I woke excited to know that we would be boarding the ship today...but also aware of what friends and family were facing back home. Compared to a wind chill of -68º, Antarctica was going to feel about 100 degrees warmer!
After another delicious breakfast we brought our luggage down to the lobby. Others from our ship were waiting on their pre-planned private shuttles to arrive but we were picked up by a taxi van that the hotel had arranged to take the four of us to the bus station. The fare was 14,000 CLP (~$21 USD). It was 10 am when we arrived at the Terminal Alameda. Bob and Kent waited with the luggage while Laurel and I bought the tickets. It was a little confusing, but we found one person who spoke English and we managed to purchase our tickets for the 10:20 am bus. To make things easier, I charged all four tickets to our Visa credit card for a total of $25.19 (~$6.30 per person)...much, much less than what a private transfer would have cost.
They directed us to bus number 11 and within a few minutes a man had loaded all of our luggage under the bus and we were sitting in our assigned seats in the front row.
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| These are "we are on vacation" smiles! |
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| The route from Santiago to San Antonio |
The drive took us by vineyards and fields with other kinds of crops. It was interesting how at times the homes on one side of the highway looked like upper middle class dwellings while the opposite side was shanties.
The bus stopped two or three times to let people off along the way and eventually pulled into the bus station in San Antonio around noon. Someone had written online that their bus driver actually dropped them off at the port, but in their case half of the bus was filled with cruisers. Today it was just the four of us. There were three employees outside the station who said we could take a shuttle to the port for $5 per person. Again I had read different accounts that said the shuttle was free or possibly $3 so this took me a little by surprise. Not that it was expensive, it just seemed weird to pay $6 for a 70 mile bus ride and then $5 to go a couple of blocks!
The shuttle dropped us off right at the terminal. It was 12:15 when we walked in and right up to the registration area. We handed over our passports, got our photo taken and then walked a few feet to where they were scanning bags. No sign of the usual pre-embarkation health forms.
When we exited the building we could see the Zaandam just on the other side of a tall mountain of shipping containers. But because this was an industrial port we were loaded into a bus and transported the very short distance to where we boarded. There were only a few empty seats and Bob ended up sitting next to the female tango instructor and I was with her male partner.
I checked my watch and by 12:45 we were unlocking our cabin door! (I will include photos of our cabin in an upcoming blog.)
It was nice to have the cabins ready so we could drop off our carry-on bags before heading up to the buffet. On the way we stopped at the tour desk and had them cancel the tour we had previously charged to our credit card and reschedule us using our onboard credit instead.
Our kids had introduced us to a new app for our iphones before we left...Marco Polo. It is basically a way to send video texts. Since we still had cell service in port, I made a couple of videos to send them. I thought our grandkids would be interested to see the ship docked next to us. It must have been some sort of ferry because cars were driving off the ship onto the dock.
The buffet was crowded and at lunch we shared a table with a lady who had just flown into Santiago that morning. The airlines had lost her husband's luggage...what a nightmare when you are just beginning a 22 day cruise! (We found out later that the luggage was located and loaded onto the ship when we were in Castro.)
Very few activities were listed in the When & Where daily newsletter for the first day...except pickleball at 2:00. (Bob, Kent & Laurel are avid pickleball players.) None of us really expected anyone to show up but we went up to the courts after lunch to find a crowd of nearly 20 people! Bob, Kent and Laurel stayed to play and I took advantage of the situation to do my unpacking...so much easier to do when I was alone in the cabin. It also gave me the chance to grab all of the nice hangers before Bob got them. 😂 Our room steward, Deni, stopped by and I asked him if he could get us some extra hangers for Bob.
Bob came back shortly before the muster drill and afterwards did get most of his unpacking done before dinner. After spending over 3 weeks in a similar cabin on the Zaandam it was easy to know where we wanted everything to go.
A few months ago our travel agent had sent me a diagram of the upper level of the dining room on the Zaandam. (Open seating was on the lower level.) I had looked it over and asked her to try and get us table #23 for the early traditional dining. That is exactly where we were assigned...a table for 4 by a huge window. The ship was late leaving port so we watched the sail away as we ate.
The Welcome Aboard Show wasn't until 10 pm so we went back to the cabin to finish getting settled in before we went to the theater. The show featured all of the ship musicians. The expedition staff who would be giving educational lectures during the cruise were also introduced.
The ship was really rocking when we went to bed. It was interesting to watch the sea from our cabin window down on deck 1. The lights from the ship lit up the waves as we went through the swells. At that low level the waves were quite impressive!
