Our cruise ship
My buddy Cliff said, “We've got
to go through the Panama Canal next year.”
I was totally willing. In fact I
had booked that cruise five times and had to cancel it for one reason or another,
five times. “You book it and I will come.”
So he did, but he booked
Carnival. The only thing I know about Carnival is they have a reputation for
being party boats. Cliff booked a seventeen day cruise through the Panama Canal
on the Carnival Miracle. The ship's decor looked dark and depressing to me as I
looked at the pictures of it on the internet. I joined the Cruise Critic roll
call that discussed the cruise, and many of them had been on that very ship
before.
When I talked to Deb about it she
said, “It doesn't matter. It’s a Panama Canal Cruise, you always cancel Panama
Canal Cruises.”
I'm so determined that we are
going on this one that I won't let anything stop me. Except when the cruise
line turned it from a seventeen day cruise to a fourteen day cruise because of
dry dock issues, I got mad and canceled. Cliff said he was still going, so I
re-booked and down sized from a balcony to an ocean view. Good enough, I
thought. Besides it saved me a lot of money.
This is the cruise that we had a
hard time planning for. I guess deep down inside we didn't think we were
actually going to make it. We bought airfare at a month out. We usually fly to
Florida, spend the night and then board the ship the next day. To save money
this time, we decided to take a red-eye. It arrived early in the morning on the
cruise day.
With about a week to go, we
realized we didn't have anything planned, so we purchased a couple of shore
excursion through the cruise line. It's something we rarely do.
We had done that a long time ago
in Ketchikan. It was forty-five dollars for the Loggerodeo. When we got off the
ship, we gathered under the Logger Rodeo shore excursion sign where they passed
out our tickets and pointed to where the Logger Rodeo was. We walked over there
only to find out the tickets were thirty-five dollars. You save ten dollars if
you didn't have anyone pointing the direction.
The ship had been sold out, so
there was no way of upgrading. A few days before the cruise, someone mentioned
on the cruise board that there were balcony rooms available. I re-booked the
balcony. The coronavirus has everyone spooked.
The day before, I'm standing in
Walmart getting a few last minute items when Cliff calls. “Where you at?” He's
already on Miami Beach basking in the sun.
“Still in Mount Vernon.” I'm
rethinking this sleeping on the plane and arriving refreshed. My friends had
just come home off a cruise and their plane had been delayed eleven hours. If
ours is delayed that long, we'll miss this cruise. Instead of having the peace
of mind Cliff is having at knowing he's going to make the ship, I get to worry
about it.
We count down as we make each
connection. We arrive at the airporter shuttle. Connection one.
We decide to park our car there
so we don't have to bother anyone to drive us back and forth. The guy on the
phone is grumpy when we call and now that we've arrived, the gal behind the
desk is grumpy. Do they only hire grumps? The bus driver is friendly
though. We overhear him saying he's going to start wearing a mask and gloves. Are
we really going across country in the middle of an epidemic?
We arrive at the airport.
Connection number two.
Its unnerving having some of your
fellow passengers wearing face masks. I go from what do they know that I
don't know? to insulted that they think I'm diseased. Trying to
ignore them, we wait for the plane. Dinner didn't happen and the airport food
is both expensive and awful. I pay too much for a sandwich I hate and throw
away half.
The plane boards at the appointed
hour and I'm greatly relieved to hear the engines roar to life. Connection
number three, we're on the plane.
When calculating our ability to
sleep on the plane, we never remember to factor in the people behind us. The
mother keeps complaining about her long labor to bring the kid into the world.
I peeked back, the 'kid' has got to be in his thirties. Get over it already.
She's says at one point, “I
brought you into this world, I can take you out.”
Keep talking loud and I'll
take care of that for you. They finally settle down and I close my eyes. In
the end it doesn't matter if they are talking or not, I'm not sleeping.
Day One Embarkation
I've gone from playing games on
the seat back entertainment unit, to closing my eyes and trying to sleep. Deb
has the aisle seat and I have the window. The plane isn't full. The guy in the
row across from us has it to himself. I again question my sanity for traveling
in the middle of an epidemic.
The plane comes in for a smooth
landing, this pilot is good. Connection four.
Our plan has already fallen
apart. Deb is looking more like a zombie than the cute wife I once knew. She
falls asleep during breakfast and doesn't finish it.
We drop off our bags at a hostel
and head to the beach to see the sunrise. In fact, hours later, we are still at
the beach. Deb sticks her toe in the ocean and declares, “It’s too cold.” I'm
braver than that, I go up to my knees. I have my swimsuit on, but I don't have
anywhere to change back to my regular clothes, so I just leave my swimsuit on
all day and put pants over it.
Sunrise over South Beach
Miami
South Beach
It’s in the mid-eighties soon and
we've seen as much of South Beach as we care to. We've walked up and down the
whole thing. We head for the ship.
We have a specific time that we
are allowed to board so the cruise line can stagger the boarding times. We're
three and a half hours early. Breakfast cost thirty-five dollars and lunch is
going to cost more than that. The buffet closes at three, and it’s free.
We are put in the naughty line
when we arrive. The cruise line people walked up and down the line saying
“Priority?” If you weren't you, would soon be joining our line. There are three
lines. The priority people, the ones that arrived when they should have and the
naughty people. The priority people were taken through security first followed
by the good people. They let us through a few at a time.
Then they set us down in the
middle of a big room where the priority people had the nice chairs.
Cliff and Marilyn, who had the
same boarding time as us, followed our bad example and arrived early. We had
such a nice talk as we waited to board.
