Sunday, January 18, 2026
Panama Cruise 2026
January 17
We had a great start to our trip. As we were preparing to get a ride from Leah to the airport
at 7:39pm, I struggled to get one of the suitcases into her trunk. Just as we were about to
leave, Leah turned on the interior light in the car and I noticed that I had a large rip in my
slacks from the suitcase. Fortunately we had not left yet so I had to go in and put in
different pants, changing my clothes plans completely. This is not the first time I ripped
pants at the start of a trip, it happened on two separate African trips.
We were nervous about making our connections for the trip. Two days earlier, Toronto
experienced a heavy snowstorm which played havoc with flights. Our itinerary had us
taking a red-eye flight to Toronto, arriving at 6:30am local time. After a three hour layover,
we would fly to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arriving there at 11:30am. Then the airline
rescheduled the flight to arrive there at 12:43pm. Our cruise was leaving at 4pm and they
wanted us to be there 90 minutes before departure.
Our Vancouver flight left the gate a half hour late due to ground crew activity. Then we deiced
even though it was barely freezing out, and I thought we were on our way. NO, we sat
on the runway somewhere in the dark before finally leaving almost an hour late. That was
not a worry because we had a three hour layover in Toronto, but I hoped it was not signs of
what was to come.
We were flying totally on points so I splurged a few points to get economy premium seats.
What a pleasant surprise. We were in a separate section three rows long. There was water
waiting for us and there was so much room that I could cross my legs and still have plenty
of room. The service was good, we had free beer or wine and delicious parsley omelette.
Just kidding. The breakfast was gross but I think the regular economy folks got nothing.
In Toronto we were delayed again because the gate crew were not ready. We did go
through U.S. security in Toronto, which involved several long lineups. We still had just over
an hour before our scheduled departure.
Then the next glitch. Joanie’s boarding pass did not work. Somehow her seat was also
assigned to another passenger who was already seated. We had to wait a little while but
ended up being given exit door seat for not extra charge. Unfortunately, while we had
super leg room again, we could not put our bags under the seat in front of us and there
was no window within sight of us. Do you know how long it seems when you are told we
are beginning our approach to Ft. L. and you can not see anything. The landing gear
coming out beneath your seats is the only clue that you will be touching down very soon.
Despite the captain announcing earlier that we were leaving Toronto a few minutes late
but hoped to land at 12:30pm, delays in departing, (with no de-icing despite the -10
temperature), meant we did not actually arrive until 1:15pm.
After a long wait for our luggage, which had been designed as”priority “, fortunately, we
hustled to catch a taxi. That went smoothly and we arrived at the dock at 2pm, two hours
before departure and the exact time we were scheduled to board accordingly to an email
we got. There was no lineup, in fact there was no one. We got personal help signing in,
getting boarding passes, etc. and we were on in minutes. We made it! Time to relax. And
time for a Kroket and Heineken beer.
We had a late dinner at 8:00 and shared a table with a woman from Quebec and a couple
from San Francisco. We had a pleasant dinner and then spent time the piano bar and the
Rock n Roll bar. By 11:00 we were done. Neither of us had any sleep whatsoever from
Vancouver to Toronto and I dozed off for a few minutes here or there on the Ft. Lauderdale
flight. Joanie did sleep a little longer and had a nap after our Dutch Cafe treat while I
watched an NFL playoff game on the big screen by the indoor pool. I found myself dozing
for a few seconds during each commercial break. It was just after 11:30 when we turned
off the lights and were both far gone until morning.
January 19
I woke up in a daze wondering if a radio was on until I realized it was an announcement
from the captain about disembarking procedures coming from the speakers in the hallway.
I looked at my watch. It was already 9:35am. We got out of bed and got to breakfast by
10:00. We were not the only ones sleeping in, there were many still getting food. We sat at
a table with a couple from somewhere in Iowa. It turned out they were our next door
neighbours on the ship. We also met Ella, a woman on her 85th cruise. Politics was never
discussed.
The day was very overcast and definitely not a beach/snorkeling day as expected. We got
tendered to Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s owned island. We sat in one of the
hundreds of vacant beach chairs to enjoy the sight of the Caribbean azure water. It was
windy and a little cool, but my first goal was achieved, wearing t-shirts, shorts and
sandals. We tested the water. It felt cold! We strolled down the beach and the went to
where they were serving BBQ burgers and other picnicky food. It started to rain a bit so by
2:00 we were back on ship. They were already packing and closing the bars on the island.
