panama canal cruise by chuck peterson

The Charles A. Peterson Experience

Panama Canal Cruise

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Panama Canal Cruise

Charles A. Peterson

Springdale Arkansas

11/04/2012

Introduction My wife Becki has for many years wanted to see the Panama Canal. Her parents cruised through the Canal years ago and enjoyed the cruise. We traveled there in our minds through the pictures they projected on slides. After Becki’s mom passed, Becki’s Brother Rich and wife Dixie took the same cruise and also enjoyed the trip. Becki definitely had the cruise on her “Bucket List”. The last two years have been a rough time for us. Becki has been through some tough medical experiences including surgeries and a round of Chemo. We were beaten up pretty well. We have had I believe very good medical care, but the day to day drag has been cumulative and a major part of our life approaching the second year. In May she was graded as Cancer free. There may at some or any time be a recurrence. We have passed the first 90 day checkup cancer free. We had discussed the Panama Canal Cruise many times during this past two years. As soon as we received the “Cancer Free” report she seriously pursued the cruise with my blessing. So it came to be.

© 2012 by Charles A. Peterson All rights reserved. No part of this work may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the written consent of the author.

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We left on a Tuesday morning flying from NWA Regional Airport to the Fort Lauderdale, Florida Airport. We arrived on time. Our daughter, Heather living in Palm Coast drove down to meet us. The plan was to spend the afternoon with her and a friend, maybe take a side trip into the Everglades on an airboat.

Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................. 1

Everglades ................................................................................................. 3

Cruise Startup Adjustment ........................................................................ 4

Micro Shower at Sea ................................................................................. 8

At Sea Day 1 and 2 .................................................................................. 12

Cruise Photography ................................................................................. 13

Aruba ....................................................................................................... 16

Crooner’s Bar .......................................................................................... 16

Colombia ................................................................................................. 17

Panama Canal .......................................................................................... 17

Costa Rica ................................................................................................ 20

At Sea ...................................................................................................... 21

Grand Cayman ......................................................................................... 21

At Sea ...................................................................................................... 22

Homeward Bound ................................................................................... 22

Closing thoughts.................................................................................... 234


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Everglades Heather was late and we met at the hotel. We drove out to the Everglades, about thirty miles due west to a park. After twenty minutes we were on an airboat. It was not what I expected. I had seen many airboats on TV that held two or three people. This boat had about six rows of six seats with a rigid cover. The pilot sat above, behind and out of sight. The boat was propelled by a large high powered V8 automotive engine connected to a large fan and gracefully flowed over the lily pads into and through the Everglade water system. The draft of the air boat was slight and left no apparent damage to the plant life below. A nice provision was at least a 15 inch high gunwale (side board) that for the most part keep the alligators and their friends out. As an engineer I appreciated the design of one of my fellow engineers. We had an enjoyable time flying over the plant life and stopping from time to time to check out the alligators and bird life.

Alligator


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I don’t know what these blue birds were doing, but they started out walking across the lily pads (left) and a couple ended up on the air boat side rail (right). They did not seem to be aggressive, but I am sure they would not turn down a handout.

Before we headed back to the hotel we watched some alligator wrestling. Crazy people in my mind doing crazy things. We had a nice dinner at the hotel, a casual drink with Heather and Tracy, and retired for the night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel with the girls and said our parting words to head toward the cruise.

Cruise Startup Adjustment We had previously completed two Caribbean cruises over the last 30 years. As a result I had no illusions of the flying in, getting to the ship, boarding and adjusting to a new living home for a special ten day adventure at sea. We later would be visiting new to us cultures, ports


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of call, fellow travelers, sharing dinner tables, enjoying the entertainment in the lounges, ship educational and activity programs.

Over my professional engineering career I travelled on business and had out grown the excitement of airports, buses, and the like. To me it is mostly getting through it so I can enjoy the destination. In this case the destination was the ship and getting comfortably settled into our new environment.

As we approached the port in our hotel shuttle bus the huge Coral Princess Ship came into view. My practical engineering mind thought of the potential logistical nightmare of 2000 diverse totally uncoordinated disconnected passengers gathering and moving tons of suitcases from ground transportation through a compacting maze to sleeping rooms in less than four hours. Not an easy engineering queueing process to complete.

