March 4^th, 2024

Buenos Aires

Today is the day that we board the Sapphire Princess. After uneventful, but delayed flights to Buenos Aires we arrived here on a bright and sunny Monday morning.

Immigration was quick and efficient, they must be used to cruise passengers and their short stays, and although it took ages for our luggage to arrive, it all did arrive – but according to an email I received from American Airways, 3 suitcases took one plane, and the other flew over here on another flight. Go figure. Still they were all on the carousel and we were pleased to meet up with them again.

We stopped at the Duty Free shop to replenish my Veuve Clicquot supply. You are only allowed to bring on board one bottle of wine each, and no whisky at all, so Brian is out of luck. However, I did get the good stuff for me.

After putting all of our luggage through the Xray machine we finally emerged to a sea of people engaged in searching for their cruise line transport. Holland America, Oceania, Azamara…..but where was Princess? Luckily the Holland America man came to our rescue and pointed out the Princess representative. He was carefully hiding his Princess sign beneath his clipboard so it wasn’t visible. But we found him anyway, and he guided us towards the luggage drop off and our coach.

It took about an hour to get to the cruise terminal. Check in was totally painless. I had been worried because we had had issues with their new and improved Princess Medallion App. The boarding pass on the App had the right ship, but it had us boarding in Los Angeles. Also when I tried to make dinner reservations it said that all of the restaurants were fully booked for the whole cruise. And what about the WiFi? No, that wasn’t available either. Then it said I had got my birthdate wrong. Brian’s said he had never been on Princess before, and that wasn’t right. Technology is great, but rather anxiety provoking.

I called Princess a few days ago to ask if they could correct things, and I was reassured that their technical department would be right on it. However here I was at the cruise terminal in Buenos Aires with it telling me I was in Los Angeles.

Well, the malfunctioning app didn’t seem to affect check in luckily, all that had to be done was to take my photo again. We were given our medallions and off we went to catch the shuttle bus to the ship.

As we are in the cargo port there was no overhead walkway, and we had to board via the gangway on deck 4. So we walked straight into the bowels of the ship, rather than in to the lobby. I missed the sound of a string quartet as we made our way down the corridor to the elevator. Emerald deck here we come!

Except our room wasn’t ready so we went to the buffet for lunch, and then tried again.

As we approached our cabin, cruise medallions safely on lanyards around our necks, the light on our cabin door turned green and let us know it was unlocked. Gingerly, we stepped inside.

This is an obstructed ocean view cabin and I was expecting to see a bright orange lifeboat totally obscuring our view. Yay, there is indeed a lifeboat outside the window, but we can see right over it. This was so much better than I had expected. I could see right through to the piles of containers on the dock.

The cabin is small. Just one chair. There is a glass table on the floor which impedes getting from one side of the room to the other, but it is cozy and will make a wonderful home for the next 32 days.

In no time our luggage arrived, and as we surveyed our possessions I was a bit anxious about where everything was going to go.

But do not fear, there is an amazing amount of storage space in the cabin, we found a place for everything, and the suitcases all fitted under the bed.

There are only 2 electric outlets, both very close together on the desk next to the phone. No very convenient, However there is a USB outlet next to the bed.

We signed up for the internet ($400 for one device for the whole cruise with the 50% past passenger discount) and settled in to our new home. And promptly fell asleep.

We didn’t get to go ashore and explore Buenos Aires but we were well rested by dinner time. There are 4 main dining rooms on the ship, and I had booked us into Vivaldi. We had a good meal, and there was chocolate souffle for dessert, but it simply wasn’t up to Cunard standards. Instead of the waiter making a smiley face in the souffle and pouring in the sauce, it was up to me to do that. The souffle did not absorb the sauce, and it went everywhere. Not a success.

After dinner we headed to the show lounge for the evening’s entertainment. Fernando is the cruise director and before the show he introduced himself. Things were going well until he burst into singing the Love Boat theme. Really? I suppose it is OK, I mean we are on a Princess ship, but still………

The evening’s entertainment was a tango show by a group called Tango Desire. We had thought of going ashore to a tango club, but watching a show in the comfort of the lounge was much simpler, and they really were very good. There were 10 dancers, a singer, and 5 musicians, and they  put on an excellent and very energetic performance.

The singer  gave a very fine rendition of  “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Yesterday Los Angeles, today Argentina. Life is good.

After the show, we walked around the promenade deck and watched containers being loaded on to the ships around us. It was a lovely warm night with a very gentle breeze. The perfect way to end our first day in Buenos Aires.