Day Seven: 25 April, 2007, 1230 hours GMT (7:30 ship time)

We sailed south from our anchorage outside Panama City, changing course to due west after we cleared the southern tip of Panama. This was the closest that we got to the Equator on this cruise… 420 nautical miles to our south. As we were leaving Panama City, I counted more then 48 ships in line, waiting for permission to enter the canal from the Pacific side.

This looks like a quiet day, but I probably should not say that because if this were a novel, it would be where something catastrophic would happen, so I won’t say it. We had our usual breakfast in the Horizon Court (Lido (14) Deck), and sat with a lovely couple from Canada. Their son and daughter-in-law were traveling with them, though we never saw them. As we ate, we learned each other’s life histories (eight minutes tops on a cruise). It was their 17^th cruise, and they had some suggestions about whom they would NOT cruise with again, but were pleased with Princess Cruises. Celebrity Infinity was high on their list, and they had good memories of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

We tried some walking after breakfast, but the “bounding” as we rose over the “crest” of each swell (while walking around the Promenade Deck) made walking a bit difficult. The Officer of the Deck mentioned that we might be getting some heavy rains that might affect those on outside decks, so we took the opportunity to yield to our cramping legs and we came inside to do some shopping.

We chatted with Walt and Janet sitting in the Rendez-vous Lounge (that is how Princess spells it). They had just caught an on-board lecture on Costa Rica that they had enjoyed. I also chatted with a fellow sitting nearby. I learned that his name was Henry, that he retired early from the phone company in the San Francisco Bay Area, and had bought a home in Redding California to which he will retire. He owns a sailboat and loves to sail in the San Francisco Bay. We had a remarkable number of “parallels” in our lives.

The wildlife on this cruise has been interesting, as it always is. I just watched a Booby fight. There are a lot of Boobies flying alongside us today, and when one sees something to eat in the water, they dive for it. In this case, more then two eyes spotted the same prize and three birds hit the same spot of water at the same time.

Speaking of dinner, ours was lovely with all four couples in attendance. Six of us enjoyed the Buffalo Pot Roast. It was very nice. Mione was feeling tired so she and Dick went to their cabin after dinner and the other six ended up sitting together in the Princess Theater to hear a very talented gentleman with an harmonica. He is headed from this engagement to one with The Dallas Symphony and The Smother’s Brothers. Rosalee retired to the cabin to watch a movie and I caught the “Extreme Country” show in the Vista Lounge (“Where Country and Pop Collide” they said). The singers and dancers were very talented, but I guess that I would have enjoyed it more if it was a little more “country”. I heard a song long ago that went: “Don’t Give Me No Plastic Saddle… I Wanna Feel That Leather When I Ride!” I guess these kids were wearing plastic saddles. But that’s ok. The audience did love them.

We have to remember to turn out clocks back another hour tonight so that we will meet our bus in the morning for our tour. We have to keep changing the clock to keep up with the time zone that we are in for that day.

Day Eight: 26 April, 2007, 1200 hours GMT (0600 ship time).

We are berthed at the dock of Puntarenas, Costa Rica, in the Gulf of Nicoya, the location where Christopher Columbus is said to have landed in 1492. We were up early this morning to be on the dock before 0830 hours for our tour. Breakfast in the Horizon Court, where I recently discovered the fellow that will prepare you eggs any way you want them. We sat next to a couple from a town “just across the river from Chicago” on the Canadian side. Another Canadian couple saying that they are hoping for the “Global Warming” that they are being promised. They had their coldest winter in a long time this year.

We headed down to the dock to load up in our luxury, air-conditioned bus for our tour. We meet our guide, “Allen”, whom we found to be extremely well versed in many subjects. He knew birds, flora and fauna very well, as well as the political and economical facts of Costa Rica. He took us to a comfortable riverboat (just like the ones in the Jungle Ride at Disneyland, Rosalee said). We spent over an hour on the water in the rain forest, and it was very interesting.

After the water tour, we were treated to local fresh fruit and drinks before we got back on the bus for a drive to  a narrow-gauge railroad that dated back over a century. It runs from the coast to the capitol city of San Jose. The train consisted of lovely old cars but sadly, they were pulled by modern diesel.