We entered the process as the shuttle bus was unloaded outside the transportation center. Our main bags were tagged at the hotel earlier with the provided cruise tags. A maze of webbed straps held by four foot tall vertical standards directed us endlessly ship ward. As we completed one room, we were moved into another room or different area in the same room behind mobile panels into another maze.

My mind drifted to black and white pictures and movies I have seen of Ellis Island where so many European immigrants entered New York City many years back. Of course that process was much more elaborate, brutal and serious, but the thought passed through my mind. It also reminded me of what a wonderful country we have been blessed to be citizens and will be appreciative when we return from visiting other countries. The boarding process included checking passports, photo ID pictures, getting ship ID cards (Plastic electronic room keys also used to charge ship services and tours), security, customs, and the usual welcome aboard picture in front of a picture of the ship. It was not particularly enjoyable, but reasonably well handled and an hour or so


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later we were on board plopped on deck four at amidships with a continuous flow of others pushing forward behind us as we pushed those ahead of us.

Now the controlled well directed through the maze co-travelers were released into a large unknown ship volume with only limited instructions. (1) Your room is available, (2) a buffet lunch is available in the bow, and enjoy your cruise. We also in our room had a schedule of the day’s activities and the cruise staff had posted activities and support staff everywhere to help us get oriented. It was like the book “Herding Cats” by Trent Lott a former Mississippi US Senator had written some years ago. I picked it up in a clearance sale and enjoyed his comparison of cats and senators. In my opinion a pretty valid hypothesis and applies here as well. Now we have multiple cultures and languages launched into a somewhat confined space meandering through the ship finding their way around. The maps provided as well as the wall mounted ship placards, and cruise staff guided our meandering.

We explored the decks, huddled in mass around the placards, started talking to our fellow travelers, waited at the elevators, walked the back hallways, and generally started to understand the highs and lows and forward and aft of the ship.

The height of my startup frustration was the buffet lunch as expected. This was just a necessary chaos. The first reason for the chaos was that no one at this time knew how the serving area was structured to work. It was setup as a set series of random access serving counters where travelers could select different types of foods and migrate toward the drink end and outward. The process was exacerbated by the narrow aisles in the buffet area and the diversification of the passenger base. Passengers were from around the world with different perceptions of personal space and habits. My mind drifted as I stood in the midst of this congestion thinking of a flock of hungry sheep just milling around with no place to go or Trent Lott’s “Herding Cats”. The best part of it was that everyone was in a good mood and seeking to get oriented with


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the anticipation of the cruise. Eating here was just a process evolving through a rough necessary start. Another thought came to mind. I remembered welcoming kids to summer camp as a counselor during my summers in college days. The ship was just an adult summer camp of 2000 plus with the same process.

We worked our way through the line and found a table. Table space in the cafeteria is limited and a nice side advantage is that tables are typically openly shared with strangers. I consider this to be an opportunity to meet and easily share with others. We met some new people and had a nice lunch with many choices. Typical of many meals.

After lunch we continued to wander around the ship exploring the corners of the ship. There will be many choices of locations and activities. The major trauma was over. We started to stakeout the places we would spend our time on shipboard. We began to relax and enjoy the spaces we selected. Other passengers had selected higher or lower energy activities including dancing, arobics, workout rooms, playing cards, auctions, among other activities. Our good times began with walks on deck enjoying the sea air as we cruised along at twenty knots southbound toward Aruba and the Panama Canal.

We had selected dining in the more formal dining room late sitting dinner as opposed to the open seating formal or buffet lines and selected to sit with the same other couples as our standard evening meal protocol. This means dressing up a little and spending a reasonable formal time complete with appetizer, salad, main course, and desert.

We entered the dining room and were seated with two other couples. Both were nice and pleasant. I had a very good meal complete with shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, grilled salmon, fresh veggies, and a special dessert while enjoying the company of our new found tablemates. Remembering from earlier cruises that it is best to limit the quantity of food and enjoy it than to try and eat the whole ships pantry and feel miserable later. We were now mostly snuggled in for the duration.


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The mission now was to relax, enjoy, be entertained, educated a little, enjoy the view on our private balcony over the starboard side of the ship, shop a little, get some exercise, maybe swim and sun bathe a little, watch a movie or two under the stars on the huge TV on the top deck, explore new cuisine aboard, explore new to us cultures and countries ashore, take pictures, have a casual drink or two and enjoy the music in the Crooner’s lounge after a day ashore, meet new people, and be pampered for the next ten days by a cruise staff well trained and prepared to accommodate our every request. That was our plan. Other’s had different plans. Bless all of their plans and let them materialize. Our land to sea transition was now complete.

