We flew overnight to Houston arriving there just after 5 a.m. The Global Entry line at customs was short, thankfully. We grabbed our luggage and took it through customs then waited in a long line to get through security. There is no TSA precheck line available for people connecting from international to domestic flights. The United lounge was open so we waited there for the last flight--about a four hour layover. This has been such an magnificent trip! I feel v...

We disembarked the ship for the last time this morning. It's always sad to say "good-bye" to all that luxury at the end of a cruise. But before we headed to the airport, we spent the day touring Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and the Casablanca Valley on one last ship-sponsored excursion. We drove through Valparaiso seeing the hills of the city and the funiculars that provide service up and down. We stopped at two locations there: an overlook point to see the cit...

We started the day with an early alarm and room service breakfast before our shore excursion. The ship was anchored again so we left the room to get in line for the tender shortly before 8:00. The tender ride was okay—not as smooth as yesterday, but okay. By the time we got to the port, we were led to bus two for the Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, and Frutillar tour. Four people had not made the tender with our group so we had to wait another forty minutes whi...

We've had two full days of fairly rough sea and foggy and rainy weather on Wednesday and Thursday before returning inland from the Pacific Ocean. Sometime during dinner yesterday, the ride smoothed out, and we could see mountains on both sides of the ship. On Wednesday, I went up to the Observation Lounge when the Expedition Crew members were there looking for wildlife. They spend several hours every day stationed at points around the ship to look for animals and...