Definitely not going to Dubbo

Well, the Dubbo and Cowra trip has now officially been cancelled as there's no chance I'll be able to drive. I'm still wearing the moon boot and have been referred off to see an orthopaedic surgeon, whose first available appointment is in January.  No-one seems to think that missing a trip to Dubbo is that big a deal, but I was looking forward to it - I've never been to the Western Plains Zoo, and there were other interesting things to do there and in Cowra too.  But, it's definitely not an option without a car  :-(
So, Adam and I are going to go to Sydney instead.  Not 100% thrilling, but we'll find things to do.  There are a few shows on, and no doubt there'll be post-Christmas sales to look at.  And, the Carnival Spirit - the ship Paul and I are sailing on for our anniversary cruise - will be in port on 27 December, so I might wander down and have a look.
About later holiday plans - I have come across another way to see Gallipoli which looks really interesting.  It's a special deal from a cruise holidays company which we have used before (they organised most of our 2010 US 'holiday and cruise home').  This one is a 21 day Mediterranean cruise which ticks off at least three bucket list items - Gallipoli, Santorini and Pompeii - as well as a stack of other places that may not be on the bucket list but will still be worth a look.  I'm going to send them an eMail about it and see where it takes us, but to be honest I think it's still more likely that we'd do it in 2014 rather than next year.
Anyway, I'm heading back to Flickr to finish uploading the holiday photos.......

Turkey....

The country, not the bird.
The cruise on the Carnival Spirit is our only planned holiday for 2013, although we'll probably both request leave for September 2013 and see if any super-cheap cruises or package holidays show up closer to the time.
However, 2014 is a bit different - I'm already looking at options for another overseas trip that year, hopefully without broken bones this time  :-)
Four main things we'd really like to do

• a coach tour of Turkey - maybe like this one - this is a must do for us since we decided to cancel our booking for the Gallipoli 100th anniversary cruise
• a Baltic cruise
• a battlefields tour of the Western Front
• see some more of the UK

No idea yet of how to wrap these all together, but I've got plenty of time to work it out - assuming that we aim for September 2014, I couldn't start booking any of this until late next year.  No doubt, we'll have come up with plenty of other ideas in the meantime!!!

Sprains and fractures.......

Apparently whenever someone sprains their ankle badly, the standard medical procedure should be to at least take an xRay, as there's a risk that a bad sprain can actually cause a sort of fracture to the ankle (an avulsion fracture).
Turns out, that's what happened to me in London when I fell, back in August.  The doctor I saw in London didn't mention this, and obviously the bone didn't have a chance of healing without the proper treatment.
Result:  from the knee down my right leg is now in a 'moon boot', holding it immobile in the hope it will heal.  After that - with any luck - I'll only need about 2 months of rehabilitation to get it back into shape.  Ouch.
The real problem of course is that I can't drive with the moon boot on, which means that my next little holiday - the trip to Dubbo and Cowra that Adam and I have planned - is seriously unlikely to happen.  There's just no way to get to Dubbo from here on public transport.   So, it's back to the planning board!

28 to 30 October - day 69/70 - the long flight home

Of course, we lose a day flying home from Los Angeles.  We started off flying with Air New Zealand from Los Angeles to Auckland.  When we checked in, the lady at Air New Zealand could see that I wasn't really using the crutches and offered to check them in for me - that was really nice of her, but I wasn't sure I'd ever see them again!
Anyway, on this flight we had a Skycouch - three seats for the two of us, and with footrests that lock up level with the seats to create a couch. Success with this was mixed, to be honest.  We did manage to both lie down and even get some sleep, but Paul can't sleep on his side for too long (because of his shoulders) and there really isn't room for sleeping on your back.  I had no problem with the small amount of sideways space, but not being able to stretch my legs out was quite uncomfortable.  In the end we put the footrests up on two of the seats and took turns - one of us would sit up and the other would lie across the two seats.  It wasn't too bad, and certainly more comfortable than sitting up for 13 hours.  I'm still not sure if we'd do it that way again though.  It would be quite ok for one person, and I think still a lot cheaper than business class.
Anyway, the plane was quite clean and comfortable, the in-flight entertainment was good - basically it was as good as you can expect a 13 hour flight to be.
The transit in Auckland was fine, in fact it was excellent compared to the chaos of our transit in Dubai at the start of the trip. Of course, the fact that there were far fewer passengers going through transit may have helped.  Anyway, the flight across to Sydney was also not too bad.
Arrival in Sydney was ok - even my crutches showed up!  Only one problem - at Customs, they decided that we should use the automated arrival machines.  I don't think it's sensible to ask two 50+ year olds to use new technology after 15 hours on a plane!  We managed ok, although we had to answer 'yes' to the question about whether we had been in Central/South America in the last 7 days, and this machine came up with a list of about 40 countries and we had about 10 seconds to say whether or not we had been to one of them.  I was pretty sure that 'No' was the right answer.  The next time I was asked about this was by a person, and I used the magic words "it was on a cruise" - as I suspected, they were looking for people who had been trekking in the jungles, and she waved us on through!
After that, no dramas at all - caught a train to the domestic terminal, lazed around in the Qantas Club for a few hours (waiting for the next flight on a jet, as I had no desire to fly on one of those tiny Dash planes, and anyway I always knew our carry-on would be too big for one of those flights) then finally a pre-booked limo ride home from Canberra Airport.

Sunday 28 October - day 68 - Los Angeles

Arrived in port on time - got up and had breakfast, left our cabin just before 8am (everyone had to be out of their cabin by then).  Because of our "platinum" status we got to wait in a "dedicated" lounge rather than having to wait with the crowds in the other lounges.  Good thing too because departure was delayed - the first people were due to leave the ship at 7:00am but it was almost 8:30 before they could leave.  We were due to leave at 9:40; by that time they had caught up a bit, but it was still after 10am before our group was called.  Often those people looking for a 7:00am departure have taken the risk of trying for a 9:00 or 10:00 am plane out of LAX - I suspect that more than one of them might have missed their flight. No such risk for us - our flight out of LAX wasn't until 11:00pm.