Micro Shower at Sea

This was our third cruise in the Caribbean Sea spread over the last thirty years. Each time we enter this environment I am surprised at some of the ship environment. Each time I see a picture of a cruise ship in an advertisement, I see these enormous ships with the appearance of endless space. The ship design is actually quite constrained. Generally the maximum ship size is limited to what can be stuffed through the Panama Canal and into the ports of the world. The larger the ship, the more fuel it consumes. So the design is micro fine-tuned with some tradeoffs to keep the operating costs down. After all it is a business and needs to make a profit to stay in business. Below are some of those tradeoffs on the Coral Princess.

On this trip, the shower in our bathroom first appeared to be too small to enter much less shower. I am not small person. My first impression was to look at the floor and see if it could rotate as I stood there. There was a short vertical grab bar about four feet off the floor. My engineering mind thought that if I stood on a heavy duty “Lazy Susan” and slowly rotated maybe Becki could hose me off and soap me up, and rinse me on the next revolution.


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Alas no “Lazy Susan” on the floor. I had Becki later take a couple of pictures, as I knew this experience would need to be recorded.

The Shower was 30 inches wide, 15 inches deep on the left, and 24 inches deep on the right. My engineering analysis calculated the shower floor area at 4.1 square feet. I estimated our home shower as about 3 feet square or about 9 square feet. The ship shower was less than half as large as our nice adequate home shower.

Before my first shower experience I anticipated that I would either not able to soap up my arm pits or if I succeeded on the soaping be able to rinse my arm pits. My other preliminary conclusion was that I would not be able bend over enough to wash my feet. Guess I would need to get some of those “Magic Bubbles” that are used to clean the kitchen sink and let them do my lower legs and feet as they were rinsed off with the falling shower water. I did realize at that time that the shower curtain did allow some extension outward for swinging elbows and soap application.

My first shower was a challenge. The shower curtain bottom edge moved in and out of the shower stall resulting in water on the bathroom floor. I did not drop the soap and needed the grab bar to adjust my body position and balance while washing and rinsing my arm pits. I gave up on washing my feet and just assumed that I had the magic


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bubbles and they were doing their job. My shower procedure for the druise was established.

I discovered that the bathroom was designed for the shower curtain extending over the base as it had a lip around the room to trap the escaping water. Looking back the bathroom module with the door closed was structured like sitting inside of a household dishwasher.

I do not begrudge the small shower as a tradeoff. The Coral Princess has a capacity of about 2000 passengers. Our room is also small. Including the bathroom I estimate that total square area is about 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep or about 200 square feet. Assuming 2 passengers per room there are about 1000 passenger rooms. Adding 5 square feet to each shower would add 5000 square feet of required floor space or removing about 25 paying rooms from service.

The high efficiency supersonic toilet was a surprise on first flush. The seat top lid had to be lowered to access the flush lever. On lever depression this huge sonic boom shook the commode. My assumption is that this must be a low water usage toilet to lower the water purification capacity requirement of the ship. I didn’t attempt to crack the lid and peak in to observe the process. The audio shock wave was so loud that I choose to avoid the trauma of the visual experience.

The size of the room also limited our movement. Living in a 2000 square foot house Becki and I can move around pretty well independently. In our ship room we consistently had to coordinate our joint movements to allow the other to pass.

The other areas of the ship like the sleeping quarter hallways were narrow just wide enough to pass another passenger or the steward’s supply cart. The aisles in the forward cafeteria where we typically ate breakfast and lunches were also narrow. Sometimes I felt like we were part of a swarm of bees randomly hovering over each other during these times with the service staff scurrying about. The common areas of theaters, casino, night clubs, bars, workout rooms, pools, sun decks,


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spas, and shops consumed the available space providing in most cases an open casual relaxing voyage.

When I look back at the whole package, it is very impressive. Some creative people put together a very good total package to contain 2000 passengers and service staff in a ship that barely fits through the Panama Canal.

Adding our micro balcony for a private room service breakfast or star gazing over the amidships starboard side five decks above the sea travelling at twenty knots just adds to the relaxing enjoyment of ten days on the seas while consuming the Coral Princess version of an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee.

