12 Day Panama Canal Cruise 十二天巴拿马运河邮轮游

Jan 13: We started our trip to Central/South America a day earlier. A while ago, there was constant news of flight cancellations and delays due to the weather and computer system failures. Especially two days ago, the FAA flight system failed, causing all flights nationwide to be temporarily suspended for a couple of hours. It made us feel nervous about flying on the day of boarding a cruise and worrying about missing the cruise; we decided to fly to San Diego a day earlier. Upon arriving at San Diego airport, as usual, we were going to call Uber or Lyft, but it turned out that the city bus stop was right outside the terminal building. So we took the bus, a 10-minute quick ride to the hotel near the historic district - Gaslamp Quarter. Dropped off the luggage, we headed straight to the seaside. We had a couple of tacos at the pier first, then boarded a local tourist boat for an hour bay cruise, whose tickets were included in the destination fee our hotel collected from us. The tour guide on the boat was quite good, and he provided a lot of information about the bay. We really enjoyed the tour. Disembarked, we walked to the historic Gaslamp Quarter and were disappointed that the place was deserted and almost empty in the afternoon. After a simple dinner at the hotel, we returned to the Gaslamp district in the evening. However, this time it was much different; the streets were full of restaurant patrons and bargoers, but it was still not as lively as expected on a Friday night.

Jan 14: We signed up for our cruise embarking time at noon and had the whole morning to spare. After breakfast, we went to the Italian neighborhood just in time for the weekend market and saw some snacks we had not seen before. The line at the pozole booth was long, so we decided to give it a try. We had a cup of hot pork pozole, a Mexican pork soup that tasted great and was perfect for a cold day. After returning to the hotel and picking up our luggage, we boarded the NCL Jewel cruise ship. We officially began the first leg of our trip to Central/South America, a 12-day San Diego to Panama Canal cruise.

Our room was not ready when we boarded the ship. So with our suitcase in hand, we went directly to the Garden Café for a buffet lunch. Around 1:30 pm, the PA announced that the rooms were ready. Our room was a good size cabin with a balcony, and it was in a perfect location. At 4 pm, the ship slowly left the Port of San Diego in heavy rain. As we stood out on the balcony to watch the skyline of San Diego Bay disappearing in the low cloud, we felt very lucky to tour the bay area under the decent weather yesterday.

We had our first dinner at the Chin Chin Asia restaurant, which was really disappointing. Among all the food we ordered, the Kung Pao chicken was the worst. It came with clear-cut chicken cubes mixed with a little vegetable and sauce, and it was the worst Kung Pao Chicken we have ever had. We were unsure if we would return to the restaurant during the rest of the cruise. We didn’t finish the dishes, so we still had room for more food and went up to the Garden Café for the second dinner, a piece of delicious Prime Rib.

Jan 16: After leaving San Diego in the late afternoon on the 14th, our ship headed south and spent the whole day yesterday at sea. This morning we arrived at the first port of call, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The sky was clear, and the temperature was around 70F. We just visited this place a little over a year ago on another cruise trip. Without any special activities planned, we just walked along Medano Beach for four hours. At noon, we had some tacos from a Taco Bar at a hotel by the beach and enjoyed some people-watching. We wandered around the marina area looking for a coffee shop but couldn’t find one we liked, so we walked further away from the tourist area. We found a local coffee shop offering a decent Latte for $2.5 and good WiFi, and it was half the price we paid on the ship. Tonight, we went to see the magic show.

Jan 17: The Jewel left Cabo San Lucas last evening and arrived at Port Vallarta at noon today. We were lucky to see whales accompanying us this morning. It was our second time to visit Port Vallarta. More than a year ago, when we visited this beautiful city, we didn’t join any organized tour; instead, we explored the town by ourselves, taking the local buses and Uber. The city gave us a good impression. This time we signed up for a tour from the ship to explore more than just the new town area. First, the tour bus took us to the city center, the city hall, and the church. The city hall was crowded not just because of tourists like us, but many local people were waiting in line to pay the property tax. They get a 10% discount if they pay in January. Mexico also has a senior discount for property tax, and Mexican legal residents or citizens 60 years or older pay only 50% of their property tax. We wish the US had a similar policy.

Then the bus took us to a jewelry store in the old town, a tourist trap that provides a bathroom facility and free drinks. Visiting a ceramic tile factory across the street was much more enjoyable. The workers hand-painted each tile before firing them. The store sells different types of ceramic products. The bus finally took us to an old tequila winery passing through a village outside the city. The distillery is no longer used for production but focuses on tourist services. The owner’s son gave a short presentation and showed us a few old pieces of equipment for the distillation process. There were a few blue agave plants in the garden. It was not the typical brew/winery tour we had before. The tour's highlight was to taste their tequilas, a total of six different kinds, from cheap to expensive ones. Watching fellow passengers drink shot after shot and finish all six shots in no time, the two of us felt a little embarrassed because we did not even finish half a shot combined, definitely saving some tequilas for the winery. The primary purpose of the tour is to sell their Tequilas, and the free Tequila shots did the trick. Within the tourist complex, they also serve tacos—each chicken or pork taco with a freshly handmade tortilla sold for $2. We had a couple of them, which looked simple but very tasty, and we think they were better than those in the United States.

