Panama Canal on Island Princess 10/17-11/1 Photo Review

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We sailed through a big thunderstorm during the night and it was a frequent topic of conversation around the ship. I surprisingly slept through most of it but woke at dawn to lightning flashes brightening up the curtain drawn across our bedroom balcony doors. I quietly ducked into the living room space and drew the connecting curtain closed so that I could keep the living room balcony doors curtain open to watch the light show. There was also rain coming as close at times as to sprinkle the door right in front of me or I'd have been tempted to hang out on the balcony itself to watch.

 

Finding that we still had loads of OBC to use up, Dad decided this day to get his own USM drink package and he picked out a couple T-shirts for the port stops of the Panama Canal and Puntarenas. Dad had checked out the port shirts earlier in the cruise but staff said they don't have any more when he asked about the limited stock. Today though they had plenty set out on tables in front of the shop as part of their routinely advertised 2/$20 sale. I don't usually wear what I've bought in these port T-shirts but it's gotten to be 80% of Dad's regular wardrobe so he always picks out a couple if it's a port we haven't been to yet.

 

It was still a little gloomy and of course the ship was a freezer so I grabbed my first hot chocolate as part of my drink package while Dad was visiting the Patisserie to purchase his drink package. This was the only place to purchase it now and they only charged him for the remaining 11 days.

 

Morning progressive trivia – super hard esoteric questions so we got one of our lowest scores of 11. Poor Chuck got upset because no one listened to him on the answers he gave that ended up being correct. It can take a lot of patience sometimes when you work with any group of people whether it be something major like a project at work or something meant for fun like cruise ship trivia.

 

Mini – Olympics – Today's event was shuffleboard with DJ Delite on the top deck where it was quite windy. We only used one shuffleboard court and played as doubles. Dad's team got second place in this round.

 

Battle of the Sexes – Had my own taste of frustration at being ignored when giving answers to questions and the guys won this round.

 

I stopped off at the buffet in search of a light lunch/snack and found that they really had made chocolate chip cookies! Since we were in the middle of our two Mexico ports, they had also made churros for the dessert station. I grabbed a bowl full of my sugar coma treasures to bring back to the cabin for Dad and I to enjoy later this evening.

 

Dad went off to participate in the Bridge Players Get Together and I rejoined DJ Delite and a decent sized group of regular players at this point in the atrium for a regular game of bean bag toss. During my turn to throw, DJ stood behind the corn-hole style board and got nervous when my throw was aimed a little too high for the board and a little too low for his stature. DJ crossed his arms over his crotch and got a big laugh as he begged me not to “take away his livelihood.” One of the men playing got 2 of the three bean bags in the hole so DJ had him move to the other side of the atrium as our current points leader. DJ moved to the starting line to help a woman with her throwing technique and the man used the opportunity to push the board closer to the woman while DJ's back was turned. Everyone laughed and DJ looked around but went back to helping the woman. As soon as his back was turned, the man moved the board even closer. DJ returned to his position of standing behind the board, never the wiser.

 

One of the next ladies who stepped up to play insisted that she be able to throw from right in front of the board so DJ jokingly picked up the board, backed all the way against the railing and held the hole right in front of his face before telling her she could throw now. He returned the board and let her throw properly from right in front but she still didn't make it anywhere close. Her husband took his turn next and after two throws from the real starting line, he pretended to throw his last bean bag like a baseball making everyone laugh. One lady who was sure she'd never have a chance actually got all 3 beanbags in and won herself a carabiner.

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Since Dad and I had split up with plans to meet for afternoon trivia, he took a copy of the Patter and I relied on the Princess@Sea app on my phone for the schedule. As I made my way to Explorers where I assumed the trivia would be, I started feeling confused when bingo didn't seem anywhere close to finishing as trivia time grew closer. I checked the app and saw that it read Wheelhouse Bar as our trivia location and rushed over there. I passed DJ heading to put away the bean bag equipment and he asked where I was going. I replied “trivia of course” and he mumbled something before rushing away. Happy Hour was finishing up and I thought I had this great opportunity to swoop in before my trivia group showed up and snag seats for everyone. Time continues to pass and there's no one from the usual trivia players showing up and no cruise staff coming in to set up. Finally I decide to rush back to Explorers to double check and by the time I got there, they were a couple questions in to trivia. DJ was hosting the trivia and teased me over the mike for being late. I joined Dad and my usual group of players who of course knew the right place all along because the physical Patter read the right location. Dad didn't even believe me until I showed him what the app said for the trivia. From then on, I refused to use the app for scheduling and we each carried around a Patter. Unfortunately, the mix up and being teased publicly by DJ left me in a sour mood for this afternoon.

 

Went off to see the 6:30PM show of comedy singer/impressionist/ventriloquist Michael Minor. His show was more about the ventriloquist puppets telling a couple jokes as an introduction to a song and then he'd sing several on his own. Each show of his we went to, he used the same gag of pulling an older gentleman from the audience to fill the role of his damaged “grandpa” puppet.

