Steve and Cathy's Blog

As we suspected would be the case, we are up early, around 4:00am.  Of course, there is last minute packing of our carry-ons and so forth, but mostly we want to have time to take care of last minute details without feeling rushed. We had put out our one piece of luggage for collection last night as instructed, and had Red 1 as our luggage tag.  We would begin the disembarkation procedure based on an announcement

Well, this is Day 180 according to today’s Currents.  Steve gets up at the regular 5:45 and Jay brings coffee, milk and croissant. He heads for the Fitness Center around 6:30 and spends 30 minutes on the treadmill.  This is been a really beneficial exercise plan and he promises himself he will continue when we get back home.  Hmmm.  We shall see. We have breakfast in the Grand Dining Room one more time.  We will certainly

Insignia arrives in the harbor of George Town on Grand Cayman around 8:00am.  The 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle is there ahead of us, so it will be a busy day in the little town. Almost every excursion involves snorkeling or diving, so we elect to not sign up for anything at all.  In fact, Cathy decides to just stay on the ship to stay out of the heat and avoid riding on the tender one last time.

The post on Cartagena for the 27th was all about that very interesting city, but there were also a couple of shipboard activities worth mentioning for that day that we want to insert now. A few days previous to this one, there had been an ATW auction.  One of the prizes being auctioned off that we mentioned but did not elaborate upon was Cruise Director For A Day, where the winning bidder would shadow Ray Carr,

Unfortunately we won’t arrive in Cartagena (often referred to as Cartagena de Indias) until 11:00am, so we take advantage of the extra time and have a full breakfast in the Grand Dining Room.   As with all the meals, everything is perfectly prepared and creatively presented. In fact, our meals are so good, we take pictures of them! Steve has Swedish pancakes and bacon, Cathy has the “egg special of the day,” spinach waffle with poached egg,

Most every ATW guest has been waiting for this day for the entire time we have been on the ship. Going through the Panama Canal is a bit of a rite of passage.  It is a big deal to most everyone who has ever had the opportunity, sort of like the first time you cross the equator.  In fact, most of the people that booked this last segment from Los Angeles to Miami did so specifically

We are opposite the Pacific coast of Panama right now (7 degrees Latitude, 82 degrees longitude) cruising at 14 knots, heading for our rendezvous with the Panama Canal tomorrow morning. Since we have been in Guatemala, the guides on our excursions have been saying that we are in the rainy season here in Central America.  We have been getting ample demonstrations of that at night, with thunderstorms well off to our port side near land.  Some

We arrive at 6:00am as scheduled at the port of Puntarenas (which is Spanish for ‘sand point’).  Unlike much of Central America, this country has a stable, democratic government, a booming economy, a sophisticated literate population and per capita income well, well above that of their neighbors.  With the exception of needing improved infrastructure, especially highways, it is a success story and has been since the 1840s. Our tour begins right on time and we are

During the night, if we get up for any reason (wonder what that could be?) , we witness another huge lightning storm, this one off the coast of El Salvador as we sail southeast on our way to Costa Rica.  They are so far away that we rarely if ever hear the thunder, but it is an impressive sight, especially at sea.  I stand at the door to the veranda and watch for ten minutes or

We arrive at Guatemala’s largest Pacific Ocean port right on time around 8:00am.  Even on the way in, we can see the reason that almost all of the previously scheduled excursions in this country were canceled: 12,000-foot high Volcan de Fuego (a picture of what we see begins this post).  It began its latest eruption on June 5thand has killed 114 people.  In the interest of guest safety, any tour that comes within thirty miles of