Island Princess Cruise Journal: 1/3 to 1/13/09

[ancldaca]

Hello fellow cruisecritiquers!!! Took about 24 hours longer than usual but here's my latest cruise journal that I just submitted to the main page.

 

 

 

Island Princess

A 10 Day Full Transit Panama Canal Cruise: January 3-13,2009

A Cruise Journal

 

 

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Miami, Florida

 

Background

I am a 42 y.o. male with a European/South American upbringing and have been living in the U.S. for a total of 28 years. I see myself as a person of refined tastes but do not necessarily live everyday life that way. I consider myself as someone who knows (both by upbringing and then personal experience) what "is good" and what "is not so good". As a consumer, I enjoy and seek out good value which does not mean cheap; there are times when a $50 entree represents better value than a $2.99 fast food meal.

 

My previous cruise resume reads: Renaissance Cruises (1x), Princess (5x), and Royal Caribbean (5x). Reviews on cruise critic are as follows: Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas (AOS) on 07/07: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=30616. The Caribbean Princess Western Caribbean on 09/07: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=32829. The Crown Princess Southern Caribbean on 12/07: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=35864. The Caribbean Princess Eastern Caribbean on 04/08: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=40724. The Caribbean Princess 3 night Coastal Sampler on 5/1/08: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=41545. The Adventure of the Seas on 10/12/08: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=47660. The Majesty of the Seas 3 night cruise on 11/21/08: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=49233

 

This cruise was a present from my parents since Dad couldn’t just accept the fact that his son had invited them to the Crown Princess last year. It will be my first Panama Canal cruise. Unfortunately most PC cruises last two weeks as they tend to go from California to Florida. Luckily, the Island Princess did this run from Acapulco to Fort Lauderdale in 10 days instead. This made it easier to get the vacation days necessary.

 

This is also my first 10 day cruise. I’ve taken three night and the usual seven day cruises before. Seven days have always left me wanting for just a bit more. I wonder how a ten day will feel.

 

 

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Miami, Florida

 

Pre-pre-cruise

I left work at 1pm to catch the 3pm flight from San Juan to Miami. Originally, I had a 6pm flight booked but the airlines’ re-scheduling and cancelation of flights after September ’08 killed that convenient flight time and forced me into the earlier ones, thus costing me an extra half day of vacations. While I could have taken the 8pm flight, it would have left no back-up alternatives to get to MIA at that time of the evening. By taking the 3pm flight, I had the 4pm and 8pm flights on American to fall back on. I have to overnight in Miami as my flight to Dallas, connecting to Acapulco, will leave at 7am.

 

The flight was packed with over 80 people on stand-by and, fortunately, not bumpy.

 

In order to save a few precious minutes of extra sleep, I decided to stay at the Miami International Airport Hotel which is located in terminal C of MIA. As expected, it is an older structure but the room was absolutely quiet. The only thing I heard was the air-conditioner. Great noise insulation job. My room was clean and functional: king bed, a couple of night tables, a desk, a lounge chair with ottoman and a clean bathroom. I found it interesting to see a whole bunch of black and white airport/airplane photos used for art work throughout my room and the hallway. The elevators were slow and, honestly, only one of the 3 seemed to be in service as I kept catching the same one...

 

Dinner was a beautiful family affair at my friend Juan mother’s apartment. Nothing better than a home cooked meal and I was truly touched that they included me in their family end-of-the-year meal. Had a great time which was only tempered by the fact that I had to get back to the hotel to get at least some rest.

 

 

Thursday January 1st, 2009

Acapulco, Mexico

Pre-cruise

Waking up at 4:45am is blasphemy under any circumstances but even more so when on vacation. Still, I was downstairs to check in at 5:30am and was in the TSA security line at 6am.

The place was packed. As part of my vacation, I had booked my Miami-Acapulco flights in first class and expected the line to be shorter. It was, compared to the regular one, but it was also greatly populated by several clans of Argentineans. Of course, a couple of round trip shopping trips from there to Miami a year and they are all Gold in the AAdvantage program... Conveniently, they were all casually late for their flight to Buenos Aires (or never went to sleep from NYE celebrations) and were then siphoned off to an extra line as their flight time was approaching... All in all, I left security 20 minutes later and began my hike to gate D37 where my flight to Dallas was already boarding... I hate MIA (the airport)!!!!

 

I had the aisle seat and the guy at the window seat did as all window seat people do. Purposely book window and then shut the covers so that the feeling of being in an aluminum cylinder hurtling through air at a death defying 550mph is fully completed! Sigh... Breakfast was a cheese omelet which wasn’t bad.

 

We arrived in Dallas ahead of schedule and my flight to Acapulco was also on-time and in the same terminal. This allowed me to do my required pilgrimage to the Dallas Cowboy store!!! The last time I had been in Dallas (flying back from my Alaska cruise last century), our Vancouver flight left late and I had to rush to my gate only being able to look at the store from the outside; one of my greatest disappointments ever... The store is small but has tons of merchandize. I ended up buying a replica jersey from DeMarcus Ware, Dallas’ only true true true consistent star player in my opinion and thus worthy of me supplementing his considerable salary with a shirt bearing his name. I also bought a few smaller things for the office being that I only had my already full carry-on to stuff things into. A 25% store-wide discount was a nice welcome! The girl at the counter also took a couple of pictures of me inside.

 

The flight to Acapulco was less full (but with a lot of Island Princess cruisers on-board). In fact, this was my first flight since September ’08 which wasn’t packed with 3 seats open in Business and lots of space in Economy. It felt wonderful. I jumped to the window seat and stared out almost all flight long, stopping only to eat our “lunch” which was a turkey croissant sandwich... Love those $300 sandwiches....

 

What surprised me was to see so many water bodies on our way south out of Dallas. In my mind, Texas is nothing short of a large pseudo-desert, large cities (i.e. Dallas), and cattle ranching. I really need to get back here to do a land-based trip with a Cowboy game in the mix. Further south, there were these straight dirt roads with smaller roads shooting off and at their end large dirt squares/rectangles. My guess is that this was indeed cattle ranch country and all these roads gave the earth the look of an electronic circuit board from 30k feet up. Pretty funny. As we approached Mexico City the terrain became markedly mountainous with hamlets and towns hugging the mountains or settled in valleys giving way to larger settlements.

 

When we started out our descent, I had no clue where we were going to land since all I saw were mountain tops coming ever so closer to us. Thoughts of assorted pieces of our MD80 strewn across three different valleys started crossing my mind. Yup, I hate flying... We then started doing some real tight (awful) turns and I finally saw water and swamps just a couple of hundred feet below me!!! More happy thoughts about a watery grave this time creeped up in me but at the last moment, lo and behold, a flat asphalted surface appeared and the run-way!!! Safe at last!!!

 

Welcome to Acapulco!!!! Yipee!!!

 

This is a small airport with 7 gates. We deplaned and in a hallway, just before immigration, everything came to a halt as most people had not filled out the immigration form completely (remember to sign the back - twice!!!). Immigration was a breeze since we were the only flight at the time (one reason I booked going via Dallas). The luggage took a tad more but I went to the Customs desk to fill out their form which wasn’t handed out in the plane; I’m assuming that my fellow passengers probably were stuck for a longer time trying to figure everything out. It’s good to be poly-lingual. You hand the form to a customs officer and then have to press a button. If the light goes green you walk on through; if red, you go to get your luggage checked. This system is not random in case anybody wondered. Usually there is a customs supervisor somewhere behind a mirrored window designating the red/green outcome.

