A party 56 years in the making!

 So, fresh off the aborted anchoring in the Falkland Islands, we were adrift. We wondered if perhaps we might get to the next port a day early and have more time- we got to do that in Mallorca once and that was fabulous. But, no. Instead, we spent a day driving in circles around the Falkland Islands and then cruising on as normal. I’m sure there are solid reasons for this because our captain has been 100% awesome and I trust him. So- a sea day it was!

Now, we had plans for today- it is Mike and Diana’s 56th wedding anniversary! The rest of us were conjuring up a surprise party for them. We’d rounded up a cake, a few bottles of champagne, a private party room- all thanks to an incredible crew member up in the VIP lounge for guests with suites. (Not us) But on this special day, they let us riff raff come in! Woohoo! More on this in a bit.

Before that, Sue had written a letter to the captain and asked him to play the Love Boat song and he agreed to do it at noon. We were still in our cabin but heard it loud and clear. The others had gone to the pool deck to enjoy it. And man did it take me back to Kotor, Montenegro in a split second where I once sat alone in my quarantine cabin and for some reason, the captain played it back to back 9 times and it echoed all around the fjord. Hahaha. 

Anyway, Ginny, Rich and I went to the art auction after lunch. The first of the trip! We normally go to all of them so it’s been kind of weird!! And, speaking of weird - NO ONE bought anything. First auction I’ve ever seen where that happened. It was a special one where they were auctioning off a few incredibly expensive original pieces from the likes of Picasso and Renoir - and sure, I didn’t expect those to go but when they got back around to things us normal people could buy - nope. Anyway, too weird! 

Once that was over, we didn’t have much time to get ready to pull off our surprise. I went to the cabin to grab our card and Jason who enjoyed a nice afternoon snooze. The plan was we would all get into the lounge at 3:45 and Mike and Diana were supposed to get there at 4. They normally enjoy their happy hour there as suite guests, so they weren’t suspecting anything yet.

We got up there and quickly did a little decorating and moving around of chairs. I pulled up some sheet music of here comes the bride when I noticed a piano in the room- how fun would that be to play it when they walked in? But then I sat to practice and noticed it was some fancy electric piano thing. All I know is, I hit a few keys and nothing happened. So, we did what anyone would do which is Rich pulled up a nice version on YouTube.  Sue and Jerry sat in the main lounge area, as suite guests they normally also enjoy happy hour there. The rest of us hid in the private room against the far wall to try to stay out of site. Before long, the doors flew open and we all yelled and Rich played here comes the bride! Hahaha.

The awesome lounge steward found hilarious glasses for Mike and Diana to wear and they did. Such good sports. We enjoyed hanging out there, sipping the good champagne and having a piece of the delicious chocolate cake. 

Rich and Ginny have also been married 56 years - their anniversary was in February and in 2023, we were all together for it and my birthday on the Caribbean cruise. 

Before long, everyone was off to the show and Jason and I had the charcuterie in Vines. Tomorrow we would wake up to central Argentina in the heart of Patagonia!

Stanley - So Close, But So Far

 We cruised through the night in mostly fabulously calm seas. I mean, my mama is clearly back there praying because her prayers always work and these seas are flat behaving!! 

We were all up and doing the normal things, including holding a pretty legit penguin stalking vigil off the port side. Unfortunately, the entire Malbec crew has cabins on the port side so we have no eyes on the scene over starboard. We need to plan this better. 

While prepping for our big penguin day to begin, we heard the Captain come on the loud speaker. We figured he was going to say we had clearance to begin getting off the ship. Now, we were already mentally prepared for this because the tender ride was 2 miles!!! 2 miles for crying out loud. That’s nuts. They said it would take a solid 30 minutes each way. This sounds like Dramamine to me:) I prepped for this! To the penguins!

Unfortunately, what the captain was saying was that the seas were too rough to safely use the tenders. Which means no one could go to shore. Except, unfortunately, someone was also having a medical emergency at the moment and they were trying to figure out how to get that person off. How terrifying!! For the rest of us, it meant hanging out there while they first helped solve the emergency. Then, we would leave. 

