Caribbean Princess - Panama Canal

It took a bit longer than usual to board the ship as they had been doing a major disinfecting beforehand.  There had been several cases of Norovirus on the previous sailing, but thankfully no signs of Coronavirus.  We managed to get a quick bite before the safety drill, and then off to see the show.

After a day at sea, our first stop was in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  It was a lovely day and we managed to find a beautiful beach for a walk and some shell collecting.  Very relaxing.

Another sea day, then we were in Cartagena, Columbia, where we had a great walk around their local zoo with lots of flamingos, peacocks, macaws and various other exotic birds and wildlife.  

Next was the Panama Canal.  Last time we went through the old locks, so it was interesting to see the difference in the new locks.  Instead of the trains that pulled us through before, these locks used tugboats to keep us in place.  Apparently we had 12 feet of clearance on either side of us, but it sure looked closer than that. 

The next stop was Limon, Costa Rica.  Dale had a full body massage while Joel and I wandered around the shops.  No beach to be seen, so we went back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon.   

After another sea day, our last port of call was supposed to be Grand Cayman.  Unfortunately we had a couple of crew members aboard who had been on the Grand Princess 10 days ago, so they had to be tested for Coronavirus and we weren't allowed to go ashore as it took a couple of days to get the results.  Fortunately, their tests were negative and we got to dock back in Ft. Lauderdale in time to catch our flights home - with no one on board catching anything! 

It was a great cruise made even more fun by having Joel along, and sharing it with our good friends Hans and Maureen, Greg and Dawn and Dick.  The food was fabulous, the shows were fantastic and the guys even won at trivia once or twice.  Joel really enjoyed the Karaoke - Dale and I even tried it, but it was definitely Joel's thing.

And this time we got a quick visit in with George and Johanne.  We went for breakfast with them, then realized we had to leave out of Miami, so they drove us to the airport - many thanks for that!

So now we are home and doing the isolation thing as requested by the CDC, and so far all is well.  We did have to cancel our trip to Hawaii next week with Adam and Natalie, as things are so uncertain out there.  Hopefully it will pass quickly and everyone can get back to normal (whatever that is!)