Review: Island Princess Christmas Cruise Panama Canal Dec 20-30, 2018!!

[BoopTennis]

Day 9 - Thurs Dec 27 - SEA DAY

Love sea days! We discovered Crooners, the Martini bar. Not sure how the heck I missed that all week but they have a huge selection of wonderful martinis

 

Tango Tini:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BoopTennis]

Crooner's, cont

 

 

Suntini:

 

 

 

[BoopTennis]

'Earshey's Kiss Martini:

 

This night was also our 2nd formal night in the MDR

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BoopTennis]

 

Chocolate Journey again:

 

but also a little ice cream

 

 

[cruisingpeople]

We absolutely love Crooners. That is our mid-afternoon, pre-dinner, post-dinner and "after show" meeting location. After seeing that you had recently been on the Star and the Crown Princess, along with your earlier Martini photos, was surprised to see it took you this long to discover this place. LOL🙂

Edited January 7, 2019 by cruisingpeople

[Akaicb]

On 1/5/2019 at 10:52 AM, BoopTennis said:

 

After dinner we went to the Card Room to play cards for awhile

 

I'm really enjoying your review and I notice your family plays a lot of cards.  My family does as well when we all get together.   We like Golf and Euchre, what games does your family play?

[BoopTennis]

1 minute ago, Akaicb said:

I'm really enjoying your review and I notice your family plays a lot of cards.  My family does as well when we all get together.   We like Golf and Euchre, what games does your family play?

 

haha funny. yes we do play cards and games. Funny story about that in a minute

 

We play Euchre, they taught me a new game called 13 cards. I am not good at that yet. We play a card game called Exploding Kittens which is a fun family game. We also took along our Catch Phrase electronic came ( give clues for your team to guess the word you have), that was fun. We play Race Horse Rummy a lot

 

What is the Golf card game?

 

the funny story - we wanted to take along a card game we have called Pass the Bomb.  Little card game with a ticking bomb as a timer. The bomb is small and black (plastic) and has a fake wick coming out of it.  But it ticks LOL.  We did not think TSA would approve so did not bring it along LOL

[Akaicb]

6 minutes ago, BoopTennis said:

 

haha funny. yes we do play cards and games. Funny story about that in a minute

 

We play Euchre, they taught me a new game called 13 cards. I am not good at that yet. We play a card game called Exploding Kittens which is a fun family game. We also took along our Catch Phrase electronic came ( give clues for your team to guess the word you have), that was fun. We play Race Horse Rummy a lot

 

What is the Golf card game?

 

the funny story - we wanted to take along a card game we have called Pass the Bomb.  Little card game with a ticking bomb as a timer. The bomb is small and black (plastic) and has a fake wick coming out of it.  But it ticks LOL.  We did not think TSA would approve so did not bring it along LOL

I think you made the right decision on not bringing the Pass the Bomb game.  

 

Golf is a game you can play with 2 to 10 people.  Every player gets 4 cards and you place them 2 at top and 2 at the bottom.  You can then only look at the bottom 2 cards and memorize them because you cannot look again.  The object is to have the lowest count at the end of 4 rounds. 

After dealing the cards one card is turned over. 

The person to the left of dealing goes first and either picks an unknown care or the one turned over.  If you choose the turned over card you have to use it and discard one of your original 4.

If you choose to take a card from the deck then you can throw it away in the discard pile but you still have to turn over one of your cards.

Kings are wild and they will allow you to cancel out the card that is above or below them in your original 4 or if you had a 9 on a top card and found a 9 and put it directly below your 9 on the top they cancel each other out.

After all cards have been turned over you count up your total and write it down.  After 9 rounds of this whoever has the lowest score wins.  

 

What I like best is that it does not matter how many people you have everyone can play.  However once you get to more than 8 people having 2 decks of cards helps.

 

Sorry, this might have been more info than you wanted.

 

I'm going to look up the games you mentioned, maybe our family can start a new game next time we are together.

 

I also need to give you a big thanks for posting the dessert menus.  I wish they would do that on the boards outside the dining room.  My husband is not a big fan of the MDR but I love souffles so we go to the MDR when they will be served.  However I only know for sure the first night has them.   