 

After Customs, there is a taxi desk where you indicate where you are going to and can pay in US$. My ride to the Fiesta Inn Acapulco was US$35.

 

The drive to the hotel was beautiful. There was plenty of traffic and the cabbie explained that there were lots of people out and about to go to the beaches. I found that odd since it was already well past 2pm. Guess Mexican’s are late risers (then again, after last night, why not). The drive into town is on a three lane road which, at times, is two lanes one way and then switches to the reverse. Traffic would invariably come to a crawl whenever you had a switch. But the views were stunning from the road. What a shame that my camera was in my bag because it would have been worth it to snap a few pictures.

 

Once over the mountain and heading into town (same road) there is a Mexican Naval base and their naval cadet training tall ship was moored there. The traffic was a bit chaotic, only tempered by the fact that it was a holiday... There were a ton of your usual tourist traps like Carlos and Charlie’s and others of their evil ilk.

 

Finally we got to the Fiesta Inn. It is an older building rising some 15 stories above the lobby which is street level. Below the lobby, toward the beach, the building descends another 3 floors to their pool area. From the pool area there are stairs going down to their “private” beach and the main beach, each about another 3 stories down. My room was not ready and I went to the pool bar for a few diet cokes and was promptly befriended by other patrons who just “looooved Puerto Rico” and here I am loving their place. The grass is always greener on the other side I guess. At 3:14pm I went back to the lobby and saw my parents in the check-in line.

 

Our rooms were finally ready at four. My 14th floor room is actually about 20 floors above the beach considering everything below the Lobby floor! I’m freaking out here. This is as bad as my best friend’s apartment in San Juan. Worse still, the balcony has a distinct decline downwards (I guess for the occasional rain to run off). I’m a wreck and barely venture outside. Maybe those balconies were built this way to facilitate their falling off in case of an earthquake (this is an earthquake zone), thus contributing to the mayhem of tourists being mangled amid their ruins after a seismic event... Meanwhile, my parents are on a much more manageable 3rd floor room (which translates to about 9th floor)...

 

Ok, the room. It is a fairly large room with a tile floor, king bed, night tables, a dresser with a 19” TV (20 spanish channels including a few movie ones (a couple in English with Spanish subtitles) and international sports), a desk and chair (free wireless internet), and the balcony has a couple of plastic chairs and a small plastic table. There is also an iron and board in the closet plus they give you a small water bottle daily complimentary (the large one costs 26 pesos, about $2.25 as of this writing). I find the room in excellent shape and the decoration pleasing to the eye. The walls are white stucco and other than the wooden light brown accents of the furniture, the curtains, painting and bed decorations are light navy blue. Very “vacation like”. The beach below is quite long stretching from the Fiesta Inn to the Naval base and it’s gotta be about 2 miles of beach (but I’m horrible judging distances or age...). The sand is lightly brown in color and seems to have a lot of give, similar to Condado/Ocean Park in Puerto Rico.

 

For dinner we simply went to the Hotel restaurant. It is extremely casual and pool side. My dad and I had soups first (he had the pasta - ok; I had the Xochitl which was terrific with the addition of the hot peppers) while my mom tried the nopales with cheese which was grilled cactus with a grilled hand-cheese piece on top of each cactus portion. As an entree my mom had the shrimp which she found tasty while my dad and I had the fried fish with garlic mojo (which we both didn’t care too much for: the fish was quite oily (not from the mojo) and one could barely taste the garlic). But, we didn’t expect haute cuisine, just a meal before hitting the sack after a long travel day for all of us. In that way, the meal hit the spot.

 

 

Friday January 2nd, 2009

Acapulco, Mexico

 

12pm

We all slept in and met up in the lobby at 9am where we (Mom!!) first arranged a private Acapulco tour for tomorrow morning. We opted for private as we didn’t want to get drawn into all the shopping that is usually associated with these types of city tours. Basically, the private tour will cost us double (now $54 each) instead of $27 each to be with 7 other people.

 

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant were we had dinner the night before. This time, there was a breakfast buffet, which was quite good. There were the usual bland american breakfast foods available but also Mexican favorites which I devoured like a whale eating krill: fresh tortillas, refried beans, beef stew, sauteed poblano peppers, chicken stew, nopales, sausages with potatoes, veggies, together with a large variety of fruits, juices, and a good number of breads as well. A cooking station made eggs and stuffed tortillas to order. I had an absolutely wonderful tortilla stuffed with a type of mushroom that grows around the corn plant which is quite local. That mushroom ragout was terrific and I look forward to having 2 or 3 tomorrow!!! Now THIS is what breakfast should be.

 

We (Mom) talked to a fellow mexican hotel guest who informed that there is a tendency to have a full strong breakfast but then to eat smaller meals for lunch and dinner, hence the types of food offered. I love Mexico!!! The restaurant also started filling up late (11am) with locals, explaining why “breakfast” is served until 1pm and also the late beach traffic yesterday!

 

For lunch, we will be going to a local restaurant the tour guide recommended after realizing that we REALLY dislike ‘touristy’ things. Well, I now finally got caught up with this journal and only have 15 min. of rest before we are off to lunch!!! This afternoon I’d like to get to a supermarket to buy a few supplies for the cruise, such as detergent, since I’ll have to do laundry aboard once. The hotel also just brought back (12:48pm) my white shirt for formal nights that I sent to the laundry this morning to get pressed. I’m on vacation so why should I iron?

 

3pm

Ended up going to a place called Don Giovani. It was cheap, don’t go. Oh well... Most restaurants were closed on the strip and traffic was considerable. So far, we have only seen and limited ourselves to the area in front of our hotel but there didn’t seem many lunch places open around here. However, I was able to stop off at a small market and get the things I needed. Siesta time now; it is very hot outside.

 

9:30pm

After some nice conversation here in my room, we went downstairs to have dinner at the hotel restaurant again. I had the grilled chicken salad which was fine and then the lasagna which was so-so. Non-breakfast food is not the Fiesta Inn’s strong point. Service was also pretty bad this evening. The view, however, was unbeatable and somewhat made up for the other things. Tomorrow we’ll be in the cruise so everything will be ok... After dinner, we went to my parents’ room and saw a program about the construction of the Queen Mary 2. Fitting considering we are going cruising tomorrow.

 

Now, I’ll just pack up the few things I’ve used during this pre-cruise and will go to bed maybe watching one of the movie channels while falling asleep.

 

 

Saturday January 3rd, 2009

Acapulco, Mexico

15.57.47 N

98.20.35 W

 

2:19am

Wow, what a busy day it was. First, we had breakfast again at the Fiesta Inn’s restaurant. The heavier Mexican choices were different from yesterday and I had my fill again. This time, I tried the “green juice” which is a mixture of orange, pineapple, and even cactus! Not bad. This morning I had three huitlacocha quesadillas which were the mushroom dish from yesterday.

 

We did our check-out and then met our tour guide, Ulysses. The three of us boarded our mini-van and we drove off on the main street back in the direction of the airport climbing the mountain. We had a few scenic picture stops and then drove up further into the Las Brisas hotel/residential complex to go to the Peace Chapel. This chapel is built on the top of the hill with a strong incorporation of the natural bedrock featured in its construction. It has, by far, the best view of Acapulco we had seen. Simply stunning. The chapel itself is open air but was very cool. It is lit by natural light coming through the light onyx “window panes”.

