March 19,2025, all aboard……

Exactly 21 hours after Richard and Joan picked us up from our house, we were in our hotel room at the Hilton Gardens Hotel in Santiago Chile. The flight from Portland to Dallas was uneventful, so with a little more than 3 hours to kill before our next flight, we found ourselves in the American Flagship lounge relaxing. When the time came, we boarded our 787 Dreamliner and were off to Santiago. The sea perch dinner we were served was outstanding for airline food. Our flight attendant, Brandi, was also outstanding. After a few hours, I had to ask her how she got on a long-haul trip at such a young age, and she told me that she felt very lucky. This was just her third long-haul trip and her first time serving in business class. She was outstanding. I usually don’t write “reviews “or answer surveys, but I sure did about her. Everything about our trip was amazing.

After arriving at the Hotel, we decided we really didn’t want to go site seeing, so we stayed there all day; napping, showering, and watching food network shows in Spanish. Lunch at the hotel was amazing and we could sit outdoors, it was 77 degrees out there. Perfect.

At 9:30 this morning, the front desk called to let us know that our driver was waiting for us, he wasn’t supposed to be there before 10.  He took us to the San Antonio pier where we boarded our ship and found our home away from home in cabin 721.  This ship is even more amazing than we imagined.  The room is bigger, the bathroom is bigger, but the shower, not so much.  I guess there is no such thing as a big shower on a cruise ship.  We are very happy with our decision to book this trip.  That says a lot more for Kim than me, I have the standards of your dog, you had me at go but say go on a boat and I’m so there…….

Okay, although not Pool Chronicle worthy, here’s what we heard a dinner tonight.  As I have explained before, the officers and now the expedition leaders invite passengers to join them at their dinner table for conversation and, of course, dinner.  We were sitting next to such a table where one of the expedition leaders was the host.  As dinner went on, the guests started talking about jet lag and its effects on them.  Then one passenger said, “Now I guess we will have to deal with the same time changes on this ship”.  The Expedition leader says, “ I think we will go through 3 or 4 of them”.  I almost choked on my Black Cod Fellet.  For those of you who are not already laughing, here’s a geography lesson for you.  Chile is one hour ahead of  New York, New York is 3 hours ahead of Puget Island Washington (we live there).  We are sailing to Australia, which is a bit west of Puget Island.  It is also on the other side of the international date line, which makes them a day ahead of the USA.  So, 3 or 4 hours?  That puts us south of somewhere between Denver and Los Angeles.  And he’s going to teach us what?

Thanks to all who have reached out to us to wish us a bon voyage.  Tomorrows a sea day, so, stay tuned for more…….