Joanie had a nap while I sat on our large, double sized veranda and began this blog. We
heard news that tomorrow’s cruise was skipping this stop because of an expected big
storm. We walked the promenade deck before getting a drink where we met a couple from
N. Carolina we went for dinner. The dining room was full but we got in after only a 10
minute wait. Dinner was great and I asked for creme brûlée even though it was not on the
menu and did get it. I was happy even though the waiter did not get me the coffee I
ordered. We spent the evening at the Billboard piano bar. It was good and they played all
new songs. We hit the pillows at 12:30 or so but both struggled to sleep. I dozed off for a
few minutes at a time until about 2:00. I guess we are now dealing with the time change.
January 20
We woke up to mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures. It was over 30 degrees by the
afternoon. We got up at about 9:00. After breakfast we walked. Then we hit the Dutch
Cafe where I had a Bosse bol (Large cream puff) and Joanie had two martinis. The plan
was to check out the pool, go to a presentation on the underwater world of the Caribbean
at 2:00, and do trivia at 4:00. The weather was so nice and the pool felt so good that we
ended up skipping both activities and had a drink on our deck instead at 4:00. I did bring
my new book to the pool and later brought it back again. An important step to possibly
reading one day. (I did read 3 pages on the veranda.)
After a two lap walk around the ship we went for dinner. It was “dressy “ night. Many
women wore dresses or dress slacks and one in every 50 men wore ties. A few more men
wore sports jackets with open-collared shirts but there were still many, many people in
jeans. Quite disappointed really. We took in the stage performance, a Celine Dione
impersonator, Lisa Furr. She was very good. Then we once again helped to close down the
Billboard piano bar. A note on our bed said we were moving the clock ahead one hour
tonight.
January 21
It was another struggle to get to sleep but I did manage after about an hour. I woke up
briefly at 3:30 to see Joanie lying in bed reading a news feed on her iPhone. She did not
sleep until 4:30. I got up not knowing if it was 8:30 as my watch indicated, or 9:30
because of the time change. It was 9:30. We had a late breakfast along with many others.
Joanie was feeling a little off because of the lack of sleep so she rested while I walked six
laps around the ship. We then vegged in our room before going to the Dutch Cafe for
lunch. I had poffertjes while Joanie had a fruit crepe. Since we really had no need for
souvenirs so far, Joanie felt the need to spend money so we did an eyeball art thingy
where they take a picture of your eyes, enhance it with frilly colours extracted from your
eye image and print it on a metal plate. Who wouldn’t want a set of eyes staring at you
from the wall. It was sunny off and on so we nabbed a few chairs by the pool. I went to the
room to out on a bathing suit and lather up on sunscreen. A pair of sunglasses and I was
off. Within 5 minutes of settling in my chair I began to feel foolish. I would have been much
better off with water repellent than sunscreen. Most people, including us packed it in with
the dark rain clouds moving in. I never even got my feet wet, although the same could not
be said of my shirt. We got drinks and went to our veranda which was sheltered and quite
comfortable. The bar tender must have known as he suggested getting doubles. I never
had double wine before. Blue skies did return.
The news story of the day was a speech given by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Davos
regarding the situation being played out between The US and the free world regarding a
threat to take over Greenland. It made international headlines. With so many Americans on
board, it was interesting that we did not overhear any conversations about it. In fact,
everyone avoided politics all together.
We went to see a comedian from Edmonton, Andrew Crose at night. He packed the theatre
and was very funny. I overheard a lot of positive talk about the show.
January 22
Today we arrived in Willemstad, Curaçao. We had a leisurely breakfast and then walked
around the city. It was a 30 degree day but we enjoyed the A/C in the shops. The narrow
streets also provided a little wind tunnel which kept things comfortable. After exploring we
went to our favourite place, the Iguana restaurant right by the floating bridge, Queen
Emma Bridge. There I enjoyed a mango smoothie before we got some Heineken beer and
bitterballen. While sitting there, the skies opened up and we had torrential rain. It came in
waves and lasted about ten minutes. Water poured off of the roofs and the bridge cleared
is people. Then the sun returned. We enjoyed our time here and then returned to the ship.
Joanie got in trouble from security for not showing here stateroom card. I thought I might
return home alone but they didn’t keep her. I enjoyed some time on the veranda while
Joanie napped. We went for an earlier dinner and took in the early show, a new show by
Lisa Furr. I did not enjoy the song selection and I heard a lot of similar feelings from others.