Alas. No penguins today:( 

When a cruise ship abruptly changes plans for the day, it is coordinated chaos for all of us. We have a whole lot of experience with this- just from our one Mediterranean crossing where we missed 6 ports! But anyway, the poor crew who was going to have a pretty darn chill and quiet day now has to hustle like maniacs. First, a whole slate of activities has to be planned and a new guide has to be published. And, all the restaurants were going to be closed but now they all had to be open with food ready to go. Whew! The lunch buffet was WILD. I laughed out loud, even. But they pulled it off, as they always do, and even looked calm the whole time while cranky people yelled about things no one could control. The good times were rolling! 

The girls decided we might as well have high tea because nothing says my penguin dreams were crushed today like crying into your scones. The tea was great- they didn’t serve the 2 or 3 tiered platters but rather, came along with trays of goodies and you could pick what you wanted. We didn’t get to pick our choice of tea which was ok because they made it perfectly but I did wonder if black tea at 3 PM would keep me up later that night seeing as how I’m now 98 years old and this is what our brains worry about. There was one crazy little dessert we could not believe- it was roughly the size of a Ding Dong, for those who indulge. Chocolate on the outside but when you cut into it, the entirety of the thing was caramel. Nothing else. No cake. No pecans. One large, oozing heap of caramel. It was bananas to see!! I love caramel but was glad I didn’t choose it because…well, I didn’t need a plate full of caramel.

Despite our location, which seemed to be…circling the Falkland Islands, it was delightful outside. Sunny and warm so I made my way to the pool deck which I pretty much had to myself! I enjoyed being in the sunshine until I got sleepy and then wandered off to take a nap. These days are so tough. I brought my winter boots and this would likely be the last day I would be wearing them. I’ll donate them to the cause, whatever that may be, before leaving

the ship next week.

We had a late reservation at the seafood place and enjoyed watching the sunset from our table. Not the day we hoped for, but a good one all the same. I never want to complain about my days when I’m free to explore a beautiful world with great people. There are frustrations, sure. But the days are good and going by too fast- as they always do. 

Rounding Cape Horn, Sorta!

 Having survived Christmas at the end of the earth, we were ready to experience rounding Cape Horn. Bam! So many first time things in this trip. 

When we started being serious about coming here, it was this part of the journey that gave me the most nervousness. I have seen some terrifying videos of Cape Horn, the Drake Passage, etc. and sometimes the sea is SO ANGRY. Add to this, I wasn’t really sure when we might hit the Cape. Mostly because I didn’t bother to listen to anything. You know. So, just in case, I took a Dramamine before crawling into bed, saying my most fervent prayers for calm seas, and then falling right to sleep.

Turns out, we ‘rounded’ the Cape between 7 and 8 am. Now, we didn’t truly round it - meaning we didn’t come down the Pacific side, swing around onto the Altantic side, and continue on. Mostly because we were already on the Atlantic side and it would have been silly and wasteful to back track just to do that. So, our awesome Captain sailed us down the Atlantic side, swooped around the southern most island at the  Cape, and then we headed east towards the Falkland Islands. We were at the top of Cape Horn and got the feeling of going round! Everyone wins here AND the seas behaved themselves.

Destinations like Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan are interesting because it’s so cool to be there but there isn’t really anything to see or do! It’s like, “I’ve arrived!” But also, “ok, so now what?” 

We didn’t have to worry about it too much because it turns out, we had signed up for an Italian wine tasting and lunch. Things were looking up. Rich and Ginny met us there. The rest of the Malbec gang had already been in the first 3 weeks on the ship and didn’t want to repeat.

Holy cow - it was a lot of food. We’ve done these before and it felt like a lot less food which makes me feel like 8 million people complained and now - MORE food. The wine was delicious- I do love Italian wine. I was sad that they took the Amarone off the menu so I tracked down one of the Somms later and bought a bottle. Crisis averted.

Somewhere after my post-wine tasting required nap, I realized I wasn’t going to see any bit of Antarctica. If you’ve read my travel blog over the years, you know I’m no stranger to my travel plans being foiled. It’s more common than not, frankly. This time, I’m somewhat to blame. I think I could have studied a bit harder and realized it. Maybe. There is another Princess ship down here that’s farther south - this is mainly how I realized it because, well, we’re not on that path. I’m enjoying seeing their pictures but also - poop.

