Category: Travel

Last night we moved our clocks ahead and Jeff and I remembered to do that before turning in for the night, and we set an alarm for 8a.m. We planned to get up and either go to the weight room or walk the Promenade deck. The alarm went off, and we promptly fell back asleep. About 9:45 we finally went to breakfast. We joined another couple’s table; they were from New Jersey and were still overwhelmed by how lush Costa Rica was. Suddenly Jeff said to me, “Look behind you.” I did and there sat Mary and Trish! They were sharing a table as well. How funny.
After breakfast Trish told us that she and Mary were going to have breakfast in their room in the morning – complete with champagne and invited us to join them.

Tomorrow is our Panama Canal transit day!

Mary came with Jeff and me to the medical lecture by Dr. Sam. Today’s talk was titled “Monarchs, Maladies and the History of the World.” WOW! While I could have done without the photos showing the effects of hemophilia, the talk was so interesting. It taught me how disease, and he concentrated on the German monarchy, affected the politics of the day. This guy really needs to post his lectures on YouTube.

Mary went off to do her own thing and there was just enough time for Jeff to run downstairs to get a chai for us to share and get back in time for Humberto, the destination expert’s, talk about the Panama Canal. I’m not sure I mentioned this previously, but before this cruise Jeff and I saw a PBS documentary by Ken Burns on the making of the Panama Canal and it was great. We recommend it.

Since we’ve spent most of the morning sitting in the Princess Theater being educated, we know we need to get some exercise. We walk for about an hour (3+ miles) and suddenly it is 3:30pm. Where has the day gone??

We decide to scout out different locations on the boat to find a good viewing spot for the canal passage and realize that we are STARVING so we pop into the buffet for a quick, late lunch, and there was Mary! Leaving the buffet, we bump into Eve and Leroy. We all decide to meet after they are done with dinner (because they eat so early) to maybe do something together and make plans for tomorrow.

It is formal night, so Jeff and I return to our cabin to shower and change. Jeff looks phenomenal! I tie one of my long skirts into a sari. Tonight is the special Captain’s Circle reception for Captain’s Circle members and we want to be early so we can get good seats. We are successful and share a small table with a rather odd couple. Since 9/11 this couple has refused to FLY anywhere. Luckily for them they live in California and are close to a couple of cruise ports. In fact, they have done this cruise TEN TIMES!!!
And when we end in Fort Lauderdale, they are taking this same ship BACK to San Pedro!

At the Captain’s reception, we meet the captain, there is free alcohol and canapes. I have a glass of champagne and Jeff has a Cosmopolitan. Before I am halfway through my first glass the waitress asks if I would like another. Well, sure! I’m not turning down free champagne. Jeff switches to red wine, pronouncing the Cosmopolitan as tasting like fruit punch. While my attention is turned toward the festivities and the Captain’s speech, the waitress leaves another glass of champagne at my elbow. What a nice surprise.

We meet MELT (Mary, Eve, Leroy, Trish) in the atrium and chatted for a bit. Eve insists on taking some photos of Jeff and I. I’m not nuts about my sari so you won’t see photos of it here! Well, we talked and tried to get organized – to no avail. Can’t decide what time or where to meet in the morning so we agree to just play it by ear.

Since this is the second of our three formal night, and the evening of the Captain’s reception, it is the night for lobster tails in the dining room. Being allergic to shellfish, this option doesn’t thrill me. When we are seated at our shared table of eight, we tell everyone to eat fast because we want to go to the 9:45 show in the Princess Theater. hahaha! There is another couple with the same plan.

Jeff enjoys his TWO lobster tails; he and another couple had two also, and one couple snarfed down THREE lobster tails! While they were still eating, the four show goers ordered dessert…I don’t want to miss my entertainment because these people are pigs. LOL

Tonight’s show is “Motor City” and features the Island Princess’ singers and dancers. It was “okay” and was a nice, relaxing way to end our day.

It is 11:00 p.m. and we are planning to get up early – so, good night!

Puntarenas, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Today we are in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, or as Jeff calls it, “home!” During some of our previous trips to Costa Rica we’ve been to Puntarenas and we know for a fact that there is pretty much nothing here. So, any shore excursions will require long bus rides.

And, because we know this area so well, the only reason we sign up for an excursion is because we have so much on-board ship credit to use up. And, though we’ve been here 4-5 times, we’ve never really played tourist. This will be fun! We will be going to the cloud forest; someplace we’ve never been.

Before leaving the ship (and we had talked to our traveling companions yesterday about it) Jeff and I decided that when we get back from our excursion, we’ll catch a cab and take everyone to Playa Dona Ana – a beach about 10 minutes away that we know well and that has MANY monkeys. Eve and Leroy have an all day excursion, but Mary and Trish are interested. This morning there is a sticky note on our door that says “Monkeys? Yes! See Mary!” Good! We’re excited to share this with her.

Here are some facts about Costa Rica that we learned while on our bus ride:
1. Costa Rica is the 2nd smallest country in Central America and is about the size of West Virginia.

2. The peninsula at Puntarenas stretches from here to Panama.

3. Today there are 5 cruise ships docked in Costa Rica (so the vendors are very happy)

4. May to November is the rainy season. On the Caribbean side of the coutry instead of a rainy and dry season, they have a rainy season and the rainier season.

5. 60% of the population live on the Pacific side. Population of CR  is 4.8 million.

6. In 1502 Christopher Columbus sailed into Limon – he was lost. The 1st Spanish settlement was on the Pacific side.

7. Costa Rica became an independent nation (I assume from Spain) on September 15th 1820.

8. Costa Rica had one particular crop – coffee! Arabica coffee trees grow from sea level up to 3,000 feet and the volcanic soil is the perfect growing medium. Coffee was taken from the mountain fields by oxcart to the port in Puntarenas. Children of the families who made money in coffee went to Europe and became highly educated. They became the visionaries – and they developed a railway that went from coast to coast.

9. There are 119 volcanos in Costa Rica, nine of which are still active.

10. In April, 1991 a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Costa Rica. The quake destroyed roads and damaged the railroad which was subsequently abandoned. The fact that the then President of Costa Rica had interests in the trucking industry I’m sure had nothing to do with that abandonment.

11. Costa Rica’s coffee industry did not do very well because, being such a small country, their product was overshadowed by Colombia’s exports.

12. The United Fruit Company came into Costa Rica and the banana industry was developed. Have you ever had a Chiquita banana? It probably came from Costa Rica.

Now, Costa Rica has diversified….the #1 export is pineapple, bananas are #2. Coffee exportation is #6. Every year in Europe at an international coffee market, coffee usually sells at 100 pounds for $100. But last year a Costa Rican farmer sold 100 pounds for over $4000 to a Japanese businessman who has a boutique coffee shop!

In services, the manufacture and the exportation of medical equipment, such as catheters, #1. Number 2 is the tourism sector.

Our guide today is Eric, and he tells us that out of the over 900 species of birds including toucans, parrots, and quetzels, the national bird of Costa Rica is the Robin! And it isn’t even the red-breasted Robin but a plain brown Robin.
And, despite having mammals like coatis, sloths, jaguars, and monkeys of many species, the national mammal is the white-tailed deer.