Many of he fences were interesting... they plant trees directly in the fence line, and when they reach the size of a fence post they  cut the limbs off and keep it trimmed so it will not grow any more. That way they have a well-anchored post, at no cost, and no post-hole digging.

A local couple... or a couple that want to be a couple... wave as the train rolls by at low speed. We found most people waved at the people on the train. The homes along the railroad were rather minimalistic.

Our bus was at the end of the train ride at coast to take us back to the Sun Princess. We were ready for that cabin, to rest up for dinner. Of course, we had to stop off at Verdi’s Pizza on Dolphin (8) Deck for a Diet Coke and a Pepperoni Pizza to keep up our strength (and get us up the next 48 steps to Aloha Deck.

We both selected some delicious lamb for an entrée tonight. Last night I asked our head waiter to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to my huge slice of Cheese Cake, and he added “sprinkles” to it also. Janet light-heartedly chided him for making mine more colorful and special then hers. Tonight I asked for a two-scoop sundae, as did Janet, but she wanted hers to have SPRINKLES!  He brought her a cereal bowl with several scoops if ice cream, a banana, boysenberries, strawberries, blackberries, caramel, butterscotch, nuts… and SPRINKLES!!! She was able to finish it off .

Tonight’s entertainment was a repeat of the harmonica player and the “Country-Pop” show, so we returned to the cabin to watch a movie on the TV. We got an early start on our beauty sleep.

Day Nine: 27 April, 2007, 1430 hours GMT (0930 ship time)

Walt and Janet said that they “don’t do formal”, so Dick and Pat will join them up in the Horizon Court for dinner. We expect to dine with Dick and Mione, and two other “new” couples that will be assigned to table # eight. Dick and Mione are both dealing with various levels of cancer. She gets pretty tired, he told me. He did not mention how his stamina is doing.  

Two lovely couples joined Dick, Mione, Rosalee and me for dinner. One couple were formerly from the SF Bay area but moved to Twin Falls, Idaho. He was retired from the Navy and ran a private electronics firm. The other couple was from Iowa, where he is retired from a Principalship with a “Continuation-type” alternate high school. Rosalee and I chose a Chateaubriand that was very nice. 

We went to see another comedian / magician and met Walt and Janet coming in. Since it was early, we sat and visited. The second show was Tom Cherry again, for a different show. He sings very well. He sang a whole new set of songs. I watched “Babel” on the TV last night, but the sub-titles are the same color as the background, so they were almost impossible to read. Considering it is about three groups of people (Japanese, Americans in what appeared to be an Arabic country, and an Arabic family), sub-titles were a necessity. If you have not seen it and want to, have faith… it does all come together eventually.

Day Ten: 28 April, 2007, 1315 hours GMT (0815 ship’s time)

Another “cruising-first”… we visited the Infirmary down on Fiesta (4) Deck. Hours are between 1000 and 1200 hours, and 1630 to 1830 hours. There were six patients ahead of me. My cough is getting more then mild, and I figured it would be better to “get hold of it” now. The doctor is British, was very nice, and was very explanatory about everything. He said it was a viral upper-respiratory infection, and ordinarily is treated with an apple and a dismissal back to the cabin. If I wanted an anti-biotic (Americans love them he said) to ward off other complications that may come up, it was my choice. Add some cough syrup if I want it, and an hour and a half and $115 later I’m on my way. I feel much better at least knowing what I’m dealing with (and being lighter in the back pocket for the walk up to A345), so it was worth it. Insurance does not cover these charges for some reason. It is nice to know that they are there. We can also dial 9-1-1 at anytime.

We went to the main dining hall for breakfast this morning, and sat with two couples, one that was from Sacramento and the other was from above Seattle. They were good company. You can literally follow the chef’s suggestions on the little “menu” or you can just ask for what you want, and they will do whatever you ask. It was good, but we will probably go back to the Horizon Court tomorrow morning.