My brain is choosing to not deal with this right now so more on that later. Maybe.

 I did see this mysterious white glow facing south toward Antarctica that was intriguing!

That said, we were heading to the Falkland Islands. None of us have been, and that’s always fun. AND, we had a penguin rookery experience coming so hope was alive for the Antarctic vibe/experience and that was good enough for now.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet - when we got on the ship, we decided to upgrade our package to the premium level. On Princess these days, you have 3 flavors - nothing, plus, or premium. We’ve always done plus before, which has been just fine. You get 15 drinks a day (including speciality coffees, sodas, juices, and alcohol), free WiFi on one device, crew gratuities, and some other stuff we don’t care about. But, they keep messing with things like corporations who like to make money do. And, we’re on a very short cruise this time - at just 15 days - so we listened to the extra things in the premium category and decided for $30 more a day, we’d do it. 

Two cool things this got us, ok three, we’d get unlimited drinks. I know, you’re thinking 15 is fine and usually it is. But let’s say one day you drink 2-3 coffees, a couple cups of tea, grab some bottles of water, and then still want a cocktail before dinner and a few glasses of wine. Easily you hit 15. Also, sometimes you just want to go rogue and try random things without burning one of your limited numbers. Should I try the Remy XO cognac? Sure - send it over. Do I like it? Who cares. That kind of thing. Anyway, unlimited drinks. But more importantly, we get unlimited times to eat in the speciality restaurants onboard. These are reservations required, extra charges usually. We can go every day for “free”. And finally, we can order charcuterie plates, salads, and truffles in the Vines wine bar - however many we want. Which means when the whole Malbec crew is there- we can all have them for “free”. 

The other stuff- WiFi on 4 devices, free premium desserts, free exercise classes, etc. we don’t care about. Just including it here in case you are cruising soon- there are other things in the package as well. Oh! We also get like 15 photos printed for free and normally I wouldn’t care but we took cute photos with Santa and the gang so we can get those. 

Anyway, we weren’t too hungry post the wine lunch so we hit vines for a bit and then retired up to the room. The piazza music continues to blast us out of there before too long. I might need to start wearing ear plugs!! 

Christmas in Tierra Del Fuego!

 Waking up on Christmas morning to the now no longer glowing tiny plastic Christmas tree was sort of surreal after 47 pretty similar Christmases in the past. We didn’t have any gifts to open or family tradition meals to cook. So, in that sense, it felt like just another day.

We did, however, have plans to dress up like wild, crazy people and venture into Ushuaia and take the train to the end of the world! To make it even more fun, we agreed to meet in Vines, our favorite wine bar off the piazza, first for Pismo Sours (the local, popular drink in Peru and Chile) and to take pictures with Santa Claus.

We all wore our fabulous and one-of-a-kind t-shirts that we got for $4 because they spelled Ushuaia wrong. HA! Ginny brought us all scarves with balls. Diana and Sue brought antlers for the gals and Santa hats for the dudes, and I rounded it out with festive glasses. Needless to say, where ever we went, we drew plenty of attention. One time, we walked by someone who said, “who are you guys? You look great!” And Ginny said, without missing a beat, “They call us the Malbec Gang.” Hahahah! So funny.

We hopped on the tour bus to ride to the train station. The little town of Ushuaia is so cute. It’s summer here and everyone thought it was such a hot day at right around 50 degrees. We were pleased that it was this warm, too! Families camped out along the running river through town to lie in the sun and enjoy the sunshine. The houses were simple but tidy. The town was clean with wide streets. In the wintertime, they only have 5 hours of sunshine a day. So, I’ve ruled out moving here. There are something like 85,000 residents which is very large compared to San Miguel, or even Paso Robles. Our tour guide said everyone here is working age because it’s too hard to live here when you get older. As people retire, they move away. So interesting. 

