We were prepared to deal with a possible situation on COVID-19 on our cruise vacation with Princess.  Here is couple of thing we saw and did.

The first 2 days,  it was very quiet.  COVID-19 was not mentioned on any notification.  We were doing our best to protect us.

As usual, we disinfected all doors, switches, TV remote and phone when we entered the stateroom. We also got our pharmacy in the stateroom.

We cancelled the shore excursion to avoid the bus situation and did not attend any big show and event.  Exercise at the gym when people were going to islands was one way to maintain social distancing. Another way to keep distance from other passenger is to use stairway instead of elevator. We have to remind ourselves not to touch anything. So we used paper or glove on handrails. Sometimes we took a walk around outside deck 7 or read books at stateroom balcony to get fresh air and Vitamin D.

On day 3, Horizon Cafe buffet staff started to wear gloves, handed out silverware/plates to passengers, and put food on your plates.  It was good so I didn’t have to use napkin on serving spoons after many passengers touched the spoons already.  Thanks.

March 11, Day 6, WHO declared the COVID19 outbreak a pandemic. 

March 13, Day 8, President Trump declared National Emergency

Around March 14, Day 9:  We received a long message from Jan Swartz, President of Princess Cruise.  I quoted one paragraph of the message as follows:

“In the interest of doing what’s right and upholding our core values, I regretfully am announcing a 60 day pause of our Princess global ship operations.”

I was touched by the her words, transparency and accountability.  I was waiting for such decision. Thank you!

Panama Canal is one of the seven wonders of the world. We went through the old canal locks, Gatun Lock with Island Princess cruise ship in 2012. We were amazed. Now, we re-visited the canal and went through new locks, Agua Clara Locks with the larger ship, Caribbean Princess which is the first major cruise line operating partial transits of the canal at Atlantic entrance in 2017. Caribbean Princess’ beam is 118 feet that is 12 feet wider than maximum allowed for the old canal locks.

The Agua Clara locks have three chambers. Each chamber is 180 feet wide, 1400 feet long, and 60 feet deep. The chambers are designed to rise the ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake and the opposite way going toward the Atlantic. It took approximately 40 minutes for the ship to go through each chamber, a total time is two hour from enter the locks to exit the locks.

We got up 4:00 am to get the best location at front of the ship at deck 15 to take photos. It was still dark. When the ship approached the locks around 5:00 am, we took photos of both locks, Agua Clara Locks (new locks) on the port side and Gatun Locks (old locks) on the starboard side. Wow. It was exciting. Panama charged the Caribbean Princess approximately $47,000 just to go through the locks.

A frequent way Princess Cruises celebrates special events of days is with a tree structure of filled champagne glasses.  This cruise was no exception as the wine glasses were filled with wine and formed a holiday celebration tree.

Obviously ringing in the  New Year needs balloons.  Everyone got a big bang out of these!