After the tour, we were back on the ship. We went to the main dining restaurant for dinner. The food tonight was delicious. There were not too many people in the restaurant tonight; probably because the ship had a late departure time, many people were still hanging out on the shore.

Jan 19: It took another sea day from Port Vallarta to reach the next port. Our ship docked early in Acapulco, Mexico, a new coast city to us. We started the day on our own and first visited the local church and the town square. It was early morning, and the people had just started setting up the booths in the square; not much to see. Then we walked along the beautiful seaside. We stopped by, watching a local fisherman beginning to fire up a charcoal stove on the edge of the shore wall for a while. He heated the pan directly over the fire and added some oil and garlic. Then he deep-fried fresh mahi-mahi fish eggs. The smell was good, and the taste must be delicious, but we did not dare try it.

Acapulco is another tourist resort town but less popular than Cabo San Lucas and Port Vallarta. We recently watched an Acapulco seaside cliff diving episode called Human Playground on a Netflix show, and a comedy show from Apple TV+. We joined the tour in the afternoon, and the highlight of this tour was seeing a diving show, which lived up to its name. Eight divers climbed the cliff and dived into the water below. The show lasted about 15 mins.

The tour's final stop was the Fort of San Diego, built by the Spanish Empire and one of the most important Spanish fortifications along the Pacific coast. Unfortunately, the Acapulco Historical Museum was closed under restoration. We just wandered around in the fort courtyard under the scorching sun, and we could not bear the heat anymore and returned to the ship. We hope the weather will be cooler as we travel to the south in the next few weeks.

Jan 21: Yesterday was another sea day. The wind and waves were very calm in the morning. The only ripples you could see were caused by our ship's sailing. The sea was so beautiful and looked like a painting. After taking a few cruises, long and short, this was the first time we saw such a calm sea. From time to time, Sea turtles could be seen floating in the calm water.

Done with Mexico ports, we headed to the largest Port in Guatemala, Puerto Quetzal, today. We arrived early this morning, and it was one of the smallest cruise ship terminals we've ever visited. The terminal only had a souvenir market for tourists but nothing else. Most passengers from the ship headed out to the ancient city of Antigua - the old capital of Guatemala. We took a tour called “Antigua on your own.” As the name indicated, the tour company only provided roundtrip transportation to Antigua. The bus ride to Antigua took 90 minutes. It was a scenic ride. Along the way, sometime, we could see coffee farms, massive sugar cane fields, and the Volcano De Fuego erupting every 15-20 minutes. Unfortunately, we were sitting on the wrong side of the bus and didn't have a good picture of the erupting volcano.

Antigua was an ancient city consisting of many old buildings and cobblestone streets. There were a lot of tourists visiting the town. After we arrived, we first went to the Hill of the Cross across the city to the far north end. The ongoing construction was on the spot, but it has an unobstructed view of Antigua and Volcano Agua. The area is free of charge, but a guy with a firefight uniform asked for a $2 donation on the path, which we did. On the way down to the town center, we walked through the quiet neighborhood, and the local houses were very distinctive, which we liked very much, and we thought we could stay there overnight or two. The main tourist attraction in Antigua is Santa Catalina Arch. Tourists and local vendors filled the area. We took some pictures and moved on.

We stopped by a couple of churches and ancient ruins, and then it was time to find a place to have some decent Guatemalan food. We went to Rincon Tipico, highly recommended by the Lonely Planet tour book we bought before the trip. The small restaurant was in the courtyard with simple bench tables. The chicken and potato were cooked over coals. Ordering food in non-English speaking places is always a challenge for us. Their menu on the wall was in Spanish with pictures. We had one chicken plate with potato and another chicken dish with a bowl of soup; all were very delicious. After lunch, we hit two more tourist spots before returning to our bus at 1 pm. We only had four hours to spare, and it was definitely not enough time to explore the area.

After another 90 minutes bus ride, we returned to the pier and spent some time at the market. We had fresh coconut water, local beer, and Guatemala Coffee, an excellent and happy ending to our very short Guatemala visit.

Jan 22: We were supposed to go to Nicaragua today. Probably for some safety reasons, We were informed that the Port of call to Nicaragua had been canceled when we boarded the ship in San Diego, and it was changed to another sea day. As usual, we went to deck 11 Garden Cafe for breakfast around 7:30 am and walked around the ship on deck 7. Typically, we would walk 8000 to 10,000 steps in the morning on a sea day. Last few days, some sea wildlife always accompanied our ship to make our walking routine more enjoyable. Today we had no exception. Seabirds accompanied us along the way, bringing much happiness to the boring sea travel. We brought our Sony Camera and took many photos.