A little different version from our local drive-in movie theater. Here the open top theater on Deck 14 moves through the sea. So maybe this should be called a starlight “Drive Through Movie” theater. Good multiple use of the deck space.


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At Sea Day 1 and 2 We left Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the late afternoon and headed southward around the east side of Cuba for Aruba on the north side of South America. The sea was fairly calm as we watched outwardly from our small balcony. We could feel a slight occasional movement of the ship from side to side as we exited the protected harbor into the Caribbean. We checked the TV in the cabin. Each cruise ship has a dedicated channel with a camera mounted on the bridge continuously visually looking forward with the ship speed and miscellaneous travel information shown on the image. Our ship moved due east seaward, several miles out and turned south. We were moving at 20 knots with the east coast of Florida barely visible directly off our amidships starboard cabin balcony. We were on the twelfth deck with the water line about the fifth deck; an absolutely beautiful view out to sea or shoreward. We spent the rest of the day and the next day settling in to the pace we choose live.

We took a photography class together.

We attended the first of a series of phycology discussions about psychotic disorders from a published forensic psychologist that has worked for thirty years closely with the legal profession. Becki with her love of TV criminal mysteries and my curiosity were drawn to the lecture. It was good and I ended up attending all four lectures spread out over our days on the open sea. I napped a little as the ship gently rocked from time to time.

Cruises invite a variety of guest professional speakers to make presentations to the passengers. Our first cruise had invited linebacker Ron Harper aboard after the Forty-niners won a Super Bowl. I was intrigued and listened to one of his NFL film clip presentations. I spoke with him several times during the cruise. A very pleasant guy. According to him the cruise line provided his family a free cruise and he


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was obligated to make three or four presentations and mingle with the passengers. It sounded like a pretty good gig to me.

On our second cruise I met an astronomy professor from the University of Chicago complete with telescope. Interesting discussions. The telescope didn’t work out. The ship moved slightly with the ocean waves and the effect on telescope images was enormous. The only place he could get clear images was in port in the sheltered harbor during the day. No stars out. Of course we were on shore enjoying the sights.

Cruise Photography Cameras and cruise ships in my mind are simply intertwined in a natural partnership. Each ship has a photography department of ten or so young people taking pictures at every opportunity everywhere on each cruise.

From a ship’s perception it has to be a fantastic money maker as all of these most casual to more formal pictures taken are available for sale at about twenty dollars for each 8.5 x 11 inch sheet. I suspect we reviewed over thirty sheets of pictures and selected five or six. Each passenger could spend approaching $700 or $800 if the whole packet was purchased. We purchased about $150 of very professional pictures of us individually or together.

From a passenger perceptive, it is an opportunity in a causal environment to have many pictures taken over a week or so and wisely selecting none, one or two or a few. The option is to later getting all dressed up and going to a local photography studio and periodically spending an afternoon in front of limited fixed backdrops.

This photo crew provides assistance with photo classes and individual responses to questions, as well as pointers and suggestions to improve our skills. We had dropped one of our cameras and broken the catch on the battery compartment lid. They provided some tape and made a


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minor repair to get us back in service. They provided a nice service. The photo area and gallery was generally open for reviewing pictures, buying pictures, cameras, and accessories. In addition to their casual pictures, they took formal shots before our two more formal dinners with fancy backdrops or the background of the ships diverse fancy open Atrium.

On one of our shore tours one of them was carting along a tripod and large camera. She was struggling to keep up. I don’t know if her mission was to catch passengers or document some type advertisement. But they were everywhere and provided a great service.

On passing through the Panama Canal we watched a camera crew from our balcony appear below us taking pictures of passengers on the balcony. We were sort of tricked earlier into making a poster to hold up and assured that if we made a poster a close up picture would be taken. We went down to the photo shop, made a poster earlier, and sure enough there was a picture of us in the gallery later that day. It happened to be one later we selected to purchase.

Each day they would post the pictures on large wall racks in the photo gallery by picture taking location or activity and we would make a pass by to check them out. At any time you can purchase of remove the ones you don’t want and return them to the desk to discard. We learned on our first cruise years ago not to buy pictures each day. It is best to let them accumulate and later select the ones you want. This way you get the best combination for your budget.

There are no tracking numbers on the pictures. You know which pictures are yours by the faces on the pictures. So we would collect our pictures as we found them around the gallery racks and place them all behind our last picture taken. This way we could look at the growing options each day and return the outliers. At the end of the cruise we sorted out the pictures and charged the selected ones on our room credit card.