 

This was about the most “touristy” thing we did as we then asked to be driven around typical middle class and lower class areas. Middle class was very pretty and even the lower class houses were well kept (mostly) on the outside. Traffic started getting heavy as we entered downtown where we stopped by a store as mom needed a pair of flip flops. After that, we drove through the central market and the variety and colors of the fruits and vegetables displayed was amazing. I wouldn’t have minded stopping off, perusing the wares for a couple of hours, and then head back to a nice kitchen to eat the stuff.

 

After the market we stopped off at a silver factory located on what was once Acapulco’s original airport. It’s pretty much downtown now. A quick tour gave way to a showroom with a myriad of nice, simple, pieces as well as a more upscale display/sales area.

 

Up until this point, we were ok. However, the traffic was horrific and even our guide started getting nervous as our tour was to end at 2pm back at the hotel for our ride to the port. We ended up taking back way short-cuts and were treated to latin driving in its full terrifying brilliance. I always felt safe since not too much can happen at less than 30mph but it was a trip back to my days of living in Brazil and Venezuela (and Puerto Rico isn’t too far behind).

 

If the traffic wasn’t horrible enough, our guide made the mental mistake of going toward the Hyatt rather than the Fiesta Inn, something that cost us an additional 30-40 minutes in drive time. We were all starting to get nervous since none of us had ever thought about our sail-away time.

 

Finally we got to the main square and saw a considerable police/military presence. Apparently, there had been rumors of some protest forming there and the authorities had taken preemptive measures thus strangling traffic to a halt at the choke-point - which played itself out over the rest of the coastal part of the city. Once past that, we made it back to the hotel fairly quickly, got our luggage, and headed to port. Only at that point did we begin relaxing as we checked our Princess itinerary for departure time which was 8pm. Ok, logic said that it would be later, but I recently took a 3 night cruise out of Miami when departure was 5pm - so anything is possible...

 

We got to the port area and there wasn’t much of a line (3pm-3:30pm or so). Still, I used my platinum status to go to the preferential line, together with my parents. As always, check-in was fairly quick and painless if you’ve filled out everything ahead of time in the cruise personalizer on Princess’ web-site. There was a little line to do the security picture and the carry-on luggage x-ray (inside the ship!) but nothing major.

 

Mom jumped into the other line so I followed Dad. Once inside the ship, we felt that our odyssey this afternoon and our separation with Mom deserved a well-deserved drink and we hit the Patisserie bar next to the x-ray machine. I purchased the soda card and Dad practiced his few tagalong phrases with Jerome while inhaling a double scotch (if you want to make a Philippine crew member happy just say “salamat” which is “thank you”).

 

Our cabins are located aft on the Dolphin deck. We had booked D714 and D715 because on the Princess deck plan, a corridor appears to exist between these two cabins which are located opposite each other, one on starboard (mine), one on port (parents). Unfortunately, the corridor does exist but has a “crew only” doorway... A real bummer and just a smaller inconvenience (need to walk 3 cabins aft and then across) but I had looked forward to having us being across each other with a hallway in between us. Having cabins on each side of the ship afforded us the opportunity to have a balcony view on whichever side of the ship was “favored” at any time.

 

D715 is a mini suite on the Dolphin deck. It is the 6th stateroom from the back. As you enter, you have your closet area and marine head to your right. The closet is about 5 feet long and has an overhead shelf that runs its length (the beach towel are placed there). The rod also runs across and has 30 hangers of different types. Two doors open to reveal 7 shelves each about two feet long and a foot deep. The second highest one has the in-room safe. The head’s door open into the closet area and when you step in, you have a full bath tub to your right, the wash basin on your left and the vacuum toilet.

 

Past the closet area are the beds (in my case configured as one queen) with two night tables, a desk along the right wall which is followed by a full sofa. Along the left wall, just past the beds, is a floor to ceiling semi-circular piece of furniture which contains storage space, the refrigerator, and the two TV’s. Rounding out the living area by the sofa is a coffee table and a bucket chair. The furniture has a warm brown color scheme, as does all the other furniture in the room.

 

Beyond the living room area is the balcony which measures approximately 8.5 feet wide (the width of the cabin) by about 6.5 feet deep. It has a round table, two larger reclining chairs, and two straight chairs. The floor is covered by a blue plastic non-slip mat and the fabric of the chairs is also navy blue.

 

Dinner this first evening was “Anytime” for everyone as both dining rooms were dedicated to that concept. The reason for that was that muster was smack between the two seatings at 7:15pm. As usual now, Princess runs a terrific muster drill not subjecting passengers to the heat of the open decks but seating everybody in the public areas of the ship. In our case, we reported to the Universe Lounge which is 2 decks below us.

 

After muster, we headed to the Provence Dining Room to find anytime dining in progress. Our waiter was rushing us and insisted on serenading us. Not our style... ‘nuff said. We hoped that he will not be our waiter when our regular dining begins tomorrow...

 

I noticed the deserted feeling aboard so after dinner I walked around a bit. Most bars were closed. The shops were open but with few people in them. The Wheelhouse Bar had about 10 people in it when I got there plus about 6 officers. As the theater finished, it filled up a bit more but just barely so. I went back to the cabin (11:30pm?) and the number of “do not disturb” signs out was amazing. Most doors...

 

So I went to the final social oasis on any cruise ship: the casino. Here too there was plenty of space available. Some tables weren’t even open at all and it was a “cheap” night with lower minimums.

 

Maybe it’s the crowd or maybe a lot of cruisers just had very long days, but the ‘nightlife’ is dead.

 

 

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

at sea

14 01.76N

92 24.03W

Course: 102.5

Speed: 15.9 Kts

cruising toward Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

 

12:13am (1/5/09)

How I love days at sea. No plans, nowhere to go to, no worries...

 

Woke up too early when someone misdialed my room at 8:30am. Well, that just meant an earlier than planned breakfast at the Horizon Buffet. This is located all the way forward on the Lido deck.

 

Before that I stopped off by the Purser’s desk to drop off a flower arrangement request as I have some $325 in onboard credit to spend. This credit has been amassed in a variety of ways: future booking credit, Carnival Corporation shareholder credit, fuel surcharge refund, and two credits from a gift from my brother as well as from our awesome travel agent. Since I basically just buy - maybe - a port wine after dinner each night, I needed to find ways to spend it - or lose it! So flowers for the cabin are a first step in that direction and an invitation for my parents to the Bayou Cafe one evening will be another.

 

I also stopped by the Captain’s Circle desk to straighten things out for my parent’s C&A accounts. They are unable to log in properly on the net and, after all, now have 3 Princess cruises under their belt, so why not have those properly accounted for. They might be regular Silversea cruisers but if this continues, they’ll be platinum on Princess too...

 

I took in my usual cruise breakfast of smoked salmon which I just love! The Horizon Buffet, like the Grand Class of ships I had been on before, are on both port and starboard but there is no Cafe Caribe at the end (or in this case, forward since the buffet is up front). The view is great as you are having breakfast up front. A much better use of prime ship real estate space usually reserved for the masochists insisting on doing exercise on their vacations (who in my opinion, since they want to sweat so much, should have their gyms relegated to the inside of the engine rooms).

 

When I got back to the cabin I had intended to write an entry here but they were showing The Sting, a movie I enjoy very much and hadn’t seen in a while.