Today was also the Chinese New Year, Spring Festival. The ship was slightly decorated, and every time we entered a restaurant or cafe, the staff would say "gong xi fa cai" to us. This is a rabbit year, so the food sculptures of rabbits, made of watermelon, fruits, veggies, etc., were everywhere. We broke our promise not to return to the Chin Chin Asia restaurant. We thought having a Chinese New Year dinner at the Chinese Restaurant would be appropriate to celebrate our holiday, even if the food would not meet our expectations. They didn't serve any unique dishes for the holiday. The food this time seemed to be a little better than the first time we had tried it; of course, we stayed away from that chicken dish.

Jan 23: We arrived early this morning at Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We had signed up for a crocodile river tour with the cruise. We waited in the theater for a while to go on the tour until we realized something was wrong after 30 minutes passing the scheduled time. We talked to the short excursion staff in the theater and were told that the original half-day tour was canceled. We didn't receive any cancellation notification and were a bit disappointed. We went ashore to book a local tour that cost us half what we would pay for the cruise tour. Eight of the passengers from the cruise were packed into a van. The first stop was a private property near the main highway to see the monkeys. A group of white face monkeys lives in the area. You pay $3 per person to feed the monkey with crackers. When you held the crackers in your hand, the monkey jumped to your head to take them from you and eat them. It was fun, and we took a few nice pictures with monkeys on our shoulders. Most time, after eating the food, they would get off us. But one of the monkeys jumped on one of us and stayed on her head for a while. It was a hilarious experience.

Our next stop was The Original Crocodile River Tour. We boarded a boat down the Rio Grande de Tárcoles, home to approximately 2,000 crocodiles. Surprisingly we only saw one motionless giant crocodile and several small ones. We saw several types of birds and black monkeys in the trees. Then we made a short stop at another private property to see Macaws. The tour was not exceptional, but it was okay. Today, we just got the first taste of Pura Vida in Costa Rica. Next month we will come back for ten more days.

After returning to the ship for a short rest in the afternoon, we got off again and walked around the pier. We walked along the beach to the lighthouse and watched the locals playing soccer and relaxing on the beach as the sun set on the horizon. The Ticas must enjoy their simple life. Before boarding the ship, we couldn't resist another fresh coconut. The last time in Guatemala was $1; today, it was $2 in Costa Rica.

Jan 25: Yesterday was the last full sea day before the Panama Canal, and we were lucky to see the stingrays jumping out of the water. We took pictures using the 70-300 mm lens, but it wasn't long enough to get a clear picture. We felt so lucky to see different sea creatures every day for four days at sea and spent hours watching them each day.

Passing the Panama Canal is always on our bucket list. We had wanted to do this for a while. We found this one-way cruise to take us through the Panama Canal and start our Central/South America trip. Today is the canal crossing day. Crossing the Panama Canal consists of three locks and three bridges from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. Our ship was scheduled starting at 6 am and ending around 4 pm, for about ten hours. We got up early before dawn, and went to the bow on deck 8 about 15 minutes before 6 am. Based on the schedule, the ship would pass under the Bridge of the Americas, completed in 1962 at the cost of $20 million from the United States of America, around 6 am. The bow area on deck 8, which was closed to the public during the cruise, was supposed to be opened to the public during canal passing. When we arrived on the 8th floor, People were lined up to wait for the bow area to open. We hesitated to go elsewhere because we were afraid of missing seeing the bridge, so we patiently waited in line. The bow area was finally opened after 6 am, but we indeed missed the bridge. The Bridge of Americas was already far away when we entered the bow area. Very disappointed.

There were several places on the ship to watch the Panama Canal passing. We just went up and down to find the best position to see the canal passing and to take pictures. One of us even sits under the flag pole to have the best view and enable her to take photos without reflection from the glass shield. In the middle of the day, it became hot and humid. So we mostly stayed inside the view lounge in the afternoon. We also saw our sister ship the NCL Joy cruise ship in the middle of the lake of the canal, which we were on that ship three months ago, and the Joy happened to cross the canal in the opposite direction. What a small world!

After crossing the canal, our final destination, Colon, was nearby, but the cruise ship was not scheduled to dock tonight. Instead, the ship sailed to the Caribbean Sea for a big loop. There was nothing to see since it was getting dark. In the meantime, the vessel encountered strong winds and waves, which made us seasick. Passing the Panama Canal today meant that our 12-day cruise was ending, and tomorrow we would disembark and start our independent trip.

