Post Panama Cruise: A Few Family Photos

Today was my first day back at work after the cruise. Yikes! I was not ready for it, but I bit the proverbial bullet and braced myself for a hectic day. As promised, here are a few family photos from the cruise. We refer to ourselves as "The Cruising Cousins". So without further ado, here goes:

Above left: In Aruba, left to right: Rich, Peg, Dawson, Pat, Rick, Karen, Jack, John.
Above right: Relaxing by the pool

Above left: Peg & Karen dancing up a storm at the "Fiesta Tropicana Tropic Party"
Above right: Pat & Peg enjoy a cool cocktail in the pool

Photo above: River Rafting in Huatulco: left, Karen. Right, Jack

Photo above: left, Pat & Peg enjoy pre-dinner martinis. Right, Karen & Jack enjoy a show at The Vista Lounge.

Photo above: left, Diane & Bob at dinner. Right, Ann & Ray share a moment at dinner

Photo above: left, Peg & Rich. Right, Pat & Dawson

Photo above: "The Cruising Cousins" together on one of the formal nights.
-Rick Rockhill

Panama Cruise, Day 19: Seattle & the end of the Cruise

Today we arrived in Seattle, the final destination of this cruise. After an early breakfast with the family, I went out to take a few photos. Seattle is a busy port, with lots of activity. The views of the city I saw were nice, including the "Space Needle", and also the Evil World Headquarters of Starbucks. These past 18 days flew by. For those of you considering a cruise, it’s a great way to travel, I highly recommend it.

A FEW MORE SHIP FACTS & INFO
While there are newer vessels in the Princess fleet, the Sun Princess is still a nice ship. I thought I’d mention a few more useless and fascinating facts about the Sun Princess ship that I have called home for the past 18 days.
* Built in Italy in 1998 at a cost of over $350 million
* To my surprise, this ship carries a museum-class art collection valued at nearly $3 million, a portion of which has been profiled on this blog.
* Runs on 4 diesel engines with 44.5 megawatt capacity, 28 megawatt propulsion and cruises at a maximum speed of 21 knots
* The crew wash over 51,000 dishes and 17,000 glasses PER DAY
* Prepare over 6,000 pounds of beef, pork, lamb, veal, poultry, shellfish and seafood combined, PER DAY
* Utilize over 1,000 pounds of flour PER DAY
* Use 9,000 fresh eggs PER DAY
* Serve 5,000 pounds of fresh fruits PER DAY

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PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW....
Although I'm happy to be back home in Palm Springs and see the dog and cat, I know I will miss being at sea this week (maybe the first night I need to cook dinner). Now that I have completed an 18 day cruise, I think I can easily handle a 30 day journey somewhere...it’s just that pesky job that gets in the way of my social life and vacation schedule!

Photo above: left: One last look at the Atrium elevators in the Sun Princess & above right: Me waving goodbye from the ship.
Thanks for reading my travel blog. Tomorrow I'm planning a brief summary with a few highlights and family photos too!

-Rick Rockhill
Welcome CruiseCritic.com members!

Panama Cruise, Day 17: Full Day at Sea

As we started to sail up the coast of North America, we had two full days at sea ahead of us, with no sight of land until Sunday. These waters are considerably rougher compared to the calm, serene Caribbean Sea. I am fascinated by the power of the sea…check out these photos:

This morning I attended a Cooking Show, with the Executive Chef, Thomas Ulrich and the Maitre D’Hotel Rui Pereira. They prepared several delicious dishes, although the lighting wasn’t great so these are the only photos worth sharing:

After the cooking show, I went on a brief tour of the galley (kitchens), which was pretty cool. The crew had a few fruit carvings on display in the kitchen, which were kind of fun:

Shortly after I saw the most incredible desserts I have ever witnessed.
At 3:00 PM, I attended the long anticipated Maitre D’ Club wine tasting, which featured only premium, high end wines. The moment I was seated I knew it would be a nice event. We were immediately served Verve Cliquot Champagne, with chocolate-dipped strawberries. There were excellent canapés served to complement the outstanding wines that were featured in this tasting.