After a good deal of thought about this, I decided that the best way to fill in some time was to go on a tour.  The cruise line used to offer these, but they don't have them in Los Angeles any more.  So, I booked a private tour with Tours By Locals.  Basically, they have a bunch of local people who have pre-determined tours of varying lengths - usually between 4 and 12 hours although I've seen at least one 11 day one! - covering all sorts of different sights in the city in question (they're all over the world).

Our particular tour was actually called "Explore LA your way", which is one that isn't actually pre-organised - as it says, you see what you want to see.

It was really good - the guide (Emily) picked us up in her car at the cruise port with no problems.  She had already asked us to name some places we wanted to see, and she took us to them and also to a bunch of other places that fitted in with where we were going, with a lot of explanations about all of the places we went to.  Basically for places we went into, she'd park the car outside, explain anything we needed to know about where to go etc, then she'd either wait for us or come back and get us when we called.  While we drove from place to place she would talk about Los Angeles - the history of the places we were going to, or information about places we drove past - she was just a mine of information (as you'd have to be in her job!)

These aren't in the order we saw them - the first six are the ones we asked to see, and the rest are the extras she showed us anyway.

USS Iowa - this was really easy as it's docked right beside the spot where the Coral Princess docked.
We did a quick tour and took some photos - later they'll have some different organised tours but for now
it's all pretty much 'show yourself around'.
Here's a photo of the Coral Princess as seen from the USS Iowa, and vice versa:

And a photo of Paul:

Walt Disney Concert Hall - I didn't take any photos because they don't do it justice, I just wanted to see it for real.

The Griffith Observatory - this was an incredible drive - apparently half of Los Angeles wanted to go to Griffith Park or to the observatory for the afternoon and there were cars parked all along the (narrow and winding) approach road.  Emily drove the entire way without a blink about the traffic while at the same time explaining the history of the park and the observatory to us. There's a really interesting back story to Griffith Park including a curse and a long history of financial failures.  However the park itself now is apparently a really popular place for hiking, and the observatory of course provides excellent views of land and sky.

California Science Centre - a bit closer to Questacon than I expected, but currently has a really good exhibition on Cleopatra. Here's one of the recently unearthed statues:

Santa Monica Pier - another place I just wanted to see for myself.  You see lots of bits and pieces of it in TV shows etc, but now I have seen it I know what it really looks like!

Le Brea Tar Pits - what more can I say?

Architecture of Los Angeles - Emily showed us some of the buildings around downtown, including the Millenium Biltmore which has some really unexpected and beautiful features.  Have a look at the link - it really is a beautiful hotel (with room prices to match - $500 to $5000 per night for a random night next week!)

Spanish settlement - we stopped and had a break at Olvera Street which is a very old part of downtown Los Angeles.  There's a Mexican marketplace (where we bought a very non-Mexican icecream), a very old Fire Station and church, and the Avila Adobe house which is the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles.  We also saw some of the celebrations leading up to the Day of the Dead.  Emily assures us that this area is more Mexican than anything we saw in Mexico!

Houses - we got to see a small area of beautifully maintained Victorian era houses - I had no idea there'd be such houses in Los Angeles.  Also on the way to see the Hollywood sign, we got to see some quite beautiful houses in the "Castle" and "Fairy Tale" styles.

Hollywood Sign - we got to what is apparently the closest spot from where you can see the front of the sign.  Emily also explained the history of the sign and showed us the Real Estate Agency - Hollywood Land Real Estate - that started it all off.  No zoom here - we really were that close!

Emily finally dropped us off at LAX for our flight.  Even if we were brave enough to drive in the USA, we would never have known to to even look for some of these places.  This was a really good way to spend the day - much better than waiting at LAX for more than 12 hours! - and was really worth the cost.

Saturday 27 October - day 67- Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 13 - at sea

Another lazy cruise day today for the last day on board.  For the first and only day, the temperature is low enough that we could both comfortably sit on our balcony for more than a short time, so we did!
The only other effort we made today was of course packing - bags have to be left out tonight for departure in the morning.  I was quite worried that we'd have problems with the size / weight of our bags for the flights home, but in fact it all looks ok!

Friday 26 October - day 66 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 12 - Cabo San Lucas

Arrived at Cabo San Lucas early in the morning.  We went on shore and went for a walk, but the heat really hit Paul hard so we cut the walk short and came back to the ship.
It's a lovely place if you like beach resorts - all sorts of beaches and water sports and lots of duty free shops and hotels.
Rest of the day was a proper cruise day - laze round and do nothing.

Thursday 25 October - day 65- Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 11 - at sea

Lazy sea day today, at least until 2pm.
Then, we went on a fund-raising walk - 8 times round the promenade deck, which is around 5 kilometres.  This was organised by Princess, and today's was special.  Apparently they organise the walk on every cruise, but one day each year they encourage the crew to walk as well, and today was that day.  And, the crew was out in force.  There were a lot of passengers walking - far more than on the similar walk on the Oasis even though this cruise has only one-third of the passengers - but we were well outnumbered by the crew.

Wednesday 24 October - day 64- Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 10 - at sea

Today I went on a 'behind the scenes' tour of the ship.  It was run by Callie, who is on the entertainment staff and has recently been promoted to Deputy Cruise Director.  We were also accompanied by a photographer who took group photos in a number of places and by a security guard who kept an eye on us everywhere we went.  Here are my notes about the places we saw - it was really interesting!

