10-Day Island Princess - Panama Canal Partial Transit - Chistmas Cruise Photo Review

[LittleMissMagic]

Day 3 - Sea Day

 

Our sea days aren't very entertaining to write about. It was more sunning for us. However, we weren't so lucky with pool chairs this time, so Rachel and I had to lay on our towels on the deck until two emptied up beside us. Rachel was eating lunch, so as soon as the two people in chairs beside us got up, I moved our stuff over. Apparently a man had been watching them leave from the Splash Pool deck above and was very huffy when he realized that I had gotten to the chairs first. But he didn't say anything to me, so his problem, not mine. (If he had just asked me if he could have them, thrown out some excuse how he can't lay on the deck because he's not as young and unbreakable, whatever, I would've definitely let him have the chairs. But if you don't ask, you won't receive.)

 

They were having some sort of sushi buffet in Horizons. Rachel brought me sushi. It was not good. Very sticky - too much rice. I wasn't a fan.

 

 

Rachel and I cleaned up early that day, then realized there wasn't really anything to do inside. So we went and got some hamburgers by the pool. I hadn't pulled out my camera at all until I saw this and couldn't resist.

 

Some mother was changing her daughter on the pool deck. She was holding a towel up around her while talking to another adult and not paying much attention. Well, she dropped the towel, and as soon as she did, the little girl started dancing. I'm not sure if it was coincidence or intentional, but it was pretty hilarious an an adorable yet incredibly wrong way.

 

DSC_5805 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We then watched Back to the Future on the outdoor movie screen. Despite my love for Disney, my favorite movie of all time is actually Back to the Future.

 

 

DSC_5809 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Dinner that night was uneventful as far as I can remember.

 

DSC_5807 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5791 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The Centrum on Princess's ships is very similar to the Centrum on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign through Radiance class ships. I really like the concept of the Centrum and am honestly not the biggest fan of the Promenade on Royal's Voyager and larger class ships.

 

DSC_5792 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

As far as Christmas decorations on Princess, it really depends on which Royal Caribbean ship you compare it to. When we sailed on the tiny Grandeur of the Seas, Christmas decor was very dated and shabby looking. However, the Mariner and Adventure have huge trees in the Promenade. Princess had Christmas decor throughout the ship, but no large, well-decorated tree anywhere.

 

DSC_5793 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

They did have this interesting Gingerbread Village.

 

IMG_1464 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

IMG_1465 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

IMG_1466 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

IMG_1467 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Dad likes to photo stalk us when he's bored.

 

IMG_1473 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

Your review is great and your pictures are awesome! What camera are you using?

 

Thank you! :)

 

My camera is the Nikon 1 J1. My father's camera is the Canon EOS Rebel. And then my sister's camera (which hasn't appeared yet and won't until we get to port) is the Nikon AW100. If you're curious about which camera was used for a particular photo or even the settings used to take them, if you click on the filename link, Flickr will tell you what camera and the exact shutter speed, aperature, etc. for each photo. It's pretty cool!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[pistachio]

Excellent review so far! We leave on the Island in 1 week! Beautiful photos, and beautiful sisters!

 

Can't wait to see more.

[LittleMissMagic]

Day 4 - Aruba

 

Land ho!!!

 

We were very excited for Aruba's beautiful beaches, and were disappointed to learn that we had so little time to spend there. We got there at 7:00 AM and had to be back onboard by noon. Wanting to make the most of our time, we got off as soon as they let us.

 

The buses were very colorful.

 

DSC_5812 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Again, we were only in port with small ships.

 

DSC_5813 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5814 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The downside of getting into port so early is that Aruba wasn't ready for us. There were no cabs. We had to walk a ways and ask a few people until we found the bus stop where the cab then swung by to offer us a ride ($5/person - heck yes, take me to a beach). When the driver asked us what ship we were on, and we told him Island Princess, he said, "You guys aren't supposed to be in port today! You aren't on the list." Well, no wonder there were no cabs. No one knew we were here!!!

 

The driver took us to Eagle Beach, the second best beach in the world. When we were driving up, he saw how large the waves were and offered to take us somewhere else, but we were ready to get to a beach, so we declined.

 

DSC_5815 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Hardly anyone was there.

 

DSC_5818 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The tide was coming up so high that it was going almost all the way up the beach, under the chairs.

 

DSC_5819 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

DSC_5820 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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There was also no one there to sell us chairs. We found one guy, but he said he only sold chairs to the resort and that the public beach cruise chair guy would be coming in at 10 AM. 10 AM?? We found ourselves some chairs and just sat in them til then.

 

DSC_5826 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

DSC_5830 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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When the chair guy finally came, he wanted $60 for the four chairs. A little steep, but whatever.

[LittleMissMagic]

DSC_5843 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Tiger Rag time.

 

DSC_5848 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

While waiting on the cab to come back and get us, we decided to get drinks, since the bar had just opened. I got the rum punch, and the rest of the family tried the local beer, Balashi.