This evening was a formal night, so I was dressed in my tux and ready to enjoy another sensational dinner in the formal dining room. It was Lobster, Beef Wellington and for dessert, Baked Alaska. They had the traditional “parade of waiters” carrying the flaming Baked Alaska around the entire dining room.

Photos above: John and me, our waitress Gabriella and her assistant Traisan, and the "Parade of Waiters" carrying the flaming Baked Alaska.

Photos above: Our Baked Alaska arrived in perfect condition, Gabriella extinguishes the flame and prepares to serve us.

-Rick Rockhill
Welcome CruiseCritic.com members!

Panama Cruise, Day 16: San Diego

I’d like to start with a message for any folks who live in San Diego and read this blog. Before you start to snigger and guffaw about me writing a post on San Diego, consider three points: 1. Lots of my readers do not live in SD and might be interested in seeing what is here. 2. Since I live in Palm Springs, and only spend weekdays working in San Diego, I don’t usually spend a lot of time exploring this area on my own. 3. Sailing into San Diego on a cruise ship afforded a unique perspective of the city, and was new to me.
A Brief History of San Diego
San Diego was named by Spanish explorers when they arrived on their feast day of “San Diego de Alcala”. A number of Spanish missions were developed, which started its population growth. After a brief insurge of Gold Rush hopefuls in the late 1800’s, the “Panama-California Exposition” was held here in 1915 to compete with larger cities on the West Coast. The Exposition drove substantial development of mission style architecture, many of which still exists today.

During the 1920’s the US military built bases for the Navy and Marines, which had a significant impact on the economy and further residential development of San Diego. The pleasant climate, seaside location and revitalized downtown areas make San Diego one of America’s favorite cities. Today San Diego has over 1.2 million residents, and a very healthy business in tourism.

Exploring San Diego
I decided to explore San Diego as a tourist. After all, I was walking around with a group of family members who knew very little about the area anyway. The views of downtown and Point Loma were very scenic.

We walked around the harbor and marina areas, Seaport Village, the Embarcadero, the Convention Center and the Historic Gas Lamp Quarter.

Aside from the natural beauty of the waterfront, one of the things that impressed me was the variety of beautiful architecture, old and new.

There are quite a few public works of art and sculptures, which I always think indicate the culture and values of a city.

We also walked past PETCO Park, home of the Major League Baseball team, the San Diego Padres. Since I mentioned a Major League Baseball, what a convenient time for me to once again mention that last summer I had the honor of throwing out the first pitch at PETCO Park at a Padres Game. It was very cool (see photo left). I'm quite modest about it. I only keep this photo on my blog year round and have the framed photo in my office at work. So you see I really am very low key about it. If you ever need a Major League pitcher, let me know- apparently I have quite the arm. But I digress...

Meanwhile the women in the family spent time shopping in downtown San Diego. I think we explored every shoe store downtown. What is it with women and shoes? Case in point: one of the ladies here on this 18 day cruise brought 15 pair of shoes! I brought 5 pair: 2 pair of sandals (1 black and 1 brown), 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of casual brown shoes and 1 pair of formal black shoes for my tux on formal nights. I probably could have brought just 1 pair of sandals, but I didn’t want to look tacky. Anyway I think it’s genetic. For gosh sakes, my 3 year old niece is already into shoes.

Back on the ship, we waved farewell to San Diego as the Sun Princess majestically sailed away from the harbor.

For dinner this evening the formal dining room served fresh Alaskan King Crab Legs. Nearly everyone at our table ordered them. Our waitress brought five additional platters of crab legs to our table. We ate like Kings.

The All Important Dessert Update
This evening I had three desserts: Bananas Foster, Black Forest Chocolate Cake and Napolean with Caramel drizzle

Martini Madness
After dinner I went to the Vista Lounge for one of Jose’s delicious “Washington Apple Martinis”. OK, I had two, I was ever-so thirsty, practically spitting cotton, and they hit the spot. Tomorrow I plan to profile all of the daily martinis and drink specials throughout the cruise. Benwu/Todd/Shannon- the Ascot is for you. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading...especially to Jennifer.
-Rick Rockhill
Welcome CruiseCritic.com members!