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Becki and I attended the basic one hour photography class in one of the lounges. I later attended the advanced class. I have done this on all of our cruises. I generally learn something new and interacting with twenty or so classmates exposes me to something I had not before considered. The detail presented and answering questions by the instructor about different cameras, depth of field, focusing techniques, F stops, and shutter speeds is always informative without being overpowering. These concepts are a little like taking Algebra in that the first time you hear it, it goes over your head. Each time after it becomes clearer and clearer until it sinks in.

The Photo crew is always young, helpful, and seems to be a group that enjoys helping us explore and improve our photographic skills in a target rich environment. Now with digital cameras, some added skills and a few of their professional pictures we had a good time and have visual memories of where we have been and what we have seen.

A picture of Becki and me taken on our camera in the club lounge after one of our more formal dinners waiting for the live show to start.


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Aruba We didn’t know what to expect on Aruba. Aruba was our first Port of Call. I thought it was a small remote island with mostly sandy beautiful beaches. The other image was the news story a few years back where a very attractive young high school graduate disappeared on a class trip not to be found. We were unable to sign up for a land tour. All of the slots were taken. So we left the ship and immediately found a local English speaking tour guide with a 15 passenger functional not fancy mini-bus happy to stuff us in with others. It was a tight fitting group and a good tour. Turns out that there is usually such a bus or two at each port. The bus was on the cruise lines property so I assume it was at least semi-approved by the cruise line. The price was about half of the official tour and the bus was not the new shiny super bus. I would not use such a bus in a country like Colombia where security could be an issue.

None the less we drove around for a couple of hours stopping at the local sites, enjoying the beautiful beach stretch. A huge hotel strip on the main beach, not the small island we had expected. The center of the Island is desert complete with cactus everywhere. Some beautiful large rock formations and beautiful ocean views. Traffic jams near the main beach strip and downtown area were extreme. We did some shopping before getting back to the ship. A nice place to visit, but I have no desire to return to Aruba.

Crooner’s Bar On return to the Ship from a good long day of touring, in and out of the mini-bus and considerable walking, Becki and I decided to find a nesting place for have a cocktail. We discovered “The Crooner’s Bar” located in the Atrium. The Atrium is the open four story center of the ship. The shops, customer service center, dining room entrances, gambling entry, and several informal bar areas with open balconies are concentrated


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here. The Crooner’s bar bends around one of the balconies, contains a grand piano, and seats about forty people in large comfortable soft lounge chairs with handy small end tables to place a drink, a soda or glass of water and some nut snacks or pretsils. The bartenders make a fantastic Margarita. It simply is a great place to crash and relax. We discovered that in the evening the piano was occupied by a great “Crooner” that played, sang, and added a little history to the piano music from Frank Sinatra to the present. This was a regular stopping point after day tours to relax, comfortably park whether drinking or not.

Colombia Colombia has rich in history. As we walked the streets the old buildings stood out. We marched through many streets with rough stone pavement dating back several centuries and through museums with torture machines reflecting the inquisition in Central America. I always thought the inquisition was an European part of history, not including the colonies of European cultures. I obviously needed to expand my understanding.

Wandering through the streets of this culture with its traffic jams, infrastructure limitations, and watching the population reinforces my appreciation of what we have back home.

Panama Canal I grew up in Detroit and Dad always enjoyed watching the Big Ore carrying freighters passing up and down the river. My first remembered contact with locks was the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron on the Saint Mary’s River. I vaguely remember passing through them in my preteen years. Dad had a former classmate with a large old Chriscraft wooden spotless pleasure boat that lived in the area. I think I was as much impressed by the spotless classic cruiser as the locks. We had stopped to see him and he offered to take us through the locks. I


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remember the boat entering the locks and then disappearing downward into this huge metal tub. Then the gates opened and we were on the Saint Mary’s River heading south to Lake Huron just like the big iron and copper ore transport ships that passed down the Detroit River.

Becki grew up on the Ohio River near Wheeling, WV and watched the barges being pushed up and down the Ohio through the local locks. Years later together we watched the process on the Welland Canal around Niagara Falls. While living in Olean, NY south of Buffalo moe years later we took a side trip to Lockport, boarded a tour boat, passed up and down the locks on the Erie Canal. That trip was spectacular and a glimpse back into the early 1800’s on this historic waterway now maintained as part of the park system.

