Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound

[caribill]

On the Coral it was approx. 38 minutes

 

It was about 42 minutes when we saw it on the Island before shows were shortened.

 

Maybe they kept this one the length it should be.

[The CRuIseLLS]

:

 

I am not quite sure who posted what, but the thread for the Island's eastbound transit of the canal is San Francisco to Ft Lauderdale Panama Canal Sept 27,2014.

Oh!, ok - I didnt mention the roll call thread cos I was thinking more of a "live from..........." as Punki has done.

I thought the roll calls were a separate issue to everyday posts and was under the impression?? that once the cruise starts, roll calls become more or less obsolete - altho i didnt join it (just read the posts), thats what happened on the one for our last cruise.

 

😊

[lone_stranger]

Oh!, ok - I didnt mention the roll call thread cos I was thinking more of a "live from..........." as Punki has done.

I thought the roll calls were a separate issue to everyday posts and was under the impression?? that once the cruise starts, roll calls become more or less obsolete - altho i didnt join it (just read the posts), thats what happened on the one for our last cruise.

 

😊

 

My experience is that "live from ..." threads are relatively rare. As a matter of fact this is the first one I have seen. The commentary on a particular cruise that I have encountered from my past cruises has usually been after the fact, was posted in the cruise roll call and the roll call remained available for reference for a reasonable amount of time after the end of the cruise. When fortunate, one or more people have posted their evaluations/descriptions of their cruise and the tours they took on either the roll call for their cruise or on the roll call of a subsequent cruise. I have supplied what information I could for people after my cruise, if they contact me at my e-mail address. I am quite grateful that Punki has seen fit to acquaint us in such a personal manner with their experiences for better or worse on the cruise in what amounts to "real time."

[Pia1913]

 

My experience is that "live from ..." threads are relatively rare. As a matter of fact this is the first one I have seen. The commentary on a particular cruise that I have encountered from my past cruises has usually been after the fact, was posted in the cruise roll call and the roll call remained available for reference for a reasonable amount of time after the end of the cruise. When fortunate, one or more people have posted their evaluations/descriptions of their cruise and the tours they took on either the roll call for their cruise or on the roll call of a subsequent cruise. I have supplied what information I could for people after my cruise, if they contact me at my e-mail address. I am quite grateful that Punki has seen fit to acquaint us in such a personal manner with their experiences for better or worse on the cruise in what amounts to "real time."

 

Then you haven't been reading the Princess boards regularly, since I do a LIVE from every cruise I'm on. And I'm on a whole lot of them. :D

[golfb4cruzing]

 

Then you haven't been reading the Princess boards regularly, since I do a LIVE from every cruise I'm on. And I'm on a whole lot of them. :D

 

Amen.

[dmwnc1959]

My experience is that "live from ..." threads are relatively rare.

 

I also did one back in December for two weeks. Before mine, there was at least one a month on Royal Princess since she entered service in June 2013.

 

'Live' threads do take up a lot of personal time and internet usage, so not everyone is inclined to do them, especially one that had hundreds of pictures in them like mine did.

 

.

Edited April 28, 2014 by dmwnc1959

[trbarton]

 

My experience is that "live from ..." threads are relatively rare. As a matter of fact this is the first one I have seen. The commentary on a particular cruise that I have encountered from my past cruises has usually been after the fact, was posted in the cruise roll call and the roll call remained available for reference for a reasonable amount of time after the end of the cruise. When fortunate, one or more people have posted their evaluations/descriptions of their cruise and the tours they took on either the roll call for their cruise or on the roll call of a subsequent cruise. I have supplied what information I could for people after my cruise, if they contact me at my e-mail address. I am quite grateful that Punki has seen fit to acquaint us in such a personal manner with their experiences for better or worse on the cruise in what amounts to "real time."

 

I have also been doing "Live From" on several cruises that I have been on and plan to do one on our September 27 cruise from San Francisco. It is extra work but I know that it can be of help to other people considering the same cruise or taking a cruise on the same ship so I enjoy doing it especially if it benefits others.

 

Tom:)

[lone_stranger]

To answer the question, no I have not been following the Princess boards because I have not been cruising with Princess. This is my first cruise with Princess. My past experiences have been with Carnival, Holland America and Viking. Those were the boards that I was following.

[The CRuIseLLS]

:

 

 

Thanks............ If i dont set it up, i'm almost certain someone from our roll call will

 

:D :D

 

Also, although you can read general posts without being a member you can't see roll call posts unless you've joined the site (@ least in the UK)

Thats another reason I mentioned the "live" post - as well as fellow &/or future cruisers.....I'd like my family & friends to see what's going on without having to join up to CC If they don't want to.

 

:)

[PunkiC]

Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 12, Cartagena

 

Hot, hot, hot! I woke up and took a shower and was hot and sweaty again after just a few minutes on the deck.

