Saturday, November 12, 2022

Oliver and I had cancelled an October river cruise in Europe because we just have spent too much time in airports this year! But we wanted to go somewhere so decided on a cruise to the Panama Canal. Since it was round trip from Port Canaveral, we could drive and that made it an easy decision. It's 515 miles from Beaufort to the Port so we left a day early and drove for about 5 1/2 hours to Melbourne, Florida and spent the night, leaving us just 2 1/2 hours for Sunday morning. We stopped at the famous Buc-ees and what a shock that was! If you haven't been to a Buc-ees, they are HUGE, with every little souvenir you could imagine and tons of food...a whole wall of jerkies, and every kind of sandwich you could imagine. The kicker is, you can't eat inside..you carry it to your car and eat it there. It was so crowded and noisy, we honestly couldn't wait to get out of there!! We had a quiet night in our hotel.

 

Sunday, November 13, 2022

After breakfast at the hotel, with about 75 young college soccer players on their way to a tournament, we were on our way to Port Everglades. We had been there once before so it wasn't too confusing. We dropped off our luggage and then found the parking garage, which is connected with a walkway to the cruise terminal so it was quick and easy. We waited about 15 minutes to be called to board and it couldn't have been easier. Princess uses these medallions that you wear around your neck and they connect to the ship's computer system so all our boarding details were already loaded..we just showed our passports and off we went. Our stateroom was ready and by noon we were eating pizza by the pool!! We went back to our stateroom and unpacked, and had the champagne our steward brought us and then went back to the pool for the sailaway party. They had a wonderful band and the singers and dancers from the shows were there..it was great fun! I had made reservations in the main dining room every night, except for the nights we were going to the specialty restaurants, so we went for dinner. Turns out, we didn't care for it all that much. I think they are still recovering from Covid and the service was quite slow and the food just all right. We skipped dessert as we wanted to go to the theater for a comedy duo and they were absolutely hilarious! . After the show, we had a nightcap and then went to bed

 

Our stateroom was quite nice..very roomy

At the sailaway party

Then we were on our way. That land is Cuba!!

A beautiful sunset

Monday, November 14, 2022

Today was a sea day, and I had made an appointment in the salon and spa, so we got up and went to the World Fresh Marketplace for breakfast. It is a HUGE buffet and we, of course, overate. Then I was off to the salon where Tom, a nice young man from the Phillipines, gave me a haircut that I really like! First time I have ever had my hair done on a ship! Oliver and I visited the jewelry shop where I found a yellow diamond ring that I really loved! Oliver was all in with it but I needed time to consider so we went off to hear a presentation about Jamaica. We had lunch in the dining room and again we were disappointed with the food and the service. We sat by the pool and on our balcony and then went to a presentation on diamonds and exotic gemstones, followed by another trip to the jewelry shop. This time I also found a beautiful tanzanite ring and after much back and forth, the manager was calling the main store in New York and offering us all kinds of deals. Oliver was ready to drop his credit card then and there but I needed more time, so off we went to have drinks, followed by hamburgers and hot dogs at the grill by the pool.It was "formal" night and we wanted no part of that! We took our nightcaps to our room and watched a movie before going to bed.

 

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

We had room service breakfast this morning and it was delivered exactly at the time we requested. We were just approaching Falmouth, Jamaica, so we were up and dressed and off the ship by 10. We went to a beach where we had a private area and lounged around on chaise loungers while they brought us drinks, followed by appetizers, followed by more drinks and a demonstration of how to make a rum shot, followed by a delicious lunch...with more drinks. I swam a little and we browsed the gift shop before returning to the ship. There was more sailway music with the band we like so much so we sat by the pool until after dark. We went to our stateroom and ordered room service and watched a movie. We are NEVER this relaxed on a cruise...we always are running around to every shore excursion and every event. I think this is the first time we have ever just sat by the pool on any cruise!!

