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Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound

PunkiC

By PunkiC,
in Princess Cruises

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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They are still having issues with wifi on the ship so I will have to wait for them to fix it before I can add to my Live Blog.

 

I am posting this from a beach-front bar in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. It's cool on the beach, Gloria is right, without the breeze it is very hot.

 

Yes, the Provence on the 6th floor has traditional dining, but they also have some fixed dining tables in the Bordeaux. We have been seated at several different fixed tables with empty seats.

 

They also have waffles in the HC.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 8, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

 

Another beautiful day and, while it is hot in Nicaragua, there was also a good and almost constant breeze along the water. We decided to just spend the day walking around and I am very glad we did. The people who went on the tours told us they were miserable being forced to hurry up and wait in the heat. We just wandered around and ducked into cool bars with cold beer and free wifi whenever the spirit so moved us. Our first bar had the local beer, Victoria, for $2.00 and fast wifi. We had a good time chatting with some folks from the Bay Area and hanging out on the internet. It feels so good when you can just “be” on the internet without having to plan every minute so carefully.

 

Actually the internet on the ship has been out all day so I wasn’t able to post my Day Seven blog early in the morning of the next day as I usually do. It’s still down now at 3:10 p.m.

 

So back to Nicaragua. When we finished our beer and internet session, we wandered up and down the streets of “down town” looking for wetting solution for my contacts and baby oil. I use baby oil to take off my eye make-up. We did find the perfect sized bottle of baby oil, but no wetting solution. Don’t people in Nicaragua wear contacts? After our shopping trip we walked up to the church, but it was locked up. I guess it was siesta time. I did have a pleasant time sitting in the square chatting with a local woman in my very poor Spanish. At least I made her laugh. There are a lot of American kids here in Nicaragua. The one’s we talked to came here to surf. Along the way we picked up a couple of bottles of wine, one from Chile and one from Argentina.

 

The next bar we entered had Victoria beer for $1.00 and free wifi, but we had to wait a while for someone to get off so we could grab a spot. We randomly ended up sitting with the same couple from the Bay Area in that bar.  It’s pretty darned nice just sitting in the sun drinking cerveza and hanging out on the internet, but eventually we decided to head back to the ship. Casually shopping along the way. Close to the dock, we picked up a bottle of local wine and will be very curious to see how it tastes. No one said a word about our reboarding with wine. So far, so good.

 

When we got back to the ship, we had some lunch, chatted with some more nice folks and then took a bit of a siesta. While we were napping, we received a phone call telling us that we were going to get a free bottle of wine for dinner because we were friends of Pia, so I guess you all need to become friends of Pia.  Richard really is a terrific Cruise Director.

 

We did a late dinner and after dinner, instead of our normal dancing routine, did other cruise stuff. Real cruise stuff like hanging out in the Casino collecting raffle tickets in hopes that I would win a Spa treatment—read massage. No luck! I guess I will have to break down and buy one. There was a guy with a huge stack of one dollar bills playing the vault. He was getting pretty darned close so I gave him three of the Princess Casino Dollars we won playing The Wake Show trivia game. I told him that if he won, we could split the winnings. He just kept losing. We also went down to the Jeopardized Trivia game. We didn’t actually play but we did know most of the answers. Maybe we will start playing.

 

Perhaps we walked too far in Nicaragua today because our feet were too tired for us to dance so we just went to bed. Of course it was almost 11:00 p.m. so that was OK.

 

Tomorrow Costa Rica.

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Pia1913

Pia1913

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While we were napping, we received a phone call telling us that we were going to get a free bottle of wine for dinner because we were friends of Pia, so I guess you all need to become friends of Pia.  Richard really is a terrific Cruise Director.

 

 

Tomorrow Costa Rica.

 

You certainly made me blush :o. See? Yes, Richard is fantastic.

 

In Costa Rica be sure to get some Imperial Gold beer. Imperial comes in silver and gold. Gold is better. We buy it now regularly at Total Wine & More.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Live from the Island Princess – Day Nine, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

 

We enjoyed another day in the 90s today in Costa Rica. I always take my umbrella and use it as both a parasol and, if necessary, an umbrella. It is amazing how much cooler one can feel with a little bit of portable shade. It also prevents sun burn. I am really fanatic about protecting my skin.