Your passes were numbered, and
the cruise line started one number at a time. Then they went to two or three,
then to five or six, finally they said, “All sections, get on the ship.”
By the time we should have
arrived at our designated boarding time, we had gotten on the ship, eaten lunch
(including second lunch) explored the ship and had a nap. So much for following
the rules.
I hate muster drills and this one
was particularly miserable. Standing on the deck bunched up in a massive group.
One man in the back mentioned, “Aren't we supposed to leave six feet between us
and the next person during this coronavirus outbreak?” We didn't have six
inches. Again I questioned my sanity.
We stayed out on the deck for a
minute to watch sail away. It was at six. Deb looked over the railing and saw
half the food was still on the dock. She pointed at the watermelons and said,
“They better not leave those.”
They didn't, nor did we leave at
six. In fact, we gave up waiting for sail-away and went down to dinner.
Sometime before dessert, the ship left port.
Leaving Miami
Miami in the distance
I do not like the way Carnival
does a lot of things, but I do have to say the ships décor is striking, not
depressing. Our fellow passengers are very friendly and the food, so far, is
great. Deb and I wanted to head to the show, but sleep is more important, so we
skip it. According to my app on my phone, we've walked seven and a half miles
today, mostly through sand, not slept but fifteen minutes in the last
forty-eight. But we made our last connection, we are on the ship.
Our stateroom
Atrium from the elevator
The view from the balcony
Day Two, Sea Day
Fun day at sea is what they call
it. I would agree with that. I thought it wasn't going to be when the day
started, but as it went on, we were having more and more fun.
Breakfast was in the main dining
room. I had an omelet. It was really
good but also really small. Deb didn't like her breakfast.
We went to trivia, actually four
times this day. The first trivia we were a minute late so we didn't hear it was
are you smarter than a fifth grader trivia. The answer is, mostly.
James Bond Trivia was really
hard. We got two right. The other two trivia we tied for first. One was true or
false. If the lady writing down the answers would have listened to us, we would
have won.
I was worried that trivia was the
only thing going on the ship. Deb and I met up at music trivia. A couple sat
down on the couch next to us as the whole place was packed and I had gotten
there early to write. I moved my computer out of the way and invited the couple
to play with us. It’s a good thing I did, because the guy was a music trivia
encyclopedia. We again tied for first. They tried to make us take the trophy.
All I did was say, “I think that's right,” while Deb wrote down the answers, he
gave it to her. I took a picture with Deb and the trophy, then gave it to them.
I took their picture, even though I forgot to ask their names.
The music trivia was a blast. The
cruise director didn't like people walking through his trivia game so he would
say things like, “The woman wearing sunglasses inside.” We would all cheer and
clap like the person had just jumped the Grand Canyon in a motorcycle. One
fellow turned bright red, another hurried out of the room. I noticed that after
a while, everyone walked around the trivia instead of through the middle.
As he gave the questions and
later on the answers, we all sang along. It was good fun.
Wandering around the ship, we
found a candy store. It’s one where you fill the bag. As much as they feed us,
you wouldn't think we needed a candy store. It was packed though. We even
bought some. They were half off. Deb loves a good deal.
We forgot to pack the binoculars.
We kept seeing interesting things off the side of the ship and wishing we had binoculars.
We met up with Cliff and Marilyn for
dinner again. We don't see them much around the ship. They don't do the
activities we do so we don't get together except at dinnertime. It’s fun to
catch up with them and get a report. I don't think they have the ports planned.
His goal is to relax and he looks like he's accomplishing that.
Dinner was packed. They gave us a
pager and told us to wait in the lounge. There was no room in the lounge so we
stood and talked until a place opened up where we could sit. I said that I
didn't think the pager was working. A few minutes later they came and got us
saying they had room now. I was right, it didn't work. It was dress up lobster
night, so that explained the huge crowd. I am hoping that the rest of the
cruise isn't that crowded. I couldn't decide between the prime rib and lobster
so I ordered them both. Cliff thought it was a great idea so he ordered them
both also. Deb said the lobster tail was small so she ordered two lobsters and
the sea bass. We were all plenty full by the end of dinner.
Deb and I headed down to the
comedy club. They guy was awesome. We only caught the tail end of his show. I
hope he's there again. I enjoyed that.
Pool deck
We won!
Team mates Sue and Phillip
60s and 70s music trivia, we all sang along to the songs
The main show was good. I've seen
a lot of shows on cruise ships that made no sense to me. Weird scenes where the
dancers turned into plants. This one made sense. The dances went with the
songs. It was called 88 keys. They had a piano player that serenaded us while
we waited for the show to start. Then the show itself was about a piano player.
The dancers were talented, and they could sing too. It was well done.
Day Three Sea Day
We went to the buffet for
breakfast. It’s a bit chaotic. The main dining room is better for meals, I
think just because the crowds are not there. Might try that tomorrow. I have no
complaints about the food. Of course, I ate a hot dog today and loved it so I'm
not a foodie in any way, shape, of form.
We won trivia again this morning.
I know you're tired of hearing about trivia, but that's the main event of the
morning. We gave the trophy to Phil. He joined us for trivia and knew most of
the answers. He was on his way to give it to a kid. Good luck finding one of
those on board. We went to the birthday party for Dr. Seuss and the ship could
only round up four kids. Since I'm a kid at heart, I had some birthday cake.
Dr. Suess' birthday party
Lunch was a hodge podge of three
different food places. I'm hoping not to start an international war inside my
stomach. Deb keeps watching the news as the coronavirus spreads across the
United States. I'm now thinking we might be the lucky ones to get out of town
just as things are getting bad. We might miss it altogether. Even though,
looking around me, getting people to activities is what a cruise line does best
and its packing them in on this one. If anyone is sick, it’s going to spread
through this crowd like wildfire. There are a lot of older people on the ship
so it would take a heavy toll.