Approaching Jamaica

Waiting for our ride to the beach..Oliver can't wait to go to the Craft Market

The Caribbean Princess

At the beach

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Another sea day. We had coffee and croissants delivered, to hold us til we could get to breakfast! Another huge breakfast in the buffet and then we went to listen to a presentation on acupuncture. It was actually quite interesting. Neither of us has ever done it but our dog Marina had several treatments when she was having trouble walking. The doctor put one of the needles in Oliver's arm and he said he didn't feel a thing. We went to the pool deck for pizza and beer, followed by ice cream and a nice rest on the lounges. Then we went to a second presentation on acupuncture specifically for pain management. Watched a presentation on what to expect at the Panama Canal, followed by dinner and the production show in the theater. The show was disappointing, as it was the same one they had on the ship in 2019 for our Canada cruise and the singers were not very good. Back up to the pool bar to see Minet and get our nightcaps.

 

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Today we were in Cartagena. We laughed when the excursion expert talked about Cartagena. When she discussed Jamaica, she told us the people were very friendly. When she talked about Cartagena, she said the people were "mostly" friendly! We were only in port until 2:30 so there wasn't much time to see anything. We enjoyed a quiet morning and a good lunch and in the afternoon, our favorite band played for the sailaway party. We had a wonderful dinner in one of the specialty restaurants, the Cron Grill. Awesome steaks, Oliver had surf and turf and they have the best bread I ever put in my mouth!! Wonderful cheesecake for dessert. We wanted to see the Packers play the Titans on the Movies Under The Stars big screen at the pool. Unfortunately, it started pouring down rain so we grabbed our nightcaps and watched the game in our stateroom. The most exciting part of this whole stop was seeing the USNS Comfort docked right next to us! This is the hospital ship that travels the world providing medical care to places that have very little access and was also in New York to provide care for Covid patients. They were providing clinics at 2 places in Cartagena as well as doing some surgery on the ship.

Approaching Cartagena

 

Cartagena is a massive port!!

The United States Naval Ship Comfort

The game before the deluge!

 

Friday, November 18, 2022

This was the day we took this cruise for. Although we have taken our own boat through countless locks..some very BIG locks on the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, the Panama Canal is one of the wonders of the modern world and we were excited to see it. Many people took shore excursions here but we stayed on the ship to watch the whole process. I was up early to watch the pilot boat deliver our canal pilot to the ship. We have seen this done in some VERY rough seas and it is always nervewracking to see but here it was very calm and he just stepped off the pilot boat and onto the Caribbean Princess. We had breakfast delivered so that we could watch as we approached and entered the locks. I was surprised by the dozens of ships anchored at the port outside the canal. Some background on the Panama Canal.....it connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific through the 51 mile waterway. It also divides North and South America. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it reduces the time for ships to travel between the 2 oceans and allowing them to avoid the hazardous Cape Horn route. Ships as long as 1200 feet long and 160 feet wide can travel through the locks. France started the canal in 1881 but stopped because of financial problems and a high worker mortality rate. The US took over the project on May 4, 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The US controlled the canal ntil 1977 when it was turned over to Panama.There are 3 locks at each end and Gatun Lake is in the middle. The original 2 locks are only 110 feet wide and the new Aqua Clara locks..opened in 2016...were constructed between 2007 and 2016. Annual traffic is more than 16,000 vessels per year. It takes ships about 12 hours to transit the canal.

We watched from several different areas of the ship...our balcony, the pool deck and the stern. 2 tug boats stayed alongside until we entered the first lock and there was a tug in the lock with us..at the forward gate. After the lock filled, the gates opened and we moved into the second chamber. It filled and we moved into the third chamber. After that chamber filled, we moved into Gatun Lake and anchored. The life boats were lowered to take passengers to shore for excursions. We stayed on the ship, as we wanted to watch the transit going back through. While we were anchored, we ate lunch and sat on our balcony until the anchor was weighed and we started back through the locks. Same procedure, except the chambers emptied to lower us back down to the level of the Atlantic. Then we set off to Colon to pick up the passengers who had gotten off the ship in the lake. It was 8 PM before we had our passengers and left Colon. We had our dinner, a nightcap and off to bed.

Some of the dozens of ships anchored outside the canal.

One of the little tug boats that hovered around us. In the background, you can see 2 ships going through the old locks.

These 2 ships were waiting to go through the locks after us.

