Check One of the Bucket List: Island Princess Panama Canal 4/16

[sunshine426]

:eek:This is part review and part cruise sharing of our April 16, 2014 Island Princess Cruise.

My husband and I don't take the term "bucket list" lightly. He is a double lung transplant survivor and this was our first cruise post transplant. We traveled with the lung transplant teams blessing after considering emergency treatment plans and emergency transportation plans. Happily none of those came into play...

We booked the cruise about 8 months prior and planned on taking a wheelchair and potentially oxygen on board. We booked C231 which is a mini suite on the Caribe Deck. We went with the larger cabin to accomadate the wheelchair. We opted out of a handicapped accessible cabin as his motility was not that limited. By the time cruise day came he was no longer using oxygen or the wheelchair and we traveled with only a cane and good spirits.

In good bucket list fashion we used up most of our delta sky miles and traveled first class to Los Angeles. There we caught a cap to San Pedro and the Crown Plaza Hotel. We checked in and instead of a taxi we walked to "On the Vine". A small tasting room and wine boutique. The owner Michael was delightful and after a light and tasty dinner we purchased our two bottles of wine for the cruise.

The next morning we traveled via hotel shuttle to the port. Embarkation was pretty easy. We waited in the "Platinum" section and were allowed access to a private room with a continental breakfast. Except they were out of coffee, pastries and juice...

I had my first laugh as Rich (sweet husband) asked if they didn't board special needs passengers first. I said that might be half the ship and we both laughed. It was actually nice not to be special needs for a change.

Once boarded we found our way to our first mini suite. The extra size was very nice and we enjoyed it on this 15 day cruise.

Suntanned Toes and Princess Pizza as well as the first bucket of beer purchased on this cruise were a great start to the cruise.

I will continue this later. If you have any questions feel free to let me know. I think we have all the Patters and the laundry is complete so I have time to respond.

Next Entry: The value of the CC Role call and stories on our fellow passengers.....:cool:

[silverbird]

You have me "hooked" already. I am looking forward to the rest of your story. This is our planned cruise for 2015.

 

Thanks so much for posting.

[Colo Cruiser]

What a wonderful trip for you both! Thanks for doing the review.