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We left Moraira at 04.45 on March 3rd for Alicante airport, thence to Barcelona. After a change of planes at Barcelona, it was a long 11 hour flight to Santiago, Chile. We had been promised that our cases would go straight through to Santiago, as our first flight was a dual badged Vueling/Iberia flight . However bureaucracy kicked in, and we had to pick them up and recheck them in at Barcelona. Our flight from Barcelona was an Iberia flight in a Level plane
Level was marketed initially as a low-cost, long-haul carrier, and began transatlantic services from Barcelona–El Prat Airport in June 2017. It is owned by the same holding company that owns Iberia and British Airways. They operate 7 of the Airbus A330 that we flew.
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We flew Premium Economy on Level's A330 aircraft features 21 reclining seats in a 2–3–2 layout, each featuring 37 inches of pitch and including noise cancelling headphones. Seats are equipped with a 12-inch TV screen offering a selection of films, TV shows, and music. We were offered a three-course a generous baggage allowance . I thought that it was much better value for money that Cattle Class on Iberia, which was the same sort of price. As a plus the cabin staff were much better than Iberia
We arrived at Santiago airport at 9 pm local time. We took a taxi from the airport to the Mandarin Orient hotel, which was included in our Silversea price. The organisation of Silversea's ground agents was bad, and it took a lot of effort to determine the time of their coach departure for our charter flight to Punta Arenas the next day. Originally we should had started at Puerto Williams, but there was only one berth there, which Silversea had earmarked for the Endevour, so they moved our start to Punta Arenas. The design of the Mandarin was interesting, it being circular with a doughnut void in the middle - and it had glass elevators serving the rooms
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It eventually transpired that we had to be on the coach by 07.30 the next day. The Mandarin was one of those poncy hotels, that somehow fail to get details right, and breakfast wa s a bit of a mess. The coach was on time, and took us via a back exit onto the airport's private flight's terminal . Got up at 6am to sort out details of our transfer and breakfast. During the night our 2 suitcases , which we had left in the porter´s desk, had been loaded on a bus for the airport, destination the Silver Explorer: This worried us as there was also a flight going to the Silver Endeavour and the cases had not received the correct labels . But other than checking every nook and cranny in the porters area, I could not do any more than accept their word that our cases would go to the ship. We also had to fill in health forms and have our temperature taken.
We were very impressed with our processing from here on ; a very pleasant charter lounge, at the airport, and a good flight down to Punta Arenas with a charming cabin crew. The stewardess even took the boys into the cockpit for them to have their photos taken. Pisco Sours aboard the aircraft, followed by a Chilean meal of salad, beef stew and blueberry mousse.
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We landed at Punta Arenas at 12.30 and were aboard the Explorer an hour later. Our cabin was 424 , it was a lot smaller then the cabins on the Cloud. By now we had got one of our two suitcases in the cabin, the other was missing, but it eventually came o the second aircraft. This had had problems with its engines and was several hours late.
The ship sailed around 18.00. A ship´s cruise around Cape Horn was cancelled as "the delay meant we would have arrived there after dark on Sunday" ( but in fact with the cancellation of Puerto Williams, it was inevitable that we would not get to Cape Horn because of the timing). Ate at Hot Rocks whilst there was still sunshine on the deck, but it was still very chilly!, so descended to the bar for coffee and petit fours as soon as the last morsel of steak and prawns had been digested.
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Explorer from Punta Arenas to Papeete