 

For lunch we went to the Main Dining room as my father normally disdains buffets. We had our own table but felt a tad rushed. We tend to eat late (1pm+) and enjoy leisurely lunches. Afterwards, Mom went to the origami class (their cabin may not have towel animals but there are paper fish around now), Dad took a nap, and I went to my cabin and saw part of the NFL playoffs. I fell asleep during the Eagles game (no great loss for this Cowboy fan) and woke up at around 6pm just in time to take a couple of snapshots of the sun set.

 

Tonight was the first formal night (the original Patter showed this as the only one but the Captain’s Circle host confirmed there would be two. Someone made a pretty huge mistake and it will be interesting how this all pans out). For dinner, I first had the seafood quiche, then the salad, and then the Vegetarian’s menu pasta with tomato sauce (could have used some fresh basil). I topped this off with the Hazelnut souffle.

 

After “putting the kids to bed” (i.e. my parents went to sleep) I stopped by the Wheelhouse Bar again to find it as empty as yesterday. I befriended the two waiters, who are Brazilian, and I was able to practice my portuguese. They informed me that someone changed the show times around about 3 cruises ago and since then everything seems empty... Well, I had my port wine and enjoyed the jazz in any case for a bit.

 

I also stopped off at the liquor duty free store to buy a bottle of Grey Goose for someone at the office whom I will not tell I bought it. Said person will prove that this report was read by claiming the bottle!!! Yes... my twisted sense of humor at work.

 

Time to go to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll be in Puerto Quetzal and I have to be dockside at 8:15am for the tour we booked.

 

 

Monday January 5th, 2009

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala (but now at sea)

12 53.91N

88 37.92W

Course: 108.4

Speed: 20.8 Kts

At sea cruising to Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua

 

12:58am (1/6/9)

After waking up at 7am I basically ended up rushing to the Horizon for breakfast. As luck would have it, my parents had just gotten there at the same time.

 

We had booked the trip to Antigua with lunch. We debarked on the gangway on deck 5 and you walk about 5 minutes toward the bus waiting area, passing quite a number of souvenir stores set up along the way. They all sold basically the same things: local woven products, local wood carvings (mostly flutes), and the obvious number of “made in China” t-shirts, shot glasses, and knick knacks.

 

The Antigua tour was one of the favorite ones with at least 3 full tourist buses dedicated to this one (plus at least a few more to the one without lunch). As it was, our bus was the last to fill and the Princess videographer came with us which obviously means that we will buy the cruise DVD.

 

Our tour guide, Rafael, was a slightly elderly gentleman with an excellent English who made our 1.5 hour trip to Antigua interesting and fun by explaining Guatemala’s current economy, some history, and pointing out the active and non-active volcanoes in the area. The road to Antigua was in excellent shape quite unlike what I had imagined it would be. Everything was fairly clean and the properties off the road seemed well taken care off.

 

Antigua used to be the administrative capital of Central America when the whole area was still part of the Spanish Empire back in the colonial days. An earthquake in the mid 1700’s leveled the whole city and only one church remained standing. Since then, the city has been rebuilt on top of the ruins but keeping the colonial look to it. So, many times, you could have a colonial facade up front but ultra modern interiors (we weren’t shown these but saw them as walking by)! Think of something similar to Old San Juan in Puerto Rico.

 

Our first stop was at the main Plaza area where we were able to explore on our own for about half an hour. The cobble-stoned streets and uneven side walks made walking a tad difficult. Street vendors would approach us for sales bearing the woven crafts and carved items; to a fault they would not be pushy on their sales. When told “no thank you” there was very little insistence. What I did notice is that about 5 of them knew of our itinerary because they’d leave just before us at one stop and magically appear welcoming us at the next one; cute - in a way.

 

After the Plaza we went to a rebuilt nunnery which now functions as part museum-part administrative offices for the tourism authorities. As most nunneries and monasteries, the building was square with extra thick walls as it was common for that time period. These thick walls kept the insides cooler in the summer and the temperature inside was very comfortable.

 

Off to a side was a round structure consisting of, what had been, private prayer cells above and - according to the guide - a type of dungeon below. As this structure was constructed during the Inquisition some pretty nasty things happened there. The young girls (about 13-15) that entered into the service had to pay a type of dowry to enter. Once in, they were tested for their strength in their faith and, if everything wasn’t “clear” to them, they would be sent to this round structure to “straighten them out or die”. Literally...

 

After this stop we went to a reconstructed (and converted) monastery which is now an absolutely beautiful hotel with large banquet facilities. There, we had our lunch which was a buffet of typical local foods: rice, refried black beans, farmer’s cheese, fried plantains, guacamole, small tortillas, and chili relleno (which here seemed more of a vegetable stuffed deep fried pastry). Although not part of the typical diet, the buffet also included some small rolls, grilled chicken and small grilled pieces of skirt steak to satisfy the american palate. For dessert, they had flan and beignets. Water was included but soft drinks, beer, and wine were available and reasonably priced. If you do this tour, try to finish your lunch quickly and walk around a bit inside the property. It is quite beautiful!!!

 

When we finished lunch we walked about a block and a half to a jade factory. This too was inside a converted/reconstructed ruin keeping a colonial look. There, you could see a presentation of how jade is mined and then worked on, or, go to the showrooms - which is what most of us did.

 

The ride back was quiet and quite a few people took a nap. Once back at the port I purchased a small woven handkerchief and went back to the ship.

 

I must say that I really enjoyed this tiny glimpse into Guatemala. My impression was that although poor, the people had a certain dignity about them which manifested itself in keeping the few things they had clean and orderly. Everyone I (at least) came in contact with was genuinely friendly and service oriented. I barely saw ramshackle housing with even the humblest of houses having a tidy look about them. I’m impressed about Guatemala!

 

Before dinner, we had cocktail hour (well... 20 minutes) in the Patisserie lobby bar because a wonderful string quartet has been playing there nightly. Their song sets are best described as “light classical” with some show tunes mixed in for good measure. They played a very nice transcription of the 1st movement of Mozart’s 40th Symphony. I was also very happy because for the first time in my life, I trumped my Dad in “name that tune” by correctly identifying the “Che gelida manina” aria from Puccini’s La Behemme, while Mom & Dad were only able to get the opera correctly! Yippie!!!

 

Tonight was also Caribbean Night in the Main Dining Room. Sort of funny, but with the exception of some rice & beans type sides and the actual names given to the dishes, none of them are “truly” Caribbean. At best, they are lightly Caribbean inspired. As is now common aboard Princess, people eschew this night and the Dining Room was noticeable emptier than usual. What a shame because the dishes are some of the more savory ones on Princess’ menus. For starters I had the scallop and shrimp appetizer which has a light mustard mayonnaise. After the salad, I had the pork chop which was a tad dry but otherwise ok. My mom’s leg of lamb looked terrific. Next time, I’ll have that.

 

After dinner I put the kids to sleep and went to the Wheelhouse again (slightly fuller today). The casino yielded a winning session not only in Fun 21 but in slots as well! I’ve never really won at slots so that was nice. To date, I’m up about $80 for the cruise...

 

We are really cruising fast to Puerto Corinto. Everything seems to be shaking in my stateroom. The engines are really noticeable back here.

 

 

Tuesday January 6th, 2009

Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua

12 28.72N

87 10.13W

Course: ---

Speed: 0.0 Kts

Docked at Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua

 

3:23pm

Morning came too soon again. Another 7am wake up call. This is not starting to look like a vacation as I’m waking up before I normally wake up for work every day...

