Panama Canal Cruise 2/6/08
Day 1 Getting to know our way around
We left Mission, TX a day early as it is a 5 hour drive to San Antonio where our flight to Ft. Lauderdale was scheduled for 6 am on 2/6. We flew first to Dallas and then on to Ft. Lauderdale. We were met at the airport and taken by bus to the Princess Cruises Terminal. They were waiting for us and the registration procedure went surprisingly quick. Very soon we were on the beautiful Island Princess. The ship carries 2368 and 810 crew members. It was sold out. When we originally signed up for this cruise last August we were put on a wait list for an unobstructed view outside cabin. We were 82 on the list and told that it was very possible that we would be able to get the cabin we wanted. Problem with the obstructed view is the window was obstructed by a “life boat” used in case evacuation from the ship might be necessary. We were not keen on having an outside cabin without being able to see out. We had checked with our travel agent periodically to see if we had been bumped up but always told NO. On our way to San Antonio we received a call from Princess telling us they had an outside cabin for us with a view. We were very excited and even more so when we saw our room. It is very nice and quite roomy. We have a King size bed, a couch and chair and 2 desks besides a frig, TV and very nice bathroom.

The ship has 2 dining rooms. One is any time dining meaning at meal time you just enter whenever you like and they seat you. Or you can call ahead and make an appointment which might be necessary in the evening if you don’t want to wait. The other dining room serves 2 identical evening meals, one at 5:45 and the other at 8:00. If you are lucky enough to get this dining room you will be assigned a table and sit with the same people each evening. This also is what we preferred and again were on a wait list for early dining. We had to plead our case before the Maître De and did get a seating for early dinner after a long wait. I am sure many people were disappointed as the line was long waiting to talk to him. The food there is a little more exquisite and the Wait Staff much more professional. Each evening is a 5 course dinner with about 3 to 5 choices in each course. First is an appetizer which could be a puff pastry, a fish or seafood dish, fruit plate and some things that we did not even know what they were. Many of the food items had foreign names but a description we could kind of understand. The second course was a soup with choices like a cold fruit soup, a pureed bean or vegetable soup, or a broth with meat and or veggies. Next was a salad and usually it was a lettuce salad with different kinds of veggies and dressings. The main course choices included some kind of pasta, at least one fish and or sea food, a pork, lamb or veal dish and a beef dish. All included vegetables. AND then this all was followed with decadent desserts all quite unusual and very tasty. Of course if there was nothing on the menu that we liked there were some items that were always available like New York Strip Steak, grilled chicken and other delicious entrees, shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and ice cream or a very rich dark chocolate desert. Our Head Waitress did an excellent job of keeping our orders straight and making sure we were happy and satisfied. Now if that is not enough they also have a buffet that is open 24/7 and 2 other restaurants that have a cover charge to eat there. For your pleasure during the day there are little places near the pool to buy pizza, burgers / hot dogs and frys , and ice cream.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/7/08
Day 2 At Sea
We were at sea all this day and at 9am we joined a group to take a tour of the ship so that we might better know our way around. It is so big with so much to do!! We walked by all the areas available to the cruisers and we have a map of the ship but it is still confusing remembering where things are on this 15 deck ship. We plan to walk every day. Deck 6 is open all the way around except for a short distance at the front, aft, where the engine room is. It is covered by the deck above so we are outside but protected from the hot sun and somewhat from the wind created by the ships forward movement. We plan to walk there every morning. There is also a walking area all around deck 14 but too hot. At 1:00 today we are going to take our first ballroom dance lesson. Today one of the Activity Staff showed us the Maringa. There is a lesson each day we are at sea. I can’t say we learned it. The lesson was only45 minutes and we will go on to a different dance the next dance lesson. I guess we don’t expect to learn much but it is fun anyway. There are 5 areas aboard ship where we can dance. We hope to have the opportunity to dance every day. They have much activities to do: crafts, ceramics, card and board games, a library, internet connection at 50 cent per minute.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/8/08
