lor74]

Have a wonderful cruise!

[Keith1010]

Safe travels and Bon Voyage.

 

Keith

[freshair8]

have a great cruise and thanks for doing a live from :)

[cruising babe]

Looking forward to your "Live Blog" - we are on the Star out of BA on 29 Feb.

Have a wonderful cruise.

[RDC1]

interested in your descriptions.

 

Will be meeting the ship on Feb 29th for the cruise back to LA.

[shredie]

That is a great cruise. Fascinating stuff everywhere. Have fun!

[azbirdmom]

One of our all time favorite cruises! Make sure you get up early to enjoy the whole experience when you are in glacier alley as that was an unexpectedly wonderful part of our cruise. Looking forward to following along. Have a great cruise.

[frac]

Make sure to see the penguins. There is one tour on the first (or maybe second port out of Valparaiso. You get on a 'work boat' to go to an island where the penguins are right there. Next, not to be missed, is Pioneer Point at the Falkland Islands. 2 hour trip to and from the boat in a four wheel vehicle and really worth it. We did this one on a private tour I arranged beforehand. By private I mean not a ships tour. Have a great cruise and smooth seas with a tailwind.

[KirkNC]

Hope you have a great cruise.

[Bruinboy]

Coola moola. Thanks for tackling this project, especially given we will be boarding on the 29th in Buenos Aires when you pull into port. Let's try to "high five" one another as you leave and we get on the ship!!!

 

This cruise has been on my list for years, and the wife's work situation has changed which allows us to be gone for more than a week at a time. Enjoy the cruise.

[ckfajf]

Made it to the beautiful city of Santiago, Chile. Have to say we escaped Boston just in time. At home today it is 12F/-12C. Santiago is a lovely 95F/34C. What a difference! The flights were fine with no problems other than leaving the Kindle on the plane. American Airlines has a nifty mobile lost and found page though so hopefully I get it back! Flying over the Andes was simply awesome.

 

We are staying at the Grand Hyatt, magnificent view of the mountains and city. Got to check in to the room early, had a nap and DH and I are off to explore a bit. Tomorrow morning we are taking a four hour tour of the city then off to the port.

 

Have met a number of people coming off the Crystal cruise which went around the Horn from BA and into Drake Passage. They did not get near Antarctica due to weather but seemed to have a great time. They said the seas were rough through there and wearing a "patch" was the dress code of the trip!

 

Hello to all the Princess travelers taking the ship back to BA We will be sure to take good care of her until you board!

 

CKF

[Colo Cruiser]

Bon Voyage!

 

 

[crzy4cruises]

Enjoy your cruise !

[ckfajf]

We started today out in Santiago with a Grayline tour of the city. It was a lovely tour with approximately 3 hours of walking through the main part of the city seeing the Presidential palace, the Mint, the People’s Plaza, the National Cathedral and other ministry buildings. Then returned to the hotel where our driver picked us up to take us to the port. I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to stay in Santiago prior to the cruise or Valparaiso. Very pleased that we stayed in Santiago. The drive over to the port was beautiful and am glad that we were not too tired to enjoy it. Got to the port which is a real working port. Checking in was pleasant, walked right up to a waiting receptionist. A little unnerving handing over our passports which will be “held” for the cruise but all good as I had read about this on a Cruise Critic forum post. Walked out of the terminal to a waiting bus and off to the ship. On the ship in no time and checked into our room. We had carried some luggage on to the ship so we unpacked, had a glass of champagne and enjoyed the view from the balcony. Luggage arrived inside of one hour so we unpacked then relaxed before the muster drill. Muster was at 4:45 but it was a bit of a mess. By 5:15 we were still waiting for “stragglers”. By 5:30 all the stragglers had landed but the sound system wasn’t working. All in all the muster got over at about 5:45. Everyone was anxious to get out of the muster station by then! After that up to the deck to listen to the sail away band which was outstanding. The Captain then came on and explained that we were not leaving right away that there had been delays in fueling and provisioning and he needed to wait to take everything on as it would be Buenos Aires before he could get more supplies. He said we would leave in an hour. (7PM) DH turned to me and said bet it will be later than that. By then it was time for our reservations at the Crown Grill. Fabulous dinner and I highly recommend. We celebrated Valentine’s Day and it was just great! 8:05 we sailed and we are presently cruising south. The ship is definitely moving fast with lots of motion. Tucking in for the night to get caught up on sleep!

