4 Dec-19 Dec 2012
(Click on photos to enlarge them) (More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/GSturtevant)
C.J. has had, for a long time, a strong sense that she wanted to do a transit through the Panama Canal . So when we got an offer from RCI to buy into their cruise program at a reasonable cost, we figured that we could do that as a one week cruise. It turned out that the best Panama Canal cruise experience was a two week trip from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale with stops in Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Cartagena,
Colombia. Plus, we got a bonus week in a condo that we used during October in the Berkshires.
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| Pool deck on Celebrity Century, Los Arcos in distance |
We knew hardly anything about cruising having been on only one cruise and that was a short one to Alaska more than twenty years ago. We chose our cruise and cruise line and ship based on no more than the date it left port. The Celebrity Century, an older and smaller ship of Celebrity Cruise Lines, was our choice and it compared favorably with the style and size of the Holland America Line ship we had sailed to Alaska.
Some things we found out before we left helped make our cruise run smoothly. First, your total outlay is not just the cost of the cruise you buy, it's also the port and government fees (which are particularly high on the Panama Canal cruise - our ship paid a $350,000 fee to transit the Canal),
the gratuities (automatically added to your credit card at the rate of $11.50 per day per person), and the shore excursions (way overpriced by the cruise line).[
Not to mention the cost of alcoholic drinks and/or lattes/espressos, or dining in a specialty restaurant, or any shopping on board, including all those photos available for sale.]
Second, we were going with the least expensive cabin and would have been unable to recharge our electronic devices if we had not brought along a plug strip; there was only one accessible outlet in the whole room. It might be different in a larger, more expensive cabin. Third, there was much to learn and people to meet on CruiseCritic.com. We were able to find out, for example, that there were no washing machines available for passenger use, how tendering works, and how we could participate in a "Meet and Mingle". We also arranged to put together our own shore excursion in Costa Rica at a considerable saving using a well-established local company highly rated by TravelAdvisor.
4 Dec, Tue – Up at 0450 for a hurried breakfast and then
loaded up and drove to Americas Best Value Inn parking near SeaTac (about $78
for 15 days). I thought we were running a bit on the late side particularly
since the shuttle runs only every 30 min on the hour and half-hour, but the
airport was uncrowded and we had plenty of time to get to our gate (B10) and
figure out how Southwest Airlines works its boarding without assigning seats.
The plane was only half full so we had our pick of the seating toward the back
even though we were the last of the first group to load. [One difference was
that since SW doesn’t charge for checked bags, we did not have to bring our
rollaboards on the plane and find room in the overhead bin for storing them. We
checked two carryon-size bags each and carried one small backpack and a tote bag
each.] We had some good views of the Olympics and Hood Canal before we got into
the clouds. There was a short stop at San Jose where we did not get off the
plane but changed our seats to in front of the wing for better views. The rest
of the flight to San Diego was pretty short and we did not see anything that
looked familiar. It was pretty cool to approach the airport right over our
cruise ship! As we were waiting to get our baggage, we spotted a group with
Celebrity signs and asked about getting to the cruise terminal. The Celebrity
shuttle was $20 but one of the guides suggested a taxi for about $12. We asked
an airport volunteer and he said to just take the city bus for $1.10 (senior rate)
each. We got our bags and then checked with the information booth and they said
t
hat the bus was a good idea – no problem with the baggage. So we did it. The
only problem was that we couldn’t hear what the stops the driver was announcing
but with the little map I had and the obvious, huge cruise ship sitting next to
the terminal we figured out when to get off the bus. It was only a short walk
to the terminal and, once there, all the guys were very helpful directing us to
where to drop our bags and where to sign in. There was a pretty good line at
1330 (but not long enough to account for any sizable portion of the 1700 passengers
on the cruise) but it went quickly and soon we were climbing the gangplank and
boarding. We enjoyed our welcome aboard drink and gaped at the view for a while. Since cabins were not quite ready we wandered to Deck 11 where the
Island Buffet was serving lunch (at four separate stations plus the pizza
station and the ice cream shop). We ate outside on the aft end of the deck with
a view over the bay and several naval vessels. It was pretty windy and a fleece
jacket was comfortable. When cabins were announced to be ready, we went down to
Deck 4 and found our tiny, inside cabin but no baggage yet. Back up on the deck
we explored the upper decks. There was a band playing on the pool deck and we
went farther forward to watch from the bow as we started to back away from the
dock around 1630. It was cloudier and still windy and starting to get late.
Returning to the cabin we found our baggage waiting and spent quite a while
packing it away into the closets and drawers – plenty of room. At 1830 (we had
the late seating (2030) for the dining room) we went to “Opening Night” in the
Celebrity Theater for some entertainment (the
a capella group of four young Swedish men
calling itself Trocadero was particularly good with a medley of Beach Boys
hits, and the acrobat duo were incredible) and information from John Grantham,
the cruise director. By then we were pretty hungry again even though we had
caught a snack at the pizza and pickled veggie bar earlier. We were supposed to
show up at the Grand Restaurant at 2000 and we found a line already formed at
1945. When we got to the front of the line at the deck 6 entrance, we were
pointed to the correct entrance for our table (522) on Deck 5 [Earlier we had
gone to talk to the Maitre’d about changing our seating to an earlier time. He
said he’d work on it but it might take a couple of days.] We were at a table
for 8 and the other four folks were friendly (and two were missing) so that’s
one concern laid to rest. Vladimir from the Ukraine and Maryonto(?) from Indonesia were our servers and we had interesting food such as a cold tangerine
and apple soup, shrimp louie,
Thai beef springroll, prime rib* and herb-crusted
haddock, banana-blueberry crepe and crema costana? (cold custard with a melted
sugar skim on top, like crème brule). On the way back to the cabin we stopped
to listen to a band in the Rendezvous square and a string trio in the Cova
Café. C.J.’s pajamas had been folded into an interesting shape and we all had a
chocolate on our pillow, including Snuff Bear. We (tried to) set our clocks
forward an hour to coincide with the time in Cabo San Lucas and set an alarm for 0700.