Day 3 Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Ocho rios has long been one of Jamaica’s most popular vacation spots. The town has a coast that is lined with pristine white beaches and lush green hills. Located just a few miles from town is Prospect Plantation, an old plantation from colonial days. It is no longer a working plantation but we saw the natural habitat of the crops in this land including bananas sugarcane, coffee, pineapple and papaya. We traveled with a guide on a tractor drawn jitney. At Sir Harold's Viewpoint the Jitney we stopped to enjoy a cool refreshing drink made from some of the native fruits. At one of our stops we watched a native climb a 30 foot coconut tree to demonstrate how to harvest coconuts. Tasted the fresh coconut water and saw some local fruit as our guide explained the unusual uses of the region's plants and flowers.
The highlight of this on shore excursion was our climb up Dunn River Falls. We first walked to the bottom of the falls and the group of about 20 to 25 people joined hands forming a human chain. We were able to help each other climb up the rocky falls 600 feet. It was quite exciting and an awesome experience, a little scary at first but we really did have fun. As we climbed up there were times we had to step down into waist deep water. The picture gives an idea of our escapade.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/9/08
Day 4 At Sea
Today as usual we walked for about ½ hour around Deck 7. It is always a lovely walk and we were surprised to see how many people are out there walking for exercise. The sundeck is full as usual. Amazing to us that people want to bake out in the sun for hours. The first art auction was held today. The ship brings in all kinds of art work and auctions them off and people really do buy them. Some buyers have them framed and shipped back to their homes. Our second dance lesson was today, the Waltz. But again, in such a short time we did not learn much….not even enough so that we could feel comfortable practicing on the dance floor. One other special thing on todays agenda was ice carving demonstration. We always go to the entertainment for the evening. They will not allow us to take any pictures during the performances. Bummer.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/10/08
Day 5 Aruba
Aruba is a contrast; the island’s arid interior is dotted with cactus and windswept trees due to tradewinds blowing across the island while secluded coves and sandy beaches form its coast. The ship docked at Oranjestad, the capital of Aruba. Colorful Dutch colonial buildings grace the landscape. We had planned to go scuba diving here but due to some health issues we decided to just go snorkeling. We boarded a catamaran and headed for the wreck of the Antilla, a 440 ft. German freighter that sank in 1940. The ship is incrusted with coral and many kinds of tropical fish. It was quite windy while there and impossible for Sue to do any snorkeling and remain close to the ship. In fact most people could not and so we moved on to an area closer to the shore to try again. Gene was able to swim around, take a few pictures and enjoy his snorkeling experience. Sue was so tired from her experience in the deeper rough water that she could just not do much snorkeling. All in all, it was kind of a disappointing shore excursion. We purchased an underwater camera and did get a few pictures but they are not as good as we had hoped.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/11/08
Day 6 Cartagena, Columbia
Cartagena, The Old Walled City, was founded in 1533 and many of its colonial buildings and houses from those days are still standing. We took a guided walking tour of the downtown area. There are very elaborate, beautiful buildings that are maintained but not changed. It is a really beautiful area. Cartagena’s (pronounced Cartahena) well-constructed fortifications defended its borders against seafaring pirates whose attacks lasted for more than 200 years. These pirates were looking for gold. The city was walled and they also built a huge fortress to protect the city.