1/13: 提前一天开始了我们的中南美州之旅。前一阵子不断有飞机航班取消和延误的新闻，而前二天全美国飞行系统出故障造成所有飞机短暂停运后，让我们觉得有必要避免上船当天坐飞机，临时决定改机票提前一天来到圣地亚哥。顺利到达圣地亚哥机场后，原准备叫Uber 或Lyft, 结果发现市区公交车很方便又便宜，且车站就在停机楼门外。坐着公交车十分钟便来到历史小区-油灯区附近的酒店。放下行李之后直奔海边，先吃上几个Taco垫底后，就上了当地的海湾游船在海湾里转了一个小时。船上的讲解员蛮不错的，嘴没停过。下了船后走去油灯区，有点失望，冷冷清清几乎没人。晚上在酒店里吃上简单的晚餐之后又再次去油灯区走走，比下午稍好些， 虽然满街都是饭店和酒吧又是周五晚上，但还是没有想像中那么热闹。

1/14: 中午才上游轮，早上还有几个小时可以转悠。早餐后我们先去意大利小区转了一圈，正赶上周末集市，看到一些以前没见过的小吃，在那里喝了一杯墨西哥的猪肉汤，味道很不错。回酒店拿了行李之后我们便登上NCL Jewel游轮，正式开启我们中南美洲行的第一段－十二天圣地亚哥至巴拿马游。傍晚游船在大雨中慢慢地驶离圣地亚哥港。

上船后第一晚就去了船上一家中餐馆，实在太失望。尤其是要的宫保鸡丁从来没吃过这么差的，估计不会再去了。试了西式餐厅，味道还可以。

 1/16: 我们的船自14号晚上离开圣地亚哥之后，一路南下，今天（16号）早上来到第一站墨西哥的Cabo San Lucas。晴空万里，气温在70F左右。一年多前刚来过这里，今天故地重游。我们没有什么特别活动，沿着海滩走了三，四个小时，中午就在海滩边一家酒店的Taco Bar每人两个Taco, 味道不错。回船前，还去了一家当地的咖啡店，一是用一下WiFi，二是喝杯咖啡休息一下，$2.5一杯拿铁味道相当不错，价格也不错，是船上的一半。今天天气好、玩得很轻松，晚上会去看一下魔术表演。

 1/17: 昨天晚上离开Cabo San Lucas, 今天（一月十七日）中午来到Vallarta港。今天早上很幸运，在海上不时有鲸鱼陪伴我们。一年多前我们也来过Vallarta 港，很漂亮。当初我们俩是自由行，坐了公交车，也坐了Uber。这次我们参加了龙舌兰酒庄游，先把我们带去市中心，市政府楼和教堂，然后就去老城区的珠宝店，陶瓷店和皮革店，最后来到旧酒庄，那里好像已不再用于生产了，而是专做旅游服务了。介绍了龙舌兰酒生产过程，请大家品味六种不同的龙舌兰酒，每人总共喝六杯。看着别人一小杯一小杯喝，我们俩加一起也没喝到半小杯，真是便宜了酒庄😜。洒庄里还有卖Taco。酒后在那里每人要了个Taco, 有鸡肉和猪肉，饼是手工现做的，$2一个。这几天在外面天天吃Taco，看着很简单，但觉得就是比美国的好吃。回到船上已是晚餐的时间，晚餐很不错，蛮合我们胃口。今晚的餐厅人不太多，估计因为船离开得晚，好多人还在岸上晃悠。

 1/19: 经过又一天的海上航行，今天一早停靠墨西哥阿卡普尔科(Acapulco), 上午上岸后先自由行看了一下当地教堂，又沿海边走了一段。看到当地的渔民在水边直接烧火煎鱼子，先在生鱼子上撒些盐，然后是热油，大蒜🧄，鱼子下锅直接煎，非常馋人，味道肯定不错，但没敢尝试一下。Acapulco 是一个旅游度假城市，最近在Netflix秀Human Playground 中看到海边悬崖峭壁跳水的一集，所以这次来此的亮点就是去看跳水表演，名符其实值得一看。今天烈日当空，外面转了几个小时，就有点受不了，不知下面几星期继续往南走，天气会是怎么样。

 1/21: 昨天在海上航行一天。上午风平浪静，只有我们船开过时海面才泛起阵阵涟漪，很美，看着像画。坐了不少游轮，好像还是第一次看到如此平静的大海，时而可以看到海龟们在海上漂游。

今天一早来到瓜地马拉最大的港口，也是我们到过的最小游轮码头之一。码头上只有一个为游客开的市场，周围其它一点东西都没有。几乎所有游客都参团去了安地瓜古城－旧首都。有不少古建筑，当地的民居也很有特色，整个小城很漂亮，就是游客多一点，玩的时间也不够，以后有机会该在那里住上二，三天。从码头到安地瓜开车一个半小时，一路上可以看到火山喷发的白烟，咖啡农庄，甘蔗田等。在城里转了一圈后，在一家小店里吃上当地的午餐，还不错。在码头边，喝上新鲜的椰子水，当地的啤酒和瓜地马拉咖啡,也算是给瓜地马拉游划上一个美好的句号。

 1/23: 昨天应该去尼加拉瓜的，可能是因为安全原因，上船后被告知取消了停靠那里而改成又一天海上航行。一路上有海鸟们陪伴着我们，给平淡的海上行带来不少快乐，拍了不少照片。昨天春节，船上也稍稍布置一下，每次进餐厅工作人员会对我们说恭禧发财，也算有点气氛了。

