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Published: February 16th 2017
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Before we begin today’s narrative, let’s repeat for everyone that Stephanie is tired but feeling better. She called us last night and expects to be able to go home about the end of this week but will need a lot of rest. She is really tired right now. We also got another encouraging e-mail from Valerie, so everything we’ve heard is as good news as we could hope for. We decided we will go ahead with the cruise.
Next item: There were more pictures on yesterday’s blog than there were words. For that reason some pictures appear in the section below the text called (appropriately) additional pictures. We mention this just in case anyone didn’t scroll down far enough to find them.
Now for today: This is “boarding day” for our cruise. We had to have the suitcases packed and in the hall outside our room by 8:00. By good planning, we had not opened 2 of the 3 suitcases while in Santiago, so we only had to repack the last suitcase. We got that done and headed off to breakfast before the 8:00 deadline. We have one roller bag and a backpack
Crown Princess
seen from Vina del Mar (with the wine & glasses) to carry with us on the bus.
Breakfast was essentially the same as previous days, except the bacon was better cooked this time. Since there are many people with the same 8:00 AM deadline, they all hit the buffet like a bunch of barracudas having a feeding frenzy. But for the most part the staff kept serving stations well stocked and running smoothly. We had a good breakfast before our travels began. There was a line of people waiting to get into the breakfast area so we’re glad not to have waited too late.
We had about half an hour to spend before our bus came to transfer us to the pier in Valparaiso. We collected our carry-on bag and backpack from the room and checked out. Shortly afterwards our bus arrived and it left promptly at 9:30 as planned. There were 4 more buses scheduled after us, but we were the first one to hit the road.
Getting out of town we drove in a 6 lane tunnel which runs east and west the full length of the city. Since this
was a relatively recent addition, there was only one place where they could put the road. The tunnel was dug to follow below the length of the river with entrance and exit ramps coming up along the banks. This is a creative solution to their problem and apparently it has largely solved most of the traffic congestion.
Along the way our bus had to go through a set of vehicle scales and they said we were overloaded on the rear axle and we had to pull into the parking area. First we are pleased to say that we were sitting in the front of the bus. Secondly, this seems to be a random check but which regularly raises money by a set of fines for vehicle violations. Out driver went into the office and came back with his wallet a little lighter but the rear axle still having the same weight.
The route from Santiago to Valparaiso runs through 3 valleys and through two tunnels under a couple of ranges of mountains. Santiago is the main manufacturing/business/political center of Chile. The next valley to the west primarily produces fruits and
vegetables, with a little livestock. The third valley (called the Casablanca Valley) primarily produces wine, with 14 different vineyards and wineries. We were told that grape harvest occurs between March and early May, so that’s why our sampling was a little tart yesterday. Along the way we passed a church which causes the whole highway from Santiago to Valparaiso to be shut down all day on Dec 8
th for pilgrims who walk to the church for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
We would have arrived in Valparaiso about noon except they called each bus driver and told them that embarkation would be delayed. So we took a side tour of Vina del Mar, which is a resort town a short distance north along the coast. This is a popular resort area and the town was crowded before we got there. We cruised slowly around town with narration from the guide until finally we stopped along the beach for about 20 minutes. Virtually all the other buses heading to the port were doing the same thing – it started to look like a “bus convention”. We were told about a lot of things but not
much stuck in the brain. They did say that the water temperature is - about 55 degrees all year round due to the Humboldt Current and frequently with choppy waves – no place to swim. Eventually they gave our bus permission to come to the port at 1:00. If anyone is looking for Valparaiso on the map, look on the coast to the west of Santiago.
When we arrived it was total bedlam. We learned later that bus drivers were on strike for part of the morning which prevented the passengers from disembarking the ship – nowhere for them to go. So we had to thread ourselves through the people still in the terminal trying to leave. It was chaos and took a long time to get through the check-in process. It didn’t help that there was another ship doing the same thing at the same time in the same terminal. We were starting to think this was a sign to go home, but we persevered and pretty much forced our way through the crowds to get checked-in. But it was so hot, tiring, and frustrating that they looked at Janet and offered to get
Casting off
using thrusters away from pier her a wheelchair. Of course no one came for the next 20 minutes, so we grabbed a regular chair from the café and carried it though the long line for baggage security scanning. Janet was able to sit most of the time but having to get up and move her chair each time the line inched forward. After that we had to board another bus to be driven from the terminal building to the pier where the ship was docked, since they are separated by at least a mile. Finally we reached the ship and got on board. Hallelujah! The pier is actually in the middle of container storage from cargo ships, so there is no place for them to have built a close terminal. We also heard later that this is not an uncommon occurrence with these workers and large passenger ships. If today had been our first experience with Princess we would probably never cruise with them again, but we know this was a significant anomaly and mostly not their fault.
We went to our cabin but of course the luggage had not arrived form the hotel yet. David went up to the
Horizon Court for a small lunch about 3:00 and brought Janet a plate of cheese and crackers, with a glass of iced tea in the cabin. We met our cabin steward (Glenn) and have our excursion tickets for the cruise. The mandatory life boat drill had been originally scheduled for 4:15, but it was not held until 5:30 because it took so long to board all the passengers. This gave us a chance to catch our breath in the cabin for a while.
Our dinner time is supposed to be at 5:45 but this evening they decided to have OPEN SEATING in all the dining rooms because of the delays in getting everyone on board. However they happened to seat us at the actual table we are supposed to use each night, so we got to meet our Waitress (Edna from the Philippines) and her Assistant (Gorica from Serbia). However we discovered the same Assistant Waiter we had last year in the Mediterranean (Hernando from Peru) is also working this dining room, but not our table. For appetizer Janet had melon balls and David had spring rolls. Janet had a bowl of hot chicken broth with tortellini and David had chilled Pina Colada soup. For the entrée we both had Prime Rib with baked potato and corn-on-the-cob. For dessert Janet had chocolate chip ice cream and David had cheesecake. So now we are well fed but already looking forward to Eggs Benedict in the morning.
When we got back to our cabin about 7:30 the luggage had been delivered and Glenn brought us some additional hangers. Now we are unpacked and moved into our cabin – Aloha 604. The ship had originally been scheduled to sail at 5:00, but we didn’t actual leave port until 8:30. We have a day at sea tomorrow, but hopefully this late departure can be overcome before our first port call on Friday.
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