 

Off to dinner for our standing reservation and this time got seated at the same waiter's area as the night before but this time I opted for the 2 top. Our waiter still sent her assistant to do everything outside of the actual dining room and it left our service lacking. I've been having a hard time finding items on the dinner menus this trip that really excited me as a lot of it was either shellfish (not a fan of oysters, clams, or muscles) or something like veal or lamb. Several dishes had components that were to my liking but then they'd come with something that wasn't. It wasn't until later in this cruise and a much better wait staff that I took the initiative to actually ask for substitutions like getting the first part of a dish by itself. I ended up settling for the always available fettuccine alfredo several nights. This time, I decided to try the coconut shrimp appetizer and the waitress teased me about not choosing the cesar salad again. While I hadn't yet bothered punching a hole in my cruise card for a lanyard, Dad had done so for his card (he loved how the crew member at passenger services joked “Oh you want a punch? I'll punch you!” and mimed punching his fist into his hand) and our waitress took notice of his Elite card and made a big effort to learn our names. A couple were seated next to us at the 4 top and chatted with the maitre'd about what the crew gets to eat. The wife asked what happens to the food that the passengers don't eat and joked that she thought her food leftovers got to feed the dolphins. I whispered to Dad that that must be why the dolphins speech sounds like “nuh uh!”

 

I don't have many photos from our sea days so to break up the text here's a photo from the "you took a little too many pictures of clouds" according to my Dad file for your viewing pleasure:

 

With the lack of youth on this sailing, an activity was added to the Patter called Young@Heart inviting any passenger to come to the teen center to play the arcade games. Dad decided to go to tonight's session after dinner and ended up being the only one there. The young lady manning the center played a couple games with Dad and then kept begging him to stay and play more when he got bored and tried to leave. I had mentioned being unable to find a seat at the earlier Rock 'n Roll trivia when I saw my new trivia playing friends this afternoon and they invited me to join them for 80s music trivia tonight. We didn't win but it was fun to participate and socialize. If anyone gets the chance to play a music themed trivia with Armando, he refers to every song as “You'd better get this because it's a classic!” so much so that we started saying it before he had the chance. He's also fond of playing “What does the fox say” if the person who took the longest to bring their answer slip up ends up getting it wrong.

[RRFPresident]

Dad had routinely stopped by the kiosk by passenger services to check our bill during this cruise and would find that his card wouldn't work. The first time it didn't work, he waited in line and the staff went ahead and printed our account for him. The next few times it didn't work, it wouldn't work on the staff's card scanner either and he had to get a new card three different times over the course of the cruise. A couple times when I tried my card on the kiosk, it either wouldn't work or worked only after I'd added some force to the swipe so I'm thinking it might be time for some maintenance on those kiosks.

 

Random sunset photo:

 

The humidity of the day had sparked another storm that was mostly lightning, at least on the open deck. A handful of people had pulled chairs over from the dining tables on the pool deck so they could be under cover while watching the MUTS movie. I had already learned from a previous visit to the pizzeria that if you're willing to wait for a fresh pizza to be cooked, the bread is much softer and tastier after having chosen a slice of a flavor that had been sitting there and one they had to make more of. On my way back to the cabin for the night, I watched more of the lightning show than the movie as I waited the few minutes it took to make a fresh pizza.

 

Armando - what ya thinkin' about?

 

One of the differences between Princess and Carnival when it comes to stateroom TVs is that Carnival airs whatever channels it can pick up via the current satellite reception wherever you may be sailing. I've had sailings where I became really versed in Friends episodes because the best channel we could get was TBS. Princess has a set of programs that it has worked out ownership of the rights to air and they just air them over and over. At least with the Discovery network partnership I started seeing some interesting animal themed shows but this sailing I came to realize that I've already seen the ones I was watching now on previous sailings. I love watching the old classic sitcoms so it's always fun to catch the Love Boat reruns on our stateroom TVs. This is the first sailing though that I noticed they arranged it so that only one episode airs for that day and it just repeats over and over. A few minutes to sit and relax in the afternoon, * click * oh there's Charo hiding in the maid's cart. Turn on the TV while getting ready for dinner, * click * oh there's Charo staying in Doc's office. Ready to settle down watching mindless television before bed, * click * oh there's Charo eventually being hired as a ship entertainer and everything working out in the end. On the plus side, you could finally see the whole episode without ever having to sit still for 30 minutes straight. On the negative side, with a 15 day cruise, the episode list started repeating itself over again for the last few days. We did check out the DVD list left in our cabin as we find it's a great way to catch those movies only one of us wants to see but we never actually requested any. We've had cruises where there was nothing in the evenings but dancing options so thankfully this cruise held several events to keep us entertained.

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Our second port day and second visit to the country of Mexico has us stopping in the port no one could seem to pronounce correctly, Huatulco. Best it was explained to us was to think of it as “Wat -tool-co” and broken down it means worship the wood. A great sight as I stepped out on the balcony this morning just in time to spot a turtle as it dove back under the water. As we left the cabin this morning, we discovered that disembarkation forms had been left in our mailbox. Only 6 days into the 15 day cruise and they're already making us think about disembarkation.

 

 

Today was the last day we'd booked a ship excursion through Princess, Huatulco by Land and Sea. The excursion didn't start until 10:30AM so off we went to Sabatinnis for breakfast. A quick walk around the promenade snapping photos of the port view was then in store before returning to our cabin.

 

 

Can you imagine having to haul your groceries up those steps?

 

Look honey, their boat is way bigger than ours!

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The crew used the opportunity of a port day to practice their drills so we listened to them announcing the calls to react and chuckled at how tough a job they were having trying to pronounce certain crew members' names when asking for them to call in.

 

Once it was time to go, we headed off the ship and stopped to check in with our guide. After a few of us had gathered, our guide told us to go ahead and head around the corner to his yellow boat named Tequila so that we wouldn't have to stand around in the sun.

 

The "Where's Our Guide?" version of Where's Waldo:

 

It took several twists and turns passing locals selling bookmarks and hair combs to get to the marina but thankfully, a giant yellow boat named Tequila really stands out from the group.