Medical Centre - Dr Ryan.  Showed us the main areas including the intensive care unit.  They can do a really broad range of medical treatments on board, although there are limits, for example if a woman goes into labour, or someone needs surgery, they'd much rather find a way to get them treated onshore.  The crew also use the same medical centre; he said on an average day they'd see 10-12 crew and 12-15 passengers.  He also said that the passenger who was taken off the ship at the Panama Canal is still quite ill, but slowly improving, so that was good to hear.
Bridge - Captain Binetti.  Explained what we were seeing on the bridge, showed us a ship off in the distance and how it appeared on the radar.  Answered - before we could ask - a lot of the regular questions that people ask him.  Point of interest - as far as he is concerned, the only place where a pilot *actually* takes the con (has control of the ship) is in the Panama Canal.  Another point of interest - in some of the busy ports, they have to be incredibly exact with where the ship is located; he mentioned having to move the ship 4 inches to make sure it's in the right place!!!

Mooring Deck - Staff Captain and Bosun were there.  They showed us the mooring lines and how they work.  We also saw the gigantic chains that the anchors are attached to (we couldn't actually see the anchors).  Point of interest - the anchors alone aren't enough to hold the ship in place; once they drop the anchors they need to drop another 300 metres of chains for each one in order to hold the ship by the anchors.

Galley - spent quite a time here being shown a number of the work stations.  This was the main galley which is on deck 5 and 6 behind the two main dining rooms.  There's an escalator for the waiters to use to get between floors quickly.  There are 9 galleys altogether - each of the other main dining areas (eg Horizon Court, Sabatini's etc) also has one plus there's a separate one for room service.  Here we were given snacks -  a chocolate covered icecream and strawberry and a delicious fruit drink.  We got to see a cold room and a freezer and he spent a lot of time explaining about where they get supplies, how they get onto the ship, how they decide how much food to order etc.  Point of interest - just for steaks there are four cooks - one cooking the medium rare, two doing medium, and one doing medium-well and well-done. Another point of interest - someone asked him how much the food supplies for a cruise would cost - he said he couldn't tell us that, but if we thought along the lines of buying one or two relatively nice houses we mightn't be too far wrong!
Princess Theatre.  We got to see how the lift on the stage works - it's a long way down, but the dancers who were there assured us that it doesn't scare them.  We also got to see the dressing room and some of the costumes.  Point of interest - they do actually have 'dressers' - people who help them change costume particularly when a quick change is needed - however they're volunteer staff from other areas, not specifically employed as dressers.

Rubbish / Recycling area - we had a quick peek into this room. They recycle as much as possible; waste they can't recycle is either incinerated (in which case the ash is kept on board and then correctly disposed of at the end of the cruise) or simply sorted and kept until they can move it onshore.  All around the main crew walkway (the M1, which goes the length of the ship - passengers aren't usually allowed to see it of course) we saw large boxes / bags etc, labelled with their contents such as "mixed broken glass", waiting to be offloaded.
Print Room - they do all their printing on board, although the format of all the documents is closely controlled by the Princess management.
Photographer Office - the photographers take about 21,000 photos in a cruise of this length.  Every photo is run through a 'photoshop' style of software to correct errors and they also check each one manually and sometimes do manual corrections (eg if the camera was held a little on an angle, they'll fix that)
Engine Control Room - the Chief Engineer talked to us about the engines, including the gas turbine.  Lots of facts and figures, most of which I immediately forgot (they gave us a handout with a lot of that sort of detail).  He did emphasise the trouble they go to in order to meet all the different environmental standards of all the different countries they visit.  In the case of the USA, there are also different standards for different states.  Basically the way they deal with this is to constantly meet the 'greenest' standard, which is the one for Alaska.

Laundry - Hotel Manager ran the tour along with the man who manages the Laundry (the hotel manager is also responsible for the room stewards, the florist and a bunch of other people and services).  The machinery in the laundry is amazing - a washing machine that's like an enormous conveyor belt which can do hundreds of sheets or towels at a time (including feeding them into dryers) without anyone needing to touch them; a sheet ironing and folding machine, a towel folding machine - the list is just amazing.

At the end, we went to one of the bars and got a few free drinks and chatted for a while, and Callie answered lots of questions about working for Princess.  The tour was meant to run for about three hours but it ended up taking just over four.  Definitely worth the money.

Oh, and over the next couple of days, I got the 'free' gifts that came as part of the tour:
* a proper Princess bath robe (which weighs almost 2 kilos - lord only knows how we'll get it home)
* a picture frame
* a bunch of photos taken along the way
* a genuine Princess chef's jacket
* some personalised note-paper

Tuesday 23 October - day 63- Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 9 - at sea

Not much to say about today as we did very little.  I went to a talk about our next port, Cabo San Lucas, which is also the last one before we finish up in Los Angeles. Cabo San Lucas is in the "Mexican Riviera", on the Baja Peninsula.  As usual for these talks, we got to hear an overview of the history and the current cultural / economic status of the area.  We aren't going to do a shore excursion in Cabo, we're just going to go ashore and look around the shops etc.  We will leave the pier though, unlike our effort in San Juan Del Sur.
We've been having a fairly reasonable run on the pokies, eg as of earlier this morning I had purchased $125 dollars of credits for the pokies and had around $83 in my casino account.  Paul was doing a little worse, but not much, and he has now completely turned that around by winning a $470-odd jackpot.  Very nice!

Monday 22 October - day 62- Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 8 - Nicaragua

Paul and I both woke up sore and sorry after yesterday's excursion - apart from still being tired, my ankle and Paul's legs were quite sore. So, we gave today's excursion a miss - it was going to take 75 minutes of driving each way just to see some sights for a couple of hours.
We did make the effort to go ashore later in the afternoon - we jumped on a tender, got off at the pier at San Juan Del Sur, walked through the local market (which is set up on the docks on cruise ship days), then turned around and came back again.  However, we can now honestly say that we were in Nicaragua!

