LIVE from Emerald Princess Panama Canal FLL-LA 1/2-1/17 2023

[sonomaphil]

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the as live as the internet onboard will allow it to be Emerald Princess 15 day full transit Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles.  This first post comes to you from someplace high over Arkansa enroute to FLL.

 

This is our 20th Princess cruise and the longest we’ve ever taken.  We did a quick repo cruise back on Royal last September Vancouver to San Francisco as a primer since through circumstance (Covid) and land vacations (Hawaii and Europe twice each) we haven't been on a cruise since 2017. While I liked the Royal (with some reservations) I'm glad to be back on a Grand class ship.  

 

We have wondered if we might be on the younger side of the demographics on this cruise even in our late 50’s!  Guessing this is not a cruise filled with children or teens.  Speaking of that (filling a cruise) as of three days before the cruise you can almost have your pick of cabins if you don’t want a suite.  I counted 8 minis available and gave up courting available balconies when I got to 75. Interior and oceanview are wide and I mean wide open. My guess is we may be south of 1800 onboard. I heard the cruise before us in reverse had 2700 but that was over the holidays. 

 

We stayed at the Hilton San Francisco Airport for one night since our flight is at 8AM New Years Eve and we didn't want to wake up at 3 AM to make the drive. Works out well as the off airport parking lot in front of the Hilton was much cheaper than our regular lot at SFO by $150.   We’re on a nonstop flight from SFO-FLL on Alaska Airlines, first time flying with them for me though my wife has before. Southwest is my preferred airline but nonstop wins every time.  Same flight on SWA we would have stopped twice with a plane change and taken 3 hours more.  We land (hopefully) at 4:30 PM in Lauderdale so we can have a nice New Years Eve dinner to start our vacation.  

 

The Hilton was just fine and we had a few adult beverages and some apps at a place called Kincaid’s that was within easy walking distance.  Very rainy at SFO but very beautiful at 32,000 feet!  We left on time and will arrive a few minutes early.  More to come!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by sonomaphil

[Cleckie]

20 minutes ago, sonomaphil said:

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the as live as the internet onboard will allow it to be Emerald Princess 15 day full transit Panama Canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles.  This first post comes to you from someplace high over Arkansa enroute to FLL.

 

This is our 20th Princess cruise and the longest we’ve ever taken.  We did a quick repo cruise back on Royal last September Vancouver to San Francisco as a primer since through circumstance (Covid) and land vacations (Hawaii and Europe twice each) we haven't been on a cruise since 2017. While I liked the Royal (with some reservations) I'm glad to be back on a Grand class ship.  

 

We have wondered if we might be on the younger side of the demographics on this cruise even in our late 50’s!  Guessing this is not a cruise filled with children or teens.  Speaking of that (filling a cruise) as of three days before the cruise you can almost have your pick of cabins if you don’t want a suite.  I counted 8 minis available and gave up courting available balconies when I got to 75. Interior and oceanview are wide and I mean wide open. My guess is we may be south of 1800 onboard. I heard the cruise before us in reverse had 2700 but that was over the holidays. 

 

We stayed at the Hilton San Francisco Airport for one night since our flight is at 8AM New Years Eve and we didn't want to wake up at 3 AM to make the drive. Works out well as the off airport parking lot in front of the Hilton was much cheaper than our regular lot at SFO by $150.   We’re on a nonstop flight from SFO-FLL on Alaska Airlines, first time flying with them for me though my wife has before. Southwest is my preferred airline but nonstop wins every time.  Same flight on SWA we would have stopped twice with a plane change and taken 3 hours more.  We land (hopefully) at 4:30 PM in Lauderdale so we can have a nice New Years Eve dinner to start our vacation.  

 

The Hilton was just fine and we had a few adult beverages and some apps at a place called Kincaid’s that was within easy walking distance.  Very rainy at SFO but very beautiful at 32,000 feet!  We left on time and will arrive a few minutes early.  More to come!

