Day 01 - 07/Jan/24 - Embarkation Day in San Antonio, Chile
Embarkation day finally arrived. Since we were staying so close to the ship and our checkout time was not until 3:40pm, we slept in late before enjoying our last Continental Breakfast when we met two other couples who are on the ship. We had arranged for a late checkout, and proceeded to walk down the stairway to the cruise terminal before walking the esplanade for the 3rd time. It's definitely easy to walk to the terminal, but carrying multiple pieces of luggage down 150 stairs was just not worth it for the cost of a $10,000CHP or just over $10US cab ride.
The walk along the esplanade was much like that of the previous days, but continued to be very interesting. We definitely saw more people who looked like cruise ship passengers. The fish market was open and the sea lions were cavorting in the water. Many had left the beach but a few were left there to provide photo opportunities for the tourists. They were also quite protective of how close humans were allowed to be, but they seemed to ignore the dogs that would come up very close and barking away. Eventually we turned around and walked back south towards the cruise terminal, but turned east and climbed up the 150 stairs to the shopping mall where we purchased some treats for our cabin attendants.
Back at the hotel we arrived to the scene of our room door being open and the desk clerk moving our stuff out. He explained that our extended stay was okay, but that our luggage had to be removed to the office area. That wasn't clear when we moved in. But it all worked out and we waited for another hour for our taxi which picked us up around 2:30pm which was an hour early. We arrived at the terminal and were quickly attended to and there was no line to check in which I found a bit strange. We also learned that we were supposed to have a white receipt from the airport, but we explained that all of that paperwork had been retained at the airport. We passed through security and boarded an intra port shuttle bus and were dropped off at the gangplank. We were scanned on the ship and our voyage was officially under way.
We made our way to our room 4107 and it is a large obstructed view of tender 13. It does permit light in and there are peek a boo views of the water. But it will work for us as it lets in light. We completed watching the safety video and checked in at our muster station which completed our boarding requirements. A lap walk around the ship then occurred and we met a mother - son couple and chatted with them a bit before I went up to the LIDO for a light snack as we hadn't had lunch and it was after 3pm.
Promenade deck
We've been on the Oosterdam a couple of times previously as well as all of the other 3 ships in this class ship, so the layout is quite familiar. We skipped church and the evening activities as our luggage didn't arrive until nearly 6pm. At 5:30pm Captain Kevin came on the stateroom speakers which meant this was an important announcement. He told us that the port was closed due to weather conditions and that the ship was waiting for passengers delayed by flight issues. We would now depart at 4am tomorrow morning and have to skip Puerto Montt and that he would explain it all in a special meeting on the Main Stage tomorrow at 11am plus a letter would be sent to our stateroom (shown below). That was sort of a bummer of bad news to start the cruise on, but safety is important.
Delay and missed port letter
After a quick LIDO dinner (not bad), we came back and unpacked noting the absense of 3 drawers at the desk. We met our stateroom attendants Aly and San and coordinated a few changes we needed (empty the minibar and refill it with 12 cans of Coke Zero. We also shared one bag of Doritos with Aly and he seemed appreciative. The internet was extremely slow because we were in port. Hopefully it will improve once we get to sea as the ship has Starlink service. Two sea days are ahead of us.
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