Last Night On Board

It's our last night on the ship and we just had a lovely Thanksgiving feast and a lousy 49s game. We watched the game in a large room on a big screen and there was one Ravens fan in the room…how embarrassing. I am completely snockered and trying to pack. We must leave our packed luggage outside our doors before 1AM. They promise we will be reunited with them once we disembark. I’ve gone over the room twice to make sure I am not forgetting anything. Of course, I can’t fit everything back into the two bags I came with. We have paperwork to turn in as well. We are scheduled to leave the ship at 10:15AM. I will fetch the car and pick up the Walters at the terminal. We will then make our way to the Del and, hopefully, an early check in. Another Presidential Suite??? Not likely.
Tomorrow I turn my phone back on groove back into Internet nirvana. We are looking forward to the zoo and other local offerings. More to come when we resettle.

Cabo

Coming into to Cabo San Lucas this morning was promising. There was another fiery sunrise slowly lighting Land’s End and El Arco. The Carnival Splendor was already anchored off the harbor and a ship from the Princess Line was following us in. The harbor isn’t big enough to accommodate cruise ships so we all had to be tendered in. The day took a turn for the worse. Everyone wanted to get off the ship early as we had a very early [1:30PM] “All Aboard” and a 3PM departure. We were using several of our own lifeboats as tenders and the swells were pretty hairy. Loading took longer than anticipated and there was some frantic rushing and shoving by those trying to make it to their tours on time. The planners dropped the ball and created a real headache. Once we were ashore we strolled along the edge of the harbor for about a half hour. 8:30AM and every other guy was hawking a fishing tour or happy hour at the adjacent bar/restaurant. Breakfasts were offered with free beers, two free beers, a free margarita or a free bloody Mary. What a hole! The culture is not much different from Aruba except for the glaring presence of “DEEP SEA FISHING!” As the sun came up fishing boats were rounding Land’s End by the dozens. Then the speedboats came and they were followed by dozens of jet skies, followed by kayaks and inflatables. I saw a guy on a jet ski leaving the harbor talking on his cell phone. The front seats of all the bars along the harbor were filled with drinkers by 10AM. We took refuge in a luxurious mall but most stores were still closed. Disappointed we headed back to the ship hoping to see some whales or dolphins on our departure. No such luck. The Mexico I remembered and loved from so many visits in the 70s and 80s no longer exists. It all bars, jewelry stores and inebriated tourists. It’s a two-edged sword. You won’t find any of the real Mexico in any of the resort cities and if you choose to go very far afield you face the very real risk of being mugged, kidnapped, and even beheaded. Scratch Mexico from the vacation choices for now. Hopefully it will come around in another 30

Huatulco

We cruised into Bahia da Santa Cruz around noon. We walked to town the length of the new concrete cruise ship pier. It’s a small town with lots of jewelry stores, bars and restaurants. The people we met were very sweet and helpful. There are a few too many tour hawkers but they back off pretty quickly after you pull a knife on them. Jim bought Dotty a pair of earrings and a matching ring. She had been looking for these particular silver & onyx rounds. The ring was part of the set. After some good natured bargaining with the proprietor the deal was made. In the process we got to know his sweet wife and computer-weilding niece. As we were departing he told Dotty she could not leave his shop with out earrings in her ears; she had removed the ones she was wearing to try on the new pair. He went to the cupboard and fitted her with a pair of silver drops with lovely blister-pearls…as a gift. Craig found a café/bar that had free Wi-Fi so we won’t see him until 10:30 tonight. We set off at 11PM. We will be at sea for the next 3 days because the stop in Acapulco has been cancelled due to violence against tourists. I am not fond of days at sea as they get pretty boring. The activity director tries to come up with diversions but I think he lives on Sesame Street.

Costa Rica

As we approached the Golfo Dulce we were greeted by hundreds of dolphins swimming along side the ship. Terns flew in front of the bow waiting for flying fish to take their last graceful glide. The day grew gloomy and humid. The dolphins disappeared, the visibility diminished and it began to rain. We did an about face and headed back out to the Pacific. Our next stop was Puerto Caldera a busy shipping harbor not far from Puntarenas at the mouth of the Golfo de Nicoya. Craig and I boarded a modern air-conditioned bus for a 45-minute ride to a nature preserve. There we boarded a small riverboat for a too-short tour of mangroves on the Guacalillo estuary. The estuary ends at the Tarcoles River, which empties into the bay. We saw some wildlife, small crocodiles, iguana, red macaws, assorted lizards, cranes, herons, vultures etc. No monkeys, no sloths, no big cats. Back onto the bus we headed for the old railroad train we would be riding. Two tour buses, another and ours parked side by side at a rail crossing on the two-lane highway. A rickety old 4-car derelict pulled up in front of us and we all boarded there in front of the cars waiting to pass. The antique interiors spoke of a time gone by. Mahogany wainscoting, small coffering by the ceiling suggested that it may have been a private car at one time. It is now equipped with Pirelli rubber floors and fold down benches. There was no A/C but with all the windows open and the forward motion of the train it was not at all uncomfortable. We returned just before the ship was set to depart. We are now on our way to Bahias de Hautulco.

