South America Cruise Dec 2014 Day 16 Leaving South America

       We arrived back in Toronto about 24 hours after leaving the ship. Our departure from the ship

Valpariso At 5 Am

was at 9 in the morning and that went well until we got on the bus to take us into Santiago. That is when the fun began. The arrangements were to take us to a hotel in Santiago as a holding area as our flight was not until the evening. One man said I can't go to a hotel, I want to go home. I guess he did not understand that it was a holding area until they would take us to catch our flight. He caused quite a ruckus about it. Nobody could seem to read his flight information. He finally settled down. Then another couple, in a much calmer voice indicated that they had an afternoon flight and apparently had not read their transfer info. They need to get to the airport fast. After another delay, the person in charge said we would stop at the airport and drop them off. It was on the way to the city. All resolved.

         However, the bus driver was new and missed the turn to the airport. This was off a main highway. We finally arrived and both the couple and the man got off. We still think he did not understand what the arrangements were. Good, now the 25 minute ride to the hotel. Again the new driver had no clue where we were to go. The 25 minute ride turned into a 75 minute ride through bumper to bumper traffic. We finally arrived. Through all of this our on board guide was wonderfully calm. We booked our transfer time to the airport and then went for a walk.

          We ended up in a 6 story Uptown mall that was absolutely jammed with people. It was a nice

Blue Santa

experience to see some really upscale stores. Of course the Gap, Hard Rock Cafe, etc. were all represented. The most interesting thing was the blue Santa in the mall and the artificial snow making machines. The temperature was around 29C outside. Pizza at the Pasta Basta restaurant was fun.

We arrived at the airport where our luggage was waiting for us. Then the lines began. Between the Air Canada check in, the declaration of leaving line, the passport control area and finally security were were about 2  hours and 15 minutes. It meant that we did not wait to board our 10 hour direct flight to Toronto where we arrived at 6am this morning.

    This will be the final post for this cruise. It was number 18 on Princess and we now have 267 sailing days. Way more than when I trained in the Navy!