Vacation!! Panama Canal Cruise – Holland America Zuiderdam

We love cruising. It’s a great way to travel, let someone else do the logistical planning and take care of many of the daily chores. We’ve done many of them over the years, I think I’m up around 20 or 25 at this point.

And it’s an especially great way to travel with others. Everyone can do their own thing, find their own interests – but still share time together.

And as far as vacations go, it’s really not all that expensive considering the fare includes accommodations, travel, food and entertainment (it can downright cheap if you book last minute sometimes.)

While we were on our cruise last May with my mom, the three of us decided to sign up for a cruise later in the year – one that has been on our bucket list for a while.

Panama Canal Cruise!

Ok, so I love cruising. But I’m pretty darn tired of the typical cruise ports on a Caribbean cruise, which are the ones abundantly available out of Florida.

A Panama Canal cruise gets you to the south Caribbean, which would be new territory for us (but not my mom, it would be her third such cruise.)

While there are repositioning cruises available that take you through the canal into the Pacific, we didn’t want to deal with the extra logistics of a one-way cruise this time.

Back when we booked this one, we had already decided our next big adventure would be getting our own boat to start the Great Loop – and knew we’d be gearing up for boat shopping with plenty on our plate already.

So easy it would be for us, and the three of us decided on Holland America’s Zuiderdam for early December.

We selected the 11-day ‘Sun Farer’ itinerary which included stops at Half Moon Cay (Bahamas), Aruba, Curacao, Colombia and Costa Rica – as well as a day going in & out of the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal.  And, our favorite, four days at sea.

Chris and I decided since this was going to be VACATION for us, we’d splurge on a balcony cabin. Booking fairly early allowed us to snag an aft cabin. Sweet!!

Quick Vacation Share

Instead of boring you with lots of details about our cruise, I’ll just share some highlights from each of the ports of call:

Half Moon Cay

Holland America’s private island in the Bahamas is pretty exquisite. They’ve strived to create a resort experience while protecting the natural feel. The boat anchors offshore, and tenders are used to ferry passengers back and forth. Since the weather was awesome that day, Chris and I rented a 14′ Hobie Cat sailboat.

It had been many years since we sailed, and it all came back to us – just like riding a bicycle. That we managed to get out there and zoom around in the wind, and manage our way back to the return spot on time without hitting anything – we consider a SUCCESS!

Aruba

I was so looking forward to Aruba, probably because of a Beach Boys song that gets stuck in my head. In actuality, walking around the cruise terminal area – I can’t say we were overly impressed. Perhaps there’s more beauty to explore once you get out of the touristy area that we didn’t get to experience.

We did however book a sunset catamaran sail (this time, someone else sailing, not us) – which was a lot of fun.

Curacao

This stop in Willemstad won our hearts. The colorfully painted buildings, the architecture and the general feel were just so friendly. Our ship docked right in town, with the unique pedestrian bridge opening up to allow us in and out. We didn’t book an excursion here, and instead decided to just wander the streets. We’d definitely return here.

(And yup, this is where Blue Curacao is made – and nope, we didn’t get any.)

Colombia

We were super excited that Cartegena was on the itinerary. Not just because Romancing the Stone is a favorite movie from childhood, but also because this would be the first time either of us stepped foot in South America!

We were however bummed that we were only scheduled in port for the morning and had to be back on ship by 12:30pm. The terminal is pretty far from anywhere you might like to visit, which means expensive shore excursion are about the only way you’ll see anything other than the port itself.

We decided however to take our chances, and walked outside the terminal and hired a taxi cab driver for a couple hours for a private tour. It worked out wonderfully and much less expensive than the cruise sponsored tours. We got to ride around with a local in air conditioning, and make stops wherever we felt called.

Our way too short visit charmed our socks off (well, it was hot, we weren’t wearing socks). We’d return to Colombia in a heartbeat, such friendly people we encountered everywhere and so much beauty.

