Our trip began with a week in southern Patagonia near Puerto Montt for some fly fishing and sigh-seeing. We booked the fishing through Jack Trout Fishing. he is an American, married to a Chilean, with guiding business in California in our summer, and SA in their summer. Overall the fishing was mediocre, but my husband can still say he has fished in Patagonia! From here we flew back to Santiago to spend an extra 4 nights prior to embarkation. We met up with the rest of our group there, 8 couples in all.
We got to our room easily, dropped off the carry-ons and headed for a lunch. Our embarkation was between 1 and 2 PM, so we had waited to eat lunch onboard. Our luggage had showed up at our rooms by the time we returned from lunch, so the rest of the time we spent unpacking and getting settled. The ship was due to sail at 5PM. However, we were delayed a few hours due to a pre-land excursion being late getting back.
Our group had early seating for their dinner in the main dining room. This worked out well for all of us. We ate every meal there with only one exception, which was to go to the Crown Grill one night as a group. The surcharge for this was $25 per person, however we felt it was well worth the extra money for the special treatment you receive. There is no set menu, and you can still order anything and all you want. Most of us had lobster and steak, which was excellent. I did make these reservations immediately when we got onboard since there was a large number of us wanting this night, but had no problem getting the time or date reserving that early.
We were on Caribe with a balcony. Room size is fair. Balconies are larger than others in this category on other decks so that was nice. Bed was very comfortable, and pillows ( 2 per person) seemed new. Bathroom very small, only a "one person at a time" bathroom. Hanging space ample, but shortage of hangers, so bring a few of your own that you can leave behind.