This is the beach at San Juan Del Sur.

Sunday 21 October - day 61 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 7 - Costa Rica

There could hardly be a bigger contrast between two cruise days than between yesterday and today.
We are currently moored at a small town called Puntarenas which is confusingly part of the state of Puntarenas.  I've started typing this at about 6pm, and we have been back from our shore excursion for about an hour. And, neither of us is really in a fit state to move.
We started the day by almost missing the excursion.  My fault; I thought the meeting time was 8:45 but it was actually 8:30.
Anyway, we caught up with them just as they left the ship, and I'm still not sure if it was a good thing or not.
The group was divided into three as we were travelling in small buses that hold about 16 people.  They were air-conditioned (thank heaven!), quite new and fairly comfortable.
Our tour guide was a young guy called Chris and he was a mine of information about Costa Rica in general, and about the specific areas we visited.
The problem with the tour though was the physical 'level' needed.  Princess rate this as needing 'medium' fitness, but the description of the tour would lead you to believe that it was a pretty gentle medium.  In fact - and particularly given the average age of people who cruise with Princess (ie, Paul and I are youngsters on this cruise!!!) - this tour should never have been rated only medium, particularly given the heat.
Anyway, the tour started with a 45 minute drive.  On the way, someone spotted some monkeys in trees close to the road - apparently this is quite unusual:

First stop was a small resort which we really used just as a toilet stop.  Then, we were driven for a number of miles up and down some quite steep and narrow and gravel - mountain roads to the first physical part of the tour which was a Skywalk.
They make a lot in the description of the three hanging bridges you go over on the Skywalk.

And, I have to admit, it was a beautiful place (if you like tropical forests) and the guide did a really good job of explaining what we were seeing.  He also has a personal interest in traditional medicines and so told us a lot of uses for some of the trees and plants.
What they fail to mention is that there is at least a kilometre of other walking on rough, slippery, steep tracks.  There was a lady in our group who would definitely admit that she was pushing it to make 'medium' fitness, and it was disappointing for her to discover that it was really well beyond her.  She made it through some of the walk - fortunately one part of it was a bit of a loop and so she (and some others!!) skipped that bit.
Once we finished there, they took us over some more scary roads to the Pura Vida Gardens.
Again, this sounded like a really nice walk through a tropical garden - what no-one mentioned is the fact that again you're walking up and down some really steep paths - no mud this time, but quite hot. By the time we got through the first apart of this one, around half of the group (including Paul) declined the opportunity to come on the next part.  The gardens we saw in the first part of the walk were quite beautiful, as was the view of the waterfall in the second part, but it really was a strenuous, difficult day. Here's a few pictures to make up for all my complaining!

We finally got back a little before 5pm, and we were so tired that we didn't go to the dining room for dinner.  We'll have to go tomorrow night as we've now missed two nights in a row.

Saturday 20 October - day 60 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 6 - at sea

Nothing to say - just a lazy day doing nothing much at all!

Friday 19 October - day 59 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 5 - Panama Canal

Today was the whole reason for going on this cruise, and it was everything I hoped and expected.
We got to see the ship go through all the locks and saw (at least from a distance) a lot of the work on the new locks that are due to open in 2014. They had a man onboard who commentated for most of the day on any point of interest.
It was just a great day - although it's the wet season and rain was forecast it didn't actually rain on us.
Paul set up the video camera on our balcony and filmed large parts of it from that perspective, but we also took photos from lots of different vantage points.
Bottom line is though, you'd need to come through here a few times to see everything you wanted to see.  Much as I'd like to do that though, we're not likely to be back - there are so many other places in the world that we want to see!
I'm not going to write too much - there's just so much and regardless of how many photos you see, nothing is as good as seeing it first hand.
One thing I did find out though (actually at the talk yesterday) was that my assumption that there's "a fee" for going through the canal was a bit of an oversimplification.  For our ship, there's certainly a fee based on the possible number of passengers (ie, counting all berths, whether or not they're actually occupied).  That comes to around $407,000.  There's also a fee for lodging an application to transit (around $35,000) and another fee for a guaranteed day-time transit (around $30,000).  However, there are also stacks of other - sometimes much smaller fees, depending on whether or not you need the specific service - for example, ships with dangerous cargos are required to pay various safety related fees.
One fee which we weren't going to have to pay was the gangway fee, which you pay if you want to stop the ship in the lock and use a gangway to get people or goods on and off the ship.  It's about $350 if I remember correctly, and we weren't going to need this one, but sadly we did.  When we got to the first locks (the Gatun Locks), an ambulance was waiting and a person was taken off the ship and loaded onto it, and it then went off with siren blaring.  They obviously didn't tell us anything about the person or their problem, but we assume it was a man, since an older lady and three younger people - presumably family - also got off the ship with their luggage and were taken away in a shuttle.  That's a sad way for them to end their Panama Cruise.

Here are a few pictures, but no picture can really show just how incredibly impressive the whole thing is:

This is before you get to the locks on the Atlantic side. It may not look like much now, but in a few years time there will be a huge new bridge over the canal here.  Apparently it will be one of the longest bridges in the world at 5 kilometres long and 75 metres above sea level.

This small waterway is part of the original French attempt to build the Panama Canal.

Crocodile!

The Coral Princess is a Panamax ship, ie, the biggest size that can fit through the current locks.  As you can see, there isn't much room!

There's a constant stream of ships going through the locks - you can see one here in the lock beside us, another one waiting to come into the lock we have just left, and others waiting in the background.  Apparently you don't get to chose which one you go through, so for cruise ships you don't know until you get there which side of the ship is going to have the good views.

You can see a small roadway across the canal - this bridge kind of folds back out of the way when ships are coming through.  I have no idea how this bus got down the roadway onto the bridge - there's a nasty bend and even cars seem to have trouble with it. 