From this I can only assume that these people have no imagination.

Our tour bus goes right past Magallanes! And now we are driving through downtown San Ramon!! Home!! This is so cool!!

Eric tells us about Jose Figueres Ferrer who was originally from Catalina, Spain. For some reason he was exiled to Mexico in the 1940s for four years.  When he returned to Costa Rica he organized the farmers and laborers, and worked to bring down the dictators in Latin America. He led a coup and became the president of Costa Rica.
During his presidency he rewrote the Costa Rican constitution and extended voting rights to the indigenous people, women, blacks, etc.

On December 1st, 1948, during a speech, he said, “Weapons will lead you to victory, but words will lead you to freedom” and abolished the army. The military money was put into healthcare, education and conservation. It took him only eighteen months to accomplish all this and then he stepped down and then declared open elections. After the first president was elected and that term ended, Jose was elected to the presidency twice more and is the only person to hold that office for three terms.

Costa Rica is suffering some of the same migration woes as the rest of the world. About 90,000 people are needed to harvest the coffee and Costa Rican’s won’t do it because it doesn’t pay well. Nicaraguans come in for the harvest because they get paid a lot more in Costa Rica than in Nicaragua. The coffee grown in Costa Rica is grown on micro-farms that are usually part of a coffee cooperative.

We learned all this on our ride to the cloud forest of Parque Adventuras in San Luis.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrive at the park and begin our very fun day. We first come upon a whole slew of hummingbird feeders and about a million hummingbirds – all different varieties, slurping up the nectar and squabbling over feeders. These little suckers are difficult to photograph!

 

 

 

We hike and cross multiple suspension bridges..which sway in the middle as you walk across above rivers and jungle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The number of people permitted on the bridges at a time is limited – I don’t know if this is because of weight restrictions or the swaying, and I don’t ask!

As our tour ended, we entered a lovely butterfly pavilion. The butterflies were not as difficult to photograph as the hummingbirds, but still tricky. I saw Jeff taking a picture of some woman’s head. Turns out that a butterfly landed on her hat and her phone was in her bag. She called out to Jeff. He retrieved her phone and got a good photo of herself with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was concentrating on getting a good picture of the blue morpho. It wasn’t until we were leaving the area that I spotted one resting in the shrubs way down low next to me.

I got a good picture and a short video (which I’ll try to post when I have faster Internet.)

Our hummingbird, swinging suspension bridges and cloud forest tour took about an hour and a half after which we went to an outdoor restaurant area and had snack of homemade tortillas and cheese, fresh papaya, watermelon, pineapple, and a very tasty little cake-like thing made of corn, coconut, cream and sugar, along with glasses of blackberry juice. YUM!

Time to get back on the bus. On our way back to the ship, the bus stopped at a souvenir shopping area – a place right past “our neighborhood” (Magallanes). This is a store we’ve driven past many times and now we know what’s inside! I have needed a new la gorra (baseball cap) so I bought myself a Costa Rica cap. We picked up a bag of coffee, I got two more baseball caps, one with a sloth and one with a monkey for some little friends back home and Jeff got a cool box to either give as a gift or that we’ll keep as a sugar bowl. We stuff the treasures into my backpack.

Back to the ship a little later than planned we find a note on our door from Mary saying she is sorry she missed us and she’s gone into Puntarenas to find the post office. Bummer! Jeff and I decide it wouldn’t be much fun to go to Playa Dona Ana by ourselves, and not worth the cab fare for just the two of us so we walk back into Puntarenas as well.

Before we walk the length of the pier we see Mary coming toward us. She looks worn out. We invite her to come with us and the three of us walk through the vendor stands and eventually sit down at an outdoor restaurant and each have a beer – an Imperial (Costa Rica’s beer). We visit for a while and talk about our day.

To our surprise a four piece marching band comes by playing for tips. One of the musicians, the trumpet player, is blind and walks with one hand on the shoulder of the guy in front of him. Mary would like a photo of the band, so I run to catch up with them, take a couple if photos and tip them. Beers finished, Mary returns to the boat while Jeff and I walk through the vendors looking at all their wares, but don’t buy anything.

Back to the boat, we get cleaned up and go sit downstairs in one of the lounges where I order a latte (thanks, Derrick and Jenn!) and Jeff has a beer – we are relaxing,  listening to a guitarist who is very good. Neither Jeff nor I are interested in the show tonight, so we sit and listen to the Romantica String Quartet, who play after the guitarist. We go to dinner and then up to our cabin where we just hang out on the deck.

What a great day…

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
Departamento de Rivas

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, is a port I have been looking forward to a lot. It is here that the Poudre River Public Library District has its sister library, and here that we will meet Jane Mirandette. Jane has been the big force behind San Juan del Sur’s public library; Jeff knows her, but I’ve met her only once.

The seas are rough and this is the only port during our cruise that does not have the facilities for cruise ships to dock so we will have to be tendered in. Being tendered in means that the ship will use some of its lifeboats to ferry passengers back and forth to the pier.

To our horror the captain announces that because of the rough seas, we may not be able to use the tenders. OH NO!!! We have a big stack of Spanish children’s books, office supplies and three huge bags of chocolates we need to deliver! And, anticipating that empty space in our suitcase, we have promised Mary that we’ll put some of her souvenirs in our bag when going home. After a bit the captain comes back on the loudspeaker and we guess from the tone of his voice that we’re going to be handing out chocolates and pens to all of the passengers. But, he surprises us by announcing that the sailors who took the tenders for test runs pronounce the voyage to shore to be safe. Yippee! Jeff and I scurry around packing up the big backpack. We want to get off the ship in the first wave if we can in case conditions worsen later in the morning and they stop taking people ashore. We get our tender tickets and wait for our numbers to be called.

Success! We get into San Juan del Sur. Jane is going to meet us here at the cruise port. She emailed Jeff early this morning because she saw that there were no tenders and knew what that meant. When she saw the lifeboats starting to arrive she came to the port to greet us.

Well, you know about the ‘best laid plans’ right? We walked back and forth from the cruise port gate down the sidewalk and back again eight or nine times. (And dang if the same vendor didn’t try to sell us the same little whistle every single time. haha!)
Then we split up as there are two different ways to exit the port. Looking back, this was kind of a dumb idea because I really have no idea what she looks like!
After an hour we decided that something had gone wrong and somehow we have missed each other.

Screwing up my courage, I asked one of the port guards, “Donde es la biblioteca publica?” (Where is the public library?) and I couldn’t believe it when I understood the directions he gave me. They were good directions, but we went two blocks too far which we discovered when someone offered us a free tote bag. “Would you like a free tote bag?” I caught myself before saying “no.” What I said was “Oh! English!” and she told us to go back two blocks.

We found the public library and asked the person inside where we could find Jane. He said, “She is at the cruise port meeting some friends.” We told him that WE are the people she is looking for. He takes us to the hotel – turns out Jane owns a B&B in San Juan del Sur – and he calls to let her know we are there. Pretty soon she arrives in a truck with a library employee and a young woman. The young woman, Kate, is doing an internship for her MLS (Masters of Library Science) which she is getting from the University of Colorado, Denver! She arrived only yesterday and is getting her bearings.