We expected health checks in Miami
but there were none. The crew was checked, in fact a lot of the crew come from
areas that have travel restrictions, so they had to extend the contracts of the
ones who were still on the ship. We have noticed the ship has gone to a
different protocol today. They dish out the food instead of letting the
passengers do the self-serve buffet. When we first got on the ship we noticed a
lack of hand sanitizers. A lot of the ones they had didn't even work. Today,
they are all working and there are crew members with spray bottles ready to
spray the hands of those who don't use the hand sanitizers.
Our safe stopped working so I
called the front desk. About two minutes later a man came up. He sounded
Russian. He said to lock it. I was leaving it open so our stuff wouldn't be
locked in there forever. I responded, “I don't really want to lock it because I
don't know if it will open.”
“No problem, I will unlock it
with this.” He held up an electronic gizmo with a wire sticking out of it. I
kinda felt talked down to.
Ignoring my fears, I locked it.
It wouldn't unlock. He plugged in his electronic gizmo. It wouldn't unlock.
“I'll call maintenance.” He walked out. Luckily maintenance came within five
minutes. He had me take everything out of the safe after he manually opened it.
The he replaced then batteries. Clicking some buttons, he shook his head. He
took off the back plate and shook his head again. Soon, a new safe was brought
up. It works great.
Tonight's dinner was my least
favorite so far. The linguini is good, but I won't order the fried chicken
again. Cliff even said it needed salt and he doesn't add salt to his food. All
the salt shakers have disappeared from the tables.
Day Four Cartagena
Does anybody know what time it
is? There was an announcement over the intercom late last night. “It's daylight
savings time but you will not be setting your clocks back as ship time will be
the same time we're on currently. We are going west so it doesn't make sense
for us to change time then change it right back, besides Columbia doesn't do
daylight savings time, so we'll be on the same time as they are. “
“But your cell phones and some
electronic devices will automatically switch to daylight savings time, so use
your mechanical watches, as they are the ones that will have the right time.
Any questions?”
Of course, you can't ask
questions to an announcement. So no one did.
We had a tour the next morning,
so we dutifully set our wake up call to six thirty in the morning and went to
sleep.
The phone rang at 5:30, this is
your 6:30 wake up call, it said when I picked it up. Now I'm confused. I look
at my watch, it's 5:30. I look at the computer, it says 3:30, I look at my cell
phone, it’s says 6:30. I look at the Carnival official app. The ship's time is
6:30.
We are nearing Cartagena by this
point so Deb and I go up and watch us come in to port. The guy next to me is
complaining that the buffet wasn't open at six. He waited until six thirty, but
there was no one there. I looked at my watch, it says 6:15. Someone didn't get
the memo. An hour later the ship's time, my cell phone and my watch all have
the same time. It's only the computer that's off and it has no internet access
to figure out what time it really is.
I overheard someone teasing the
cruise director about the one hour early wake up calls. He shrugged and said,
“You know, this modern technology.”
Coming into Cartagena
The ship from the tour boat
We had a ship's tour called
Cartagena by land and sea. We hurried off the ship when they announced we had
cleared the port. My heart sank when I saw a row of buses. But it was okay,
because our bus filled up quickly and we were on our way. We drove about thirty
feet when they took us off the bus and onto a boat. As I go to step on the
boat, it’s a long step even for me. I'm thinking, I'm going to rip my pants. Luckily I didn't and I even climbed the
ladder to the top of the two tiered boat. The announcer spoke by microphone
from the bottom of the boat and then we had another one, without a microphone,
explain what the announcer was trying to say.
They kept telling us about old
town and the new town. Because there is an island in front of the town, there
are two entrances to the harbor. The small one, is the one to take as the large
one has an underwater stone wall across it to rip out the bottoms of pirate
ships trying to invade the town.
It is the best town in Columbia,
according to the announcer, because he lives there and he is not partial in any
way. The boat passes a peninsula. He explains that the navy used to have a fort
there where they kept the gunpowder, but a fourteen-year-old, sailor made a
mistake and blew up the fort. So now they keep the gunpowder on the island even
further away. They never said what happened to the fourteen year old, leaving
us to assume the worst. They now have officers housing where the fort once
stood.
Church downtown
Simon Bolivar
Fortress
Old town from atop the fort
Guard house
On top of the fort
New part of the city
Ramp to the top of the fort
Further in, they show us a
beautiful sandy beach. He says the nicer beaches are on the island where they
have coral sand, this sand is darker and is volcanic. I do see what looks like
a volcano on the edge of town and wonder why anyone would build a city so close
to one, but then I think of Seattle and Mount Rainier.
The boat makes a u-turn at this
point and we head past the navy base. The ships of the Colombian Navy are just
a spitting distance away, including submarines and supply ships. We make
another u-turn into the harbor where the Spanish galleons would take the
treasure they looted from the natives. They would also bring slaves from Africa
through there to build their fortifications and city.
When we meet back at the dock, we
take the bus in to the old part of town. We stop at what used to be the prison.
It has been refurbished into a bunch of shops. They allow us to wander around
for about a half an hour. We are pressed on all sides by street merchants. At
first there are only a few, but then we are mobbed.
