Our Easter Island cruise from Jan 9 - Feb 4, 2020

[Ken the cruiser]

We are so excited about our upcoming cruise to Easter Island and all parts in between. We've cruised on over 35+ cruises on a variety of lines over the past 7 years, but there is just something about this 25 day cruise on the Island Princess that really has us excited.

 

It could be because we were fortunate enough to book early and get a great price on a suite, or maybe it's because we had such a great time on our last Princess cruise around the UK this past summer, or maybe it's because it's January and we're just looking to cruise some place warmer than we are right now, or maybe it's just all of the above.

 

Whatever the reason we're excited about our cruise and if you would like to tag along, I'll try to post some pictures and tidbits along the way to accent the highlights of our cruise as well as answer any questions about the Island Princess you may have.

  

Edited January 1, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[crystalspin]

Following! Happy New Year!

[vakamalua]

We are on the Coral Princess January 21-February 6 Around the Horn / Antartica cruise; Buenos Aires to Santiago.  After the cruise ends in Santiago, we're flying out to Easter Island for five days.  Really looking forward to it; the annual Tapati festival is being held during the time we're there.  Hope you enjoy your day there and that the weather cooperates for a smooth tender.  Have a great cruise!

[Ken the cruiser]

50 minutes ago, vakamalua said:

We are on the Coral Princess January 21-February 6 Around the Horn / Antartica cruise; Buenos Aires to Santiago.  After the cruise ends in Santiago, we're flying out to Easter Island for five days.  Really looking forward to it; the annual Tapati festival is being held during the time we're there.  Hope you enjoy your day there and that the weather cooperates for a smooth tender.  Have a great cruise!

Thanks and we hope so too! We're going to be doing the same cruise your going on, but in Jan 2021. We did a similar Antarctica cruise on the HAL Zaandam in Jan 2018 and loved it so much we wanted to do it again, but only on the Coral this time. You're going to have a great time!!!

Edited January 2, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Well, our bags are packed and we are stoked about taking our flight tomorrow to Ft Lauderdale. We are arriving a day early and staying in a hotel that has a shuttle service to the port the following morning to avoid the stress of worrying about flying the same day we board the ship. We used to do that, but found life is much easier when we arrive early.

[Ken the cruiser]

Hi all! We made it to Ft Lauderdale last night and are waiting for our shuttle to the pier. For those interested we stayed at the Hyatt Place which included a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the pier on cruise day for $12 per person. This was a big plus for us as we are “low stress” cruisers and like to pre-plan as much as possible. 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We arrived at the pier around 11:15 and we were in our cabin about 20 minutes later! This is the first time we’ve ever made it to our cabin this quickly on any ship before. Not sure whether it was because we got here so early or because we got to get in the priority line because we’re in a suite or maybe it was a little of both. In any case we can definitely get used to this!

Edited January 9, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[puppycanducruise]

You're off to a great start.

Looking forward to reading more.

Have a wonderful cruise.

[vampiress]

oh wow, that is fast!  i don't normally try to get to room until after lunch in the mdr.

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a tidbit for those that have a little computer tech savvy and want to provide internet connectivity for up to 5 of their devices via just one MedallionNet account. For example, we just finished connecting our RavPower Travel Router to a nearby MedallionNet router and it works great!
 

Basically, once we activated our MedallionNet “single device” shipboard account using one of our devices linked to the TR, all of the devices “behind” the TR now have access to the ship WiFi (and internet) once they select the TR in the network settings rather than the MedallionNet router. 
 

Just did a “speed test” and here in port it was 17 mbps download and 10 mbps upload. My guess is it won’t be this great once we get underway. 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[greenie082756]

Following...

Curious to see how that works out using travel router. 

Would that slow things down sharing?

I just signed up one device on the Emerald and it was a hit and miss on the speed. I had to log off so hubby could

log on to do something.

Enjoy your cruise!

[Ken the cruiser]

27 minutes ago, greenie082756 said:

Following...

Curious to see how that works out using travel router. 

Would that slow things down sharing?

