Archive for January, 2008
January 13, 2008 at 8:02 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Known as a Panama Canal Cruise, we did in fact go through the Panama Canal. I’m no expert on such canals but to me it seemed rather narrow and old-fashioned. What I mean by old-fashioned is that men in row boats had to row out to our ship to tie a rope between us and this mini train-type car that would pull us along through the locks. Furthermore, the canal is restricted to ships under a certain size, therefore large cargo ships and mega cruise ships have to go all the way around Cape Horn to get to the other side of the Americas, a very long and dangerous way. That being said, they are in the process of dredging and enlarging the canal, though I’m not sure if that’s to increase capacity by number of ships or to allow larger ships to go through. After navigating the Panama Canal we had a stop at…Cristobal Pier…As unexciting as that may sound, encountering locals in native costumes which rendered them bare-chested and rather more exposed than most passengers coming off an elegant cruise ship expected, was plenty of distraction. Besides these locals jumping and dancing to rhythmic beats, others were selling all sorts of crafts and wares in the terminal. 
Not surprising, I liked our other Panamanian port, Bocas del Toro, better; in fact, it was my favorite port on the whole cruise. It is said Panama is the next Costa Rica, gorgeous beaches, lush tropical rain forests, and even cheaper than Costa Rica. That sure seems to be true, with clear blue water, pure white sand, and 3-star waterfront hotel rooms for $10-15 per night. It appears that Bocas has a good backpacker community and the nightlife to go with it. We took a boat to a small private island where we crossed the island through the rain forest to find a beach with rolling waves on the other side. We had good fun playing in the strong waves. My grandma even went in! I just wish we’d had more time in Panama.
San Andres Island
Colombia, would you believe this cruise included a stop in Colombia? Well to be honest, we didn’t go to mainland Colombia, we stopped at San Andres Island, off the coast of Honduras. San Andres island now belongs to Colombia after the two countries competed over the island to control the fishing rights in the area. We took a short island tour including seeing a blow hole which sprays water when a big wave washes up and seeing the town, which wasn’t very exciting. We also went to a beach but our time there was rained away by a quick moving storm with high winds–it must have come and gone in 15minutes but with all the furry of a hurricane. San Andres Island also had a reputation as a pirate hideout where pirates used to store their treasure. However, today, no treasure.
Key West
The last port before disembarkation in Miami was Key West. Key West was cute but touristy and had a number of very eccentric characteristics, even the tour guide said residents of Key West were a little off. Key West touts itself as the Southernmost Point of the (Continental) US and is only 90miles from Cuba. Famous people such as Earnest Hemingway have called Key West home; President Truman also spent a fair amount of time here at the ‘Little White House’ during his presidency.
And after Key West is…Miami!
All the pictures from Azamara Quest Cruise
January 7, 2008 at 10:48 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Puerto Caldera
Day 5 we were in our first Costa Rican port, Puerto Caldera. We had set up a tour through Charlie at Okey-Dokey Tours. We thought ‘the Charlie’ was meeting us at the port, and a man who called himself Charlie did meet us; however, we were later somewhat skeptical as to whether our guide was actually Charlie. It seems Charlie hires many look-a-likes to pretend they are him and give tours as ‘Charlie’ of Okey-Dokey Tours.
Regardless of whether of our guide was actually Charlie, we had a good excursion around Puerto Caldera. The highlight of which was probably the Crocodile Canal Tour where we saw countless birds such as egrets, ibis, and a lot I don’t remember their names, iguanas, Jesus lizards that walk on water, and of course, crocodiles. I was surprised how fast crocs can actually move if they want to. Another fun activity was feeding the monkeys. They weren’t scary monkeys like at Emei Shan in China but cute small monkeys, who very nervously came and took the bananas out of our hands. We also had lunch at a beach-side restaurant that served ‘Viagra Soup’. I don’t want to know what’s in that…
This day was a good introduction to Costa Rica, but the next Costa Rican port was even better.
Puerto Limon
Augustas Beckford a taxi driver in Puerto Limon, after getting off to a slow
start, had a jammed packed day planned for us. First we headed out to a zipline course and started there with a tour of the tropical rainforest we were going to be sailing over. Going through the rainforest we saw beautiful flowers, poision dart frogs, a sloth. Then we zipped from platform to platform more than 50feet above the ground below. Woooosh. After zooming across the tree tops, we went to the educational part of our trip: a tour through a banana plantation. I had never been to a banana plantation before and it was very interesting to see the big bunches of bananas slide in on wires–banana ziplines!–be split, sorted, washed, dried, and packed. It takes 3months from flowers to bananas and a banana tree only produces one set in its life. The best looking bananas are shipped to the US while the worst are sent to markets in Honduras. All these outdoor activities are making me thirsty. Time to drink a fresh coconut; coconut water is the best natural Gatorade. We drank our coconuts as we boarded another canal tour similar to the one in Puerto Caldera. We saw many birds, a few monkeys, and a sloth. Another scenic day in Costa Rica!