Jane gives us a tour of the B&B – very nice! And offers to let us use her free wi-fi, but we want to see the library first. We walk over to the library, still carrying the backpack, that now feels like it weighs 80 pounds. We give Jane the books, office supplies and and big bags of chocolates for the kids, and she gives us a tour of the public library.

Naturally it is small, but they do have five computer stations with free internet, a classroom, and bins of books for their “mobile” libraries.

Poudre River Public Library District employees were down within the last year to help them set up an online circulation system, so this little library is up-to-date! Pokey and Gumby really enjoyed having a few minutes to read. (Jane was excited about Pokey and Gumby and kept setting up photo shoots for them.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of attached, but not really part of the library, is an area where handicapped children make bags to sell. They are made by repurposing bags that big bags of rice are sold in. Once the decorating and sewing of the bag is finished, the child writes his or her name inside. One of Jeff’s work friends asked him to pick up 5 bags for her. When I see them, I must have one, too! Isn’t it cute?

The three of us walk into town to have lunch. Jane takes us to El Bocadito (roughly translated as “small mouth), a tapas restaurant. In the restaurant we meet two of her good friends and we all order a selection of tapas. But the amazing thing about this restaurant is the waiter. He is drop dead f-ing GORGEOUS. Jeff leans over to ask me to take a picture of the menu AND the waiter! So it wasn’t just me! One of Jane’s friends asks if I noticed the waiter. “Are you kidding me??” I said to her, “How could you NOT??”.Trust me this photo of him does not remotely capture how good looking this guy is.

Whew, is it hot in here? hahaha! (BTW, there is NO way, I would trade my wonderful, gorgeous husband for him!)

After lunch, we get a personal tour of the city. This woman knows absolutely everyone and everyone knows her. I swear we could go no more than 30 feet without meeting a friend. Of course she’s lived here about 17 years. And last year Jane received Nicaragua’s “Ex-patriot of the Year” award!

Jane is trying to sell us on moving to Nicaragua instead of Costa Rica.

We begin by visiting a school of which she is also the benefactor. There is a charter school in San Juan del Sur that teaches English, but only the wealthy children can afford to attend – Jane has started the same kind of school, but for the street kids. Isn’t that great?
We pop in on a class of a dozen first or second graders who are learning their numbers and addition in English. They are eager to show off. The teacher asks them, “How many students are in our class?” The answers, shouted out in little voices, ranged from 9 to 12. Watching the kids was great fun.

This school also has a preschool. The room was painted in bright, cheery colors. There were toys in the room, too: a dollhouse, some Legos, many stuffed animals – Jane told us that these are the only toys many of these children have to play with.

There are more children who want to attend, but the school doesn’t have enough teachers or supplies. Jane said sometimes when the children are in class, a parent will sidle up to the door to try and learn English as well. The importance of and need for education here is incredible. Children (and parents – who may be illiterate in Spanish) wanting to learn and for them not to have that opportunity is mind boggling.

Time to see more of the city. We pass a local market and learn that apples are very expensive here as they must be imported.

We walk to El Gato Negro (Black Cat) bookstore and coffeeshop. I buy a bag of Nicaraguan coffee and stick it in my now very empty backpack. Jane warns us as we wander through the small bookstore that if we take a book off the shelf and sit down to look at it – we’ve bought it! Good to know. There are some very cool cat paintings on the walls…I don’t know if they’re for sale or not, but they are neat.

Next we go to a restaurant/bar called “Dave’s Wave” (free wi-fi here, too). Jane points out the bookcase; this is a book shelf she has set up and stocks so people in the community have easy access to reading material. She really is amazing.

Walking on, down a sidewalk, we see a street artist’s paintings propped up against a fence. This is the guy who painted the cats for El Gato Negro! I stop to look; of course, Jane knows the guy. He tells me, putting his hand on his heart (a gesture of respect) that he will sell me anything at a very reduced rate because we are with Jane. I explain that a painting won’t fit in my luggage (and I don’t think Jeff is crazy about the cat paintings) and pass on his very kind offer.

Soon we are walking along the main drag when she stops in front of a large building. This is also her property. She rents two bottom units (one on the left and one of the right) on the ground floor to commercial tenants. The center of the ground floor is the lobby of her condo rentals! She takes us up to see one of the condos on the top (4th) floor. This building is across the street from the ocean – what a great view! And the condo itself is really nice. Remember the street artist? Jane commissioned him to do all the paintings that hang in the building.
We’ll need to keep her B&B or condos in mind for future travels. (If you are interested in her contact info, let me know.)

We make our way back to the library where a friend picks the three of us up and drops us off at Jane’s house. She has a very cute house with a wonderful view. All for $500 a month (and you can flush the toilet paper!)

It is getting late and we need to get back to the ship – and we never did get to use any free wi-fi! Jane calls one of her staff who takes the three of us to the cruise port. I’m sorry for the day to end. She is so inspiring!

Back aboard the Island Princess, we relax and in the early evening go downstairs to listen to the string quartet. They have become our favorite entertainment.

The show in the Princess Theater tonight is Jeff Peterson who is a comedian/magician. I am NOT a magic fan, at all, but his helper is a cute little dog and I enjoy seeing her performance. After the show, we swing by the Wheelhouse Bar for happy hour. During happy hour you buy one drink and get the second for a dollar. Jeff gets two Seawitch beers – that is Princesses’ own brand. Back in our cabin he puts the beer in our refrigerator and we hang out on the deck watching the ocean roll by until it is time for bed.

Well, we slept in AGAIN! Somehow the rocking of the ship justs lulls you into a deep sleep. But we do get up and start scurrying around because we want to attend the next Enrichment Lecture. We go downstairs for cups of fancy coffee and Jeff gets two mini-muffins.

We arrive in the Princess Theater just in time for the “Plagues of the Modern World” lecture. Okay, I think this whole medical series is a little weird for a cruise ship, but it is fascinating! Today we learned about SARS, Aids, swine flu, and other diseases that have impacted the modern world. Of course, right now the Zika virus, a mosquito borne illness, is spreading and the areas we are visiting on this cruise are in the heart of the infection area. In addition to sunscreen, people are carrying around bug wipes. Anyway, the talk was interesting.

After the lecture Jeff and I relax in one of the public areas. He is people watching and I am writing. Our medical lecture was at 9:30 and we want to attend a ‘Destination Presentation” on Puntarenas, Costa Rica at 11. Looks like another morning spent in the Princess Theater.

Humberto’s talk about Puntarenas was good and we know from having been to Puntarenas on our own that there is pretty much nothing to do there! So pretty much all of the excursions will require a bus ride.
After the destination talk Jeff and I go upstairs to our cabin. I write out two sticky notes about meeting for afternoon tea – one note for Eve and Leroy’s door and one for Mary and Trish asking everyone to RSVP.

We have not been at all diligent about our exercising during this cruise; to remedy that we got walk around the promenade deck. On one of our rounds we spot a pod of dolphins! They are near the back of the ship and moving away from us and are soon out of sight. That was neat! It is always fun to unexpectedly spot wildlife.

