Day 8: Cape Horn

What a day!  It started off nice, but the announcement about Princess cancelling all cruises for 60 days has changed our plans royally.

We were up early since we were scheduled to see Cape Horn, starting at 7:30 am.  The map on the left shows how we navigated through the channels at the southern tip of South America as well as Cape Horn, just in front of the arrow. The photo on the right shows us approaching the Cape.

There is a lighthouse and caretaker house on a bluff above the actual cape.  Top left is a long distance shot, showing the point and lighthouse.  On the right are close-ups of the buildings and the actual point.  We had reasonably calm seas, but with 30 MPH winds.  The last time our ship tried to visit here, it was not able to, due to the rough seas. After snapping a few pictures, we enjoyed breakfast as we watched the ship circle the island.  We found it interesting that a family of 6 lives there and can only be supplied by boat. 

After that I went to Zumba, and then Mary and I went to the next destination talk, about Puerto Madryn. Upon returning to our caabin, there was a ship-wide announcement made by the captain for passengers to watch a video released by the head of Princess Cruises.  In it, she stated that Princess was starting a 60-day operational shutdown.  After listening to it, it was not clear if we would be disembarked in Buenos Aires  (where the first segment of our cruise ended) or continue on to our final destination of Fort Lauderdale.  It turns out that our voyage from Buenos Aires to Fort Lauderdale was classified as a "new" cruise and hence was cancelled.   Daughter Katie found a news release on the Princess site that said we would be disembarked early on March 15th, but the Guest Services team said we would complete this first 16-day voyage as scheduled.  We had an Elite passenger reception tonight and at it, the Captain clearly stared that we would complete this first cruise  as scheduled.   Once I heard that I quickly booked plane tickets to Detroit since only a few premium economy seats were available.  So it looks like we will be on the ship for another week before heading home, much earlier than planned.  I was looking forward to seeing Rio de Janeiro and getting a certificate for crossing the equator, but that's not going to happen.

As expected, this change in our itinerary was the talk of the ship all afternoon and at dinner. Mary and I both enjoyed a nice Pork Belly entree followed by another first time Chocolate Journeys dessert. 

On to the Falkland Islands tomorrow to see King Penguins!