Antarctic Cruise Day 39 / 40 - Buenos Aires - Viking Rocks on

Antarctic Cruise Day 39 / 40 - Buenos Aires - a rocking good time

Trip day: 39 / 40

Port days: 18
Sea days: 19
Countries: 5
Continents: 4
Ports/Landings: 13

Ah, disembarkation day.  The end of the trip.  The last time seeing many friends we made on the journey.  It is a bittersweet day.  We're honestly looking forward to being home since this has been such a crazy travel year for us, but this trip was so amazing, it's hard to see it end.  But, end it must since the cruise that left today was completely full.  378 max capacity on Polaris, 378 guests were scheduled to embark.  That's a far cry from the 61 passengers we had from Amsterdam to Ushuaia.

We ate our final breakfast in the World Café. Captain Margaret came by and wished us safe travels.

Viking's first female captain - Captain Margrith Ettlin

Then, it was back to the cabin so we could brush our teeth, toss the last items into our carry-on bags, and head to the Living Room on deck #5 to wait for group Blue 2 to be called.  Soon enough, we were on the coach for the short ride to Ushuaia airport.  Our checked bags were already there.  We verified that we saw our bags and handed in an affidavit confirming that we hadn't packed any of the prohibited items and headed to security.

Viking had two flights chartered on JetSmart.  Ours was perhaps 65% full so there was plenty of room to move about.  Viking booked us on 16F and17A, so we weren't in the same row and were on opposite sides of the aircraft.  This let us both take photos of the Andes and Beagle Channel featuring both the Chilean side and the Argentinean side.

The flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was about three hours.  While en route, a Viking representative informed us that for those of us with long layovers (like our nearly seven-hour one), Viking had reserved space in the Hard Rock café in terminal A for us for lunch.  Woo!

After we landed, we collected our luggage and took it to the central area in terminal C, where we landed.  Those of us that would be flying Delta gave our bags to one set of porters.  Everyone else gave their bags to another set of porters.  Our Delta-bound bags remained in terminal C in a private area and the others were held and then delivered to terminal A.

We had the option to take a bus or walk from terminal C to terminal A. It was a beautiful day so we hoofed it to terminal A.

We found our way to the Hard Rock Café.

The provided lunch featured beef and chick empanadas, a beef steak, fries, salad, and ice cream or fruit for dessert.  It was a nice lunch and much better than milling around a terminal for hours.  Thanks to Viking for really caring about their passengers and helping make a difficult travel day better.

Around 6pm, we walked back to terminal C where our bags were waiting for us. We got checked in, cleared security and immigration/passport control, and headed to the terminal.

As we waited for departure, that gave me time to put together this blog.  We’ll be launching in a couple of hours and then spending a lovely ten hours in the air to Atlanta.  We have a quick turn in Atlanta to clear Customs, so we’ll see how that goes.  I will wrap up this trip tomorrow once we’re home.