Entering the first lock.

 

We are REALLY high up!! There are lots of work buildings around.

This is what the gate looks like when it is open. When it is closed, it makes a roadway for vehicles to pass across.

The tugboat in the first chamber with us, the next 2 chambers and a ship that just left the locks and is in Gatun Lake. Taken from our TV!!

We spent some time on the stern watching from that perspective.

Here I am in the locks, with the wing bridge above me!

While anchored in the lake, these 2 ships came out of the old locks

Getting ready to go back through the locks

You can see another ship coming behind us

That is the American Bridge ahead of us.

The pilot getting off our ship

We saw this little croc just sitting on the bank

The sun set as we were on our way to Colon so Oliver took the opportunity for some hand puppets

 

Saturday, November 19, 2022

We had to change our clock back one hour last night. We had room service breakfast because we had an early excursion planned. We docked in Limon, Costa Rica at about 7AM and we were off the ship at about 9. We were taking a bus to the Tortuguero Canal, which is the second largest wetland in the country, and is considered by many as the Amazon of Costa Rica. More than 400 species of birds can be found here, is the nesting place of the green turtle, and abounds in monkeys, sloths and iguanas. We loaded into the tour boat and traveled up and down the canal in both directions. We saw so many animals...huge iguanas, monkeys, sloths, caimans (like a crocodile) and lots of herons and egrets. Interestingly there were no insects because of the bats and birds. Towards the end of our tour, we pulled into a little side canal for snacks. We had the best banana I have ever had and our guide did a wonderful job of explaining just why our bananas here don't taste anything like the ones there! At the end of the tour there was a small gift shop..we didn't buy but lots did.

This island was where Christopher Columbus landed when he discovered Costa Rica. Although he never actually set foot on Costa Rica, his son did.

Approaching Costa Rica

The dock was so colorful and there was a band playing all day long

The canal was like what I imagine the Amazon might be like!!!  I wish I had edited this picture because there is a monkey sitting in the tallest tree on the left, about 2 inches down. They are Howler monkeys and you can hear them all over.

A sloth...not sure exactly WHAT he is doing!!!

See the iguana? On the right side..you can see his spikes sticking up!

This sloth was carrying her baby

An iguana on the tree trunk

A crocodile napping

Lots of coconuts

No No Puppy!! Be careful! The funny thing is, I saw a picture on Facebook taken the day before we were there with the same croc and same puppy!!

Another monkey sitting in a tree

Heading back to the ship. We had a great time on this excursion!

 

After we had lunch, we went to one of the lounges for a fun trivia game, then to the pool deck for the sailaway party, and then to the theater for a GREAT and funny ventriloquist. He was awesome. Afterwards, we went to dinner at one of the specialty restaurants, Sabatinis. It is Italian and it was wonderful! We both enjoyed our meals so much and I had an awesome, huge chocolate dessert!!  Then visited our favorite guy for our nightcaps. Tonight we have to change the clock ahead an hour..just had the time change for one day!

 

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Another day at sea. Usually we don't like to have many sea days but this cruise was meant to be more relaxing, so we have enjoyed them. We had coffee and croissants delivered to our stateroom, just to hold us over until breakfast! It's a little windy today and not too rough, but for the first time we can feel the ship moving. We had so much fun at the trivia yesterday that we went to another little quiz game this morning, before watching the presentation on our next port, Grand Cayman. We visited the shops but didn't find anything we wanted...we avoided the jewelry store! We laid by the pool for a while and then had pizza for lunch..it's awesome having pizza available any time you want.. and ice cream!!! After a little rest in the afternoon, we got ready for dinner and went to the Explorer's Lounge for cocktails before the ventriloquist did his show there. Because we were there so early, we were sitting up front and the ventriloquist called Oliver up on stage! He gave him a deck of cards and had him shuffle them. Then he took half of the cards and gave them to another guy in the audience and had him shuffle them. Then he gave them back to Oliver and had Oliver count out 10 cards and hand the rest back. Then he started asking if Oliver was holding Queen of hearts..yep..a 2 of spades...yep. Went through about 7 cards and Oliver had them all. But then he said 8 of diamonds and Oliver said nope. He said are you sure? Oliver looked again and no 8 of diamonds. So he guessed the next 2 correctly and then asked Oliver for the last card. It was the SEVEN of diamonds!  Who knows what went wrong but it was pretty funny.  So then off to dinner, nightcaps and bed.