5 Dec, Wed – We didn’t wake up at 0700 as planned because
the smartphone was too smart to be changed to Chihuahua time zone when we were
still in Pacific. Oh well, we got up before 0800 and had plenty of time for
breakfast in the dining room before the 0915 lecture by “Uncle Marty”
Harrington on the history and geography of Panama. At 1015 we did a Meet and Mingle with the
Cruise Critic group in the Martini Bar and heard from Jamie Pett, the Hotel
director and John Grantham, the Cruise Director. We had a gift exchange (didn’t
luck out, getting two packs of Florida playing cards), but we did get to meet
Peggy and Joe and Lacey and Charles who we will join for the private shore excursion in Puntarenas,
CR to do a canopy tour by zipline. After changing shoes we went back to the
theater for a half-hour waltz lesson (practice – 2 L’s, 2 fwd and back, 2
twirling, 4 ¼ turns). We went back to the dining room for lunch (duck, pork
knuckle pannini, salad, gazpacho, cheesecake) and then wandered around the ship
finding the Crystal Room (aft,
above the Grand Restaurant), Hemisphere Lounge
and the Spa and Fitness Center (both fwd). At some point we joined a line in
the atrium to sign up for a tour from Colon to Panama City ($173) having heard that there was nothing to do in Colon. It was warm
and sunny so we changed to shorts and went out on deck to play shuffleboard for
a while then back to the cabin to rest and catch up on my journal. Dinner this
night is formal and later there is the Captain’s
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| C.J. in the Grand Foyer |
Gala Toast in the theater,
followed by a piano performance by Antonio Salci. Dressing for dinner was sort
of fun. There were lots of cruise photographers in the halls and at dinner but
we managed to avoid most of them. We joined new people at our new table at the
1730 seating. Our headwaiter now was Gregorio and we had a new, somewhat inexperienced, sub-waiter, Anya from Russia. The menu was different again with frog legs as one appetizer choice. I
had an appetizer of rare beef very thinly sliced, a green (spinach and
trevisio) salad and duck a l’Orange, while C.J. had a salmon rillette, the same
salad and rack of lamb*. We all had cherries jubilee for dessert (but no
flambé). Dinner was over late enough for us to meander over to the theater and
pick up a complimentary glass of wine for the Captain’s Gala Toast. The Master,
Captain Nikolas Christodoulakis, introduced the senior officers, talked about
the ship and proposed a toast in a whole slew of languages. A few minutes
later, the high-energy pianist Antonio Salci with a well-rehearsed backup band
took the stage and performed his arrangement of several songs from the Beatles
to Amazing Grace. After the show C.J. and I stopped at Cova Café
to listen to Trocadero perform. We ducked
outside and found the night air warm enough to walk on the deck. In the
Rendezvous a different dance band and vocalist (Carousel, the party band) were
performing and we listened until around 2200 when we headed back to the cabin
to get some rest for our first shore excursion when the ship anchors at Cabo
San Lucas around 1130 and begins tender operations.
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| Los Arcos, S end of Baja |
6 Dec, Thu – Breakfast in the dining room with a new set of
interesting people. Even with 1700 or so people on board we run into the folks
we have eaten a meal with occasionally. We still hadn’t decided what we want to
do in Cabo but we got our tender tickets soon after the office opened and got
#7 which turned out to be among the relatively early times. Most of the rest of
the morning we spent watching the coastline sail past us in the warm sun. We
even caught sight of a small whale spouting and swimming north. By 1100 we were
passing the rocks at the southernmost point on the Baja Peninsula and pulling
into the bay where we anchored along with a big Disney ship and a smaller
Holland America Line Zaandam. Since it was so warm and the water temperature
was reported to be 80 deg F, we decided to bring our masks and snorkels
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| Paradise water taxi at Los Arcos |
along
with us and see how things worked out. We ate a good lunch at the buffet on
Deck 11 (went first to the spa buffet but it was crowded) and finished just as
they called for tender ticket 7. Arriving at the dock in Cabo we were
immediately besieged by touts for everything. At about the fifth guy hawking a
boat tour to Los Arcos, we stopped and talked to him. His price was the same as
everyone else but he seemed to be pretty much on the up and up, had his own
boat, business cards and offered to take us on the tour and drop us off at a
beach to snorkel and come back to pick us up in an hour or two or three.
Sounded good so we gave him $20, and the dock guys $2 “for maintenance”. Captain Daniel
Parra found a couple more passengers from the Disney Wonder and we were off.
There were sea lions, pelicans, and rocks shaped like pelicans, caves and the
famous arch. On the way back from the Pacific side of the arch we stopped at
Lovers Beach to let the other two guys off and at Pelican Beach where we got
off to snorkel in
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| C.J. at Pelican Beach, Century |
the area surrounded by a buoy line provided to keep boats out
of the swimming area. The water was not cold but it wasn’t 80 deg warm either;
nevertheless we snorkeled out to Pelican Rock and saw a bunch of tropical fish
mostly Moorish Idols and Clownfish. We were a bit concerned about leaving our
pack with cameras and wallets on the beach but no one bothered them and the
local guys seemed to keep the beach pretty policed up. Not wanting to return to
the water we thought we might try to walk to Lovers. It was possible if you
didn’t mind traversing the rock faces above the waves and splashing through
some places that had no route. We walked across Lovers to the Pacific side
(called Divorce Beach) but didn’t find the other two guys so we figured we’d
better get back to Pelican where we were to meet Daniel. It was just as easy
going back (and it would have been possible to walk out to the beaches from
town with some wading and traversing). Daniel showed up with the other guys
about 20 min late and returned us to the dock at Cabo. We tipped him an extra
$5 each for the convenience of the dropoff and pickup (and it was a ton cheaper
than booking a shore excursion through the cruise line). We showered the salt
and sand off and ate another great dinner in the Grand Restaurant (shrimp
cocktail, country
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| Sunset behind Los Arcos |
pate (surprisingly good), Waldorf salad, Asian consommé, veal
chop and Mediterranean seafood ourzo, with crepes suzette, warm chocolate lava cake and
panna cotta alla Romana). Later we went to the theater (once again stopping at
Cova Café to listen to the Trocadero quartet) for a fun performance by Dan
Bennett, a comedian and juggler. After that we hit one of the Celebrity Live
activities, a Fabulous 50’s Rock and Roll Party with John Grantham emceeing a
“contest” to name well-known songs. It was a hoot with lots of audience
participation. We stayed until 2245 then headed for our cabin to set our clocks
another hour ahead and get some rest before exploring Puerto Vallarta on Fri.