Jeff and I spent a very enjoyable hour or so relaxing on our balcony. Jeff brought our bluetooth speaker from home and we listen to some tunes. Our next door neighbors are out on their balcony as well and Jeff peers around to ask if the music disturbs them. “No,” the guy says, “Turn it up!” A few songs later, I peer aound the balcony divider and ask him if my singing bothers him. hahaha!

About 1:30 we decide to go to lunch. Jeff had his two mini-muffins but all I’ve had today is coffee. We got outside and up, up, up to the outside grill where I get a vegie burger and fries and Jeff gets a hamburger and fries. I had forgotten about the vegie burgers. Though the taste is nice, the texture is ‘wet bread’ very mushy. I won’t be having another of those on future cruises. We finish up with some ice cream (bad vegan!), we plop down on a couple of lounge chairs to eat our ice cream and, hey! there’s a small pod of dolphins. Are you kidding me? They, too, disappear quickly. On our way back to our cabin we walk through the buffet to grab some cookies (to have in our room to snack on sometime) and iced tea. Just as we reach our cabin door, there is Trish RSVPing for everyone for afternoon tea.

While Jeff naps, I sit out on our balcony writing (gotta get caught up!) and tomando del sol (taking the sun – sun bathing). While sitting there, I heard a weird slapping sound. “What in the world?” It sounded like someone snapping a towel; very odd, so I get out of my comfy lounge chair and look up and down the row of balconies. Nothing.
I settled back down. There’s that sound again! As I glance over the railing I catch a glimpse of wet skin – that was a dolphin! No, dolphinS! I bang on the sliding glass door and shout to Jeff “Dolphins!” He hurries out and we watch a pod of dolphins jump out of the water. Two of them flipping totally head over tail, another jumping and spinning around. And then they were gone. Three times in one day! How cool is that??

Jeff goes inside to lay back down and I stay on the deck to continue my writing until my alarm goes off reminding me that it is tea time. I’m excited to be having tea this afternoon because for me it is something unusual and special. Jeff decides not to go because the violinist from last night, Chris Watkins, is going to be playing in the atrium and he is going to hear him again. Poor planning on my part as I’m sure that I would enjoy hm as well.

Our tea was so much fun for me! There were cakes and little sandwiches, scones with whipped cream (instead of clotted cream) and jam and tea. The five of us ate with little regard for the fact that it was about 3:45 and the four others have their dinner at 5:15!

After tea we go into the atrium which is MOBBED!!!! I had no idea there were even this many people on the ship. Every chair and settee is taken, people are standing everywhere and sitting on the stairs. It is nearing the end of Chris Watkins’ show and HOLY MACKEREL!! he is good and quite the showman!

I give up trying to find Jeff in the mob and squeegee myself into a tiny sitting spot on one of the stairs. Wow, this guy is talented and now I really am sorry that I missed his show last night. His performance ended and I spot Jeff standing with Eve, Leroy, Trish and Mary, and made my way over to them. Turns out that Jeff had been standing at the very top level of the atrium, saw us as we wandered around after our tea and came down to meet us.

No one is hungry, but we all go to read tonight’s menu board anyway. Oohhh… everything sounds good (how is that even possible?)

We agree to meet in the card room in 30 minutes and play some games.

Mary begs off and returns to her cabin for a nap – she has caught Eve’s cold. Those two boxes of cold medicine and bag of Hall’s cough drops are making the rounds in our little group! I’ll see if I can pick up some more tomorrow in San Juan del Sur when we dock in Nicaragua tomorrow. We play Skip-Bo for an hour and a half or so; either Jeff or Trish win every game so Eve, Leroy and I decide they have to buy dinner. haha!

Even though we’re still not hungry, (except for Jeff who did not have afternoon tea), we all go to the Horizon Court Buffet and amazingly all of us find something we want to eat. (Why am I not surprised??) We eat, sit and chat for a couple of hours, and finally all head down to the Caribe deck, deck 10, to our cabins.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Nicaragua. I hope you’ll join us.

PS
Wow! Wow! I am sitting here still writing; Jeff is out on the balcony watching the ocean go by when he comes in, gets my phone and goes back outside with it. I don’t ask.

A few minutes later he comes in to show me what he has discovered. He has figured out a VERY easy way to get photos from his Iphone to my Iphone and from either of our Iphones to my Ipad for the blog. Until this very minute he or I would have had to email a photo to me so I could get it on my Ipad. This was time-consuming and used a lot of my precious (and expensive) on board Internet minutes. Jeff figured out how to use a feature on our devices called “Air Drop.” It is soooo easy, takes only seconds and doesn’t require using Internet minutes. This is great! My husband is BRILLIANT (and I’m dang proud of him!)

Santa María Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico
Monday, January 9, 2017

This morning we wake up to find ourselves in Huatulco, Mexico, on the ‘Pacific Riviera.’ (It is pronounced “wha-tool-co”) We’ve never been here before, actually never even heard of the place. It’s official name is “Bahias de Huatulco” or “Bays of Huatulco” because it is famous for having nine beautiful bays. You can reach five of the bays by road but for the other four, you need to have a boat.

We get up early this morning for two reasons: 1) Jeff needs to call the dining reservations number for the reservation for the six of us to have dinner together tonight and 2) we are going on a snorkeling excursion! Today we will snorkel in two of the bays reachable by boat.

Jeff successfully makes the reservations and we get ready for our excursion by putting on swimsuits, making sure we have all our gear and slathering ourselves with sunscreen. We rush down to our meeting place on the ship and find a bit of chaos. The wind is very strong so our snorkelling tour has been cancelled – what a bummer! In addition, there was a ‘bay boat and swim’ tour that was also cancelled. We can schedule a different tour but we have to do it immediately. We look at the two offerings that are still available and, on the fly, we choose an eco-tour that includes a crocodile sanctuary. Jeff asks the staff person when the tour is leaving and she tells him RIGHT NOW! We RUN up the four flights of stairs, I change clothes in record time, dump snorkeling stuff, grab hats and cameras and go running back to the disembarkation point. As we hit the pier, a staff person calls to us (We have little green buttons with the number 3 on them) and points to where the group has begun walking.

We make it, and easily because there is a 10 minute walk from the meeting point to our bus. There is a very elderly couple in our group and they bring up the very, very rear long after we’ve reached the bus.

Our guide, Hector, is interesting and tells us a lot about Huatulco.

For example, the Mexican government plans to make Huatulco another Cancun-style resort destination and there are plans for hotels, roads, infrastructure, etc. We ride the bus for quite a while before arriving at Ventillana (which means “little window).  There is a rock formation in the sea that we can see from the coast and it looks like there is a little window in the rock. (My photo didn’t turn out very well, so use your imaginations!)

In this eco park the first thing we do is walk a little way to get to some large canoes. As we walk through the sand I remember why I don’t usually wear sandals. The sand is getting into my sandals and it is hot!  

We reach the canoes and are split into groups. We are going to be paddled through the mangrove swamp, keeping our eyes peeled for crocodiles, different varieties of birds, crocodiles, iguanas, and did I mention crocodiles!?

It was a nice canoe ride, no one dangles their fingers in the water We see several crocs, one very large one. Our boat guide was great about pointing out animals we might otherwise have missed… like birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We see an enormous termite nest (naturally occurring, they don’t rescue termites, I don’t think!) In the bottom of the nest there is a hole, which you can see in the photo below.