They're constantly dredging - this is the largest dipper dredge in the world.

Going through the Pedro Miguel locks (on the Pacific side) beside the bulk carrier Marichristina.

This is the Miraflores Locks Visitors Centre - you can come here from Panama City and see displays etc about the canal, and - obviously - stand on the viewing platforms and watch the ships going through the locks.

Another view from our balcony showing just how little clearance there is between ship and lock.  You all know the guy in the striped shirt - he was down on deck 7 getting some pictures closer to the action!

Panama City - on our way out into the Pacific!

Thursday 18 October - day 58 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 4 - Cartagena

Well, regardless of last night's funny noises, the ship didn't sink and we docked at Cartagena (Colombia) on time.
We went on a shore excursion today.  After yesterday we were both really worried that the heat would knock us both out, as it was supposed to be just as hot and humid in Cartagena today as it was in Aruba yesterday.  The heat and humidity were both meant to be around 90, which would make the apparent temperature over 100F.   However, it was nowhere near that warm.
The shore excursion was in three phases.  First was a cruise around the bay on a small boat - the guide showed us lots of points of interest from the vantage point of the water.
Then, we got onto a bus and went to a shopping area.  The best jewellery to buy in Colombia is emeralds and gold as they're both mined here.  I intended to buy something with an emerald, but I went to three shops without finding anything I wanted - that is, if you ignore the really nice pendant that was just under $10,000!
In the end bought a nice bracelet and necklace set made of silver and natural emeralds.  In doing so, I got into trouble with everyone else on the tour.  They didn't tell us a time we needed to be back at the bus, and I took longer than expected because the shop's credit card machine wasn't working properly.  They had been sitting and waiting for me for a while.  Oops.  But, if they had set a time, I would have been back.
Next, they drove us around the old city to give us an idea of what it's like.  Then, we went to the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas - a huge fort - where we had a fairly good chance to look around while they explained a lot of detail about how (and why) it was built.
Overall it was a really good tour.  Just a few pictures from today:

 Apparently their favourite roosting spot - they say that in the early morning and late afternoon, you can't see the trees for birds.

 Approach to the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

 Yup, a gun.  Or a cannon.  What would I know?

View across the top of part of the fort.  It really is enormous. 

 A local fisherman.

 Click on the picture to see where our cabin is.

 Back at the fort.  Behind Paul is one of the powder magazines - across the bay there were guns permanently aimed here, so that if the fort was ever overrun, they could blow it up.  They never got to test out whether it would actually work though.

 Part of the city walls.

View of the city - almost all of the buildings are white.

Today's trivia - in Cartagena, the McDonalds drive-through is called an Auto-Mac

Wednesday 17 October - day 57 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 3 - Aruba

Arrived at Aruba at 7am, as promised.
They made a bit of a mess of our shore excursion - they had originally said that we all needed to meet on board, but then they realised that the shopkeepers would be happier if we met onshore.  We're only in Aruba for 5 hours and so the more time we spend on shore, the more money we're likely to spend.
So, last night we got a letter saying we needed to meet onshore, but the time they gave was an hour earlier than we expected.  We went there then just to make sure that they hadn't really changed the time for the excursion.  They hadn't, so we went off to do some window shopping.  However, after about 15 minutes Paul was feeling quite ill again - he's still not over whatever was wrong yesterday.  So, he went back onboard and I went on our excursion alone.
Basically this involved about 60 of us going on a smallish  boat out to where a submarine was waiting.  We then went underwater and had a look at the sights - a reef with lots of different sorts of coral, two sunken ships, lots of fish, two turtles and a moray eel!  It went down to about 128 feet at the deepest.
It was interesting enough but my camera wasn't good enough to get any decent photos.  This is the best of them - in case you can't tell, it's some fish swimming around a wreck:

We were due to be back on board the Coral Princess at 12 noon, but at that time we were still on the return trip.  We finally got to the cruise ship terminal about 10 minutes late, but even then people were stopping at souvenir shops.  They don't seem to take the 'all on board' time very seriously in this part of the world.
Turns out Paul slept / rested for most of the day.  After I got back, I went to a lecture - information about Cartagena which is our next port (tomorrow).  I also did a bit of shopping.
 We decided to go to the Horizon Court (the buffet) for dinner, and we ended up sitting next to an American couple.  Like most people on the ship they're older than us (their 50th wedding anniversary is behind them) but they've been to Australia a couple of times, and we had a nice talk.  I won't have any trouble remembering their names if we run across them again - they're Douglas and Sandy.
After dinner we had a look at the shops, went to the Casino, and then came back to our room.
The ship is behaving strangely tonight - although there's almost no waves, we've got a really slow side-to-side roll happening, and every now and then the engines work really hard and make the whole ship shudder.  Hope there's nothing wrong........

Tuesday 16 October - day 56 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 2

Another sea day today and really, not a lot to say.
Paul is a bit off colour today, so he basically rested all morning.  I chased up a few things - even though the man at Passenger Services yesterday said he couldn't really help me with the missing onboard credit, and sent me off to see someone else, it was actually added to our accounts this morning (even though I hadn't managed to track down the 'someone else').
I also bought a copy of our embarkation photo (unlike Royal Caribbean, Princess doesn't have any special deals for buying multiple photos - they're all $20.00 each, or more for larger prints).
Later I went to the Casino, put $20 into the machine and walked away with about $85 on my account (you don't need to use cash in their poker machines; they have it set up so you can run a 'bank' attached to your cruise card).  I also did a load of washing - we didn't really need to do it yet, but we did have almost a full load, and the machines aren't being used much yet - later in the cruise a lot more people will be trying to use it.
I had a burger and fries for lunch.  Paul felt a bit better by lunch-time and when I told him about my winnings, he decided that we needed to go back to the Casino.  He lost $30 in the end - but it took a couple of hours to do so.  On the other hand, I now have just over $99 on my cruise card  :-)