今天一早来到了哥斯达黎加的Puntarenas, 原本订半日游被取消了，也没通知我们，有点失望。我们自己上岸找了一个当地的半日游，带我们去看了小猴子，鳄鱼，各种🦜等，结果还是很完美的。今天算是先来哥斯达黎加探探路，下个月我们还会回来自由行。下午回船稍做休息后又下船，在码头附近走一圈，新鲜椰子汁肯定少不了的，上次在瓜地马拉$1一个，今天在哥斯达里加$2一个。

 1/25: 昨天是到巴拿马运河前的最后一整天海上航行，很幸运，除了鲸鱼，海豚，鸟之类的，又看到了新动物－黄貂鱼(sting ray)，还是第一次看见黄貂鱼跳出水面。四天海上航行，每天有不同动物陪伴着我们，我们时常会花上几个小时在甲板上或者阳台上捕捉它们的身影。

坐游轮过巴拿马运河是我们最向往的旅游项目之一。今天终于迎来这一天。一早天没亮就起床，上串下跳的找最佳位置看及拍照。过运河一共过三个船闸，穿过三座大桥，早上六点开始到下午四点从太平洋来到加勒比海，整整十个小时。今天还碰巧了与我们三个月前刚坐过的NCL Joy游轮在运河中间的湖中相遇，Joy正好是反方向过运河。今天过巴拿马运河意味着我们这次12天游轮即将结束，明天就要下船了，开始我们的自由行。

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – 墨西哥普托巴亚尔塔

Nov 24, 2021

The last port of call was Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The Majestic Princess was docked at Terminal 3 in the early morning. Once we walked out of the terminal, the taxi drivers and tour operators wanted our business. Instead, we were brave enough to get on a public bus nearby under the current COVID situation, costing $1 to go to Malecon Boardwalk. Along the boardwalk, there was a range of gift shops, restaurants, art galleries, and art sculptures. The first attraction that caught our eyes was the Flying bird-men of Papantla, an impressive and color-filled ritual performance. The ritual started with one person playing music on the top of the pole; four men climbed up the pole. After a few dangerous dancing movements, four men headfirst down to the earth started rotating and flying like birds. The performance was colorful, dangerous, and spectacular.

The sculptures along the boardwalk are beautiful, some eccentric. As we walked along the beach, we saw brown pelicans flying at the height of tens feet above the ocean, then beak first diving into the water to catch fish. We watched them for more than 30 mins. It was amazing. 

We continued to stroll along the boardwalk into the Romantic zone. The beach was beautiful and crowded. There were a lot of restaurants along the beach. We found a place, Langostinos, serving Huachinango Entero Frito. We were pleased, as shown in the picture. The fish was fresh but could be more tasty and salty. After lunch, we walked to the nearby Lazaro Cardenas Park. The whole park is decorated in brilliant mosaics by local artists. You can also pay to get your love note on mosaic-decorated benches. The entire area was filled with colorful, energetic, and exciting atmospheres. 

After exploring the old neighborhood of Puerto Vallarta for a little while in the afternoon, It was time to go back to the ship. We called Uber cheaper than the regular taxi without even bargaining the price. A few mins after we confirmed the pickup, we saw the car towards us, but it didn't stop. We didn't know what was going on and quickly texted the driver, and he promptly replied that he needed to drop off someone first. Thanks to the technology that solves the problem, we were in a non-English speaking place.

Crossing from the cruise terminal, a big shopping mall and Walmart were nearby. We went to both the mall and Walmart to learn about the local life a little, and it's not much different from any shopping mall or Walmart in the US. After returning to the ship, from our room balcony, we watched the last few people rushing back to the ship before our ship sailed away. Goodbye Mexico, see you next time. 

Mazatlan, Mexico – 墨西哥马萨特兰

Nov. 23, 2021

The second port of call is Mazatlan, the Mexican state of Sinaloa, only 196 nautical miles from Cabo San Lucas. The vessel was docked at Mazatlan in the early morning. We chatted with a couple of volunteers at a street corner; they were snowbirds from Canada and were very friendly and helpful. They provided us with some tourist information and recommended the walking route marked with the blue line. 

The downtown Mazatlan is centered at a plaza surrounded by many art galleries, restaurants, and colorful impressive sculptures. The streets, along with colorful buildings, were clean and quiet. Police or security guards were standing at some of the street corners. We strolled to the Immaculate Conception Cathedral with tall twin towers. We went inside, and it was beautiful as always. From the Cathedral, we headed to José María Pino Suarez Municipal Market, which started more than 100 years ago. The market had a range of vegetables, fruits, meat, and seafood vendors booths. The seafood selections in the market were limited, smaller than expected. We didn’t buy anything. We needed to get back to Teatro Angela Peralta, the theater, for a public tour at 11:00 am. The guided tour costs $2.00. We had some language barrier with a worker at the ticket office. Fortunately, the wife of another couple who came from Mexico provided the translation. The theater was built in 1883 and was destroyed by a hurricane in 1975. Standing in ruin for years, the theater began a restoration in 1987 and re-opened in 1992. The theater was beautiful and elegant. We learned a little about the interesting story of Angela‘s wedding and death.