 

The boat was already pretty full despite being two levels and the plastic chairs underneath the top level were already taken. It was certainly a more comfortable ride on the front benches we ended up on rather than being plastered to those chairs with sweat by the end of the ride. Also great for getting pictures sans the back of people's heads. The only drawback is that we were completely exposed to the sun. No one else chose to sit on the bench with us and we soon started to pull away from the dock. Within a couple minutes they yelled for us to come back in as a whole group of people just now decided to show up.

 

Everyone looks enthralled to be in the hot sun:

 

First time we'd seen uniformed marines handling port security:

 

Each seat held a life vest and our driver guide joked that we had to put them on just for the first 5 minutes so we can show the harbor master that we followed the rules. Once we got past the station, we could take them off. One of the boat staff came around and took each family's picture together and then printed them making a nice brochure with a map of the sites we'd sailed by. Unfortunately, it wasn't included with the cost of the excursion and they made sure to come around by the end and take the pictures back if we didn't want to pay. In the meantime though, I welcomed the fact that they left me with something with which to fan myself. Included in the cost though was bottled water, soda and beer and margaritas by the glass plus an offering of roasted peanuts from a large bowl that they'd scoop into a small cup if you wanted any.

 

Our guide was very informative and we saw great sites like the sleeping man rock, a lighthouse, and the most important of all, our ship from the outside. We did get sprayed a few times when the boat picked up speed but it was still an enjoyable ride and I still have the watch shaped tan line to prove it.

 

Sleeping man rock:

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Face rock:

 

Lighthouse:

 

A private beach:

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These great shots of the ship were worth the sunburn and sweat:

 

The balconies that look like bookends of the Island Princess name are handicap accessible suites that they tried to "upgrade" us to after we put ourselves on a waiting list for a higher category suite. We didn't want to take away an accessible cabin when not needed plus these balconies are closed due to the cables when going through the canal.

 

Here's a good representation of how some balconies stick out further along the side of the ship:

 

[RRFPresident]

By the end of the full excursion, I found myself wishing this had been just called Huatulco by Sea. Once returned to the dock, they gave us a few minutes to use the bathroom facilities and as usual the ladies room line was out the door and starting to make its way down the block. I probably could have walked back to the ship, dinged back in, used my cabin bathroom, dinged off again, and returned to the dock before that line ever moved. As we finished at the bathrooms, we followed the crowd to the other side of the building to the street level. They were filling a tour bus and the place was packed with buses for other tours, vans, and regular traffic. Our guides seemed really lost as they tried to figure out how many seats they had left on this one bus while those already on the bus kept yelling for their still lagging family and friends to push past everyone and get on with them. Eventually, they sent the first bus along with one guide and left at least 25 of us standing there completely in the sun waiting on a second bus. A couple people opted to go across the street where there was trees to stand under and one guy even boarded the bus for the other tour. Some even decided to bail on the rest of the excursion and returned to the ship. It took about 15-20 minutes for another bus to show up and I told Dad that we were just taking the first available seat rather than trying to find space to spread out etc like we'd prefer.

 

What we ended up with was me smushed against the window in the 2nd row and my knees to my chest because of a wheel well hump. A handful of guys boarded the bus last only to find that there were no seats left. They were made to get off and a van was procured to drive behind the bus. We drove maybe 5 minutes before the bus pulled over next to a cafe and our guide got out to request bottles of water for all of us. Cafe employees boarded the bus and started handing out what seemed like every bottle they had in stock as some got the tiny bottles and us, who were part of the second round of deliveries, got average size bottles. As we got going again, our guide complained that we were now running late and had to skip a couple things and rush. I'm curious to know what else that first bus got to see that we didn't.

 

We drove through town to a site featuring the Huatulco sign displayed like LA's Hollywood sign and a nice view of the city.

 

Thanks folks for hopping up to get your pictures and then staying put blocking everyone else from taking pictures. I'll just pretend I used these people as reference for how tall the letters were, yeah let's go with that:

 

My one chance at checking out the view once several people moved on:

 

This was not only a photo stop but it was also announced that we all needed to get off and when finished with photos to board another larger bus that had met us there. This bus was finally big enough to fit us and those poor guys in the van but I got stuck right by the window obscured by the bus company's logo decal. Anything described on the drive back just looked like close together gray dots and a blur as my eyes crossed from trying to look through close together gray dots. We stopped one more time for what they said was a photo stop at a hill overlooking the ship but by then I didn't feel like moving. By the time we'd returned to the ship, I'd given up trying to see anything and let the bus lull me to sleep.

 

As we walked back up to the ship dodging locals who literally jumped in front of our path to try and sell their crafts, Dad noticed that our passport books that had been in his shirt pocket were now warped because of how much we'd sweated today.

 

Ahh, home sweet temporary home:

 

A couple who shared the elevator down with us on the way out this morning noticed my camera and passed on a tip from a ship photographer who'd said that the view of the flowers in front of the ship on the dock is amazing.

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This is the best you get when your fellow passenger refuses to step aside and let someone else get a picture of the sign:

 

Once back on board, we finally noticed how much we'd turned into looking like freshly cooked lobster shells and sought out sustenance at the grill. A quick rest in the cabin before we headed down to afternoon trivia. By now it was all aboard time so most of our trivia crew showed up to play. DJ hosted the trivia and joked that they'd finally run out of passport holders, bestowing carabiners on the winning team.