Costa Rica

The last stop of the cruise was Limon, Costa Rica. Chris had spent some time in Costa Rica just before he went nomadic (thus, before we met) – and I’ve been itching to visit. Limon however is not the area of Costa Rica that most folks envision. It’s much more agricultural (lots of banana farming) and more run down.

In fact, all of the tour buses and tours guides come in from over the mountain range – there’s just not much in Limon.

We opted for a canal cruise to see some wildlife – which we did (monkeys, sloths, caymans). But overall, we weren’t overly impressed with this stop.

And.. the Panama Canal

And of course, the highlight of the itinerary is the Panama Canal! After several decades of grueling construction, the canal was officially opened in 1914. It changed world commerce by shortening shipping by nearly 7000 miles bypassing needing to go around South America.

It’s an engineering marvel.

Our ship arrived at daybreak (which meant an early wake-up) to enter the Gatun Locks. It was drizzly on deck, but just as the locks came into view this made a welcoming rainbow possible!

 

Since the elevation in Panama is higher than sea level, locks on either side of the canal were created. It’s a 3-stage system on either side.

Our ship would enter from the Caribbean side, go through the 3 locks and then anchor in Gatun Lake just long enough to drop off shore excursion passengers. Some of the excursions took folks to the visitors center, and one through the entire canal. The ship then turns around, goes back through the locks and docks in Colon – where the passengers meet up with us.

We had a Gatun Lake kayaking excursion booked, but apparently there weren’t enough adventurers on board – so ours got canceled last minute. Leaving us on the ship for the two-way trip through the locks.

We used the extra time to share some of the experience with you in this short 5-minute video with some cool time lapse photography Chris took on his iPhone 7+:

Daily Cruise Life

Cruising however isn’t just about the ports, although they are an awesome part. It’s also about life on the ship – which is full of as much fun stuff as you care to indulge in.

We’ve come to really enjoy Holland America as a cruise line, and this is now our 5th time aboard one of their ships. Their demographic tends to average out older than other lines – and we’re typically the youngsters on board. Which is fine by us, we’re used to that already being full time RVers. However, the line does a lot to appeal to a younger crowd too.

From non-stop entertainment ranging from live music, comedy shows, movie theatre and card games.

Organized activities including trivia contests, Bingo, dance classes, cooking demonstrations, educational classes (such as the history of the canal) and a digital workshop.

And you can indulge in spa services if you like (massages, manicures, etc). Our particular favorite is the thermal suites with a member-only huge hot pool, saunas and steam rooms. We always get a cruise-long pass.

And of course.. the food.  It’s a bit too abundant and too awesome if you ask me (mmmm.. sushi buffet!!)!

I really appreciate Holland America as they tend to cater very well to those with food restrictions. In the dining room each night, our waiter would present me tomorrow’s menu – and they would custom make me a gluten free version. Vegetarian options were always available and gluten free items were available on the buffet.

Bad Plumbing Experience

But one thing on this ship didn’t live up to their normal high standards – and that was the plumbing.

On Day 2, our toilet just quit flushing. We called maintenance and they had it fixed promptly.  Unfortunately however, the fix just didn’t take and only lasted about 6-8 hours.  On our 11-day cruise, it quit flushing a total of 11 times. And actually disgustingly backed up twice (we’ll spare you those photos).

It honestly became a pain-in-the-rear (literally, we were on the rear of the ship after all).

While they fixed it every time, it would sometimes take several hours for them to get someone to the room. Which of course cut into our in-cabin relaxation time (essential for these introverted homebodies) – we were always waiting for someone to arrive instead of just chilling in our sweet balcony cabin. And needing to use public facilities, which were 3 decks away.

To their credit, after the 4th time the front desk sent us a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries – and told us they had submitted for ‘monetary compensation’. All without us asking.

But by the end of the cruise and this continuing to be a repeat problem – that compensation just didn’t seem to equate to the true hassle this became. We have an inquiry into HAL corporate, but we’ve not heard back yet.

