Last day at Costa Azul. We wake up fairly early and look out down to the harbor….and no ship! What? No way? We search and search, and finally discover our home for the next 20 days almost hidden behind containers and buildings. We can just see the smoke stacks. Wow! That was a little nerve shattering for a few minutes. The NCL Sun is docked much closer in town than we thought. We know there is a shuttle to the ship, but we thought she’d be docked at the far end of the port, closer to Vina Del Mar (where we will return our car). Oh well, who cares? At least she’s here.
So, showered and packed, we get ready for our final breakfast! Downstairs we chat with Luka who is doing the cooking this morning – and watch a very sleepy and unhappy Fabian wander through the kitchen (obviously a part of the 3 am loud laughers/talkers last night – or I should say this morning). I choose the Banana pancake this morning – it’s made with banana and egg, and a bit of cinnamon. Gluten free and relatively low carb! Yum!
Beautiful – and filling. I can’t finish it! Ed sticks with his fried eggs and we both enjoy the fresh squeezed pineapple juice. Hmm…maybe a juicer is in our future?
We are out and in the car by 10 am – and prepare to face those higgly-wiggly Valpo streets once again! This time we successfully navigate the twists, turns and weird u-turns necessary to get down to the port road and over to Vina Del Mar to drop off the car. We were thinking about dropping off our luggage at the ship, then trying to take a bus back to the port, but we end up driving straight to Vina.
We make it there without any issues until we get to Marina drive, where we know the Sheraton is located, but where we can’t take a left turn into the darn hotel parking lot. Crud. So, around Vina we go – we knew enough to know we had to go into town, cross over the river then cross back to get onto the right side of the road. A little frustrating, but nowhere near as cringe inducing as the ride into Valpo.
Into the hotel garage we go, finding the spaces for Europcar easily. We luck into an agent who is taking a car up to deliver to a client and he offers us a ride up to the hotel. So sweet – because it is a haul to get there – especially with all our bags.
Once in the lobby we organize a cab – well really a limo/executive drive (it’s a Sheraton, ok? What can you do?) – to the port. It’s 15,000 CP, which is about $22. We think that’s fair since the ship is so far into Valpo. The car comes right away and off we go.
Surprise! The port entrance is at the far end of the port – maybe a 10 minute ride from Vina, not the 20 or 25 we expected. Ok, so 15,000 isn’t the bargain we thought. But no matter – we’re here! Early, of course. We complete the pre-check in (formal check in is on the ship) and hang out waiting for the shuttle to board.
Only takes about 30 minutes before we are ready to go – on bus #1. The shuttle takes about 15 minutes to get to the ship (thank God we didn’t decide to try to drop the bags first – we’d have never found the port building or had a clue where to go) – and before you know it we are ushered onto the ship and checked in.
Check in is fast and simple, but they give us regular keys to our room – which isn’t right. We upgraded to an Aft Penthouse Suite on Tuesday before we left (great deal – really cheap upgrade fee) so we know we are supposed to have suite keys and a special waiting area. I, of course, am eavesdropping on others and here someone being told they can wait in the VIP lounge – so what the heck –we follow them. We luck into the Concierge lounge – which is located in La Cocina dining room. There we meet Carlos, the concierge (who is an absolute doll) and who also takes care of us by giving us the correct keys, and making sure all our photo and credit card records transfer to our new stateroom keys. Phew! We also get to have lunch in La Cocina (an every day perk, as well as breakfast). Cool!
After lunch, we go explore the ship a bit – it’s the backwards ship with the theater in the aft – so that takes getting used to. But we figure it out pretty well, and soon the cabins are ready, so we head back to the suite. It’s a great cabin – a little entry hallway, then a large living room with separate bedroom and huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.
Plus a great big balcony that sort of wraps a little way around the side of the ship and has an overhang to keep you out of the sun (which we’ll need once we pass the equator for sure).
Nice! We hang out here for a while, watching the port and shipping containers being loaded onto the ship behind us – and the seals! Sunning themselves on the nose of the container ship.
We end up sailing a bit late, but we don’t care. We wander the ship, have dinner, see the welcome show, then retire to our balcony to watch the stars and hang out until bed.
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