Food

The quality of The Lido [buffet] has dropped significantly. Perhaps they have a different protocol for different cruise areas. The staff seems to have been halved. One now approaches stations along the buffet line rather a single file line the length as in the past. It helps in some cases because you can jump the line, as it were, to the section you are seeking but you often find a glut of diners there and little or no understanding of queuing. I have been dressed down several times for merely trying to see what was offered. There are folks out there who fear the food will run out before they get to select. They have augmented the fresh fruit, salads, and desserts sections but cut drastically on the entrée areas. They have also allowed the prepared food so sit until the piece is taken. You can order a freshly cut slice of prime rib but that last piece on the steam tray will sit there turning gray until someone too shy to ask, settles for it. I find making reservations at the Rotterdam Room much more to my liking.
The Rotterdam Room [the “formal” dining room] is still up there in quality. Again the staff as been cut and the service can be a little unpredictable but on the whole it is top drawer. It seems that they are actually pushing the alcohol a lot more now even to the extent of promotions. Buy an after-dinner liqueur and you get to keep the decorative glass. We have 8 so far, going for a dozen. We need Green and Amber and one more blue.
Last night we ate at The Pinnacle Grill [ups the ante over the Rotterdam Room for a $25. per person charge] for their occasional Le Cirque experience. They have special dinnerware and menu offering similar to what you would encounter at NYCs famed restaurant. It was very good and worth the “this-night-only” upcharge of $39. per. The amuse bouche was whipped fois gras atop rhubarb chutney. For starters I had “the trio,” pate de fois gras, caviar, and shaved salmon with a half dozen condiment. The Family Walters all opted for the poached lobster salad. Our soups were chilled melon with shrimps and Butternut squash with huckleberries and sage Chantilly. Three of us had the chateaubriand and Craig had 5-cheese ravioli. Dessert followed a dish of candies the most remarkable being pistachio nougat. I ended the meal with a Napoleon with assorted berries, Dotty had her crème Brule and the Walters boys had Chocolate soufflés. Our wine was an Ehret 2006 Cab. We like the Pinnacle and have three m

The Cut

After passing through the Gaillard [Culebra] Cut we saw the first indications of the construction of the new canal. It is to the East and parallel with the Gatun Locks and follows the same established channel through the Lake. The channel is being dredged and upgraded all along the way. After passing under the Millennium Bridge it crosses to the west side and will follow a new “approach” channel through the Cut to a new set of locks parallel to the Miraflores Locks. The construction we saw there was of Water Re-utilization Basins [I think there will be 3 sets of 3 at each lock, Atlantic and Pacific] to ensure that the new locks do not cause any disruption of the existing locks. They will perform the same gravity-run raising and lowering that we saw in the old locks. You can see how massive the first effort must have been as these are being cut in the same manner. I can’t imagine how much more concrete they will take. This new “third’ lane will accommodate longer and wider ships.
After clearing the last of the Miraflores Locks we could see the tops of the Panama City high-rises. As we cruised along side the causeway the magnitude of this modern city became evident. Hundreds of radical modern skyscrapers spread along the 20km Pacific coast. At the end of the causeway, shortly before it reaches the tiny islands it connects to the mainland there is and odd bit of Architecture. From a great distance it appears as a multicolored mound maybe 30-40 feet high. Soon a roofline appears but it floats above the mound as if unattached. White girders project from the front suggesting an entrance. Panels/walls [?] appear in red, yellow and black. Some are curved and repeated, others flat and almost hidden. The mound remains a mound and someone says “Frank Gehry?’ I think, “of course!” Then I reconsider, as it is truly a jumble; there is no beauty. It appears as if a hurricane or perhaps, more fancifully, a tornado lifted several diverse structures into its spout rearranged them into one large lump and dropped it with purpose on the causeway. I can find no reference in the literature at hand and will have to check on it when I have more reliable [and less expensive] Internet access. Considering the architectural vocabulary of Panama City it is not unlikely that they wo