Monday 15 October - day 55 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Day 1

Sea day today.  Got up late (for us anyway) at around 7:30am.  Logged on to the internet to check what's happening in the world - very quickly given the cost of internet access.
Although it's not as bad this time because the other major benefit of being "Platinum" is that you get a special deal on internet access - each of us could opt for 250 minutes free access (which would normally cost $100) or 500 minutes for $75 (this would normally cost $200).  Since we each managed to use 250 minutes in the 7 days on the Oasis, we both opted for the 500 minute package - but that's still only just over 35 minutes per day each.
After breakfast we went out on deck for a few minutes - so Paul could get a picture of Cuba way off in the distance.  Then, we ducked back inside for the cover of the air-conditioning.
We really aren't acclimatised to the humidity yet, and to be honest, I don't think it's going to happen.  Anyway, next stop was our regular post-breakfast stop on any Princess ship - the Patisserie for coffee.  I also sorted out a bunch of little things:
- cancelled a shore excursion that I'm not prepared to risk with my ankle the way it is, and booked a different one;
- booked a spot on the "Ultimate Ships Tour" (for $150 each, they take about 15 people on a behind the scenes look at the ship);
- signed up for a Future Cruise Credit (you pay $100 each and it gives you a lower deposit and a bit of on-board credit if you book another Princess cruise within 2 years).
However, I'm not completely convinced about the last one.  We got a Future Cruise Credit on our previous Princess cruise and it was supposed to qualify us for $100 onboard credit each, which hasn't shown up.  I've started to chase it up but so far with no success.  Trouble is, the rules differ between countries and although the staff all seem to be expert on how to deal with Americans and Canadians, strange people like Australians tend to really confuse them  :-)
I went to three different lectures today - a talk about shopping in Aruba, a talk about Aruba itself, and then a 'Scholarship@Sea' talk about investing.  All three were interesting enough in their own way.
We met our missing dinner companions tonight - they didn't come to dinner last night because of a luggage disaster (as in, their luggage went to someone else's cabin).  They're a couple called Barry and Glenda who currently live in Hervey Bay; they used to live in Kiama.  Apparently the powers that be think that Australians need to be seated together  :-)
They're a little older than us, but they seem quite nice.
After dinner Paul and I lost some money at the casino, then went for a couple of laps around the promenade deck to try to walk off some of the food!  In the distance we could see the lights of Cuba - we have been sailing not far off the northern coast of Cuba for most (maybe all) of the day.  Some time later we'll turn south and sail between Cuba and Haiti, on our way to Aruba.

Sunday 14 October - day 54 - Coral Princess Panama Canal Cruise Embarkation Day

Today we join the Coral Princess - a pretty significant change of pace from the Oasis of the Seas.  Oasis has a maximum passenger capacity of 6,296 while the Coral Princess carries less than 2,000.  Other differences are fairly significant too - for example Oasis is over 225,000 tons while Coral Princess is just under 92,000.
Had an interesting time getting to the ship - we again went with the shuttle company the hotel uses.  They hadn't shown up by 12:15, and the young lady at the hotel called to check why - based on the response she got, it was pretty clear that they were somewhat overwhelmed.  Anyway, not long after that the man showed up and loaded up our luggage - interrupted by a short sharp rainstorm.
We started off towards the cruise port but then he got a call about 21 people needing a shuttle ride - and these shuttles only hold 10 - 15 people.  I gather that the shuttle company has recently taken on the job of taking people from a particular long-term cruise car-park to the ships, and to me it seems they don't have quite enough shuttles on the road to get the job done. So, we went off to the car park, only to have a much more impressive storm hit - it was just pouring with rain and there's almost no cover in this car-park; only a tiny shaded area barely big enough for the passengers who were waiting, and even then, they and their luggage were getting wet.  
Our driver had hoped to pick up passengers for only one of the ships currently in port, but the storm put paid to that. Eventually we got the shuttle full but then when we arrived at the port it took forever to get to a point where we could unload.  He went to the Coral Princess first, and it took us at least 20 minutes to get to a point where the four Coral passengers onboard could exit the van.  I assumed that this was because it's peak season but the driver assured me this is not the case, three ships in a day is only starting to get towards their peak season numbers.  Apparently May through around a few weeks ago is their slow season - only the two monster Royal Caribbean ships (Allure and Oasis) and the Carnival Freedom are based here then.  But, during October other ships start gradually coming back for the peak season until there can be 6 or more ships here on a single day, meaning that more than 30,000 people might need to be moved into or out of the port in that one day.
The port authority and cruise companies are clearly trying to improve the infrastructure - Princess for example will soon be moving to a new pier with undercover parking for shuttles etc, as will Carnival over the other side of the docks.  However, it doesn't seem to me that they're doing anything to make it quicker or easier to get shuttles / buses / taxis in or out of the place, you'll just be less likely to get wet / die of heatstroke while you're waiting  :-)
I'm really glad we came before peak season (although I had no idea that we had done so!!)
This is our first cruise with Princess as "Platinum Captain's Circle" members - which means we have previously done either 5 cruises or 50 cruising nights with Princess (or P&O).  One of the only useful benefits this gives us is Preferred Check-in - we got to go to a separate check-in desk where there was no-one waiting, then instead of having to wait for a boarding group, we go to go straight on - including getting to skip to the front of the line of a boarding group that was patiently waiting in a queue.  Problem is, those people have no idea what's happening - as far as they're concerned, we're just jumping the queue.  However, it was much quicker than waiting in line, so I'm not going to complain.
Bottom line is though, it took the best part of 2 hours to get from our hotel room to our cabin, whereas the previous week with the Oasis it took only around half of that time.  Part of that was due to delays with the shuttle, but the rest was because the building where you board the Oasis and Allure, and the surrounding shuttle / bus / taxi areas have all been purpose built with the knowledge that any time the dock is in use, it's because they need to get 6,000 people off the ship, and another 6,000 on.  That's definitely not the case with the dock where the Coral Princess was waiting.
However, once onboard all of that ceased to be an issue.   Although we have never been on the Coral Princess before, all the Princess ships are set out in a somewhat similar way, and to be honest, it almost felt like coming home.
The emergency drill was more complex than the one on the Oasis - for example Princess insists that you have your life jacket with you at the drill, and that you are capable of putting it on.  And, something we had never seen before - they also practiced the process of leaving our Muster Station the way it would happen if we were going to go to the lifeboats.
Sailaway was delayed because of delays with loading luggage.  We and the Carnival Freedom were both due out at 4pm and the Allure at 5.  The Freedom finally left at around 5pm but we were delayed further - we finally left at about 5:20, with the Allure still waiting for us to get out of her way  :-)
We then had to go straight to dinner.  When I booked this cruise, there was no option for "anytime" dining - they only had traditional dining, that is, where you go to either the 5:30pm or 8:00pm session each night, and sit at the same table with the same same passengers, and with the same waiters looking after you.  We'd much rather use Anytime Dining, but as I said, it wasn't an option.  Imagine my annoyance when I discovered that in the meantime they have made Anytime Dining available, but hadn't given us the option to change.  However, it isn't too bad so far.  Our table only has four seats and although we were presumably meant to have two other people with us, they didn't show up last night so we got to have a nice quiet meal by ourselves.
And, although I was expecting high seas and had taken a sea-sickness tablet in preparation, it wasn't too bad at all.

