Chilean Fjords

March 15^th, 2024

We spent a blissful day sailing through the Chilean Fjords.

Even with our obstructed view cabin we could see the a bit of the mountains outside.

Unfortunately the cloud cover was low and we didn’t get to see the Andes in the distance, but it was still beautiful gliding by the green mountains and cascading waterfalls.

The atrium, the Piazza, is always a very happening place on board. Today it was the egg drop competition. The contestants drop an egg from the deck 7 balcony, and it lands on deck 5.

These contestants looked like they had a good thing going.

The chief judge looked hopeful as she started to examine it

However, despite the help from the balloons, the egg had not survived it’s fall.

The next contestant’s entry didn’t look like it would be a great success.

But yes! The egg had survived.

Several eggs did survive, and then the judges had the difficult task of deciding which was the most aerodynamic and elegant way to protect the egg. I was quite sorry we hadn’t entered, but watching the successful drops gave me inspiration for our entry should we ever come across an egg drop again.

Tonight was the real night for the Captains Circle cocktail party, and another formal evening.

Brian had to miss the party as he had a Zoom meeting for one of our home owners association committees. Party vs Zoom meeting? An easy choice for me, but Brian is a very responsible person, so here we are in the Chilean Fjords and there he was on his computer dealing with HOA issues, missing out on meeting the captain. So I had to go by myself.

I got all dressed up and went to Club Fusion for the party. I had expected a large queue waiting to meet the captain and was wondering if there was a back entrance I could use to avoid the queue. I needn’t have worried. There was no queue at all, and I went right in. There also was no captain greeting us, but there were several friendly looking officers. Another friendly officer showed me to a seat. It was all very civilized.

The house band played dance music, although no one was dancing. Then the drinks arrived, and of course I chose the champagne. Bad move. It had not improved since the champagne fountain extravaganza. All of a sudden the memory of a similar tasting drink insinuated itself in my brain. Babycham. I was an 8 year old, sitting on the veranda of my grandmother’s house on sultry evenings before the rains, sneaking sips of her Babycham. With each sip, hoping it would have morphed into something like real champagne, each time being disappointed. Tonight I experienced that sense of disappointment once more.

Although this was the captain’s party, he never actually showed up. The staff captain gave a speech instead, and he is very charming so that made up for the lack of captain Mc Bain.

One of the highlights of these sort of parties is the presentation of gifts to the 3 most travelled passengers.

Julian, the Captain’s Circle representative, read out their names, but pointed out that they were not present as they were all having dinner. It was about 5:30 in the evening. If I ever get to be the most traveled guest, I certainly will not be at dinner during the captain’s reception, I will be right up there, so proud of the honour. So what if they serve bad champagne, or even if the award is a free bottle of champagne, dinner can wait for a few minutes. I expect that they are probably very shy people and want to avoid any fuss, but still it would have been nice if they had been there so we could congratulate them.

When we entered the party, we had to hand in our invitation at the door. I assumed that was to make sure we were not interlopers. The invitations now reappeared in an ice bucket. The staff captain’s duty was to draw 3 invitations out of the bucket, and those 3 lucky passengers would win a bottle of champagne. I did not win.

At the end of the party I returned to our cabin where Brian was just finishing his Zoom meeting,

The dress code for the party was formal, but the ship wide dress code was “dress to impress”. Alas, not to many folks were dressed in anything impressive at all, it just seemed like another smart casual evening, but we were in our formal clothes anyway. If it says formal, I will be formal. I don’t have many opportunities to get all dressed up.

The dinner options were excellent, and the food didn’t disappoint. I wish every night was a formal night. Then I would say that the food on board was very good. However, the service was exceptionally slow so we had to leave before dessert so we could watch the show.

By the time we got to the theater it was packed, hardly a seat in the house. And the show was excellent. I am always so impressed by the production shows, and not having been on Princess for over 20 years, the shows are all new to us.

When we returned to our cabin after the show, it was clear that we were out of the Fjords, and had entered that Pacific Ocean, which wasn’t being very pacific. The ship was once again pitching and rolling, but not alarmingly so. It was the right kind of motion to help you fall into a deep sleep.