Finishing Up the Panama Canal Cruise Story

We finished our Panama Canal cruise almost 11 months ago. I never finished writing about it, I didn’t write about the trips we took following that cruise.

I’m not sure why. The cruise ended with us missing our last port of call, really rough seas passing Cuba, and me finally loosing at the craps table.

We weren’t told why we were refused docking in Jamaca, but if we had to miss a port, it’s the one I would have passed on. No real reason, but we didn’t have a really great excursion planned.

The Bird Sanctuary in Colombia

They also wouldn’t let us dock at Princess Cay, so I’m guessing we were above the threshold for Covid, 

We did get to go to the Sloth rescue in Costa Rica, but they had restricted the visit and dropped several activities we were looking forward to.

We will cruise again, most likely in late 2023 or spring 2024 to Alaska.

In the meantime, there are a couple of other places to see.

 

Birds and a New Hat

Our second port on the Panama Canal cruise was in Cartagena, Columbia. Frankly I had doubts about getting off the ship in Columbia. But after doing a bit of research, I figured we would be ok taking a trip to a private beach on an island just off the coast. 

Of course, that excursion got cancelled. 

I was looking for something pretty stress free and reading about how the locals would get in your space to try to encourage you to let them have your business didn’t sound like a lot of fun. 

So, we opted to head to the National Aviary.

We boarded the bus at the cruise port and in no time were headed through the city. 

As we passed through the countryside, I was reminded of the many days I spent in remote parts of Baja California shooting off-road racing. 

The Aviary was very nice, but we were on a guided tour, I would have preferred to spend the time discovering the Aviary alone, but they kept us on a pretty tight leash. 

When we got back to the cruise port, we wandered thru the shops. I managed to find a pretty nice Panama Hat. It was made in Columbia, not in the traditional Ecuador, but what the heck, it was reasonably priced. 

Loving the new hat

Rum, Sand and a Burger

Our first stop, Grand Turk. We docked at about 7am and were off the ship by 7:30.

The Cruise Port at Grand Turk

We signed up for the Rum Tour “Party Bus.” At first, we were a bit concerned about being to “old people” on a party bus, but like I told my wife, this isn’t Carnival. There is a chance that we might be the “fun” couple.

The Rum Bus

Turned out we were in the middle.

The Rum Bus wasn’t our first choice. The original plan was I was going to do a scuba excursion and she was going to do the lighthouse tour.

Covid threw the wrench into that plan. I needed to get in a couple of refresher dive classes (it’s been a long time since I have been underwater), I never got the classes scheduled, so no diving. The excursion she had scheduled was cancelled. So, we went for the Rum Bus.

According to the internet, the Turks and Caicaos archipelago is made up of 40 low-lying coral islands.

It seems that the main tourist area is on the island of Providenciales, we went to Grand Turk Island, which is a bit more austere.

When we got off the ship and went into the cruise port, I was really impressed by the port. It was very nice, most of the buildings seemed new or at least, well maintained. There were shops, a flowrider surf pool, a very large pool and the Caribbean’s largest Margaritaville.  

Grand Turk Cruise Port

Once we left the port, the scenery changed dramatically.

From what I understand, about 10 years ago the island was hit by several severe hurricanes. Much of the island has yet to be rebuilt.   

That said, we got to see some sites, drank several glasses of rum punch on the bus, enjoyed a rum tasting at the lighthouse, then went to Governors Beach for a 1 ½ hour swim.

We were back on the ship by 12:30 for a 1:30 sail-away.

Once back on the ship, we relaxed until our reservation at the Crown Grill for dinner at a private table for the 1st formal night of the cruise.

The Steak and Lobster in the Crown Grill

Great way to start off 2022, and I hope most of the troubles of the last couple of years is behind us.

Oh yeah, I did have  the Burger in Paradise at Margaritaville. 

Sea Day

The first day of our cruise was a sea day. We seriously thought about sleeping in, but we were too excited to get this vacation started. We got up and went to breakfast. I know what you're thinking, "how bold." Hey, we live on the edge. 

After a pretty good breakfast, we went back to the room and just chilled. Somewhere around 10 am we decided to take a walk around the ship and get a little exercise.

The promenade deck is a good place for an outside stroll, we did a couple of laps around the ship and then headed up to the lido deck. 

We wandered around the lido, past the multiple swimming pools, then went up to the sports deck at the stern of the ship

We stopped at the stern of the ship, found the putting green and did a bit of putting practice.

We wandered thru the shops, went to an “enrichment” show, and had a lesson in wine tasting.

We went to the 7pm main stage show, a Motown review (which was pretty good) and headed back to the room to get some rest before we arrive in Grand Turk tomorrow.

On Board

The day of the cruise was finally here. After months of prep, plans and changes we were ready. 

We got up, dressed, packed and called for an Uber. 

This time was much better, the car showed up pretty quickly. I told the driver that we were headed to terminal 2 at the cruise port.

When we got to the port, the port sign said was at terminal 21. I said something, but I guess the driver didn’t hear me. 

As we approached the ship, I pointed that it was the wrong ship, we stopped and asked, our dock was on the other side of the port. Needless to say, I dropped a pretty big tip to make up for the extra time.

