About a year ago my dad floated the idea of Tony and I joining him on a cruise through the Panama Canal. Of course, we thought that was a wonderful idea! He also invited my brother and his wife but they weren’t going to be available after recently traveling to Paris and the French countryside.…

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We flew into LAX the day before our cruise to make sure weather did not affect our timely arrival to the ship. As it was, there was snow in Denver that delayed the second leg of our flight. We arrived from Des Moines in time to talk with Dad at his gate before he took…

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The USS Iowa is a floating museum that is permanently docked near the cruise ship terminal and a short walk from our hotel. We ate breakfast at the hotel then stored our luggage to tour the battleship. Dad had to pay for his ticket but as Iowans, Tony and I were able to tour it…

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We chose the latest embarkation time slot to have time to tour the USS Iowa this morning without feeling rushed. After rolling our big luggage for over a mile, going through security, and getting our all important room key card (which is used for everything), we found our room 9044 ready for us. In watching…

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We had a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day to enjoy our first port of call. After a leisurely breakfast and first round of Sudoku in the ship’s library, we disembarked. David has family here, and his nephew Josh, met us dockside with his Tesla. David was convinced we could all fit with me on Tony’s…

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This is our first port outside of the US and our first experience with using a Tender to get dockside. Some of the covered lifeboats stored on level seven were put into service today, and the process of getting them into the water was fun to watch from our balcony on level nine. Davits hold…

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The city of Puerto Vallarta had a pretty park to welcome us to shore. Our port time was shortened a bit from the tender delay problem yesterday evening, so Tony and I decided to just walk to a nearby shopping area. We could see a mall and a Sam’s Club a short distance down the…

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After two back-to-back days at sea, it felt nice to have the ship stop moving. Our shore excursion in Guatemala was called “Colonial Antigua” and we took a comfortable bus ride to get there with our tour guide, Winston, giving us the history of the country along the way. I was most fascinated by the…

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The weather forecast for thunderstorms caused our “aerial tram and river cruise” excursion to be canceled. We were most disappointed, but know the tourism company was protecting us and lost out on today’s fees in the process. Instead we had a nice walk through Puntarenas, which sits out on a barrier island off the coast…

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Our port of call today, while we wait for our trip through the canal tomorrow, is a very modern-looking city. It is beautiful by day and at night. My favorite building was the F&F Tower (52 story office skyscraper) which looks like a strand of DNA. The canal has positively impacted the local economy. “Highlights…

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