We set our alarm to be able to get up. Today was embarkation day, but first we had a trip to Vina del Mar planned. I borrowed a plug adapter from the hotel for my curling iron. The one that I brought that I thought was right was not the right one. They had in their room documentation that they loan them; though hard to request in English. We ate some of our trail mix for breakfast.
We got all packed up, and the hotel held our luggage for us. We went out to the port area, where we had eaten our empanada the previous day, to look for the cruise ship. No cruise ship in sight, and finally, we found it floating in the middle of the ocean in the distance. Hum, okay (more on that later). See it in the distance.
We then went to the mall to use the ATM and buy our subway pass. Our ATM card refunds ATM fees and did kindly refund the crazy fees in South America. For the Metro pass, we determined how much we needed for two people to get to and from Vina del Mar and then to the port from the hotel after picking up luggage later. This is where the Metro card itself was more than expected from our research, or they cheated us...who knows. We planned for 2000 for one Metro card; we read we can scan in one person and pass it back for the second person to scan in. This worked fine. The cost of the ride is based on where you get on and get off and maybe also time of day like Santiago. And we planned that we needed 2526 total for rides. The exchange rate was 650 CLP (Chilean Pesos) to $1 when we went, so the total is big number that is hard to catch in Spanish. In several places, they typed the total on a calculator and showed it to us. This seemed low tech, but was effective.
Vina del Mar was a trip north. This Metro was not very crowded and much more pleasant. It ran above ground (vs. Santiago's underground) along the coast. Ship from the Metro spotted on the way.
I wanted to see the Easter Island head at Museo Fonck (this is the only authentic Moai on display off of Easter Island) and the Flower clock. Following offline google maps, off we went.
Continuing our walk on the coast
The ship getting fueled, still in the middle of the ocean.
Wulff Castle
Snowy Egret
Flower Clock
We found a Metro station closer to where we had walked -- it was getting hot at this point -- and rode back. We looked for the path to the cruise terminal when we went past Baron Station, where we read to get off. We went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage; this worked well. I had asked on CC before going if we should leave it at the hotel or if we could drop it off at the cruise terminal before going to Vina del Mar. Leaving at the hotel was the right advice.
Now the train back to Baron Station. The train was still not crowded; this time we handed back the Metro card and handed over luggage. There was a couple from Germany also going to the ship. We walked through the path; it looks under construction but maybe it always looked this way. We starting walking toward the the direction of the terminal, which one could not see for the construction. A guard stopped us and directed us the other way. A group on the other side noted a bus coming in 10 mins. My husband decided 10 mins is code for they do not when the bus is coming. They were accommodating offering chairs and space under their canopy for shade. Though they really did not have much room in the shade. Lots of buses came through, and we were not convinced that we were in the right place. They seemed to be selling something too; though maybe they were representing some group travel looking for those who had signed up. It did take a long time for the bus to come. I took this picture of the Albatross in the bus waiting area.
This embarkation was the worst that we have ever had. The bus arrived, and others had arrived and were waiting too. Our luggage went in the back, and off to the terminal we went. At the terminal, we did not see the porters to drop our luggage, so we went inside to look around. We were directed to the other side of the building to drop our luggage. Normally, I thought they put it on the crates that were lifted onto the ship later, but it was all lined up on the pavement (in the heat) by tag color. We went back inside to check in. We completed the health forms where there was a huddle and a bunch on a table. We hoped for a gold/platinum check in, we asked some people, no one knew of one. We got in the line with about 6 rows of turns and overflowing past that. I saw a person with a clipboard; we were not on the list. Someone else we talked to was platinum and had a suite, so we guessed it was suites and above only. Platinum is supposed to have priority boarding, but I guess not in this chaos.
They do take and keep your passports as others have warned. All was fine with them. That is the first time that we have had our passports taken. Compared to the customs experience and wait in Russia, this may have been the better approach. After check in, she handed us boarding number 8 with no indication of where to go or when we might board, so I asked where to go and if they had platinum priority boarding. She motioned in the general direction of nothing. We left and found two empty chairs and found an empty spot to put them and wait. Finally later, they announced that the ship did not have berth; a container ship was in the berth. They had tendered some previous guests off who had the earliest flights to catch. That does sound like a nightmare -- tender boat for guests and their luggage. Maybe another hour before it had the berth. We heard later it was a port strike, so there was no one to complete the container ship work and move it. All seemed operational the night before when we ate dinner there; we saw semis taking away big spools that were craned off the container ship.
When it was able to dock, they had to get the other 1500 guests off. Then we were in the way of guests trying to find their luggage. It was hot in the terminal with an occasional breeze and sometimes a cigarette smokey breeze from the open doors. When they started boarding us, they called group 1 and 2. After much silence, there was another announcement, only in Spanish this time, that we heard "uno". Wait...uno has already been called...did you mean tres??? No more announcements; my husband started walking around to ask people that looked like they might know. No one did. Others were being told that they were boarding group 6 and walking over to the boarding. The boarding area was a huge huddle of people; I don't know why they did not enforce the group numbers.
