After 6 flights, 6 hotels, 10 days and 1 great time we are on board the Crown Princess. Now we can unpack and get some laundry done. Boarding was interesting. We had a nice breakfast on the terrace of our Valparaiso hotel. The climate there is a lot like San Francisco – usually foggy and cool in the morning but it was sunny this day. We caught a cab to the cruise terminal and got there about 10:30 where we were informed that there was a work stoppage at the...

We are in our hotel room in Valparaiso. Tomorrow we board the Crown Princess. It's hard to believe the 1st part of the trip is done. Today I had arranged for a local guide to pick us, and 4 other couples from Cruise Critic, up at various hotels in Santiago, go on a tour of the area, and then drop us off at various hotels in Valparaiso where we board the ship. Michael the German Pirate is an East German ex pat who has lived in Valparaiso for about 20 years. We kne...