It’s after noon now and we are berthed at Huatulco, Mexico. We decided that we were not that interested in going ashore. It is a 200-yard walk on a very nice pier into town, but the whole town is on the steep hills that surround the small bay in which we are berthed. Personally, I think that the best thing going for this destination is looking at it from any of the many decks on the Sun Princess. Probably one-of-eight buildings are in construction, getting ready for tourist travel. It is plenty warm here, far more then what the “Report from the Bridge” is telling us it is (84.2°F), especially if we are standing in the sun. 

This is up on the hill, behind and above the more accessible lower business area, which is shown below:

I am standing on one of the forward decks on the Sun Princess when I take these images. I also found that I was able to get a weak phone signal here. The fellow standing next to me had a great signal. I asked who his carrier was. LOL.

Our Cruise Card which is our identity card and credit card together (while we are on board) says our dining is “Anytime, Anywhere” (also called Personal Choice”). As you know, we ended up eating with pretty much the same four couples most nights. That is almost like the “traditional dining”, but we can still do other things if we want. We COULD reserve our table in the “anytime” dining hall, but you have to do it every morning, and they will only do it for a certain number of tables that each waiter works. The waiters are the reason we return to table 8 each night. They are Constantin and Dorin, both very good waiters and real 'cuties'. We recently found out they are brothers. 

The entertainment tonight was some repetitive performances and material that we were not interested in. In spite of the fact that I could hardly be heard from my hoarse throat, we sat with Walt and Janet for a couple of hours and visited. After that, we came up to the cabin and crashed.

Day Eleven: 29 April, 2007, 1215 hours GMT (0715 ship’s time)

We were off the ship at 0830 to board a nice, comfortable, air-conditioned bus to go to the “Acapulco Cliff Divers” performance. It is actually done within five miles of the ship. There are terraces on the hills for restaurant and hotel customers and general public (that pay the $12) to stand and watch the boys jump from the rocks into the ocean water. Maybe six dives, and it was all over. Impressive dives, however. 

ACAPULCO, MEXICO

From the cliff divers we took a couple of hours to drive south through the town. It is HUGE! There are only three-fourths of a million people that live here, but with all of the high-rises, hotels, condos, etc., there has to be over another million people here, visiting.  The buildings are as densely packed as anywhere I have seen… the town is over seven miles long. If there is a rock on a ledge, a hotel or a home is built onto it. It makes me think of swallows building on a wall under the eaves of a roof . Many of our “normal” businesses are represented… McDonalds, Planet Hollywood... but no Taco Bell we are told. 

Back to the ship by 1230, so we went up to the Horizon Court for lunch. We sat with Walt and Janet who were already there, and visited about an hour. For lunch I chose a slice of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, fried potatoes, potato salad, Jell-O and iced tea. OK… they were just samples to check them out. They were all good. 

We cast off this evening at 1700 hours, about the time we will be heading up to dinner. Our dinner was very pleasant as usual. Rosalee enjoyed some swordfish and I thought that I would sample some pasta – rabbit combination. They were both very nice.

One of the intended entertainers for tonight was not able to make the airline connections in Acapulco, so they had to switch some of the entertainment schedule tonight. We thought that we would just make an early night of it and return to the cabin. We were asleep fairly early. We must have been tired.

Day Twelve: 30 April, 2007, 1515 hours GMT (1015 ship’s time)

It has definitely cooled a little. This is a full day at sea, but it will not be a formal-dress night. We should be able to awaken to the sight of Cabo San Lucas in the morning.  

We enjoyed the sunlight on our private balcony this morning. I’m still fighting this respiratory infection, so it felt quite good to me. We are both pretty exhausted today. As I said before, we always take the ladders (stairs) and never the lifts (elevators), and after four days we usually do pretty well. We have never sailed this long at one time, so we are surprised to still find ourselves laboring on the climbs up to our cabin or the Horizon Court this late into the cruise.  

We went up for breakfast about 1030 hours and took our books to read while we gave our cabin steward, Geraldo enough time to catch our cabin. After we finished, and while we were reading, Walt and Janet joined us and we talked until they brought their lunch to the table. We will probably skip lunch today. Dinner is not that far away. We still keep finding things to chat about. Gee. Amazing. 

Back to the cabin to catch a little nap before dinner.  