Unfortunately, we heard from other passengers who experienced similar issues with their plumbing, which tells us that perhaps this ship is overdue for some much needed maintenance.

 

But Wait.. Isn’t RVing a Vacation??

While some might look at our lives and think we’re on a constant vacation, we’re definitely not. While we’re always exploring amazing new locations and having non-stop adventures – nomadic life is every day life for us.

We work full time. We make our own bed. We cook and clean and have maintenance chores to attend to.

And as much as we love our everyday life (it really does rock), we also love mixing it up.

Being self-employed makes it difficult to truly take a disconnected vacation, especially in a connected world that seems to now expect 24/7 availability. So instead, we plan out extended alternate travels that are more ‘working vacations’ (after all, we believe Everyone Deserves More than a 1-week Vacation.)

Earlier this year we did a 3-week Canada & New England cruise & train adventure.  Last year, we did a 7-week Pacific Northwest adventure by train & cruise to Alaska. On both trips we managed a few days truly off, but we also regularly integrated in work hours throughout.

But this adventure we managed something much closer to a true VACATION! Which means we worked very minimally, in large thanks to our amazing Teaching Assistants over at RVMobileInternet.com who kept an eye on things for us.

But.. we did Work: International Mobile Internet Testing

Just before the trip, we decided to pick up a Skyroam mobile hotspot.

We decided to put it to the test directly against our other two international roaming options.

Here’s the plans we took along with us:

• T-Mobile Simple Choice – We keep a $35/month 6GB data plan for our iPad with T-Mobile as our back-up to Verizon and AT&T while traveling in the states. The plan includes unlimited video streaming with their Binge On service. And for international travel, it includes unlimited free 2G speed data in over 150 countries. In North America, we get full LTE speeds. For the price it’s a pretty rocking plan to have in a mobile internet arsenal – and regularly recommend it for RVers.
• Sprint Open World – Sprint has two international roaming options on their plans, both are free but you have to choose one in advance of travel. Open World gives you 1GB of high speed data in North America & Latin America (which is what we keep our plan usually on). Their Global Roaming is more like T-Mobile’s – unlimited 2G in countries around the world.
• Skyroam – Skyroam ($99) uses a virtual SIM card, and when you activate service they assign you to a plan they keep in the country you’re in. Day passes are $8 and include 24-hours of unlimited access.

Another interesting option is Google’s Project Fi  – which combines Sprint, T-Mobile and US Cellular all onto one plan – with pay as you go data purchases at $10/GB. That data can be domestic or international, and it makes for a great flexible option too. We opted not to bring our Project Fi phone along on this adventure.

AT&T and Verizon both have great North America roaming options, but outside of Canada & Mexico they still roam pretty expensively. (And of course, our Verizon unlimited data plan doesn’t include any international roaming.)

Here’s a quick (13-minute) video we took recapping our experiences using each of these service while in the various ports:

For more on international mobile internet options:

• Our The Mobile Internet Handbook has a chapter on Crossing International Borders (and of course is full of information on mobile internet in the US).
• Keeping Connected in Canada (with a bonus section for Canadians who travel in the US)
• Skyroam Overview (In-depth Review & Video Tutorial is part of our premium member benefits)
• The Four Carriers – How They Compare for RVers

What’s Up Next?

After we returned to Ft. Lauderdale – we drove back over to Spring Hill to pick up Kiki and spend a couple days with Chris’ folks before returning to the bus.

We got the bus out of storage, and we’re settled back into Melbourne for the remainder of the year to continue to be near my mom.

I’ll be working on our Year in Review and Favorite Campgrounds posts, and have those up soon. We’ll also be issuing our 2016 Mobile Internet Year in Review post over at RVMobileInternet.

And that should be a wrap for this year on the blog!

We’re working with our boat broker to line up some boats to potentially see this week before the holidays.. and then we move to the west coast of Florida for some serious boat shopping after the first of the year.