 

While we pick here and there at the fruit basket left in our cabin on embarkation day, especially as a quick light breakfast if we have an early excursion, it usually starts getting moldy before we've ever really made a dent. Dad left a note for Lusioto to remove it and instead bring a few bananas, his favorite fruit. A knock on the door to our cabin comes from room service and I'm thinking huh, we didn't order room service? Turns out Lusioto had put in an order with room service for a whole new fruit bowl with just bananas.

 

While as suite guests, we've always been invited to the Elite/Platinum/Suite cocktail hour set up, we'd only ever gone once on one of our first Princess cruises and didn't stay long. Since on this ship, they sectioned off the far side of the Explorer's lounge for this at 5PM and we were already there for 4:30PM trivia, we started making a point of checking out the offerings. While they did have a big sign and some velvet ropes drawn across the area, no one bothered to check the validity of anyone coming in. The promotion during this time is a discounted drink selection and the left part of the small buffet that would change as part of a theme. A card was left in our cabin listing the drinks and snack by day of our sailing. The second half of the small buffet always had cut up veggies for dipping, cheese slices, some nuts and figs/dates, small soft pretzels, and breadsticks. Just like any buffet, you were welcome to take as much as you wanted and once seated in the area, the bar wait staff was quick to offer to fetch whatever drink you desired. Dad had fallen in love with the non alcoholic dirty banana drink he'd seen me try and ordered that this day when he reached the table first. I soon joined him just as his drink was being delivered so I told the waiter I'd have the same. He rushed off and soon came back with the same looking drink but I soon realized it was actually the alcoholic version. He never tried to charge me for it so I didn't bother to point it out. I thought when I first got my non alcoholic dirty banana and saw the bartender make it in a different shaped glass than he'd just used for everyone else getting the alcoholic version that that was how they differentiated between the two but throughout the cruise, we got our non alcoholic versions in both style glasses.

 

Dad wanted to shower before dinner so we headed back to the cabin to relax. I stepped out on our balcony to catch pictures of the sunset, a rarity since the sun set so early in the evening, and got blown around by the strong winds as the boat was really rocking.

 

To be continued...

[RRFPresident]

Ran out of time to finish my recap of our day in Huatulco last night. Thanks for all the views! Feel free to ask any questions or share any comments as I go along.

 

Continuing with the sunset...

 

Once we arrived at dinner (we soon figured out that it was easiest to take the elevators from our cabin deck down to deck 7 and then walk forward before using the elevator or stairs to go down to the dining room as the ones right by the atrium only go up to deck 8), there was a huge line waiting to get in for anytime dining. Having reservations, we walked to the other door. The hostess monitoring the long line started to complain thinking we were cutting the line and kept gesturing at the line like we just were too idiotic to notice. We explained that we had reservations and she backed off.

 

This was our first introduction to the wait staff we fell in love with, waiter Berin (who introduced himself as Alex) and his assistant waiter Pedro at table 69. This was a four top table that we had to ourselves that was in the middle of a group of 6-8 top tables. We had great service with the minor exception of a drink mix-up. Several people in Pedro's area had ordered either coke or diet cokes and he soon returned with a tray full of glasses. In his rush, he put the tray down at his station and went off to do other tasks. By the time he slowed down enough for us to ask about our sodas, he just grabbed two glasses off the tray and brought them to us. After a bit, Dad asked if my diet coke tasted funny and I said no. He kept drinking his for a few more sips but still thought it tasted odd. I tried a sip of his and sure enough, he'd been given a regular coke. We didn't bother mentioning it and chuckled amongst ourselves at the image of someone at another table trying to figure out why their regular coke tasted so watered down. This night I'd found something I'd like to try on the appetizer menu and joked about telling our other waitress that since she didn't serve us, I couldn't have my usual caesar salad. With several days under our belt of having a hard time finding something we truly loved on the menu, I asked to get a copy of the children's menu for 'future reference.” And yes, my always thinking of trivia brain, took the time to read all the little “did you know?” facts on the side of the children's menu. My fellow trivia players were probably tired of hearing me say two pearls of wisdom, “you never know what you know until you're asked” and “take the time to learn the answers you got wrong as they're bound to show up in a future trivia game.”

 

The back of the menu (and yes Pedro offered to get a pencil so we could do the activities)

 

For lack of nothing better to do, Dad decided to give the casino another try and used one of our Buy One Get One Free casino tournament entries coupons toward tonight's blackjack tournament. On his 2nd entry, he made it onto the leaderboard tying for 2nd place and had to wait to return later this evening to find out if his name was still there. He ended up making it into the finals but didn't win so his consolation prize was a Tshirt and voucher for one play at that key game in the casino where you have to get the key to match up just so with one of the hanging bundles of money.

 

I headed to bed after Dad had gone back down to play in the finals and took the time to set our clocks back an hour tonight.

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Forgot to include this pic from our return post excursion. These stands offering cool cloths and cups of water as we walked up to the gangway were a godsend!

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Same old routine as other sea days starting with breakfast at Sabatinnis. This was the first time a waiter remembered that we don't drink coffee and brought our preferred orange juice. Popped up afterward to the buffet to see if they might have doughnuts while it was still breakfast time but no such luck.

 

Progressive trivia – still averaging around 13 points for a score. May have been a little too loud in my excitement when I was proven right about the tongue being the only other body part that gives a unique print besides your fingers. I apologize if I busted any eardrums nearby.

 

Mini-Olympics – Bean Bag Toss was today's event. Kept the streak of 0 points alive. Yay for last place consistency!