January 6, 2008 at 9:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Acapulco
Check-out of my hostel in Acapulco was at 11am and having nothing else to do, I headed over to the cruise ship terminal to be told wait. Already 5people were wanting to check-in and by about 11:30 they let us into the terminal where we could check-in. First, rather burly Mexican men hand-searched (!) our luggage. Then we proceeded to the counter to do passport formalities and credit card swiping, neither of which was successful on the first 3 tries as the scanning machine seemed to be having difficulty. Good thing there wasn’t a long line at that time! Eventually all was set and we were allowed to board the ship, along with an additional 10 or so passengers who had arrived by this point. I later found out why they were hand-searching luggage, because it is the embarkation port’s responsibility to supply the luggage-scanning machines and similar facilities and services crucial for embarkation. However, the Port of Acapulco is not equipped to be a port of embarkation, therefore they did not have scanning machines so the staff was expected to be able to find scissors, knives, other sharp objects, any bombs, and any and all alcohol. Needless to say, an almost impossible task and they were more successful in some people’s luggage than in others.
Finally getting on the ship shortly after noon, I figured I’d go straight to my room, but then a crew member offered to take my bag and told me to go enjoy buffet lunch until 1pm when my room would be ready. Not being very hungry for lunch, I went back into Acapulco to go shopping around the Zocalo, the Old Town shopping area. Besides this area, Acapulco is also famous for its cliff divers who dive off cliffs into the ocean at night with fire torches and for the Fort that still dominates the bay. It seems to me that Acapulco has really become a destination for Mexican tourists rather than for foreign tourists. There are certainly nightclubs and restaurants catering to all crowds. One night I ate at Carlos’N'Charlies and I have to say, that is the most overpriced, overrated restaurant. There was no atmosphere, nothing special about it, the food was fine but waaay too expensive, and large margaritas were approaching US$20.
One restaurant that I did like alot was 100%Natural (many locations along Costera in Acapulco). Its a fresh, healthy restaurant with emphasis on fresh juices, salads, whole grains and other healthful foods. It was very reasonably priced with an extensive menu and excellent food. What I found interesting was that this was not the only place catering to a healthy crowd. There was a chain of ‘healthy’ frozen yogurt meets GNC-type supply store that were always packed with people having granola on their fro-yo or buy vitamins. There was also numerous GNC-type stores stocking everything from vitamins to protein powder. This was all very surprising to me considering Acapulco is primarily a beach destination for Mexicans and I hadn’t realized Mexico was a particularly health-conscious nation. Apparently the wealthier, beach-going Mexican have an interest in health and the money to spend on it. I further noticed that there must be some monied Mexicans who vacation in Acapulco when wondering around shopping malls as nice as those in the States and which sold items I wouldn’t even pay that much for in the US.
By about 7pm that night, after my family had all come aboard, the ship set sail for Huatulco. A Mexican beach destination farther south down the Pacific side of Mexico.
Huatulco
From before I’d arrived in Huatulco, Mexicans telling me ‘ooooh, Huatulco is nice,’ so I had high expectations. Huatulco was beautiful with cliff side-dwellings looking over crystal blue water and a small beach. The beach was nice and the water warm enough to swim in, so on that day it was very popular. There’s also a small outdoor market nearby, but a taxi ride will get you into a bigger town with more local color. But I saved the town with local color for the next day…
Puerto Chiapas/Tapachula
The following day the ship docked at Puerto Chiapas, a new port, very recently
developed for cruise ship. The terminal is supposed to be the 1-stop place for all passengers: shops, restaurants, bars, live shows, and even a swimming pool. Well, all of it seems rather contrived and unappealing, so we decided to pay $10 to take a bus into the bigger town. Given that it was Christmas Eve, this town called Tapachula was packed with locals buying all their last minute Christmas gifts and provisions. It was certainly not a town that saw many tourists but it was good fun wandering in the markets and seeing all the locals (who are primarily more ethnically similar to Guatemalans than the rest of Mexico) prepare for Christmas. It was hot, very colorful, and a very attractive little town.
Unfortunately, the ship was unable to reach Playa del Carmen (on the Caribbean side of Mexico) as planned due to poor weather conditions. From what I’ve heard Playa del Carmen is absolutely stunning with great beaches and fanstastic snorkeling. Well I guess that’ll be another trip…
January 6, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Traveling
A side note: My apologies for being absent from blogging for so long, I had very limited access on the cruise as internet was $.65/minute(!!) from a satellite feed and very slow. Also, I may still write another blog about Buenos Aires because I loved it so much and I have more to say, but then my posts will be out of order, ahh well. On to Azamara…
While in the taxi to the ship terminal, the taxi driver asked me in Spanish, ‘is it a big ship?’ Good question…well it depends on your point of reference I guess. I said to him ‘medium-big.’ Suffice it to say its a lot larger than the Antarctic vessel, 10times that by passenger capacity. In reality, though, its a lot smaller than the cruise ships we normally go on, which have at least twice as many passengers. Most of the cruises I’ve been on (about 10 spanning Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and now Azamara lines) have passenger capacities upwards of 1500-2100; therefore, given that this has 700, it is significantly smaller. This makes for a very different dynamic.