When we are bused to old town, it
gets worse. I am offered belts, cigars, hats, t-shirts, tablecloths, dresses,
necklaces, jewelry, beer, water, and suntan lotion. The lady with the suntan
lotion carried it between her breast and pulled it out and tried to rub it on
my arm. The wife stopped her. A little later a man walked by trying to sell
ants. “The largest ant you've ever seen.” Or wanted to. I can just see me
trying to get that back on the ship.
The only way the street merchants
would let you alone was to duck inside a store where the inside merchants
pounced on you. At one point, three boys cornered me and began rapping about
me, then held out a hat for a tip. The dollar I gave them didn't impress them
much.
We stopped at the emerald museum.
The tour conveniently ended at the emerald gift shop. Columbia has the best
emeralds on the planet, according to them. By the time we arrived back at the
bus, we were more than happy to go back to the ship. Our first stop was the
beverage counter where we got some lemonade.
Marilyn didn't show up to dinner,
but Cliff was there. We had to wait again. We've put back our dining time to
7:15 in hopes that we won't have to wait as long. I hate seeing the lady behind
the podium with pagers ready to hand out. I only had the one entree tonight.
The show was fun. I don't remember the name. It’s getting to be all the same
already, singing and dancing, then more singing and dancing. I'm ready for
something else.
Day Five Panama Canal
I read the Path Between the
Seas before coming on this cruise. I actually read it the second time I
booked the cruise, thinking for sure would be the one we took. That was three
bookings ago, but today, I took the path between the seas. I was up on deck or
looking out my balcony window almost the whole time. All I can say is, “Wow.”
Our wakeup call came an hour
early. When we woke up, we looked out to see where we were. We couldn't tell,
so we went up on deck. Being close to a bridge, we wanted to watch us go under
it. So we sat there for about forty-five minutes until we went under the
bridge. Then the Gatum Locks were right there, so we waited until we got to the
locks. We'd been out in the sun for about an hour by this point and neither one
of us had put on sun block. I ran down and put some on then we met on deck
three where the locks were just right there. In fact you could almost touch
them, which I tried so I say, almost. I was able to do it a little later on,
but I wasn't supposed to do it, so I was told. I found a spot in the shade with
a deck chair and Deb and I watched the locks go by. We even talking to one of
the workers for a minute.
The Atlantic Bridge
This is all that is left of the French effort to build the Panama Canal
Gatum Lock
Bridge of the Americas
When we were through the first
set of locks, it emptied out into Gatum Lake. We retreated back to the cabin
for this part. I would check on our progress every few minutes and if there was
something interesting, I would venture out onto the balcony.
As we entered the canal itself,
Deb and I were up on deck again. We sat there the whole way through the cut
they made to make the canal. At the hills around the canal’s steepest part, it’s
one-way travel, because ships are bigger these days. They are talking about
expanding it, but they've just finished the new locks.
Panama Temple
Centennial Bridge
They now have three bridges over
the canal. It used to be they had a ferry that went across, but traffic got too
busy for it, so they built the Bridge of the Americas. About fifty years later,
they built the Centennial Bridge. Now they have a bridge along the east coast
of Panama, too.
It was fun to be in a ship that
raised and lowered. At one point, we were next to a ship that was going down as
we were going up. Then you watch as the gates open and they head into the next
lock.
A very large container ship
passed us by heading towards the new locks. We watched it. The new locks are
down further than the old ones, so we were losing height and he wasn't. After
we passed through the last lock, they took us to the side and kept us there. I
could see some men mulling around the ground to the side of the ship. They
brought out a short gangway with wheels. The man with the radio spoke back and
forth to someone in Spanish. Then I heard him say, “We have a ladder.”
Two more men came up carrying a
three step and put it at the base of the gangway. A little while later, he said, “What are you
waiting for?”
“The ambulance.”
‘Okay, this is getting
interesting,’ I think.
A while later, an ambulance and a
fire truck pull up. The EMTs put on masks and my heart sinks. If this is the coronavirus,
then we're all doomed. Suitcases come out and are piled next to the ambulance,
then they wheel in a gurney and wheel it back out with a person on it. Couldn't
really see who it was, but a middle-aged woman gets into the ambulance with the
person.
The canal authority getting their pilot back
We are underway shortly after that. As we are leaving the canal, I see one of our temples on the hillside. After we pass through the Bridge of the Americas. This was what we had wanted to see all those years and it didn't disappoint. However, we are both tired from standing in the hot sun for that long. I worried about Deb, as her arms were turning red, and I sunburn easier than she does. We headed down to the cabin and rested, then went to dinner with Cliff and Marilyn. It was fun comparing notes about the canal with them.
Does anybody know what time it is?
Part 2.
Deb says let's go, trivia is
about to start. We headed down to the Java Blue cafe. No one from the cruise
staff was there. We waited for fifteen minutes for them to show up. Still no
one. Deciding to go to breakfast, we found the doors closed to the dining room.
According to the schedule, it was supposed to be open. It was then I checked my
app. The app said it was 8:04, my phone and watch said 9:15. We didn't get the
memo. I went back to the room and checked all of our paperwork. There was no
mention of a time change. We could have slept another hour.
Charging all our electronic
devices with one again, off again plug is hard. I can't charge it overnight
because I need it for the CPAP. So in the morning I'm switching devices as one
battery gets low. Deb doesn't like leaving the electronics out so we can't
charge them while we are out of the stateroom. Nothing gets more than seventy
percent before something else needs to be charged..
We won two trivia today. The
second one Deb was embarrassed. I saw the encyclopedia of music, that's what I
call him anyway, trying to find a place to sit, so I jumped up and went over to
him saying, “We have room over here.” Sometimes, it's all about winning.
Our first win we had a few repeat
questions from an earlier trivia.