The Canal

The Canal
Anticipation is often my greatest deterrent to sleep. Our anticipated schedule was published last night suggesting that we would be at the breakwater around 5AM and would arrive at the Gatun Locks by 7AM. I awoke at 4AM and went out on deck by 5. The lights around Limon Bay defined the industrial nature of this bustling enterprise. Transits occur all day and all night. There is a large cargo port to the east of the Canal back-lit by the glow from Cristobal and Colon. Colon is a dangerous slum and has been for almost a hundred years. It’s economy simply collapsed with the completion of the Canal. In 1948, in an effort to revive the city the “fortress” called Zona Libre was built in the southeast corner of the city. It is now the second largest duty-free zone in the world [Hong Kong is number 1]. Virtually none of the estimated $10 Billion annual commercial turnover ever makes it into Colon.
As we approached the locks we could see the remains of the original channel cut by the French in their failed attempt at canal construction in the decade from 1880 to 1890.
This is where the fun begins. The locks all operate with gravity. No water is pumped. The watershed from the Chagres River is such that it provides enough to operate the locks at both ends simultaneously. As we approach the first gates we are guided in by locomotives, which keep us in the center of the canal. There is very little clearance. A gate closes behind us and water from the next chamber empties into ours and we are lifted 1/3 of the way to the level of Gatun Lake. The gates in front of us then open and the same process lifts us to the lake level. We then go through the third set of doors and are then released in to the Lake. All southbound traffic is handled in the AM through both sets of locks. The northbound traffic is processed in the PM. The entire process of getting up to the lake took us about 2 hours. We then got in the queue to enter the channel in the Lake, which follows the old course of the Chagres River. I must have the AM-PM directional theme wrong. The sister cruise from this one leaves from San Diego and travels through the canal and on to Ft. Lauderdale. Thay can’t make them do the transit of the Canal at night!

November 15

We have another day at sea with lots to do. I subscribed to the NYT on my Kindle and read quite a bit of it this morning. My room steward tells me I read too much and I get up too early. I had a small omelet [peppers, onions, tomatoes and jalapenos] topped with salsa at 9AM. We will be attending a lecture on the Canal at 10AM. At noon Dotty and I have spa appointments. She is going for the works; I am getting a hair and beard trim. At 2PM there is lecture on Costa Rica. At 3PM “An Afternoon with Francisco Yglesia” will include an interview and Q&A with the great master of the Paraguayan Harp. We attended his concert last night. I have always been a fan of Los Paraguayos and although lacking the folk trappings of those recordings [he was backed by a contemporary quintet] it brought back some memories. As the harpist for that group his virtuosity dominated their recordings. Pan pipes/Andean flutes, charango, guitar and percussion completed Los Paraguayos. I will have to dig out the old CDs and LPs and load them on my new computers when I return home. Tonight’s dining is formal so we all get gussied up. We will then attend a stage show entitled “Showtime: Songbook” followed by dancing till dawn under the disco ball in the Crow’s Nest. Jimmy and I will smoke a Cuban or two over bit of Cognac and then retire.
I am enjoying the “unlimited laundry” feature offered at the beginning of the cruise. One pays $98.00 for the service [the price varies according to the length of the cruise] which picks up your laundry sack filled with the days sweat and toil only to return it to your room 48 hours later, clean and pressed on hangers. It translates to $18.00 to $20.00 every other day. On our 14-day cruise we save about $40.00 each.
We transit the Canal tomorrow.

Aruba
Aruba is a white trash paradise. It has no pretense of class, sophistication or charm. The physical beauties are few and not particularly beautiful. Other than the liveried locals you cannot tell who is a native and who is a tourist, unless you go way out into the country where you will see children and the elderly. 9 out of 10 stores in Oranjestad sell jewelry, the particularly glitzy kind. Tanzanite and diamonds are advertised everywhere. The “best prices” are offered at every venue. All the bars have loco, or coco or some play on alcohol in there names. There is a generous sprinkling of eateries familiar to most Americans. MacDonald’s, Wendy’s, Dominoes, KFC, BK, Cinnabon are every few blocks. The Island is small [6x19 miles] and relatively flat. It is covered with cacti and low wind-swept trees. Three are lizards everywhere. Twice we spotted the “Chicken of the Tree,” the iguana [“because it tastes like chicken”]. There are also unusual rock formations, natural bridges, and caves to please the naturalist. The sunken ships and coral reefs will satisfy most divers. The water is turquoise and cobalt depending on depth, and the beaches run the southern length of the Island. Unless you think and drink like a twenty-something I can see no reason at all to travel this far for any of this. As a pit stop on the way to Panama we enjoyed what we could. The weather is almost always perfect although we did hear some grumbling about climate change wrecking havoc with the flora and fauna. “But,” you say, “what about the charming pastel colonial buildings?” They are almost invisible under thousands of banners and signs hawking the collectability of gemstones, the life-affirming act of owning gold, and the myriad advantages of owning part of a vacation rental. As their license plates state it seems like one happy island but it’s more likely one long “happy hour.”