After seeing the theater, we were hungry and started to look for a lunch place. Two days ago, during the destination lecture on the ship, Vickie, the presenter, recommended a traditional Mexican dish, Percado Frito, a whole fried fish. It was on our must-to-do list in Mazatlan. We asked a volunteer at the plaza to recommend a local-style lunch place and hoped to find the fried fish. He pointed us towards Mariscos Preparados “Chon,” two blocks away from the square. It is a small restaurant with a Mexican vibe. We were the only customers there, and they didn’t have whole fish and only had fried battered red snapper steak. It was delicious.

After lunch, we strolled towards the beach and planned to walk back to the ship. Along the coast, there were a few scenic viewpoints. A vendor was frying the whole fish on the beach, which we had been looking for earlier. But it was too late, and we were too full from our lunch. So we just kept walking. The weather was nice, sunshine and a little hot. After walking for one hour under the sun along the beach, we were tired and hopped on a Pulmonia Taxi, gas-powered open-air taxi that looked like a golf cart, and went back to the ship.

We were exhausted. But there was still one more place to visit in Mazatlan, El Faro Lighthouse, one of the highest lighthouses in the world. Chenggang decided to go out again while Connie stayed on the ship. He walked 2 miles to the bottom of the hill and hiked 745m up in gravel and 336 pave stairs path to reach the summit. The lighthouse is old and not very impressive, compared to the lighthouses we visited in Oct on the east coast, but the view of the city of Mazatlan and the Pacific ocean from the top of the hill was breathtaking. The lighthouse seemed to be a popular place for locals. As the sun was setting, it was time to return to the ship. We like Mazatlan a lot, and it is beautiful and has its characters.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - 墨西哥卡伯圣路卡斯

Nov. 22, 2021

Cabo San Lucas was the first port of call in Mexico, but this was not our first time to see its beauty. Nineteen months ago, after we left Los Angeles starting our 90 days world cruise, we had a medical emergency on the vessel, and the captain decided to reroute the ship to Cabo San Lucas to drop off the patient. We couldn’t get off the ship at that time. However, we glanced at Cabo San Lucas and the famous sea arch, El Arco, from the ship. 

Cabo San Lucas is a resort town at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. Our ship anchored at Cabo around 11 am, and we were tendered to the shore. They packed us into a lifeboat used as a tender boat. Of course, there was no social distance on the boat, but at least everyone wore the mask. As soon as we stepped on the marina, we were swamped by many street vendors trying to sell the tour tickets or water taxis. Since we did some research and knew the price range for the water taxi to Love Beach, we settled down with a $30 round trip for both of us to the beach. We had to pay $20 first, would pay the rest one hour later when they picked us up from the beach. On the way to the beach, we changed our mind to only stay there for a shorter time. We asked the water taxi driver to wait for us on the beach. He seemed to be very nice and nodded his head and agreed. The boat ride to the beach was terrific, while there was quite a bit of traffic on the water near the Love Beach. The beach was beautiful and calm. We did a short walk to the other side of the peninsula, called “Divorce Beach.” It’s less crowded, but the water is much rough.

After snapping a few pictures, we went back to the water taxi landing area. Our boat was nowhere to be seen. An English-speaking local helper on the beach assured us that our boat was coming. We had waited for another 40 mins, and suddenly, we saw our boat coming towards our way. We waved, and the local helper tried to call the boat on a two-way radio. But the boat went to go around the Arco and sailed away. As the boat disappeared on the horizon, we decided to find a water taxi back to the city. The local guy found another boat to take us back to the Medano beach. The beach was very crowded, and we didn’t feel comfortable staying for very long. We walked away from the beach and headed back downtown, walking along the marina shore. Even just a few blocks away from the beach, the area was very friendly and quiet. We had the fish tacos and calamari at Baja Cantina, facing the marina. They were delicious but more American style.

After lunch, we went to the resort corridor on the west side of the town to check out Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, a luxury resort where our friend would stay in two weeks. When we walked into one of the resorts, the gate guard stopped us as he could tell that we were not their resort guests since we asked for beach access. He told us to turn around and access thru the Grand Solmar. We followed his direction. This time, we were little smart and walked passing the resort guard of Grand Solmar without acting suspiciously. The resort was lovely and luxurious. The beach was just as beautiful as other places but without the crowd. We walked along the coast to Waldorf Astoria Pedregal, taking a few pictures and sending them to our friend. It was a time for us to go back to our cruise ship. As the sun was setting down behind the mountains, our ship sailed away. We enjoyed our first visit to Mexico very much.

