Cold as Ice

Feb 8

Our day today was supposed to start with a visit to Esperanza station - the Argentine Antarctic research station. The ship was supposed to sail through the Antarctic sound (also known as iceberg alley) and then arrive. The captain suggested getting up very early to see it. We set a wake up call for 7:00 - for us early. At 7 the alarm rang. Glen got up, turned up the heat (it was still very cold, and I turned on the voyage channel. There was the captain announcing that because of wind (force 9 - strong gale) it was too dangerous to go into the Sound (running into an iceberg can really ruin your day - unless of course, you're James Cameron) so we were going to stop number 2 of the day - Admiralty Bay to the Polish station. Apparently we had to drop off a couple of scientists and also pick up a couple. They were also hoping to get a couple of researchers to come on board to talk to us. We took advantage of the change to open the curtains a bit and go back to sleep, since the estimated arrival at Admiralty Bay was 9:30.

About 9:10, we headed to breakfast. While sitting there, our waiter pointed out something in the water - it looked like either a basketball or a ballon - I have no idea what it was, and I suspect I will never know. Our waiter thought it might be left over from the ship that sank last season. As good a guess as any.

As we were getting ready for breakfast, and as we ate we noticed the sip making some very sharp turns. The room was tilting quite a bit actually. I assume this was all to avoid ice.

Towards the end of breakfast, the captain came on again, and announced that due to wind, he couldn't get in to the bay, so plan b was scrapped. I have no idea where we're going, and I don't think he does either.

After breakfast, we grabbed our coats and did a lap of the promenade deck. It was windy, but we made it around the entire deck. Pretty much all there is to see is water, birds and ice. Lots of ice. We ran into the Indian woman we'd had lunch with, and she was very disappointed at not seeing the sights. I too am a bit disappointed on the one hand, but on the other hand this was always the risk, and this portion of the cruise is really about the experience. After our walk we got our Kindles and my slightly flaky laptop (keyboard gets stuck sometimes) and came up to the nightclub up at the top of the ship, or the shopping card handle as Glen calls it - look at the Star on the princess site to see why) where I'm writing this.

I'll finish later today, but at the moment, it's nice. Granted, we're not looking at spectacular glaciers or anything, but there's some thing very cool about just sailing around the southern ocean watching icebergs go by. I never in a million years thought I'd be doing this. (And if anyone from Starlite is reading this tell Desiree we practiced our foxtort routine and drills in Antarctica.).

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Around 2:30 the captain announced that we were on our way to Admiralty Bay. Woo hoo. Gorgeous mountains. We apparently picked up a couple of Bulgarian scientists to take back to Buenos Aires, and dropped off a couple more. We wandered around outside for a while, taking great pictures, and then went in for the Rumba lesson. Turns out I got the time wrong, and we got there at the end. According to the instructor, Ben, he was teaching "Cuban International Rumba". It's apparently a basic similar to salsa but slower. I googled around but couldn't find it, so if anyone knows what it is, let me know (I did see a you tube video of Cuban Rumba, but that wasn't what he showed me.)

The Polish station


Another picture

The boat bringing the scientists out.

One last picture for you.


We then had coffee in the cafe along with Carol. We then joined her and Eric, as well as Gayle and Anne (another CC couple) for trivia and did terribly. Oh well.

We then went back up to get ready for the Chef's Table dinner.

We met the maitre'd and a head waiter at the patisserie. We started by donning chef's jackets for a tour of the kitchen, given by the head chef. We saw the food lines, and the various stations. There are several galleys on the ship. The kitchen was very clean and busy. Our arrival time, we were told was just after the dinner rush. We learned about how they provision food; right now they're ordering for a pickup in Barbados, several months from now. It can be a challenge to get the right kind of food - for example cream cheese in South America is different than in the US. It's a very complicated operation and they can't always get exactly everything. For example, my table mate wants lemon for her water, and there seems to not be a single one on the ship.