 

 

 

 

Younger than us since we are early/Mid 60's. Wow won't that be nice if we are 50 to 75 percent full. See you on board 

[nini]

Enjoy! Alaska Air is always our first choice for domestic flights.

We did the full transit in January 2018 on the Coral Princess. We were not crazy about the ship but loved the itinerary, the old locks, and meeting some great new friends!

[triple7tahoe]

Enjoy and Take good care of the ship--We will be waiting in LA when you arrive 🙂  Please keep us updated. Thanks.

[MishelleMcc]

Following along!!  We are doing this route Jan 5 on the Island Princess!  Happy Sailing!!!

[sonomaphil]

Good Morning from Fort Lauderdale!   

 

Yesterday's flight from San Francisco to Lauderdale was quite uneventful, which is good.  I’d happily fly Alaska Air again if the opportunity presents itself.  My wife pointed out that we had a female pilot, I didn't even notice, which is good because it shouldn't and doesn’t matter.  Side note, did anyone see “Come From Away”?  Great show, I saw it in London a few years ago and I highly recommend it, you can catch it on Apple TV. 

 

Took an Uber from the airport to our hotel, a little more expensive than usual with it being so busy here, $30.    We are staying at the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas.  We’re in the original section of the hotel which is very nice but if you think an obstructed view cabin is terrible take a look at our view!  

 

 

 

Pretty huh?  South Florida is very busy and hotels are very expensive this weekend being New Year’s and the Orange Bowl, so I booked this months ago.  This really is a lovely hotel and I highly recommend you stay here.  There is so much in this area of town. 

We spent New Year’s Eve bar hopping here on Las Olas and had dinner at Luigi’s Tuscan Grill.  That wasn't the plan for dinner as we actually have a reservation there for tonight but we ended up canceling our original reservation at Cafe Sensei since we were having fun making friends while having a few beverages.  I had the Baked Ziti and it was delicious as was the Grilled Octopus Salad my wife and I shared.  

 

[phabric]

Following along.  Enjoy your cruise.

[Robbie555]

Have a great time on this sailing, everyone! I was on the 12/3/22 sailing and I had a great time.

 

Just for fun, here's a friendly challenge which I managed to achieve. Try to win all the different kinds of awards on this sailing by winning the many trivia games, game shows, and the sports tournaments. Here are the different types of awards as shown in this picture.

 

1. Champagne bottles (I won a total of 3)

2. Blue Princess coasters  (the most common award playing trivia games)

3. Blue Princess notebooks 

4. Gray Princess bags

5. Princess medals  (only for the sports tournaments like table tennis, mini golf, and cornhole)

[disneyochem]

3 hours ago, Robbie555 said:

Have a great time on this sailing, everyone! I was on the 12/3/22 sailing and I had a great time.

 

Just for fun, here's a friendly challenge which I managed to achieve. Try to win all the different kinds of awards on this sailing by winning the many trivia games, game shows, and the sports tournaments. Here are the different types of awards as shown in this picture.

 

1. Champagne bottles (I won a total of 3)

2. Blue Princess coasters  (the most common award playing trivia games)

3. Blue Princess notebooks 

4. Gray Princess bags

5. Princess medals  (only for the sports tournaments like table tennis, mini golf, and cornhole)

Princess medals are not just awarded for sports tournaments/events.  I won one at a trivia contest for knowing the answer to an ‘impossibly hard question.’

 

(We no longer want/need these items.  Always give them away to others at events.  Just more cruise detritus to get rid of…)

 

 

[Robbie555]

4 minutes ago, disneyochem said:

Princess medals are not just awarded for sports tournaments/events.  I won one at a trivia contest for knowing the answer to an ‘impossibly hard question.’

I guess it depends on the cruise director who is overseeing the contest. For my cruise directors, only the ones who organized the sports tournaments gave out medals.

[sunviking90]

3 hours ago, Robbie555 said:

Have a great time on this sailing, everyone! I was on the 12/3/22 sailing and I had a great time.

 

Just for fun, here's a friendly challenge which I managed to achieve. Try to win all the different kinds of awards on this sailing by winning the many trivia games, game shows, and the sports tournaments. Here are the different types of awards as shown in this picture.