Noticeable differences include the size of the ship, activities, passenger-crew interaction, ports of call, other passengers, etc. The Azamara Quest only has 2 stairwell & elevator banks (compared to 3 or 4) indicating a shorter vessel, which means getting from one location to another is much quicker (if you’re willing to take the stairs). As a result of a smaller ship, there are a lot fewer public areas, not as many lounges and bars, fewer/smaller shops, smaller buffet area, much smaller main theater, etc, all of which make for a more intimate environment. At first I was a bit worried that there would be huge lines at the buffet and not enough seats in the theater but neither has really been a problem. If anything, the opposite has been the case, as the theater was frequently near empty for evening shows and other activities.
Activities was another interesting dynamic on this ship compared to larger ships. Each day numerous organized activities were offered; however none seemed to boast much attendance. Then, when given the opportunity, people complained there were not enough activities. Perhaps the activities were not to passenger’s liking but I was thinking, why should they schedule more activities when there’s not enough attendance as it is. As far as I’m concerned, I went to very few of the activities and also fewer of the evening shows than I normally go to, however I wasn’t complaining about the options.
One aspect of the smaller ship that I’ve really enjoyed is getting to know and interact with the same members of the staff frequently. I know far more of their names (and they mine) than I ever have on a ship before. Everyone from the senior managers (Cruise Director, F&B Manager, Hotel Director) to activities, restaurant, and security staff to Daniel, the Romanian waiter who makes my fabulous smoothies every morning, are known to me by name and recognition. While I’ve found this to be a plus, the crew has pointed out that on a smaller ship they’re required to work much harder in a greater variety of jobs than they have to on bigger ships and many have found this less than ideal. Despite everything, we found this crew to be the most cheery, friendly, and willing-to-help of any ship we’ve been on.
One of the selling points Azamara uses for these smaller ships is unique ports-of-call that are unreachable for larger ships. Well, it seems that bigger ships go hand-in-hand with accessible, interesting ports-of-call. At least on this itinerary, I’ve been relatively disappointed with the ports. There has been a high proportion of tendered ports (as opposed to docking). Frequently, the port has been very far from anything of interest such that a make-shift entertainment center has been created at the dock to amuse the passengers or passengers must take transportation a long way. Perhaps being able to go to unique ports of call is more beneficial in other parts of the world, but I was not impressed with the ports on this Panama Canal cruise.
According to the crew, thus far Azamara has attracted a more premium senior crowd of passengers. However, since this is over Christmas, there are a lot of families traveling with children of all ages. While the children’s programs are not as developed on this ship as on other larger ships (no devoted area), they do offer a few and kids who are committed can meet other kids of the same age. It seems as I’ve gotten older its been harder and harder to meet people of the same/similar age on cruises. On this cruise, though, we have managed to collect a group of about 10people that daily keep the ‘disco’ open past midnight, though. As is typical of cruises, its primarily Americans and this one had surprisingly many Mexicans. There was also a family of 30+ Dutch people, that along with a smattering of other Europeans gives the EU a fair representation on board as well.
The staterooms are fairly spacious and well-appointed. The ‘Butler’ assigned to each cabin is, in the words of my cousin, ‘over-glorified and overworked.’ The balconies are nice but they refuse to open the dividing doors between them. A visit to one of the larger staterooms/suites left me unimpressed except for the wrap around balcony. A self-service laundry room has been a plus. At $2 per wash including soap and an additional $2 (all in quarters) per dry, its a huge savings over shipboard service and as such, I did laundry twice.
The alcohol and age limit policies (including entrance to the ‘disco’ after 11pm) have been ridiculously restrictive and frequently caused many cruisers (parents, underage children, and sympathizers) more stress and frustration than enjoyment. I managed to get 2 bottles of wine on board the ship on embarkation day, partly because they didn’t find them and partly because wine, unlike hard alcohol or beer, may be brought on board on embarkation day. The next day my mom bought a bottle of wine in port and had it confiscated as she reboarded the ship.
Perhaps one of my favorite things about this cruise is being able to custom order meals (one day in advance). Besides of course my morning made-to-order smoothie, I’ve started requesting Indian food every night. A CruiseCritic meeting with the senior officers introduced me to Dejan, the F&B Manager whence I proposed we have Indian food day. While he didn’t think all the passengers would find that as appealing as I did, he told me, you can request Indian food for dinner any night you’d like. Therefore, almost every night for the final week, I pre-ordered an Indian chicken dish and due to the (supposedly) Indian chef, they’ve been excellent. This system is particularly useful for people like my cousin who only eats chicken and would get incredibly bored of having the same chicken dish every night since there is rarely chicken on the changing menu.
The newness of Azamara as a cruise line is certainly apparent to a seasoned cruiser. While Azamara has some advantages over sister company Celebrity, it will be even better when it has finally created its own efficient systems and unique style. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a wonderful time and I attribute that to good, quality time with family, the wonderful staff, particularly Cruise Director Becky Fields, and the passengers I met on board.
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