Life on Board Ship

We made it to Miami and was docked by 8am and watched a beautiful sunrise. Had an early breakfast and was ready to debark as soon as we were able to. It took about 45 minutes to get off the ship and through customs, but other than the time it all went well. Got a taxi and arrived at the airport and through security within another 1/2 hour. Now the wait, our flight doesn't leave until 3:45 this afternoon, then we are flying to LAX then back to Tucson. The only connection we could find. So it will be around midnight Tucson time when we get home.

Thought I would expand a bit on life on the cruise ship. Here is deck 7 (our walking deck) where 2 2/3 laps equals 1 mile. Well, over the 2 weeks, we put some miles on this deck. It will be nice to walk back at home where we won't be going in a circle - round and round the deck. On sea days we would walk 45 minutes after breakfast then at least 2 other times during the day. On days we were in port, we only got in maybe 2 times in a day. Even with all the walking, I'm sure my calorie count intake far exceeded my exercise calorie count. (Diet time when we get back).

Besides the buffet, they had 3 other main dining rooms where service and food was just as enjoyable at any fine dining restaurant. We partook in these fine dining experiences quite a few times. Always enjoyed their desserts.

Here is a picture of the buffet area. They always served many different types of food and all that I tasted was good.

 We had a mini-suite stateroom with a balcony. Mini-suite also still means small, but it wasn't too bad. We sure enjoyed our balcony, even brought our dinner back from the buffet to enjoy peace and quiet, by our selves one time.

Every evening our steward left us a little animal on the bed. I didn't find the bed too comfortable but Jim thought it was fine.

Our typical sea day starts with breakfast, walk, rest, casino, bingo and walk.

 We broke down and played shuffleboard the last day. Needless to say, I don't think Jim will ever play again - I won 75 to 25. It wasn't the best shuffleboard conditions.

We always took part of Bingo - which I reported that Jim won $105 the first day, then I won $53 a few days later, but mine I had to split with 2 other winning cards. Here getting ready for the big game.

They had an area you could see the bridge.

We had a very enjoyable time, but am glad we are heading home. Jim caught a cold and is suffering, so the last few days have not been as enjoyable, but overall a good time. Was it worth it to see the Panama Canal - yes, but now I can say that I have been there and done that and not go back again. The trip being 2 weeks long is a bit long. Especially having so many sea days with not much to do. A lot of their activities they had on board did not interest us.

Here is information on our cruise ship.

Hopefully you can see this map ok of our route we took.

No one guessed at our total miles, so I am unable to give out the prize for the winner. Total miles was 4,547 Nautical Miles or 5,229 Land Miles.

 Well that's enough for now. As I remember things, I'll try to post.

Panama Canal

We made it to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal at 6am Wed. and then waited until after 8am to get into the first lock. This is a shot of Panama City to our right.

 We are heading into our lock on the right. We got to see how everything works as the ship next to us went through the same process. It was a beautiful calm day to transit the canal. There are 2 pilots who board the ship to take it through the canal.

 Once you are in the lock, they use cables to tie to these locomotives that take the ship forward and keep it on the correct track.  There is only 1 foot clearance on each side. The cruise ship is the largest ship that can cross in the old locks. The new locks are a bit larger (we could see the new locks off to the left of where we were).

Here is the gates opening.

There are 3 locks taking you up to the level of the lake, then you travel the lake approx. 48 miles, then 3 locks taking you down to the Caribbean Sea.

The whole process took about 9 hours and was very interesting. A bit boring because it takes so long to get through everything, but just seeing the engineering involved in this passage is well worth the trip. Here is where we are entering the Caribbean Sea.

Our last stop on the cruise was Cartagena, Colombia, which is a fairly large port and city. They say it looks a lot like Miami.

We took a bus ride around the city then a walking tour of the old city that they call the Walled City. Of course, another church.

 The streets are narrow and crowded with tourists. It was also very hot and very humid. We were glad to get back on board the ship to get into air conditioning.

Jim caught a bit of a bug and has been coughing, so was a quiet evening. We filled our plates at the buffet then went back to sit on our deck to enjoy our meal where it was quiet. It does get old being around people all the time. The next 2 days are at sea where we will arrive in Miami on Sunday morning. We will have plenty of time at the Miami airport and I will be able to connect to my own service, so will plan to expand on our trip.

Would anyone like to guess the total ocean cruising miles we will have gone from LA to Miami? You can leave a comment on this post. I will give the answer in a future post.

3 Days - 3 Ports

We've been busy over the past 3 days. I will just give a quick overview now of the 3 ports we visited because of limited wifi, but once we get to Miami, I'll try to fill in the blanks.

First port - Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

 There is nothing near the port, so we had booked an all day excursion to Colonial Antigua, which is an old town about 90 minute drive. Less than 1/2 hour into the drive and the bus broke down. Had to wait about 20 minutes for a new bus to show up, but the rest of the way went without incident. Here is an old cathedral in Antigua.

 The streets were all cobblestone and filled with tourist. The street vendors just bug you to death to buy their wears. Just couldn't get away from them.

