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Coral full transit Sept 23rd....Live? Maybe-Maybe not... Plus Photos

Colo Cruiser

By Colo Cruiser,
in Princess Cruises

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compozer

compozer

Posted
Posted

Hi Keith,

 

Glad you made it thru the night ok. Get it over with so the next two are smooth sailing. I remember one cruise where all the outside doors were roped off and all the furniture and tables were tied down. The elevators were banging around so much that everyone was afraid to use them. Our balcony furniture was getting tossed around also. Mike slept right through it but I couldn't sleep and went to the buffet and sat with one of the chefs for a couple hours.

 

Glad you are having a nice time.

 

See you soon.

 

Sandy

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jasbo49

jasbo49

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Posted

Hi Keith: Astro Flyer asked a question earlier that kind of got lost in the commotion of rough seas:

 

Is the Alfredo's operating as a Grand-style pizza only, or does it have the full Royal-Regal menu? I'm curious because I'm hoping they do that again in December on the Island.

 

Jim

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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Posted (edited)
Hi Keith: Astro Flyer asked a question earlier that kind of got lost in the commotion of rough seas:

 

Is the Alfredo's operating as a Grand-style pizza only, or does it have the full Royal-Regal menu? I'm curious because I'm hoping they do that again in December on the Island.

 

Jim

 

 

Yeah I missed that.......

Not sure if the full menu but it had all the pizza's listed on the right side.

Not sure about the pastas/calzones, never paid attention as I ordered a Margherita which is not on the menu.

I am think it may be the shorter version.

 

I will check. :)

Edited by Colo Cruiser
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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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Good afternoon from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua.

 

last night we saw On The Bayou production show and Scott Wyler. Both of which we have seen in the past. But OTB we have not seen for almost 10 years.

It was excellent. Scott Wyler and his deadpan comedy is always welcomed. It was a good show.

We also saw Las Vegas pianist Glenn Smith (Dynamic Entertainer).

He was very good.

 

Some bands listed,

Ray Coussins-Crooners

Blue Jade Quartet-Wheelhouse

Sugar Cane Duo-Wheelhouse

Motown Madness with Opus-Universe Lounge

Janusz-Atrium

 

Tonight-entertainers

Gary Delena-Comedy/Music

Travis Turpin-Vocal Impressionist

 

Just to name a few...

 

 

Let me start with last night……when we returned to the can around midnight we were treated to a fantastic lightning show about 15 miles ahead of us. The seas were calm and temp around 78. Stood outside watching as it was lighting up the inside of the cabin. Lots of lightning and very limited thunder that we could hear.

 

We hit the hay and within the hour we sailed right into the middle of it. Thunder/lightning right over the ship with downpours for 30-45 minutes at a time.

I mean it sounded like it struck the ship it was so close. We left the balcony door open about a foot. I have never experienced anything like it! It lasted for 2-3 hours until at least 3am. I could not sleep because just as I dozed off it was very quiet and all you could hear was the rain falling……….then a crack and lightning would scare the crap out of us. :eek: :eek: :eek: Quite a storm.

 

We anchored at 7:00am on time. Tendering started at 7:30 with the Princess tours heading out first. Tender tickets we’re not needed after 9:30. I could hear the wind howling on the balcony. As we headed down to Gala Deck 4 an announcement was made saying the tender operations were suspended while they repositioned the ship and changed tender operations from the Starboard to the Port side due to massive swells and gusting winds coming in. This took about 20 minutes and was no big deal.

It was mostly cloudy but the sun was making its prencence known. It was 89 and lots of humidity.

 

In the Patter for the day was a medical form from the Republic of Nicaragua/ministry of health asking basically the same questions plus more (12 in all) as the pre health form during boarding. Much more detailed form. Not one mention was made of this form onboard. We took them with us to the gangway but nobody asked for them. However once stepping off the tender shoreside there were local officials there not only collecting forms but taking skin temps with a handheld device.

I saw that they were only taking forms that people filled out and voluntarily handed to them. We walked right through only getting our temps taken.

 

The form asked about…..