 

Puerto Corinto is Nicaragua’s sole container capable seaport. As I peered out on the balcony this morning, I didn’t see all that much. A small container operation area is aft of us and we are facing several slightly delipitating warehouses with peeling paint and broken windows. Ok... It’s gonna be that type of a visit...

 

We found each other again for breakfast and then went ashore to the waiting buses. While yesterday in Guatemala there had been about 12 of them waiting the early tours, today, there were barely about 6 (including smaller vans).

 

We booked the History and Art of Leon tour. Our thinking was that we’d rarely ever make Nicaragua again as part of a trip and should at least get to see something rather than nothing at all.

 

Our bus was modern and comfortable and we quickly left the winding streets of Puerto Corinto behind to take the road to Leon, which is about an hour and a half away. In this case, our guide was a younger guy named Guillermo who enthusiastically talked about the usual history, economy, and geography of his country with a very good English.

 

Along the way, one could immediately notice the difference between these two neighboring countries (Guatemala and Nicaragua). Now I don’t think either is significantly richer than the other but the what I saw, screamed “third world” in that stereotypical sense here: lesser maintained roads, significantly more dirt and trash strewn around, dilapidated structures both commercial as well as residential (I saw several houses whose walls were made of paper boxes), and a vagrant look about the faces of the poor.

 

Our first stop was the Jose Dario museum where we were promptly informed that no pictures could be taken inside. He was an early 20th century poet credited with changing the standards of Latin-American poetry. From the outside, the museum looked a tad better than the rest of the buildings around it. Once inside, his restored home was partially filled with some things from his family and from his own life (like the uniform he wore as Nicaragua’s ambassador to Spain). The picture prohibition seemed to have been eased for purposes of the house’s central garden and water fountain...

 

From there we went to an art museum (no pictures allowed again...). This too was in a restored colonial home but in this case, restored by a private foundation which resulted in a ‘better’ museum. Several rooms exhibited paintings from different European and local periods. The pieces are all part of a private collection which rotates the art in the museum every three months. I was surprised to see a Picasso print of a series that I’m 95% certain also hangs in the living room of a friend’s parent’s house. As we had been some three hours into the tour, some participants wanted to use the facilities but were informed that there was no water...

 

On we walked to the direction of the main Plaza. However, at this point, a mini-mutiny arose because people had to go to the bathroom. Our poor guide didn’t really know what to do. I pitied him. He was under strict orders not to leave the group alone (God, we all wondered off here and there at all times and his rules sounded like Soviet era style orders: don’t let the foreign spies wander off on their own!!!) and now he had to split the group into two: the bathroom people were sent off ahead while the rest of us were herded into an ice cream parlor to get some refreshments. Eventually the groups met up and - lo and behold - everybody was accounted for...

 

Following the Great Nicaraguan Bathroom Insurrection of 2009 we walked along the Main Plaza to stop by a restaurant for - you won’t believe this - people to go to the bathroom... Here too there was no water. Viva la Revolucion...

 

The Plaza and all the associated buildings (except the restaurant where we had just stopped) were completely dirty on the outside. Zero pride on part of the population. I mean, if soooo many people don’t have jobs, can’t at least some clean things up? Hmm... I guess just like in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, it is far easier to suck from the governmental teat than to work.

 

But I digress. We then headed over to the cathedral. The pride of the town was dirty on the outside but clean on the inside (if cluttered with things placed in open areas and cordoned off). People went upstairs to the roof for some scenic pictures but we stayed downstairs. No need to hit the mid-day sun once more. My parents and I stayed a tad more inside and then headed to that restaurant for a canned (!) soda before heading over to the bus saying “no thank you” to the same young street salesman for the third time that morning.

 

I do not want to pick on the kid. At least he was trying to sell something (wooden bird flutes) rather than just outright begging. However, the contrast to my Guatemala experience (again, I believe them to be similar type of economies) was profound. I met some nice people but could also see a lot of indifference and that ticks me off. The drive back was again unremarkable and it was nice getting back to the only 5 star accommodations probably in the country at that point - the Island Princess.

 

Ok, so what is my final take on Nicaragua? First, just based on the tiny sliver that we saw from the port and the tour, my impression was that this country does not deserve to be on this itinerary. It isn’t that poverty shocks me or that I necessarily reject it. No. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have liked Guatemala. However, I just didn’t see the same type of genuine desire to welcome the tourist and his/her money as yesterday.

 

On the other hand, tourism in a country has to start somewhere and perhaps it isn’t such a bad thing for residents of the first world to see the living conditions of people in the third to temper certain “stereotypical thinking”. Finally, the money we do spend there, really does go to make things better locally so there is definitely a redeeming personal quality to making a trip like this one.

 

Perhaps Nicaragua just needs to rethink it’s tourism strategy a bit and follow the Cuban model whereby tourists are generally whisked off into self-contained areas which their own citizens don’t have access to. Well, whatever they do they better do it quick or they’ll be dropped from this route as quickly as Jamaica has been on Princess’ western caribbean cruises...

 

We went to the Horizon for a late lunch (2:30pm) having stopped off first in our respective cabins for some much needed bathroom quality time. The large number of Lido pool people I saw attested to the fact that most people just decided to stay on board.

 

2:37am (1/7/9)

10 01.08N

86 04.92W

Course: 154.1

Speed: 19.6 Kts

After lunch we retired to our cabins for some rest time. At 5pm the Holy Ghost P.A. system started off in my cabin and the Captain introduced the Ship’s Doctor for a message... Oh oh... Yup, it appears that we have “a larger than usual number of guests aboard showing gastro-intestinal symptoms”. It’s Noro-time on the Island Princess baby!!! Half an hour later, we enjoyed dolphins jumping about us as we were leaving Puerto Corinto.

 

Before dinner, we went to the Universe Lounge at 7pm and were treated to something truly terrific. The string quartet that normally performs in the lobby pre-dinner held a concert. Unlike my rather less than satisfying experience on the Caribbean Princess when cruisers showed up making noise during the latter part of that concert, the people that showed up tonight (and there were MANY) were respectful and knowledgeable of what was being played. For the encore, the quartet leader said that they had made many mistakes in playing Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik (with which they opened the concert and was played flawlessly) so they would play it again. Sure enough, they started playing it again but a few bars into the piece they changed went into a self-arrangement of a medley of numerous folk melodies (American and otherwise) all leading back into Mozart’s piece; at one point everybody was stomping their feet because Mozart had morphed into country. Absolutely fabulous!!! It really helped that the musicians were of a higher caliber. Excellent job Princess!!! Keep it up.

 

We had a great time and it set the stage wonderfully for dinner which was Italian night. I had the seafood appetizer, the salad, the pappardelle with rabbit, and then indulged in a wonderful almond paste crusted peach with vanilla sauce. I found the food quality a tad less than usual so look forward to our visit to Sabatini’s tomorrow.

 

My parents went to sleep and I lost a net of $35 at the Casino. Oh well. I am very tired and it will be nice to sleep in tomorrow.

 

 

Wednesday January 7th,2009

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

9 58.30N

84 49.86W

Course: ---

Speed: 0.0 Kts

Docked in Puntarenas, Costa Rica

 

2:35pm

After quite a number of hectic days since I left Puerto Rico, including long excursions yesterday and the day before, today was my first “day of vacation”. Sure, we had that first day at sea but I jumped around the ship a lot more than my entry records might suggest.

 

Today, however, was nice and relaxed. I slept in until about 9am, had breakfast in the Horizon, and then went ashore with mom. We walked down the pier (there is a free shuttle though), and then took a left and started walking down the main street. First, we passed many booths with vendors but about 100 yards later, these thinned out.