[LARGIN]

If you run into a Head Waiter named Paulo, say hi from Larry & Ginger :)

[Bruinboy]

Wow, sounds like you were able to connect to the Internet while on the ship. If you would work with them about getting the muster drill smoothed out, those of us getting on the ship in BA will appreciate it very much.

 

Sounds like it was a terrific way to celebrate Valentine's Day. Thanks again for taking time to do this.

[cruising babe]

Thank you for your first post from the Star. I hope that our embarkation in BA wil run as smoothly as yours did. Princess have warned us that as there are a number of ships in BA there might be some delays - our plan is to have a good day in BA and not arrive at the port till the suggested time. Your dinner in the Crown Grill sounds good, it's on our to do list! Looking forward to following your adventures, keep posting. Have fun and enjoy.

[azbirdmom]

You brought back memories of our first cruise out of Santiago. We didn't leave port until 11:30 PM because of two late arriving busses of passengers who were on the Machu Picchu pre-cruise excursion. They got stuck in Lima when the airport closed due to fog and thought that they missed the ship. We were on the balcony cheering when they arrived and they looked stunned. You had better believe that Princess used that as a selling point when they pitched their excursions for the rest of the trip.

 

Keep enjoying your cruise and looking forward to more updates!

[ckfajf]

So Internet is really sketchy in our cabin and I haven't ventured out with my laptop hence here is the post I wrote from yesterday!

 

We had a beautiful day at sea today. I woke up early and went down to the International Café for brewed coffee (delicious!) and sat and people watched while I let DH sleep a little later. One thing I noticed was two husbands who came to get their wives brewed coffee (asked for two brewed coffees) and were not allowed because they only had one coffee card. One gentleman was pretty upset and said it was allowed on all other Princess ships. All good for me as I am the only coffee drinker! The sea rocked during the night, not a lot but more than you will get on a Caribbean cruise (which is the only cruises we had done before this). Did not bother either of us but there was a booming business in Dramamine and Bonine in the gift store this morning. After DH woke up we had breakfast at Sabatini’s which was lovely. Then back to our balcony where we sat and read for a while. We took a Merengue dance class in the early afternoon, so much fun then walked the promenade deck. It was bright sunshine all day but cool with the wind from the ocean. I was comfortable in shorts and a t shirt but hubby was bundled up in his fleece and jeans. Sat up on deck after the sun disappeared to the other side of the ship. We have a Port side cabin. This morning we watched the coast for quite a while but this afternoon we are out to sea and do not see the shoreline. Our Steward Orlando is absolute charming, and taking good care of us. Internet is very intermittent which is good for the workaholic (me!) Tomorrow is our first shore excursion. A little bit about that. I know many people like to plan their own, we did mostly Princess excursions as neither one of us speaks Spanish and were a bit worried about how we would do if we missed our “ride”. We did try to book Patrick Watt’s excursion to Volunteer Point 9 months before the cruise but it was sold out. I suggest if you are interested in that one you book well in advance! We are doing one non-Princess excursion in Ushuaia but other than that it is Princess. Will hopefully let you know how they go! We had a delightful dinner in the MDR with two couples one from Australia, one from the US and saw George Casey, Comedian in the Princess Theater. All in all a great day at sea!

[Bruinboy]

Thanks once again for the report. So nice of you to take the time to give us a "live" report. I look forward to hearing how your excursion went . We have an excursion planned through Princess for Puerto Montt ... I think that is where you are today. I hope the excursion was fun.

 

Wow T-shirt and shorts. I will have to reconsider what I'm packing.

[DRS/NC]

Thanks so much for your "Blog". Two friends & I've just booked this cruise for Feb. 2017! I look forward to your experiences & advice!

 

Enjoy!:)