Day 8: Panama Canal

This morning we had an early start as the ship entered the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean at the Santa Clara (new locks).

All of these pictures are from the rear of the ship (reverse the images to see what it would be like to exit from the opposite direction).

Arrow guiding us into the locks.

Entering the first set of locks.

The first set of gates is closing behind us.

With the gate closed, the lock now fills with water.

The ship has entered the next lock and the second set of gates is closing behind us.

With the gate closed, the lock now fills with water.

The ship has entered the next lock and the third set of gates is closing behind us.

With the gate closed, the lock now fills with water.

The ship is now moving into Gatun Lake 

Once we were in Gatun Lake, we took a tender to shore and boarded a bus to the ruins of Panama Viejo, or "Old Panama.

Ruins at Panama Viejo

Ruins at Panama Viejo

from there, we went to Casco Antiguo (the old colonial city). 

Walking around Casco Antiguo, (the old colonial city).

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús in Casco Antiguo, (the old colonial city).

Palace of Panama (Palacio Municipal Demetrio H. Brid). This building houses the Museum of History of Panama, which we visited.

Exhibit in the Museum of History of Panama

Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mary the Ancient 

Folk musicians/dancers in Plaza Mayor

View of new buildings in Panama City and the Pacific Ocean

While we were gone, the ship turned around and exited the same way it entered. We met the ship in Colon when our excursion ended.

Driving through Colon on the way back to the port.

At Colon, we had to walk through a big mall (didn't buy anything) to return to the ship.

Days 9-10: Limon, Costa Rica + day at sea

This morning we woke up at 4 am as the ship sailed through a big storm (there was lots of rocking and we could hear the rain slamming into us).

The rain had mostly let up by the time we docked in Limon, Costa Rica.

We hired a private driver/guide to take us to Cahuita National Park. On the drive there, we saw a few monkeys in the trees.

We saw a sloth near at the entrance to the park.

That was pretty much the extent of the wildlife we saw on our walk through the park, due to the recent rain.

But we got a nice view of the beaches (big waves and wet from the rain).

We walked to the river then turned around to head back. On the way back, it started raining. Good thing we brought rain ponchos.

When we left the park, it was still a bit early to eat lunch in Cahuita, so we headed back to Limon. Our guide took us to a hilltop restaurant

with great views.

We ordered our drinks

then took awhile to figure our our lunch order, since some of the menu items didn't contain descriptions and our Spanish (and our server's English) were not good enough to efficiently communicate.

I got the fish and shrimp ceviche (it was delicious)

Steve got the fish, chicken, and beef nachos. All the flavors together were a bit weird, but it wasn't bad, and the uncovered chips were great with my ceviche.

After lunch, we got a brief tour of Limon, then headed back to the dock. I got a great foot/leg massage at the port before reboarding the ship.

Our cabin has the outer two portholes near the top of the ship.

Once on board, we cooled down with a few cocktails,

and enjoyed the view

before an early evening rain shower moved through the area

and we sailed away.

Day 10

Today was another sea day. We mostly chilled, since the ship was really bouncy and we kept sailing through rainstorms.

Day 11: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Because our stop in the Cayman Islands was a tender port, we waited until we were on shore before making any plans. Once at port, we booked a catamaran tour.

Our first stop was at stingray city.

Here we waded on a sandbar and could pet, feed, and even kiss stingrays.

Our next stop was at a snorkel spot.

Here we saw a sea turtle near the boat.

Our last stop was at starfish point, where we could hold starfish. I stayed on the boat, but Steve got off.

From there, we headed back to the dock.

Once back at the port, we took a tender 

back to the ship.

As we left the port, 

I enjoyed a mai tai before dinner 

I tried this appetizer: potato salad with grilled octopus and lemon dressing. The octopus was so bad that even Steve wouldn't eat it!

For my main, I ordered the chipotle roasted strip steak with avocado, tortilla chips, and chimichuri. This was tasty, but the beef wasn't strip steak and pickled vegetables are not chimichuri sauce!

For dessert, I had carrot cake. This was a little dry but had good flavor.

Days 12-13: Sea day, travel home, and trip reflections

Today was a much needed sea day, since we were tired and a bit sunburned from yesterday. Steve also caught a cold and spent most the day in bed.

Rain on the horizon 

resulted in a double rainbow

Having a cocktail before the seas get too rough tonight.

We were a little irritated before dinner, because we needed to wait to be seated while somebody gave a long speech about the survey and how important it was to give 10s.

Once we were seated, all the waiters were frantically trying to make up time that they had to pause during the speech.

The food was lackluster again tonight. I had a salad as an appetizer, 

butter shrimp as my main (not a lot of flavor and I hate it when the tails are left on shrimp in saucy dishes)

and baked Alaska for dessert, which was ok, but not great (I mostly tasted the chocolate syrup drizzled on).

After dinner, we went back to our room, since Steve wasn't feeling well and we have an early departure.

Day 13

After a really rocky night, we were up by six to grab some coffee, a quick breakfast, and then wait for our exit code to be called. Since we had an early flight (10:50 am) we were one of the first groups to leave the ship. 

Initially we were given the last group to leave, despite entering our flight number/time in the app. A few days prior, Steve visited the customer service desk to get the appropriate departure group assigned.

After collecting our bags, we joined a shared shuttle van to the airport. We did curbside check-in to avoid the big rush before security. The security line was long, but we still arrived at our gate with an hour to spare.

The flights home were uneventful and we were happy to arrive home, snuggle with the dog, and spend the night in our own bed.

Reflections:

Overall, it was an enjoyable cruise, but not spectacular.

We enjoyed the selection of ports and the pacing of ports, and were glad the itinerary had conveniently spaced sea days that gave us time to rest between ports. We also liked that most ports weren't tender ports, so we had more flexibility with how we spent our time on shore.

To date, this has been our longest cruise (12 days) and it started to feel a little long. For me, the sweet spot seems to be 10 days, but this might be due to my thoughts about the ship.

Compared to our cruise on the Majestic Princess, this ship was a bit of a disappointment. While it isn't much smaller, it is an older ship and has fewer amenities (no enclave spa, felt a lot more disjointed, smaller piazza, not all elevators went to the same floors, etc.)

We also noticed a lot more ship noise (creaking, rumbling) and bumping/rocking. I'm not sure if that's ship related or due to sea conditions.

The food quality was about the same as other cruises, but the dining menu seemed less inspired and more repetitive.

Even though we reserved the same dining room at the same time every night, we were unable to get the same table/waiters each night, despite multiple requests (and we noticed others were granted the same request).

Crew members were all friendly, but they always appeared to be rushed/stretched too thin and understaffed.

We opted for the Plus package again, and while I think it has great value and we liked the convenience, we just barely "broke even" on most days, since we rarely drank more than 3 drinks (Steve got enough Red Bulls to tip the value in our favor). We didn't take advantage of any of the casual meals, since the "restaurants" were only open for dinner and on alternate nights. These seemed more like lunch options than dinner, and we preferred the main dining room for dinners.

The Caribbean Princess wouldn't be my first choice for a future cruise, but I would book it again if it had the itinerary we liked.