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| Artwork along the Malecon |
7 Dec, Fri – We had breakfast in the dining room again
(Note to self: don’t order “Belgian waffles” next time). We took our e-readers and stuff up
to the Hemisphere lounge and read and worked on crossword puzzles in the
glass-enclosed bow on deck 12 until we could see the approaching coast of
Mexico and passed some islands. We had lunch in the Islands Café buffet and by
the time we finished, we were docking (1300). Disembarkation was much easier
than the previous one when we had to use tenders. We walked out and stopped to
talk to a salesperson in the cruise terminal area about vanilla (0.5L for $8) then went over to the artisan
market
designed for those cruisers who did not
want to go the mile or two into town. We weren’t looking to buy anything
(except vanilla…) so we walked the gantlet of taxi drivers offering tours (“one
hour - twenty dollars”) and found the city bus stop across the street from
Walmart and paid less than $2 to the center of the city (Peru at Allende) where
we walked a block down to the north end of the Malecon, what probably used to
be a boardwalk but is now a pedestrian route along the shore. We took pictures
of the quirky monuments and went into a few shops eventually buying a half
liter of vanilla with a stick of vanilla bean in it for $6.50. We walked
through another market on the small square in front of the cathedral of Our
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| Large traditional Christmas | Pinata |
Lady of Guadalupe and toured the church. Then we continued south along the
shore until we crossed the river. Turning back we went inland to the municipal
market where there was even more stuff we didn’t need. Returning to the church
and the place the tourist office had told us we could catch the bus back to the
ship, we found the street blocked off and the buses not running through that
part of town. We were told that we could either catch a cab or walk 10-12
blocks north to where the buses were still running. Sounded like a bummer but
it turned out that the walk took us to where the parade celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe was forming up. There were all kinds of fanciful costumes with
feathers, mariachis, marching bands and floats. We spent an hour waiting around
for the parade to get underway but that gave us plenty of time to
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| Getting ready for the parade |
take lots of
pictures. Eventually we continued north and found where the buses were turning
around and got on a local that had a sign saying “Wall-mart” and got back to
the Marina Vallarta. We took a bit more time to go to Walmart to get some
nylons for C.J. and then returned to the ship. We were too late for
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| Colorful headdresses and costumes |
dinner in
the main dining room (it was after 1800) and we really needed a shower. After
cleaning up we ate in the buffet again then went out on deck to watch the ship
pull away from Vallarta. The show in the Celebrity Theater was Lelani Marell, a
dynamic vocalist – another good show. We returned to the cabin for an earlier
bedtime. There are two sea days back-to-back coming up before we get to
Guatemala but it sounds like there will be plenty to do.
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| C.J. as we pulled out of PV |
8 Dec, Sat – I did not set an alarm mostly because I hadn’t
been able to convince my (not-so) smart phone to change the time zone when it is
not connected to the cell signal. Anyway, we got up at 0810 and went to
breakfast at the Islands Café. At 0900 was the second installment of Uncle
Marty’s Panama series – Modern Day Panama. I got there for the last part of it.
Meanwhile C.J. was taking a watercolor class with Jill Goodell. I then went to
the shore excursions presentation about Guatemala and Costa Rica. It wasn’t
particularly helpful. C.J. and I met up again at “Oceans Ahead: Secrets of Ship
Navigation” presented by DJ ____ the ship’s first officer, a young graduate of
SUNY Maritime (one of the few American officers). After that we went to lunch at Islands. At 1330 there was a
Beyond the Podium presentation with
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| Thriller Flash Mob practice |
Don Goldsmith whose topic was Connecting
with the Cosmos. It was a pretty good “intro to astronomy” lecture but pretty
dry (I kept falling asleep), however he did announce a star watching party for later
in the cruise where some of the ships lights would be turned off. At 1430, C.J.
joined a group practicing the moves of
Thriller for a flash mob dance with Jamie (asst. cruise
director) and a couple dozen passengers in the theater. After that we wandered
the decks a bit before settling down to read on the shady port side. As the
temp dropped toward late afternoon we moved to the padded lounge chairs on the
pool deck.
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| Our table on a non-formal night |
Dinner in the Grand Restaurant was excellent again with shrimp cocktail,
Tom Ka Gai Thai soup, Boston lettuce and gorgonzola salad, drumfish, and pork
medallion. The show at the Celebrity Theater was Vincenzo Gentile, violinist.
Afterward we sat for a while in Michaels Club to listen to Eddie Covarrubias
play music by the Beatles on his piano. Then we thought we’d go to the 80’s
theme party in Hemisphere but it was already loud when we got there early.
Instead we went up on the
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| Gregorio, our head waiter, C.J. and Chrissy |
forward deck and picked out some stars, planets and
constellations using my smartphone. The GPS on the phone showed that we were
just south of Acapulco and we could see its lights to the north. We headed back to the room to check out the schedule for the next day.
Looks like we’re going to have to sign up for the Antigua self-guided tour
since we have no information about non-cruise shore excursions.
9 Dec, Sun – Up at 0730, breakfast in Islands Café. Then we
went to the Hemisphere lounge for a Tai Qi (Chi) and Qi Gong class sponsored by the AquaSpa. We did a
series of basic exercises/moves and found out that on sea days there is a Tai
Chi group that meets on the basketball court at 1100. C.J. picked up the
watercolor work for the day but couldn’t go to the class because it overlapped
the galley tour at 1015. Unfortunately, it looked like the whole ship wanted to
see the galley and we were in group 19 out of 25 so we left before our turn
came up. That means we got to the Cha Cha class with Tanya and Anthony(members of
the onboard theatrical production company) on time and, when that was over, we
made it to the Tai Chi group just a little late. It wasn’t
too hot in the sun because of the (at least) 18 knot wind resulting
from the ship’s speed. After that we read for a while on the deck in the shade
then went for lunch in the buffet again. C.J. went off to the
Thriller Flash
Mob practice followed immediately by Modern Line Dance class on the pool stage
(looked like exercise to music to me). After that we hung out in the sun
reading for a half-hour or so. We attended a presentation about Future Cruises and
how they are priced (and all the advantages of buying
right now on board…). This was the second formal night so we went
back to the cabin to shower and change. Dinner was excellent once again (steak
tartare, salmon gravlax, duck consommé, chow mein salad, ahi tuna,
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| Snuffs and his rolled towel elephant |
chateaubriand, mousse bombe, and chocolate cake). The evening show was a
performance by the ship’s dance company called Dance Around the World. The
acrobats were a standout again. Sometime during the day we stopped by the Shore
Excursions desk and tried to book transportation for a self-guided tour of
Antigua Guatemala. They were sold out but put us on a wait list and later
delivered tickets to our stateroom ($43.75x2). [Later we found that we could
have booked something similar once we got to the Puerto Quetzal cruise terminal
for $29 each.]
10 Dec, Mon – Up at 0630 so we could be ready to meet at
0800 in the theater for our shore excursion. Our group got called to disembark
not much after 0800 and we found quite a bit of shopping and entertainment in
the area right off the ship. We picked up some maps and other free stuff at the
Guatemalan visitor desk then boarded our air-conditioned bus for the 1.5 hr
ride to La Antigua Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along the way we
drove across the coastal plain on a 4-lane divided highway past fields of sugar
cane. Around Escuintla we began climbing to reach the almost 5000ft elevation
of Antigua. At least four volcanoes were visible along the way; Agua had steam
rising from its flank and we saw a puff of steam from Fuego. Pacaya was visible
farther to the east and Acatenango was just north of Fuego. At the meeting
point (the Museo de la Santa Semana) the seven buses unloaded and the 400 or so
people used the rest rooms then split up to explore the town on their own or
with a guide ($10/person). C.J. and I headed toward the
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| Colored sawdust for Nativity |
Mercado, city market,
with a stop to walk through the park in front of the cathedral (AD 1543). First we
wandered through just about the whole Mercado des Artesanias buying a set of 6
placemats/napkins ($6, bargained down from $16), a dressy shawl ($7,…$15), a
shirt for me ($10, …$23). Then we cut across the bus parking lot and found
ourselves in a Christmas market, clearly not for tourists. There were all kinds
of stuff for building a nativity scene (including colored sawdust) as well as
more typical ornaments and lights. From there we entered the rear of the market
and wandered through the food area with all sorts of things never seen in your
local Safeway. We left there well past lunch time but hadn’t felt brave enough
to eat in any of the tiny food prep places. We went north up Calzado
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| La Merced through arch |
Sta Lucia
and east on Calle de Recoleccion to get a photo of the ruins of La Recoleccion
Convent (AD 1715), then backtracked to Casa de Tejido Antiguo (translated as
“museum of antique costume”) ($4). We got a demonstration of how women weave
with a backstrap loom and saw lots of textiles. We continued east to La Merced
Church and Convent which had a really baroque façade but a very plain interior.
