Changing Cruise Ships
As our first cruise ended, we took our time leaving the MSC Seaside. Once ashore, we hung around the Miami cruise terminal, taking advantage of the wi-fi. When we were ready to leave, we headed to to the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal. Enrolee, we stopped at Total Wine to pick up some Prosecco for our 16-day Panama Canal cruise. Boarding of the Coral Princess was delayed as it was reported to have an outbreak of Norovirus and additional cleaning/sanitization measures were in effect. Great.
Once onboard, we noticed a change from the MSC Seaside. The Coral Princess was showing her age. Most of the newer ships have a “bigger is better” attitude, with grand foyers, high ceilings and warmer colours. The ship was functional and we were certainly going to enjoy ourselves for the next 16 days.
The buffet was no longer ‘serve-yourself’ due to the health scare. Staff would serve you. They were at the buffet entrances to make sure everyone washed their hands. There were regular announcements encouraging people to use their own bathrooms and follow hygiene protocol.
Are Elevators Really that Hard to Use?
Then we had the challenges with the elevators. I honestly wonder if any of the passengers have actually used elevators before this cruise. From asking if the lift is going up or down. Hmmm, let’s see, you pushed the up (or down) button, the arrow in front of the elevator indicates up or down – use your visual cues people. You do need to think a bit on the lifts as not all of them go to all floors.
An example is the mid-ship elevators, which only go down to deck 7. This means, if you want to eat in one of the restaurants on deck 5, you either have to take the stairs down the remaining two floors, or take the forward or aft elevators and walk back. Of course, if you are mobility challenged, you need to take the lift all the way to your destination. However, if you a physically able, you could walk two flights of stairs.
It seems the thought of walking two flights of stairs was the equivalent of high treason for some people. At one point, a couple was arguing about getting on the elevator as it did not go to the fifth floor. How would they get from the seventh to fifth floor? They were saying “this is a terrible ship, and so confusing”. I was in the elevator with the door open and waiting for them and then…the doors closed. I’m not sure how long they argued for after that. The fact I pushed the “door close” button may have had something to do with the door closing, just saying.
Starting off with Sea Days
The first two days were sea days. The routine was a bit different on this ship. For starters, being in our early 60’s, we brought the average down. Yup, we were some of the young’uns onboard. Last week, on MSC, we did not notice a single wheelchair, scooter or mobility aid. This week, there were many scooters et al. It is inspiring to see people, who have trouble covering distances, still travelling and seeing the world. We hope to be doing trips like this when we are much older. So, with a large number of older guests, most seemed to like to sleep in and we didn’t really notice anyone around until close to 9 AM. Thus we had our choice of lounge chairs, breakfast buffet seating spots, etc.
For dinner, we managed to snag a 7:20 dining time, which for us, is ideal. There was an overwhelming demand for the 5PM dining time, likely due to the overall age of the passengers and their nationality. Of the almost 1,800 guests, 1,100 were from the US, close to 300 from Canada with various European countries and Mexico making up the balance. Our table was in the rear of the main dining room (MDR) and by a window. Since we were eating just after sunset, the window was not really a great bonus.
Back to Aruba
Our first port of call was Aruba and we took the public bus, called the “AruBus” to Arashi beach, where we met up with some new friends from Oregon. Hanging out in a public beach hut for shade, we snorkeled, read, chilled and sampled some Mojitos. All with the brilliant Aruban sunshine and Caribbean ocean as our backdrop. Tickets for the AruBus can be had at the main station, $5 US for a return trip pass, or $15 for an all-day pass. Be aware the ticket sales only go from 6 AM – 1:30 PM. You can always pay cash onboard, although it costs a bit more. The driver will make change, but change is given in local currency. All times and prices current as of March 2025.
One of the nice things about Princess is the laundromats on board. It’s no secret, having your laundry done in a hotel is very expensive. The cost to do it on a cruise ship is equally expensive. On a 16-day cruise, you’ll likely need to do laundry, unless you take all the clothes you own. There are washing machines on passenger decks and it makes it easy to keep up with your laundry for minimal costs.
Transiting through the Panama Canal
After Aruba, we sailed to the Panama Canal and carried on with our transit. The toll for our cruise ship was just over $330,000 USD. That was included in the cruise ship fare, the Captain did not need to “pass the hat” to gather money for our passage. The rate is a combination of the vessels weight as well as the number of passengers onboard, which for this calculation, includes crew.
Our transit took us through the historic locks and the overall transit is nothing short of impressive. It is even more remarkable when you learn the locks have been operating the same way since 1912, with the same construction. Of course, there are much older locks in various parts of the world still operating. In Canada, the Rideau Canal was completed in 1832. Its aim was to avoid the Great Lakes after the War of 1812 between British North America and the United States . It makes you wonder. Transiting through the locks, there is very little clearance on either side of the ship.