We had a good lunch of a typical meal - rice, beans, chicken or beef. This is a typical lunch for all the countries we visited. Even though it is basic, it's still quite good (or we were hungry which I can't believe).

Next Port - Corinto, Nicaragua

Also, there is not much by the port here so also had booked an excursion to Old and New Leon. Here is the ruins in Old Leon. This was another 2 hour drive from the ship. So we are seeing a lot of the countryside. Both Nicaragua and Guatemala are dry areas, not too tropical which I envisioned.

There are many volcanos in these three counties we are visiting with only about 2-3 active in each. Here is one in Nicaragua that is active, you can see the smoke on top.

This is the Leon Cathedral.

 We climbed up about 72 steps to the roof.

Port 3 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Costa Rica is much more tropical and a little better conditions than the last 2 countries, but still quite poor. As before, we took an 8 hour excursion called Discover Costa Rica. Of course we visited another cathedral which the blocks were made from volcanic ash.

Went to a coffee plantation, here are coffee beans drying in the sun.

 Here are the grounds of the coffee plantation.

 We also visited a botanical gardens, which wasn't much. When we got back to the ship there was a show from the locals.

Happy Valentines Day gift from our stewart. We are at sea today and arrive at the Panama Canal tomorrow early morning. I'm looking forward to traversing the canal.

Welcome to Acapulco!

Arrived in the Acapulco bay early morning to enjoy a nice sunrise.

It was a 1 sea day trip from Cabo, so was anxious to leave the ship again. This time they docked so did not need to take a tender to shore. Here is where we docked.

The views from the ship were great, we could see all of Acapulco and bay. It's a very pretty bay.

 They even had a welcoming band and dancers for us.

We took the Bay Cruise excursion and this was the boat that gave us a very good tour of the bay, offered unlimited drinks and lunch.

The cliff divers draw most of the attention here. Our bay cruise included seeing them jump. They jump from the cliff on the left into the cove. There are divers standing on the cliff, but can't see them in this picture. They dive 136 feet into this little cove.

Here's looking at the high rises which are mostly condos.

And they assured us that it was safe!!!! Then the first cruise we take and get robbed by a pirate.

We had a really nice time, didn't see much of the city itself, but what we saw was your typical Mexican town. Did walk a bit along the bay.

Been enjoying our trip so far, great food, plenty to drink and the weather is great. It's been smooth sailing all along except for today, the seas are angry, so doing a bit of bobbing around, you think we had too much to drink walking around. We have a sea day today then will be in port tomorrow. So the next post won't be until probably Sunday.

Cabo San Lucas

We have a "Bingo Star" - Jim won the first bingo game Monday afternoon a total of $105. It paid for the bingo ($49) plus a little profit. Then that evening after a great meal in one of the restaurants we took in the nightly show. Some good music.

 We sailed into Cabo around 9am yesterday and went right past the famous rock formation at the point to the harbor where people pay big bucks to see (oh we pay big bucks to see only from a bigger boat!) This pic was taken from our stateroom. We had a wonderful view going in to anchor.

 It's a nice little harbor/cove at Cabo. Then we took tenders into shore.

There are shops and restaurants all along the marina. We walked directly to Diamonds International to pick up a free bracelet and Jim proceeded to bargain a excellent price on a Tanzanite bracelet and earrings . They are just beautiful and am wearing them all the time now. I'll need to take a picture to post. 

It was such hard work bargaining that we needed to stop for a beer. We found this neat little hut for $1 draft beers. Such a deal.

 This is our cruise ship, picture taken from a point on shore.

 It's a typical touristy Mexican town. We had pleasant weather and enjoyed our walk around the marina area.

Our ship set sail again at 6pm and we are on our way south. We had a glass of wine on deck enjoying the beautiful weather before dinner. Went to the Chinese restaurant but didn't like it as much, the food just wasn't up to par. Visited the casino then another event before retiring for the evening.

When we plugged our phones/watches to charge for the night, we discovered that our 110 electrical outlets were not working. That morning when I plugged in my curling iron I heard a pop and it wouldn't work. I thought it was the curling iron that went out and threw it away. Now we discover it was the outlets that were not working. They only have 2 outlets in the whole room/none in the bathroom even. I called services to get it fixed this morning, but we had to go find a place to charge our phones/watches as they were totally down. Believe me, it's hard to find 110 outlets on this ship. We ended up at the art gallery desk where we found a computer plugged in that had a power strip with 2 empty spots. So had to sit for about 45minutes to get charged. They did get our outlets fixed so we are back in business.

One complaint I have (and a big complaint it is) that you have to pay for wifi (which is satellite and quite slow), which is $125 for 250 minutes. Well 250 minutes just doesn't last very long especially since it takes so long to accomplish anything. So if later on you don't see many posts, I'm running out of time. We haven't been checking out emails and Jim is going through withdrawals for not playing his games. Just have to keep him busy doing other things.

This is our last sea day today before we get to stops everyday. Sea days are hard to fill since we are not the type to sit out by the pool or can eat and/or drink all day. So we have excursions on the next  5 stops that will keep us busy and seeing the sites. Will try to keep our blog updated. Having a great time and the weather is finally warm.