Worries about the coronavirus are
weaving their way into a lot of conversations. In an enclosed population like a
cruise ship, it could be devastating if one person had it, it would spread
quickly to the rest of us.
Dinner tonight was good, I had
the beef tenderloin. Deb and I went up to the buffet. I still don't have that
place figured out. I have to wander around until I find what I want. It would
be so much easier if it was all in one place instead of stations that are far
apart.
Day Seven Puntarenas Costa
Rica
I woke up early and watched us
coming into port. Deb was up soon after and we went up on deck and then to
breakfast. Most of the buffet was closed so the lines were long. I got into a
line thinking that it was the normal scrambled egg line, but to my surprise, it
was the omelet line and I was near the front by this point. Bacon, peppers,
onions, and lots of cheese later I had a fabulous breakfast.
We walked out onto the dock, not
knowing what we were going to do in Costa Rica. Deb stopped in front of a guy
with a sign. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying, so we went to the next
guy with a sign. Deb liked what he was telling her. He had to get at least
eight people to sign up before he would leave. Deb went back to the room to get
more money, and I sat there. Soon another couple came along and we were half
way there. Then two couples came up, and he had his eight. Deb wasn't back yet.
Actually she was, but they had decided they needed to adjust the gangway and
she was stuck in the ship for ten minutes. Meanwhile, a man and his dog decided
to join us. The dog and he served in Afghanistan together. A terrorist set off
a road side bomb and the man suffered brain damage. The dog went after the
terrorist. The terrorist shot the dog. Even though he was wounded, the dog
proceeded to tear the man apart. “He really tore into him,” the man with
the dog reiterated. They were both taken off active duty. Now the man and his
dog travel the world. The dog has been on seventy cruises, and I'm pretty sure
he hasn't had to pay for a single one. “I have a filing cabinet of the
paperwork I need to get 'Sarge,' into different countries.”
We drove forty-five minutes
through the countryside to the rain forest. Stopping for refreshments, some of
us got a little too refreshed, like the woman in the front seat that tasted
moonshine made from sugar cane for the first time. At least she was a happy
drunk. She bought a bottle to take home with her on the way back to the ship.
Frigate bird, my new favorite bird
Our tour group, Sarge, the dog is at the feet of the guy in green
Fruit where cashews come from
Crocodile
Crocodiles at the base of the bridge
There were two places to go, a nature walk, or a river boat cruise. We opted for the riverboat cruise, but so did the drunk lady.
We hopped in the boat along with
about twenty other people. The announcer was good. He complained about the
river being so low. We soon found out, when one of the boats around us got
stuck. It gunned the engine and black mud and water shot up into the air. Our
boat managed to avoid them. They finally freed themselves, but at the next bend
in the river, yet another boat was stuck. The whole boat was at an angle where
it ran aground. My thought is they should have put everyone in the back to
shift the weight, then try to free it. Nope, that's not what they did. Several
men from the other boats jumped in the knee-deep water to push the boat off the
sand bar.
I wasn't about to get out in
crocodile infested waters to push a boat. Turns out there was a eighteen foot
crocodile less than thirty feet away.
The announcer kept having to go
to the back to adjust the height of the engine. “If we get stuck,” he said, “we
can't call AAA. You're going to have to get out and push, but since I am a
gentleman, it's ladies first.”
We saw more than one crocodile on
that trip. We saw all sorts of birds and interesting things. A pink bird, I
thought was very pretty. We saw about a dozen crocodiles, some only a few feet
away, at one point. Two birds manage to get fish right in front of us. The fish
would be flapping around in their beak, then suddenly they were gone.
When we arrived back to the
nature hike group they were a mess. Sweaty and tired, they climbed in the van.
It was too hot to see a lot of wildlife, one of them had even slipped down one
of the hills. The dog, Sarge, seemed to have the most enjoyable time. Someone
had commented that he seemed fearless going up and across all the bridges. The
owner smiled, “He has rappelled out of helicopters, parachuted out of planes
and a lot of other crazy stuff.”
On the way back, we drove through
the town of Puntarenas. The driver was bragging about how they had eighty
percent middle class in the country, but I didn't see a single house that I
would have liked to live in. Most of the buildings in town had bars on the
doors and windows. That says they have a high crime problem to me, despite his
claims to the opposite. They even warned us on the ship not to wear a lot of
jewelry when we walk around.
We arrived back on the ship tired
and sore. We dropped off our bags and headed to the buffet right before they
closed. We ate, but didn't get a chance for dessert, so we went down to the
room and ordered room service.
We're finding that we're going
through more clothes than we expected. We had enough for fourteen days, but if
you go into town or sit up on deck too long, you get sweaty and sticky wet, so
you come down, have a shower, and change clothes. Now you don't have enough for
two weeks. So, we did laundry today then came back and hung it all over the
stateroom to dry. It looks like a New York tenement house in here.
After dinner we went to the
comedy club, but didn't like it, so we went up to the show. It was a
ventriloquist. It was better than the comedian. Yes, we finally made the show.
We've been so tired that we come to bed around nine each night.
Day Seven Sea Day
There were about twenty people
with pagers waiting for brunch in the main dining room. We decided to go up to
the buffet instead. It's the same food day after day. It wouldn't be so bad on
a shorter cruise, but it’s a fourteen day. I just want to eat breakfast in the
main dining room without a forty-minute wait. I've stopped my whining.
I went to a question and answer
session with the captain and senior officers. A lot of questions were on the coronavirus.
Eight questions on that alone. The captain said there was no one on the ship
being quarantined over the virus, so that was good news. One lady said she was a recent widow and
wanted to know if any of the men up there were single. A few of them pointed to
their fellow officers at which she responded, “Call me.”