The chef. Our friend took this picture. His photos aren't working on my computer, so pictures of the fabulous food will have to wait until we get home, or they send us pics by email. I'll post a note when I get some.
We were served champagne and hor's de ourves in the kitchen. While, I generally don't tell you what our meals were each day, I will make an exception here. We had Bleu Crab Salad with Avocado and Mango, Tartar of Beef on toast, Roast Potatoes with Fois Gras (and Glen actually ate it), and a fontana cheese mini quiche.

After that, we exited the kitchen, drawing a lot of attention from the people in the dining room, removed the robes and sat down at our beautifully set table. The meal consisted of Risotto with seafood, a bloody mary sorbet (tomato juice flavored sorbet in vodka - surprisingly good), and Roast Veal Shank and Rack Au Jus, flamed and carved tableside, with veggies and potatoes (and a Yorkshire pudding from the regular menu for those of us who asked). The courses were paired with an appropriate white and red wine, explained by the sommillier (a young gentleman who looks like he's about 12).

The final courses were a baked Camembert with Pinenuts, a port reductions and marmalade (OMG - that was so good) and an Amaretto Parfait in a blue bowl made of sugar, with a sugar spring to decorate. Think slinky. There was also a plate of small almond cookies.

It was an amazing experience - one I'd hoped to do since I first read about it a couple of years ago. At the end of the meal we were presented with a signed copy of the cookbook (we have one from 5 years ago, but it's an older edition, so hopefully different, with a copy of the menu in it.

We didn't bring our camera, but Rich and Joan did. Unfortunately, my laptop can't read their pictures, so I'll add them when I get home in a new post or something.

We came back to our room after than, and I've been working on the blog since. It's warm in the room so I have the door open. The sea is moderate but the wind is hovering between gale and strong gale (force 8 and 9). The wind is howling, and I can hear the furniture crashing around - I hope it will all be there in the morning. If not, it's not my problem - I didn't put it all out there.

So, I was hoping to get out again tonight, but given the amount of wine we drank and the time we first got up this morning, that's not going to happen. So, off to bed, and given the wind, I'm hoping we'll see what we're supposed to tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Ice, Ice Baby

Feb 7

We woke up around 8:30 to small bits of ice floating by our ship. As we were dressing, we turned on the ships channel to hear the announcements. We were only a few miles away from Elephant Island, most noted for being when Shackleton and his crew spent the winter they were marooned in Antarctica. (I saw the movie).

Soon after that, we started seeing icebergs. Serious ones.

This one's serious!!

We had a quick breakfast at Sabbattini's, and then headed out to the Promenade deck. By this time, we'd arrived at Elephant Island, west side, and the captain stopped the ship, and started doing the slow turns they do when scenic cruising. It was amazing. Very stark and very beautiful.





Yup this is us at Elephant Island.

During our photo taking, we also saw some whales.

We think the little black dots are penguins, but we're not sure. The naturalist kept pointing out wildlife but you'd need good binoculars to see it. We did better with whales and seals in Alaska.

I took a break as we turned to take a line dance class. It wasn't very crowded, so the instructor taught a couple dance rather than a line dance. After class Glen joined us (we I was chatting with Carol and Eric) and told us that the ship was moving to the other side of the island, so the next "event" would be at 2pm. We took another walk around the deck, and then headed back to our room to watch the sail from the east side of Elephant Island. We also ordered some lunch. Because we have a suite, we could order from the dining room menu and we did.

At about 1:40 we went downstairs again, and I checked in at the end of the salsa lesson (not our favorite dance). They were learning the whisk, which is actually a waltz/foxtrot pattern. In this case, they meant flip-flops or fifth position breaks. We then wandered around outside and took even more pictures, this time of the east side of the island.






While wandering around, we ran into Rich and Joan, and they told us to try to get onto the bridge - since we're in a suite we might be able to do it. We asked, and they said to write a letter to the captain. We did, and we'll see if it works. We're not optimistic.

At 3:15 we took a break as we sailed on to Gibbs Island and went to the ballroom review class. Once again, we stayed a bit late to help out our friends. Then we headed to the Patisserie for coffee. We chatted with an Indian couple we'd met at lunch yesterday - they live in London. She's apparently an author and photographer, and she told us about the experience of getting to base camp on K2.