Now, it was Christmas Day which was a bit of a bummer because not everything was open. We were impressed that anything was open, actually! Plenty of cranky people asked why we’d come here on a global holiday but pipe down, people. You don’t always get what you want. Anyway, we got to the train station and were given tickets to our cute little steam engine #13. Before long, we were crammed into the train and took off chugging along through the most beautiful countryside. We were still technically in the greater Patagonia area and WOW. So pretty. Wild horses grazed along the flowing river. Tons of lupines of various colors dotted the side of the tracks.

We heard some great stories - including about the original, old penal colony that stood for many years in the area. The prisoners worked the land- mostly falling trees and clearing land. They sent the worst offenders, as they often to do remote, wild places. We heard of a serial killer who murdered his whole family. This was quite a serious story until they revealed his name to be… The big eared midget. Excuse me. The notorious big earned midget. Striking fear into the hearts of all. They didn’t say how he killed his family. Maybe smothered them with his giant ears. 

The prison conditions and the treatment of the inmates was awful and thankfully the whole thing was eventually shut down.

We really enjoyed the train ride though the seats were pretty small. We make bigger booties these days, ya know?

We got to stop at the Beagle Channel on the way home and see where the Pacific meets the Atlantic. The water was crystal clear and lovely. I bent down to touch it and sure enough, it was cold. Just checking. We saw this tiny little post office- sadly closed for Christmas Day but how cute is this thing?

Jason and I chose to hop off the bus outside the port and walk through the city a bit before getting back to the ship. Most things were closed but we still enjoyed the walk and found it hilarious that 80s and 90s rock was playing in the city center. Should I Stay or Should I Go was on as we walked up. You just never know what you’ll hear!

We meandered through the port back to the ship. I was a bit bummed because I would have liked to have bought something in Patagonia and it just wasn’t in the cards. That’s ok, of course. 

We had dinner plans in the Concerto dining room with the Malbec Gang so we headed to the room to clean up. We had just enough time to get our favorite large wine glasses (with wine) from Vines before walking together to dinner. After dinner, we all went back to Vines to grab a night cap but we took ours to go. We were pooped! A beautiful day of a completely different sort. Happy to spend it with sweet friends but thinking about our families back home. We enjoyed the few moments here and there with good enough WiFi to see pictures and video clips. 

Glaciers, Santas, The Dickler, and Snow!

 I feel like one eye blink has happened since I last wrote, but it’s actually been like 4 days and that’s a lot when you’re rolling along the South American coast. 

We last left off in Puerto Montt- home of the huge cherries. The next day was a sea day while we cruised past the Amalia glacier. Our onboard historian lady said it was the largest one off mainland Antarctica. Pretty cool. I’ve seen a glacier before but never sailed up to one so I have to say it was pretty cool to look out the window at some point and see a glacier just hanging out. Jason woke up, looked at it and said, “Yup, looks like a glacier.” Ha! He’s done many Alaska cruises. 

Anyway, it was a calm sea day that ended up with us entering the Straight of Magellan. That was cool! I still have plenty of the world left to see, but I’m becoming aware of my limited opportunities to see things for the first time. It’s one of my biggest joys - to see something with my own eyes that I’ve read about or heard about my whole life. Anyway, I still felt the thrill of it even though absolutely nothing looked different out the window when we turned into the straight. 

I’ve been watching for wildlife and haven’t seen anything yet. Ok, well, I’ve seen birds but I didn’t want to see birds so who cares. You’d think there weren’t any fish down in these parts.Vickie, the lady who talks about all the things, said we might see otters near the glacier and I spent a long time sweetly staring at a brown rock that I’d convinced myself was an otter. It was a nice moment. 

We arrived in Punta Arenas the following day, which was Christmas Eve. Jason and I had a wild excursion  planned because sometimes I convince myself that things are a good idea so we were supposed to talk a strenuous walk into the national forest and see the condors. Condors are birds. This is the problem. Also, they are large. Very big. Large and birds at the same time. I don’t know how big. Could they swoop down and grab me? Thank God I’ve gained some weight lately. That will help.

All that said, oddly, after breakfast, Jason starting feeling a little sea sick. This was strange on several levels- 1) the ship was parked and honestly really not moving much at all and 2) I felt fine and if someone is going to be sea sick, it’s for sure going to be me!! Anyway, I decided to grab the water shuttle over to town to pop around a bit in case he decided he was sick and didn’t want to do the excursion. Ok, that didn’t make sense as I typed it. I was afraid he would decide when it was too late for me to still look around town and get the excursion. You get it. 