 

They passed out our disembarkation forms last night, which always makes me feel like the cruise really is almost over and we haven’t even reached the Panama Canal. Since we are heading down to Key West after the cruise, it really doesn’t much matter to us when we leave the ship. I just don’t want to get up too early. DH put down 9:30 so we can leave that early if we want to but not unless we want to.

 

I rarely complain about anything on ships, I am just so happy to be there, but I need to complain about yesterday’s trivia question. It was “What runs forward to aft on the port side of the ship and aft to forward on the starboard side. They specified that it was not the cabin numbers, life boats or the jogging track. They did not, however, say it wasn’t the Arrows on the Walk a Mile signs and those arrows definitely do meet the criteria of the question. If they wanted to eliminate the arrows on the signs from the contest, they should have said so. Otherwise, all right answers should be considered right. Right?

 

The internet is down again this morning. Yesterday it was down for most of the day and that was supposed to have fixed all of the problems. Apparently it didn’t. 

 

There is an NCL ship docked next to us in Puntarenas. This is the first ship we have seen since we left San Pedro. I guess that means we can’t hang out on our deck naked, but then, neither can they.

 

After breakfast we walked into town. My hip was acting up so I was using my cane and took the free shuttle down the length of the pier. It’s a fairly long pier. DH walked in and we met and then walked round town looking for wetting solution. I found a reasonably small bottle I can use what I need of it and then pour it into my old bottle to take home.

 

Costa Rica felt even hotter than Nicaragua but it was a little cooler inside the cathedral once we made it up there. It is a very old and beautiful building. I lit a candle for my daughter. I always light candles for my children. Heading back toward the water we picked up a refreshing breeze. We found one little bar on the water that served beer and had wifi. After hanging out for an hour or so we headed back toward the ship with the intention of stopping off at another breezy bar before we reboarded. The crazy thing is that the bars closer to the ship don’t have wifi or serve beer or wine. I wonder what that’s all about. I did comb through all of the stalls along the way and bought one new sundress. I would have bought two but I know I will find one I like better in Aruba so I settled for just one.

 

When we returned to the ship they had a crazy band on the dock and lots of people were dancing. I was having a hard time even walking in that heat—I can’t believe people were doing shake you booty dancing.

 

Tonight dinner was open seating for everyone to accommodate the folks returning late from long tours. A lot of them didn’t get back until almost 7:00 p.m. The folks we ate with were pretty evenly split on their opinions of their tours. Half thought they were wonderful and half thought they were horrible. I think it depends on how tolerant people are of the heat and organized schedules, and how patient they are. Since I really don’t like the heat and hate marching to someone else’s drummer, it is smarter for us to go out and about on our own. We do like Hop On, Hop Off buses, but there aren’t any available on this cruise.

 

Walking around all day in the heat was so exhausting that by the time we finished dinner we were ready to crash. Tomorrow is a restful sea day and then we go through the Canal. I am excited and DH will just love it—he has that engineer kind of brain.

 

P.S. to Pia. Yes we did have some Imperial Gold beer in Costa Rica and even picked up a bottle of local wine. We haven't tried it yet, but will let you know how it tastes.

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Nomsayin

Nomsayin

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We got off the Island on the 16th, after making the westbound (actually southbound) transit, so your enjoyable posts are helping us to relive our cruise in reverse. It is interesting to compare experiences, although we have somewhat different interests and tastes ("I won't dance, don't ask me...."):)

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IECalCruiser

IECalCruiser

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...I rarely complain about anything on ships, I am just so happy to be there, but I need to complain about yesterday’s trivia question. It was “What runs forward to aft on the port side of the ship and aft to forward on the starboard side. They specified that it was not the cabin numbers, life boats or the jogging track. They did not, however, say it wasn’t the Arrows on the Walk a Mile signs and those arrows definitely do meet the criteria of the question. If they wanted to eliminate the arrows on the signs from the contest, they should have said so. Otherwise, all right answers should be considered right. Right?...
I also know the answer because we had the same question on our PC cruise last year. I answered the question the same way you did and had the same complaint. It's only a small thing, but the arrows on the Walk a Mile sign do appear to be a correct answer to the question.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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caribill

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There is an NCL ship docked next to us in Puntarenas. This is the first ship we have seen since we left San Pedro. I guess that means we can’t hang out on our deck naked, but then, neither can they.