 

Battle of the Sexes – I made a point of sitting next to where our usual scribe, Lori, chooses to sit so that I could be heard when giving answers but ended up being the scribe when Lori didn't show. Today's trivia session featured a question that asked what kind of bird is a lorry and one of our ladies was so adamant about seeing them at the zoo and getting bitten that we went with her answer of parakeet. The men wrote down parrot and Chad gave them the point over us. This angered our passionate teammate and she tried desperately to fight for our answer. Chad got a cheer from the men when he told her that he appreciated her passion but didn't care. That led to questioning whether Chad had even added up our right answers correctly. Chad promised to check the count as he was leaving and chastised our team for caring so much about a game.

 

Dad wanted to try the dining room for lunch and I was surprised to see that even though we shared a table, the wait staff didn't make everyone wait to order or even to be served until the table was full. Among the four people we shared with, one was a travel agent and she gave us some great insight on how the dining staff handles food allergies and how you can still enjoy yourself as an adult on a Disney cruise.

 

Carpet bowling was back on the Patter today but this time it was run by Chad who chose to use the corridor outside the art gallery which made a huge roadblock for anyone who wanted to walk by. It seems the ship has two sets of carpet bowling equipment in stock because while the session with DJ featured boccie size weighted balls, the ones Chad brought to play were the size of billiard balls. The activity had become quite popular. Reminded me of trying to play a game in the street as kids and always having to stop and move when a car came along.

 

Dad went off to play bridge so I made my way to the Wheelhouse Bar to play “Famous Faces” trivia. When I'd played this on RCL, they decided to make it famous people in history rather than celebrities. This time it was a picture of a celebrity and a multiple choice game of having to choose which was the celebrity's real name. I spotted Gary when I walked in and asked about joining his team but he said he already had teammates coming. I walked up to the podium to get my own paper and pencil thinking I'd be a team of one then when two ladies recognized me and joked that they should be on my team. I turned to them and said “well then why don't you?” and that was how I met the other Lori, her mother, and another couple they knew and formed a team. We fared pretty well, only being knocked out of a tie for 1st because we changed our answer for Alan Alda at the last minute.

 

Still with time to kill, I headed down to play ring toss in the Atrium and ran into several fellow trivia players and Mini-Olympic contenders. Walked away with no score again!

 

Grabbed some pizza for a snack to take back to the cabin and relax before afternoon trivia but I wasn't alone for long. Earlier, we had received a form letter explaining that maintenance was being done around the ship and if necessary may require entering cabins. Shortly after I got settled to watch the same Love Boat rerun, two security or maintenance crew members knocked on the door asking to check our cabin's smoke detectors. The second guy seemed to be an apprentice of sorts because he just followed around the first guy nodding and saying “yup, yup.” They thank me and leave. Moments later, room service knocks on our door with a delivery of chocolate covered strawberries as it is formal night. Would much rather they offer plain strawberries or the chance to request/deny as we never eat them.

 

Headed down to trivia in Explorer's Lounge and found that they were still finishing up bingo. I stopped to chat with Sue who was also hanging out in the back waiting. DJ was running the bingo and called me out for “hiding in the back” over the mike. That elicited a room full of dirty looks from bingo players for disrupting their game. Dad returned and we joined up with Gary, Tina, and our neighboring town buddies to play trivia once the room had cleared out. For a change, it was like the trivia gods were feeling benevolent and giving questions that we knew the answers to and we won with a score of 18 out of 20. Our prize this time was keychain flashlights. Following trivia, we headed over to the Elite/Platinum/Suite cocktail hour and ran into Famous Faces Lori who lamented that she had wanted to join our trivia team but couldn't because we already had 6 people. I told her I'd look out for them next time to join up.

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We returned to the cabin to watch a movie on one of the TV channels and wait for our laundry to be returned so we could dress for dinner. Once at the restaurant, it was so nice to be able to bypass the long line. Dad had loved our wait staff from the night before so we asked to make that our new standard table. As we dined, nearby wait staff took away our two extra chairs to use at the neighboring large tables prompting me to joke that my invisible friend now had no place to sit. I promise, we were only drinking sodas at dinner. I just have a warped sense of humor. I had ordered an appetizer that tasted like sweet and sour chicken. It came as a plate with a medium sized bowl of the dipping sauce on top which meant there was only about an inch of space left on the plate to hold the chicken pieces. I tried to pick up a piece of chicken with my fork to dip but the lack of space made it bounce against the bowl, down my leg and onto the floor out of sight. I had Dad nearly doing spit takes cracking one liners about watching out for my poor chicken when someone would walk by. At one point, a lady walked behind our table and tripped up on her own heel which prompted a joke about how those tall high heels can be murder on chicken bites. Soon after, Pedro came by to clear plates and stepped on the now found chicken bite with a small yelp of surprise. I couldn't help but run with the opportunity to fake anguish over my lost chicken bite friend.

 

After dinner we headed out on the promenade deck for a walk and some fresh air. With a lot of the evening entertainment featuring single musicians or small bands playing in lounges, Dad wanted to see what that was like and we sat at the small tables outside the Bayou Cafe listening to the young man playing guitar to a crowd of 4 passengers. This musician seemed to have a very limited song repertoire as he turned down every song those passengers asked if he knew. We soon grew bored and headed back upstairs to the cabin so Dad could change out of his formal clothes.