 

Puntarenas is a small beach town. However, it must get lively because I saw way too many restaurants on that strip to have been justified by the number of people we saw. The public beach runs from the dock either way and looks very nice and is expansive. A good number of families were enjoying themselves but it didn’t have that packed feeling like Acapulco. Plenty of wide open beach here. Like the other areas we’ve been to, the sand was darker in color since it is a volcanic region.

 

The town looks like it is about 3 or 4 blocks deep from the beach. Again, too many restaurants so I wonder how this looks like on the weekend. Still, there were families and we (Mom) asked around. Turns out that Christmas vacations are very long here going from the 22nd of December to about the middle of February. After our fairly long walk, I purchased a couple of souvenirs and headed back on-board at around noon. Just before going to lunch I put some clothes into the washers ($1 in quarters to wash, 25c for each 7 minutes of drying time, $1 in quarters each for soap, bleach, and dryer towel but I had brought these aboard already). The change machine was out of order. There are two irons and boards and - best of all - the place is fully air-conditioned. The civilized way of doing laundry if you ask me. The laundry facilities are a huge plus for Princess!!!

 

The ship was empty. I think the last time I saw a ship so empty was in St Thomas when everybody gets off to get their fill of duty-free purchases. Imagine, the Horizon buffet only had one side open and we got there at around 12:30pm! The Lido pool was empty and I think I saw like 4 people in the Lotus pool area.

 

We had a leisurely lunch (buffet with my Dad no less!) and at around 1:30pm things started happening. Obviously, the morning’s first tours were starting to get back to the ship. I got my things out of the dryer and called for room service to get some hot water for some teas, being too lazy to walk again up front. Fortunately, the water was delivered by a beautiful Serbian blond (Dali) which justified my laziness completely!!!

 

Extremely fast and friendly delivery of my hot water in light that she was covering for other people. Terrific asset to the company!

 

For dinner I had the stuffed jalapenos which were unremarkable and then Princess’ famous fettucini al fredo served in the gratinated cheese bowl which was very tasty. Just the right amount of sauce.

 

 

Thursday January 8th, 2009

at sea in route to the Panama Canal

7 39.98N

79 48.23W

Course: 29.2

Speed: 14.4 Kts

 

11:06pm

I will dub today’s day at sea as the day nothing got done. At 10am was the marzipan & chocolate carving demonstration in the atrium but it started late so I headed to breakfast (being that I woke up late due to the time change).

 

At 1:30pm was the big Panama Canal presentation in the theater and it was soooo packed that I think the ship was tilting forward because of all the passengers that were there. Being that I absolutely abhor large crowds, I left figuring that something as important as that would be shown on the in-room TV’s later. One would THINK that Princess would do this but noooooo, that would be too practical and make it too easy for us to see this important presentation about the MAIN REASON we are on this beautiful ship in this first place. Yes, this Carnival Corporation shareholder is ticked off about that. Royal is a lot more pro-active about showing these types of events afterwards and that is one huge plus in their column. Rant over...

 

Ok... so at 3pm I was going to go to the Panama Canal sign thing and I was in my cabin reading and forgot about it.

 

Hmm, what did go well today? Lunch with my parents was pretty good as we got a table for the three of us in the Main Dining Room and were able to chat the meal away. Nothing grabbed my fancy so I actually had a cheeseburger - ha ha. However, my parents both had the San Francisco seafood soup which looked delicious.

 

Called room service for hot water again but the Serbian Goddess has been abducted by aliens and I keep getting guys. Sigh...

 

Dinner was short for us because I had jokingly said that I really wanted to put everything on hold to watch the Florida-Oklahoma game. My parents took me seriously and next thing I know, we are rushing through dinner where I had the Mexican salad (it advertised avocado but I guess we left those crates back in Acapulco) and then the roast lamb which was tasty.

 

This 10 day trip is nice because the menus are different! Oh sure, some dishes are the same as the 7 day ones that I’m used to but its fun to get something different (normally: 1st night = lobster terrine for appetizer...).

 

In the end, I just retired to the cabin early. We are due to go into the Miraflores Gates at 6am. Lovely, another early morning on what is supposed to be a vacation. Maybe, I’ll even get to sleep soon.

 

Oh, the seas: those that have followed my reviews over the past 2 years know that I want a little wave action. To date, the largest waves I’ve seen on this trip was the bow wave created by the Island Princess. This stupid ocean is flat as a pancake! For those that want calm seas on their cruises - just follow me since I have the worst luck in that. Always calm and beautiful weather instead of stormy seas where everything gets tossed around... I know, I’m weird.

 

 

Friday January 9th, 2009

El Canal de Panama, Republic of Panama

9 10.59N

79 50.03W

Course: 310.1

Speed: 8.2 Kts

 

10:50am

What a bizarre feeling to write an entry on a cruise ship while many miles inside a country.

 

After a horridly short night (I must have finally fallen asleep at around 2am) I woke up at 5am. I walked to the front of the ship past the unmarked doors and was under the bridge as we started our final approach to the Miraflores locks. A good number of people were already there but I guess that it was very comfortable and we all had ample rail space. This proved to be important since it was so dark and I was taking pictures in the manual setting with long exposure times and propping the camera on the railing helped get clearer pictures.

 

These are the first set of locks from the Pacific up and into Panama which are shortly followed by the Pedro Miguel Locks.

 

The guide was already narrating and next to us we had a Monrovian registered oil tanker. As everybody always comments: it is far better to watch everything canal related on the other ship than what happens to your own. I was surprised how quickly the whole process goes by. Once your ship is in position and the back gates close, it only takes a few minutes for your chamber’s water level to be level with the next. Very cool.

 

Once past Miraflores, I had a quick breakfast and then ran aft to take pictures of us leaving the Pedro Miguel locks. Funny, but to see the canal in action, it is better to be aft I think. After all, nothing really happens until the aft gates close. Once you are level, the front gates open and that’s it - you are through. But aft, you really get a good sense of the ship rising and then going forward as the ship’s engines kick in to move forward.

 

We are now cruising through Gatun Lake. I had planned to go to sleep to catch up after such a short night, but how can I do that? These 80 kilometers or so are the reason behind this whole cruise! It would be criminal to take a nap now even though I am extremely tired.

 

Outside, every 5 minutes or so, the landscape is different. After the gates we went under the Bridge and through the Culebra Cut (impressive that this was actually cut out), saw the work being done for expanding the canal, the entrance to the Gamboa river, the dredging operations, etc.

 

3.20pm

9 16.66N

79 55.32W

Course: 7.8

Speed: 0.3 Kts

We have just left the last lock of the Gatun Locks and are now moving toward Cristobal to dock for a few hours.

 

As we were being lowered, the very last aft cabins on Dolphin deck started hugging the canal and the cement wall in front of us was of balcony height. All along, the people in the cabins aft on Emerald deck were able to reach out and touch the canal’s walls.

 

I tell you, I’m not one of those who just has to do things merely because one can but at the last drop, I too was able to just barely touch it. With that small touch, more a rub of a rusty metal piece really, this cruise changed for me. Up until this point, it had been a cruise. No more, no less than the many Caribbean ones I have done recently. Oh sure, the destinations and the cultures were different but just a cruise nonetheless.

 

But that little touch of the structure changed the whole outlook for me about this cruise in my mind. It is as if in that briefest of moment I had felt the collective sacrifice and genius it took to make this canal happen. A shudder literally ran down my spine in this comfortable 82F/28C degree weather.

