17 January 2011: We left Sun Lakes for Fort Lauderdale and two days of Florida sun before the start of our 119 day World Cruise adventure. We stayed at the Fort Lauderdale Embassy Suites. A hotel that was conveniently located if a little worst for wear.
Above is an outside view of the hotel and next is a shot of the interior courtyard. The photo on the right was taken from the ship as we were preparing to leave Fort Lauderdale. These were condo’s located on the Fort Lauderdale shipping channel at sunset.
Our luggage arrived (all 250 pounds) with no problems. Yeah!!!!
21 January 2011 Grand Cayman Island
Today we made our only stop in the Caribbean. Grand Cayman is just a shopping port. We did some walking, some shopping but little or no buying; (Wayne was thankful). Wayne decided to start towards his goal of sampling a local beer in each port of call. Anne tried a coconut rum and coke.
23 January 2011
The MS Pacific Princess (the latest incarnation of the Princess “Love Boat”) made the Panama Canal transit today. We didn’t stop on either side but made the 10 hour transit without a hitch. Since the MS Pacific Princess is a smaller cruise ship (only 700 or so passengers) we didn’t tax the size of the locks. We did see a lot of construction for a new lock to handle bigger ships. The canal itself will not be enlarged, the 12 year construction project will just add an additional set of locks at each end of the canal. When complete, there will be three sets of locks at each end and the capacity of the canal will double (in terms of tonnage).
25 January 2011
Today we arrived at Manta Ecuador. This is the port for Quito, the capital of Ecuador. This stop and the next stop were made (in our opinion) so that those passengers who wanted to see either Cuzco and Macho Picchu or the Galapagos Islands, could leave the ship here and pick it up when we arrive in Lima Peru. Since Wayne did the Cuzco and Macho Picchu visit ten years ago on our first world cruise, and since the cost of either of these tours matched or exceeded the cost of a longer land tour to these sites, we elected to stay with the ship. In Manta, we took a short bus ride through town.
28 January 2011
Today we arrived in Lima Peru. The weather was marginal (cloudy with a lot of smog, or fog, or mist) for taking photographs and ship personnel were warning us about walking around independently, so we stayed on the ship, did a little local shopping pier side, and enjoyed the good life. This evening the ship contracted with a local folkloric dance company to come on board for entertainment. The dancers and their costumes were exceptional.
A little note about the ship, the MS Pacific Princess. The ship and the Ocean Pacific are the smallest in the Princess fleet. Passenger wise there are only 700 of us on board and the ship is full. We are not sure if the ship will be full the entire world cruise since only half of the passengers are booked for all four segments. At our dinner table, the other three couples are all getting off at the end of the first segment in Sydney. The size of the ship has made it very easy to get to know where everything is within a short time. Even Anne does not need the ship’s map any longer.
Service has been very good and the food has been excellent. On past cruises, food quality has been spotty at times and normally desserts look great but taste flat. Not so on this ship with this crew. So far, we would rate this ship A+ on all the important issues. Our grand plans to lose, or at least maintain our weights have been placed in extreme jeopardy!!!
29 January 2011
We left Lima this afternoon heading west and leaving South America behind us. For the next four days we will be sailing west to Easter Island. We expect to arrive Thursday February 3rd.
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