The water shuttle decided it was time for a long winter’s nap, however, and it took me about 45 minutes to get to the shore and almost an hour and 15 to get back! Sheesh! While waiting for the shuttle on the ship, I could sense a good brouhaha forming and you know I love a good brouhaha. BTW- I had to look up how to spell that. Did you also look it up to see if I spelled it wrong? What a weird one!Anyway, back to the brouhaha- so we started all piling up because there wasn’t a water shuttle at the ship so we had to wait. Old people and lines are a guaranteed recipe for disaster! It was going fairly well until some people came down the elevator which emptied them out into the middle of the waiting area- in which the line was wrapping around. Rather than looking around and then joining the end of the line, they stood in the middle. This immediately made every person in the line suspicious and angry. But most people are also not confrontational so they just grumbled and fumed. Finally, the moment came to board the water shuttle and the ‘new’ people just pushed forward to the front. Well. Good Lord. 

The man behind me said to me, “Are you ok with this?” Which made me feel like I was in charge. I’m very good at being in charge, but I’m also on vacation from having to think that hard so I said, “No,” and then did nothing further. Then the man said, “I’m not a dickler, but this makes me mad.” It was all I could do, guys. Somehow, I held it together but then he decided he was a dickler, I suppose, and he went forward to yell at the people. And you will NOT believe what they said!!! “We have privilege.” Oh my word did that get the line riled up! Oh the eye rolls, the sighs, the loud repeating of, “OH THEY HAVE PRIVILEGE.” My man the dickler felt this reaction was acceptable so he calmly stepped back in line with me and his wife who was walking that perfect line of being completely mortified and 100% on his side. 

Anyway, we all made it to shore without a mutiny. I poked around a bit, walked a few city blocks and then gloriously found the local grocery. Man, do I love a grocery store in a different country! And not that I wanted Jason to not feel well, but him not being there allowed me to walk around the store 8 thousand times looking at every single bottle, package, piece of fruit, and chunk of cheese. The bliss! I have such good news for my friends who have big teeth! Check out the toothpaste available.

I rolled through the self checkout like a freaking Spanish speaking wizard but then I had a conundrum. I told Jason I would either be back in the room by 1:30 to go with him on the excursion OR meet him in the terminal building on shore at 1:50 when the tour was supposed to meet. I was sort of right at the time where either was possible if everything worked ok.  There wasn’t really anything to eat or drink right there so I quickly decided I better pop back to the ship to grab a small sandwich and bottle of water before being murdered by condors during a strenuous walk. And, this is when the process took 75 minutes. During this time, no WiFi, so I was somewhat worried that Jason would in the meantime hop on a tender to shore and we would cross. And I wouldn’t have time to make it back again the way things were going.

All this to say, in the end, neither of us went to meet our bird demise. It’s fine. It was Christmas Eve and if he wasn’t too keen to go, I didn’t want to go badly enough to go without him. Problem solved.

We went to the steakhouse for dinner, which was absolutely delicious but more importantly, as a substitution for us not wanting dessert, our waiter offered to sing us a song. Never heard of that before, but hey, why not? He had me pick between Bruno Mars and John Legend. I picked John Legend and he proceeded to sing a gorgeous accapella version of All of You- so good I teared up at the end. What a treat, indeed! 

Back in the lobby, the staff read the Night Before Christmas and then a ton of the ship crew and staff came out and we all sang Christmas carols. A snow machine rained snow down into the piazza. It was perfect! I can’t say it really felt like Christmas when you are at home having Christmas, but it was really nice all the same.Truly nothing can beat the warm and cozy feeling of Christmas home with your family and friends and all your normal traditions, and we were missing that.

Hmmm…somewhere in all this, we went and had the most fabulous massages. I would try to think of when that was but you don’t actually care, it doesn’t matter, and I don’t want to think. 

We grew sleepy watching Christmas movies in the room and sipping red wine. The next morning would be Christmas Day and there was a lot planned with the Malbec Crew!