Day 15 – At Sea - October 9

It’s over.  What a great trip we’ve had and we’ll have many nice memories to take home with us!

We had a big group dinner this evening and we’ll all be going in different directions tomorrow.  Some will be heading right home and some will be spending some time in Florida before heading west.  Gloria and Ed will be heading up to St Petersburg for a family vacation so I think they’ll be the last ones back to Brentwood.  Pat and Lee Ann, Betty and Don and the Commodore and I are headed to Key West and Barb and Joe and Al and Becky are spending a few days in and around South Florida.  Dan and Kathy will visit with Dan’s Dad in Ft Lauderdale for a day or two before heading home.

Nice calm seas today and we spent a lot of it looking at Cuba!

Decisive win at Trivia this morning and now Al and his lucky hearing aids are 4/4!!  We are now the most winning team!  Hooray for us!!

I was sad to say goodbye to Edna and Les this evening.  They are wonderful friends and even better traveling companions and trivia buddies.  We are hoping for another cruise together in the not too distant future!

So tomorrow is disembarkation (no! it’s not “debarking”)!  We will meet Betty and Don for breakfast and then we will wait in the lounge for them to call our color and number.  We’ll grab a cab to the rental car and take off for the keys.  I expect it will take 3-4 hours to get to Key West.

Thanks to all of you for following along and I hope you have enjoyed my little “log of the cruise”!

XOXOXOXO

M

Day 14 – At sea – October 8

Another day at sea and tomorrow will be the same.  On Thursday we dock in Ft Lauderdale and another cruise is in the history books!

Quiet day and we took advantage of just relaxing and reading.  I played bingo this afternoon with Betty, Tom and Michele and we are all bingo losers although Tom was close once!

Trivia was a success twice today!!  We had a resounding win in the morning session getting a score of 19/20!  More carabineers for us!!  This afternoon was a bit tougher and we shared first place and lost the tie breaker!! BooHiss!!

The morning session’s win is all due to the fact that Al has decided to wear his “lucky” hearing aids!  The last three times he’s worn them we’ve won!!  Don and Kathy rounded out our team of six with Les, Edna and me.  This afternoon it was just three of us but we held our own!!

Dinner this evening was in the Bayou Café and delicious as always!  We celebrated Lee Ann’s birthday……again!

Michele and Tom and Molly and Jim went on the “Ultimate Ship Tour” today and really enjoyed it. They got to the bridge, kitchens, laundry rooms, medical center, storage areas, photo shop, print shop, backstage in the theater and got a great tour of the workings of the ship.  We did that tour on the Sapphire Princess a few years ago and really enjoyed it very much!

Tomorrow is packing day and we’ll get the suitcases out by dinnertime.  The next time we see them will be on the pier on Ft Lauderdale.  Don, Betty, the Commodore and I will head off to the rental car agency and get a car for our trip down to the Florida Keys.  We’ll be there a couple of days then make our way back to Ft Lauderdale to fly home on Sunday.

Till tomorrow….

XOXOXOXO

M

Day 13 – Aruba – October 7

We arrived at Aruba about 1pm today and it took till about 2pm to get off the ship due to all the mad rush and the group tours that had priority!  That didn’t matter too much in the end because once we disembarked and walked about a block we decided it was too hot and the stores were too “ship oriented” that we marched ourselves right back to the Island Princess!! 

The rest of the group soldiered on and did some poking around the shops and shopping centers.

The morning started out well with a definitive win at trivia where we conquered with 18/20!  The team was Edna and Les, Dan and Kathy and Al and myself!  We rocked!  Proud owners of “Princess pens”!  This afternoon was a bust and awful questions were asked.  We only squeaked by with a 10/20.  How tall is the Sears tower?  1100ft, 1300ft or 1400ft?  Pure guesswork.  Here’s another lame one: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the woman with the longest hair has 9, 15 or 19 feet of hair.  Really?  Lame questions that only require lucky guesses!