 

We finally received a letter in our mailbox telling us that all Masses were at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. A few minutes later they announced on TV that all Masses were at 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. Oh well, we’ll figure it out I am sure.

 

We decided to trust the tour desk and shoot for 11:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral in the old city. There is a free shuttle that takes passengers from the ship to the main terminal gate where you go through a lovely park stocked with dozens of different varieties of birds, including lots of parrots, peacocks, flamingos and many others. The landscaping is lovely. Leaving the terminal park, we hooked up with a very nice cab driver named Mario. He took us right to the front door of the cathedral. There was a barrier but he spoke with the policeman who let us through. The cab driver was going to tip him $1.00 (we gave him the dollar) but the policeman told him that his supervisor was watching so he should tip him later. The driver insisted on waiting for us until Mass was over but we paid him when we left the cab, and told him we weren’t yet sure what we wanted to do.

 

He Mass was quite a production. There were at least 13 priests, including a Cardinal who the cab driver said was also the Bishop of Cartagena, hosts of adult altar servers and a big choir. The music was really good, but it was really hot and really, really long. The preparation before the homily took an entire half hour, the homily took another half hour and the consecration and communion another half hour for a total of 90 minutes. Fortunately, I had asked DH to take the fan that I had bought in Nicaragua and we took turns fanning ourselves during Mass. There were lots of people with hand fans and I noticed that the nuns all sat right in front of the big fans. I don’t blame them. I can’t even imagine wearing a wimple and full habit in this heat and humidity. The priests on the altar had no fans and they looked pretty hot and miserable as well.

 

When we left the Cathedral after an hour and a half, our taxi driver was still waiting. It turned out that he had stood by the door and watched the Mass and sang. It was running about 1:00 p.m. by the time we were heading back to the ship so we asked the taxi driver to take us to a wine store. He took us to a very nice market in a very nice neighborhood where they had a good selection of wine we had never heard of so we just guessed what we thought we would like.

0with the port authority but the Captain said we will still make it to Aruba on schedule. I would have appreciated that extra time in Cartagena because it really is a great port. Probably the best on this cruise. Oh well we had fun and we can always come back.

 

Back on the ship we had a quick bite to eat and then went down to high tea where the orchestra played and we danced. It was very special and I wish they would do that sort of thing more often. They had a very nice turn out and quite a few dancers. The waiters wore tuxes and white gloves. Fancy affair, but no cucumber sandwiches which me sad. I like cucumber sandwiches.

 

Following our dancing we wandered around looking for the “Where on the Ship”. By the time we found it and put our answer in the box, the box had been emptied. We assumed we had until 4:30 p.m. as is the case on most port days, but maybe not. It doesn’t really matter, the fun is in the search.

 

We again had a little siesta before dinner. DH is still avidly reading “The Path Between Two Seas” and now says he wishes he had read it before we went through the canal. I bought him that book for his birthday in March, but he didn’t start reading it until we were on the ship.

 

When we went down to our late dinner, we asked for a large sharing table as we always do. They put us at an empty table for 6. Just after we were seated some friends walked by and asked if they could it with us. After checking with the receptionist, we were told that we would have to move, because the table for six was reserved. That was no big deal, but it was interesting that no one showed up at the original table until we were having our dessert. We asked those 2 couple if they had previously reserved the table and they said that they had just wandered in without any reservation. No big deal, and we really enjoyed everybody at our table for 8, but it was a little odd.

 

After dinner, we went down to Explorers for the Remember the Lyrics Trivia. This was the first time we had done it and it was really a lot of fun. When the band, Opus, started playing we stayed and did some dancing. DH very much enjoyed that band. We danced ‘til we dropped, well at least until I dropped and headed off to bed.

 

We arrive in our last port, Aruba, tomorrow about 1:00 p.m.

[JEH]

Thanks for your great trip report. Its been a pleasure to read your experiences . Thanks again to you and all those who post Live From reports.

[Iowa Traveler]

 

Then you haven't been reading the Princess boards regularly, since I do a LIVE from every cruise I'm on. And I'm on a whole lot of them. :D

"Like":)

[Colo Cruiser]

[PunkiC]

Local beer in Aruba, our last port.

[ar1950]

Local beer in Aruba, our last port.

 

Now that looks refreshing! :cool:

[Nunu13]

I am Steve's side-kick, Joy. Just wanted to say hi!

[PunkiC]

Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 13, Aruba

 

We are experiencing some moderate wave action—the most we have had since we left LA. We really enjoy the action of the sea, even if it gets rough.

 

Today we will be arriving in Aruba about 1:00 p.m. I bought my favorite sundresses in Aruba ad am hoping to find a couple more while I am there. It doesn’t often get above 80 in Seattle, but when it does, I love to wear those sundresses. We had our last time change last night that that is just fine with me.

