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 Head, shoulders, knees and toes! (Knees and Toes!)  Serenade Panama Canal Oct. 1, 2021


KristiZ

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Tonight we chose to dine at Izumi. We had eaten in an Izumi once before, back in 2012 or 2013. Then we were living in Asia after that and Izumi because less interesting. 😉 Now that we’re back in the Western Hemisphere we were looking forward to eating here again.

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On Serenade, Izumi is in a lovely location on Deck 12 aft. The space is very pretty.

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The fun tableware, plus my She’s A Geisha beverage (tastes like koolaid 😉 ).

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Chicken Karaage:

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Pork Gyoza:

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Tonkatsu Ramen:

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Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura:

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Chef’s Choice Sushi plate:

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FYI, the $35 option is a huge amount of food. We ate ala carte and got out at less than $24* per person. And we walked out on our own power — no wheelbarrow needed to get us back to our cabins! 😄 
 

*Edit to adjust the math. I forgot we got a random 30% discount from the waiter!

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There hasn’t been a ton of wildlife so far on the cruise, but we have seen sea lions (in Port of LA), dolphins (randomly on Day 2), iguanas (in PV), and Masked Boobies (every day, swirling around the ship and fishing in the wake). The dolphins were especially fun because it was a large pod with a number of very small babies. Super cute! Mostly they’re all too far away for photos, but here’s my attempt at the birds:

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Day 6 - At Sea

Remember that confusing letter about antigen testing we got early on? Turns out my best guess at what was intended was wrong. Fortunately MomMe read it differently and decided to go confirm her suspicions at Guest Services.

Because our cruise is over 7 days, CDC requires mid-voyage testing of all passengers, not just unvaccinated. So while I was blithely ignoring the notices in the Cruise Compass, my mother was signing up for her test. In my defense, nothing said “mandatory” until Day 5. Anyway, we all got signed up, and none of our names got announced over the shipwide speaker as being on the Bad Kid List. Whew!

Testing is on Day 6 and Day 7, and you pick a one hour window for your appointment. Here’s the card they give you:

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However, as Day 6 progressed, they realized that they could process people much faster than they thought they might. Announcements started with “anyone who has an appointment later today can come now and get it out of the way”, and by noon they were calling for any guests who wanted to come now and be done with it. We went down to the Safari Club and got swabbed. It was a very easy, not-at-all-deep nose swab that took 15 seconds total. I’m actually glad I didn’t realize this was mandatory before, since I would have had the nagging “what if we test positive???” thoughts. No fun! 

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5 minutes ago, KristiZ said:

Day 6 - At Sea

Remember that confusing letter about antigen testing we got early on? Turns out my best guess at what was intended was wrong. Fortunately MomMe read it differently and decided to go confirm her suspicions at Guest Services.

Because our cruise is over 7 days, CDC requires mid-voyage testing of all passengers, not just unvaccinated. So while I was blithely ignoring the notices in the Cruise Compass, my mother was signing up for her test. In my defense, nothing said “mandatory” until Day 5. Anyway, we all got signed up, and none of our names got announced over the shipwide speaker as being on the Bad Kid List. Whew!

Testing is on Day 6 and Day 7, and you pick a one hour window for your appointment. Here’s the card they give you:

69AC75BD-EBA5-40E1-8DDC-642585717212.thumb.jpeg.4813f3978f8ecf123e348f322f1e22b3.jpeg

However, as Day 6 progressed, they realized that they could process people much faster than they thought they might. Announcements started with “anyone who has an appointment later today can come now and get it out of the way”, and by noon they were calling for any guests who wanted to come now and be done with it. We went down to the Safari Club and got swabbed. It was a very easy, not-at-all-deep nose swab that took 15 seconds total. I’m actually glad I didn’t realize this was mandatory before, since I would have had the nagging “what if we test positive???” thoughts. No fun! 

Interesting.  I've not heard 8 night cruises doing this for all guests, only unvaccinated.

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Just caught up and thoroughly enjoying your report. We did an 11-night Southern Caribbean itinerary on Serenade four years ago for our 30th anniversary, so it's nice to see your pics.

