October 2021: 15 Night Panama Canal Cruise on the Emerald Princess Week One

October 14, 2021 - Travel Day 

 Today went really well. We both had emergency exit seats with no one in the middle. The flight went as scheduled. Our luggage came out quickly and we found our driver in the zoo that is LAX curbside pickup.
 
The Cove Hotel is adorable. They definitely took a rundown motel in a regular part of town and did a great job renovating it. 

Glenn found a great little fish and chips pick up place in the strip mall just down the street: England Fish and Chips. It was very good. A gentleman came up to us after we ordered and said we were going to be in for a real treat. A chef at one of the nicer restaurants in LA had recommended this restaurant to him as the chef’s favorite place in LA for fish and chips.
 
Then, we walked down to Long Beach Beer Lab brewery to try a couple beers. I worked all afternoon in the room. At 5 pm, we headed downstairs to the bar’s happy hour. We found a nice lounge area outside. Glenn ordered and picked up Pizza Hut. I haven’t had it in decades, but it still takes exactly the same. We hung out around the fire pit for a little while and then headed to bed.

October 15, 2021 - Embarkation 

We left the hotel and headed to the port. Embarkation took a total of 15 minutes even with having to pick up our Medallions. We had lunch in the dining room - the broiled salmon was as good as I remembered. We unpacked and then headed up to the pool deck for the sailaway entertainment. 

We met some great bartenders - Ariel and Peter - and the bar manager - Diego. They were giddy about having guests onboard. At 4 pm, the singers and dancers put on a little show around the pool. We got ready for dinner and headed to the Skywalkers nightclub at the Aft of the ship for the Captain's Circle happy hour. I'm so happy they are having it. We chatted with a couple on their 28th Princess cruise. For dinner, we went to the buffet. The brisket enchilada was my favorite bite. We enjoyed a little time on deck, watched the end of trivia, and then decided to call it an early night. 

October 16, 2021 Sea Day 

We had a very chill first Sea Day. I worked most of the morning. We had lunch in the Dining Room. Glenn had a very good Indian chicken korma and I had a good black bean burrito. We sat out by the pool. I read a book. We went to the Captain's Circle happy hour and the buffet for dinner. Glenn liked the veal and mushroom pasta. I liked the Dhaal. After dinner, we played music trivia. We did well, but one point less than a perfect score won. We listed to two sets of the party band play and played a finish the lyric trivia and headed to bed. 

October 17, 2021 Sea Day 

Another Sea Day. We got up for breakfast in the buffet.  We spied five dolphins jumping and playing in the wake along the side of the ship. We had our COVID tests. We were a little nervous since the lounge where they had the tests was shaking, but they let us swab ourselves under supervision. Then, we spent almost the whole day at the pool. We were the only ones in the pool for about 2 hours. 

I think the last time we were in a cruise ship pool was the Viking Sea. Lunch was from the grill. We got ready for dinner. We stopped by the Good Spirit Bar. The bar is themed after the Good Spirits TV Show Carnival Corp. produced. We tried a couple of the special cocktails - a spicy watermelon margarita and a version of a Moscow Mule with Jack Daniels instead of vodka and a lemongrass syrup. We had a nice time chatting at Captain's Circle happy hour with Pat and Annette from The Villages in Central Florida. We also saw a HUGE whale spout off in the distance. Several of the guest thought it may be a blue whale since the spout was so large. 

Dinner was at the buffet. We are really enjoying the nightly Indian selection and the made to order salads. After dinner, we headed to The Wheelhouse Bar to hear the Orchestra play. They had a fun set with some jazz and big band classics. We were tired from all the pool time so we headed back to the cabin around 8 pm. 

October 18, 2021 Puerto Vallarta 

We arrived even later in port than expected - 3 1/2 hours late.  Luckily, Amstar was great and able to rearrange everything so we got to tour RIU Palace Pacifico, Dreams Villamagna, and Hard Rock Vallarta. Hard Rock was our favorite of the three. We had lunch in the buffet after our return. I worked for a few hours. Glenn went to check on things at The Mixx bar. They call him the Captain of the Mixx. I’m the First Lady. We had a brief Captain’s Circle happy hour. Then, it was Sunday night football. They set up the Movie Under the Stars pads on the chairs and played the game.

 It was so nice. With the new Medallion system, you can order room service to your chair so we did: Tacos, a chef salad, chips and guacamole, and cookies. We saw the gentleman pushing a cart filled with plates so we waved him over. He saw we didn’t have enough room on our table so he said he would get us another table. His supervisor who happened to be right there said, “They have a table.”  The gentleman with the food quietly said, “This is all for them.” LOL! The supervisor’s eyes widened and said, “Yes. Another table.” We got the two tables. It turns out we made a little mistake. Instead of ordering 4 tacos, we ordered 4 orders of two tacos. Ooops. They took the two extra orders back and hopefully ate them. 

It ended up being a fun game to watch. After the game, we headed to bed.

October 19, 2021 Sea Day 

I had a great morning working on the balcony. It was cloudy with a nice breeze. We headed up to the buffet for breakfast. They served a Filipino dish called Tacino. It was cured pork - a very soft beef jerk texture. The server was so excited that we were eating it. He told us about how they eat it at home with a fried egg. Ariel, our bartender at Mix, was also pleased to hear we liked it. 

After breakfast, we hung at the Mix bar. We headed back to the cabin for a while. At 3 pm, we went to Afternoon tea. I was tickled pink that all the servers were in tuxedos. It was really nice. We came back and got ready for formal night. 

We went to Captain's Circle happy hour, but it was a little too hot and bouncy. The aft of the ship has been shaking and bouncing the whole voyage even though seas have been mostly calm. A lot of guests had to change cabins. We went down to the Wheelhouse bar - that's the bar that is a pub and listened to 2 Cool Duo. He plays the guitar and she plays the keyboard. They are married and older. They are great. They play the classics and know a lot of music history. For dinner, we went to the buffet and were disappointed - no Indian or Filipino food.  We weren't that hungry so it was okay, but disappointing. At 7 pm, we went to hear the party band Symphoee. We played and lost trivia and then went back to hear 2 Cool Duo one more time before bed. 

October 20, 2021 

Another sea day. We went to an interesting presentation on the New Locks. The New Locks are two sets of three steps. If our ship was currently full, the toll would be 1/2 million US dollars. Since we are not, it's around $180,000. 

We spent some time at our favorite Mix bar, had lunch at the buffet, played cribbage, went to Captain's Circle happy hour, dinner at the buffet, watched the party band Symphonee, lost at trivia and went to bed. That's our pretty typical Sea Day routine. Peter, the Mix bartender, likes to make us a pretty drink to see if we can get other people to order it so he has something to do. HA! 

The cooks did bring Indian food back to the buffet so that was exciting. I also discovered at the soft serve ice cream spot has chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and rainbow sprinkles.