Many came because they enjoyed the Celine tribute a few nights earlier. After this we
crowded into the BB King lounge for a game show “Call My Bluff”, where three people
explain the meaning of a word and only one is telling the truth. There was the cruise
director whose answers were often deep in old English literature or history (he himself is
Belgian “, the security director and Andrew Crose, the comedian. His answers were always
outrageous with long stories that often had little connection to the word. His explanation
always started with a supposed family member, a Chinese uncle Wong, or Norwegian
grandfather Lars, etc. He went on a long bit about his birder relative’s love for the great tit,
a European bird. He was very funny. They all got a lot of laughs. We ended the evening at
the Billboard piano bar.
January 23
This was a sea day. Yesterday we lost an hour, today we got it back. We spent some time
at the pool before Joanie went off to a watercolour painting lesson and I relaxed and read a
book. We finally took in a trivia contest and joined another woman who was alone. We did
okay, getting 15 out of a possible 18 points. For dinner we had the first of our specialty
restaurant experiences at Canaletto, an Italian restaurant. The food was excellent, but as
has been my experience throughout this trip, I am invisible. Waiters will come directly to
Joanie to greet her and ask what she would like or how she is enjoying the meal. They
don’t even look at me except as an afterthought. It happened again. I put in my order and
said I would like an espresso with my dessert. Dessert come as and he asks if she would
like a coffee. He ignored me. She said no but my husband ordered a coffee. We were
finished dinner and ready to go when a cup of coffee came, the regular stuff. Not even an
Americano and certainly not espresso. At breakfast I ordered a crepe with apple and
cinnamon. As the woman was scooping the apple onto my cooking crepe she asked if I
would like a bit more on it. I said sure. She ignored it and folded up the crepe.
After dinner we went to the early show with Andrew Crose. Word had spread that his show
a few nights earlier was good so after the code delay in the restaurant, the theatre was full
when we got there. We decided to wait for the later show. We got there before the first
show was over and there were already people waiting by the doors. This show too was full
and again was quite funny though there were sexual jokes that some of these old folks
might not have appreciated.
We returned to the Billboard as usual. One of the pianists, Lena, was ill so George was
alone. The group in the Rolling Stone lounge across the way were playing a lot of good R &
R songs although they always seemed to include long rifts which I don’t enjoy. After their
last set of the evening they came over to the piano bar. This was an all requests session so
people submitted song requests. However that quickly changed. The lead singer from the
Rolling Stone agreed to sing some songs with George and then the keyboards guy also
joined and played Lena’s piano. There were only a few people at the Billboard at the start,
so I thought finally one of my requests might get played but no. The place also attracted a
lot of people walking by and filled up. The music was great though and it was a fine end to
another great day.
January 24
Early this morning we arrived at the Panama Canal. I could hear chains rattling before
7AM. Nevertheless we stayed in bed until 8:30. We were getting ready to enter the last
lock before entering Lake Gatun. We went to the bow to watch us leave the canal and set
anchor in the lake. From here people who had excursions booked were tendered to shore.
My itinerary said today was a sea day in that no excursions were planned so we did not
book anything. I updated this blog while Joanie did what she does best, had a nap. It was
a hot day. We tried to go for a walk on the promenade deck but parts were roped off
because lifeboats were being used to tender people so we went to The Dutch Cafe for a
bite to eat (pannekoek) and ice water. We tried to fine chairs in the shade on the 11th and
12th floors but were in the full sun. We found a few chairs in the shade by the pool so we
claimed them and hung out in the water after getting changed. The pool was nearly empty,
perhaps it was too hot and some people were on excursion. We still could watch us leave
the canal. This canal entrance had two 3 set locks to get into the lake.
I saw on the daily schedule that the plan was to get to Colon, Panama by 5PM and people
could disembark until 8:30PM. This was news to us. My info was we were on board all day.
Then came an announcement from the captain, that we were late in leaving the canal due
to other ships and shore leave was cancelled. We went for an early dinner. I have been
surprised how quickly we get a table for early seatings and how some tables are not filled.