At 5:00 we went back to the room because our friends Linda and Bob were coming over to plan our cruise critic cabin crawl. We had wine and took pictures of Gibbs Island from the balcony.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner, which of course included dancing. We asked the band (one of the best cruise bands we've ever seen - did I already mention that?) if they could do some ballads and they did, so we got to dance two-step which made Glen happy.

After dinner, we joined in on Latin night, which was pretty much all Salsa and Meringue - so after a few dances, we left, got our jackets, and went for a walk on the upper decks. There are near gale force winds, and the temperature is around freezing. It's very, very dark out there, and Glen says now he can see how the Titanic managed to not see the iceberg.

We went back to the room, and opened the balcony door. It was open until about two minutes ago when we decided that even with the door cracked open only, it's really pretty cold in here. So much for listening to the wake at 62 degrees south latitude.

I thought maybe we could put the heat on and leave the door open, but Glen said we probably shouldn't try to heat the great outdoors. And, I wouldn't want to turn the heat on and melt all the polar icecaps. I don't want to be responsible for the final stage of global warming. So the door was closed. It stayed pretty cool though.

Internet is slow right now, and we're not sure if it's because of our location or because receiving the broadcast of the Superbowl on a Jumbotron is sucking all the bandwidth. That's something, if you think about it - here we are, now south of where Shackleton ran into trouble, and they're showing the Superbowl on an outdoor screen. Amazing, really.

It's getting cold out there

Feb 6

Another sea day. This one began as usual with breakfast at Sabattini's. Glen went in while I went to get my medicine and when I got back, or regular juices, including the water glass of cranberry I use to mix my medicine with were brought to the table as soon as we sat down. Today, the manager, Pedro (we think) from Portugal, chatted with us during breakfast. He has very good crew there, and it's always nice to eat there.

From there we went to the already in progress waltz lesson. Ben had already taught the basic, and was in the middle of teaching an outside turn (we think - I had a hard time following what he was teaching). Carol was there and tried to show me, but it didn't help much. He then taught a semi grapevine step that we thought was almost unleadable. After the lesson, we taught Carol and Eric a traveling grapevine and helped with their waltz generally.

We'd seen the menu for tonight, and nothing much appealed, so we decided this would be our Crown Grill night. I called the dine line and was given a 7pm reservation, a bit earlier than I would have liked. I read in our suite perk book that we should have a "dedicated maitre'd hotel to take care of our specialty dining preferred reservations". No info on how to contact this person was given, though. We asked the pursers, and they didn't know anything about it either.

We then decided to take our foxtrot routine practice sheets to the promenade deck. We hole punched them and tried to figure out a way to weigh them down. We ended up rubber banding them to my neck wallet. It was very windy on the deck, so we gave up and went to lunch.

On our way to lunch we ran into Beppi, the Maitre'd. We chatted for a moment, and I asked him about it. He didn't know either, but he did call and got the reservation moved to 8pm.

We had lunch with three very pleasent couples from England. There are a lot of brits on this trip.

After lunch there was a tango lesson taught by the performing couple. The turn out was huge, probably about 4 times the size of the normal ballroom class. They began with some concepts, including that the posture was like walking. Then they taught the basic, and invited everyone to the floor to try it. It was a zoo. I was assisting a couple of my CC friends, since I know the basic. When we joined as couples, it was too crowded to even do a basic, so we moved to the back of the lounge and practiced there.

Following that, we went for coffee in the patisserie, and I web surfed for a while.

After that, we dressed for dinner, and headed up to Skywakers to enjoy the lounge - we chatted with Terri and Rod for a while.

The band apparently did not join the ship in Stanley (no big surprise), so there were several times were there were breaks in the entertainment at the dance floors. We decided to bring down the ipod and splitter system. After setting up the bluetooth, we realized we didn't have the splitter. Fortunately, the Explorers lounge was still playing dance music - so we did some dancing there until the band started. Danced to them for a bit and then went to our dinner at the Steakhouse.