Someone asked why they were
painting a spot on the ship. “We had a bit of a bump against the canal, but it’s
been painted now.” Another person asked the question I was going to ask about
why the water tasted like diesel oil. The water system was explained, but it
didn't answer the question. The captain said, “We will give you free bottled
water.”
One man asked, “How about beer
instead?”
The slide
Main dining room
As we made our way back, we noticed that the slide was flooding part of the Serenity Bar one deck down.
A terrible thing happened to me
on my way back from checking if the slide was open. A man with a plate full of
food stepped into the elevator. I joked that he was eating healthy. “Oh it's
not for me, it's for the wife. She has a cold that's kicking her butt.”
Day Eight Puerto Quetzal
We went up to the buffet because
we didn't have much time before our tour started. It turns out, we did. We were
delayed disembarking because the port is really worried about the virus. We
were forty-five minutes late getting off the ship, but the cruise director told
us as we were leaving that we would stay in port an extra hour. They were wrong
there too. More on that later.
When we did get off, there were
people in medical masks all over the place. I whispered to the wife, “I'm not
buying anything from someone in a mask.”
Volcano with steam coming out
Antigua Guetamala
The base of the volcano that has destroyed the town twice
A better view of that volcano
Church destroyed by an eruption
When we approached the tourist
area, we had a digital thermometer scanning our foreheads. We arrived at the
bus and they had masks on, too. It was really creepy being treated like I was
bringing them the plague. As soon as we left the port area, though, the mask
came off the driver and tour guide, not to reappear until the tour was over and
we were in the port again.
As we drove an hour and a half
from the port to the old capital city of Antigua Guatemala. It lost its ability
to be the capital when it was destroyed by a volcano. The big bus we took from
the cruise terminal is too big to fit into the small streets of the town, so
they transfer us to smaller buses. The cobblestone streets are so bumpy, one
man commented, that he now had to go to the bathroom. I had to go the bathroom
before, now I really have to go. It nearly jarred it out of me. They dropped us
off at the Emerald Museum, which is a misnomer. It’s mostly there to sell you
emerald jewelry.
We walked around town. Again, the
street vendors were merciless. Deb kept saying, “They're only doing their job.”
Then she would stop to buy something and four more vendors are now surrounding
her. We ditched them by ducking into the church. We sat there resting for a few
minutes. They barred the main entrance so we headed out through the side. That
worked until Deb stopped to buy something, and now she's surrounded, again.
The volcano overshadows the town,
and it is a scary thing to think it’s live. You can take a picture through the
archway of Santa Catalina. The volcano is clouded in, but I take the picture
anyway.
This one guy tried to sell me a
cheap flute for twenty bucks, by the time I was two blocks down, the price was
five dollars. I found the same thing in a market for three. He would have made
a hefty profit if someone would have given him the twenty. I guess they truly
are just doing their job. We made our way back to the Emerald Museum where the
small bus will take us back to the big bus, which takes us back to the ship.
We've come back to the market
across from the ship and run into Cliff and Marilyn. They tell us the
waterslide is fixed, so after a quick lunch, Deb and I don our swimming suits
and head up there. The yellow one is more mellow, so we try it out for size.
I'm a large man and am self-conscious about the size of my gut, so when I go
swimming, I wear a t-shirt. Deb speeds down the waterslide, but I have to pull
my way down, as I am stuck.
They tell me to take off my
t-shirt. I turn to see Cliff and Marilyn at the base of the slide watching us,
so I toss my t-shirt to him. Deb is the first to go down the faster slide. You
step in a tube and wait for the guy to push the button. When he does, the floor
falls out from under you. I watch him as he pushes the button over and over
again. Nothing happens. She stepped out right as the guy fixes it, so she steps
back in. Swoosh, and she's gone. I try to see where she went, but she's already
out.
My turn. The guy tells me to
cross my arms, he should have told me to plug my nose too, as that's where most
of the water went. It seems to last for only a quick second. You tossed every
which way then splash down at the end.
Deb wants me to go on the yellow
one again, now that my shirt is off. So I do. It’s so much faster this time, I
think it’s more fun than the big one. The time to set sail comes and goes. An
ambulance pulls up, and two more people are disembarked. One of them is in a
wheel chair. Besides being an hour late in leaving, we are now two more hours
late, because there is no hospital close by and the ambulance is a ways away. Boy
am I glad I bought travel insurance.
Dinner was good. Had fun talking
to Cliff and Marilyn. Then we went to the show. The cruise director came up on
stage and announced that Carnival Cruise Lines was ceasing operations as of
midnight. They will be disembarking guest at the nearest practical port.
Luckily for us, that wasn't Guatemala. In fact the plan is to deliver us to San
Francisco as planned. We might be the last ship sailing the sea. I'm feeling
guilty and apprehensive all at the same time.
The show was a hypnotist. People
volunteered to go on stage and he would hypnotize them. Several of the audience
members were also hypnotized.
At first it was only relaxation,
then he had two women stand up and take a bow every time the audience would
clap, as if we were clapping for them. Then he had one guy believing he was
stuck to a chair. The rest of the participants were sent back down to their
seats, where they were told hypnotism was fake. They would argue the point
until the guy on stage would say sleep and those arguing the point would
promptly fall asleep. Then he had them dancing in the aisle with strangers.
When the show ended, he told the
hypnotized ones that they wouldn't remember a thing until they stepped out of
the theater. Of course the rest of us exited and loitered around as they came
out. The shock on their faces as they realized what had just happened was hilarious.