 

The cruise, just became the event it was meant to be from the start.

 

Got myself some hot water and some pastries for an afternoon tea on my balcony as we cruised by the French Channel. In usual fashion, the French started the Panama Canal project but left it unfinished; the stub of a canal that they left behind on the Atlantic side sure looks like a nice swimming pool though...

 

2:11am

I am loving it!!! Ever since we left Cristobal and have gone into Caribbean waters, the winds have picked up in great intensity and the ship is moving a little bit. Dinner was ok. The Maitre has sent us a special appetizer the second day running. Yesterday, we received some focaccia and today we got a caprese platter. We aren’t quite sure why we are getting this special treatment. Maybe it is because we are eating much less at dinner, not because we don’t like the food, just because we are eating more measured. Perhaps Princess thinks we are starving...

 

 

Saturday January 10th, 2009

at sea in route to Ocho Rios, Jamaica

 

3am

Today was just like yesterday evening. Rolling small waves (about 1.5m) and lots of wind. In the morning we had breakfast at the horizon and norovirus service has kicked in fully. There is an attendant at every food station and at the drink stations. You can’t touch anything anymore; I’m just waiting for the announcement that we’ll get the three bucket treatment every time we need to go #2 in our staterooms...

 

In the dining rooms the table top bread baskets, butter trays, and salt & pepper shakers have disappeared. Crew must hate this; I know I would... However, we noticed that the amounts of food people are taking from the buffet are diminishing. Guess it’s tough to ask another person to pile yet one more scoop of potato salad on an already heaped oversized Horizon Court buffet plate...

 

After breakfast, we sat down and watched the 2nd Act of Mozart’s Zauberfloete on my computer. The DVD, a production of the Royal Philharmonic, was a present of mine they gave me and we enjoyed watching the two acts on two days.

 

We had a lovely lunch in the Main Dining Room again and noticed that it was a lot fuller than other days. Maybe people were going there since it is lower in the ship and the motion is less noticeable or maybe people just figured that if they are going to get served anyway might as well go for the full Monty.

 

Mom went to her origami classes and Dad did his siesta. The whole afternoon (and evening after dinner actually) I basically sat on the balcony enjoying the strong winds and the ship’s motion. You know how dogs are in heaven when they stick their heads out of a moving car’s window? Woof woof!!!

 

This evening was also the Captain’s Circle party. Roughly 50% of passengers taking this cruise were repeaters and two parties were held in the Universe Lounge. A few people left at around 7:30pm, something that would have some significance for us later. The cruise director did a decent MC job but the Circle Host and the Future Cruise Consultant were pretty flat. The captain was also rather cold and stoic; the biggest announcement was that Princess has no plans to build any new ships for now. This was really just a confirmation of Mickie Arinson’s comments at the last shareholders meeting and in the recent past. They had the usual champagne for the three most travelled passengers and then proceeded to the raffle for the rest of us. The first name called wasn’t present so they proceeded to raffle off three more people. As luck would have it, my mom ended up being the third person called. If those people hadn’t left early, we wouldn’t have won!

 

Dinner was ok and I had the duck. It was very dry so, instantly, it qualified as my worst dinner aboard so far. Let me qualify that, it was good, just dry.

 

 

Sunday January 11th, 2009

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

 

1:50pm

Had a wonderful night’s sleep (because - duh - we were still rocking a bit) and for lunch we went to the Ocho Rios Jerk Centre which is just outside of town (about a 3 minute cab ride away - no traffic). Just like on my September ’07 Caribbean Princess cruise, the food was simple but very good. Excellent scotch bonnet pepper hot sauce on the side!!! This time, the cabbie didn’t rip me off which was great; still, US$30 round trip for a 3 minute ride is...

 

On the return trip back to the ship I stopped off at the Island Village shopping mall where I purchased my obligatory keep-sake and also had a wonderful cup (actually 2) of coffee at Coco Browns which is tucked in to the left as you pass the stage area at the front entrance.

 

I really had a nice - but short - time in Ocho Rios!!! This came as a complete shock to me after my experience in September ’07 when I wowed not to set foot again on Jamaica. Everybody I met was nice, friendly, and very helpful. Maybe the fact that we were the only ship in town had something to do with it; maybe I was just very unlucky last time. Fortunately, I heeded my own words of always giving something a second chance after a bad experience.

 

And if my Ocho Rios lunch with my parents and walk wasn’t a nice enough time, Dali, the lovely room service attendant re-appeared in my cruise life with this afternoon’s bottle of hot water! Persistence of calling room service for hot water has paid off; it has only cost me about $40 in tips and over half of my tea supplies!!! We talked for a while and she will now be getting a copy of this journal by email as well.

 

Interesting note: I had previously left a “You made the Difference” card for her at the purser’s desk and she never received it. So, she just got another one! However, it made me wonder how many other crew members might not get theirs...

 

(continued on next post)

[ancldaca]

(Continuation)

 

 

Monday January 12th, 2009

at sea en route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

10:38am

Today we had the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast. We felt it a wonderful way to start our last full day aboard and it was. For just about $30 we received 2 quiches, 2 orders of smoked salmon, a large fruit plate, a large assorted bread and danish plate, a couple of juices, coffee, and a half bottle of champagne. We set everything up on the balcony table (the Caribe deck ones on Grand Class ships are larger!) and had a wonderful breakfast while watching the sea move by.

 

I want to take this opportunity to talk a bit about the ship itself which has instantly become my favorite Princess ship (although I do want to try the former Renaissance ones and will reserve the fact that I may change my mind again).

 

The Island Princess was built in 2003 and has a sister ship called Coral Princess. Both these vessels are Panamax ships, barely able to squeeze into the Canal with its current dimensional requirements. With just around 2400 passengers max, these ships carry about a third less passengers than the newer Grand class ships and one can really notice that. I only saw the crowds when we got off in Cristobal when everybody tried to rush off the ship after our Canal transit. The other times some crowding was seen was just before the dining rooms would open.

 

For those that have cruised the Grand Class and the newer Crown/Emerald/Rubi ships, the best way to describe the Island is that it is a “Baby Grand”. Just about everything that makes the Grand class ships so nice to be on is here too. The layout is basically similar (a few things different here and there obviously) with a beautiful central atrium that houses most of the retail operations and the Patisserie in lieu of the International Cafe. There’s a nice small waterfall area underneath the grand staircase that adds a nice touch to an otherwise underused area. There are two main dining rooms instead of three and the ship is narrower of course. The buffet is forward instead of aft.

 

I found myself moving forward in two ways. If going to the Horizon Buffet I would go up to the Lido deck and then walk forward through the Lotus and Main pool areas. However, for dinner and atrium purposes, I would head down to the Promenade deck which was usually devoid of people and provided a nice “highway” forward. I did not care for walking around the other cabin corridors with their twists and turns; they are narrower as well.

 

The things that are ‘missing’ compared to the larger ships are MUTS (movies under the stars), the aft adult only pool by the Horizon (the main thing I missed), a true disco, and Vines. There’s no International Cafe but the Patisserie sort of makes up for it although it lacked the food (why not just call it a Lobby Bar then...). While some people may miss these things, I don’t feel that their exclusion detract from our enjoyment of this vessel.