Sure is a tough life. This cold is still doing a number on me, and Rosalee is starting up with a cough too, so we made another early evening of it tonight.

Day Thirteen: 01, May, 2007, 1315 hours GMT (0715 ship’s time)

Having gone ashore last year when we were in this area, we chose to spend the day onboard the Sun today. We read, ate, talked… much better then fighting the “tendering” mess to get ashore. The bay is beautiful, but it does have a bit of a wind, which seems to be rather common.

There are a lot of new buildings going up on the shore, seemingly coming up out of the sand. I hear there are many Americans of retirement age coming down here to buy homes. I guess they have to have places for them to live, eh?

 I read that in the “negotiations” with Mexico at one time or other in our history, “we” stated that we had enough dessert, so “we” conceded to let Baja California become part of Mexico. I have always thought of it as a finger of sand. Cruising alongside the land-mass, I can see that there is a lot of mountainous area that certainly is not sand. I wonder how it would have been if the USA had been in control of Baja… would this have been the “Western Florida?”  

I went forward on Aloha (11) Deck to an outside deck that runs all across the front. The image of Rosalee is on that forward deck. I found at least a dozen wireless networks “available” to me, and trying each one, I found one that allowed me to download our e-mail. With over 300 files, I knew it would take some time. After about half an hour, with repeated re-connections, the Sun Princess had swung through a full 180° because of the wind, and I lost my connection. Returning to the cabin, which now faced the town where I was connected before, I could never re-connect. I got most of the e-mail though. This is only the second downloading of e-mail on this trip… the first being when we were berthed at Aruba and I paid $3 to log on for an hour. 

It is nice to see what is happening back in “normal-town” where e-mail is available. I still cannot transmit out, but I suspect that is because I am not in the US area. If I had a guru with me, I’m sure I would be able to do it however… or if I wanted to pay Princess a bunch of money I could use their system, but I have not heard good reports about their effectiveness. Maybe next cruise. 

I went all out tonight at dinner and had spaghetti. It was great. It had been a long time since I have had any spaghetti. Rosalee had “Surf-n-Turf” which was a beef fillet and shrimp that was a bit spicy for some. The beef was like a marshmallow and the shrimp was very nice.  

We caught a new male singer tonight… Claude Eric from the Vancouver area. He joined us in Cabo, apparently. He was a very good baritone that had an amazing range and a terrific delivery. Very powerful. 

Day Fourteen: 02, May, 2007, 1600 hours GMT (1000 ship’s time)

Another lazy day at sea. Lazy only because we elect for it to be so. There are so many things on board to do, constantly. A person would have to really be a dunce to be bored on this cruise, or most other cruises for that matter.

We went up  to the Horizon Court for breakfast around 1000 hours, and took our books that we have been reading. Around noon, Walt and Janet came by and we visited while they had lunch. We went back to the cabin later (after Rosalee took a detour down to the Atrium Lounge on the Plaza (7) Deck to check out the “sale” on jewelry).  

Dick and Mione ate early so that they could catch an early entertainment tonight, so it was just the three couples for dinner. We all went to see the Ventriloquist/Comedian that had missed the boat in Acapulco. He was ok. We did not go to any late show. Early to bed.

Day Fifteen: 03, May, 2007

We awakened this morning to see the Port of San Diego directly ahead. As the sun rose, we were pulling in past the USS Ronald Reagan, and berthed two berths over from the USS Midway, both United States Aircraft Carriers with the United States Navy. We were required to “check in” this morning for the U.S. Immigration Authority. It amounted to our being up and dressed around 0700 hours, and when our range of numbers was called we walked down to the Vista Lounge (Promenade (7) Deck, Aft), where we walked through as one lady took the paper they gave us three days ago, a man looked at our passport to see that it was actually us carrying it, another lady handed us a tiny paper that would get us off the ship if we wanted to go ashore today, and we were done. A walk-through all the way… never even broke stride. We came back to the cabin, where we tried logging onto one of the more then two dozen stray wireless networks that were flying by. I had a little luck, but only picked up two e-mails. I’m quite certain there are more out there but we will try again in Seattle.  