 

Our main evening entertainment was the most often funny cruise ship game of Liars' Club. I was surprised though to see that our cruise director Mike Witte didn't participate as we've seen the cruise director do every other time. For those who have never seen the Liars Club game, the basis is that three entertainment staff members are on a panel and they have to try and convince passengers that the definition they are each giving for some rarely heard of word is the real definition. Usually, each person keeps part of their story going for each word which adds to the hilarity. (i.e. I know the true definition of word xyz because I spent time in Liberia, then for word abc, I know the true definition because during my time in Liberia...”) Each team of passengers brings up what in the past was slips of paper with their team number on it and gives them to the person they think was telling the truth, earning points for your team if you guessed right. This time though they actually gave teams generic cruise cards and went by how many the correct definition panel member had gotten. The game was hosted by Chad and featured Armando, Neesa, and Matt. At one point, Neesa was the one who had the right definition and no one believed her! While I opted not to participate in favor of facing the stage for picture taking, kudos to this cruise staff for only having repeated one of the words I'd heard before on a previous cruise. Two teams tied and they each won bottles of champagne. On the elevator ride back to the cabin, a couple ladies recognized me from the trivias and asked how many I got right. I told them I didn't play but they still wanted to know how many I would have gotten right so I revealed that I'd heard one of the words done on a previous cruise.

 

Armando and Neesa:

 

Neesa isn't buying what Matt is trying to peddle:

 

Nor did she believe Armando's efforts to break down each word into its root meanings:

 

Bring us those cruise cards!

 

Neesa wasn't happy that she'd only gotten 1 card thus far:

 

Chad trying not to laugh at Armando's explanation:

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Hey Ann, caught you in a pic tonight! Well, at least I caught your back in a pic tonight!

 

Here's the word I recognized from past cruises. I won't spoil the fun though and give away the answer:

 

My bed after evening turndown - Notice what's missing? Dad kept swiping the little chocolates. Is there such a thing as cruise turndown chocolates addicts anonymous?

 

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Today was the first port this trip where we'd booked a private excursion, this time with Macau Tours. Our thanks to Eric from the roll call who took the time to research private tours and offer them to others. We found though that there were certain parts of each arranged tour that didn't fit our needs and chose instead to work with the same companies to plan our own tours. This was also our only tender port and I'd heard stories about this particular “floating” pier being tough to use prompting flashbacks of a tender pier on our British Isles cruise that became a slick muddy mess in low tide. Crew warned that those with mobility issues may not want to even go ashore today with such an unstable pier.

 

Our view this morning:

 

We skipped a full breakfast this morning since we knew we'd be out most of the day on tour. Instead, our balcony provided a great view of the first tenders being loaded and sailing off.

 

An hour after the announcement was made that we were officially anchored, we headed downstairs to inquire about tender tickets. With our suite, we received a priority tender ticket but also being Elite gave us the same perk of being able to just get at the end of the line that's currently heading to a tender.

 

As it happened, we stepped off the elevator right where a group was being led down the stairs to the next tender. We asked the officer directing passengers about getting tickets but she saw our Elite cards hanging on our lanyards and told us that “those cards mean you can hop right in line here.” We joined the end of the line of passengers who were part of a shore excursion group and ended up helping two sweet older ladies who were on their first cruise and thought they might be heading to the wrong place. A tender returned just as we got to the bottom of the stairs so that was perfect timing. The tender pier turned out to be much easier to disembark onto than I expected! I think the concern and caution was more for the first few steep stone steps with not much to hold onto as you move from the first platform to the one that is level with the road.

 

Our guide Sergio was waiting for us at the end of the pier and led us to his car to meet Allan, the driver. Sergio asked if we knew any Spanish and Dad had to announce that I could speak Spanish. Classic sitcom fodder ensued each time Sergio tried to rattle off super fast Spanish and I'd just look at him like he had four heads until I could pick out those few key words to translate. As we started to drive away, one of the security guards came running up yelling but Sergio quickly explained something in Spanish most likely along the lines of “these people booked a private tour with us, we aren't just kidnapping unsuspecting tourists” and the guard backed off. Sergio rolled his eyes and we all laughed. As Allan drove to our first stop of the Masaya Volcano, Sergio took the time to collect payment up front at a cost of $160 per person. We'd heard already that they'd had problems in the past of people running out at the end before paying. He then handed out maps and brochures and gave us a little geography lesson of the country pointing out places on the map.

 

Once we arrived at Masaya, a big tour bus, a handful of vans, and a couple taxis were already there with a small crowd standing around taking pictures. Sergio and Allan escorted me as the resident shutterbug to what they felt was the best views taking care of having to push through the crowd for me. There was a steep mountain of dirt along one side and Allan gently took my hand to lead me up the mountain to get some nice aerial style pictures looking down into the volcano.

 

How the mannequin pose is really done:

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Masaya Volcano:

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The pair couldn't have been nicer constantly pointing out “this is your tour, we go when you're ready to go.” On the way out of the park, Dad asked to stop for a bathroom so Sergio led us through the very limited visitor center museum to the restrooms. The women's restroom reminded me of a department store changing room with doors that only covered from your knees to your neck when standing. Thankfully I was the only one in there at the time as once I stood up, I could see into the other stalls next to me. No soap or towels in any of the dispensers but at least there was running water and flushing toilets! Oddly enough, still one step ahead of our bathrooms in Denali National Park in Alaska last summer that was literally a plastic tube and seat fastened over a hole in the ground.

 

As we drove to our next stop, Sergio gave us options from a lunch menu and called it in over the phone so that it would be ready when we got there.

 

Some murals before entering the market:

 

Sergio led us through an open air market tucked into a corner and suggested several little handicraft style items but we didn't want to buy anything. One shop clerk tried to keep us there by offering coffee and I at least knew enough Spanish to explain that we don't drink coffee. Unfortunately, as we walked through this market Dad's eyes started bothering him which only became worse in his effort to rub them. I thought it might be an allergic reaction given how we were walking among tons of unfamiliar flora but Dad was convinced that it was because he'd put sunblock on his face before we left and the sweat had made it run into his eyes.

