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 18: Full Day at Sea

Today was another full day at sea, with mostly clear, sunny skies. The waters were relatively calm and the air temperature was mild compared to yesterday. It was a lazy day, relaxing on my balcony with a new book. The fresh sea air and the relaxing sound of the waves was soothing and comforting. The family met at the pizzeria for lunch, followed by a few spirited rounds of cards.

I went for a stroll around the ship to take in the sights, and get some exercise. The pool deck was virtually empty, as it was not hot enough to be lying in the sun, so I took this great photo of this poolside sculpture.

Later in the day we went for Afternoon Tea and sat with a lady who seemed like an old biddy, but she told us a great joke that made me like her more. It went something like this:

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A man goes into a bar and orders six shots of Tequila and lines them up in a row on the bar. He immediately picks up the first shot glass and proceeds to drink each of the six shots in succession. “Down the hatch”, he exclaims after each shot.

Within a minute, he finishes all six shots of Tequila. A woman who was observing nearby said to the man: “Why on earth would you drink all six of those shots so quickly without a chance to enjoy them?”

The man replies to the woman: “Lady, if you had what I have you’d drink them all that fast too”

The woman asked him: “Oh my, what do you have?”

The man answered: “One dollar!”
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Hopefully you are at least chucking now….it made me laugh anyway. Perhaps it was because it came out of the old woman at the table as she sipped her tea. Afterward I stopped by the Casino to try my luck at the slot machines or a hand of Black Jack. Apparently I have no luck so I decided to quit before I had to jump overboard in distress.

Before dinner I met the family at our favorite haunt, the Rendez Vous lounge for our pre-dinner cocktails. Looking out the windows the sea was still calm, so that meant I could have a martini with no worries! Speaking of martinis, here is the long-anticipated post on the delicious martinis on board. Pre-dinner cocktails and after-dinner cocktails are social events not to be missed while on board!

Martini Madness
Lest you think I made notes on all of these individual drinks, I had some help. The ship’s daily “Princess Patter” includes a “Bar News and Information” section, which features their “Crooner’s Martini of the Day”. Being an old crooner myself, I delighted in the pleasures of these cocktails at one of the swank bars onboard. Martinis always taste best when you are sitting in a nice lounge, or perched on the edge of a bar stool while listening to some hip, swinging tunes, especially Rat Pack music from the 50’s. Anyway, here is a selection of the Crooner’s Martinis of the Day from this cruise. This segment is especially for Maggie Downs, a writer for The Desert Sun, the local Palm Springs newspaper.

The Martinis on Board:
Goldfinger: Grey Goose Vodka, Triple Sec, and Orange Juice
Dr No: Grey Goose Vodka, Chambord & Blue Curacao
007 Classic: Stolichnaya Vodka and Dry Vermouth
Flirtini: Smirnoff Vodka, Champagne & Cranberry Juice
Washington Red Apple: Crown Royal, Apple Pucker & cranberry juice.
Chocolate Banana: Absolut Vodka, white Crème de Carcao & Banana Liqeur
Sergeants: J&B Rare and Sweet Vermouth
Sammy’s Sidekick: Tanqueray Gin, Blackberry Brandy & Grapefruit Juice
Sour Apple: Absolut Vodka & Pucker Apple Schnapps
The Sands: JW Red and Sweet Vermouth
Tropitini: Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Cruzan Coconut Rum & Crème de Banana
Cosmopolitan: Absolut Citron, Triple Sec, Cranberry Juice & a splash of Lime Juice
Mambo: Grey Goose Vodka, Coconut Rum & Banana Liqueur
Orange-a-Tang: Stolichnaya Vodka, Cointreau and Orange Juice

Photos above: me enjoying a delicous Martini with expert bartender, Jose & the Rendez Vous lounge, with a view of the sea...

Photos above: Left- Our dinner waitress, Gabriella, from Romania (center) who was fantastic poses with me and Peg. She was one of the people on the ship who made our cruise really special. Above Right- The Regency dining room was decorated for our final night on board.

The All Important Dessert Update:
This Raspberry Napolean was delicious. Gabriella served us platters of Petite-Fours pastries after dinner, they were all scrumptous!

Now don’t laugh at this…
After dinner we went to see a remarkable show at the Princess Theatre, it was some guy who was billed as “the world’s fastest banjo player”. It was an interesting show to say the least. I guess those banjo-playing-hillbillies need something to distinguish their act. I thought his fingers were going to burst into flames. At least we had plenty of sea water readily available had that happened.

Tomorrow we arrive in Seattle, and reach the end of our fantastic journey.
-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!