Ken the cruiser

That’s quite the group!! 😂

Day 2 - Jan 21 - Sea Day 1 of 3 The Starlink internet speeds once we were out in open waters

This evening after a tasty dinner at the Sterling Steakhouse up on Deck 14, we were off to the theater to watch a very funny comedian, Tracey McDonald. Afterwards, we headed over to the Club Fusion to enjoy the Musical Bingo Game Show before heading back to the cabin to watch us sail away from Valparaiso. Next stop is Punta Arenas after 3 sea days! BTW as soon as we hit open water, the ship started to “wiggle” from the 9’ swells it is currently encountering and that will probably continue through the night. Since we enjoy the motion of the ocean, we will hopefully get a good night sleep tonight! 😁

For you folks that enjoy reading the details, I’ll start with the Princess Event Listings Then the more general stuff Followed by the paperwork we got because we are now Elite. And this is the current speed we’re getting in our cabin while still in port.

Once we got shuttled over to the ship, it wasn’t long before we were settling into our cabin around 1 pm. We then headed to our muster station to check in there, and then headed to the Reserve Dining Room, Deck 6 midship, for have our first tasty meal onboard! Then it was time to head back to the cabin to start to get settled in, browse over all of the paperwork waiting for us, and then enjoy all there was to see from our balcony! 😁 To include admiring the various attendees of our greeting party! 😂 A cute little moth, which I’m guessing will be sticking around for awhile in the protected location on our sliding glass door. Some cormorants on the nearby pier. Even had a couple of buzzards fly by to say hi! 😂

Day 1 - Jan 20 - Valparaiso, Chile - Embarkation Day After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we headed over to Gate 2 at the International Terminal. But along the way I of course couldn’t resist taking a photo of the elusive Santiago pigeon! 😂 We got there around 8:20 am and were glad we headed over early, as there was quite the group of guests already checking in, most likely those that just flew in today. Once we checked in, we got in the long queue waiting to go over to the buses, which was about a 15 minute walk to where they were parked. Around 9:20 am we were on the bus and headed out on the 2 hour drive to Valparaiso. About half the way there, we stopped at a rest stop in the Casablanca Valley for about an hour, which was basically turned out to be a queuing area as the Valparaiso port terminal is rather small and really couldn’t handle all 12 buses with their 480 guests showing up at the same time. But we had fun walking around passing the time looking for what forms of nature there was to see around the area. 😁 They had a small vineyard we walked around in. And the honey bees were busy having fun looking for nectar. We then walked over to an area on the left side behind the rest stop where there we a couple of llamas hanging out. Then it was time to get back on the bus and head to the terminal. As you can see, the ship was quite the distance from the terminal. But they had buses to take us there after we finished checking in, even though the emergency email we received a couple of days ago said we were going to have to walk from the terminal to the ship. As you might imagine, there were quite a few happy cruisers when they saw the shuttle buses! 😂

It all depends. It usually involves a combination of 7-day cruises, mostly oriented towards the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. In July 2022 we were on a 21-day Med cruise on the Regal that was actually made up of three 7-day cruises, which one or more of those three 7-day itineraries were found in 11 different 7 to 21 day itineraries sold as a single cruise.

You are in luck. The view from our hotel window faces the International Terminal, also known as Terminal 2. It’s about a 10 minute walk, since you will probably be bringing your luggage with you. When you leave the hotel main entrance, turn right and then right again. There will be a moving sidewalk that will make your walk to the International Terminal much easier. If you turn left, the moving sidewalk under the balcony in the right side of the above picture is heading towards Terminal 1 and the Holiday Inn.

We got our Holiday Inn room assigned around noon and will probably relax there enjoying the view, but most likely sleep, until we head down to dinner. Here is a small tidbit for those interested that might forget to check before coming to visit Chile at least a day early. BTW we could not find any USB ports in our hotel room. Luckily we charged our iPhone/iPads while we were on the flight here. Also as I side note, check out the movie called Blackberry. We saw it on the flight here and it told the very interesting story of the rise and fall of the Blackberry cellphone.