Saturday 13 October - day 53 - leaving the Oasis of the Seas and back in Fort Lauderdale

It's always sad leaving a cruise, even when you've got another one coming up  :-)
Again, the organisation around getting everyone of the ship was seriously impressive.  We had breakfast and then lazed around in our cabin for a while.  There was an interactive display on the TV letting us know which 'number groups' had been called for departure, so we could see when it was getting close to time for us to go.  Around 9am we went to the designated departure area - because we have sailed with Royal Caribbean before we had a special area set aside but really it was hardly necessary, the 'normal' waiting areas were quite ok as well.
After we left the ship, there was a long queue waiting to go through CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) but that's obviously all about the number of CBP staff that are available, not something Royal Caribbean can control.  And, in any case, even though the queue was long, it moved quickly and we were out and looking for our ride back to the hotel in no time.
We had pre-booked our return trip to the hotel with the shuttle company back at the start of the cruise.  Of course you can't predict when you'll be ready to be picked up, but they said that they aim to have a shuttle waiting as soon as you get off the ship, and it certainly worked for us - there was one right there and we were back at the hotel by about 10am.
Of course, the minor problem was that this is about 5 hours too early to check in.
However, we had a plan which was to get a taxi to Sawgrass Mills - a huge shopping centre about 17 miles away.  A couple of reasons for picking this one - it's often recommended as the best of its type in the area mostly because of the large number of outlet stores, and it also has a USPS office (post office) that's open all day (most USPS offices only open for a couple of hours on Saturday).
The reason we wanted USPS was because we hoped we would need to send back our postal votes for the ACT elections.  The voting papers weren't available until long after we left Australia, so we had asked Elections ACT to send the postal voting papers here, and amazingly they were actually waiting for us today.  However, in order to be counted they have to be posted by 20 October and they have to arrive back in Oz before 26 October, so today was really our only chance to get them sent.
We ended up going to Sawgrass Mills by shuttle rather than taxi - they quoted a set price of $40 each way which is about $10 less than the taxi fare is likely to be.
We found the USPS office and posted off the voting papers, so that's all good.
We also picked up a few bits and pieces that we needed, but mostly we just looked around the shops.  I've never seen so many shops in one place  :-)
I also had a classic example of American 'over-catering' for lunch - a "small" Tuna Salad from a shop in the Food Court.  It consisted of a paper plate the size of a regular dinner plate completely covered at least 2 inches deep with shredded lettuce, then some carrot and tomato, then probably a cupfull of tuna, then some olives and dressing.  It took me about 25 minutes to eat it, and I can't imagine how big the 'large' salad would have been!  It was really nice.  And the price was amazingly low to someone who's accustomed to Canberra prices - the salad and a medium pineapple-mint smoothie (the size of an old-fashioned milk-shake, and also absolutely delicious) - was $US9.16.  That's about $8.95 on today's exchange rate - and I'd bet that if it was possible to get such a thing in Canberra the price would be more like $12 to $15.
We got back to the hotel just after 3pm, and our room was ready.  We got a bit of an upgrade - they've put us into one of their 'handicapped' rooms so there's heaps of space including a completely separate bedroom.  Nice...
We spent most of the afternoon on housekeeping stuff - mostly washing clothes - then watched a bit of TV and crashed.

Friday 12 October - day 52 - Day 7 on the Oasis of the Seas (at sea, again)

Had an earlier start today.  We got to the Windjammer for breakfast at about 8am and it was almost empty, so we presume a lot of people had a really late night last night.
It's actually one thing that's really surprising about this ship - although there are 6,000-odd passengers on board, it rarely appears crowded - apart from the Windjammer, around the lifts just after a show has finished, and sometimes near the shops when there is a sale on.  I think they organise the crowds really well.
Today I got a tattoo - a temporary airbrushed one:

We were supposed to go to a show at 3m today, but the seas have been quite rough today compared to the rest of the trip.  The show is called "Come Fly With Me" and involves a lot of high-wire acrobatic work, and it would have been too dangerous for the performers to try it in these conditions.  It was rescheduled to 8pm when they believed the seas would be better. 
It started as promised, although they did warn us that they'd have to stop the performance if the seas got any rougher.  Fortunately they didn't, and we got to see the most amazing show - singers, gymnasts, high wire work, acrobats - it was just amazing. 
Today I had my one real problem onboard.  I mentioned earlier that I had prepaid for 15 digital copies of photos, but today I could not get anyone to explain to me how / when I'd be able to pick them up.  I talked to four different people in the photo area before I sort of got an answer.  I did eventually get a CD but I have no idea whether I'm going to be able to get the photos off it - they say not to try until you've got a 'reliable' internet connection, and that's not going to happen until we get home.  I hope it works, as I've seen prints of all of the photos and there are some good ones there!

