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Published: January 24th 2013
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We had a pretty good idea this was not going to be one of those days that was well choreographed when we came down from our final visit to Jimmy to find that the ship was about one full hour behind schedule getting people off-loaded. It just got worse from there, and today marked a HUGE failure on the part of Princess Cruises to have their shit together! Imagine 6,000 people all getting off four cruise ships at the same time, with no direction from anyone, in a large warehouse that is about 90 degrees F inside, with 90% humidity (and, of course, NO AC), and porters just dumping bags helter-skelter into the middle of the warehouse, and letting people fend for themselves, and that is a pretty apt description of the morning and early afternoon for us. We watched (and tried to assist) as people in wheel chairs and others who had problems walking were simply crushed in the morass of humanity trying to find their luggage, get a cart to place it on, and get the Hell out of this building in one piece! We cannot wait to see the comments on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor about this
chaotic mess. Not sure who does the disembarkation planning/operations for Princess Cruises, but man, that asshole needs to be fired yesterday! Finally, after spending FOUR HOURS trying to get out of the building, we moved into the blistering sunshine to find the parking area in front of the disembarkation building totally jammed with people, baggage, taxis, busses all trying to find a way out! Our driver (Again, THANK YOU Matt Knowles!!!!!) stood in the heat and humidity for four hours with a sign with our names on it before we ever got outside. It took Steve another half hour to find the poor guy (who has limited English skills about on par with Steve’s limited Spanish/Portuguese skills and was about half-cooked by the time Steve found him), and another half hour to get back to Carol and the baggage. Finally, after about four hours, we finally were able to get to the parking lot and this poor man’s car, and head into downtown Buenos Aires.
We had to borrow some funds from a friend to leave an extra gratuity for our room steward due to the ATM brilliance last night (we are NOT big Princess
Cruise fans at this moment!), so we checked in to our hotel, hit a local bank and hustled across the city to repay his kindness on foot, because we love pain. Buenos Aires is a large city like New York. The traffic here (our tour guide tells us this is the “quiet” season, as all of the locals are on vacation or January down at Puerto Madryn (which we just left on New Year’s Day), but that is really hard to believe. Step into a cross walk at your own risk, whether you are in the right or the wrong, or you will just end up dead. Horns blare, people viciously cut one another off, make multiple lane changes as well as directional changes, but hey, who cares?) , and no one really seems to get seriously pissed at each other, so it is just a way of life to get used to here. The heat and humidity remind us of San Antonio. Many of the people are staying at the Sheraton here, which is sort of a shame. I mean, who wants to visit a foreign country and stay in an American hotel, which you can do any place
in the States eh? Anyway, Carol finally found a Starbucks after 30 days so life is good once again. We are staying at a very nice small Argentinian hotel in the Recoleta District of the city, and headed out to a local neighborhood steakhouse for dinner. Steve asked for a “full” chorizo of Bife” dinner, and the waiter brought out this slab of meat that was huge. We met a local dentist and anesthesiologist who trained in the States at Loma Linda University and enjoyed a delightful evening of exchange….
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