The Panama Canal is a bucket list for me too. We were going to try for next year for our 35th but think we will put it off for another year in the hope that Covid will truly be a memory by then.

Can't wait to see your pics from the transit. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

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Continuing our ship tour!

The Shops of Centrum are on Deck 5. As you can see, it’s a much more compact experience than the bigger ships. There are no brand shops, although there are some branded goods like Guess, Citizen, Morimoto, etc. This is definitely a concept that Royal has expanded and improved over the years — fewer shore partnerships and more in-house selling.

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I intended to get more pictures of the casino (Deck 6), but it has been surprisingly busy and I do try to keep people’s faces out of my shots when I can. With all the sea days, there are lots of casino hours!

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Through the casino is the pub. It unfortunately feels a bit “stuck in at the end of the world” on Serenade. Too bad, as it’s a nice space.

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There’s also a real, if small, cinema tucked behind the pub. It’s fun to watch a movie in there, rather than the theater or your tiny cabin TV.

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A quick trip to the Loyalty Desk got me the C&A stats for this cruise:

617 passengers

 - 105 Gold

 - 73 Platinum

 - 64 Emerald

 - 145 Diamond

 - 136 Diamond Plus

 - 33 Pinnacle

So right about half of the passengers are Diamond an above, which is why they closed the Viking Crown full time. I think they’ve gotten some complaints though, because it sounded like that was a very temporary change. Here’s hoping!

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Day 6 ended with Main Dining Room room service delivery, eaten on our balcony. I will mention that we are totally abusing the free room service we get in the GS — we order dinner and then call back to order dessert. That way the ice cream isn’t melted and the warm desserts are still warm 😄 

We also sat outside in the Suite Lounge and enjoyed frosty adult beverages in the balmy evening air.

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Day 7 - At Sea

We should have been in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua today. I’m disappointed this stop was canceled! Nicaragua is a newer addition to the cruise ship routes, so not many have had the opportunity to stop here. The country is also very poor (eclipsed only by Haiti in the region) and could very much use the tourism dollars. Fortunately for you all, we live in Nicaragua right now so you’re going to get my Virtual Shore Excursion photos!

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San Juan del Sur (SJDS) is a small town very popular with the surf crowd. Serenade (or pretty much any cruise ship) would have tendered in, but the wide bay is very smooth and the process would have been painless.

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Walking distance from drop off are a number of great restaurants situated right on the beach, including this fun one:

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Towering over SJDS on a hill north of town is Nicaragua’s answer to the Cristo Redentor:

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Lots of small resorts up the lovely coast from SJDS, where you can rent a hammock or a shade for the day, and take a ride on the beach.

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A number of the shore excursions (or private tours) from SJDS will take you to Granada, a picturesque colonial town about 45 minutes inland. Spanish churches and colorful houses, with lots of artisans and restaurants.

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Adjacent to Granada is Mombacho Volcano. There is zip lining, hiking, and a working coffee plantation on the slopes of the mountain.

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A bit further inland is the town of Masaya, which has lovely lake and a volcano of its own.

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 (Those are not clouds. Masaya is a very active volcano and you can sometimes see the lava in the caldera at night!)

Nicaragua is a beautiful country and the people are welcoming and warm. If you get a chance to visit, take it!

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Internet has been problematic the last two days. I had actually been pleasantly surprised at how good it was the first 5 days, but the second I asked MisterZ to run a speed test we started having trouble. Coincidence or no? You decide…

We’ve also hit some thunderstorms. No increase in waves, particularly, but heavy cloud cover. (OK, the internet is probably not MisterZ’s fault!) The ship actually got struck by lightning at one point — super loud thunderclap for that one! No damage, since it happens to ships regularly and they have the physics all worked out. 
 

Hopefully I can catch up on the blogging now!

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Some fun facts we learned today from the Cruise Director:

Serenade was the first ship to return to revenue service in Alaska after the shutdown.

Serenade was the first ship to return to Costa Rica since the shutdown. 

Serenade will be the first revenue sailing of a cruise ship through the Panama Canal since the shutdown when we make the transit tomorrow!