A persistent textile weaver (one of many street hawkers) followed us along
offering us table runners. We thought she said $1 so we actually looked at her
products. At that point she said it was
twenty-one,
and we said we weren’t interested. It must have been late in the day because
she kept lowering the price and sticking with us. We finally left her and went
to get
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| Cathedral ruins |
a picture of La Merced through the Santa Catalina arch. She caught up to
us there again and we decided to reward her for her persistence and good
English (she said she was studying to become a teacher) and bought a table
runner for $10. By then it was getting to be about an hour until we had to be
back at the meeting point so we walked to the ruins of El Carmen, the Capuchinas
Convent and the Cathedral ruins ($2), even going down into the crypts. We
returned to the meeting point about 1435 and had to wait for the buses which
did not arrive until 1500. But it was shady and there was grass to sit on
(probably where I got bitten by a spider). The ride back was uneventful
(although it looked like one of the buses must have had a breakdown along the
way. With so many people returning to the ship at once, there was quite a jam
at the gangway where we, as usual, had to have our room cards (sea pass)
scanned and go through a metal detector. So it was 1700 before we got back to
the room – just time enough to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. Neither
of our dinner partners had taken a tour
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| Snuffs and his swans |
so we had the stories for the day. Almost
everyone had the (disappointingly breaded) veal cordon-bleu for an entrée; in
addition we had minestrone, spinach turnover, and crab-stuffed mushroom caps).
Dessert of choice was a slice of Sacher torte. After dinner I went to the
evening show, Al Ducharme, a stand-up comedian. C.J. spent time with her photos
and journal. Tuesday is another sea day so we can rest up a bit before the
Costa Rica shore excursion.
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| G, breakfast on the aft deck |
11 Dec, Tue – 0730 alarm, breakfast at the buffet where we
sat on the aft deck outdoors. We went to Uncle Marty’s presentation on the
history of the Panama Canal at 0900. Then we sat in the shade and read for a
while. C.J. went to her watercolor class at 1100 and I moved to the sun for 20
min (and found out later that that was too long at this latitude because my
legs got burned). We were to meet at the buffet aft deck and I found Charles
and Lacey there who are going on the zipline tour with us on Wed. They had done
the climb of Pacaya Volcano Monday and found it strenuous as advertised – he thought
they started at 2500m and climbed to the 2010 eruption crater at about 600 ft
from the summit in about an hour and a half. After lunch we hurried to make a
talk by the ships engineer only to find it was postponed. We read for a while
in the shade and then C.J. went off to a scrapbooking activity (after somehow
missing the first one). I went to the fitness center and used the elliptical
exercise machine for 25 min while watching the Lorax movie. Then I sat in on a
Fitness Seminar which ended up with the presenter checking the footprint of
four of us. I was one chosen because I use arch supports and had my orthotics
with me. He had me resist a downward force in front of me and behind my back
with my arch supports and with ones that he supplied. I was able to resist the
forc
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| self-portrait in cabin |
es more effectively with the GoodFeet.com arch supports (selling on the
ship for $189). I went back to the room and found a note from C.J. and got my
swimsuit on. The water in the aft pool was the same temp as the fwd pool – I
guess we are in the tropics and no longer need a warmer water temp in one of
the pools. After splashing around for a while I got out and found C.J. up on
Deck 12 reading. After catching up on what each other had been doing we went
down to get ready for dinner. The menu as usual gave 3, 4 or 5 choices for
appetizer, salad/soup, and entrée (plus about 8 choices for dessert) Tonight we
had salmon quenelles, poached pears and gorgonzola in a pastry, mesclun salad,
romaine and frisee salad, steak au poivre, and dark lamb stew. The Celebrity
Showtime was a split bill with the comedian from Monday and the singer from
last Friday, Lelani Marell. We went back to the room before 2200 to get stuff
ready for the shore excursion at Puntarenas, CR on Wed. One more sea day before
we reach the Panama Canal!
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| Capuchin monkey |
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| Crocodiles |
12 Dec, Wed – Up at 0645 after a somewhat restless night
with my cold and sunburn (I took a 12-hr cold remedy at 0400, [nope, it was a big Tylenol capsule]). Breakfast in the
buffet, then we prepared for our zipline shore excursion. I noticed my kayak hat
was missing and had to go to Guest Relations to see if it was in
lost-and-found; success! We met our guide, Victor of Odyssey Tours, along with
the other four who had reserved through communication on Cruise Critic rollcall
(Peggy and Joe Schwarz, Lacey and Charley Thomason) and six others. We had a
nice small, air-conditioned bus. We drove along the barrier bar that Puntarenas
is built on, and then south across a river with lots of crocodiles. We drove
through Caldaras where Victor noted that there was a paraglider launch. We made another stop
at a place where there were several Capuchin monkeys (whiteface monkeys).
Around
1000 we arrived at Vista Los Suenos (View the Dreams?) and got geared
up. Then we piled into a wagon pulled by a big tractor and drove up a rough
road to the beginning of the series of zip lines. There were twelve cables of
varying length with the longest and steepest one being No. 11 near the bottom,
almost a
half mile long. The zip line guides were very professional and there
were almost as many of them as of the customers (only our group was there).
There was also a photographer who accompanied us and caught a few really good
pictures; but we didn’t want to spend an additional $25 each for the whole CD.
At the end we had a nice snack of fresh pineapple and watermelon before
boarding the bus around 1200 (tip $4).
Next stop was in Jaco at a buffet which
served typical local foods – fish, pepper steak, pork asado, beans and rice and
various salads, limonada and maracuya (passion fruit) juice. We ate on the
second story where there was a breeze to offset the heat and humidity.
After
lunch we drove along the famous surf beach of Jaco then started back north a ways
to a dirt road that led down to a private beach connected with the Punta Leona resort.