I forget what kind of bird is, but a bird species here pecks a hole in the termite nest and lays its eggs inside. When the baby birds hatch, they have a quick and easy food supply – termites! Interesting, isn’t it?

As we walk around, one of our guides says “No need to worry. Everything is all right. We are just taking her to the shady area where we will have our snack.” I look around and see the very elderly lady who had walked sooo slowly. Two of the guides have made a seat with their hands and are trying to convince her to sit in the (literally) handmade chair. She kept insisting she can walk. Finally, I don’t know how, they convinced her to sit, she put her arms around their necks and off they went – good service! One of the men in our group looks at me and says (kidding) “I think I feel faint.” I told him to put his head between his knees. hahaha!

We walk over to an enclosed concrete lagoon type of area with PILES of baby crocodiles.

Kind of creepy actually – it looks like piles and mounds of little Jurassic Park creatures. We learn that these crocodiles do not have tongues so they can’t really chew anything large. They may kill people but they don’t eat them. (I don’t know if the tongue thing is a croc thing or if it is this species.)

They also regrow any teeth that they might lose. They do eat small mammals, birds, and the eggs of coatis (a raccoon type of animal) We have seen a LOT of coati in Costa Rica during our trips there; and there is one here in the sanctuary. Guess what is one of the things that coati eat? Crocodile eggs!

We see the white tailed deer which are kept in a nice, natural enclosure.
There is a small educational area, open air building, where we can see crocodile heads and preserved dead crocodiles. Did you know that those bumps on the backs of crocodiles are kind of like solar panels?

Those help our friendly little reptiles maintain body temperature.

This sanctuary is very nice and is ecologically minded as you can see from the photo of the bathroom sign.

The conclusion of our tour includes a snack of two homemade corn tortillas with a local cheese – quesadillas. They are served with fresh fruit. Yum!

Then we get back in the canoes, leave the little island and return to our bus. Jeff describes this excursion as 1/3 ride there; 1/3 visit in the park, and 1/3 ride back.
This isn’t a tour we would normally have picked but in a pinch it turned out to be quite nice.

When we get back to the ship, we got cleaned up, changed into some nicer clothes and went up to our cocktail party. Tonight there was chips and salsa, and the salsa was very good with a nice taste and it wasn’t too spicy. The special drink is a mojito. Great!! I really like mojitos! We spent a nice relaxing hour visiting with other (as Jeff calls us) “frequent fliers.” We usually have fun and interesting talks during this time and sometime pick up tips about ports or traveling in general.

Our dinner reservation is for 7:30 and we head for the restaurant to meet everyone. Oh, it was so nice to have dinner with our friends!! We all shared stories from our day and it was so relaxing… I did remember to mention that Jeff had discovered that there IS afternoon tea and we decide to do that tomorrow afternoon. We are at sea tomorrow and that will give some structure to our day.

After dinner we all go our separate ways – including Jeff and I! He is going to the show tonight and I am going to the cabin to write. The show in the Princess Theater is an instrumentalist, a violinist named Chris Watkins, and when Jeff comes back to the cabin, he tells me that the guy was amazing!
Chris Watkins comes from a family of gymnasts, (you thought I was going to musicians, didn’t you?) and sometime in his childhood he had had a trampoline accident and injured his back. So much for the family business. As a kid his parents were insisting that he take French, but he lied and told them how much he loved, loved, loved classical music and signed up for violin lessons instead – anything was better than French!
Now I’m sorry that I missed the show, but you have something to read now!

Come back tomorrow and enjoy our day at sea with us…

Another sea day…and every sea day I worry what to write about. I mean, after all, what is there to do all day on a floating hotel? But somehow we manage to amuse ourselves.
This morning Jeff gets up early, or early for us, and goes to the workout room, and wakes me up when he returns. I am such a slug.

We go downstairs to get fancy coffee. On board the ship you can buy a punchcard for fancy coffees…lattes, cappacinos, espressos, etc. but we’ve never done that. Well, for Christmas, Jeff’s son, Derrick and his wife Jenn, gave us “cruise credit” and we’ve spent that money on a special fancy coffee card.

Jeff and I share a chai and it is WONDERFUL! We take our chai and hurry to the Princess Theater to attend the second Enrichment Lecture which is on “Plagues of the Ancient World.”
This lecture is just as good as the first one and we’re enjoying the series very much. When it ends we stay in the theater because right after that Humberto is giving his destination talk about San Juan del Sur, Nicaraqua. Though we have plans already for San Juan del Sur, we’re really interested in what he talks about, though it looks as though any ship excursions people would take would be long bus rides.

Well, apparently this is our morning to sit in the theater! After the destination talk, we watch a Princess video about the Panama Canal. The video is good, but if you really want the history of building the canal, the war that was won without firing a shot, and the challenges of working in a tropical climate I HIGHLY recommend the Pamana Canal documentary by Ken Burns.

We finally leave the theater about 12:40 having only had our shared chai as sustenance and think about finding some food. Exiting the theater we see Trish and Mary. Because tomorrow is a port day we think it would be fun for all six of us to have dinner together tomorrow night to talk about our different shore excursions.

We walk over to the “anytime dining” restaurant to ask if that’s possible since they, Eve and Leroy have set dining. The waiter says it is okay and tells us how to make reservations (because sometimes there can be a long wait for a table at our restaurant). Perfect.

We go back to our cabin and Jeff looks up the phone number for dining reservations and discovers – tah! dah! There is an afternoon tea!!! It is listed beside the restaurant hours, but not in the calendar of daily events. I’m super excited! Jeff calls and finds out that you have to call for dinner reservations the same day so we make a note for him to call at 8am tomorrow morning before we go on our excursion.

We, (Jeff, Mary, Trish and I), want to continue our Phase 10 game today, but I want to go to an arts and crafts thing. I never do stuff like this, but today the project is a travel journal and I’m interested in learning what it is all about.
What was I thinking? This is a scrapbooking thing and I am awful at stuff like this but I really have fun. The staff hands out these packets of material and I’m pleased to see that it is a nice quality journal and we just decorate it however we want. I sit at a table with 3 other women who are happy to help me, because I keep saying things like “WHAT is THIS??” I am creative in many ways but when it comes to artsie stuff, I want instructions or pictures to work from. There is lots of glue involved and pretty soon several of my fingers are sticky and apparently I’ve glued a pair of scissors to our work table. Geez, this is hard!

I am making this journal for Mary and I think it turns out okay. I hope she likes it.

My arts and crafts time is crowding my game time so I pitch everything into a bag and hurry off to the card room. Mary and Trish are there but no Jeff and hence, no game. The three of us sit and chat and I give Mary her little present along with the stickers , letters that I didn’t use and the weird little doo-dad things I was clueless about. She is very gracious and does not mention that it looks like it was decorated by a crazed preschooler with a glue gun.
Jeff arrives – he had fallen asleep. The four of us play until their dinner time.

Tonight there is a special show and, since it is special, it is being performed three times. The show is called “Encore” and ALL of the musicians and dancers on the ship and a guest soprano are in it. It is described as a pop opera. Jeff and I go to the 5:45 show – we figure it will be less crowded and we can have dinner afterwards.
The set and the costumes are spectacular! The music and dancing were good and this was obviously a huge a huge production. An enjoyable hour.