 

 

High fever

persistent coughing (3/4’s of the ship)

nasal congestion

sore throat

impaired breathing

skin rash

persistant diarrhea

persistant vomiting

muscle pain

serious pain articulations

sudden arthritis

bleeding disorders

 

name/age/nationality/passport#/other countries last 30 days/emergency contact.

 

We walked a short distance to the small waterfront town. Same ole same ole.

After an hour or so we headed back towards the pier entrance where we found a tour guide with Geovanny’s Vans. Giovanni Jimenez owner/operator.

http://www.geovannysvan.com.

 

We had a nice 8 passenger van for the 4 of us with good AC. We headed or a quick tour to the town of Revas and Lake Nicaragua which os at the foot of 2 large volcanoes. Since we started at noon we did not have time to head to Granada which is a good 2 hours away. We had a nice 2 1/2 hour tour.

A bargain at $20pp. A hard working tour guide.

 

Back onboard went to the HC for a quick snack. Ha right. :)

 

Sailaway is at 5:30pm.

 

Its the shrimp fountain at the PSE lounge tonight.

I will repeat that you can order any of the specialty drinks for the $5 price.

Nice touch.

 

Had my escargot a few times already. (pre ordered 24 hours in advance)

Delicious as usual.

 

Thats it for now.

 

Buono Notte (yes Italian)

 

PS Stewart “STEVE” is excellent as well as waitstaff “Teddy/DJ.

Edited by Colo Cruiser
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partybarbie

partybarbie

Posted
Posted

Sounds like you are having a great time. My stepmom called my sister this morning and said they were having a lot of fun. It's her first time through the Panama Canal.

 

We're supposed to fly to Barcelona this Friday, so I'm hoping that Hurricane Joaquin doesn't throw a wrench in our plans.:(

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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Sounds like you are having a great time. My stepmom called my sister this morning and said they were having a lot of fun. It's her first time through the Panama Canal.

 

We're supposed to fly to Barcelona this Friday, so I'm hoping that Hurricane Joaquin doesn't throw a wrench in our plans.:(

 

 

Safe travels! :)

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yoyosma

yoyosma

Posted
Posted

I'm going to beg a favor from someone. I'm doing this cruise Nov. 22nd and would love to see the patters, it will help me figure out what night I wish to do the ultimate balcony dining and a few other things. But there is no hurry so post cruise would be just fine. If anyone on board has the time and know how please.

 

Thank you Keith for the "live" thread. It is of great interest to me.

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dchip

dchip

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Posted

Hi Keith, enjoying your posts very much. Isn't a thunder and lightning storm awesome on a ship?! We were involved in a big one coming up the California coast several years ago. The cabin walls were vibrating. There was no sleeping while that went on!

 

Enjoy every minute. I know you will.

 

Cheers, Denise

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

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Good evening from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Had another great day touring around with a local company. We arrived at 6:30 am and the ship was cleared in 30 minutes. We were in no hurry so we had breakfast in the HC and walked off the ship around 10:00am. At the entrance to the pier we were able to secure Charlie from Arenas Travel (Arenastravel.cr.com) for a customized tour for a few hours.

 

We did not have any specific places to visit other then my MIL desired to see a coffee plantation of some kind and how the beans are harvested. Charlie was the guide and along with driver Ricardo we spent 4 hours scouring the mountain roads for Toucans and coffee plants. Charlie took us to Esparza which is where his home is and we checked out the market area/town square and local churches.

 

We stopped at a coffee plantation and had hands on with the coffee beans at various stages of ripeness right off the plant. Stopped at beautiful little roadside cafe high up on the mountain with breathtaking views of the valley.. We were 1600 meters in elevation, close to 6000ft. Nice cool breeze and awesome photo ops with Banana and platintain trees mixed in with bird of paradise (or so we thought) which turns out was a plant/flower version that gets mistaken for Bird of paradise quite often.

Charlie called it allacatnte’ (SP) or something similar to that name/spelling so don’t quote me on that. Beautiful just the same.

 

On the way back to the ship we stopped a a Maxi Pali Mercado, kind of like a Pueblo Market in the Caribbean to pickup some water and some more local coffee.

 

When we returned to the pier we were driven right up to the gangway.