We got to the terminal about noon. We had not had lunch; we had some snacks from the grocery store while in Vina del Mar. We have a tradition of have lunch in the MDR right after boarding. We did not get on timely this time and in our previous cruise in Alaska departure, was scheduled so late that they did not open the MDR for lunch. This tradition is taking quite a hit.
We had not gone through security yet; from our experience, this is at the terminal to entrance. So, it seems like this portion could have been completed already. We finally just went to the huddle to try to find out what was happening. We started talking to someone; her husband had gone to ask someone. He learned that they got through group 7 and now just letting everyone board. Oh fun, a free for all... We were now in a pack... After security, waited for bus and rode to the ship. It is a crazy port; traffic jams driving around stacked containers, forklifts, and semis moving containers. Finally onboard at 5:30 pm. Definitely a latest record. Some port pictures.
Our room was ready since we boarded so late. From the bus, it looked like our luggage was still sitting there. However, it did not take too long to get our luggage--we had it after dinner, so it must have been another wave after us. We should have just carried it on if we knew it was going to be 5:30 hours to get onboard. We were starving, so we went up to the buffet for a small snack to hold us over and enjoy on the deck at the Great Outdoors. I had the Moderno (Brazilian steakhouse) reserved for dinner at 6:30 pm. My thinking was that we would not be full yet from too much cruise food everywhere and would be hungry. We were hungry. We went to check the reservation since we were not sure how the delayed schedule with muster drill needed would impact our reservation. They noted that we were reserved and did not seem concerned about the muster drill. My husband planned to wear what he was wearing, and I had my dress in my carry on. We went to our dinner reservation and were the only ones there the full time, which is a little odd for a Brazilian steakhouse since they normally walk around with meat on a stick and use the "go" and "stop" bringing more signs. They just brought us two of everything to our table. We read about the cod in the banana leaf; my husband requested one. After we tried everything, our waitress, who spotted us and said hi several other times during the cruise, asked what our favorite was, and she brought us each another our favorite. My favorite was the garlic beef. Filet is normally my favorite but not here. I was not a big fan of the rib, both pork and beef. My husband like the beef ribs. He had the papaya dessert. I skipped dessert after eating so much meat. It was good. We finished just in time for the muster drill announcements. Our waitress was pulled away before we left for the drill.
Muster drill was in four languages, which made it longer. Other than that it was fine. One of dancers was running our station and kept it light and amusing.
After the drill, we unpacked and then walked the promenade. At about 10:30 pm, they still had lots of crates to load on the ship -- onions, sodas, mattresses, etc. We went to bed about 11:15, and we had not left yet. Someone mentioned 11:30, so not much after.
Since this was our 4th time on the NCL Sun, I did not take many ship pictures.
March 10th - Sea Day
We woke up to a rocking ship. I quickly took my Meclizine. We went to breakfast at the MDR. After we ordered, I started feeling seasick. Our food came; later our waiter, Rommel, came back to ask if my food was not good. I mentioned not feeling well. He offered to bring me green apples or ginger ale. I accepted the ginger ale. I had eggs over easy, hash browns, and bagel. With the ginger ale and medicine, I was able to eat some. He was my vacation hero (NCL crew member recognition program) since he kept me from getting sick on vacation :).
Next up, we had the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. It was in Las Rambles. Our organizer created a trivia game based on the posts in our role call; it was fun. The Officers introduced themselves, there were snacks out, and we went around the room to introduce ourselves. Then we had time to meet the people we had planned tours with on the roll call and plan meeting points. Our itinerary had 9 ports, counting both embarkation and disembarkation ports. I'm used to 3 or 4. So, a lot more research was needed, and planning with CC roll call members was great.
I did not take good notes on the afternoon. We like to play trivia and met people playing. We also did some cruise director staff crafts. Today, my husband did martini tasting, and we met new people that we got to hang out with several more times during the cruise.
Tonight was formal night; I wore a new dress that I got for Christmas especially for cruising. We went to the MDR. These were the only pictures that we took that day.
With the rocky seas, the Captain was trying to catch up after we left so late the day before, so sailing fast and I heard without the stabilizer. We had slowed down for dinner time. My husband had clam linguini, and I had the Caesar salad, N.Y. strip steak, and the volcano cake. The Caesar salad now has chicken. I'm not normally a fan of cold chicken on salad, but it grew on me. It also has both crotons and a slice of crusty bread -- very good. The volcano cake is also my favorite and was on the menu each night! When it was on the menu on the past, it did not come with ice cream, so I would request it added. Now, it comes with Stracciatella ice cream, which is gelato with ribbons of chocolate -- very good. I requested no strawberry syrup each time; I'm bad and don't each my fruits and vegs. It was the best!
Tomorrow, our first port Puerto Montt.