music – silverfox175
22nd February 1969 – it was cold wet day in Liverpool, UK.
What to do to celebrate fifty years of happy marriage? We like cruising so how about a cruise around Cape Horn at the bottom of the world?
So be it . . . . .
Our plan was to fly to Santiago in Chile, have three nights before joining a ship in San Antonio for a sixteen night cruise to Buenos Aires, with three nights in BA before flying home.
Everything had to be just so – so we required a hotel – after checking various hotels in Santiago we decided on the Crown Plaza, and we would stay on the Club Floor.
We mentioned our plans to friends with whom we’d traveled before, and one couple from New Zealand decided to join us, and another from the north east of England also joined us.
The two males and I had joined HMS Conway in September 1960, and we’d kept in touch over the years, so the trip would also be a mini-reunion. They had both retired from the sea as Master of their own vessels, and had previous experience around the South American coast during their working life at sea.
Maureen & I and our NZ friends flew out of Sydney to Santiago on Tuesday, and arrived about 90 minutes before we left Australia, thanks to us crossing the dateline. The flight was actually over twelve hours.
We flew with Qantas in one of their last remaining B747s, a comfortable flight in premium economy.
Our hotel room on the 20th floor.
Views from our window
In the early evening we went for a short walk around the area of the hotel – the UK couple would not be joining us until the following afternoon.
A short walk from the hotel and we found Plaza Baquedano, with a statue of General Manuel Baquedano on his horse.
The General had been commander in chief of the Chilean army during the Pacific War of 1879 to 1884, which was also known as the ‘ten cents war’ or ‘Saltpeter war’ when Bolivia tried to tax Chilean mining of the rich nitrate of coastal Bolivia, even though they had agreed not to tax the Chileans.
The war escalated and Chile found herself fighting both Peru & Bolivia. The first five months of the war was a sea campaign, which Peru lost. Bolivia didn’t have any ships, but relied on issuing certificates of marque to anyone who would be willing to fight for Bolivia at sea.
Britain, the US and France stood by the Paris Declaration of 1855 which outlawed privateers. The sea war was now between Chile & Peru – which Peru lost.
Bolivia lost her coastal nitrate strip to Chile, which is why Bolivia today is landlocked.
Plaza Baquedano is also used by the people as rallying place when they wish to make a point – I don’t know what the rally was for in the short piece of film.
As the sun set over Santiago I just had to take this photograph of the snow capped mountain. We had just passed Plaza Baquedano.
The following morning we decided to use the hop on hop off bus to get a ‘feel’ of the city, plus it was getting to hot to walk around.
As you see it was 11.00 am and already 31.2 c outside.
Santiago is a pleasant town with modern buildings mixed with the older historic buildings, and quite a few parks.
The roads were clean and traffic was orderly.
Santiago looking to the future.
The Costanera Center Torre, also known as Gran Torre Santiago, – sixty four storey tall making it the tallest building in Latin America. It is the second tallest in the southern hemisphere, the tallest being in Melbourne, Australia.
In the city centre the old still has an attraction – The Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago can be seen (the two small towers). Construction began in 1748 and was completed in 1800. The square is the Plaza de Armas.
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago entrance.
Inside the cathedral
Plaza de Armas – the main square of Santiago. The building with the flag flying is the central post office.
I took the above from the bus . . .
Plaza de Armas – being good Aussies we moved from shadow to shadow to keep cool.
Giant flag of Chile flying over Citizen Square, Avenida La Alameda.
The flag pole is 61 meters (200 feet) tall the flag itself is 27 meters (88.5 feet) by 18 meters (59 feet) and was erected to celebrate the bi-centenary of Chile in 2010. The square is beyond the flag. I took the photograph from the top deck of the bus, a quick point & click.
If you have a golden wedding you need some music and the obvious choice is something called Golden Wedding
Turn the sound UP!
Checking in for our cruise was very easy – after checking -in we didn’t have to wait to board even though we had been warned that a wait would be required, but were told to pass through emigration and security and to board immediately.