I would highly recommend that you check out Arenas Travel if you are heading to this area. We paid $35 pp and there were just the 4 of us in a large 8-10 passenger Mercedes van with really good AC. :)

 

It was about 4:00pm so we dropped our stuff off in the cabin and headed to the HC.

 

I have been battling cruise hack since shortly after we left LA so I went to the medical Center at 4:30 to get it checked out. I was the first one there when they opened and was in/out by 5:00 with some cough syrup/antibiotics/ and a steroid. Seems I may have a sinus infection. :(

 

Well we were going to head back off to the little market area right outside the pier and the skies opened up!

Black clouds/lightning/heavy rain so that nixed that idea. Went back to the cabin and got ready for the PES lounge. Chips and Guac. Those along with my fav the El Mejor Margarita.

 

We pulled away from the pier at 6:50pm heading for the PC.

 

It was funny because our roll call kind of fell apart the last few weeks due to the fact that there were 3 embarkation ports Van/SF/LA so we never did have a quick meet after muster for LA saillway and we did not get to the M&G so I did not meet anyone from the roll call.

As we sat drinking our margaritas a couple walked into the lounge held in the back corner of Explorers. It was packed and seats were scarce. We gestured and said hey, you can sit here as we had a couple of seats open facing the table. We chit chatted back and forth and started talking about retirement and camping.

 

They guy shows us a picture on his phone of what they used to use for camping which was a pickup mounted tent which I think are pretty neat. He said thats what they used to use and then he showed me a picture of a miniature tear drop trailer that they have now, As soon as I saw that photo I remember it from the same one posted here on CC by a member. I laughed and said are you “THRAK”? He laughed back and had a blank stare on his face not really having any idea who we were. Although after a few minutes he realized who I was because we asked where we were each from earlier.

So I Have met the infamous THRAK!! :D :D

One thing crossed off my bucket list!! :p

 

After the lounge we had a quiet relaxing dinner in Sabatini’s.

It was also very very quiet around the ship tonight.

Once again one of the main reasons why I love this ship!!!

 

DW’s parents ate in the HC and saw our asst. waiter DJ from the Provence DR helping out. He said the DR was really quiet/empty so they sent him upstairs to help out as the HC was buzzing.

 

There were no good shows etc that we wanted to see tonight so we headed back to the cabin to relax after a fantastic day!

 

Tomorrow is a sea day before we hit the canal on Saturday and tomorrow is also the MTP luncheon. I believe we are around #14 so lots of MT that are in the 1000’s as far as days. Hey we are still there and the luncheon is my favorite.

 

Well thats it for tonight, hope you enjoy my ramblings. :)

Edited by Colo Cruiser
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brt49

brt49

Posted
Posted
I'm going to beg a favor from someone. I'm doing this cruise Nov. 22nd and would love to see the patters, it will help me figure out what night I wish to do the ultimate balcony dining and a few other things. But there is no hurry so post cruise would be just fine. If anyone on board has the time and know how please.

 

Thank you Keith for the "live" thread. It is of great interest to me.

 

We are going on this cruise. Are you on our Roll call?

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compozer

compozer

Posted
Posted

Keith,

 

Hope your visit to the doc has made a positive change for you. Both Mike and I have had a cough for almost three weeks. We also are debating stopping to see our doc. Sounds like many people have this and it seems to get better and then they get a relapse and it starts all over. We have so much to accomplish before we head out that we can't afford to be sick. Hope yours is gone by the time you get to Rome - pick a sea day and stay in bed all day.

 

Enjoying your adventures.

 

Sandy

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cdnjules

cdnjules

Posted
Posted
Good evening from Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

 

Keith, sounds like Tamie and yourself are having a good time. Thanks for sharing. Loved doing the partial transit, so now we must try the full transit one of these days.:)

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terrysko2000

terrysko2000

Posted
Posted
Good evening from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Had another great day touring around with a local company. We arrived at 6:30 am and the ship was cleared in 30 minutes. We were in no hurry so we had breakfast in the HC and walked off the ship around 10:00am. At the entrance to the pier we were able to secure Charlie from Arenas Travel (Arenastravel.cr.com) for a customized tour for a few hours.