 

We still haven’t made it into the Elite Suite in the evening. We should try to do that one of these days. In the past we have met some lovely people at these events. I guess that was when we were younger and didn’t appreciate the value of a pre-dinner siesta.

 

Somebody wanted a list of the Movies Under the Stars. Here goes:

 

Back to the Future

Thor – The Dark World

Man of Steel

Beyonce

Barry Manilow – Music and Passion

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Hop

Fever Pitch

Jobs

Hunger Games – Catching Fire

Now you See Me

 

 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Hitch

Enough Said

Forest Gump

Las Vegas

 

That’s it up until today. So far it has been too hot outside for us to watch MUTS. They also showed “12 Years as a Slave” but they showed that in the Princess Theater because it was rated P-13. We also watched “The Life of Pi” and enjoyed that very much.

 

Sometimes with the “Where on the Ship” you just have to guess. For instance, today they used an old picture from last cruise of an item that doesn’t exist on this cruise. There was an item similar enough that I took a chance and guessed as I wished I would have done on the item in the Universe Lounge a couple of days ago.

 

Since we have taken Aruba tours on previous trips, we decided to just walk around again. We began our day ashore in a bar with free wifi. That’s where we took and posted the picture. I did buy more sundresses because this is the only area I know that sells them and I don’t know if or when we will be coming back. We probably will do a Western Caribbean at some point in time because we have never been there. I am leaning more and more toward just going places we have never been before but, of course, there will be some overlapping ports.

 

We did buy some more wine as we were heading back to the ship and, once again, no one said a word when we reboarded. We took one of the bottles to dinner and it was pretty good. So far the mystery wines we have picked up along the way have all been pretty good, but we haven’t tried the Nicaraguan wine yet. We will see what happens on our next little cruises out of and back into Vancouver in a couple of weeks.

 

Serendipitously, we ended up being seated at a large sharing table with people we have already met and liked a lot. All I had for dinner was soup, salad and the twice baked goat cheese thing, which is one of my favorite things on the ship.

 

After dinner DH wanted to go see this woman sing. He had met her in the HC and liked her. I am sure she was a lovely person, but her show was pretty boring so we left and went down to the Casino to check out the progress on the Black Jack Tournament. The winner board really hasn’t changed much and they were not having more qualifying rounds as they had previously announced and that was fine with me as I couldn’t find my $20 Winner Certificate which gives me a chance to enter the tournament qualifications. I still haven’t found it, but have a couple more places to look. If I don’t find it I won’t play and that’s may be a good thing. I certainly don’t need to start gambling at this stage of the game.

 

Just as we got back to The Wheelhouse, the band was heading out on a break so we decided to just go to bed. Walking around in the sun is tiring.

 

That was our last port for this cruise so tomorrow is a sea day. We love sea days.

[PunkiC]

Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 14 At Sea

 

As our cruise winds to an end, we will enjoy two more days at sea and today the sea is exactly the way I love it—moderate seas with lots of white caps, healthy waves breaking along the bow, and the perfect mixture of fluffy clouds and sunshine.

 

When we get back to Fort Lauderdale, we are going to get a rental car and drive down to Key West where we will spend the night in a Presidential Suite at the Marriott. We have had these orphan Marriott points for years but have never used them because we couldn’t get free internet. This Marriott Presidential Suite thing turned out to be the best deal for using points and getting free internet. We will need unlimited free internet to get a good fix after 15 days at sea. We are both internet junkies. DH is every bit as bad as I am, we just like different sites. He gets alerts from every ski resort we have ever visited whereas I hang out on Cruise Critic and travel sites looking for smoking deals. 

 

I did find the $20 gift certificate that DH won to enter the Black Jack tournament, so I will be playing after all. I am a newbie so I anticipate that I will never make it to the leader board, but will have fun playing my seven free hands.

 

I love that we are heading north once again. That way we get the morning sun on our balcony. Even though we get free laundry and dry cleaning, I like to wash out my lingerie and sundresses, along with DH’s gym clothes, by hand and hang them on the deck to dry. This morning everything was pretty much dry by the time I finished putting on my make-up and combing my hair for breakfast. I love, love, love finishing a cruise with all fresh, clean, clothes.

 

While we were dressing we watched “When Harry met Sally”. Can you believe that this is the first time I have ever seen it? About the only time I ever see movies is on cruise ships and long international flights. The last movie I saw in a theater from Lord of the Rings one Christmas with my husband and children.

 

This morning after breakfast the Cruise Director, Richard Joseph, gave a talk on the history of cruise cruising and cruise ships, as well as the current and possible future states of the cruise industry. The talk was very interesting but hearing Richard talk about his life on ships (starting out at the age of 15) was even more interesting. You are right, Pia, he is really a great Cruise Director, certainly one of my favorites to date.

