We embarked on Wednesday, October 22nd (my Dad's birthday) for this 16 night cruise through the Panama Canal and then had two sea days.
We arrived at the cruise terminal by way of Uber to a convenient shop attempt for soda cans to take onboard. There was another couple walking to the port at the same time. The walk to the port was easy. At the port, it was hard to get a porter to take luggage. It was carts for luggage and a horde of people with luggage all around them. One did not know when the cart would get full. We finally followed a new person coming out with an empty cart to where he was going to stop. He said that he got in trouble if he stopped too close to the door. It seems like they could have better organization at this port; I have not seen this issue before.
We were in the blue line where they checked your boarding pass on the app before letting you in the terminal. Then another line in the terminal to have passport scanned and given your Medallion, through security, and then boarding. The process was quick.
Still on the promenade, right after boarding, someone was there, so I remembered and asked about doing the muster. Since you have a Medallion, it does not have your muster station number on it like we are used to on the keycards. She looked up our muster station, so we went directly there to check in. We were at the theater, so I never knew which lifeboat we were assigned but could remember the theater.
Then we went to lunch in the MDR. While dining, the rooms were announced ready.
Checking out the balcony and what we can see. The green bridge and bunkering.
We found the Island Princess sign, the map of our cruise, and finally found the wake. We knew before boarding that there was no promenade aft/wake view because in a dry dock, they removed it to add aft balconies. Look how far away the wake is. Later in the cruise, Travis noticed from the outside of the ship that deck 8 (one above the promenade) looked like it had a viewing/seating area. It did, so that was much better for wake viewing than looking over the private Serenity deck. Though not as convenient as on the promenade where we could normally see the wake while walking anyway.
On the first night, we went to the comedian and impressionist show. We went early (30 mins) after hearing needing to go early to get a seat on Princess. Though the 30 minute or earlier rule is more required for the production shows than for an individual performer -- comedian/singer. He was funny, and we went to another of his shows before we left the ship and new comedian came on. Nice of them to change the acts since this was a longer cruise.
After the show, we went to the buffet snack for a snack. Like at lunch, the desserts were weak. Though later, there was a strong availability of cookies, of which I ate too many.
From our ship, we found our friend the Carnival Panorama following us. We took this Mexican Riviera cruise in 2023.
The atrium on this older ship was impressive.
Champagne Waterfall on formal night, the third night. The officers were introduced, and the Captain spoke. This was a special part of formal night. We had a late dinner on formal night to watch the waterfall event before. At dinner, formal night did not feel very special. The Captain changed mid-cruise. Travis thinks that we have been on a sailing when this happened before, but this seemed new to me. This couple played trivia with us once, so I took their picture when they did the official ship pour picture. Hopefully they don't mind; you don't see their faces so probably fine.
