Day 03 - Getting Aboard

Day 03 - Getting Board

I did a survey yesterday about cruising.  They asked me how many cruises I have been on and the choices were 1, 2,3,4, and 5.  I needed the numbers that were up in the 30s.  Cruising has been my vacation of choice for nearly 35 years because back in the days when my kids were being born I learned that my pager didn't work on board ship.  Once we pushed away from the dock, I was unreachable and unreachable was truly "on vacation".  I don't need protection from a pager anymore, but now cruising is about an inexpensive vacation.  Truth is if you are going to travel there are choices packed with better bang for the buck.  Cruising, for me, is about value.  Not this cruise (turns out a trip to Antarctica is not an inexpensive undertaking) but cruising in general.

So day 3 starts.  I woke up a little late that morning.  Not surprising because day 1 and day 2 were fused into a single day.  Also not surprising because the clock in Argentina was running 3 hours later than the one in Dallas.  A little late wasn't a problem, though, because it takes them half the day to off load last weeks passengers.

I looked out my window and saw that the taxi cabs were lining up to help me get to my ship.  It was boarding day.

For me, boarding day is always a mixed bag of happy and sad.  The sad part has to do with getting into a line with between 2,000 and 8,000 other happy cruisers to go through the embarkation process. 

The happy part is when you finish the lines, security, and paperwork.  They hand you this little plastic card that is your room key, ID, and money, but more importantly, it is a symbol that the boarding process is over.

 Not so on this cruise.  It started out the same.  Same lines.  Same security.  Same paperwork and health screening.  Same plastic card (followed by the same euphoria but this time the joy was premature).

This cruise they give you your little plastic card then put you in another set of lines that take you through the process of exiting Argentina (emigration?), confiscates our passport and then puts us on a bus that drives around the port for 20 minutes and finally dumps you off in front of the ship.

Next is a quick walk up a steep gangway and it's finally euphoria time.

There are plenty of additional embarkation day activities.  Exploring the ship (we didn't do that), rushing to the cafeteria to overeat for the first time (we didn't do that), trudging to your assigned deck and finding your stateroom (we didn't do that either).  For us, it was drag out the Kindle, park in front of a window at the front of the ship, and wait for the little tug boat to pull us out of the harbor.

The sea part of our voyage to Antarctica has begun!