 

DSC_5857 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

The drink prices were steep, too - much more than we're used to paying in the Caribbean. I suppose Aruba is more expensive since they don't get three large cruise ships a day.

 

DSC_5859 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

When we returned to the ship, they were having a barbecue buffet on the pool deck.

 

DSC_5867 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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It was impossible to find a place to sit anywhere inside or outside. We finally were able to sit down at the bar inside Horizons.

[LittleMissMagic]

We then watched us sail away.

 

DSC_5876 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

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[LittleMissMagic]

DSC_5907 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

We really enjoyed Aruba and would have appreciated more time there. It was a little annoying because I expected us to be flying to Colombia like we did to Aruba. However, we were strolling. Perhaps it's because the water is shallow in that channel, so we couldn't move very fast. Or maybe we had to move out of the way to allow another ship to come in. I would've appreciated an extra hour or two in Aruba, though.

 

After that, we really had nothing better to do than sit on the pool deck and drink. :D Rachel also made us some friends - Michael and his sister Abby from North Carolina.

 

DSC_5920 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

He was willing to be a Pi Guy.

[LittleMissMagic]

I hardly have anything to say about dinner because in most cases, I don't remember the menu. In comparison to Royal Caribbean, Princess has much more choices and offers four (or five if you like pasta) courses rather than three. There are more nightly standards than on Royal. However, I wasn't a big fan of the food. I didn't think it was any better than Royal Caribbean's. It might have been worse. But I don't sail for the food, anyway.

 

Like I've mentioned before, the ceilings in the dining room were much too low. It was very annoying to me. There was also hardly anything to look at. I much prefer Royal Caribbean's grand dining rooms. Dinner also seemed to drag out incredibly long. This might be because we had the wine package, so we had to first select our wine, then select our food, then wait for three courses to come, then order dessert (Rachel and I rarely ordered dessert, and it annoyed me that my parents always did. That required us to spend even more time in the drab dining room... sometimes we'd get permission to leave early).

 

IMG_1480 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Tonight we were so bored that we left dinner to take photographs. I was excited about my new dress that I bought just for the cruise the night before leaving.

 

IMG_1484 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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IMG_1488 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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IMG_1490 by vshingl, on Flickr

[Darcys mom]

Loving your review. We will be on the Island Princess with the same itinerary in April 2013. It will be our second cruise on Princess. For our first cruise we booked a mini suite, mainly for the bigger shower/tub combo. We loved all the space in our cabin, the couch and separate sitting area, and the roomy bathroom. We spoiled ourselves and now don't want anything but a mini suite. But we'll be celebrating our 25th annimversary, so I think it's okay if we spluge with a minsuite.;)

[LittleMissMagic]

Day 5 - Cartagena, Colombia

 

Rachel and I woke up early this morning to watch the ship pull into port.

 

DSC_5926 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

IMG_1506 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[DiamondDiva]

Doing this itinerary in March on the Coral. Thanks for the great info and pics so far-looking forward to the rest of the review :-)

[LittleMissMagic]

IMG_1553 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Dad got some cool creeper photos...

 

 

IMG_1564 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

 

IMG_1561 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

Seabourn with us again.

 

DSC_5939 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Buses lined up and ready to go!

 

DSC_5940 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Black smoke... yummy.

 

DSC_5942 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

We got off the ship with the plan to take a taxi to the fort and old town.

 

The port area was actually really cool and nicely done. The best we stopped in, I'd say.

 

DSC_5945 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

Being a travel and tourism minor who has done a great deal of studying ecotourism, I was a little concerned about the birds. It was a really cool photo opportunity, though.

 

DSC_5946 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

DSC_5950 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

They were so used to people.

 

DSC_5959 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

You can see there's something metal attached to his foot... I'm not sure what and if this might be what keeps them in this area. I kept my distance and zoomed in for these photos. Others weren't as concerned with giving the birds their space.

 

DSC_5960 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

DSC_5963 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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DSC_5967 by vshingl, on Flickr

[LittleMissMagic]

We were approached by a man offering us a bus tour of the city. They'd take us to the fort, monastery, and old town for $20/person. Sounded like a good deal to me. We boarded an air-conditioned bus with other Island passengers.

 

DSC_5970 by vshingl, on Flickr

 

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[LittleMissMagic]

Our first stop was Castillo San Felipe. We had 20 minutes and were told it was not enough time to go inside, so don't buy tickets. I was a little disappointed that we didn't go in, and if I ever come back, I'll probably just go there for the day. But our tour was a good way to get a taste of everything.

 

As soon as we stepped off the bus, we were mobbed by street vendors shoving souvenir crap in our faces. I started out with polite nos, but by the end of the day, I had resorted to an old trick that my high school Chemistry professor had taught us to get almost anyone to leave us alone - walk fast, look pissed, and carry a clipboard (well, minus the clipboard part). Works like a charm everytime. If you look like you're about to punch someone in the face, not many people are going to try to sell you a hat on the street. Body language conveys so much.

 

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