We didn’t have our swim suits so we, and most of our group, just walked on the
beach. There was a very light shower and the rumbling of thunder so the
humidity was high. Continuing north a short distance, we turned off the main
road into a small town (Tarcoles?) where Victor pointed out a tree with scarlet macaws and
helped us get some photos. The last stop was at a big souvenir shop at 1600 and
then we took the toll road back to Puntarenas. A cashier met us at the dock at
1700 and we used our credit card to pay for the tour ($170 plus tip $10). We
barely had time for a shower and to get dressed for dinner. Great meal of prime
rib*, shrimp summer roll, salmon something, and salads! I had chocolate cake
with banana rum ice cream while C.J. had a kind of chocolate pastry. We also
tried an apricot clafoutis and an anise-blackberry tart with Pernod, neither of
which were very good. The show for the evening was another production by the
entertainment staff, called Liverpool Knights. It was music and dance based
roughly on music from the mid-60’s. Since the clocks are going to be changed to
EST, we got to bed relatively early.
13 Dec, Thu – Up at 0730 but my throat was very sore and my
cold was no better. After breakfast we went to Uncle Marty’s presentation on
the modern Panama Canal and future/ongoing improvements. He showed a video of
the 8-hour canal passage edited and compressed to eight minutes which was
pretty funny. I didn’t feel like doing anything and ended up napping on the
pool deck while C.J. went to the watercolor class. We met for lunch in the buffet
(too bad the hamburgers were cooked (no choice)
 |
| Snuffs and his towel goose |
to “well-done”) and then hung out talking
with Leon and Chrissy there for a while. Then we went down to the theater for a
presentation on a rescue of a yacht captain who needed to be evacuated to a
medical facility. Capt. Johnson had been sailing a 40 ft yacht from San Diego
to Maui for delivery when a rogue wave struck the boat tossing him across the
cabin and causing spinal and internal injuries. The USCG, contacted via
satellite phone, asked the
Century to rendezvous with the yacht as it was the
closest ship with medical facilities. The captain and crew were taken
 |
| Ray with C.J., Chrissy and Linda |
off the
yacht and the boat was abandoned only to appear three weeks later none the
worse for wear on a beach in Maui. We went up to the pool deck and read for a
while then it started raining and blowing so we moved inside to the Hemisphere.
Once the Trivia Game began I went down to the cabin to get some more rest.
Dinner was lobster ravioli, bbq pork spring roll, máche salad, egg drop soup,
osso bucco and pasta chimayo linguine. Desserts were likewise excellent with
lava cake and a strawberry-marzipan layer pastry. The Celebrity Showtime
presentation was a comedy ventriloquist, Steve Brogan who was very funny. It
looks like we will be going through the first of the Miraflores locks at about
0800 on Friday.
 |
| Panama Canal tugboat detail |
14 Dec, Fri – Up at 0645 so that we would
have time to be on
deck for the Panama Canal transit. We brought our trays out to the Pool Deck
and I finished my meal there but C.J. went to find a better viewing place and
came back for
breakfast later. We had good views of the modern,
one-million-population Panama City and then passed up the channel under the
International Bridge (Bridge of the Americas) to Miraflores Locks (2). I
watched from here and there and finally went down to deck 6 and found the route
to the bow observation deck through the theater. The front rail was packed with
people but I found a good spot on one of the ladders to the next deck and stood
 |
| Miraflores Locks |
 |
| Electric locomotive |
there until the security people moved all of us off. Just before it started to
rain the bow observation area was closed and we had to go back to watching from
the sides of the ship. The afternoon had periods of rain, hard rain and just
clouds. All along the southern (or western) (or Pacific) side of the canal we
could see the construction for the new, wider addition to the canal, what Uncle
Marty called a coronary bypass. We passed under the Centennial Bridge and through
one more ascending lock (Pedro Miguel) before coming out at Gatun Lake level, 85 ft above sea level.
Unhooking from the electric locomotives (3 per side) we motored through channels and across the lake. Meanwhile, I was taking naps to try to get over
my cold,
 |
| Panamax cruise ships barely fit |
 |
| Some of the old shovels are still dredging |
and C.J. went to a scrapbooking class at 1330. We reached the Gatun
Locks and descended the 80-plus feet we had gained to pass through the Gaillard
Cut. Along the way we saw a number of dredges working to deepen the canal; some
were pretty ancient mechanical shovels dumping blasted-loose spoil into barges
and others were suction dredges with long floating pipes. Once through the last
locks we motored past Colon and out to sea. (Huh? I thought we were stopping in
Colon for a shore excursion tomorrow. I guess there must be some good reason
why we are burning fuel rather than sitting at a dock. C.J. and I felt salty-sweaty
enough to want showers before dinner. We had vitelli tonato (thin slices of
veal), goat cheese and potato gratin, Greek salad, chilled pear and honey soup,
lamb shank “tangine style”, and crab-crusted flounder. The show in the theater
at 2030 was Martin Lewis, a British magician-comedian – absolutely amazing!
Back early to get some rest for an early departure (0730) to colonial Panama
City and Miraflores Locks.
 |
| Modern Panama City |
15 Dec, Sat – We got up early (0615) so we would have no
 |
| Street in Old Panama |
problem getting to the theater for our 0730 meeting time. It was raining when
we exited the shelter of the ship and walked the short distance to the bus; the
stateroom umbrella and C.J.’s rain jacket helped a bit. But we were damp enough
that the air conditioning of the bus felt cold. Our guide, José, kept up a
supply of information about the country and everything else about Panama as we
drove through Colon and out onto a toll road. We exited the expressway to drive
through the Soberania National Park. Our first stop was at the Miraflores Locks
Visitor Center. We went up to the fourth floor
 |
| Building restoration Old Panama |
observation deck and watched the
Holland America Line Amsterdam pass into the first lock. Later we saw a movie
on the history of the canal from a Panamanian viewpoint – slightly different
from the US version we had seen on PBS. Then we drove in to Panama City and
parked not too far from the Old City and walked into the UNESCO World Heritage
Site [fortunately, the rain had stopped]. The facades and building height have
to remain the same to qualify for WHS status but the interiors could be
modernized. Many of the building we saw were gutted, and some of the facades
were crumbling (but many were nicely restored). We
 |
| Christmas pageant in Plaza Libertad |
stopped for a while in a
square with
a monument dedicated to Simon Bolivar (unusually dressed as a
civilian)
 |
| St Francis and Bolivar |
|
and an old church with a belfry surrounded by angels (Iglesia del San Francisco). The Presidential Palace was undergoing restoration and we weren’t
allowed in. C.J. suggested to José going back to the main square which we had
glimpsed a few blocks previously. The cathedral formed one end of the plaza
which was partly filled with a re-enactment of the Christmas story (maybe it
was Las Posadas although that starts traditionally on 16 Dec) and a bunch of kids
as an enthusiastic audience. From there we returned to the bus where we got a
couple of rolls with a slice of turkey lunchmeat and a bottle of water. Then we
drove out to the end of the Amador causeway to a shopping area that appeared to
be designed exclusively for cruise tours – souvenirs, duty-free shopping and
snacks were available. At least C.J. was able to buy some stamps for the
postcards she had written.
 |
| Cruise Terminal in Colon |
Heading back through Balboa into
 |
| Admin Bldg, Goethals Mon. |
the city we stopped
to see the Goethals monument and the Administration Building for the Panama
Canal, built on a tall pile of dredged rock. On the way back to Colon in
on-and-off rain we were lucky to not run into more traffic jams which seem to
be a big problem. Back at the dock we got off the bus and walked through the
cruise terminal retail area before reboarding the ship. [That would have been
ugly if it had been still raining as there was no shelter for the passengers.]
