We arrived Christmas morning in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Puntarenas is on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, very far south. We'd visited Costa Rica before on our Panama Canal partial transit cruise at Limon on the Caribbean coast.


If you read my Panama Canal partial transit trip report (2012), you might remember that we had an excursion-gone-wrong in Costa Rica. Since we didn't have the best luck with a DIY shore excursion last time, we decided to not take any chances and book through Princess.

Finally, it was warm and sunny, and we were ready to get our tans on!

Notice how many available pool chairs there are? It was like this the entire cruise! There was absolutely no issue with chair hogs, and it seemed that the majority of the passengers preferred to stay inside. We never had to wake up early to claim deck chairs. We could hit the pool deck at any time of the day and find a chair right beside the pool. It was wonderful!


Rachel and I liked the tenth deck, forward, for tanning because there was a nice breeze.

Again, Rachel was an early riser and was out and about the ship before me. She signed mom and I up for the Ladies' Pamper Party that afternoon. I got up in search of breakfast and ran into Rachel on the pool deck. We decided to do the $500 Treasure Hunt which was due at 11 AM. It took all of ten minutes to walk around the ship collecting stamps from each venue.

So at 11:15, we headed to the Cabaret Lounge to see if we'd win the drawing. We didn't win anything, and it was a little frustrating because this huge family of teenagers from the LA area kept winning everything, and there were also two husband and wife winning pairs - how weird is that? Clearly, they did not shake up the bowl before the drawing if husband and wife were winning back-to-back.

Rachel wanted to play Bingo, so Dad bought her a pack of cards. Princess has paper Bingo cards that you just cross out the number with a pen or pencil - not the punch-in kind. I was also glad to see that there were no electronic bingo cards because I don't trust those things. I am skeptical of them and don't understand how they don't provide better odds or an unfair advantage (maybe they do, and that's why they cost more). Also, what's the fun of Bingo if you can't find your own numbers to mark?

Bingo was led by Michael and Dylan, two of the dancers. The really cool thing about this ship is that the dancers all played several roles. They were in the production shows at night, but they also led Bingo, line dancing, water volleyball, arts and crafts, and greeted guests going to the shows. You saw them all over the ship interacting with guests (we learned later that part of their job is conversing with passengers). It felt very Love Boat and I enjoyed it.

Michael was very energetic and cracked a lot of corny Bingo jokes which I laughed at loudly and a little too late. First round of Bingo is a straight row, anywhere. And... Rachel won! We didn't see it at first, and so Rachel called it late - "Bingo?" Michael gave us a hard time throughout the rest of the game about how just like we call Bingo late, we get the jokes three seconds behind.

The grand prize in the first game of the day was..... $50. Of course, she'd win the smallest prize. Remember how I said Dad bought the Bingo card? Well, that was an important note because throughout the rest of the cruise, Dad would argue that he actually bought the Bingo card, so really it was his winning card, even though Rachel was the one holding the cards (okay, Dad, you kinda won, congrats). He also kept pushing that Rachel split the winnings with me since I helped cross out the numbers (it's okay, Dad, really). So if Rachel were to have paid Dad back for the Bingo card and then split her winnings with me, she would have come out with... $12? Forget that. Keep your $50 bill, Rachel, you earned it!

My east coast family had no problem getting up early in the morning. My dad was up, had made up his bed, gotten us breakfast from downstairs (another Residence Inn perk - complimentary continental breakfast buffet), and walked the the Queen Mary and back before I had even gotten out of bed.

I didn’t go home over Christmas break. After missing my flight and almost my Christmas cruise last year, my family decided to fly to me, instead. We embarked in San Pedro and spent 17 (!!!) days on the charming Pacific Princess, sailing through the Panama Canal, and disembarking in Fort Lauderdale.

After we sailed the Panama Canal Partial Transit on the Island Princess back in 2012, the full transit was added to our bucket list. And it turned out that this Christmas was the perfect time to take our dream cruise. For starters, my dad was required to take off 30 days from work (the man loves to work – he was not happy about this). My winter break at UCLA aligned almost perfectly with Rachel’s break from Clemson. Also, this is Rachel’s last year at Clemson, so it’s probably the last time we’ll be able to take such a long vacation. Our options for Panama Canal cruises over Christmas were limited to a 14-day itinerary on the Island Princess or a 17-day itinerary on the Pacific Princess. Honestly, 17 days on a ship seemed like an awful long time, and I had seen the Pacific Princess in port a few times before, so I knew how small she was. My vote was for the Island Princess…. But the Island Princess returned to port a day later than the Pacific Princess, which would mean that I wouldn’t get back in time for the first day of winter quarter. So the Pacific Princess it was.



Like I said, the Panama Canal was a “bucket list” cruise, which meant we spent a bit more on it (in time and money) than we typically do our quickly-planned Caribbean cruises. 17 days on a cruise ship isn’t inexpensive, but where the cost can really add up is in the one-way flights to get to the port of embarkation and to get back home. My family traveled from Atlanta to Los Angeles and took one-way flights on Southwest (2 free bags each!). They also had to book one-way flights on Southwest from Fort Lauderdale back to Atlanta. Since I live in Los Angeles, I only needed a return flight home, a one-way on Spirit (no free bags, paid checked bags, upcharge for everything).

So we arrived in port that morning with six other ships. Mega ships.



Our disembarkation time was 9:45, but we were supposed to be out of the room by 8:00. We were told that we could leave our bags in the room until 9:00 and go eat breakfast which was a great convenience. After breakfast, we got our bags and waited in the casino.