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We ended Day 8 at Chops. I have to say, I have not eaten at Chops since 2014 during an unfortunate trip on Legend. We had an ABYSMAL waiter and painful 3+ hour dinner with unimpressive food and swore off the venue.

Fortunately Serenade has redeemed the brand. We had a great dinner with excellent service. MomMe declared it the best meal she had so far. (She was actually on the ill-fated Legend trip but had blocked out the memory of the Chops visit.)

We had crab cake (more of a seafood cake and adequate), bacon (it’s actually pork belly, so don’t order it thinking it’s bacon), filet (excellent), spicy prawns (tasty but not spicy), asparagus (decent), mac’n cheese (fantastic), and mashed potatoes (excellent).

The food at Chops is good, but the plating is uninspired so there are no photos until dessert. Key Lime pie and (in honor of @Sweety’s return to the blog) Red Velvet Cake:

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Kenneth is getting creative now:

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Day 8 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Oh, hey, a port day! I almost forgot what those are like 😉 

Puntarenas is a tiny (tiny, tiny) town that pretty much exists to provide a berth for a cruise ship. This is literally the whole town:

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We chose this excursion:

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The bus was nice. The trip was about 2 hours each way, unfortunately. It was broken up with a photo op of an old church on the way up and a souvenir stand on the way back. This was our guide’s first tour in 20 months! They also opened the nature park just for us. Costa Rica has been hit hard by the lack of tourists. There were news crews filming as we got off the ship and everyone we met was so happy to see tourist again. The Costa Rican Minister or Tourism was even there, welcoming the ship! 😮 Reminded me once again how lucky we have been during this whole mess — both MisterZ and I have been fully employed the whole time. 

We had a nice hike in the cloud forest and saw interesting flora and fauna. Here are a few snaps:

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Full disclosure, MisterZ took the hummingbird pics with his good camera.

We left port nearly an hour late, as one shore excursion ran into a delay and was late getting back. Fortunately they were a ship excursion and we also were going to be at sea the next day, so waiting wasn’t a problem.

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Internet

To put it all in perspective, Serenade is this old:

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Any time you’re on one of the older ships you need to temper your internet expectations. It was remarkably good the first few days of our journey, but then we hit some rough patches as the weather got stormy. Here’s the speed range we’ve seen (note that “FAST” is the name of the testing app and in no way indicates the actual speed! 🤣)

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I am not much of a wine drinker and I have NO wine sensitivity at ALL but that Mondavi Oberon is my absolute favorite.

I feel like you must have been the one to recommend it to her, because I've never had it that I can remember.  But now I'll look for it because Mr. SpeedNoodles really likes a Cab, and "Oberon" was the name of one a dog belonging to a friend of mine that we just loved, lol.

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We got my least favorite thing in the cabin today, the departure flier. Nooooo!

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But we also go invited to a game night in the Suite Lounge. Something I hadn’t seen before. I think they were trying to add some value since there are no ship tours allowed right now. 

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It ended up being sort of a quiz show, with many prizes handed out. I won this bag of logo gear — day pack, hat, water bottle, cell phone charms, and bottle opener:

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I also noticed today that there is breakfast served in both Chops and Giovannis. Chops is for suite guests and Giovannis is for Pinnacles. 

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I don’t know if that sort of thing has always been the norm, but since the two restaurants are right next to each other it was more obvious.

We also did a Macallan whisky tasting in the pub. I know next to nothing about whisky, so it was fun!

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Day 10 - Panama Canal

Wow. I love it when something you’ve built up in your head delivers in real life! The weather was a bit variable — thunderstorms, sun, on repeat, but it didn’t matter at all.

Panama City in the distance:

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We approached the Miraflores locks at about 7am, after passing under the Bridge of the Americas.

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One of 6 mules that guided us through each section:

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Pretty sure this guy was some sort of supervisor 😉 :

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The entrance to the new locks on the Miraflores side. Hard to show, but that giant ship is already about 35 feet above sea level.

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Once past Miraflores, we had a stretch of more natural feeling waterway on our way to the last lock before Lake Gatun:

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One of the many tugs that shepherded the various ships:

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A closer look at workings of one of the locks:

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We had a couple of rain showers while we were in Lake Gatun so the photos weren’t stellar.