After dinner were were docked in Colon and we just started to do a few laps when we got
the announcement that the captain had decided to allow shore leave but people had an
hour and must be back by 8:30. Since we had not actually stepped foot on Panama soil,
we decided to go for it. There were mostly shops near the ship. We did a little shopping,
got a shot glass a shirt (for me) and pants for Joanie and we’re back on board well before
8:30. Then it was off to the Billboard for the night. The friends from Rolling Stone joined
again but they did end up playing an Everly Bros. As I requested.
January 25
If anyone complains about the next time change in March, I am going to tell them to take
this cruise. Tonight we turn the clocks forward an hour, our fourth time change on this trip,
an hour forward, an hour back and then do it all over again.
We arrived in Limon, Costa Rica this morning to sunny skies and hot weather. We had an
extra hour last night so getting up at about 8:15 was no problem. We got off the ship and
went to the local craft market. It was big, it was crowded and it was muggy. I only lasted a
short while then sat out with the other men. We returned to the ship for a cold drink and to
get ready for our Tortoguero Canal excursion. I was concerned by the number of people
with walkers, scooters and cane going along, but I have to say they did not bother us,
although loading the buses took extra time. We took a 20 minute bus ride to where we
started the canal trip. It was very similar to an excursion we did near Manuel Antonio a few
years ago, travelling by boat looking for wildlife. We got a banana, plantain chips and a
bottle of water to start. We did see various herons and egrets, iguanas, for sloths
including both two and three- toed sloths, two crocs, a black hawk and a group of howler
monkeys. I wonder what we missed. More common birds like sandpipers and kiskadees
were ignored and zipped passed. I saw four Montezuma's oropendolas fly overhead. When
we got back to our pick up location the guide called me aside to show me two sloths close
up near the building. That was cool. When we got back and had a drink on our veranda, I
went off to get a pizza and watch the Seahawks playoff game on the big screen while
Joanie had a shower and nap. During the national anthem, a number of people stood up at
attention, some clutching their heart and most of the people, presumably all the
Americans around the deck clapped for the anthem. For some reason it made me a little
sick how naive these people were in light of the shameful way their country has acted in
recent days. We rounded the day of at, where else but the piano bar. Lena was back.
January 26
A sea day. We were certainly not alone in going for a late breakfast because of the time
change. We checked out the stores and I bought a shirt to try and use up some of our
onboard credits but there was very little to choose from. After doing our walk we went to
the pool. It was overcast but 28 degrees. We did get some clearing for a while. Once we
decided to go back to our room and were under cover the sky opened up with a huge
downpour. The pool cleared quickly which seemed funny since these people were wet
already. The pool did feel cooler today.
For dinner we joined a couple who come from near Tampa but spend summers in a house
in Maine. They were very friendly. We watched the main show, an illusionist and magician.
January 27
Today’s port was Falmouth, Jamaica. We had not excursions planned but we were going to
explore points of interest in the town. The secured area around the pier was lined with
shops and a few eateries. Once we got outside of this gated area things deteriorated. The
town had a lot of damage from a hurricane a few months ago and we saw downed trees,
wrecked old houses, stray dogs and piles of garbage rotting on street corners. We ran into
a couple from California who checked when we were looking on a map to figure where to
go. The streets were narrow, not well kept and very sketchy looking. Guys kept
approaching us hounding us to hire them to tour and didn’t let up. The couple decided it
might be safer to stick together. We headed for an old church in the distance. When we
got there the woman didn’t feel comfortable going further and they left us. We decided
we’d seen enough and headed back to the safety of the gated pier and had a drink
because it was hot. Did some shopping and went back to the ship for lunch at the Dutch
Cafe. Then it was to the pool. It was still a little cool. We got a milk shake on the way back
to our room. Of course Joanie’s was spiked and mine was not.
For dinner we put on a large table with four other couples. The couple next to me was from
Kelowna and next to them was a couple from Nashville, but they had spent time in
Vancouver. We eventually talked about medical care because the Nashville couple was
involved in physiotherapy and she worked with compression items for literally every part
of the body as needed. He was at a medical confer in Ontario attended by many Canadian
practitioners and physiotherapists. They expressed frustration with how access to
medical supplies was difficult across provincial lines. He did also mention some hope that
things would get better when the “#” in charge in the USA is out. First political reference
heard on this trip.