Our expectations of the Panama Canal were fully realized. The canal is huge. One surprise was that the canal does not run west from the Caribbean to the Pacific. It flows southeast from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Looking at a map Panama has the Caribbean on the north and the Pacific on the south shores. The canal was dug to match the natural flow of the terrain. It rises from the Caribbean through a set of locks passes across the huge Gatun Lake and down through two sets of river locks into the Pacific. Over twenty feet of annual rain provides the water that runs in both directions out of the lake through the locks and to the oceans. The canal operates 24/7 all year at full capacity. Truly a fully utilized tool for world transportation. Our ship toll was $300,000.

For practical purposes the locks define the maximum size of ships in the world. A ship larger would need to circle South America as the only other path from the Atlantic to Pacific. The Coral Princess is slightly shorter than the maximum lock length and about two feet narrower. The length of the ship is about 900 feet or three football fields long. This ship is about the same length and width as the USS Missouri Battleship where General McArthur received the surrender of Japan in a Japanese harbor. The canal size obviously was a design criterion for both ships.


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I had a little trouble understanding the purpose of the “Mules”. Going back to the Erie Canal real mules were used to propel the boats along the way. Each boat was connected to a team and the team walked along a hardened path on the right side of the canal. This way boats could pass on both sides of the canal at the same time. At Panama the “Mules” are high powered compact railroad diesel locomotive engines. They ride tracks on both sides and ends of the ship. They are connected at the bow and stern of the ship with heavy cables. Winches on the mules pull on the cables and keep the ship centered in the canal. When the ship moves in and out of the lock, it is propelled by the ships engines. The mules are critical because the canal is only about two feet wider than the ship.

The ship on the left is heading down stream and looking closely at the bow on both sides the mules are visible. Note the limited width space clearance. This picture was taken of the cabin TV from the bridge camera. The foredeck of our ship is shown below as well as the entrance door to the lock. Our ship will mostly fill the lock widthwise and an estimated 90% of the length. A very impressive operation to observe. We moved from our cabin balcony to the bow and observed


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the lock operation. It took about 45 minutes for the lock to fill after the doors were closed.

We took a bus tour to Panama City on the Pacific coast. The old part of the city has many buildings that are just shells of concrete walls with holes for windows. There is a country law that prohibits tearing down old buildings. So the old buildings are stripped down and remain standing walls until someone decides they need a building in a location and refurbish it. This gives a very strange mix of architectures. We walked by the White house where their President lives.

Costa Rica Costa Rica translated to Rich Coast. A significant portion of the country is a beautifully green rain forest. Touring the rain forest was my personal highlight of the cruise. First we travelled by tour boat into the rain forest and saw the wild life on the shores and looking up into the canopy. Outstanding and overpowering. After seeing, I now understand the concerns of cutting down the rain forest all over the world for short range profits. It is so lush and full of life as well as the reduced oxygen generation issue.

Next we entered the national park and took a nature hike. Again overpowering.

Lastly was took an overhead tram ride. The cable towers were spread over a straight line of several miles. Each tram car held six passengers plus the guide. The first portion of the ride was about twenty feet above the ground. Halfway across we moved up in the canopy. At the end of the towers we were whisked up above the canopy for the returned trip. The tram ride last about 45 minutes and was simply spectacular. All the time the guide was pointing out natures wonders.

We returned to the comfort of the ship and again to the Crooner’s Lounge for a little relaxation. All of these walking tours make for long


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days. The long days are primarily due to the physical distances, the road infrastructure and intense traffic jams.

At Sea The ship was at sea the next day as we headed north to Grand Cayman Island. In the morning we had room service deliver our breakfast and enjoyed it on the balcony as we cruised enjoying the sunshine and warm tropical breeze. We took in a couple of lectures, enjoyed the food, took in a night movie on the top deck big screen, and a night club show.

Grand Cayman Our last port of call was Grand Cayman. We arrived early in the morning. We had stopped at Grand Cayman on our first cruise thirty years back and spent most of our time snorkeling on the reef and a little shopping. I had wanted to taste a turtle burger. We ran out of time and did not get the turtle burger. I was going to get one on this stop.

We signed up for the bus tour to the national turtle farm. Arriving at the farm we walked the turtle pits and I got to hold one of the critters. It was fun.