On entering our cabin (state room to be PC) we realised that it was much smaller than the same cabin on the previous Princess Cruise vessels. We’d booked a balcony cabin, and the balcony area was the smallest that we had experienced, but they still managed to squeeze in two chairs & a tiny round table.
The storage area for our clothes was smaller than the other Princess ships, and even smaller then the Pacific Jewel, where we had an inside cabin.
Once we unpacked we realised that instead of placing our suitcases in the hanging part of the ‘wardrobe’ area we were able to stow them out of sight under our bed. Even though the area for our clothes was smaller, we were able to unpack completely and stow all our clothes and bits and pieces out of sight. Our shoes went under the bed along with my laptop & briefcase and Maureen’s carry – on bag, so all in all the sudden shock of ‘smallness’ was soon fixed.
The ship is well maintained and crew members can be seen constantly painting and touching up various areas. All the staff that we come in contact with were friendly and helpful.
Thirteen nights of having everything done for us – wonderful.
Goodbye Sydney – we sailed at 4.00 pm so I was able to photograph the sun setting over Australia.
I thought a few pictures of the Dawn Princess might help for those considering a Princess Line cruise.
The Atrium, or heart of the ship for passengers.
The pictures above and the one below are of the Vista Lounge and Bar, which is near the stern, it is a large bar with a small stage, which is used by various acts in the evening or lectures during the day, or an afternoon of quizzes when at sea.
Magnum Bar – very quiet, and quite small.
Wheelhouse Bar – quiet around 5.00 pm, but jumping by 8.00 pm with live music and dancing.
The Riviera Bar near the pools.
There are other outdoor bars, but we didn’t use them.
Not all that clear, but the water in the pool is overflowing as the ship’s movement causes a slight pitching, which in turn causes the water to rush to one end and then back to the other end.
This picture gives a better idea of the ‘surge’.
The Crooners Bar; a lime & soda for Maureen and a Guinness for me. On each of the Princess vessels in which we have sailed, the Crooners Bar is always a favourite, because of the staff and the live music which is never too loud so that you have to shout. The Crooners Bar on the Dawn Princess is the largest Crooners Bar that we have experienced, much larger than the Island or the Diamond Princess.
One of the bar staff in the Dawn Princess was a Scouse (from Liverpool UK) and he came from the next suburb to where Maureen lived as a child. The barman spends nine months cruising and then goes home to Liverpool, for a couple of months.
Each evening at 9.00 pm Paul Burton would sit in the Crooners Bar and play jazz on the piano & sing songs of yesteryear – he was perfect for the ambiance of this particular bar. I bought his CD, Live in London.
If you fancied a night club there was always Jammers – a little too noisy for me . . .
Our dining room was called the Venetian dining room – picture taken from the entrance.
Unlike other ships where we had ‘any time dining’ i.e you fronted up and you entered the dining room if it was before 10.30 pm, but sometimes you had to queue due to demand etc. We used to arrive around 6.30 to 6.45 pm and didn’t have a problem. On the Dawn Princess, we had been allocated 5.30 pm dining, which was a little early for us, but we got used to the timings and adjusted lunch to fit . . . This also meant that we had the same passengers on the same table each evening with the same stewards. The passengers were not a problem, because we soon got to know each other. The wine waiter was preemptive because he used to put a glass of white wine down in front of me when I sat down & placed the ‘chit’ next to me side plate for signing. That was ‘service’ with a smile. The following comments are only my opinion as to why they have fixed dining times on Australian based vessels. Australian based Princess Cruise ships do not charge a daily gratuity. On ships that leave Australia and do not return to an Australia port at the end of the voyage, the gratuity is charged at approximately $12 USD a day per person. The gratuity is split amongst the face to face staff and the backroom staff that the passenger never meets or comes in contact with, but is still offering a service.
This allows for any time dining – you can have a dedicated booked time if you wish, but most people just turn up and wait a short while if the dining room is busy.