The dinner was very, very good - much better than the steakhouse experience on the Dawn. I started with a great Carpaccio and then we both tried their black and blue onion soup - so called because the crust is blue cheese. Very good and very rich. My filet mignon was perfect, as was Glen's porterhouse. Our desserts were also excellent, and we were well taken care of by our servers Anna and Goshia. During dinner the Maitre'd stopped by to say hello and to see the page from the suite perks - he was somewhat surprised to see it.

After dinner we stopped by the sock hop party, we arrived as they were having the twist contest, so we didn't have a chance to get picked for it. After that we did a couple of dances, but it was very crowed, so we left and went upstairs. Tomorrow is a big day - we arrive at our first Antarctic stop, Elephant Island tomorrow.

Opus, I found your cousins (apologies to Bloom County and Berkeley Breathed)

Feb 5

Our first port day! We were awakened when the phone rang at 7:50 - one of our Cruise Critic friends telling me the tour was on (I knew that as they replied to my email last night). Glen got up soon after to take a shower, but I slept for a little while longer. We woke up for real about 9 and I dressed quickly to go to Sabbatini's again for breakfast. The seas have calmed down some, and I was able to eat breakfast. After breakfast we grabbed our cameras and parkas and headed to the upper decks to watch the sail into Stanley.

Stanley - the only town on the Falklands, and it's as small as it looks.

As we sailed in, we caught up with our Cruise Critic friends. Because of the nature of our tour, everyone wanted to be on one of the first tenders off the ship. It wasn't a problem for us, because one of our room perks was priority tendering - we'd received tickets yesterday and we just had to show up. Some of our friends were on the first tenders, others as high as 10th. We found the tender area, and hung around until they started letting people on. We did get on that first one.

The tender boats being lowered. They are also the lifeboats, fyi.


It took about 30 minutes to get to the town dock. After leaving the tender, we saw the drivers for Patrick Watts, our tour operator, each holding a sign with the names of 4 people. We'd caught up with Teri and Rod (yes, more CC friends) and decided we'd like to ride with them. We'd thought that as people arrived, Patrick would send them out in groups of 4. Turns out it was preassigned.

A bit about our choice. The biggest attraction of the Falklands is Penguins. Several species make their home their, and a location known as Volunteer Point has one of the largest permanent (year round) colonies of King Penguins, as well as Magellanic and Gentoo breeds. (Kings are the 2nd largest - after Emperors). Volunteer point, however, is remote, and requires roughly 18 kilometers of off road driving, much of it on soft dirt or peat bogs. Tours go out with local drivers and their 4WD vehicles. The tours are offered through the ship, but you can also take them independently. The independent tours run about 1/2 the cost of ship tours. Each vehicle holds 4 passengers. It takes 2.5 hours each way - 1.5 of it offroad on private land (the owners get paid by the tour operators to drive over it).

We were initially assigned to be in Patrick's car, but he left later then everyone else, so we switched to go with our friends. The cars do convoy over there, so once there were enough cars going - we left. Our driver was Dave, a Liverpudlian who came to the Falklands as a Marine, and married a local girl. He was part of the division guarding the Governor's house when Argentina invaded, and was captured. The Argentine's didn't know what to do with POWs so they were sent on a plane to Montevideo (with their families) and then to the UK. After the war, he came back and settled in Stanley since his wife's family was there. He was the police chief for a while, but retired. Now he drives the ambulance for the hospital at night, although since the arrival of a cruise ship doubles the population, there isn't much for him to do. He also drives for Patrick. He told us a lot about the Falklands as we drove out. We saw minefields being swept (people from Zimbabwe come in to do it) and a wrecked Argentine helicopter.



After an hour of driving, we hit the offroad portion. The lead driver picks a track, and the rest follow. The cars get stuck on a regular basis, and they all carry ropes to pull each other out. We had two instances of that on our way to Volunteer point.



Dave told us he was one of only two drivers who haven't been stuck yet. It was almost two hours of overland driving and then we arrived at Volunteer point. As we got close, we saw penguins along the track.