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We found the turtle farm grill and I ordered my turtle burger, fries and two ice teas. Becki took her tea and left about the time the burger arrived. It was not a pretty thing. The meat was a little slimy and not tasty at all. My assumption was that this would be a good place to try one. I asked the server about the texture. I had expected it to look like an American burger. It was not. It was basically the meat deep fried and placed in a bun. I could not finish it. Based on my experience, I shall not order a turtle burger again. I don’t understand why this is considered a national delicacy. I asked for my bill and it $26. Not only was it not tasty, but it was expensive. But I can take it off my bucket list.

We left the tour bus and did a little shopping on the main drag. Becki had seen a Jimmy Buffet “Margaretville” pub. We walked in, ordered a “Perfect Margarita”, and leaned back to enjoy it. We tasted it and it burned our tongues. We questioned the server. She said a perfect margarita is 100 percent tequila without any contamination. I don’t agree. I don’t consider dilution and adding some nuances of flavor to be contamination. Staight tequila to me is just insane, but it did help clear the turtle taste. The drinks were replaced and our fires went out. We will never order a perfect margarita again.

At Sea We returned to the ship for our last night at sea of course stopping by the Crooner’s Lounge to relax, digest my turtle burger, and continue washing it down with a another Margarita . We checked out the charges against our account at the customer service desk in the Atrium and cleared those charges against our credit card.

Homeward Bound On the last morning we were herded around similar to our initial boarding process in reverse. The process was smooth as the now


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trained passengers were no longer the wandering sheep of just ten days earlier. We left the ship, were loaded on a bus to the airport and the trip was over.

Closing thoughts We had watched our expenditures against our room key account. On the day of reckoning on our account, I was standing by the electronic accounting printer. Quite simply you insert your room key and push a button to see your current bill and print a hard copy. It would be easy to accumulate an enormous bill on this floating paradise ship. Each time a purchase was made, a credit card type signed transaction was produced. As I was reviewing our bill, the guy behind me asked how long my bill was. I had three pages. He had fifteen.

Our bill was mostly bar bills, gift shop charges, ship photos taken by the professional photography staff, ground tours, and few pint bottles of liquor from room service for a drink on our room balcony before bed under the stars as the ship cut through the water. With bar drinks at $7, $5 beers, and room service pint bottles at $15 this and not being allowed to bring liquor this is not an economical place for someone with a drinking problem. Buying a cruise unlimited soft drink refillable glass was $35. The port of call tours ranged from $50-$100 each. Add $20 per 8.5x11 Photos and the totals can add up pretty fast. Becki and I are ice tea drinkers not soft drink addicts. Ice tea and coffee were free and always available. We were not penny pinchers, but to us the cruise was to enjoy and not a reason to go on an unlimited spending binge. We prefer to save a little money for our next cruise to Alaska probably next summer. The cruise was great and is truly a luxury item to be enjoyed.

Again each time I return from another country, I am grateful for our country, what we have, and who we are as Americans. It is good to see other places, cultures, and escape from our day to day world to an occasional window of pure luxury. I am grateful for the Founding


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Fathers, the early arrivals, military and those who passed through Ellis Island that have worked hard and built our country. May we continue to build this great country with freedom and opportunity for all. God bless America.

About the Author Charles A. Peterson is a retired engineer raised in Highland Park, Michigan during the 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s. Highland Park was the site of Henry Ford’s first continuous (circa 1910) automotive production facility. This factory facility drew a rich mix of ethnic working people to service the factory and develop a middle class within the community. The city was established around the factory as a complete standalone city that peaked at fifty thousand people in about 1930. Highland Park is completely surrounded by Detroit proper.

Charles is the second of three sons of a general practice physician and a former school teacher. His personal experiences are rich having been raised in a value oriented environment with committed and caring adults.

He spent forty years in the engineering profession (Westinghouse/ABB Bloomington, IN, Cooper Power Systems Olean, NY/Fayetteville, AR) developing and manufacturing products used by the electric utility industry.

He and his wife Becki throughout their child raising years, focused and worked hard to pass on their values, expose their daughters to positive life experiences, responsibility oriented attitudes and truly enjoy them.

This text is one of many writings being passed on to his daughters and future generations to provide a window into his life and times.

panama canal cruise by chuck peterson

Documents

panama canal cruise

canal years

cruise photography

cruise startup adjustment

sea day

day checkup cancer free

wife becki

peterson springdale