 

The theme of the ship is France/French. You can notice this not only in the names used for public areas here and there (Bordeaux and Provence Dining Rooms for example), but the cabin decor reflects that as well. In fact, our two cabins were outfitted identically right down to the same pictures in the same locations! The casino has a french theme as well with many references to Paris and France in general. For example, a bank above some slots had references to the Tour de France; other decorations referred to Paris.

 

We had a fun time at the Landfall dinner. Again, a special appetizer awaited our table. Today, it was an amazingly good shrimp scampi which we thoroughly enjoyed. Still, I ate myself silly tonight. After the scampi, I had the seafood salad stuffed avocado which was ok; then I had the salad. Finally, I had the sirloin steak with pepper corn sauce. The sauce was good! Finally, of course, we all had the Baked Alaska. Quick comment here: why does Princess use the song La Cucaracha to introduce its galley staff? Hasn’t anybody told them that cucaracha means cockroach? Don’t know about you, but I prefer not to hear the word cockroach when in association with a kitchen...

 

 

Tuesday January 13th, 2009

In flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

8:10pm

Normally, I never comment on debarkation, however, two very negative events have forced me to make an exception.

 

As usual we all woke up early, in my case 6:30am. I basically rushed to the Horizon arriving at around 6:45am and found it quite packed. In usual “norovirus”-mode we got the hand goo and were then served our food. It is here that I finally met the single Princess employee with a REAL bad attitude. This guy was showing his full disdain for us passengers by carelessly and almost maliciously slopping the salmon trimmings on my plate. This is not something that happened only to me. My mom mentioned his behavior and they had breakfast quite a while later. All the staff seemed much less friendly today.

 

We reported to the Provence Dining room for our Red-4 (Dolphin Deck) group 9am debarking. Princess’ silent debarkation went smooth as usual and we dinged out for our final time on the Island Princess.

 

It is here that things became, well, weird. Normally, I expect immigration first, pick up your luggage second, and customs third before heading out. Instead, what we found was a mess. We were held in line upstairs and let go down in small groups. We picked up our luggage and only then went into lengthy lines for a dual immigration/customs process. Even though porters usually get priority treatment, today they had to get in line like everybody else. Everybody seemed sort of lost and Princess land personnel wasn’t much more in the know either. One lady was surprised that our group was downstairs already...

 

It also didn’t help that there were at least another 5 ships in port (including the Queen Mary 2 on which we saw a program on in Acapulco! A clear sign of the Cruise Gods of things to come?). Quite surprising for a Tuesday. Only 5 custom/immigration officers were out front plus another one off in a room attending the wheelchair passengers...

 

Once out of the mess, we found that the Port Authority’s airport car rental bus was in operation. Nice surprise since I was under the impression this service was only available on the weekends.

 

My parents got their car and checked into the Courtyard on Seabreeze Blvd (the former DoubleTree). We had lunch with my friend Juan at Bimini Boatyard and he then dropped me off at the lovely Miami International Airport.

 

Now, I’m sitting in my flight back to San Juan finishing this journal. I lucked out and American upgraded me to business, the first time my Gold status has worked. Considering my flights from Miami to Acapulco on the 1st, I can honestly say that I’ve only travelled in 1st class in 2009. Let’s see how long that will last.......

 

So, how was this cruise overall? Well, it was truly fantastic. It started as a vacation and became an event during the Canal. Princess’ service was consistent and adequate, at times great. The final Horizon Court experience could be considered a damper and I hope that was an exception, not the rule. I will certainly pay a bit more attention next time.

 

The Island Princess is terrific and for a large ship (yes 2,000 pax is large regardless that there are even bigger ones out there) you never get a feeling of being overpowered by the crowds except the obvious exceptions such as the theater and the Cristobal stop.

 

I’ve also discovered that I easily “survived” the 10 day experience. In fact, quite easily. When cruising, more is always better I guess. I’m now ready for a 14 day - ha ha!!!

 

So, again, I will sign off not without inviting all to come along my next booked trip: a truly small group cruise I’m organizing on the Carnival Valor in December 09. However, as faithful readers know, that is just way too much time between cruises for me. Let’s see which other ones will pop up in between...

 

See ya on the seas!!!

[Alessandrina]

Thank you, merci, gracias, grazie, danke, for your excellent report! :)

Cheers.

[rdsqrl]

I love your reviews and always enjoy reading them -- aside from those references to your misguided allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys, which this Redskins fan finds unfortunate if not downright appalling. Thank you so much for doing such a detailed, thorough job; I really enjoyed this one, especially since it's looking like my next cruise will be on the Island. You made me laugh out loud several times!

[mii]

Thaks for the review. I was particurly interested in Guatamala as I wil be there in April but on the Coral. I love the Coral/Island ships; they are my favorites of the ships that I have sailed. Glad you enjoy your cruise.

 

Marilyn

[Colo Cruiser]

Great review. :)

[xznwfd]

Another wonderful review - I appreciate the time and effort you put into your jounrnals. Thanks!

 

Cathy

[macaroni]

Can you give me a quick list of each nights dinner menus. Which nights are the best to go to the specialty restaurants.

Also, how many pools exactly are on the Island. We will be on her in February for your exact itinerary. I thought the Coral and Island both had aft pools.

[spingal]

Great review!! I too am a Cowboys fan!!! And can I claim that bottle of Grey Goose if your co-worker doesn't read this! :D:D

 

Thanks for writing this!

[ancldaca]

Alessandrina: You are welcome! BTW, tons of Canadians aboard!

 

rdsqrl: You will love the Island! Oh, and don't think you'll get away with another split in the season!!! ;)

 

Mii: Yes, I did enjoy Guatemala a lot. Really nice people!!!

 

Colo Cruiser: Thank you as always!

 

xznwfd: I love doing them. Thanks!

 

macaroni: I did not pay attention to the menus themselves. The themes are the same (sailaway, caribbean, chef's, Captain, landfall, etc) but the make up of each menu seemed different than the 7 day ones. We actually had plans to eat at both Sabatini's and the Bayou but - again - Princess MDR food is of good enough quality that we didn't feel that we needed to 'escape' to specialty dining and ended up canceling both reservation - and had good dinners all 10 nights. I ended up eating the fettuccine al fredo one evening because I wasn't in the mood for whatever was on the menu that evening. The "worst" meal was the dried out duck (coincidentally, all 3 of us had it and all 3 were dry). Pools (as far as I know without looking at deck plans now): the main one midship on Lido, the Lotus aft of that, and then the for-pay area aft of the ship which always seemed empty. The busiest pool day was the last day at sea, from what I remember, and my travels through the Lido did not scream chairhogging in my mind.

 

spingal: He he! The girl is on vacation and will be back on Tuesday. Let's give her a chance first, no? :D

 

 

Now that I think about it, there was one thing - structurally - that I did not like of the Island. The windows on the Lido don't open so it can get really stuffy up there. That was very noticeable on the first part of the cruise when we barely had any winds...

[jmcruiser]

Thanks for the great review! We'll be on the Island next month, same itinerary and even be in the same cabin your parents were in!!! I had several questions before I read your review, but all were answered throughout. I have to agree, the Island/Coral are the best ships in the fleet. Thanks again for taking the time to write.

 

J

[spingal]

spingal: He he! The girl is on vacation and will be back on Tuesday. Let's give her a chance first, no? :D

 

OK - she has until end of day on Tuesday!! LOL!! :D:D

 

You are an amazing writer -- I enjoyed your review so much.

[luckycruzer]

Thank you, merci, gracias, grazie, danke, for your excellent report! :)

 

Cheers.

..go to Whatever happened to.for Lampadina...lucky