 

As our lunch restaurant was conveniently at the end of this market, Sergio offered to drop us off to sit and relax and he'd head to the pharmacy to get eye drops. We appreciated the offer and sat at our table in this essentially empty restaurant after giving Sergio some cash to buy the eye drops.

 

Our uncrowded restaurant:

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How close we were to the market we'd just walked through:

 

Before Sergio returned, we were brought soda cans, a small plate of lettuce and tomato, and a bowl of rice. Once he returned, I helped Dad put the drops in and his vision started to clear a little bit so he could eat. A small plate of french fries was delivered for each of us and finally the main course of chicken and beef with vegetables on a skewer. The sauce on the meat was delightful and the vegetables were super tasty, almost like a fajita sans tortilla.

 

 

It worked out that we didn't really have breakfast as I was so stuffed I couldn't even finish this lunch. Sergio dined with us, having chosen chicken strips that he finished cooking on the hot plate it was served on. When we asked about Allan, Sergio explained that they had to get up at 4:00AM to get to the ship pier so he was using the time to take a break and relax.

 

Our next stop was to a boatyard on Lake Nicaragua. Dad asked for another restroom stop and this time, the facilities were literally two closet sized “rooms” carved out of a corner of the building just big enough for a flush toilet and sink. Dad went in to use his but when the employee opened the door to mine, he purposely took out the soap etc and then gestured for me to go ahead and use it. Umm, I think I'll hold it thanks! Once Dad was done, we joined Sergio and our boat driver Miquel on a speed boat tour where Sergio pointed out what he called the second homes of all the “pensioners” aka rich retired people from other countries who'd bought homes on the cheap here in Nicaragua.

 

The boat we had to ourselves:

 

A new contender for the mannequin challenge?

 

 

Here these homes come with two boat garages:

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We passed some shore-side restaurants and bars and then pulled up to this single island on which was completely covered with trees.

 

This island has been dubbed Monkey Island and Sergio had brought along a baggie of sweeter fruit like watermelon to entice them. It took a little bit of coaxing to get the monkeys' attention but soon it was clear that they were used to the sound of the boats pulling up.

 

Is that fruit I smell?! Hold on a minute, got to scratch my armpit:

 

Mmm..watermelon!

 

Hey now Mr. Monkey - don't talk with your mouth full:

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Ooo, is that another group of humans coming to bring me treats?!

 

Another speed boat came up that was full of people and the guy in front reached out to try and give a monkey an unpeeled banana.

 

The monkey sniffed it and threw the banana down in disgust.

 

Eh, can't believe I woke up from my nap for a lousy banana:

 

Ooo, it's selfie time, let me stick my tongue out at you:

 

Teehee, I cracked myself up!

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He much preferred our offerings and once Sergio confirmed that I'd been able to get some good pictures, he let one of the monkeys take the whole rest of the bag.

 

Hey friend in front - while you're busy posing your buddy is getting away with the goods:

 

As we finished up our boat ride, we pulled over to check out some bats that were hanging out along the bottom of the dock:

 

Unfortunately, Dad's eyes started bothering him again during the boat ride so we took the time once back in the car for another round of drops. As we drove to the city of Grenada, Dad rubbed his eyes so much he snapped off the little latch piece that held his clip on sunglasses on to his prescription eyeglasses. When we arrived in Grenada, Sergio offered to walk us up main street but Dad chose to stay with Allan as he parked the car by the main square. Sergio and I walked up the main street together where we swapped stories about what school is like for American kids and kids here in Nicaragua. He was shocked to learn that American kids are expected to attend school from around 9:00AM to 3:00PM as Nicaraguan children only go for a few hours a day and they are split up in that some go for the morning, some in the afternoon, and even some in the early evening. He pointed out a high school as we passed that looked more like a prison with bars covering all the windows. I asked if the bars were for security and he responded with an emphatic “oh yes!”

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As we walked, a non local man stopped to say hello to me specifically and I responded with a polite hello and we kept walking. We'd only moved about 20 feet past him when I heard him start shouting an expletive filled rant at the crowd walking the sidewalk behind us. I commented that you'll find interesting people wherever you travel and Sergio just laughed.

 

Since Sergio had heard Dad mention seeking out a new pair of sunglasses in a shop, he told one of the street sellers who was offering cheap childlike plastic sunglasses to follow us back to the car. Once at the square, Sergio pointed out a historic church being maintained and showed me how he was going to take the sunglasses seller over to the car just across the square to see if Dad wanted to buy any.

 

As I stood alone in the square taking pictures, I was approached by several street sellers. The first guy introduced himself as Miquel and then showed me a piece of pottery pointing out how by putting “created by Miquel” etched into the bottom meant proof that the pottery was personally handmade by him. I politely used my limited Spanish to turn him down and he moved on. Next seller walks up, introduces himself as Marcus, shows me the same pottery only this time the bottom says “created by Marcus” insisting that it's proof he made it. Another round of “No, gracias” and off he went. A third guy tried to sell me some sort of children's toy whistle but by then my patience was wearing thin and my sweat level was increasing. I turned to head back to the car just as a man tried to send his young daughter up to try and sell me a flower bud.

 

One of the many carts offering trinkets and drinks/snacks:

 

Sergio soon intercepted me and insisted on showing me some other colonial style buildings on the other side of the square. I tried to ask if the different colors on the buildings meant anything but all he answered was “Yup!” Allan had taken the time to grab everyone cold water bottles and we appreciated the refreshment on the long drive back. Dad had turned down the sunglasses seller because none were clip on and the seller wanted $15 for one pair.