January 28
The alarm went off at 6:10 as we needed to get on one of the first tenders to catch our
stingray/snorkeling/ starfish beach excursion in the Grand Caymans. Our snorkel gear was
all ready to go. We knew it might be a rainy morning but it would be warm. We had
breakfast on the Lido deck and were just getting ready to go back to our room to pick up
our stuff when the captain came on the speaker. The company doing our tendering tested
out the tenders but the sea swells were too high to do it safely. Therefore all tenders were
canceled and we would bypass George Town and have a sea day instead. Very
disappointed, even more so because we got up so early for nothing and this was the
excursion we most looked forward to. It became a day of just hanging out. After trying to
nap we did a six lap walk. The weather was windy and overcast so the pool was out. We
did explore future cruise and booked a South American cruise for 2028. We had a nice
lunch on the Lido where we sat with a woman from Minneapolis. We mentioned that it is
terrible what was going on there with I.C.E. That opened the door for some politics. She
was very concerned with what was happening at home but hoped something might
change soon. She was embarrassed by how the US was treating Canada and didn’t even
want to get into Greenland takeover details. I told her Canada can no longer see
Americans as their good friends, at least politically and she agreed. We had a nice talk.
After this we took in a show which had been put together today featuring a musical
instrument specialist to entertain guests stuck on board today. We joined trivia contest at
4:00. I did not enjoy asking people if we could join their team. Most said no because they
already had the max. Six people. We did find a guy sitting alone and we formed a team. It
was Orange night so the trivia theme was Orange. This guy was a retired teacher
specializing in history (only important history like American history it seems). This guy
couldn’t answer anything except which US president was Dutch. We still did ok, 11 points
out of 17. We ate on the Ludo deck because we ran in to some Dutch Canadians at the
elevator (all our orange clothes gave us away) who said they were serving a lot of Dutch
and Indonesian food. I found what they called boerekoel but it was blasphemy! Nothing
but mashed potatoes with a few bits of kale leaves. I wouldn’t eat that. Bami was good as
were the desserts. We spent the evening at the Orange Party where we even danced.
January 29
Today was our last day but it felt we were just killing time until the cruise was over. It was
mostly overcast and windy, not pleasant for sitting by the pool. We went to the theatre to
see the tail end of a feature on Caribbean culture and how music evolved and influenced
culture. Then they did a presentation on how the ship operates, environmental controls
etc. you could tell that the cruise was ending and the crew became much more visible in
hopes of earning extra tips. There was a crew parade through the theatre and later on the
Lido, staff sang and marched through.
We did our walk, packed and later took a book to a normally quiet lounge to read until our
dinner reservation at The Pinnacle Grill. That’s when the steel pan concert started nearby.
We have heard those steel pans every day all over the ship. Our dinner was very good but
we were both stuffed. We spent the night at the Billboard with George and Lena.
Afterwards all us regulars said goodbye. There were hugs , well wishes and hopes of
seeing them on future cruises. We went to bed by 11:45 because we had to disembark
early so we would have enough time for our 11:15am flight. It was a long short night for
me. I slept well until about 2:15. After that I only dozed off a few times before 6:30.
January 30
I went up to the Lido for a quick breakfast of cold French toast before 7:00am. At 7:30 we
got the all clear to disembark. We got to the second floor to a long line. However, it kept
moving steadily and we were off the ship and outside the terminal by 8:00. I would not
have been in such a hurry if I had known that we could step into a cab at 8:05 and be at
our gate, all checked in by 8:35. The airport was amazing. We were the only ones in the Air
Canada area. An agent helped get our luggage tags and print tickets. We went straight to
the luggage booth and were helped immediately. The agent there was very helpful and
suggested getting a better seat location because the flight was not full and we might have
a row to ourselves. There was also no wait at Security. Never has this all gone so fast.
Our trip home was uneventful which is how you want it. In Toronto we had just over a 5
hour layover. We camped near our gate, F39 and moved to the gate with 45 minutes to
boarding time. I heard an announcement about a flight changing gates but could not hear
which flight. I wasn’t worried about it. Then I found it strange that at the posted boarding
time there was still no ground crew at the gate. Also, there seemed to be less people
sitting at the gate than before. Sure enough, I thought I would go check the board at the
gate again. The listed flight now said Montreal, not Vancouver. Oh, oh. We checked the big
departure board and our flight was now listed as gate D44, the gate I heard on the partial
announcement I had heard earlier. It was our flight. We gas to rush to get to the gate,
which was in a different wing and we got there with the plane half loaded. No problem, but
it could have been. We touched down in Vancouver at 11:10pm, 2:10am Toronto time.