 

 

 

 

[BoopTennis]

thanks for the good rules on the Golf game. We will give it a shot

[BoopTennis]

3 hours ago, cruisingpeople said:

We absolutely love Crooners. That is our mid-afternoon, pre-dinner, post-dinner and "after show" meeting location. After seeing that you had recently been on the Star and the Crown Princess, along with your earlier Martini photos, was surprised to see it took you this long to discover this place. LOL🙂

LOL and NO KIDDING.  I was so mad it took me so long. They have awesome choices. My fav was the Key Lime Pie martini, so good, tasted just like Key Lime Pie!  But one of those sweet things you only do just one or big trouble.  Gotta put that on my list for the FIRST place to go next cruise.  Which I need to find one and book.  Soon.

 

 

actually...I just looked back...the Key Lime Pie martini I had at Wheelhouse.  but it was sooo good.  and pretty. 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by BoopTennis
added photo

[BoopTennis]

Day 9 - Friday Dec 28 - GRAND CAYMAN

awesome day.  except for the fact we were getting near the end of our cruise.

We had booked a tour, and this is a tender port, so we got up early. We docked at 7 am, earliest we could get tender tickets was 7:15 and EVERYONE in your group had to be present. So we dragged everyone out of bed and quick breakfast then went down to Provence dining room to get our 9 tender tickets. I think one tender had already left, but we did not have to wait too long for them to board ours. While we were waiting in the dining room we saw all the chefs come together for their daily meeting

 

We got called and loaded up on the tender. It was a short 5-10 min ride over to the port

Fun to go by our ship anchored out at sea

 

Got off at the port and looked for our guide. We had booked with Stingray Sailing for going to Stingray City and snorkel. He was easy to find and we waited, not too long, until everyone was there.

They had a small bus for us to take us to where their boat was docked for the tour. Not too long of a ride. There were only about 20 of us

 

Climbed aboard his boat, very comfortable, it was our 9 and another family of 9, that was it plus the boat captain Chip and one crew guy Chris.  Both excellent. Plenty of room, there were bean bag type chairs on the trampoline in the back or places to sit under a roof if you wanted.

 

[cruisingpeople]

20 minutes ago, BoopTennis said:

LOL and NO KIDDING.  I was so mad it took me so long.   Gotta put that on my list for the FIRST place to go next cruise. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Every Princess ship has a Crooners except for the Pacific Princess. On the Golden, it is called the Promenade Bar, but it still has the Tee Many Martoonies Menu. On the Majestic and soon-to-be Sky Princess, they have replaced Crooners with the Le Mer French Bistro which a lot of people think is a HUGE mistake.

[BoopTennis]

Then the crazy fun started. Best part of the whole trip.  Boated about 30 min or so to Stingray City and into the water we went.  Crew guy Chris had little fish to feed the stingrays and they all came swimming over to us!  We were overwhelmed with stingrays everywhere, it was tiny scary at first but then awesome.  they don't hurt you but swarm around you and its so funny

 

The water is just about waist high so its easy to stand in and pet the stingrays.  I have an underwater camera (cheap one, not real expensive, so not the best photos) but stuck it under water without looking and got some interesting shots under water

 

Crew guy Chris feeding the stingray:

 

 

 

[c-boy]

who's that gallant looking chap in #44 wearing a tie

[BoopTennis]

11 minutes ago, c-boy said:

who's that gallant looking chap in #44 wearing a tie

 

LOL.  at dinner? with the glow bracelets?

[lvmy2boys]

BoopTennis,  we are booked for the same ship/itinerary leaving next Friday. I'm loving your review and it's so timely for my group. Question, we are booked on the Veragua Rainforest tour and we are not really excited about it and after reading your review, now I'm even less excited about it but there doesn't seem to be much there. Anything you would do differently in Limon? We really want to do something but none of the Princess excursions look very good. Would love to hear more feedback regarding this port. 

Thank you for taking the time to post all the information and pictures!

[BoopTennis]

58 minutes ago, lvmy2boys said:

BoopTennis,  we are booked for the same ship/itinerary leaving next Friday. I'm loving your review and it's so timely for my group. Question, we are booked on the Veragua Rainforest tour and we are not really excited about it and after reading your review, now I'm even less excited about it but there doesn't seem to be much there. Anything you would do differently in Limon? We really want to do something but none of the Princess excursions look very good. Would love to hear more feedback regarding this port. 