The car finally pulled up and parked near a shack, and we got out. We had roughly 1.5 hours to wander around. We were told not to get too close to the penguins and that they have the right of way. There are thousands of penguins there, and here are some pictures:

These are Kings


A Magellanic in it's burrow


Gentoo Penguins



And the main King Colony.

Once we get home, I'll try to make a more complete album online, but as I've mentioned, the internet here isn't all that fast.


At about 4pm we left, making good time back. Dave's clean stuck record remained intact. He drove us back through town and we saw the hospital (the roof is painted blue so the gulls will think it's water and not poop on it) and the war memorial. There was about a 20 minute tender line, not bad and we got back to the ship around 7:15. We had enough time to drop the cameras at the room and rest for a bit. And Glen was able to do something he never thought he'd do - wash penguin poo off our shoes.

When we arrived, we found a nice surprise waiting for us - our official invitation to the Chef's Table on Feb 8 - one of my goals for the cruise accomplished. We'd had some canapes delivered, so we opened a bottle of Malbec and and had some wine with them.

We didn't do much after dinner.

Would I recommend the tour we took? If you are a penguin fanatic, absolutely yes. Volunteer point is probably the best place to view penguins in the world, and you will see hundreds there. If you're not however, you need to weigh the value of that against the drive. The bottom line is that you will drive roughly 5 hours to spend about 2 hours (when the ship is on time) with the penguins. If you want to see king penguins, then you need to do this, as this is the only place that has them. However, if you just want to see some penguins there are locations closer to Stanley, and they are much cheaper to get to (our excursion was almost 200.00 each, and from the ship it's over 300 each). So keep all that in mind.

Rocking and Rolling all day long

Feb 4

We woke up to lots of ship movement. And by lots, I mean lots and lots. By breakfast time, I was a bit queasy. Once again, we went to Sabatini's, but I didn't eat much. After breakfast, it was ballroom dance lesson time - cha cha. I was feeling a bit better after some food, but during the lesson Glen started feeling a bit under the weather as well. So, after that we went back to the room for a while. I actually, for the first time ever, bought motion sickness stuff - we both took it and were better after that. We generally don't get sea sick, so it may have had to do with the fact that the rooms were warm. Apparently sea sickness was a major problem throughout the ship today.

We spent part of the early afternoon on the balcony. I worked on writing the blog. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a wireless signal there, though.

At 2:15 I went to line dance class with Carol and Eric (our friends from Morro Bay). They wanted me to join them in Passenger Fued, but since we hadn't had lunch yet, I said I should go back and get Glen and eat. I did say we'd try to join them for trivia later. We went to the buffet for lunch, and then to the coffee bar for a coffee. After that, we did join them for trivia, and almost won.

During the scoring, the captain came on the speaker with a navigational announcement. In general, the captain gives an update at noon, so any other time is usually not good news. This was no exception. Because of the weather, we were going to be two and a half hours late into Stanley, the town on the Falklands. This was not good, because we'd booked a private full day activity, as had most of our group. Those of us on the trivia team agreed that I'd email them and see what they had to say.

After trivia we did our late afternoon usual relax and get ready. I noticed that they were saying the last tender (boat back to the ship) was at 7, so it appeared we were getting some of the time back.

We danced a bit before and after dinner, and ended the day by watching the ocean on the balcony.

How long is this river anyway?

Feb 3

We'd gone to bed early last night, so were up pretty early. Checking the voyage channel we saw that we were still, after sailing all night, in the Rio de la Plata. BA is much more inland than I thought.

We decided to take advantage of one of the perks of a suite - breakfast at Sabatini's, the ship's specialty Italian restaurant. We wandered in around 9, and they asked our room number. There were about 5 or 6 tables occupied. The restaurant offers a nice breakfast menu, including a complementary mimosa. I opted in, Glen did not. As we were sitting there, the captain from the Dawn walked by. We said hello and shook his hand, and mentioned we'd sailed with him. He asked us to remind him. I said it was the Alaska trip in which Sitka was canceled (last cruise of the season he recalled), and we were his neighbors on the Riviera deck. I think at that point he remembered us. We had a brief nice chat, and he went on his way and we went to breakfast.