I just signed up one device on the Emerald and it was a hit and miss on the speed. I had to log off so hubby could

log on to do something.

Enjoy your cruise!

We used it on our recent 40 day HAL Australia circumnavigation cruise and didn’t run into any issues, except for once, other than having to periodically relog back onto the account.
 

When we did experience those disconnects, we would first try to relog on to our account via the TR. If that didn’t work, as was the case on one occasion, we would then try to connect one of our devices directly to the ship’s network and try to log on. When that didn’t work, we went down to CS with our iPad in hand and they told us the ship’s internet was having issues. 
 

However, I wouldn’t expect great response if one of your multiple devices accessing the system was streaming a Netflix or similar show, which we never did. But under normal email and web surfing processes on the two active devices we would normally have going at one time, we didn’t encounter any issues. But, if we run into any on this cruise, I’ll definitely let you know. 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s another tidbit we learned today when accessing the internet from behind our travel router when connecting to <ship name>.princess.com to access our shipboard account. You will instantly be granted access to your account without having to log in again. Why? Since the TR is acting as your device’s proxy, the MedallionNet server located at <ship name>.princess.com picks up the account information from the TR connection and automatically thinks it’s you.
 

Pros: you don’t have to log on again to look you account regardless of which device you’re logged in to. 
 

Cons: if you’re sharing your TR with friends or family or anyone else within a 50’ radius (maybe in the next cabin), they will be able to see your account info along with being able to perform all of the other functions available as if they were you.  *** So make real sure you have your travel router password protected. ***

Edited January 10, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Our first day at sea just reconfirmed why we left HAL in favor of booking our longer itineraries with Princess. After laughing so hard at comedian Steve Morris last night, we started our first day at sea with a load of things to do. 
 

First, we had breakfast at Sabatini’s which is one of the great perks with booking a suite to include the fact it stays open for breakfast until 10:30 am on sea days; 9:30 am on port days. 
 

Then we went to a wonderful lecture given by Angela Kelly about Darwin’s discoveries followed by a 2 mile walk before going to lunch in CC dining. Unfortunately the seas were a little rough this morning so we had to do our walk inside. 
 

Now I need to point out that there was a multitude of other things to do, but these were just the events we chose. 
 

Then we went to an afternoon lecture by George Weston about Rome followed by a movie with Brad Pitt called Ad Astra. Now it’s back to the cabin to play on the Internet before going to our first formal night dinner. 
 

After dinner it’s back to the theater for a production show called Do You Want To Dance followed by a Majority Rules game show. 
 

Then it will be back to the cabin to chill, play on the Internet and watch a little TV before heading off to bed.

[OzCanuck]

Hope you enjoy my favourite place on this earth.  It is magical...

[Colo Cruiser]

Awesome!

[Ken the cruiser]

Leaving Cartegena now and on our way to the Panama Canal with an estimated time of going through the first lock around 8 am. 
 

We had been to Cartegena a few times before, so we just decided to walk along the pier to burn some calories. It turned out to be a great idea as they had a free bird aviary within a couple hundred yards of the ship, loaded with flamingos, parrots, peacocks and even a 3 toed sloth!

 

Another cool thing we discovered about the Island Princess today is that with the recent aft design changes that everyone seems to have an opinion about, one positive is that the aft/side facing mini-suites on both the Dolphin and Caribe decks are now covered whereas they were previously uncovered based on many photos on the internet. I know everyone probably knew that, except of course for us. But, knowing that little tidbit will definitely help us in the future when picking mini-suites on future sailings on this ship. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Around 7:30 this morning we started our trek through the Panama Canal and should be finished around 6 pm this evening on the Pacific side. 

[Ken the cruiser]

We just made it through the last set of locks at Miraflores around 5 pm. The picture below was taken after we left the older locks on the right (in the picture). If you look to the left, you will see the entrance to the new Third Set of Locks for the Supermax ships. Look closer and you might be able to see the massive Evergreen container ship that was going through about the same time as us. The ship in front was a HUGE oil tanker. 

[EllieinNJ]

Looks great.