It’s 5AM and we are off the coast of Cuba following it south by Southeast. I have been battling a cold for the last three days so my posting may come off as grumpy. I might as well get the complaints out early. #1 complaint: HAL as forsaken CNN for …. Wait for it… you guessed it… FOX NOISE! It is their default News Channel. CNN is still available but you have to go look for it. We do have several sports channels and they run fairly current films on the TV. We are scoping out the best lounge to watch the Stanford game on Saturday. The Statendam was in Port Everglades with the Noordam, which took us all over the Mediterranean in 2009. The size difference was obvious. Inside it is also evident. The stateroom is identical but the public facilities are all scaled down. We had a very nice dinner last night with a couple of retired mail carriers from San Diego and a retired art teacher [from Iowa] and his wife. Everywhere are the usual overpriced and deceptive “luxury” promotions of “art,” jewelry, cosmetics, liquor, etc. I am afraid that much of the sales promotions we are bombarded with are as crass and unsophisticated as what you would encounter in the old time-share promotions at any Mexican resort in the 1970s. This is especially evident with Park West, the on-board “art” dealer. I ranted about this in the past and nothing has changed.
I am enjoying my Kindle, still working on David McCullough’s The Greater Journey.
We have advanced another hour on the ship but my computer does not read it. I wonder if it is a maritime thing. Sitting on the deck I can see the coastal islands of Cuba as we near the southern end of the island. We will then cruise along the northern coast of Haiti and The Dominican Republic before heading south to Aruba. We will pass between The DR and PR. We will see no land until we reach Aruba. There is nothing much worth photographing so I’ll post with something from the ship’s interior.

Seasons 52 was everything we were told. Not far from the Hotel we went by limo for only $15.00. The restaurant is to the left of the main entrance to the splashy Galleria complex. We were seated immediately and our waiter was literally waiting for us. Matt made various recommendations on the food and wine, brought us our requisite cocktails and hovered jus t out of sight until we were ready to order. The crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms came in a small ceramic dish with six impressions the perfect size for the mushrooms. Shredded cheese was baked on top. The spicy chipotle shrimp flat bread was [no lie] paper thin and held up to the generous toppings. It was sensational. A bowl of Piedmontese Black Bean chili followed with the most tender beef chunks I have ever seen wasted in a chili. It was top drawer. Entrees included penne pasta with shrimp, Filet Mignon with garlic polenta [substitute for the mashed potatoes], and a seared ahi spinach salad. The salad was presented in a tall plexi cylinder where all the ingredients were layered with the tuna on top. Matt then slowly wiggled the cylinder off dropping the salad on the plate in a lovely presentation. Considering that none of these items weighs in over 475 calories [there greatest selling point], the entire meal was nothing short of revelatory. These folks do it right. The prices were competitive; the service was perfect [!] the atmosphere casual tropical, and the desserts…. OMG THE DESSERTS! There are about a dozen or so to choose from. They are served in large square shot glasses at $2.50 each. You can pick and choose… red velvet cake, key lime pie, Belgian chocolate rocky road, Meyer lemon merengue, chocolate and peanut butter mousse… so many. We each had 3. What a wonderful concept. Thank you to Mitch and Michael for the recommendation. AND WE HAVE A SCOOP! THEY ARE COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO. I will mount a concerted effort to get them to consider Sonoma [Healdsburg] as a future site. I am sated.

Day one and we are greeted with a GRAND surprise. After arriving in Ft. Lauderdale [the airport is undergoing renovation and is a mess] we were greeted by our big, black Cadillac Escalade and driven to The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, about a ten-minute ride. We were fully expecting to have to wait for our rooms as we were so early. Our flight arrived at 6:22AM. Jimmy and I approached the registration desk waiting for the bad news. “I am sorry, but we don’t have three rooms made up yet but let me check with my supervisor and see if something can be done.” They gave us the 3-bedroom Presidential Suite. When we walked into the suite we were like The Beverly Hillbillies… “look Jeb, indoor plumbing, and a real electric ice-box.” It’s huge. My bedroom is up a curved staircase. The grand fan-shaped room overlooks the beach with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows. My bathroom is as big as the bedroom, with a shower bigger than my bedroom back home. The Jacuzzi tub is sunken on a marble platform. All the rooms have en suite baths, large, furnished balconies and giant TVs. There is a full kitchen with all new appliances. The great room has a fan-shaped balcony that mirrors the one upstairs. It is for all practicality a high-end apartment.
While Dotty took a nap, the Three Musketeers went up to the Ilios Restaurant for a light repast. We sat outside by the pool overlooking the beach. We were not disappointed. Alas, we have it for but one night.