How the Locks Work
The lock is then flooded, or drained, depending on if the ship is going up or down. The gates are then opened and away you go to the next lock. In all, there are six locks, three up and three down, rising/falling a height of 85’ in each directions. That number can vary slightly depending on tides. The overall transit takes around 10 hours and makes for an incredibly scenic day.
Once the last lock has been exited and the ship has cleared the Bridge of the Americas, the Captain took the vessel alongside Fuerte Amador, Panama, the closest berthing point for Panama City. Although the ship was alongside, no passengers were allowed to leave until the next morning.
Panama City – Another Capital City Visited
There were a number of tours in and around Panama, however we decided to head out on our own. The hope was to get a tour of the old city. There were a number of touts offering every type of tour imaginable. We settled on a walking tour of the Mercado, Old City and a drive by the new town. The temperature was forecast at +32C with an extreme UV and humidity warning that made extended time outside seem like not the best idea.
On our drive into town, we passed some “areas” that seemed a bit suspect. When asked about the safety of the neighbourhood, our guide said he would walk around where we were in the daytime, but not the night time. There were two police officers on most street corners and it turns out they will discourage non-locals from wandering off the main street. Our guide lived about 20-minutes from the area we were in and told us his area was a lot safer.
Fresh Local Fruit from the Jungles of Panama
Arriving at the mercado, we could see it was truly local and our guide was correct, there were no tourists there. The bounty of fresh fruit was amazing. Snacking on bananas and drinking fresh juice was so much better than the cruise ship breakfast, and healthier too! There is a lot of history in the town and it is continually developing. We learned that banking is now overtaking the canal as the main industry, although the canal is critical for bringing in hard currency. While Panama has its own currency, the US dollar is the currency of all transactions.
The architecture of Old Panama City was very colonial, likely from the French influence when they tried to build the canal in the late 1800’s. After our tour, we headed to the Biosphere Museum and learned about the evolutionary history of Panama.
As it was hot and humid, we took an Uber back to the ship and with that, our time in Panama City concluded.
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Puntarenas is one of the few Pacific side stops in Costa Rica for cruise ships. There’s really not a lot to do in the town. It is a small isthmus with a main road that leads to the mainland. Previously, we took a driving tour that left us uninspired. On this trip, as we left the pier, we met the touts who offered us various tours as we headed to the TI centre. Our goal was a tour of the Island San Lucas, which showed nice beaches and hiking trails. It turns out San Lucas was a former penal colony, similar to Alcatraz. There are tours sometimes, but nothing on the day we were in town. The TI made a number of phone calls and a private tour could be arranged for a cost of $300 US. We were not really that interested and left the TI without a plan.
Back on the street, the touts sensed we had nothing to do. If we wanted to do a local tour, we would have been given a good deal. The tour started at $65, then to $50. At no point did we even try to negotiate. When we continued walking away, the “owner” came and offered us the tour for $40, but only if we agreed not to tell anyone as this was “too low”. We hemmed and hawed for a bit, but remembering our tour last time, we politely declined. Our new plan was to head to the ferry and see where that would take us.
Making Our Own Tour
It was a 20-minute walk to the end of the isthmus where the ferry terminal was located. There, we bought senior’s tickets for the 10AM ferry to the other side. There appeared to be nice beaches there, at least according to our online maps. One hour and 20-minutes later the ferry docked on the other side. There wasn’t much at the ferry landing, but we knew there was a gas station with a convenience store only 500 meters away. At the store, we picked up some drinks and snacks and headed to a beach. There wasn’t much life around and we could not be sure of where we were going, this was certainly not a tourist area. Heading down a dirt road the “Perla Negra”, or Black Pearl, restaurant came into site.
Although no one was in the bar when we walked through, it was certainly gimmicky and geared for tourists. Exiting the other side of the bar were open fields and chairs that lead to another road. Carrying on downhill, we came across a smaller dirt road that eventually led us to a beautiful beach. It was a cove that had soft sand, palm trees, shade and only one person other than us. Unsure if there were crocodiles in the water, we spoke with the lone occupant, who was from Quebec City. He had been swimming and was just about to leave on his motorcycle. We then had the postcard perfect beach to ourselves. Wow.
Our Private Beach
We spent the next three hours there and the time flew by. Between swimming in warm water, listening to the sounds of birds calling, fish jumping and staring up at an incredible blue sky, it was amazing. And we were the only ones there. Shifting our towels twice to follow the shade of our palm trees, we were shocked how quickly our alarm went to catch the ferry back. The ferry ride and walk back to the ship were uneventful. There was free wi-fi at the port and we caught up on emails. As the ship sailed away that evening, we decided, should we find ourselves back in this port, we would do that same thing again.
Thanks for reading, we’ll post part II of The Panama Canal shortly. Please feel free to leave any comments, or reach out by email at the link at the top of the website.
Cam and Meg