 

Sure you can.

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Pia1913

Pia1913

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I also know the answer because we had the same question on our PC cruise last year. I answered the question the same way you did and had the same complaint. It's only a small thing, but the arrows on the Walk a Mile sign do appear to be a correct answer to the question.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Sure you can.

 

Well, I got permission. At least from Bill. And arrows is definitely not the answer. The answer is:

The name of the ship.

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PunkiC

PunkiC

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Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 10, at sea

 

Another sea day. Praise God, we need the rest. I don’t know if it is the heat, or we are just getting old. My hair also needs a break. I have longish curly hair and I put it up under a hat to keep it off my neck when we are in hot ports. As a result it gets very sweaty and turns into a frizz bomb by the time I get back to the ship and take off my hat.

 

Today the Wake Show questions were just too obvious. Maybe they are trying to get more people to participate. There is one lady who wins something almost every day. I am suspicious that she must put in a half a dozen entries for each question each day. Oh well, they did say “No Rules”.

 

Pia, whether or not you post answers is your decision. I don’t post them because it is so much fun for me to figure them out on my own. For the “New Door” puzzle, I showed my work on the back of my entry form before it dawned on me that it was a trick question. They read some of my goofy words on The Wake Show. Several people have mentioned it to me as we are walking around the ship. It was pretty funny.

 

I did to speak to Richard The Cruise Director about the arrows and he agreed that the arrows were a right answer that had not been eliminated by the mention of the jogging track. In the future they will either have to have three right answers—the arrows, the name of the ship and one other (secret)—or, they will have to specifically eliminate them when they present the trivia question. How did we get into this silliness? 

 

There are tons of interesting things to do on the ship today so we will have to sit down and think about our choices. For sure I will have to do the Blackjack Tournament qualifier. We usually don’t gamble, but DH won a $20 entry fee and he wants me to give it a try and see how long I last. The first qualifying round was from 12:00 noon until 2:000 p.m. today. I went down to check it out and decided to just watch for a while. They have two more qualifying rounds, one tomorrow and one the 29th just prior to the tournament. I made friends with the two guys who are currently at the top so I will keep my eye on them, but I don’t think I will play until the last day.

 

We attended the grapevine wine tasting and the wines were all OK. I liked the Woodbridge Merlot the best, but then I like Merlot. We have tons of those little souvenir glasses at home but we decided to keep them anyway and have a big party at home and give away the glasses to our guests.

 

Today is ANZAC Day celebrating Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and they had a big celebration in The Wheelhouse. I popped in because I am a veteran. The event was very well attended and closed with singing first the New Zealand and Australian anthems, followed by “God Save the Queen”. I don’t know the anthems, but I am quite good at singing “God Save the Queen”. I am such a royalist. 

 

Our evening was weird and we did something we haven’t done for a long time—nothing. We had a quick bite (a snack really) in the HC and then went back to our room for a “minute”. We ended up watching movies, reading and I did some alterations (sewing) on the new sundress I had bought in Costa Rica. It needed to be taken in a bit. Then we got hooked on “The Life of Pi” which didn’t get over until 11:00 p.m. No dinner for us.

 

Did I tell you that I got a notification from my credit card company that almost immediately after our card had been read by Princess in San Pedro, fraudulent charges began to appear on our credit card. I was able to dispute the charges and block all charges where they don’t actually scan the card until we return home. I explained it to someone at the Purser’s Desk and suggested that they advise Princess of the problem, but they acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about. The card had to be compromised when Princess scanned it, because that is the only time the card has been used in over a month.

 

Tomorrow, The Panama Canal.

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