At dinner we encouraged our tablemates to see the show, too.
After dinner we head upstairs where Jeff takes up his post on the deck, wine glass in hand, to watch the ocean go by. First though, he takes a photo of my blog writing workspace

…now you know where the magic happens. HAHAHAHA!

We have to get up early for our excursion tomorrow and go to bed early.
I hope you come back and read about Huatulco.

Our first port stop is today and we are in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Jeff and I have been here several times and we have booked a whale watching excursion.

Puerto Vallarta is where Banderas Bay, the 7th largest bay in the world, is located and it is to this bay that the humpbacks in Alaska make their way south beginning in late December/early January through early April. We are at the beginning of the migration. The Bay of Banderas is the breeding and birthing grounds of humpbacks and dolphins and we’re hopeful that we’ll see some whales.

We have a quick bite of breakfast and join our group. We board a mid-sized rubber dingy that seats maybe 20 people. Jeff and I, bringing up the rear of the group, end up sitting in the very front two seats of the dingy. Perfect!

The company that Princess Cruises has contracted for this excursion is Vallarta Adventures. Jeff and I have used them personally when we were on vacation here and they are really top-notch. Today they have several boats in the water looking for whales and they use a small airplane to spot pods. Using radios they contact the dingys with locations.

We set out at a fast clip – bouncy, bouncy (which I love). Jeff and I have been whale watching several times, but on our boat there is a young woman who has never been and she is practically quivering with excitement.

Our guide tells us that typically during the migration there will be upwards of 800 whales in the bay; but last year, because of El Nino and the warmer water, there were only 100 or so whales during the entire season. Disasterous!

There are many rules here regarding whale watching and they are strictly enforced by the boat operators themselves. First, a boat can only come within a certain distance of the animal. If the whale swims toward your boat that is okay, but you cannot crowd it. Second, only four boats are permitted to be viewing a whale or pod at a time. If another boat comes up, it must hang back until one of the original four leaves (and we saw this rule in action); finally, the third rule is that boats are limited to a viewing spot for 30 minutes before they have to move on.

Everyone in the boat is responsible for spotting and soon someone shouts “11 o’clock” and points. Sure enough we see spouting…multiple whales! Our boat heads in closer.

We’ve come upon a breeding pod!  There is one female being pursued by 5 or 6 males. The males are fighting for dominance and there is a lot of splashing, diving and surfacing going on. Very exciting! The photo here is one of Jeff’s taken at this pod.

Wow, we were lucky to see that! We watch for awhile and the group moves farther away.

Our dingy goes speeding off in another direction. Another breeding pod! Again LOTS of action, spouting and splashing. In our experience, when a whale surfaces and clears its blowhole, the sound is like that of a loud exhale. Now though we are hearing many different noises…the normal exhale sound and a new high pitched ‘whee’ and what sounds like grunting. There are so many whales it is difficult to get good photos because as they spout and dive and roll about I’m only getting shots of splashing water. The young, excited woman is devastated because her camera batteries have gone dead…she has a camera similar to Jeff’s, so he pulls out his spare batteries for her, but they are the wrong size. He then suggests that she put her media card into his camera and use it, but she didn’t. Who knows why, but she was young and probably embarrased.
The whales disappear under the water and our guide tells us that we’ll wait 5-6 minutes in this spot for them to resurface. If they don’t come up within that time, they have deep dived and are moving on. And they did move on…

Now our dingy is racing further and further out in the bay – there is a humpback mother with her baby!! OMG!! We learn that the baby is less than 2 weeks old. The guide can tell because the baby’s dorsal fin (the one on top) is still folded over a little. The mother protects her child by keeping herself between our boat and her baby and when she dives it is a shallow dive because baby’s lungs are not yet developed enough for deep diving. When baby humpbacks are born they weight approximately 2,000 pounds and put on about 2,000 pounds per week. (Kind of like me on a cruise ship!)
Before the humpbacks arrive in the Bay, the Orcas show up. Okay, first of all, for those of you who do not know, orcas are NOT killer whales, in fact, they are not whales at all, but are actually dolphins. And their favorite meal is baby humpback! So, the orcas arrive before the humpbacks and just wait for the babies to be born.
Mommy humpbacks tend to keep themselves and their babies close to shore for safety.

Our tour is scheduled for 2-1/2 hours and suddenly 3 hours have passed. Our dingy goes screaming back to port, Jeff and I are hanging on, bounce, bounce. There are whales all over!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And suddenly the boat abruptly slows because there is a large pod of dolphins right in front of us. We slowly split the pod and now there are dolphins on either side of our dingy. Dolphins, though they have smiles on their faces, are very territorial and several of them are slapping their tails hard in the water – this is their way of saying “get out of my space!” I never knew about the tail slapping and it is interesting to see.
What a great adventure!

Though our tour was a little longer than it was supposed to be, we still have plenty of time left in port, so we get back on the Island Princess, clean up a little bit, grab some cash and head out to WalMart. Yes, you read that correctly. There is a WalMart directly across from the cruise pier – and since the last time we were here, a Sam’s Club has gone in next door to WalMart.

We need to get to WalMart to buy vanilla and we know they have the very best prices. I buy two 1-liter and one 500 ml bottles of pure Mexican vanilla for gifts. The big bottles were $8. Happy Birthday, Janet Smith!!

Mary has caught Eve’s cold so we also pick up two boxes if cold medicine (one daytime, one nighttime). They were a Sudafed type of cold medicine for $2 each. Afterwards I told Jeff that for that price we should have bought several boxes! We got 2 more bottles of wine and I got a couple of postcards as well.

Back on the ship again, as we walk by the liquor control table, I loudly say to Jeff “Well, honey, I think we have enough vanilla for the rest of our lives” and no one questions us so we’ve snuck more wine on board.

It’s time for sail away, so we barge in on Trish, Mary, Eve and Leroy. Jeff opens Trish’s champagne and we toast our first port. I think everyone is having fun…Trish and Mary regale us with stories of their day and since Trish says “If you open a bottle of champagne, you have to finish it” the four of us empty the bottle.

They go off to dinner and Jeff and I went to our daily cocktail party. I’m looking forward to tonight’s gathering because they are serving guacamole and chips, and I really like their guacamole. The drink of the day is a margarita and is yummy.

We have saved room for dinner and again tonight enjoy our companions. It is a lot of fun to be meeting so many different people, and hearing how they spent their port day.

After dinner, we go to the late show in the Princess Theater to see Jerry Goodspeed. He is a ventriloquist and is very good. We have never seen (heard?) a ventriloquist do two voices simultaneously which he did when he had two of his dummies sing a duet. Amazing! I know it sounds hokey but he really was entertaining.

It’s been a long day…but what fun! Tomorrow is a sea day; I hope you will join us as we sail toward Nicaragua.

Our alarm goes off and we get right up. I phone Mary and Trish, waking Mary up. Trish has already left for Zumba class! I call Leroy and Eve and wake them up as well. Oh dear. Told them to go back to sleep. So much for that plan!