One woman, the one that took a bow every time we clapped, put her hands over
her face and made a run for it. Poor people.
Day Nine Sea Day
The plan was to sleep in this
morning, but we were both up before the sun even thought about it. The announcement
of last night has us upset. I know it’s bothering me.
During lunch, we sat by a couple
of women from Argentina. They have to self-isolate for 14 days when they get home
and are wondering if they can get home. I'm wondering the same thing, but if I
can't find a flight, I can take a train or a rent a car. It would be miserable,
but I can make it. I don't know what they are going to do. So far, the
Canadians, the Australians, and the Argentinians have to self-isolate. The
Brits are all ordered home. I heard one lady say, “I'm stuck on a cruise ship.
I can’t get home until it stops.” Some of the passengers are trying to figure
out how to fly home from Cabo. It’s a mess here.
On a good note, saw a bunch of
dolphins playing in the ship's wake. They were jumping all of the way out of
the water, which was so clear, that you could see them swimming below the
surface. Should be able to see whales in a day or two.
Overheard a staff member tell her
parents, “You know we’re the last cruise ship still sailing?” That's a weird
thing to hear. I'm worried about Cabo. I see it going three ways:
1.
We are denied entry.
2.
We are disembarked and have to find our way home
from there.
3.
It's a regular port day and we have a blast.
I figure I have a 33.3% chance on the latter. When I went to bed, we
were just west of Acapulco, still doing twenty-one knots, trying to make up
time for our late departure from Puerto Quetzel. So far, the plan is the
plan.
Deb and I went to see the
comedian after dinner. He used to be one of Gladys Knight's Pips. He can still
move after all these years. He's funny, too.
Day Ten Sea Day
Still having problems figuring
out the time. Alarm clock, watch, Carnival app, and phone all have different
times. Finally figured out that it’s way too early to be up, but since we are,
we went and ate breakfast.
Deb and I went up to the front of
the ship and looked out. We saw a bird dancing around the front of the ship.
Then it was joined by more birds, then three dolphins showed up. The ship is
going so fast that we quickly outdistanced them.
Today is retro cruise day so they
are playing the games like horse racing and frog racing. Horse racing was fun.
They have six horses on sticks on the stage. The cruise director rolls three
dice and the number on the horse gets to move when the dice comes up with their
number. For a two dollar bet you can wager on your horse. The odds are
calculated and they pay out 100% of the money they took in. I don’t bet, but
enjoy watching.
Horse number four won. It had a
silly name like Trottsky or something like that. It paid out $8 for a win. The
second round horse one won. It paid out $20 a ticket and one lady had five
tickets. She was dancing in the aisle. Somewhere between the horse race and the
frog race the captain came on and said that we were skipping Cabo and going
straight to California, but commented that San Francisco isn't letting us dock.
We are a speeding ship without a destination.
I had to send a note to work that
I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know if I'll be back soon. Rumors are
flying. We were in the pool and this guy from Canada was saying things like the
cruise line is chartering a jet to get its crew members home. He thinks we'll
end up in Los Angeles. Others think San Diego. I've also heard people say no
port in California will accept us, so we'll have to go to Oregon or Washington.
It's all a blur right now. The last ship that tried to dock in San Francisco
had to spin in circles for days before they would let them in. Afterwards they
were detained in a military base in Texas for two weeks.
Horse race
Frog race
The crew is doing its best to
distract us. We had frog races today in the pool. You could buy a frog for five
bucks and race it across the pool. There were three heats of nine. The frogs
were about six inches long, battery-powered and green. When turned on, the arms
and legs would move. They tended to go around in a circle more than move in a
straight line. The racers had to splash at the pool water to get them moving.
Dinner was formal and we ate
lobster. I had a part of a lobster and a tenderloin. Cliff and Maryland talked
about how to get home We have three different scenarios. Drive home. Cliff says
he'll do all the driving instead of letting us share. He doesn't like Marilyn's
driving for some reason. The second is to rent a car and drive to San Francisco
and take our original flights. It’s a six hour drive. The third is to fly home
from where we're at. The further north the ship docks, the better off we'll be
if we're driving home.
I watched the comedian. He wasn't
as good as the day before. This one brought people on the stage and made fun of
them. I didn't like it.
Day Eleven Sea Day
We were supposed to be in Cabo
San Lucas today. We are straight west of it, but sixty miles off shore, passing
it by quickly. We had planned to go whale watching there. We are now officially
the last Carnival cruise ship still at sea in North America. Two others docked
today, so we are now alone. The cruise director joked, “At least the home
office is totally focused on us now.”
The ship has slowed down by three
knots. Does that mean we've some place to be and no longer have to hurry to get
there, or is it just them giving up and throttling back?
Right after trivia today, which
we lost miserably, even with Cliff and Marilyn's help, we had an announcement
from the captain, which was followed by the exact same announcement from the
cruise director. We are going to L.A. We just don't know where we're going to
dock, Long Beach or San Pedro. It doesn't matter to me, They are just across
the bridge from each other. I booked airline reservations right away to avoid
the rush. It's a good thing I did, because the internet was jammed ten minutes
later. The cruise line is even going to bus us to the airports.
You can literally feel the
tension of the last few days leave. The only thing that is worrying me is what
I'm facing when I get home. We have everything provided to us here, but they
are sick at home and I don't want to catch it, or if I get it on the flight
home, I don't want to spread it. I'm seriously thinking about self-isolating
when I get home to make sure I'm virus free before I go back to work.