We had been hearing over the loudspeaker that disembarkation was backed up because we only had three customs agents. Princess was sure to let us know that it wasn't their faut.

We finally got called to disembark the ship at 10:30. They were nearly an hour behind schedule. Once we got off the ship and collected our bags, the customs line was ridiculous. We were a little peeved that they called us so early because we were comfortable waiting in the casino and were having good conversation with our North Carolina friends. There was also no porter line at this terminal, so our porter waited in line with us. Luckily, he was a very friendly guy. He told us that because of all the ships in port, we had gotten unlucky with terminal 19. Princess owns terminal 2, so everything runs smoothly there, but terminal 19 is just a mess.

Finally, after waiting in line for nearly an hour, we were moved over to the handicap entry because we had a porter and they needed the porters to hurry up and get back to help more people with luggage. So we get through customs and our porter takes our things to the parking garage, and we tip him and send him on his way.



We're waiting outside in the windy cold for like 20 minutes. I finally call Dad. "I can't find the car anywhere!" We ask around, and no one really has the answer in the parking garage. We realize this is probably not the parking garage we parked in... it doesn't look familiar at all. The terminal doesn't look familiar at all. Dad and I go back track to where we exited and asked around there. Finally, someone was able to tell us that we had entered in terminal 2, but we were at terminal 19 now, so we would have to take a shuttle back to the parking garage at terminal 2.

So you're telling me that with all of these announcements Princess was making about how this disembarkation mess wasn't their fault, they didn't bother to tell us that not only were we at terminal 19, but that we were at a DIFFERENT TERMINAL!?!?!??? There should've been signs everywhere! It should've been in the Patter! We should've been told as we exited the ship!!!

I knew that we were at terminal 19, but it had been ten days - I didn't remember that we had arrived at terminal 2! Why didn't they remind us? You would've think that they would've been announcing that over and over again.

We FINALLY left the port at 12:20. And yes, customs sucked, but I also blame Princess. It just really stunk to leave with such a bitter taste in our mouths. We had a great cruise. We really enjoyed Princess and will probably sail with Princess again. But disembarkation is the last place you want to make enemies. You want people to leave your ship remembering what a great cruise they had and wishing they could stay, not begging to go home and then unable to find their car.

We had originally planned to spend the rest of the day at a beach, but it was cold and windy.... so instead we drove by the beach.

First we headed down to Miami. Rachel had never been to Miami before.











The we drove by the beaches of Fort Lauderdale...





It looked like a really cool beach town, and I'd love to spend more time there when the weather is warmer.

We were meeting our table mates from Canada that we had met on our last Christmas cruise on the Adventure for dinner in Orlando. They had just returned from their cruise on the Freedom of the Seas and were spending a few days in Orlando, so we had to meet up!

This is actually the first time we've actually reunited with a family we met on a cruise. Often, we'll exchange addresses and emails but never contact eachother again. I'm Facebook friends with many people I've met and will continue to talk to them from time to time, but no true reunion.

They left the restaurant choice up to us. I called and got us a reservation for Boma at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge.







We had a lovely dinner with the Smith family (I say their last name only because it's so common), exchanging cruise stories. It was almost as if it hadn't been a year since we'd seen eachother! It was so great to meet up with them, and we're even planning to book the same cruise next Christmas!

Rachel and I ate at Horizon Court and then went to the pool deck. Typical. This morning, they played The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - it was a good movie I'd never seen before. I enjoyed it.

In the afternoon, they did a little boat race. There were two boats competing. One was made out of bottles and duct tape. It worked. The next was a replica of the Island Princess that this little girls' grandfather spent 72 hours building.





The announcers were giving the Princess replica a hard time for dropping the cargo and not being the most efficient, but it was the chosen winner by the audience.

I then decided that I needed to photographically document the ship. This was something that I had planned to do but put off all week.




Sports deck. I went up here only to take this picture.



Look at all this deck space with no chairs...



I didn't know this was even here until the second to last day. It's an oddly hidden mini golf course.





Why no chairs!?!?!????



Oh, here's some chairs...



One chair...



Two chairs...



No chairs!?!?!!!





The Splash Pool is a little less than exciting. Not sure it qualifies for such dramatic signage.



There aren't many chairs up here, either.



Horizon Court. As soon as you walk in...



You can tell it isn't lunch time.



Lots of wasted space here. I'm not sure why they need a grand piano in their buffet.



We took a photo with our favorite bartender before dinner.



Now, I took more photos of the ship after dinner. I have been planning this ongoing project in which I will analyze the aesthetics of different ships and cruise lines, and I wish I would've spent more time doing this throughout the cruise because I really felt pushed at the end.



I really liked these well-decorated hallways on the 6th and 7th floors of the ship. They're themed to their surroundings.

Explorer's Lounge -



Water feature in the atrium -



Favorite bar on the 5th floor -



This was the hallway outside of Blue Bayou -





Hallway outside Sabatini's -





I was happy to see Mickey in the art gallery.



Hallway outside Wheelhouse -







Empty as always.



It's such a large venue. They really should schedule some entertainment there. Right now it's basically a waste of space.







Hallway to the theater -





The Atrium -


Martini Bar usually had a good crowd -









Luckily, I was never bored enough to have to go into the card room during this cruise.



The Island Princess definitely has the biggest library I've seen on a cruise ship.







The Universe Lounge is actually where they held the majority of their shows, rather than the theater. Probably because egress is such an issue in the theater.



Princess gives chocolates at turn-down. Royal Caribbean stopped doing this several years ago.



NEXT: Day 11 - Disembarkation