We downloaded photos from the cameras and later went on deck (or to the
Hemisphere, since it was raining again) to watch the ship undock and head out
into the Atlantic/Caribbean. Dinner was shrimp and scallop ceviche, Hungarian
goulasch and T-bone steak for C.J. while I had artichoke and spinach dip
with Parmesan pita chips, tuna Niçoise (which didn’t have any tuna) and honey-glazed
pork chop. The guy who runs the emerald shop on board and who had lived in
Cartagena for 11 years gave a presentation on self-guiding yourself in
Cartagena in the cinema. Afterward we went to the evening show which featured a
dynamic, Las Vegas-show-style male vocalist who also played the trumpet, Greg
Bonham.
 |
| Cartagena from the sea |
16 Dec, Sun – We got up at 0700
 |
| Clock Tower Gate |
so we could get to breakfast
and watch the approach of the ship to Catagena, Colombia. I was confused
because the map on my GPS did not show the land off the port side as we
approached from the SW, but it was there. By 0900 the ship had docked and we
were more or less ready to explore the Old City on our own. We walked in the
shade of the HAL
Zuiderdam off the pier and on to the cruise terminal. There
was a snack bar and a big duty free store, also some
 |
| Walls of Old Cartagena |
flamingos, iguanas
(They’re big!) and several tame macaws and parrots. One tour operator was
running around trying to get a group together and his price was only $15 each
for a three-hour tour that included the monastery on Cerro de la Popa. We
talked to some of the other cruise
 |
| View from Cerro de la Popa |
passengers who were “in” and they sounded
positive so we threw in with Rodrigo Rodriguez. He loaded about 24 of us on a
modern, air conditioned coach and we drove immediately to the monastery (actually "convent of the Virgin of the Candelaria"). There
was another $4 charge for entrance to the grounds and chapel but the view out
over the city was really good. Like most of the places we visited, it was
pretty crowded with other tour groups (perhaps partly due to it being a
Sunday). We could see the ships at the cruise terminal, the part of the city
 |
| Emerald museum |
where our guide said “the poor people live”, the white highrises of the Boca
Grande sector, and the walled Old City and Castillo de la San Felipe de Barajas.
The sunshine was really hot but there was a nice breeze on the monastery wall,
and then we had a cool A/C ride down the hill and past the beach to the Emerald
Museum in Boca Grande. We got the tour and sales pitch similar to the one we
had in Rio, but did not buy any emerald jewelry. Then we drove past the beach
again and around the outside of the whole walled city to “the vaults”, old
storehouses for ammunition and supplies which are now individual shops selling
souvenirs and crafts (and emerald jewelry, of course) nothing of which we
needed. There were LOTS of street vendors
 |
| Old Cartagena |
 |
| San Pedro Claver Plaza |
selling T-shirts, hats, necklaces,
and tablecloths, among other things. Back in the bus we drove to the another
location in the city where we left the bus and walked to Santo Domingo Square,
Bolivar Plaza (Cathedral), San Pedro Claver Square (church), and Aduana
Plaza (Columbus statue) before exiting out under the arches beneath the Clock
Tower. Annoyingly, there were several stops at select souvenir or emerald
shops, but we expected that having been warned in the lecture the previous
night that that was the way business was
 |
| Castillo of San Felipe de Barajas |
done in Cartagena. We returned to the
bus wilted from the heat and made only
 |
| Columbus, Cerro de la Popa bg |
one more stop, a short one, to
photograph the Castillo de San Felipe de Borajas which looked impregnable even
today. By 1330 we were back at the cruise terminal. We got some pictures of the
tropical birds and then returned to the Century for late lunch. We ran into our
dinner tablemates doing their own self-guided tour of the Old City and had
lunch with Ray and Linda back at the ship (Leon was probably preparing for his
Bible Study
 |
| Toucan at cruise terminal |
activity he was leading at 1600). After lunch we read a while until
I got too hot up on Deck 11. I returned to the cabin to download photos and
shower but I returned to the observation deck in time to watch us steam out of
the harbor. Dinner was Thai beef on crispy noodles, Caesar salad, and braised
beef ravioli for me and seafood crepe, pickled avocado, cucumber and orange
salad and balsamic-glazed salmon for C.J. Dessert was a special individual
chocolate soufflé with banana cream sauce*. The evening show was the final
production number by the ship’s company, “A Taste of Broadway”, which had show
tunes from The Producers, Cabaret, Mama Mia and others. The wind had picked up
and the ship was actually feeling a bit more like a ship – not really rolling
but bouncing around a bit.
 |
| Brunch |
17 Dec, Mon – The wind continued at a reported 35 knots with
partly cloudy skies. We could have gone to breakfast in the Islands cafe when
we got up before 0800 but today was the special brunch buffet in the Grand
Restaurant from 1000-1330. I picked up a roll and some hot chocolate to tide me
over and we spent some time up in the Hemisphere Lounge where C.J. was working
on her photos and I was trying to type an email to Wayne on my tablet –
possible but not easy. There was a
 |
| Chocolate fountain |
good crowd at the brunch when we got there
but we got a table right away. The variety of food was amazing – from
traditional breakfast foods to shrimp cocktail, leg of lamb and fish soup. I
saw a whole table with muesli and things to add to it. And then there were the
desserts! And the chocolate fountains – two of them! There were a dozen large
ice sculptures, too. We didn’t finish grazing until after the swing dance class
started so we missed that. I went to
 |
| Dragon ice sculpture |
listen to a Q and A session on Panama
with Uncle Marty and C.J. went to a watercolor class and picked up a scrapbook
kit (which she used to make a birthday card for Ray, our tablemate). I dropped
into the Boutique C and thanked the guy who had presented a lecture on doing
Cartagena on your own. I also cashed my
 |
| Watermelon sculpture |
ancient travelers check so that we
would have some cash for whatever comes up when we leave the ship. [Oh yeah, we
got the disembarkation letter. We’re supposed to meet in the theater at 0910
(we dock at 0700 and the idea is to get everyone off by 0940) and leave from there
when they call our luggage number (meaning our bags are on the pier).] Dinner
was fantastic on this, the last of the three formal nights. Not only did the
long-awaited lobster* appear, but there was baked Alaska for dessert. And it was
Ray’s 70
th so we and the
 |
| Ice sculpture |
other two couples chipped in to buy a
bottle of white wine for the table (10.35 each). I had Oysters Rockefeller,
prosciutto and arugula salad and Beef Wellington* which was excellent. C.J. had
the chilled wildberry soup, bleu cheese soufflé and the Caribbean lobster tail
(Larry, the restaurant manager or asst maitre’d sent C.J.’s lobster back when
he thought it was not firm enough). During dessert there was an introduction of
all the restaurant staff and then a parade of waiters with everyone waving his
or her white napkin, possibly a Celebrity tradition. We also all got a piece of
chocolate birthday cake. The Celebrity Showtime performance was a Broadway
musical performer who did songs by famous divas both in her own voice and in
their voice and style. Since I didn’t know enough about the divas to recognize
the nuances, most of the show went right over my head. Back in the room we
filled out the customer satisfaction survey and C.J. got a good start on
packing up all her clothes and stuff.