So today I've canceled two
flights and booked one. We won't be flying out of San Francisco and Deb decided
it would be a really bad time to go and visit her mother. She's going to go in
January instead, when hopefully all this mess is over. In fact, I'm personally
boycotting San Francisco after they reneged on their promise to let us dock
there. We have no coronavirus on the ship. There was no reason for them the
break their contract with the cruise line.
There was a mid-afternoon show
today. They had a couple of numbers from the production show, then some of the
passengers that had been working with the production show, got up on stage and
sang and danced.
At dinner I tried the alligator
fritter. The meat was really chewy. I didn't like it, but at least I tried it.
Otherwise, I had the steak.
The comedian wasn't funny, maybe
that's why there was finally a place to sit down. The other one packs the
house. Then we went to the show. It was fun, we both enjoyed it. Everyone seems
so much more relaxed.
Day Twelve Sea Day
We woke up early, despite our
best efforts not to. We both laid back down in a weak attempt to get back to
sleep. It didn't work. The one good thing about all this was, we have a way
home.
They held a disembarkation
meeting. The cruise director told us they are trying to figure out how to use
the port as they never use it. They think we'll be all done by 10:30. That
works well for us because we need to be at the airport at around one.
We went to lunch in the main dining
room. It was okay. I wouldn't go back if we had a couple of more days on the
ship.
It was announced that we are
going to dock at San Pedro dock 92. I'm all set. I have the flight, I'm checked
in online, and I'm packed. It a weird feeling of wanting to hurry home because
I believe that if I delay even a day, I might not make it home. Scary feeling.
We passed the Norwegian Joy. It’s
sailing at 6.5 knots. The ship is empty except for the crew and it looks like it’s
going to Acapulco until the 30 day stoppage is over. The world has changed so
much since we've been gone.
Lobster Dinner
Had our last meal in the dining
room with Cliff and Marilyn. Somewhere downstairs someone started singing I'm
leaving on a jet plane, but the tune was changed to we're going to miss
serving you and hurry back. It made us laugh. With the cruise line shutting
down, the crew faces an uncertain future. Deb and I are so wrung out we headed
to bed.
Day Thirteen Debarkation Day
We took a thirteen day cruise
during an epidemic that turned into a pandemic, over Friday the thirteenth, and
a super full moon. What can go wrong?
I got up to go the bathroom in
the middle of the night. Deb has the news on and starts listing the bad things
around the world, so when I try to go back to sleep. I'm all upset. It's two am
and I'm writing this. I just want to get home today. I'm worried that L. A.
will change its mind like San Francisco did, or they will cancel our flight.
Only daylight will tell.
The ship sailed into port and no
one turned us away. The cruise director told us to expect long medical checks.
But like in Miami, there were none. The city said the crew had to stay on the
ship, but they would allow the rest of us off. Those from the Bay area had to
take a nine-hour bus ride to get home to the place we were supposed to
disembark. They aren’t so happy. As for us, Deb and I stayed on the ship until
the last minute. We had our luggage taken down for us, so we had no where to go
until everything was organized.
We had a large breakfast as we
knew we might not get another meal until we reached home. We were out of fresh
food there. We had some canned stuff though.
Cliff was down at the buses while
we were on the top deck looking down at them. He called, “Wave,” he said. When
I did, he added, “I knew that was you. We’re down here by the buses.”
He waved back, “Oh, yeah. I can
see you.” I replied. He was able to get an earlier flight than he had booked
and got home about four hours before us.
Arriving at customs was weird.
They didn’t want declaration forms like they normally do, he just looked at our
passports, motioned with his head, and grunted, “That way for the exit.”
When we arrived downstairs and
picked up our suitcases, we headed out to the buses. The bus to LAX was very
long.
“Long Beach?” this lady asked us.
“Yes.”
“Right over there.”
We were the last ones on the bus
and it took off less than a minute after we sat down. We arrived at the airport
way too early, but it was nearly deserted, so I took a nap while Deb texted
back and forth on her phone. I had mine charging.
We had twenty-five people on a
plane that could hold six times that.
“I know your crowded back there,
but it’s a short flight,” the captain joked.
We arrived in Seattle; it too was
almost deserted as were the freeways. It’s all so surreal. A vibrant city
brought to its knees. I don’t see these shutdowns and shelter in place as
sustainable. Most of the businesses will be bankrupt before all this is over
and we will be in a deep recession. As for me, I was just glad to get home.
Takeaways
Would I do it if I knew then what
I know now? At first I thought no, but now I think yes. The whole cruise has
been tainted with the thought of the coronavirus, but so has the whole planet.
We visited amazing places and saw amazing things. We are safe, secluded, and
away from the virus. I can't say the same thing when I step off the ship and
into the airport.
If we would have had it on the
ship it would have decimated us because the whole idea is to get people
together in the shows and activities. That's the chance we took going in and it
paid off. We had good times.
The ship is old and worn, despite
having just come from a dry dock. The carpet in the halls was worn and stained.
The water in the stateroom tasted like diesel oil. It wasn’t just me describing
it as that either. I did notice by the end of the cruise, it was starting to
get better. Probably will be fixed by the time it has paying passengers on it
again. A weird thing about the stateroom bathroom. The lights took twenty
seconds to come on. I timed them once. Twenty seconds is a long time when you
have to go really bad. We left the light on the whole time.
The wow factor was less than on
other ships. The food was tasty and I didn’t have a bad meal. It was weird
seeing crewmembers sanitize the ketchup bottles.
The fellow passengers were
friendly and most of them would talk to you. Some wouldn’t, mostly because of
language issues.
All in all a good cruise.
Someone decorated our day
Cruises
Cruise Books by Deb Graham
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