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Such a nice monument in the center of the square:

 

Along the bottom, several messages had been written:

 

While Allan only seemed to communicate in Spanish, I got a big laugh out of them both when Sergio tried to explain a passing truck carrying pina (pineapple) as a big crop for their country. As he tried to translate pina I said “Oh yeah, I know pina...pina coladas!” Along the road we saw that nearly everyone's front yard had a dog, a cow, a horse, or all three. A couple places on this tour we even had to stop and go around some animals who had wandered into the road. Dad joked that they must save on having to mow the lawn. Dad even fell asleep for part of the ride back and Sergio and I shared a good chuckle when he turned around to check on us. When we reached the tender pier, Sergio and Allan surprised us with a gift of maracas with our names carved into the design. If you are looking for a simple tour for your small group that hits all the basic highlights of this port, this company couldn't have been nicer and we got all that we'd hoped for out of this tour!

 

We managed to return to the pier just in time for a tender to pull up and it was a slightly more cramped ride. As it turned out, the group of young 20 somethings that took seats next to us were crew members who had spent the day at the beach. One of the ladies playfully tossed their nerf style football at one of the guys in response to his teasing and it almost went out the open tender window behind him. The one older guy with them was making jokes about the various professional sports teams cracking them all up and it wasn't until one of them called him Mike that I realized we'd been sitting next to our cruise director Mike Witte the whole time. We boarded back onto the ship at deck 5 and everyone went straight to the nearest elevator bank. Dad had the foresight to suggest walking along the cabin hallways of deck 5 until we reached the next bank of elevators where there was no crowd and no wait. We snagged an empty elevator with no stops before reaching our deck.

 

We had returned from our tour with just enough time to drop our stuff in the cabin and race back down to afternoon trivia. As only about 15 people showed up to play, we made makeshift teams with the people we'd played with on other games before. This was our first trivia we'd had run by Neesa and when she asked for scores to be revealed, three teams revealed that they'd each gotten 13 out of 20. Just as Neesa was trying to think of how to run a tiebreaker, another team suddenly piped up to say “wait we have 15!” and she automatically dished out the prize to them. I know we had a couple times where we'd find that whomever had checked our paper had miscounted or marked one wrong when they shouldn't have but this trip had the most sudden cries of “no, wait, we really got this score that just so happens to be one or two higher than the one the other group already announced their score to be” than I've ever seen on cruises.

 

We ventured over to the Elite etc cocktail hour and one of the bar waitresses stopped by our table to tell us that she'd spotted us leaving for our tour this morning and wanted to hear all about what we'd done.

 

To be continued...

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We returned to the cabin to get changed for dinner and discovered several people had taken to their balconies to check out the reloading of tenders. I hung out on the balcony and watched as the crew struggled to get one of the tenders to lift back up into place. It was starting to get dark so another tender stayed out a bit from the ship and used its light to help the crew see. The tender circled the ship and came back again prompting Dad to joke that we'd have to leave them behind and will see them next week when the ship repeats the itinerary.

 

Hope this guy knows how to do the splits:

 

Up comes the first one:

 

Bunk bed tenders:

 

In goes the first one:

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A few sunset from the balcony shots:

 

We wanted to check out Michael Minor's 2nd show of the cruise and ended up running into our neighboring town couple in the theater. We passed the time before the show swapping stories of the tours we'd each chosen to take. Michael's second show was okay and word must have gotten out about his earlier “Grandpa” dummy bit because he had a harder time getting a volunteer from the audience this time. One lady offered to volunteer but Michael insisted it had to be Grandpa and not Grandma. After the show, we spotted DJ standing at the theater doors so I told him that we'd missed seeing him at trivia today. His reply was “That's because I wasn't there.” I smirked at him so he jokingly stuck out his tongue at me.

 

Off to dinner for our standing reservation and once again at table 69. Tonight I was glad to see more appealing food choices like farfalle. Many cruises ago, I had been excited to try some spaghetti carbonara and it looked great when the waiter delivered it as the noodles were coated with just enough of the sauce to achieve the flavor. The waiter took one look at my bowl though and said they didn't give me enough sauce. I said that this was fine and even if it was wrong, I like it better this way. He insisted and took it upon himself to fill my bowl with sauce turning my dish into spaghetti soup. I'd been hoping to find the dish repeated on another cruise menu ever since so that I could get to try it the way it was supposed to be. When I asked our waiter for this cruise, Berin, if there was any plan for spaghetti carbonara, he took the initiative to inquire of the head waiter who brought over tomorrow night's menu to show me that yes, they planned to offer it then as part of Italian night!

 

As we left dinner, Berin warned us that since our visit to Costa Rica tomorrow would last until late in the evening, all dining was to be deemed open seating to help those who might miss their traditional dining times because they were out on a late tour. Since we had been asked to pay for our tour at the start today, Dad didn't have the chance to get small bills so we stopped off at the casino's cashier after dinner to exchange some of our larger value bills for smaller denominations. We sauntered in to the Calypso Cove shop next in search of replacement sunglasses. They didn't have clip on sunglasses either but Dad picked out a nice pair he confirmed would fit over his regular glasses. Still with plenty of OBC to kill, we also snagged some antihistamine just in case and some snacks. Dad's eyes ceased to bother him once back on the ship and he showered before bed just to be sure there was no further irritant still on his skin. He was still convinced however that it was a result of putting sunblock on his face and vowed to not put anymore on his face for the rest of the trip.