 

1. Champagne bottles (I won a total of 3)

2. Blue Princess coasters  (the most common award playing trivia games)

3. Blue Princess notebooks 

4. Gray Princess bags

5. Princess medals  (only for the sports tournaments like table tennis, mini golf, and cornhole)

Congratulations! Good haul.

[Robbie555]

15 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

Congratulations! Good haul.

Thanks. I hope you manage to win them as well.

 

Try the 7-day progressive trivia. You will like it. And don't be shy in volunteering in the game shows.

[sonomaphil]

Happy Embarkation Day!

 

More on that soon but we still have to cover our day in Lauderdale.  We had breakfast at the Wild Sea Grille here at the Riverside Hotel.  Maybe I’m just not used to prices outside California but $20 for breakfast for 2 seems mighty reasonable, especially for a hotel restaurant.  My wife had the sausage and egg on an english muffin served with hash browns while I had the “Mix It Up” which is sort of the everything breakfast, eggs, bacon, pancakes, toast, hash browns.  After that we walked about 4 blocks to the CVS for a few quick items. 

 

Riverside Hotel is right at the beginning, or end if you will of the Fort Lauderdale Riverwalk so we decided to get some steps in before a pool break.  On the walk we picked up tickets for a 3 PM cruise on the intercoastal.  You can call this our first excursion of the trip. Some photos of the walk:

 

 

The pool has a sign about not feeding the iguanas, they weren't kidding.

 

 

 

 

 

Our excursion was a riverboat cruise on the Carrie B.  We actually went all the way out into Port Everglades but even at 3:30 there were no cruise ships there!  Most of the cruise was the guide pointing out homes and boats you and I could never afford.  But we did cruise right by the Princess birth under the 17th street bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

An adult Beverage or two at Big City Tavern (Happy Hour 5-7 everyday!) followed by dinner again Kuigi's Tuscan where I had the meat lasagna.  I almost always order classic dishes at Italian restaurants because if they can't get classics right there is no hope.  Luigi's is a keeper.  

 

 

 

Alright folks that concludes the preliminaries, now on to the main event.  More to come soon!

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by sonomaphil

[sonomaphil]

In the Elite lounge already, waiting to board at 11. 

 

 

 

 

[sonomaphil]

 

Lunch in the main dining room. Very good, the horseradish is hot!

 

 

 

[Robbie555]

Just curious, who is the name of the main cruise director and the assistants?

 

Just wondering if they are the same as my sailing on 12/3/22.

 

For my sailing, the cruise director was a British man named JC.

 

And his assistants were:

 

Lucia

Georgia

Shell         (organized the ping-pong tournament and co-hosted the daily wake show)

Manuel   (organized the 7-day progressive trivia)

Josie

 

Just wondering if they are in your sailing as well.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Robbie555

[cr83687]

Enjoying your live so far. We will be on the same cruise on February 1st. so thank you for posting. Happy New Year! Cheers!!!

[sonomaphil]

Anyone care to guess what cabin we're in?  

[startedwithamouse]

2 hours ago, sonomaphil said:

 

Lunch in the main dining room. Very good, the horseradish is hot!

 

 

 

Had this appetizer countless times. We swear today it was guacamole!

[sonomaphil]

35 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Had this appetizer countless times. We swear today it was guacamole!

I enjoyed it either way!  

[1emerald1]

1 hour ago, sonomaphil said:

Anyone care to guess what cabin we're in?  

E730!  Had that cabin on the Crown.  At some point during the cruise can you comment on if the vibrations are still bad? 

[sonomaphil]

Salted Watermelon Margarita at the Outrigger Bar after sailaway.  

[sonomaphil]

Elite lounge set up this evening. 

[Robbie555]

2 hours ago, sonomaphil said:

Elite lounge set up this evening. 

 

 

Looks good. Is this for only for Captain's Circle members?

[sonomaphil]

Stanley just made an appearance on our bed.