Jeff and I know that today the Wheelhouse Bar will be serving a traditional British pub lunch, so we put sticky notes on everyone’s cabin doors inviting them to join us at 11:30 and we head off for breakfast. Oatmeal and fruit for both of us.

After breakfast we go to the Princess Theater for the ‘Enrichment Lecture’ by Dr. Samuel Glassner. His lecture was on “The First European Doctors” and it was fascinating!! The impact of ‘healing’ and illnesses on politics, agriculture and especially religion was so interesting! Christianity gained many followers because it touted “healing powers” and “miraculous healings” along with the promise of an everlasting and BETTER life. These things were paramount in the widespread acceptance of Christ and then Christianity. I could write pages and pages about his lecture but I think you had to be there to enjoy it fully.

Turns out that Mary and Trish were at the lecture as well and we bumped into them as we were leaving. We make firm arrangements with them to meet for the pub lunch. An hour later we meet and despite the fact that there is a variety of traditional British fare, including ploughman’s lunch and steak and kidney pie, all four of us opt for the fish and chips – which were very good. Dessert was bread pudding. Trish told us that this particular dessert would be more properly named “bread and butter pudding and describes how it is made. All I can say is, “I don’t care what you call it, just bring me six more servings!!” That stuff was GOOD!!
During lunch the four of us decide it would be fun to get together later this afternoon to play a game (Jeff and I brought several.) Trish and Mary will pass the info along to Leroy and Eve.

After our pub lunch Jeff and I hurry back to the Princess Theater to watch a destination presentation on Huatalco, (pronounced “wha tool co), Mexico which is one of our upcoming ports. The presentation is informative and Humberto Neto, the guy who does all of the destination talks is excellent and very funny. The government is hoping to make Huatalco another Cancun style resort town and a lot of money is being put into making this happen. Many more hotel rooms, improved roads, etc are being planned. Jeff and I have never heard of Huatalco and we’re looking forward to visiting it.

After Humberto’s talk, we go back to our cabin where I write (this!) and Jeff goes down to the Captain’s Circle desk to ask if there is any sort of cocktail party. Turns out that, yes, there is! Somehow we did not get our invitation and we missed the first two. Thank goodness he checked! We would have been so bummed out not to have known. Jeff also made sure that we are on the invitation list for the Captain’s special reception later in the cruise.
On his way back to the cabin, he stopped in one of the bars just as the 2-for-1 happy hour was starting and got two gin and tonics. When he got to our room, he took the ice out of the drinks and poured the g&ts into empty water bottles so we could have them later.

Soon it is time to head down to the card room to meet our friends. We decide to play Phase 10, a card game my brother Jack and sister-in-law Kim taught us.

It takes a while to teach Mary and Trish the basics and explain the rules, and midway through our first phase Eve and Leroy show up! I’m so excited to see her up and alive. hahaha!
They join us at the card table and we begin again and play until the other four rush off because they are late for their 5:15 dinner seating.

Jeff and I go up to our special cocktail party which tonight features “Beef steak tartare with Melba toast” (eewww) and the drink of the day is a Chivas Regal Rob Roy. Luckily, along with the steak tartare, there are a lot of fresh vegetables, olives, fancy breads and cheese. Jeff gets the Rob Roy and I order a margarita. We choose an unsuspecting couple to sit with, Kay and Doug, and the four of us spend a pleasant hour together.

Now, of course, we aren’t hungry for dinner. So instead of dinner we go to the top outside deck of the ship for tonight’s “Movie Under the Stars.” The movie is: “Now You See Me 2” which we’ve never heard of and don’t know anything about. I snag two lounge chairs and a couple of blankets because it is windy and Jeff runs downstairs to get the gin and tonic water bottles. When he gets back I go get four bags of popcorn (2 each and so much for not being hungry!) The movie is good and makes me want to watch the first “Now You See Me” movie and then this one again. Maybe we’ll do that at home sometime.

We are having a great sea day! After the movie we go to the Princess Theater for the late show. Tonight the entertainment is a comedian named Tom Briscoe. He is very funny and the show is a perfect end to our day.

Time for bed! Tomorrow we land in Puerto Vallarta – our first port day.

Ahhhh…our first full day on the cruise and it is a sea day – wonderful! We wake up late and go to the Horizon Court buffet for breakfast. Jeff had what he calls a ‘normal person’s breakfast’ which was eggs, bacon and toast, coffee and cranberry juice. I have oatmeal, fresh fruit, coffee and cranberry juice.

After breakfast we start our usual ” OMG, we’re on a cruise ship and need to pay attention to our caloric intake and expenditure” and we walk around the Promenade deck for about 4 to 5 miles. We’re bummed out that both the very front and the very back of the ship have been cordoned off so instead of walking the entire circumference of the ship where 3.2 laps equals a mile, we have to cut across the boat by going inside and straight through on either end. But, honestly, those quick jaunts from one side of the ship to the other give us welcome blasts of air conditioning.

When I’m on a cruise ship, my outdoor vocabulary is limited to “Wow!” As we walk around the deck, every single time I look at the ocean, I say “wow.” I just can’t help myself. We had a good walk; it’s about 2pm and time for lunch. I didn’t make healthy choices for lunch; oh, let me rephrase that – I made healthy choices, but the two desserts kind of wiped out my good intentions.

Every Princess cruise that we’ve been on has had a proper afternoon tea from 3:30 to 4:30 and I’m excited to have tea with Eve, Trish and Mary; I’ve told them all about it. Since Eve and Trish are from the UK, I thought this would be especially nice. So, you can probably imagine my disappointment when I didn’t find the event listed in the daily Princess Patter. Maybe tomorrow?

We haven’t seen our compatriots at all and I’m a little concerned because Eve and Leroy have had their “Do Not Disturb” sign out all day. I hope she feels all right.

Tonight is formal night, and Jeff and I are puzzled. We are Princess Platinum members and people at our level and the highest level (one above ours), in the past have had a private cocktail hour every afternoon. There is a $5.00 drink of the day and special snacks, and we don’t have anything in our cabin about it, hmmm…..
This cruise ship, the Island Princess, is one of the smaller ships in the fleet and it is used for the Panama Canal cruises because it is narrower than the newer ships. Maybe some of the special amenities we’re accustomed to aren’t done on this cruise.

Since this is formal night we are sure to see our travelling companions. We know they won’t miss the Captain’s Champagne Fountain (or the free champagne!) event in the atrium. Jeff and I get dressed up. I’m wearing the galabaya I bought in Cairo and it is so unusual I get a lot of looks. I’m also wearing my shark tooth necklace and when I put the hood of my galabaya up, I declare myself a warrior princess. Jeff tells me I look like a Star Wars character – I choose to take that as a compliment.

As I walk by a man in a tuxedo we briefly make eye contact, and he tells me “You are stunning!!” Made my night!

We arrive at the champagne fountain festivities early because it is often very difficult to find a good viewing spot along the stair railings. We’re shocked to see a smaller than usual crowd. Normally people are standing 3 deep peering over one another’s shoulders, jockeying for better camera angle positions and there was none of that.