Rosalee is running a bit of a fever this morning, so we decided with the Sun Princess only spending 5 hours in San Diego, we would not walk over and tour the USS Midway.

After messing with the internet, we were hungry, so we took our computer, phone and books up to the Horizon Court for breakfast. We talked with several couples that were fun. One older lady mentioned that the San Diego skyline looked totally foreign to her. I asked if she had been here in the past. She said that she served twenty months on the north end of Coronado Island on the military airbase. It was some time ago, no doubt. They were headed out to visit “Olde Towne”, the restored part of San Diego my friend Larry Gernrich’s architect father was involved with. 

We made a phone connection with Mom and Cody. This is the first that our phone indicated that it would be able to do more then “SOS ONLY”. Everything there is fine. Cody told us that Vernon Kraft had passed from a massive stroke. So sad to hear that. He was a good soul.  

Another couple sat down later and we talked about computers. They got on in Florida and were going to pick up her mother in Seattle (and the boyfriend) and they were headed up to Alaska. They were riding the Sun up and back down to Vancouver, where they would fly back to Florida. He told me about when he started “playing” with computers (on a TI 99). He got to where he was using Hexadecimal code to draw pictures, but wanted them to move. He learned how to do that but it took hours of programming to move items one pixel at a time, so he wrote a routine that would convert the Hex code for him. He made over $80K from selling that little software routine he said.  

Walt and Janet came by and we talked a while. The girls returned to their cabins and Walt and I talked about “our kinda stuff”, and Walt was interested in catching a lecture in the Princess Theatre on the Mayan Culture. I joined him. Basically a twenty minute talk on slides that was stretched to an hour and a half because the lecturer kept repeating himself… and telling us that he did not include lots of things in the lecture. Could’a  been better.

We are headed west, awat from San Diego now, to get out and away from land enough to turn north along the coast of California, and the temperature is definitely cooler then it was a few days ago… 57°F… and we are feeling it. It is 2315 hours GMT (1615 hours ship’s time).

King Crab at dinner tonight. It was very good. I was chiding our waiter tonight that I was disappointed that we had only had Crème’ Brule’ ONCE this whole cruise. The head waiter came over and said that they would make it for us Saturday night. He offered it for tomorrow night, but I said that we would not be eating in the dining room tomorrow and he said that we HAD to… they had LOBSTER! Oh, man… disaster!

Friday is an at-sea day, and it is our last Formal Dress night. Since Walt, Janet, Dave and Pat don’t enjoy the Formal stuff, and they eat up in the other restaurants, Rosalee suggested that rather then forcing ourselves into the formal get-up, we COULD enjoy dinner with our good friends instead of eating with “strangers”. They thought that was a nice gesture, and we all eight agreed to meet up in the Horizon Court at 1800 hours for dinner on Friday.

Day Sixteen: 04, May, 2007, 1300 hours GMT (0700 ship’s time)

Well, hey! Another Cruise First… Since last evening, the “Sea Condition” is listed as “Rough: 8 to 13 feet”. We are getting tossed around pretty well. We certainly are not seeing anything even close to 8 feet, let alone 13 feet. The highest that I have seen yet is maybe three feet. Throughout the night it was pretty rough. It has not really bothered us much, but I can certainly see how some could have trouble with it. The Ship’s Information channel on the TV that runs a little banner indicating the trip data is mentioning that we need to take caution when moving about the ship and that we need to use the handrails. We are getting some slow rolling swells that are making the Sun Princess move enough that you drift between weighing 40 pounds less to 40 pounds more then you actually weigh. The weird part is when we take a sudden shudder or a quick one-two-uppercut and the bow feels like it is going sideways. Over our railing on our balcony we can see anything that this ship slices through and there are no “waves”… just mild-looking rolling swells.

Rosalee did not have an elevated temperature this morning, and that is good. We are both still hacking and coughing and spitting. Janet is suffering from the same malady. We hear a lot of others on the ship coughing. I’m sure the changes in climate that we have gone through on this cruise did nothing to help this condition.