We next attended a lecture - an introduction of the various guest lecturers, including Antarctic exports, the Ice Pilot (or master) and the port lecturer. It was moderately interesting.

Then we went to one of the most fun things we had planned - the cruise critic meet and greet. It was great - we've had a very active roll call and it was fun to put faces to names. In addition, the organizer invited some of the officers, and they came - I met the Cruise Director, Maitre'd, Hotel Manager, assistant cruise director and the Captain. He explained why there were two captains on board -- apparently, because of the ice, etc, they want a captain on duty 24x7. Usually, he's just on pager part of the time, but for this one they want somebody there. Apparently, he did it for the previous captain on the previous cruise.

After the M&G we went to lunch with Linda and Bob, and then to the first ballroom lesson, the ubiquitous Meringue. Ben, the instructor did a pretty good job. After that, we relaxed for a while and got ready for formal night.

After a break in our room (very nice to hang out in) I went down to gather my cash for our Falkland expedition. I ran into some of our cruise critic friends, and chatted with them for a while, and then went back upstairs to wait for our laundry and dress for the formal dinner.

During the day we got our new table assignment, so at dinner we headed for that table. We knew it trouble right away, as the four people sitting there said hello in Spanish. We asked if they spoke English, and only one did. As soon as Rich and Joan arrived, we went back to the Maitre'd. He said he'd find us another table with English speakers, but right now all he had was a table for 4. We decided to take that. While we were sitting there, the Maitre'd came back again, and gave us a new table number. I noticed it was the same number that Joan and Rich had before, and she'd told me they wanted to leave anyway. After a brief discussion, we decided to stay, and nominated Joan to be the Spokesperson to tell the maitre'd. She did and we were set.

After dinner was the first heat of the Ballroom Blitz. They have a 45 minute dance session, and people can sign up for the blitz. The cruise staff selects who's through to the final. We entered, as did 3 other couples, and all four of us went through. Now we have about a week and half to figure out what to dance and to what music. It should be a crowd favorite song and a flashy routine.

After that, we walked on the upper deck for a while and then to bed.

Adios, Argentina

Feb 2

We woke up at 7:00 to be ready to leave for the embassy around 7:45. Glen had about 300 pesos left, so he decided to go to the ATM to get 200 more - the passport would be about 400. We decided to try to pay with pesos to get rid of most of them. While he was there, Cintia, our wonderful travel agent showed up to escort us on her way to work. (If you ever want to go to Argentina and want a basically high end trip arranged, let me know - I cannot recommend her enough). A quick cab ride and we arrived at the embassy. It's beautiful and I'm sorry we couldn't bring cameras. We got there at 8am, and the was a line of people there, but they were Argentinians waiting for visas. We walked up to the guard and he told us to come back at 8:30 and we could go in. Cintia asked where a cafe was, and we went and had coffee until time.

We reapproached the gate, and he asked for ID. I of course, no longer had any. They took Glen's and got my passport number. He called someone and then let us in. We went through security and were directed to the consular affairs office. We got a number (701) and went into the waiting room. It was very crowded. I had number 701, and the were on 600. A moment of panic set in as I thought I'd have to wait through 100 people, but a guy standing there also replacing a passport told me that he was number 700, and the number 600 was just ahead of him. Sure enough, they called him next. Then they called 601, and then us. Total time, about 10 minutes. She gave me some forms to fill out and told me to come back when they were done. Glen helped me fill them out and we brought them back. (Basic passport info and why I needed it. An important question was where we were going. Since I was in the US embassy, I said Falklands, not Malvinas). She told me that first we'd have to pay then they'd issue a temporary. I told her I was leaving at 11. She said not to worry. I finally started to relax.

Another 15 minutes, and I was called to pay. We gave them 370 pesos, all in small bills. She thanked us for that, apparently small bills are hard to find here. Another 15 minutes and we were called back up. The agent basically made me swear that the application was correct, and mentioned she'd lived in the east bay for a while. Small world. She told me to sit down again, and the passport would be ready soon. About 20 minutes later, I was presented with my new temporary passport, good for a year instead of 3 months - apparently the Falklands require at least six months. I hate the picture, so I'll be replacing it pretty soon. From the time we entered to exited, about 85 minutes. The crowd were visa applicants.