We get our champagne and start circling all the areas around the plaza looking for Mary, Leroy, Trish and Eve – in a crowd this small they won’t be difficult to spot. But we never did see them! Now, I’m worried because I know Eve had talked about about the champagne fountain and that she planned to attend. And we’re disappointed that we didn’t get to see everyone in their dress-up finery; but, there are two more formal nights on the cruise and we’ll be better organized about getting together.

Our formal night dinner was nice and our table mates were interesting and talkative.

After dinner Jeff and I head to the Princess Theater to see the show “Piano Man” which is a song and dance montage of the music of Billy Joel, Barry Manilow and Elton John. It was very enjoyable and we were both disappointed that the show didn’t last longer. I guess these singers and dancers subscribe to the adage “Always leave them wanting more.” LOL
It’s almost 11:30 so we head up to our cabin. Before turning in we set an alarm for 8am thinking we’ll intercept the others and have breakfast together tomorrow morning.
Good night!

Okay, I am married to a crazy person and said crazy person has just roused me from a deep sleep, “Jane, I think our boat is here…” It is DARK outside! The sun isn’t even up yet, but, for the past 45 minutes, my dear crazy person has been watching the ‘Bridge Cam’ of our cruise ship on the Internet as it makes its way to San Pedro, and apparently it is arriving.
Okay, I’m up, looking out into the dark, marvelling at how someone so crazy can seem SO normal! Of course, I got out of bed at dark:thirty to watch the ship come in, so I guess its good that we found each other.
We watch as the ship goes past the channel entrance….must be turning around. Hmmm…ten minutes later, no cruise ship. Jeff refreshes the bridge cam feed on his IPad. Oh look, the Island Princess is closer to San Pedro. What we saw earlier was probably a commuter ferry. The sun is up by now, well, mostly, and finally the Island Princess appears. This humongous cruise ship is BACKING down the channel!

Gee, I don’t want to keep all this excitement to myself, so I text Eve and Mary “Our ship is coming in backwards!” (I woke them both up.)
Actually it was really cool to see…

Eve texts back that she woke up with a cold. Bummer! And then I remember cuddling up with her on the bed yesterday afternoon.. Yikes! Good thing I have a brand new box of daytime and a brand new box of nightime cold medicine.

So now that we’re awake, and have been for about an hour and a half, we really need coffee and breakfast. Before we do that though we must pack up so when we come back from wherever we’ll be ready to go.
As we leave the hotel room, we stop at Eve and Leroy’s room to drop off cold medicine. Jeff notices that other rooms have had their bills slipped under their doors, but we have not. On our way out, I stop and check at reception – turns out I paid for our room with “points”.

NICE!! A free room that turned into a suite!

 

Coffee… As we go up the hill past the hotel we see a little coffee and tea shop called Sirens; surely they’ll have bagels or pastries or something, so we go inside. Wow!! I am doing my happy dance!! The first things in their pastry case are VEGAN muffins! I’m super excited! I get a vegan blueberry muffin (yum yum) and an excellent cup of coffee. Jeff has an ‘anything bagel’ and coffee, too.

 This is a really nice little place; obviously local and if you find yourself in San Pedro, I recommend it highly – it is on 7th Street up the hill from the Crowne Plaza.

Back to the hotel we meet our travelling mates in the lobby. Our 10:45 taxis should be here any minute. At 10:42 I get a text message from the cab company saying that our taxi has been cancelled and to call this number. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? So, I call the number and am told that they don’t have two drivers available right now, but they will send them as soon as they can. EXCUSE ME??? Let’s just say that I told that person off royally. It takes a lot to get me riled up and since I had taken time to make this reservation to ensure a smooth embarkation for our friends, I was furious. Now what? We know we can ride the hotel shuttle for $5 each (about twice what the cab fare would have been), and there isn’t a line for the shuttle so Jeff and Leroy get tickets for us.
I call the cab company back (told you I was angry!), told them off again and told them to cancel our reservation because we are going to deal with a more reputable company and that we will NOT be using them in the future. And then I hung up on the woman in mid-apology. Now I feel better.

The hotel shuttle is not crowded at all and we’re at the pier in no time. We give our luggage to the porter. It is her second day on the job…and she takes off with our suitcases in the totally wrong direction. Thank goodness Trish saw her! “We’re getting ON the ship!” Trish told her. hahaha!
Our embarkation time is 12:30, and it is 11am, so even the check-in desks are not crowded. We walk through the metal detectors and the security area, and since no one mentions the two bottles of wine in Jeff’s backpack, we ignore “liquor control” (where you are supposed to register that you have brought on your two allotted bottles of wine).

Because Jeff and I are Platinum Princess members we get to go to the VIP line and our waiting area has coffee, juice and snacks. But we don’t want to leave our friends, so, I talk to the woman in charge, telling her that we are travelling with four elderly companions (Eve is so going to kill me) who have never cruised before (liar!) and could they please, please stay with us? It took a little finangling, but everything was worked out. I’m really happy about that.
We get our free bottles of water, some coffee and salty snacks (Doritos, Cheetos…) and wait until embarkation time.

Here we go! The six of us board around 1pm and have our embarkation photo taken together. We show Mary and Trish to their mini-suite; Eve and Leroy are next door to them and they’ll be able to open the door between their balconies. Jeff and I are across from the four of them – there is a very short hallway between us but we are on the other side of the boat, so we can all enjoy sunsets or sailaways regardless of which side of the boat it is on.

We walk around the ship a little bit – we are heading for the library. We get books to read and Jeff picks up the daily Suduko puzzles for later. We take our books back to our rooms and head for the Horizon Court buffet for lunch. We’re starving!

Back to our rooms we have a little time to unpack before the Muster (a safety briefing required by international law). The signal is given (7 short and one long blast on the ship’s whistle) so we grab our life jackets and head to our Muster station. It is so weird that even though Eve and Leroy are right next to Trish and Mary that they have different muster stations. Princess musters passengers in large areas inside the ship. When Jeff and I first started cruising we all had to line up in rows of four out on the Promenade deck. It was like herding kittens. This is much better. And it used to be that the safety briefing had to be performed within 24 hours of setting sail, but now it is required to be done before the ship leaves the dock.

Muster complete, it is time for the Sail Away party. Our room stewards have brought each of us a glass of champagne and we all take those as we head up a little early for the 4:30 sail away. Sometimes it is difficult to find a place at the rail. Well, the top deck is not crowded at all! We’ve never seen such a small crowd for sail away. 4:30 comes…no casting off…4:45, 5:00. We watch as the shore crew continue to load luggage onto the ship. This is unusual; and it’s chilly up here.

Jeff and Trish participate in the dancing while the rest of us relax on the lounge chairs.

FINALLY! The ship’s horn sounds and we are underway!!
Panama Canal, here we come!

Another example of our lack of coordination…Jeff and I signed up for “anytime dining” so we can eat anytime between 5:30-10pm and we can sit by ourselves or share a table with other people. We always opt to share. Leroy, Eve, Mary and Trish all signed up for “set dining” which means that they always eat at the same time every evening (In their case, 5:30 pm) and always have the same table mates. Obviously the six of us won’t be having dinner together!

After our dinner Jeff and I decide to skip the show in the theater tonight. We’re going to turn in early. Tomorrow is our first full day on the Island Princess and it’s a sea day. Hooray!