It looks like rain outside, off the balcony. I think that we are pulling into a little squall. Oops… I KNOW we are… it is raining. A quick switch of the TV to the bridge cam and water is flowing over the lens, like looking out through the glass shower door. We can see it clearing ahead however, so it is not the edge of the earth we are headed for. We are getting close to the San Francisco region.

Our rendezvous in the Horizon Court turned out very well, except that Pat had to head back to their cabin early. She was suffering from the same upper respiratory infection that we have all been courting with. It was very nice to be able to sit and quietly enjoy the friendship of these new friends.

Day Seventeen: 05, May, 2007, 1300 hours GMT (0700 ship’s time)

This is our last day at sea, and we made it a pretty relaxing day. We got started thinking about packing things up. We will have to have all of our bags outside our cabin door before we head down to dinner. That allows the handlers to get all of the luggage arranged into groupings in the terminal where we disembark. That is always a bit of a chore. We also have to think a little about what we have to keep out of the luggage, since we still have a dinner to dress for (although not formal, thank goodness), and then probably wear the same thing off the ship in the morning. The weather tomorrow morning in Seattle will be… hmmm… anyone’s guess?

Rosalee checked out our print-out of our final billing, which includes any charges incurred on board ship during the cruise, including anything spent in the on-board shops, extra dining fees such as special restaurants, alcoholic beverages and cokes, etc. We also set any tips that we want to assign into envelopes to be disbursed by the purser after we are gone. It is pretty clean and easy. Tipping is NOT a difficult thing to accept… it only happens at the end of the trip and can be as anonymous as you want to make it. Your written praises… and complaints… are encouraged also.

All of our luggage must be packed and tagged and set outside our cabin doors before we go down to dinner. That is always the yucky part... you have to plan on keeping something nice to wear to dinner and also something a little less nice to wear tomorrow while you disembark and find your luggage and find transportation to your next location. That means you almost have to have a small carry-off bag for that. That and whatever stuff you want to have available to you when you return from dinner... and what you will need to get ready in the morning. And on top of that, the passageways (hallways) to reach these cabins are fine for traversing... when they are not filled up with luggage. That makes it a one-way traffic flow and you have to shuck and jive to pass anyone else walking the other direction.

Our “Last Supper” was delightful, back at our “table # 8” with our friends and waiters. Remember that Crème’ Brule’ I was promised? We had eight of them. They made them especially for us. It has been a fond experience being served by these two fine waiters. We will remember them.

Our Waiters, Dorin and Constantin from Romania

Our Tablemates:

Walt and Janet Jamison from Seattle, Washington

Dave and Pat Tucker from Seattle, Washington Area

Dick and Mione Worley from Canaveral, Florida

Day Eighteen: 06, May, 2007, 1300 hours GMT (0700 ship’s time).

At first light we find ourselves winding our way through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Admirally Inlet into Seattle. What a serene and beautiful port. There is so much to see as we pull into our berth.

The Space Needle is standing proudly on the hill, towering cranes line the dock next to us, ready to unload a ship of its containers, birds flying so peacefully… what a nice place to “come home” to.

The tall antennas that we can see in the distance are part of what Walt did for a career here in Seattle. He was some type of a broadcasting engineer that kept TV and radio on the air for a bunch of years.

Another cruising “first” for us… we are now in the higher “class” due to the five cruises that we have completed with Princess. Instead of the usual “cattle call” of waiting in the “public” areas with your last remnants of  “stuff” that is headed off the ship with you, you get to go to the “special” areas, where it is indeed much quieter and more relaxed. They will come and get us when it is our time to disembark. Our Seattle friends are there waiting, so we joined them for a last hurrah. Walt pointed out the broadcasting tower on the hill that was “his”, and that we had discussed several times during the cruise. Walt and Janet are being picked up by family and taken to their home a half hour south of the ship. Dave and Pat are catching the ferry across the sound to their home. And quite a ferry it is... two levels of drive-decks plus a passenger-sitting deck.

Dick and Mione are catching a plane to Florida. We will grab a taxi and find our hotel up in the center of town, where we will spend three days before renting a car to drive across the state to see friends and relatives that we have not seen in a while.

Through The Canal

AFTER THE CANAL

After The Cruise