Tomorrow is the first of two more sea days before we reach Ft. Lauderdale.  Michele and Tom and Molly and Jim are doing the “ultimate ship’s tour” and will enjoy that very much.  We’ve done it before and really liked everything about it.  They get to go below the passenger decks and see the ship’s workings.  They also get to spend some time on the bridge with the Captain.  It takes about three hours and is so informative.

Tomorrow is also the last formal night which most of us will skip.  Dinner for us tomorrow in the Bayou Café!

Talk to you tomorrow!

XOXOXO

M

Day 12 – Cartagena, Colombia – October 6

We’ve been here before but still decided to take the city tour since we enjoyed it last time.  We were slightly late in arriving at the pier since the Panama Canal transit took longer than expected but we were still off the ship by about 9:30 this morning.  We met our guide, Aurora, and headed off to the old section of the city on our bus.  There were four couples from our group, Dan and Kathy, Betty and Don, Michele and Tom and the Commodore and myself.  Once near the old city wall we were dropped off to walk through the area and that is when we were slammed by the most humid weather I have ever experienced!  The temperature was in the 80’s but the humidity was in the middle 90’s and there was not a breath of air!  We were all immediately dripping!  The Commodore and I stayed with the group for a couple more stops on the walking tour and then decided to find our way back to the ship.  Another couple from New Zealand heard us telling the guide our plans and they decided to join us in abandonment!

Our tour guide was nice enough to find us a “shuttle” bus that took us directly back to the ship!  I don’t think I’ve ever been so miserable because of weather!  My situation with the big sling on my arm doesn’t help, I’m sure.  The sling could have been wrung out!

The rest of the gang toughed it out and I have to hand it to them for their resilience!

We had a quiet afternoon trying to recover a body temperature that would allow us to survive! 

Nice dinner this evening in the “Italian Night” dining room!

Here’s another quickie for my “OMG What Next” category:  I was going into the ladies room and followed a tiny Asian woman who went straight to the sink and proceeded to take out both her upper and lower dentures and wash them in the sink!  YUCK!  As I’m watching this she catches my eye in the mirror and gives me a huge, gummy smile!!  Always expect the unexpected!

Losing another hour tonight so tomorrow we will be on Eastern Standard Time.  We arrive in Aruba about 1pm and have the afternoon there to do some exploration.  We may just get off the ship and wander around downtown.

Till tomorrow….

XXOXOXOX

M

Day 11 – Panama Canal Transit – Oct 5

This was the day the cruise was named for!  The Panama Canal transit happened between approximately 6:30 this morning on the Pacific side and completed at 5:30 this evening on the Caribbean side!  It was a long day of locks, mules, heat and a few crocodiles thrown in!  The best views were off our balconies and we spent much of the morning out there.  The Commodore and I ordered the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast and it was delivered about 7am.  Nice goodies and a half bottle of Champagne that is still in the bottle!

We did travel around the ship to catch different views of the locks.  We get so close to the walls of the locks that you can reach out and touch them!  This is our fourth trip to the Panama Canal and it’s just as fascinating as the first time we made the crossing.  I think we’re very lucky!

The die-hard trivia folks did break away from the locks to play!  This morning Dan and Michele and Tom joined us, Les, Edna and me.  Betty, Don and Kathy formed their own small team!  ….and the winner is US!!  A clear first place finish and we won more flashlights!!  This afternoon was another story and we limped in a respectable third!

We are enjoying our dinners in the dining room and our waiter, Silviu, continues to provide great service and lots of amusement!

Saw a show this evening that was quite enjoyable called “In the Bayou”.  It was a new show for us and new to Princess, too.

Tomorrow we are in Cartagena, Colombia and the Captain announced this evening that since our canal transit was longer than expected we will be about 2-3 hours late arriving in port.  That means we can have lazy morning before our city tour.

The days are winding down and we are determined to enjoy each remaining day and hour!

Nighty-night!

XOXOXOXO

M