 

They had a pasta/risotto bar for lunch and the mac and cheese was really good. I love mac and cheese. I tried the risotto, but I didn’t much care for it. I make amazing risotto and am almost never happy when I eat it anywhere else. We did once, however, have risotto in the Munich Lufthansa first-class lounge which was every bit as good as mine. Different, but just as good. Mine is made with lots of mushrooms and theirs was made with crab and green onion.

 

We received a special discounted-price invitation for the Maître d’ Wine Club--$15.00 instead of $25.00—but were very disappointed when a letter was put under our door telling us that it was cancelled because not enough people h signed up. We were disappointed as the wine list looked very good and we had planned to attend with our Cruise Critic wine tasting group. Oh well, we can use that money to buy a better bottle of wine for dinner.

 

I am trying to get DH to join the Marriage Match Game Show with me, but he won’t do it. Sometimes he is a real stick in the mud. I think we would do really well as after 45 years, I can almost read his mind.

 

Tonight is formal night so we got hors d oeuvres in our cabin. I used to really love the caviar, but they must have changed brands because I really don’t like the stuff they currently serve. So, since that was the only hors d oeuvre I liked, now DH gets to eat them all by himself.

 

We went to the early Captain’s Party and were very disappointed that there was no danceable music. The Rhapsody Trio played and, while they create fascinating listening music, it defies dancing. We tried on a couple of the waltzes, but the tempo changed so dramatically and unexpectedly that we couldn’t anticipate it. We did receive a lot of applause and congratulations for our efforts, such as they were. I guess we looked pretty good to the non-dancers and the dancers understood the problem we encountered.

 

Dinner was again a fun experience and this time the lobster was not as tough as it had been the last formal night. The large shrimp that came with the lobster were actually wonderfully delicious. If I had been hungrier I would have ordered more of those shrimp, but as it happened, I ended up giving half of my original order to DH. I don’t eat much at night.

After dinner we went down to the casino so I could try my luck at the blackjack table, and it is about 90% luck. I received two coupons to qualify and the first time saved back just enough money on my last hand to assure me the 7th spot on the tournament table. Shortly thereafter, the woman I had knocked off the table came back and knocked me out of the 7th spot. I waited until almost the last minute to try my second coupon and went all in on the last hand, hit 21 and ended up with $7,600 which put me in first place going into the tournament and allowed me first choice at seat selection. I chose the last seat and was down to $200 on the last hand. Everybody except one guy went all in and lost everything, but I once again hit 21 so I actually ended up coming in second place, winning a Princess hat and t-shirt. Of course, all tournament winnings had to be turned back into the dealer at the end, but it sure was a lot of fun.

 

They had a balloon drop at 10:30 and dancing in the atrium, but that kind of shake your boot stuff, especially coupled with a crowd, drives DH crazy so we went into The Wheelhouse and hung out until about 11:30 p.m. before we crashed.

 

Tomorrow is our last day. So sad.

[Solara]

PunkiC,

 

Thanks again for another fantastic live. It's always wonderful sailing along with you.

[PunkiC]

There is something interesting I forgot to tell you. While talking to the Captain last night at the party, he told us that the fee to transfer the canal was $400,000 this time, and that the first time he took a ship through, in 2005, the fee was only $120,000.

 

The port guy had guessed $480,000 but I believe the Captain was in a better position to have the exact figure.

[BillB48]

Here are a couple of pics from your day in the Canal from a different perspective. The first is of the IP in Limon Bay with Cristobal/Colon on your starboard side, approaching the Cristobal Breakwater. The second is as you are passing through the breakwater, leaving the Canal into the Caribbean. Saw you passing my hotel in the morning as you were approaching the Bridge of Americas... took the camera out of the A/C, the lens was all fog and would not clear in time. Pictures taken from the Vision of the Seas sailing from Colon.

 

[silverbird]

Do you patronize a particular store in Aruba or the dresses available at several places? I will be looking for some on our full transit next year. Thanks for your help.

 

I always enjoy reading your "live from" reports. I live vicariously through all that are done and get a good idea of what to expect on my trips. Again, thanks for taking the time and effort to post your adventures.

[lone_stranger]

Thank you once again for sharing your voyage with us. It certainly gave us a view into life aboard the Island Princess.

[caribill]

While talking to the Captain last night at the party, he told us that the fee to transfer the canal was $400,000 this time, and that the first time he took a ship through, in 2005, the fee was only $120,000.

 

 

Same size ship both times?

[bhopal21]

There is something interesting I forgot to tell you. While talking to the Captain last night at the party, he told us that the fee to transfer the canal was $400,000 this time, and that the first time he took a ship through, in 2005, the fee was only $120,000.

 

The port guy had guessed $480,000 but I believe the Captain was in a better position to have the exact figure.

 

Wow, that works out to over $200 per passenger per complete transit.:eek:

 

Mike:)