Thursday 11 October - day 51 - Day 6 on the Oasis of the Seas (at sea)

Paul's birthday.  Started the day with a sleep-in, then a really late breakfast in a really crowded Windjammer Buffet.  Apparently late for us is actually proper wake-up time on a cruise  :-)
Today there was a Walk for Wishes charity event - for each $10 you paid you got a Tshirt and to join in to an organised 1 mile walk around Deck 5 (on the walking track).  Royal Caribbean donates the profits to the Make a Wish foundation and also helps sick kids and their families come on cruises.  Paul didn't take part, but I did.   They sold lots of Tshirts, but most people didn't come on the walk.  I guess they figured that they had done their bit by making the donation, and I will admit, it was very hot.
 The walk was done at quite a slow pace, and a few of us moved out in front and lost track of the main group (in fact, we lapped a few people). 
Of course, today was Paul's birthday so we had booked dinner at Chops Grille - one of their specialty restaurants.  As usual, the food and service was excellent.
Afterwards we blew away some more money at the Casino, and then crashed.

Wednesday 10 October - day 50 - Day 5 on the Oasis of the Seas (St Martin / Sant Maarten)

Just a short overnight hop to Phillipsburg. We were meant to be off the ship by 8:15 to join our excursion, but at 8am they still hadn't started allowing people off the ship.  I was a bit worried - with my experience on other cruises, if you're leaving the ship first thing, it can take 30 minutes to get ashore, because there'll be throngs of people waiting to go through security.  And this one has closer to 6000 passengers rather than the 2,000 to 2,500 that have been on those other cruises.
As it happened, there was no need for worry at all - we just got a lift down to gangplank level, followed by an escalator through the purpose built arrival area, and there we were.  No queues, no delays.  Brilliant organisation!

Today's tour was "Butterfly Farm and Marigot" and it turned out to be one of the best "shore excursion" type tours we have done so far, even including all the little mini-tours on our two coach tours.
The tour guide (Jose) is an American and he barely stopped talking through the whole trip - some jokes, some stuff about himself, but the vast majority of his talk was about the island - both historical and current information.  He did a really superb job, and completely destroyed my theory from yesterday that Americans aren't interested in history, as everyone seemed to really enjoy the tour.
The butterfly farm is a small tourist attraction run by an ex-patriot Englishman and his family. They have a large enclosed area where they raise butterflies (obviously) and they run a short tour for each group, explaining a little about the butterflies and moths and how they grow and live. You can then wander around and try to get a butterfly to sit on you (if you like) or just take photos or simply look at them.  We also got a free (quite small) rum punch part-way through the tour - apparently the smell can attract the butterflies  :-)

The island itself - well, let's just say, of the three Caribbean islands I've seen so far, if someone held a gun to my head and forced me to pick one to return to, it would be Sant Maarten.  It's two completely separate countries on the one island - part French (who call it St Martin) and part Dutch (who call it Sant Maarten).  Today the ship is moored at Phillisburg which is the capital of the Dutch side, but the tour today took us to both parts of the island, including Marigot which is the capital of the French side. 
You'd think that on an island this small - it's apparently the smallest island in the world that's shared between two countries - that they'd share infrastructure, but they don't.  They have:
* separate power and water plants (not even the same sort of power - the French side is 220volts, the Dutch is 120)
* separate money - the Dutch here decided to stick with their florin and not start using the Euro, the French went over to the Euro - but actually on both sides they'll accept $US, just a lot less graciously on the French side
* separate schools
* separate fire and emergency services, etc etc etc. 
They're also quite different in other ways - for example the French - as they do everywhere - are trying to keep their part of the island very French.  On the other hand the Dutch - knowing that their only real source of income is tourism and that most of the tourists will be American - have embraced the American way of life.  For example, the only American food chain you'll find on the French side is a Subway, but on the Dutch side there are apparently multiple occurrences of McDonalds, KFC, Quizno, Wendy's etc etc etc. 
Apparently there's a waiting list a mile long in France in the Gendarmerie for posting to St Martin.  They get a 6 month posting, they can bring their immediate family, and they get a 40% wage increase while they're here (because everything is so much dearer).  Regardless of the money, to most people this seems like a holiday, not a posting - there's very little crime on the island. 
Once we got back to the ship, we had lunch, and I ate far too much.  The on-screen display was saying that the Windjammer Buffet was full, so we decided to go to the Seafood Shack.  I had three of what they call 'jumbo shrimp' - actually each of them contains two halves, each of which is as big as a huge prawn.  This was served with garlic butter and a HUGE salad.  That's not so bad really, but then I topped it off with a Banana Split.  That was seriously wrong of me.  Nice though  :-)
We were all supposed to be on board at 4:30pm for a 5:30 sail-away.  We shared the dock with the Carnival Dream, and I believe their sail-away was scheduled for 30 minutes before ours.  However, passengers for both ships arrived back quite late.  Both ships eventually got underway - the Dream went first and there was lots of shouting and waving good-bye between the ships.

For dinner we went to the dining room and had a three course meal. Tomorrow's breakfast and lunch has to be fruit and salad and lots of walking around the deck - because we're going to Chops Grille for dinner - for Paul's birthday - and we know that we'll eat far to much there   :-)