We dropped our bags and started thru the serpentine line to get to security. After about an hour, we made it thru the first hoop. We then went upstairs and were greeted by an even longer line for health screening. 

After health screening, we were directed to some chairs to wait to board the ship. 

View from the Lido Deck

Apparently the ship had a tough time leaving Jamaica the night before, they said high winds kept them in port. They had arrived three hours late and when we got there, they were still offloading the previous guest. We were finally allowed on board about three hours later. 

We couldn’t go to our rooms, they were still being sanitized, so we did what we were told and went up to deck 15. 

We never did hear an announcement that we could go to the room, but it seemed like people were leaving so we went to deck 9 and found our room. 

Our Mini Suite, not bad for a cruise ship room

Not Going Anywhere

Last night I started to write a new blog post “Should I Stay, or Should I Go.”

The thought behind the post was based on the current concern over the COVID-19 Virus.

I’ve been waiting to start my travel adventures for many years. When my wife and I got married 37 years ago, we dreamed that one day we would travel the world, see the sights and enjoy life.

But because our families were on opposite coasts, we spent our vacations visiting whichever family was farthest from where we were living at the time. We always said we would travel in our “Golden Years.”

Finally, in the last year, we began taking our first “real” vacations. Our first was to England in September 2019. The trip was everything we had hoped for, and on our return, we began to look forward to our next adventures.

We signed up for a Panama Canal cruise, starting in Florida in late April 2020, traveling thru the canal, arriving in Los Angeles in mid-May.

We chose a mini suite, made arraignments for our shore excursions and waited for months for our embark date.

I even booked us first class flights to get us to the cruise port, the first time I ever ponied up to sit in the front of the plane. It was to be the perfect trip. We were even scheduled to be in Cabo on my wife’s birthday. She wanted to swim with the dolphins on that day, something I knew for years was a “bucket list” item for her.

I also booked a quick trip to Vancouver BC for our 37^th anniversary in March 2020.

Then came news of the COVID-19 virus.

We watched as the virus spread and we were surprised as the world began to panic. Then came the closures.

We debated the pros and cons of cancelling our cruise and made the decision to go anyway.

It looked like the decision was going to pay off, literally, the cruise line was giving us a credit of $200 on our ship board account.

Then yesterday morning, Princess Cruises made the decision for us. They put all their ships on a 60 day stand-down. Our trip was 45 days out.

My first thought was that they were over-reacting. They had increased screening, they were checking temps of passengers and crew, and had made changes that decreased the risk to passengers and crew.

But, even though I think they are taking it too far, I can respect the decision.

It wasn't the first time we had trouble while traveling.

Years ago, we were involved in what Jet Blue Airlines refers to as the “Albuquerque Incident.”

It started out as a typical vacation visit to the family on the East coast.

Not long after we arrived, I began to feel a little sick. I ended up spending the better part of two weeks in bed with an extreme fever. During the “vacation,” my wife hauled me off to urgent care or the emergency room three times. After two weeks on antibiotics and pain killers, I was ready to head home. We made one last trip to the ER, where the doctor cleared me to fly home.

After boarding our Jet Blue flight at Boston’s Logan Airport, the first announcement over the public address system explained that we would all be getting a voucher for $25 towards our next flight. The reason – our “direct” flight would have to take on fuel in Albuquerque New Mexico.

The pilot told us that because of headwinds, the plane couldn’t carry enough fuel to safely make it from Boston to Long Beach, California. It seemed like a reasonable accommodation, we wouldn’t go to a gate, just land, fuel and be off.

I won’t go into all the details of the flight, but I will tell you it ended in Albuquerque with a Class A ground handling incident. (I’ll write about the Albuquerque Incident in a couple of days)

Once there was an entire plane full of Jet Blue passengers stuck in a remote corner of an airport in New Mexico, the Jet Blue team went to work.

They arraigned for hotels for all the passengers, found transportation and got everyone checked in for a few hours of sleep (I think it had been about 18 hours since we left Boston).

The next morning, we all got wake up calls, and proceeded to breakfast buffets set up in our hotels. After breakfast and a few minutes to get ready, they transported us to the airport.

When we arrived at security, we were greeted by escorts and taken immediately to our gate.

At the gate there were several members of Jet Blue upper management, flown in overnight to make sure we didn’t have any further problems.

Once airborne, they informed us that our flight cost would be refunded and we would all receive a voucher for a free flight anywhere they flew.

A couple of days after we arrived home, Jet Blue called the house to see if we had incurred any additional expenses. If we had, they were going to send us a reimbursement check.

I cannot imagine anything else they could have done. The problems were not caused by their actions, but they stood up and took care of all the passengers.

I have been a loyal Jet Blue customer ever since. I even invested in Jet Blue stock

This week, Princess Cruise Line made a difficult decision. Putting all their ships in port to make sure that they provide the safest possible experience, even though it’s costing them a lot of money.

They are putting their corporate values and customer service above corporate profit. That’s rare in this world.

They may have just made me a lifetime customer. Oh yeah, I did just invest in their stock.