Another cab ride to the hotel, and we bid Cintia a fond farewell. Between missing the flea market and our tango experience, and not having time for Igauza Falls, we decided we'll come back here for a week soon - one with better weather and fewer tour buses. We'll book the entire trip with Cintia. I hope to have the chance to pay her kindness forward sometime.

We completed our packing, including loading 6 bottles of wine into Bottle Armour in our suitcases. As we were finishing the bell stand rang to tell us our driver was here. We grabbed our now 6 bigs, including carryons, and went downstairs. While I went to determine if we owed anything on the bill, Glen went to find the driver and load the car.

About 20 minutes later we arrived at the port. It was a madhouse, with lots of people lined up to exit. We saw a bag drop, but then noticed that there was a princess drop elsewhere. It looked like we couldn't get in, so we hauled our bags to an area between exit lines and prepared to wait. Soon after, Bob and Linda arrived. I showed Linda my new passport and she grabbed it and kissed it. That was representative of the support and caring I got from my 50 new BFFs on cruise critic. That was the silver lining in all this. While Glen and Bob and I watched the bags, she went scouting about for information. The big bag drop we saw was not for Princess, and on a second scouting trip she found out we could go in. We quickly dropped our bags at the luggage drop off, and found the preferred checkin line. An employee there noticed that Glen had a pre checkin card, so sent him over there. When he checked in, they told me to go with him and someone there would check me in. I did. The young woman who was getting his room key remembered me, and said "oh good, you got a new passport". She sent me to her coworker who very quickly checked me in, and then took my brand new passport (on this trip they keep them). We got our room keys and headed to security. As we were in line, the power went out, so we had to wait a few minutes. It very quickly came back on, and we were soon on a shuttle to the ship. The port is a commercial one, and between the terminal and the ship is a container area, so we had to be shuttled.



We waited in line for a few minutes, and by noon were on the ship. First stop was the pursers office to sign up for the Ultimate Ship tour. While they claim to have a lottery to choose who goes, I've also heard that it's really first come first served. We were 2nd and 3rd on the list, so we'll see. Next stop was our amazing room. Since this really is a trip of a lifetime, we splurged and got a suite. Here are some pics of it:




And our crowded but large balcony:



I then set out for my other early sign up item - the Chef's Table, a gourmet dinner experience. I understand that is first come first served. I had to go to the dining inquiries table. I signed up us and our friends Linda and Bob and Rich and Joan. We also wanted to sit with Rich and Joan, so I asked them to note that. They did, but told us to see the Maitre'd later in the day. After that, I went back to the room and on the way in met Allen, our room steward. He brought is the welcome glass of champagne, and we sipped that while watching the container ship behind us being loaded.

Then we went to find lunch. ] They say the dining rooms are open, but we find that to rarely be the case. Here too, not open. So up to the buffet. On the way to find lunch, we saw the captain walk by with someone Glen recognised as the captain of the Dawn when we went to Alaska. After grabbing some food, we found one of our cruise critic friends, so we ate with them. We noticed Rich and Joan, our friends from Las Lillas at another table so after we finished eating we joined them. We then headed to the dining room to find the maitre'd. He wasn't there, so we agreed to meet back when he was. Eventually we got our request in to sit together at a table for 6-8. It would go into effect tomorrow, and we'd be notified by a letter as to which table it was.

Our departure time was going to be 7pm, so about the only thing we did all afternoon was the muster drill. Because we'd been up so early, we relaxed until dinner, even skipping the ballroom dance activities.

The channel in the Rio de la Plata is very narror, so if the Star Princess is going out, no one else can go in, so we actually departed at 9pm. So much for a sail away party.

We had dinner at our initial table - it was a table for 8 people, and all were Americans. If something happened and they couldn't accommodate our change request, we'd be fine. After dinner we looked for a dance venue, but they all appeared to be on break. Since we were so tired, we went to bed.