Majestic Princess, at Sea -盛世公主号

Nov. 20 – 27, 2021

Once cruising restarted gradually, we were eager to go out and cruise again after we were fully vaccinated. We bet that the pandemic would be all over by the fall after most people would be vaccinated, as all experts predicted. We booked a seven days Bahamas cruise trip on Crystal Serenity for early November, the same ship of our 2020 world cruise trip. We were excited about going back to the vessel again. However, as the Delta variant virus quickly spread worldwide during the summer months, we didn't feel comfortable doing a cruise and getting out of the country. Everyone on the cruise ships were required to be fully vaccinated, and there were multiple COVID-19 tests required during the cruise trip, starting from getting the travel health visa and before embarking. However, there were still a few breakthrough cases on the cruises. Fearing that we might be quarantined outside the states if we were tested positive for COVID or became a close contact of someone who had been tested positive while on the ship, even we had no symptoms, we had canceled our booking at the last minute before the final payment was due. A couple of months after our Bahamas trip cancellation, we had spotted a good deal of seven days cruise from Los Angeles to Mexico by Majestic Princess for the Thanksgiving week. When both kids decided to stay in New York City during the holiday, we jumped on the deal. Los Angeles is only six hours away from home, and we can drive there instead of flying. Another main reason for taking this cruise was that the Princess has a much preferred COVID protection program that gives us peace of mind. In the worst-case scenario, if we were infected with COVID, we would not stuck anywhere outside the states and could still come back and drive home. Princess requires the negative COVID-19 test result taken two days before embarking. We went to CVS to take the Rapid-Antigen test, which our health insurance covers. Less than one hour after the test, we got our test result. It's NEGATIVE! 

On Nov. 20, we left home at 6:30 am and drove directly to the world cruise port of Los Angeles. After 6 hours of driving, we parked our car and walked about 200 feet to the check-in tent. The check-in process went very smoothly. After showing the vaccination certifications, the negative test results of COVID-19, and our passports, we were on our way to the ship. We felt very exciting, in the meantime, kind of nervous as we stepped on the gangway. "Is it safe?" "Do we risk our lives?" 

With precaution, we had set a few rules for ourselves. We decided not to go on organized shore excursions to avoid close contact with others for an extended time. Using elevators was not an option for us, and we used stairs going up and down. Sometimes, we felt exhausted after taking ten flights to the Sun Deck or eight flights to the Marketplace for a buffet. We dined most at the main dining restaurants or specialty restaurants. We didn't share the tables with others and always chose private dining options. We participated in some activities, like lectures and concerts, only when we could find the seats keeping social distance from other passengers. We wore masks all the time in public areas. Fortunately, the ship was not crowded at all, with only about 45% occupancy, and almost all were wearing masks in public. Once we were on the ship, we felt safe and comfortable as on the previous cruises.

Since we explored the ports by ourselves, we spent most of the onboard ship credits on specialty restaurants on the ship. There are three specialty restaurants on Majestic Princess, Harmony, Crown Grill, and Bistro Sir La Mer, each charging $29 per person. Harmony is a Chinese restaurant. We dined there on the first night. We started with Peking duck salad and steamed pork spare rib as appetizers, followed by hot sour and wonton soups. The main courses are Kung Pao Chicken and Stir-fried shrimp with sugar peas and mushrooms. Cantonese chow mein with assorted vegetables and braised crispy tofu with shiitake mushroom and baby bok choy were served as side dishes. In addition, we ordered wok-fried lobster with winter bamboo shoot and dried scallop chili sauce for an additional $12. The evening was wrapped up with two desserts, red bean crème brulée and green tea cheesecake. The dinner was delicious but not as good as we expect to be the creations of the one Michelin star chef.

On the fourth day of the cruise, we went to another specialty restaurant, Crown Grill, a steakhouse. Both appetizers, Mediterranean-style lobster cake and seared jumbo sea scallops with herb beurre blanc were excellent. We ordered 16 oz premium beef chop, and Chilean seabass and brioche-breaded king prawns for the main courses. The beer chop was tasteful, but it was too much meat to finish it up. The seabass and king prawns were perfect. The triple chocolate treasure, a Princess signature desert, was not disappointing.

The last night on the ship, we went to the French restaurant, Bistro Sir La Mer. Each of us ordered Bisque de homard, a lobster bisque. The soup was served in a bowl covered with pastry top hat, and it had a lot of lobster chunks in it, and it was the best lobster bisque we had ever had. The waiter was super friendly. He brought in two appetizers, Pate en croute and Salade de saison, followed by the main courses, seared duck, and roasted jumbo scallops. Every single one of them was delicious. Finally, we had Ile flottante aux agrumes, crème balls covered with netted egg shield, and Barre chocolat for dessert. They looked beautiful as well as tasted delicious. We consider Bistro Sir La Mer the best among the three specialty restaurants.

We couldn't stop comparing the food between the Princess and Crystal. Overall, the foods at Princess' three specialty restaurants are decent, but they are still a couple of notches below Crystal's. Besides the food, there is no comparison for the onboard entertainment and enrichment program. Crystal is way much better. We never got bored on any of the sea days during our world cruise on the Crystal Serenity. There were so many excellent enrichment programs and entertainment we could attend. But we did get a little bored on the sea days during this Princess seven days trip.