 

We did not have any specific places to visit other then my MIL desired to see a coffee plantation of some kind and how the beans are harvested. Charlie was the guide and along with driver Ricardo we spent 4 hours scouring the mountain roads for Toucans and coffee plants. Charlie took us to Esparza which is where his home is and we checked out the market area/town square and local churches.

 

We stopped at a coffee plantation and had hands on with the coffee beans at various stages of ripeness right off the plant. Stopped at beautiful little roadside cafe high up on the mountain with breathtaking views of the valley.. We were 1600 meters in elevation, close to 6000ft. Nice cool breeze and awesome photo ops with Banana and platintain trees mixed in with bird of paradise (or so we thought) which turns out was a plant/flower version that gets mistaken for Bird of paradise quite often.

Charlie called it allacatnte’ (SP) or something similar to that name/spelling so don’t quote me on that. Beautiful just the same.

 

On the way back to the ship we stopped a a Maxi Pali Mercado, kind of like a Pueblo Market in the Caribbean to pickup some water and some more local coffee.

 

When we returned to the pier we were driven right up to the gangway.

I would highly recommend that you check out Arenas Travel if you are heading to this area. We paid $35 pp and there were just the 4 of us in a large 8-10 passenger Mercedes van with really good AC. :)

 

It was about 4:00pm so we dropped our stuff off in the cabin and headed to the HC.

 

I have been battling cruise hack since shortly after we left LA so I went to the medical Center at 4:30 to get it checked out. I was the first one there when they opened and was in/out by 5:00 with some cough syrup/antibiotics/ and a steroid. Seems I may have a sinus infection. :(

 

Well we were going to head back off to the little market area right outside the pier and the skies opened up!

Black clouds/lightning/heavy rain so that nixed that idea. Went back to the cabin and got ready for the PES lounge. Chips and Guac. Those along with my fav the El Mejor Margarita.

 

We pulled away from the pier at 6:50pm heading for the PC.

 

It was funny because our roll call kind of fell apart the last few weeks due to the fact that there were 3 embarkation ports Van/SF/LA so we never did have a quick meet after muster for LA saillway and we did not get to the M&G so I did not meet anyone from the roll call.

As we sat drinking our margaritas a couple walked into the lounge held in the back corner of Explorers. It was packed and seats were scarce. We gestured and said hey, you can sit here as we had a couple of seats open facing the table. We chit chatted back and forth and started talking about retirement and camping.

 

They guy shows us a picture on his phone of what they used to use for camping which was a pickup mounted tent which I think are pretty neat. He said thats what they used to use and then he showed me a picture of a miniature tear drop trailer that they have now, As soon as I saw that photo I remember it from the same one posted here on CC by a member. I laughed and said are you “THRAK”? He laughed back and had a blank stare on his face not really having any idea who we were. Although after a few minutes he realized who I was because we asked where we were each from earlier.

So I Have met the infamous THRAK!! :D :D

One thing crossed off my bucket list!! :p

 

After the lounge we had a quiet relaxing dinner in Sabatini’s.

It was also very very quiet around the ship tonight.

Once again one of the main reasons why I love this ship!!!

 

DW’s parents ate in the HC and saw our asst. waiter DJ from the Provence DR helping out. He said the DR was really quiet/empty so they sent him upstairs to help out as the HC was buzzing.

 

There were no good shows etc that we wanted to see tonight so we headed back to the cabin to relax after a fantastic day!

 

Tomorrow is a sea day before we hit the canal on Saturday and tomorrow is also the MTP luncheon. I believe we are around #14 so lots of MT that are in the 1000’s as far as days. Hey we are still there and the luncheon is my favorite.

 

Well thats it for tonight, hope you enjoy my ramblings. :)

So where is this lounge PSE? with the yummy drinks and munchies??

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IECalCruiser

IECalCruiser

Posted
Posted (edited)
So where is this lounge PSE? with the yummy drinks and munchies??
On the Coral and Island it is typically held in a portion of Explorer's Lounge. On Grand class ships it is typically in Skywalker's or One6 on the Grand. Edited by IECalCruiser
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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

Posted
Posted (edited)
So where is this lounge PSE? with the yummy drinks and munchies??

 

If you're not aware of it, the PSE nightly event is a benefit only for platinum, suite & elite level Captain's Circle passengers.

Edited by Astro Flyer
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