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The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread
- Thread starter The Mom
- Start date
John park hopper
Well-Known Member
looks like no one will be grilling outside due to weather thought I'd post this make it feel like summer
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Panama Canal 2022 Trip Report P8
The problem with the toilet.
While the room itself for the toilet was nice, the shower was spacious, tall and the vanity was nice with plenty of space.
The Loo was the issue.
The loo was a circular round thing that "floated" (being held from the back). The circle itself being VERY thin and uncomfortable.
To make things worse, the loo seat was strangely more elevated than the other public loos on the ship which made me facepalm.
Taken from the internet:
Ours was the opposite, left side was the loo, right side was the shower.
The good was, we were almost in the front of the ship so a tiny walk and we were right on the elevators straight to the main theatre and access to some of the main bars on the top floor.
We walked around 20-30 meters and we arrived to the center, where the ships's main hall is with guest services and on top is the irish "pub" that functions as 24/7 restaurant.
It also worked as Sports bar, because it had quite a few of screens. Very good as the World Cup was starting exactly mid cruise.
We also saw a few Holland American Ship (one of which we saw 3 times in different ports)
Dinner on the main restaurant called AZURA was very good. There were the classics sans the scargots
But the menu rotation was very good in my opinion.
You could of course, dress a bit better and get to the Tsar's palace, which was a bit more fancy and had some uptiered dishes also included in the cruise ship.
We were not a fan of the ships's buffette. Feel way too small for the number of people on board and it seems everyone wanted to try the buffet. So trying to find room to sit down was a huge shore most of the time.
As for the beds, they were very comfortable.
Only issue for us is that the water limitation. They only gave us 2 tiny bottles, 2 tiny glasses and we had a dry mouth halfway the night.
( I ended buying some sealed rehusable water bottles to refill on the next days).
Not to mention that I had to climb to the restroom (something that gave us a few laughs).
The internet was decent on the first day, but the farther we strayed from Panama the worse the speeds became.. going as slow as 128Kb/s (yep, thats almost dial up speed) with tons of proxy and security errors (probably to block streaming services..etc.. which are forced on much more expensive packages).
Our first day of port was Cartagena de Indias.
Where we had a Tour already lined up to meet most of the city.
Many of our friends have said amazing things of Cartagena, so our expectations where quite high.
As we arrived, another ship cutoff, one of the Celebrity.
The Celebrity Constellation.
We supposedly were to wake up very early to get to eat something quick then get out of the ship for our cruise. But we were very tired and sleep until 7. We rushed to eat something in the buffete (which was.. not good to be honest, most felt dry and there were only 3 omelette stations).
The debark process was very simple. Get to Deck 4 forward, show your card and done.. you're out.
We just had to wait a few from the cruise area to the border of the port where the "touristic welcome center" started. Where our first tour contact was.
He welcomed us and gave us a basic spiel before meeting going around the welcome center, into the parking lot. To board the small minivan that had both our driver AND the guide.
The welcome center was very nice, had many bars, restaurant, store and a mini zoo with flamingos, tons of birds, turtles and some monkeys.
Continued on Part 8....
The problem with the toilet.
While the room itself for the toilet was nice, the shower was spacious, tall and the vanity was nice with plenty of space.
The Loo was the issue.
The loo was a circular round thing that "floated" (being held from the back). The circle itself being VERY thin and uncomfortable.
To make things worse, the loo seat was strangely more elevated than the other public loos on the ship which made me facepalm.
Taken from the internet:
Ours was the opposite, left side was the loo, right side was the shower.
The good was, we were almost in the front of the ship so a tiny walk and we were right on the elevators straight to the main theatre and access to some of the main bars on the top floor.
We walked around 20-30 meters and we arrived to the center, where the ships's main hall is with guest services and on top is the irish "pub" that functions as 24/7 restaurant.
It also worked as Sports bar, because it had quite a few of screens. Very good as the World Cup was starting exactly mid cruise.
We also saw a few Holland American Ship (one of which we saw 3 times in different ports)
Dinner on the main restaurant called AZURA was very good. There were the classics sans the scargots
But the menu rotation was very good in my opinion.
You could of course, dress a bit better and get to the Tsar's palace, which was a bit more fancy and had some uptiered dishes also included in the cruise ship.
We were not a fan of the ships's buffette. Feel way too small for the number of people on board and it seems everyone wanted to try the buffet. So trying to find room to sit down was a huge shore most of the time.
As for the beds, they were very comfortable.
Only issue for us is that the water limitation. They only gave us 2 tiny bottles, 2 tiny glasses and we had a dry mouth halfway the night.
( I ended buying some sealed rehusable water bottles to refill on the next days).
Not to mention that I had to climb to the restroom (something that gave us a few laughs).
The internet was decent on the first day, but the farther we strayed from Panama the worse the speeds became.. going as slow as 128Kb/s (yep, thats almost dial up speed) with tons of proxy and security errors (probably to block streaming services..etc.. which are forced on much more expensive packages).
Our first day of port was Cartagena de Indias.
Where we had a Tour already lined up to meet most of the city.
Many of our friends have said amazing things of Cartagena, so our expectations where quite high.
As we arrived, another ship cutoff, one of the Celebrity.
The Celebrity Constellation.
We supposedly were to wake up very early to get to eat something quick then get out of the ship for our cruise. But we were very tired and sleep until 7. We rushed to eat something in the buffete (which was.. not good to be honest, most felt dry and there were only 3 omelette stations).
The debark process was very simple. Get to Deck 4 forward, show your card and done.. you're out.
We just had to wait a few from the cruise area to the border of the port where the "touristic welcome center" started. Where our first tour contact was.
He welcomed us and gave us a basic spiel before meeting going around the welcome center, into the parking lot. To board the small minivan that had both our driver AND the guide.
The welcome center was very nice, had many bars, restaurant, store and a mini zoo with flamingos, tons of birds, turtles and some monkeys.
Continued on Part 8....
MinnieM123
Premium Member
@Cesar R M , you always find the most exotic birds to photograph -- they're gorgeous! With regard to your story about the loo, that was funny. It really does make you wonder, what in heck the designer was thinking, when that particular bathroom style was selected. 
I liked the style of the sports bar -- very nice. Lastly, the food looked really good from the photos you shared.
I liked the style of the sports bar -- very nice. Lastly, the food looked really good from the photos you shared.
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Spotted up in the sky near the North Pole last night -- a dress rehearsal . . . 
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
The bar had the best apple pie (according to my mom and sister) they ever had. And also had very good cesar salad. So we were very happy with that bar!@Cesar R M , you always find the most exotic birds to photograph -- they're gorgeous! With regard to your story about the loo, that was funny. It really does make you wonder, what in heck the designer was thinking, when that particular bathroom style was selected.
I liked the style of the sports bar -- very nice. Lastly, the food looked really good from the photos you shared.
Only fail was their "loaded nachos" which was of course, horrible texmex style nachos.
I thought it was Mrs Claus that wore the dressSpotted up in the sky near the North Pole last night -- a dress rehearsal . . .
View attachment 686975
