Teeara

Hahaha! They’re playing “Grow Old With You” from The Wedding Singer in the Centrum! These guys are great.

Last night we gained an hour, but our clocks and phones didn’t make the change so we were up at 6:00 rather than 7:00. Not that big of a deal and I was able to catch the sunrise. Here is our morning update on the TV: Here is the Cruise Compass for Day 3: This morning was the enrichment lecture on Cartagena (where we will be tomorrow). Then we were off to the Colony Club for the Champagne Art Auction. Pam and I both liked this piece from Daniel Wall so we bid and won it for under $500 including the frame and shipping costs. We did lunch in the Windjammer and we had dinner in the MDR. They moved us from our original table (3rd row from the window) to one next to the window on the opposite side of the ship. And now for some food porn! Tonight’s menu: First up is our cheesy bread. Then our Vegetable Tempura which wasn’t that great. 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 zucchini, 1 onion ring and 1 asparagus served with a soy ginger glaze. It was rather lackluster. We both had the Chicken Schnitzel with Mustard Cream Sauce, Cabbage Slaw and Roasted Potatoes. The Schnitzel and Potatoes were fine. The slaw had fennel which we both dislike. Finally, dessert was a delicious Coconut Layer Cake with a little raspberry sauce. Yummy! Now we’re sitting in the Centrum listening to the house band. We’re really enjoying them on this cruise. We plan on an early turn in tonight so we’re ready for our shore excursion tomorrow - Amazing Cartagena Bay and Walled City tour.

We also were moved from our assigned table on one side of the ship to the other side and a table next to the window.

They still have clear crystal blocks and that’s what I requested and got about 15 minutes ago. Woo hoo!

We had the 5 night package. You can’t make reservations for the package until you are onboard the ship.

Today is our first sea day. We had a lot of motion on the ocean overnight and today. We’ve been doing approximately 21 knots since we need to get to Cartagena on time. Today we are going around the tip of Cuba. After breakfast we went hunting for a quiet pace to read and found this lovely spot in the back of the Colony Club that looks out on the ship’s wake. After lunch it was time for the enrichment lecture on the building of the Panama Canal. The Stockhams will be doing many more lectures during this cruise. Here is today’s Cruise Compass. We had our first specialty dining at Giovanni’s tonight. We both ordered the calamari for our appetizers, then Pam had the Branzino and I had the Garlic Shrimp. We finished it off with Tiramisus. And here’s the MDR menu for Day 2. Let me know if you want to see some food porn 😉😁😮. I haven’t been taking any pictures but I can. And we’re ending our day in the Centrum listening to the house band after watching the evening show in the theater (Piano Man). See you tomorrow for Day 3 and our second sea day.

I need to get that shot. I was there this afternoon turning in my form to get my first crystal block!

We’re going to take a Lyft. I hate waiting for buses to fill up, etc.

The second half of my photos didn’t post yesterday. Grrr…. So, to continue. We were finally allowed into our cabins at 1:30. No luggage (we didn’t get it until after dinner). We have cabin 7094 next to the Business Center and Centrum. It’s waaaaaay smaller than our Owners Suite on Wonder and we’re feeling the pinch. We got this cabin for the deeper covered balcony. 3:00 was eclipse time so we headed top side to catch the view. This was taken with a filter and I think it turned out well. We then grabbed Bahama Mamas (our sailaway drink) and found some loungers in the shade. Sailaway is always fun to watch, especially when you know you won’t be setting foot on land for a couple of days. I was getting hot and the last thing I needed was more sun, so I moved back to the cabin in time to watch the sheriff’s boat speed by. Dinner tonight was in the MDR. I had the fried chicken and Pam had the prime rib. As mentioned earlier, the captain came on to say we were approaching the bridge so I hustled out of the dining room in time to catch us going under the bridge. When we got back to the room we found all our luggage outside, so we spent the rest of the evening unpacking and listening to the Centrum music until 11 pm. Another thing we didn’t like was the Casino’s smoke smells coming up to us. Off to bed at 12:15 am.

Nope. Full transit to Los Angeles.