We arrived in Santiago around 8 am! No SAG declaration form was handed out on our flight, so we’re glad we used the Delta Fly Ready application process. As Mary noted earlier, getting through Customs was a breeze and by the time we got to baggage claim, it wasn’t long before we were able to locate our luggage and head through the Nothing To Declare door. Now we’re just hanging out in the Holiday Inn lounge until around noon when a room will hopefully become available. The folks at the Registration Desk were also nice enough to give us an access code that allowed us to sign on to their internet service since we didn’t officially have a room number yet. It looks like we will be meeting at Gate 2 in the International Terminal at 9:30 am tomorrow to catch the transfer to the ship! 😁

After a 3-hour delay waiting for our flight to arrive and subsequently fly us to Atlanta, we finally made it with an hour to spare before having to board our flight to Santiago, which luckily also had been delayed 40 minutes. We originally had 4+ hours to spare. 😂

It’s open and all is good. We just got here 3 hours early. It’s now 90 minutes before we board and there are 2 more people here. 😂

There is just something about catching our initial flight out of our local regional airport that makes it so relaxing to start from, most of the time. 😁

That is great news you made it there safely, a breeze getting through Customs, and you and your DH are now relaxing at the hotel. Hopefully our flight, which we’re leaving for shortly, as well as everyone else’s will be just as smooth. Can’t wait to get out of this winter cold blast and basque in Santiago’s summertime warmth. Well, at least for a day! 😂

It sure looks that way. But it's going to be an awesome cruise, waves and all! 😀

For those interested we just completed an optional 5-minute Delta "FlyReady" application process that basically requests information to get (in this case) the SAG Affidavit "Folio Number" emailed to each of us in advance to help speed up our time getting through Chile's Customs process once we arrive at the airport. The only catch is that it could not be submitted until we were within 48 hours of arrival into Chile. We have done this a few times now, and it is definitely a very handy tool that allows us to get in the "shorter" Customs line once we arrive at a distant country's airport. Now we're all set and just waiting to head to the airport. Yay!!

Just a straight airport to ship transfer. As far as the Pacific wave action south of Valparaiso we will probably be cruising through, the forecast is definitely not looking like calm waters, that’s for sure. 🤔 https://www.windy.com/-33.046/-71.620/waves

Thanks. Once we are onboard starting Saturday, I will try to post the Patter every night, which we also use to plan our entertainment strategy for the following day. If I hear of or see any ballroom dancing going on, I will definitely let you know.

As I mentioned on the “other” forum, we had a great time this past July on our B2B. As far as changes go since cruising started back up, we haven’t seen much of a change. They still have funny CDs and hilarious entertainment teams that work very hard to keep you laughing, especially at the evening game shows as well as other venues they participate in! We also book cabin categories that allow us to dine in the Reserve (formerly Club Class) dining room, which for us is another huge plus for us having a great time on the cruise. 😁

Cool pictures which are definitely getting us excited about our visit to the Peninsula next week on the Sapphire Princess. From the way it looks you're pretty much at a dead stop when I checked the Cruise Mapper website around 7:45 pm (local). Hopefully, the winds will die down soon so you can continue your cruise around the Peninsula! MS OOSTERDAM Current Location (cruisemapper.com)

And with that thought in mind as we’re now all packed and just finished the check-in process for our flight tomorrow, it’s time to get this party started!! 🕺💃

We’re near Montgomery. We booked directly with Delta when the flights first became available (8-9 months out) so we could get Delta Comfort seats, as it’s a long flight between Atlanta and Santiago. We’re arriving a day early to avoid the stress of a delayed flight on embarkation day, spending the night in the airport hotel, and have 2 seats booked on the Princess transfer from the airport to the ship the next day. Based on the changes announced today, we’re sure glad we booked the Princess airport to ship transfer. 😁

And so the adventure begins! Just got this email notification regarding our embarkation port. IMPORTANT EMBARKATION LOCATION UPDATE Please be advised that due to adverse weather conditions in San Antonio, Chile the port there has closed. Embarkation for your Sapphire Princess voyage on Saturday, January 20, 2024 will now be in Valparaiso, Chile at Valparaiso Terminal de Pasajeros (VTP), at Nudo Baron s/n. Departing from this sheltered port will help us maintain our voyage's schedule. No changes are required to your hotel or flight arrangements as the distance between these ports and the Santiago city center is the same (our flight guidelines remain unchanged). Guests with a Princess pre-cruise hotel package or airport transfer will be taken directly from their hotel or the airport to the cruise terminal in Valparaiso. After checking in at the terminal there, all guests will walk approximately 0.9m/1.5km to the dock to board the ship. Your check-in start and end times can be found in your OceanReady pass. Valparaiso does look like it's definitely more sheltered from the weather than San Antonio and about the same distance from Santiago, just in different directions.

We had a great time on our Diamond Princess B2B in a Reserve Collection mini suite this past July cruising around Japan with a couple stops in Korea. See my Live From thread below. One thing about cruising around Japan on the Diamond, you will definitely get submersed into the culture while onboard, from being able to visit a Japanese Bath, enjoying Japanese cuisine, to having dual Japanese and English speaking cruise directors!

As we woke up this morning to 14F weather outside, which is a little chilly for central Alabama, it dawned on us that after this cruise we will have visited all 7 continents in the past 14 months and couldn't imagine any better itinerary to complete this milestone than the adventure we're about to head out on tomorrow! 😊