 |
| Timcovskis, Gosiewskis, Browns, and us |
 |
| Zombies invade the Celebrity theater |
18 Dec, Tue - We have to put our luggage outside our
stateroom by 2300 tonight and have to be out of our room by 0800 on the 19
th.
Sometime today after 1505 I need to do a check in with SW Airlines. We got up
at 0700 and that seems like it will give us time to pack our last few carryon
items and vacate our room by 0800. After breakfast today we went up to the
Hemisphere Lounge to use our computers. For some reason all the maps on my
phone have disappeared so I can no longer use the GPS to see where we are in
relation to Cuba and Florida. I wonder if the maps just timed out or whether I
pushed the wrong button at some point. I had perfectly good maps in Cartagena.
At some point we could see land off the port side and when I looked at a map
 |
| Crew Elvis |
posted in the Grand Foyer, it looked like it must have been Cuba as we had
passed between Cuba and Haiti and then turned left to parallel the coast of
Cuba. At 1000 in the theater there was a short crew talent show - a juggler, an instrumental trio and vocalist, and an Elvis. The show was preceded by the zombie flash mob
Thriller dance. The excellent crew performers were followed by a parade of officers, cooks, cabin stewards, pool butlers, waiters and more to the stage. I’m writing this on the 19
th so it’s about hopeless to
remember what all we did. What sticks in my mind is going to the pool to swim.
C.J. had no trouble with the cooler water but I didn’t get in above my waist.
Shortly afterward the pool was cleared for the shipbuilding contest. There were
five or six large ship models made of whatever was available on board
(supposedly) and some were quite elaborate, with itineraries and stories to go
with them. C.J. was part of the pool crew who made waves during the sea trials
part of
 |
| Some of the Century crew on stage |
the contest. After a shower to rinse off the salt water, we rested for
a while before going to dinner. The menu was the same as the one on the first
day of the cruise. I had shrimp cocktail, chilled tangerine and apple soup, and
the roasted jerk spiced chicken; C.J. went for the prime rib*, the same soup,
and roasted red beet salad. Ray treated us all to a bottle of wine; too bad
Chrissy was feeling ill. The Russian couple (from San Diego by way of Israel)
were missing after having eaten with us the past several days. After dinner I
went up to the computer room to check in for our Southwest flight ($5.25 for 7
min). The Evening Showtime was another split bill with Greg Bonham and
Christine Bianco. John Grantham appeared on stage on crutches having hurt
himself exercising and gave us some tips about disembarking on the next day,
“…and if you’re thinking about going straight to bed in the evening, tomorrow
night IS the night to do it.” We went to the Crystal Room to watch “Liars Club”
with a panel of Christine Bianco, Martin the magician, and Dan the bingo man
(and scrapbook guy) defining words such as “clinchpoop”, “tittyup”,
“crapulence”, and “hawsehole”. We guessed the correct definition a couple of
times. Back in the room we had already sent our four bags out to be organized
for disembarkation so we had nothing more to do but decide when to get up.
19 Dec, Wed - Our meeting time wasn’t until 0910 in the
theater but the buffet stopped serving at 0830 and we had to be out of our room
at 0800. It was hard to sleep until 0700 with all the noises resulting from
docking, but that’s when we got up. I took a last shower, packed my pajamas and
everything else in backpack and tote bag and took it all to breakfast in the
Islands Café. After eating we went out on the deck for a while to see if we
could scope out a cheap way to get to the airport. It looked like there might be
local buses running past the cruise terminal. We ended up hanging out in the
theater for an hour or more as most of the rest of the ship got unloaded (with
a glitch in the operation when there was a false alarm in the terminal). Once
off the ship we had to search for my missing rollaboard – it was in the lost
and found area (apparently the sticky tag had gotten ripped off). We cleared
customs quickly and then exited to the courtyard where ground transportation
was available. Since C.J. wasn’t feeling great, we opted for a van at $11 per
person ($25) for the relatively short ride to the airport. There were some
pretty long lines getting through security but that must happen every day that
a cruise ship ends a cruise – and there were at least three ships visible,
including the
Crown Princess docked next to us.
 |
| Ft Lauderdale Cruise terminal and Crown Princess |
The 4-hr waiting time before we
boarded the SW Airlines plane passed reasonably quickly as we tried to catch up on the 500 emails
(mostly junk) that we had accumulated over two weeks of being off the internet.
We grabbed a small Uno pizza to share (~$9), neither of us feeling very hungry
because of our colds. C.J. checked to see if she could get some editing work
done (she figured she was a day late) but the alpha was not yet in the dropbox.
Later we saw an email saying that it wouldn’t be up until the 24
th.
The flight as far as St. Louis was uncrowded so we had three seats to ourselves
again, but the plane filled up completely for the STL-SEA leg. We got in at
11-something Florida time (2015 PST) in the rain and 40 deg temperature and got
a pretty quick ride in the shuttle to the parking lot. We thought we might stop
for a quick bite in Renton but the fast food joints were closed, so we headed
home and found enough to eat in the freezer and pantry. We were surprised to
find several inches of snow just beyond the I-90/Rte 18 interchange that lasted
all the way down to the Snoqualmie Casino, but there was no snow in the valley.
The house was plenty chilly though. Awesome trip! It’s going to be hard to
adjusting to the wet, cold and preparing our own food. We’re going to miss
those folded towel critters and the chocolate on our pillows. Time to start
saving for another trip!
hat the bus was a good idea – no problem with the baggage. So we did it. The
only problem was that we couldn’t hear what the stops the driver was announcing
but with the little map I had and the obvious, huge cruise ship sitting next to
the terminal we figured out when to get off the bus. It was only a short walk
to the terminal and, once there, all the guys were very helpful directing us to
where to drop our bags and where to sign in. There was a pretty good line at
1330 (but not long enough to account for any sizable portion of the 1700 passengers
on the cruise) but it went quickly and soon we were climbing the gangplank and
boarding. We enjoyed our welcome aboard drink and gaped at the view for a while. Since cabins were not quite ready we wandered to Deck 11 where the
Island Buffet was serving lunch (at four separate stations plus the pizza
station and the ice cream shop). We ate outside on the aft end of the deck with
a view over the bay and several naval vessels. It was pretty windy and a fleece
jacket was comfortable. When cabins were announced to be ready, we went down to
Deck 4 and found our tiny, inside cabin but no baggage yet. Back up on the deck
we explored the upper decks. There was a band playing on the pool deck and we
went farther forward to watch from the bow as we started to back away from the
dock around 1630. It was cloudier and still windy and starting to get late.