After the city tour we were taken to the very beautiful Heredia Theatre, built in 1911 from the ruins of the old Mercy Church. There we enjoyed a Folklorika Show of music and dance presented by local artists. The dances tell a story from 3 of the regions in Columbia. It was a wonderful performance. We then were bused to a jewelry shop selling the world-famous Emeralds before returning to the ship. Hope you enjoy these videos.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/12/08
Day 7 Panama Canal, Panama
Traveling through the canal is an awesome experience. There are 3 massive sets of locks. The Gatun Locks are on the Caribbean side of the Continental Divide and the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks are on the Pacific side. The locks are 984 feet long and 108 feet wide. The ships are raised and lowered 85 feet during their passage. Two other highlights are the Gatun Lake and the Gaillard Cut. At 163 square miles, the Gatun Lake is still one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Galliard Cut was one of the most difficult excavations during the construction of the canal – It required an 8 mile channel to be cut through solid rock. It takes about 8 hours to navigate through the Panama Canal. We have included only 2 pictures that we took.

We have more of our pictures available at: http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee224/gsfeltner/2008-02%20Panama%20Canal%20Cruise/Travel%20through%20Panama%20Canal They tell a story of our travel through the locks and what we saw. Just click on the pictures and it will enlarge with a description of the picture.
The web sites below have great information and lots of excellent pictures for anyone wanting more information, even a live webcam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal
http://www.pancanal.com/
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

Panama Canal Cruise 2/13/08
Day 8 At Sea
This ship has 2 theatres with entertainment each evening. Island Princess Cruise Ship has a band, singers and dancers who put on great performances with lots of beautiful costume changes and great music. There shows are top notch!! Then they also bring in other entertainers, some very good and some just ok. One is a very unusual theatre that is built more like a bar with small tables and very comfy chairs and even a dance floor. The theatre was built especially for a performance put on by the Island Princess Orchestra, Dancers and Singers. It was a fabulous show with many costume changes. It has e separate stages that go up and down and around. It makes very beautiful entertainment. The entertainment is one of the specialties for us on the cruise. We were unable to take pictures during any of the performances.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/14/08
Day 9 Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Hailed as the Switzerland of the Americas, Costa Rica occupies a unique position, lying between 2 oceans and 2 continents. On both coasts , tropical rain forests rise to the mountains of the interior, many of which soar over 13,000 feet above sea level. In the west a seemingly endless succession of white-sandy beaches forms the nations Pacific Coast. Puntarenas is the gateway to the wonders we saw there. We were escorted by bus through a very scenic countryside on our way to one of the rain forests for The Original Canopy Tour at Mahogany Park. This tour was to be one of our most exciting on the cruise. There were about 10 of us altogether. We first donned a climbing harness with pulleys attached, helmets and leather work gloves. We had a 10 to 15 minute walk to the first of eight stations. We climbed, one at a time to the landing of the first station. The first zip line was only about 15 feet from the ground so it was easy. From there we just kept zipping along, some 40 feet above the ground, from one to another through all 8. We had to try to control our speed and keep from spinning around as we zipped from one landing to another. At first it was a little scary but then much fun and a great exciting experience.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/15/08
Day 10 San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua / Granada, Nicaragua
Until recent times Nicaragua was unfortunately known for the civil war (Sandinistas and Contras) that raged from the loate 70’s through much of the 80’s. Today, the soldiers and guerrillas have been replaced with tour guides eater to show their beautiful country. Most of Granada's streets are quite narrow due to the city's layout before the advent of motorized vehicles. Due to this, many streets are one-way which can add a challenge to visitors traveling by car. Though Granada remains Nicaragua's third largest city, it is widely known for preserving some the finest colonial-era architecture in the country. A real estate boom had been underway for several years, with many European and Americans purchasing and renovating the area's homes for retirement or holiday homes and several foreign realtors establishing offices. Granada, though now highly dependent on tourism, also has fertile agricultural land within the municipality. Major production of organic coffee and cacao, cattle, plantain and bananas occurs within its boundaries. Our on shore excursion took us first to Granada, Nicaragua’s oldest colonial city which was founded in 1524. We viewed many beautiful colonial buildings and briefly visited the Granada Colonial Museum, the Handicrafts Market and then had an authentic Nicaraguan lunch in a thatch room restaurant.

We continued our tour through the agricultural land and up into the mountains to view Masaya Volcano. It is active and spewing acrid volcanic ash and odor. Its smoke clouds the skies for long distances. We walked up a distance so that we could get a view from a high peak. The ground here is covered with volcanic rock and quite desolate looking. It was quite an experience looking down into the volcano.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/16/08
Day 11 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Guatemala is located in the northern most part of Central America , borders on Mexico and is one of the largest countries in this region. It boasts 37 volcanoes, a rich Mayan heritage and one of the best-preserved colonial cities, Antigua. Our on-shore excursion took us to Antigua. But first we went to the Filadelfia Coffee Estate to explore a working coffee estate and see the processes that are involved in taking coffee from the field to the cup. Our guide at the plantation walked us through every step of the process beginning with the plants in the field. He explained how and why they are able to not use pesticides on the coffee plants and how they shade them so they don’t get sunburned. We were each allowed to pick one of the fruit and squeeze the bean out and taste it. Some parts of the process seemed quite unusual. Once the beans are removed from the fruit they are dried outside in the sun in thin layers and raked regularly to dry them. The rest of the process seemed to be pretty high tech. After the tour we were taken to the Filadelfia Resort and Spa where they have a 5-star hotel. At that location they also have several very large and very nice tents set up on a thick plush lawn where they serve an excellent luncheon to the bus tour patrons. The food was native recipes and very, very good. During the luncheon we were treated to music by a Mariachi band and some interesting dancers. Just in case you would be interested in traveling there for a vacation, you can find out all about it at: http://www.rdaltoncoffee.com/5_1_hotel.htm#L