P.S. The blogs about the experience at three call ports will be posted later on.

Our World Cruise Ended Today - 2020年环球之旅半路终止

Unfortunately, our 89 days world cruise is ended today, 49 days shorter than planned. The Crystal Cruise has decided to cancel all port calls to Asia, adding a few more port calls in Australia and more sea days in Java Sea. They also offered us an option to end the world cruise in Sydney. They will refund all unused nights plus provide some credits for future cruise and $500 each person for travel assistance. We decided to take the offer and get off in Sydney to spend some time in Australia and then go home. Putting all of our stuff back into six suitcases was a stressful process but we finished in a couple days. We booked four nights at the Four Seasons Hotel not too far away from the cruise terminal via our travel agent. Because we booked through our Virtuoso travel agent, we got extra amenities like free breakfast, $100 credit, and a free upgrade. This is the first time we have booked hotels via a travel agent. We may consider this option more in the future travel.

Room Number of The Cabin We Stayed During the Partial World Cruise

LAST DAY - March 3, 2020

So today is the disembarkment day for us. We left the ship at 9:45 AM and were picked up by a private car. Four Seasons Hotel is a 5 mins walking distance away from the terminal but it took 10 mins to drive over there due to street traffic in Sydney. We were allowed to check in earlier and placed in a room with a partial harbor view. The room was nice. After settling down in the hotel, we headed out for sightseeing. We had Fish and Chips at the Rocks Café on the rocks first. Then we walked over the Sydney Bridge to Kirribilli. We saw Luna Park from outside and strolled along the coast line. We passed by Admiralty House and the Lady Gowrie Lookout. Then we got on a ferry nearby to get back to the hotel. Our credit card didn’t work for us at the Kirribilli Ferry Terminal but the workers were very nice and let us get on and off the ferry without tickets. 

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We visited the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. It is a beautiful garden and well maintained. We met Connie’s friend at the train station and took an Uber to a Shanghainese Restaurant, Taste of Shanghai. We had so many Shanghai cuisine dishes, like fried pork bun, smoked fish, etc. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. The streets in Sydney are busy at night. There were a lot of tourists and locals. We really enjoyed a full day in Sydney.

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Antarctica - Nov.27 - Dec 7 2018

“I want to go to Antarctica!” It became our lifetime dream after we saw an article about  traveling to Antarctica many years ago. That dream finally came true in 2018. After 18 month anxious waiting and meticulous preparation, we had embarked Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic Orion on Nov. 27 to start our Antarctica trip.             

After sailing past humpback whales, and soaring albatrosses and petrels in the uncharacteristically calm Drake Passage, we landed at Half Moon Island where we were greeted by Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins and had a short hike up the hill under Antarctica’s high wind and snow. Next we walked on the Adelie penguin colony on the Devil’s Island. At the Weddell Sea filled with brown, blue and green ice, we did a Zodiac cruise and kayaked near Snow Hill Island, as Emperor penguins and seals on floating ices watched us. As the sun set down over unusually calmed Antarctica ocean, the Antarctica evening was beautiful and amazing, filled with golden, pink, peach, blue and while. Three hours after the sunset, as the sun rose from the icy horizon, the morning in Antarctica was filled up with the magic lights again. Continent landing and hiking at Neko Harbor made our fifth continent visit official. Our Drake Passage crossing back was also uneventful, thanks to the captain who made record time sailing ahead of a massive storm.             

During 10 days expedition, the ship covered 2005 miles and we did five Zodiac landings and cruises, one Kayak at sea, fast ice parking and a few short hikes. We took about 6,000 pictures with our Sony a6000 and a7 III cameras. It was truly the journey of our dreams.

           很多年前，一份关于前往南极旅行的文章让我们梦想着总有一天我们也会去那个遥远的地方。这个梦想得已在2018年实现。11月27日我们从阿根挺的乌斯怀亚港登上国家地理Orion探险船，开始了终生难忘的南极之旅。穿过以连接太平洋和大西洋而著名的德雷克海峡后，我们一路南行进入南极海域。在那里，我们天天与成百上千只绅士企鹅，帽带企鹅和阿德利企鹅作伴。座头鲸，杀手鲸，海狮以及各种不同的鸟常常给我们惊喜。 在威德尔海上，我们更有幸看到了难得一遇的帝王企鹅。 我们的南极探险包括快速皮艇巡游和登陆，海上划艇，冰上停船以及一些短途徒步登山等活动。当暮色来临时，金色，粉红色，蓝色和白色的光芒充满了南极夜空。日落过后仅三个小时，太阳又从冰冷的地平线上升起，南极洲的早晨再次充满了神奇的光彩。我·们的船上总共有104位游客来自于世界各国，另外还有12名探险专员和65名船员。在海上巡航10天，前后覆盖了2005英里，给我们留下了六千张难忘的照片。

Expedition Map