Sail-Away on Island Princess

You all are so wonderful, thank you for all of the help and suggestions.

I will definitely try and see a green flash. My understanding is that the higher on the ship you are, the better for that. Is that correct?

Any other suggestions either for sail-away or the Panama Canal crossing? February is way too far away.

Any other suggestions either for sail-away or the Panama Canal crossing? February is way too far away.

What enhanced my cruise experience was learning before the cruise about the engineering marvel of building the canal & the sacrifices made by the over 20,000 who died during it's construction.

They have presentations & videos on the ship but I enjoyed learning about it before sailing. I heard some comments from uninformed passengers who were not impressed saying it was "just some locks, a river & a lake". :eek:

If you haven't joined your roll call (a great source for independent tours booked by passengers) or the Panama Canal ports forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89) those could help the months until February pass by more quickly. ;)

What enhanced my cruise experience was learning before the cruise about the engineering marvel of building the canal & the sacrifices made by the over 20,000 who died during it's construction.

 

They have presentations & videos on the ship but I enjoyed learning about it before sailing. I heard some comments from uninformed passengers who were not impressed saying it was "just some locks, a river & a lake". :eek:

 

If you haven't joined your roll call (a great source for independent tours booked by passengers) or the Panama Canal ports forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89) those could help the months until February pass by more quickly. ;)

Thanks so much for the information. I am hoping our roll call picks up a little speed as we get closer to sailing, but it sounds like we have a very nice group of people.

My tours are pretty much booked, but I still need to finish up the ports we are doing our own thing rather than a pre-organized tour.

I've been trying to read the very highly acclaimed Pathway Between the Seas, but I just can't make it through all the wordiness. I will continue to try, but I have found several other very informative books and am really enjoying learning about the building of the canal and also some of the things we should be able to see on our transit.

We finally booked our air (I'm a Southwest fan, so I had to wait) and we are going into longbeach a full day early (about 36 hours before we can head to the port) so that we can tour a little in CA too.

Hi All

Southwest is having a sale and I have booked a flight for February 1. Southwest uses John Wayne Airport rather than LAX. It is about 33 miles to San Pedro and the Los Angeles World Cruise Center.

Question:

Does anyone know of a reasonable hotel/motel somewhere between John Wayne and the Pier that would include shuttle pickup at the airport and/or a shuttle to the ship?

Thanks,

Joe

Hi Joe. Southwest actually flies into LAX and also Longbeach as well. We are flying in on the 1st to Longbeach for our Feb 3 sailing and renting a car one way and returning it on the 3rd really close to the port.

We want to have the car for touring, but I'm sure taxi or Uber from Long Beach won't be bad.

Although not half way, I stayed at the Anaheim Marriott Suites on a business trip and it was reasonable for those dates and I had a nice stay. It is a unique hotel though.

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Hi Joe. Southwest actually flies into LAX and also Longbeach as well. We are flying in on the 1st to Longbeach for our Feb 3 sailing and renting a car one way and returning it on the 3rd really close to the port.

 

We want to have the car for touring, but I'm sure taxi or Uber from Long Beach won't be bad.

 

Although not half way, I stayed at the Anaheim Marriott Suites on a business trip and it was reasonable for those dates and I had a nice stay. It is a unique hotel though.

 

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Sorry, it was the Costa Mesa Marriott.

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HI Ann

My thank you note did not seem to get posted so I write again a big thank you for the SWA flight information.

I was able to change our reservation and now we are flying into LAX.

While I was on the Southwest web site I tried to see about flying into Long Beach and I got a notice that SWA will stop using that airport this November. Perhaps this applies only to flights from Buffalo. If not, hopefully you are flying on another carrier.

Thanks

Joe

HI Ann

 

My thank you note did not seem to get posted so I write again a big thank you for the SWA flight information.

 

I was able to change our reservation and now we are flying into LAX.

 

While I was on the Southwest web site I tried to see about flying into Long Beach and I got a notice that SWA will stop using that airport this November. Perhaps this applies only to flights from Buffalo. If not, hopefully you are flying on another carrier.

 

Thanks

Joe

I'm glad you were able to make the change. I've double checked our reservations and they are still good into Long Beach, but I will definitely keep an eye on them. Thanks for the warning. :)