Panama Canal Cruise 2/17/08
Day 12 Huatulco, Mexico (planned)
When we were near to Huatulco the Ship Captain came on the loud speaker to tell us we would not be going ashore at Huatulco because it was too windy and not safe to try to land there. That was a bummer!!! It was our last port of call. Not only that but now we have 4 days at sea before reaching Los Angeles. Many people were hoping and talking about whether the ship my go ashore at some other port but it did not happen. They added a couple of movies to the scheduled activities for the day. We were supposed to take a raft trip down a river there that flows into the Pacific ocean.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/18/08 thru 2/20/08
Days 13 thru 15 At Sea
When we went on shore in Nicaragua the ship had to dock out in the harbor and we took tenders to the dock. Tender is what they call the life boats that are carried on board the ship. They have enough for every passenger and all the crew. On the first day in the afternoon we had to meet in a designated area to learn the procedure for rescue in case it would become necessary…including how to don the lifejackets. The tenders each hold about 200 people. In this first picture they are lowering the life boat into the water and the second is showing where the tender is slid into place up at the ceiling for storage.

One of the last days a couple of the chefs gave a fruit carving demonstration. We watched simple fruit being transformed into an array of artistic masterpieces. They were then displayed in the buffets around the ship.

Sue had a facial massage from the Lotus Spa. It felt soooooooooo good UNTIL she had to endure the part where they try to sell their products that they used in the massage. Think it came to over $400 and then they said she should have another massage done towards the end of the cruise cause her face was in such a dry condition! Other things you could have done there include: Men’s anti-aging shave for $95, hot stone massage for $195, warm seaweed massage for $259 and last (that we will list), couples mud rasul for $95. Just in case you don’t know what this is the info describes it; “The most fun 2 people can have in the spa. Lather each other in cleansing mud after a full body scrub.” Be sure to do that the next time you are cruising. The Lotus spa does have a very nice fitness room with all kinds of exercise equipment. Some of it is free but if you want to do pilates or yoga…well there is a $10 fee each time to use it.
Another thing that was very irritating to us was that every time we turned around someone was wanting to take a picture of us. They have a photo department and they sell all those photos. They even post the most recent ones taken on large bulletin boards for EVERYONE to see. We just said no thank you. They also made a video of the entire ship and who knows how many times they caught our picture on that. By now you know we are not keen on having our pictures taken.
One of the popular things they do at the end of the cruise is a Champagne Waterfall. It is at 11:30 at night. The Maitre d creates a tower about 5 feet high with Champaign glasses. When he has it built he begins pouring champagne into the top glass and it cascades down. We stayed up until 11:30 pm to see this and by the time we got to the Atrium where it was held there were so many people there we could not even see it except for an occasional peek between the 2 heads in front of us. All this so they could drink some champagne…yuk. We left and went to bed.
Just had to share some of the funny stuff that goes on around here. We did have a great time on the cruise and are already looking , thinking, and yes, planning on our next one. The ship is lots of fun but what we see and learn on the shore excursions is so exciting. It begins to fulfill all that we don’t know about other cultures and peoples.

Panama Canal Cruise 2/21/08
Day 16 Los Angeles, California
The ship arrived in Los Angeles about 7 am. We had to set our luggage outside our rooms the night before and be out of our room fairly early. By now everything is closed down except the one Buffet Dining Room as they are busy readying the rest of the ship for the next cruise that boards the ship mid-afternoon today. So we spent a couple of hours waiting until it was our time to be bused to the airport. Then we had a couple hour wait there after checking in. We arrived back in San Antonio about 9 pm and since it is a 5 hour drive back home we decided to stay overnight in San Antonio. In the morning it was a long trip back and we will quickly get back into the activities here in Mission, Texas.