So our driver picked us up 15 minutes early and we were at Terminal 3 a few minutes before 10 a.m. We were quickly whisked upstairs, checked in and waiting in the suites/Key area in less than 10 minutes. We stopped to watch them add ship provisions prior to boarding the ship. I work so I can have this view every year. This is Pam’s first time on a Radiance class ship and my second. We aren’t fans of smaller ships but in order to do the original locks we needed to sail on a smaller ship. Even so, the atrium is lovely. Standing in line at Chops to make our dinner reservations. I came with a post-it with the dates and venues written on it. I got everything I wanted, but I still think it’s stupid that we have to “rush for classes” in order to make specialty dining reservations. After lunch we went for a stroll on the Promenade. We walked to the front of the ship and found the helipad was open.

I literally ran out of the dining room and up 3 flights of stairs to our cabin to get this shot 😉😁😂

I’d be really happy if they would open the cabins.

Pat, are you taking it with you for the final quarter?

We’re here! Our Lyft driver picked us up at 9:45 (we had scheduled him for 10:00). We were at the port by 10:00, checked in and in our waiting area by 10:08. Fastest check in EVER for any of my RCI cruises.

She’s here!!!

So today we slept in a little later since we had been up for nearly 24 hours before hitting the hay. Today we were going to the Tampa Bay History Museum and then dinner at Hattricks with our roll call gang. We aren’t fans of graffiti art, but we sure did like this chalk version we saw on our walk to the museum. We walked past the arena and found this fun sculpture at the entrance. We made it! Now we just need to cross the street. These transparent signs were in front of the entrance. The museum did an excellent job of detailing how the Spanish explorers came to Florida and devastated the natives. There were several movies and dioramas that were of short duration, but were loaded with lots of information (and were quite entertaining). Pam caught a big fish! 😉😁 I wanted to take this window home. There be pirates here! There was a nice observation deck, too. Carnival Pride is in the distance. My very first cruise in 2002 was onboard the Pride. During our walk back to the hotel we walked through a small park and found these beautiful stone benches with art on the back supports. We’ve been impressed with the amount of public art on display throughout the downtown area. Then it was time for our roll call dinner.

Bummer! There’s more of us than are showing in this photo.

Cool story!

I’ll be doing a full video series like I did for the Wonder TA. As for Alaska, my mom and I went during Covid in 2021, rented a car in Anchorage and did a 6 day road trip up to Fairbanks. It was fantastic.

She just went through a 3 week drydock, so we’re hoping for some new ship smell, too. Some work was done inside the ship as well as outside.

I’ll be missing you! But you’ve got Alaska and that is always a fun cruise. We’ll try. How long does it take to get to it once we leave port? We have 5:30 dinner reservations in the MDR.

That Native Sauté was so incredibly good! I’m going to try to recreate it when I get home.

Will you be at Hattricks for dinner tonight?

And we’re off! My roommate Pam and I are sailing on our first Panama Canal cruise and our first time on Radiance. This will be more of a photo journal of our cruise. We are NOT light packers! 😉😁😂. Yes, we each have 3 suitcases and a backpack for this cruise. We flew JetBlue from Boston to Tampa today (Saturday, April 6). The flight was fine and only slightly bumpy. We lucked out and were able to check into our hotel room at Hyatt Place Tampa Downtown and oh my, the room is huge! And Pam is waving hello! to all of you (I was shooting a room tour video for my YT channel). And here’s one of our views! We did the upper portion of the Riverwalk and we really enjoyed it. There were plenty of places to sit, lots of restaurants and activities, too. We also liked the way the integrated art into the walkway. We had lunch at Ulele and it was fantastic. I had the Native Sauté with pan-seared zucchini, squash, carrots, onion, baby spinach, portobello mushrooms, and green beans with a soy ginger reduction over wild rice pilaf. After lunch we took the Pirate Water Taxi and the Island Tour. One of the stops was next to the American Victory ship. You can tour it. The stop is also next to the RCI terminal and we were able to get up close and personal with Enchantment right before her sailaway. We also passed by a pirate ship! Then it was time for a leisurely walk back to the hotel. We love all the lush greenery here in Tampa (and the blue skies). We haven’t had much of that lately in Boston. 😉😁 So if you haven’t cruised out of Tampa before, you should definitely do so and make sure you stay a few days before or after your cruise.