Thank you for taking the time to post all the information and pictures!

 

Hi - well first, I hate to turn you off from the rainforest only based on my one experience. Maybe we just hit a bad day. Our group likes to be active, so we were looking forward to a little hiking and being outside.  But the hike wasn't very long and unfortunately we just did not hit a good day I guess for any wildlife of any kind.

 

Perhaps check the Costa Rica section of the Port of Calls?

 

The last time we were in Costa Rica, we were with three other couples and we hired a tour guide to do 3 things -- first zip lining, which was a lot of fun and a great zip line, also a tour thru a banana plantation (full tour, not just pull in and out), then the canal trip down a river where we saw a little wildlife. The banana plantation tour was quite interesting, we just didn't want to do it again.  Same with the canal trip, it was "ok", a relaxing ride in a small boat down a river, guide pointed out sloths in the trees and crocs in the river etc.  Not very "active" but not bad. So it was a nice day, this time we talked with our family and decided to try the rainforest.  

 

I think part of the problem is that everything seems to be so far away from the port. I hope you can find something that fits your needs

You will have a great cruise no matter what, I am jealous that you are leaving soon, I wish I was again!

[cruiseblues2013]

Boop Tennis,  Thank you for giving such a positive review on the Island!  We did the FFL to San Fran the end of November, first week of December.  I just didn't give the time to write a review, but wanted to, after reading so many negative comments of the ship.  It was a incredibly awesome cruise, the food was delicious, the service some of the best we have had on our 23 plus cruises.  We really enjoyed the ship.  You are doing many people a favor, your review is very accurate.

[BoopTennis]

OK back to Grand Cayman and the Stingrays. This and Dunns River Falls in Jamaica were our favorite excursions. The water in Cayman is so beautiful, a blue green clear water that the camera does not capture. The water temp was comfortable and we all just had a blast with the rays

This shows my grandson holding one of the feeder fish to feed to a stingray

 

 

Goofing around

 

 

 

the rays are rough to feel on top and very smooth underneath

 

 

[BoopTennis]

After we had plenty of time with the stingrays, we took the boat to another spot for some snorkeling. Water was very clear, coral was just ok but lots and lots of fun fish to look at. Then we headed back to the place where the boat was docked, the small bus took us back to the cruise port.  Some of our group wanted to get off at Seven Mile Beach, so the bus dropped them off there. They took a later tender back to the ship then we did.  I was a little nervous but they made it back in time. The last tender was at 4:15 pm

They said after they were done at 7 Mile Beach they grabbed a small taxi bus to take them to the cruise port just 5-10 minutes away

 

 

 

 

 

Several cruise ships were in port that day

 

 

this was our group that went to Seven Mile Beach. Looks like they had a few beers LOL

 

 

[BoopTennis]

Dinner

 

 

 

 

I did have at least one of these every night.  I haven't been showing my martini's LOL

 

Starter - Goat Cheese Antipasto very good

 

[BoopTennis]

For entree I had the Jerk Chicken Fajitas, very interesting, turned out really good

 

 

 

[golfb4cruzing]

We did the Canal in 2016 on the Coral and had a great time. This time we are going on the Island in October so this was perfect. Our favorite spot was the Lotus Pool area.

[BoopTennis]

18 minutes ago, golfb4cruzing said:

We did the Canal in 2016 on the Coral and had a great time. This time we are going on the Island in October so this was perfect. Our favorite spot was the Lotus Pool area.

Lotus Pool is the indoor one, right?  which was great this trip because at least two if not more of the days were extremely windy, crap blowing all over the place, inside it was quiet and relaxing.  It got quite a bit of use

[MusicalBear]

Thanks so much for posting your review with menus for this cruise.  We will be doing the same cruise the end of January 2019, except we will be docking in Ocho Rios.  I have a private tour for Limon so hopefully we will see more sloths. 

 

Was the Crown Grill menu available the first night?  It's my birthday and was thinking of splurging.

Edited January 8, 2019 by MusicalBear