Returning to the cabin we found our baggage waiting and spent quite a while
packing it away into the closets and drawers – plenty of room. At 1830 (we had
the late seating (2030) for the dining room) we went to “Opening Night” in the
Celebrity Theater for some entertainment (the a capella group of four young Swedish men
calling itself Trocadero was particularly good with a medley of Beach Boys
hits, and the acrobat duo were incredible) and information from John Grantham,
the cruise director. By then we were pretty hungry again even though we had
caught a snack at the pizza and pickled veggie bar earlier. We were supposed to
show up at the Grand Restaurant at 2000 and we found a line already formed at
1945. When we got to the front of the line at the deck 6 entrance, we were
pointed to the correct entrance for our table (522) on Deck 5 [Earlier we had
gone to talk to the Maitre’d about changing our seating to an earlier time. He
said he’d work on it but it might take a couple of days.] We were at a table
for 8 and the other four folks were friendly (and two were missing) so that’s
one concern laid to rest. Vladimir from the Ukraine and Maryonto(?) from Indonesia were our servers and we had interesting food such as a cold tangerine
and apple soup, shrimp louie, 
Thai beef springroll, prime rib* and herb-crusted
haddock, banana-blueberry crepe and crema costana? (cold custard with a melted
sugar skim on top, like crème brule). On the way back to the cabin we stopped
to listen to a band in the Rendezvous square and a string trio in the Cova
Café. C.J.’s pajamas had been folded into an interesting shape and we all had a
chocolate on our pillow, including Snuff Bear. We (tried to) set our clocks
forward an hour to coincide with the time in Cabo San Lucas and set an alarm for 0700.
above the Grand Restaurant), Hemisphere Lounge
and the Spa and Fitness Center (both fwd). At some point we joined a line in
the atrium to sign up for a tour from Colon to Panama City ($173) having heard that there was nothing to do in Colon. It was warm
and sunny so we changed to shorts and went out on deck to play shuffleboard for
a while then back to the cabin to rest and catch up on my journal. Dinner this
night is formal and later there is the Captain’s
10 Dec, Mon – Up at 0630 so we could be ready to meet at
0800 in the theater for our shore excursion. Our group got called to disembark
not much after 0800 and we found quite a bit of shopping and entertainment in
the area right off the ship. We picked up some maps and other free stuff at the
Guatemalan visitor desk then boarded our air-conditioned bus for the 1.5 hr
ride to La Antigua Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along the way we
drove across the coastal plain on a 4-lane divided highway past fields of sugar
cane. Around Escuintla we began climbing to reach the almost 5000ft elevation
of Antigua. At least four volcanoes were visible along the way; Agua had steam
rising from its flank and we saw a puff of steam from Fuego. Pacaya was visible
farther to the east and Acatenango was just north of Fuego. At the meeting
point (the Museo de la Santa Semana) the seven buses unloaded and the 400 or so
people used the rest rooms then split up to explore the town on their own or
with a guide ($10/person). C.J. and I headed toward the 
12 Dec, Wed – Up at 0645 after a somewhat restless night
with my cold and sunburn (I took a 12-hr cold remedy at 0400, [nope, it was a big Tylenol capsule]). Breakfast in the
buffet, then we prepared for our zipline shore excursion. I noticed my kayak hat
was missing and had to go to Guest Relations to see if it was in
lost-and-found; success! We met our guide, Victor of Odyssey Tours, along with
the other four who had reserved through communication on Cruise Critic rollcall
(Peggy and Joe Schwarz, Lacey and Charley Thomason) and six others. We had a
nice small, air-conditioned bus. We drove along the barrier bar that Puntarenas
is built on, and then south across a river with lots of crocodiles. We drove
through Caldaras where Victor noted that there was a paraglider launch. We made another stop
at a place where there were several Capuchin monkeys (whiteface monkeys).
Around 
1000 we arrived at Vista Los Suenos (View the Dreams?) and got geared
up. Then we piled into a wagon pulled by a big tractor and drove up a rough
road to the beginning of the series of zip lines. There were twelve cables of
varying length with the longest and steepest one being No. 11 near the bottom,
almost a
half mile long. The zip line guides were very professional and there
were almost as many of them as of the customers (only our group was there).
There was also a photographer who accompanied us and caught a few really good
pictures; but we didn’t want to spend an additional $25 each for the whole CD.
At the end we had a nice snack of fresh pineapple and watermelon before
boarding the bus around 1200 (tip $4). 
Next stop was in Jaco at a buffet which
served typical local foods – fish, pepper steak, pork asado, beans and rice and
various salads, limonada and maracuya (passion fruit) juice. We ate on the
second story where there was a breeze to offset the heat and humidity. 
After
lunch we drove along the famous surf beach of Jaco then started back north a ways
to a dirt road that led down to a private beach connected with the Punta Leona resort.
We didn’t have our swim suits so we, and most of our group, just walked on the
beach. There was a very light shower and the rumbling of thunder so the
humidity was high. Continuing north a short distance, we turned off the main
road into a small town (Tarcoles?) where Victor pointed out a tree with scarlet macaws and
helped us get some photos. The last stop was at a big souvenir shop at 1600 and
then we took the toll road back to Puntarenas. A cashier met us at the dock at
1700 and we used our credit card to pay for the tour ($170 plus tip $10). We
barely had time for a shower and to get dressed for dinner. Great meal of prime
rib*, shrimp summer roll, salmon something, and salads! I had chocolate cake
with banana rum ice cream while C.J. had a kind of chocolate pastry. We also
tried an apricot clafoutis and an anise-blackberry tart with Pernod, neither of
which were very good. The show for the evening was another production by the
entertainment staff, called Liverpool Knights. It was music and dance based
roughly on music from the mid-60’s. Since the clocks are going to be changed to
EST, we got to bed relatively early.
have time to be on
deck for the Panama Canal transit. We brought our trays out to the Pool Deck
and I finished my meal there but C.J. went to find a better viewing place and
came back for breakfast later. We had good views of the modern,
one-million-population Panama City and then passed up the channel under the
International Bridge (Bridge of the Americas) to Miraflores Locks (2). I
watched from here and there and finally went down to deck 6 and found the route
to the bow observation deck through the theater. The front rail was packed with
people but I found a good spot on one of the ladders to the next deck and stood