Had a lot of wave action.

Oliver and the ventriloquist

 

Monday, November 21, 2022

We docked in Georgetown, Grand Cayman at about 7 AM. Our tour was scheduled for 9, so we had room service breakfast and then got ready. This was the only port where we were anchored and had to take a tender to shore. The town has it's own tenders and they hold like 250 people so it's pretty quick and easy to get to shore. We met our tour guide ashore and the 10 of us were off in his van. Our first stop was a rum cake factory, The rum cakes are made only on this island and shipped all over the world. We had a little taste of rum and then browsed a while...some people bought rum cakes but we went outside and looked at the animals..chickens which walk freely everywhere on Grand Cayman and some other exotic birds. Then back in the van to visit the rum distillery. It was pretty interesting..we tasted several rums and went into the distillery for a look at how they make the rum. Then we were back in the van for a "tour" of the island. I am sad to say that we found Grand Cayman to be kind of dumpy. Except for 7 mile beach (which is really only 4 miles long) which is beautiful, everything else is pretty run down. I think Covid took a real toll on the island. We saw the 3 grocery stores (!!!), the airport and several homes of the rich and famous, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Demi Moore. Interestingly, he told us that none of them ever spend time there. Pretty sure they only are interested in the offshore banking there. Our guide told us there are 500 banks in the 3 Cayman Islands!! Then we went to lunch at a local restaurant....a country and western bar and restaurant!!! But our food was quite good and was NOT country OR western. I had a really good mahi mahi and Oliver had ribs. It was quite....spartan...but they were nice and the food as good. After that, we were back at the port and we took a tender back to the ship. W took a little nap, sat on our balcony and enjoyed the scenery and then went to the pool deck for the sailaway with our favortite band. The production show was awesome! We had actually seen the same show on our Canada cruise but this was a new cast and they were just amazing! We really enjoyed it. Then we were off to dinner and..you guessed it...nightcaps and bed!

Anchored off of Grand Cayman. The water is beautiful!!!!

The Tortuga Rum factory

 

Exotic birds

 

The distillery

Having a little rest after the rum tatsting

No idea which house belongs to which rich person!!

 

Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Our last day..otherwsie known as packing day!! Our day started on a real highnote..... it was Chocolate Breakfast day in the World Fresh Market and boy did I take them at their word! They make these wonderful chocolate chip pancakes that I enjoyed most days, ad a chocolate chip pudding with white sauce and chocolate croissants and everything else chocolate!! After breakfast we just laid on chaise lounges like beached whales! Of course, by 11 we were ready for some ice cream! Our favorite band played by the pool before lunch. In the afternoon I packed all our stuff.  It wasn't nearly as much fun as packing for the trip was but eventually I got it all done. It helped that we didnt't shop much. I was trying to separate everything weight wise as we planned to carry our own luggage off the ship. We were anxious to get started as early as possible since we had 515 miles to drive home..on the day before Thanksgiving!!! After we got ready for dinner, we went to the lounge for another trivia game..this time it was on 70s music so we did really well!!! We started handing out our tips to our favorite servers and bartenders..they get the set tips that we prepaid but there are always a few that go above and beyond..the ones that always remember what you like to drink and never let your glass get empty! We had dinner and nightcaps and turned in fairly early.

Here we go past Cuba again!! The other end this time.

 

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

We were docked by 6:30 AM. It was SO foggy! Our meet time was at 7:30 and we were off the ship by 7:45 and in our car by 8:15. Customs was pretty much non-existent..we didn't even have to show our passports! Traffic was bad between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton but after that, not too bad. We made one stop for gas and lunch and we were home by 5:30. We were so happy to see our boyz! We had a great trip but there's no place like home! Just have to share one more picture....this is what Thanksgiving dinner looks like after stuffing yourself for 11 days!! Thanks for watching our trip!