Finally we came to the Gatun locks and the Atlantic Bridge:

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We reached the Caribbean about 4pm, so the whole transit took approximately 9 hours. The captain said that was about as fast as it is ever done.

What an amazing day!

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On 10/9/2021 at 2:49 PM, KristiZ said:

We ended Day 8 at Chops. I have to say, I have not eaten at Chops since 2014 during an unfortunate trip on Legend. We had an ABYSMAL waiter and painful 3+ hour dinner with unimpressive food and swore off the venue.

Fortunately Serenade has redeemed the brand. We had a great dinner with excellent service. MomMe declared it the best meal she had so far. (She was actually on the ill-fated Legend trip but had blocked out the memory of the Chops visit.)

We had crab cake (more of a seafood cake and adequate), bacon (it’s actually pork belly, so don’t order it thinking it’s bacon), filet (excellent), spicy prawns (tasty but not spicy), asparagus (decent), mac’n cheese (fantastic), and mashed potatoes (excellent).

The food at Chops is good, but the plating is uninspired so there are no photos until dessert. Key Lime pie and (in honor of @Sweety’s return to the blog) Red Velvet Cake:

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Kenneth is getting creative now:

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Thank you. I miss my red velvet cake. I will be on the Jewel in December. 

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Day 11 - Cartagena

We lived in Cartagena from 2011 to 2014. This is a great town. We were very interested to see what had changed since we left. We did not do a shore excursion and a lot of what we were looking at would mean nothing to anyone else, but here are some port shots for your enjoyment 😉 

This is the fort on one side of the entrance to the port of Cartagena. There is a smaller fort on the other side. They used to have a heavy chain they could run between the forts to keep the pirates out of the bay.

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The view of Bocagrande and Castillogrande neighborhoods from the ship:

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So much growth and new construction! 

If you get a chance to grab an itinerary with a Cartagena stop, go for it! You’ll have a great time.

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More ship tour!

The severely underutilized Adventure Ocean:

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The arcade:

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I kept trying to get a shot of the kids pool when it was open, and it took days before I realized that there are literally 4 tiny humans on the ship, 2 of them too small to use this pool. So you get a shot with the nets up. Sorry!

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The rock climbing wall:

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The mini golf:

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And bonus towel art:

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Day 12 - At Sea

The C&A event for Diamond and above was an entertainment talk. They had a nice slide show, and then various staff in the entertainment section talked about how different it was getting ready for the restart than any time previously. They couldn’t go learn the shows in the Miami facility due to Covid so they has to start learning the parts via zoom during quarantine. The singers all had cabins next to each other and could go out on their balconies to sing together. It was interesting to hear how they made it work. 
 

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The nice part about the Centrum design on this class of ships is the ability to put on various demonstrations. For example, the cake decorating demonstration ended with us eating the result in the Windjammer for lunch:

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And the fruit carving demonstration ended in Windjammer decorations:

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When we went to Chops back on Day I-Can’t-Remember, they ended up selling us a Chops +1 package. It was a bit more expensive that purchasing it ahead ($65pp) but we didn’t have to use it on the first or second night, and we got to pick Chops again as our +1. This time we had a couple of photo-worthy items. Spicy Prawns (MisterZ asked for extra spice and declared them just right):

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Crispy Goat Cheese Salad:

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By choosing to do the specialty dining ala carte, we spent about 40% of what we would have getting the UDP and felt like we ate at the speciality restaurants as much as we wanted. (2x Chops, 2x Giovanni’s, 1x Izumi) The only drawback (if you can call it that) was that we couldn’t spread out the cost by prepaying. But it also meant we didn’t eat as much as we might have if we were trying to get our money’s worth out of the UDP 😉

Just something to consider if you’re on the fence about the UDP!

 

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On 10/12/2021 at 1:13 PM, KristiZ said:

If you get a chance to grab an itinerary with a Cartagena stop, go for it! You’ll have a great time.

A Panama crossing was on my list but I will make sure to look for this as a stop. Everything I know about Cartagena I learned from the 1984 romantic adventure classic, Romancing the Stone, so your skyline photo makes it look so impressive! 

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