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Rating (out of 5):     Ship    Food    Service    Itinerary

We booked this cruise for a number of reasons. We had done the Panama Canal less then 18 months ago on the Island Princess, but this cruise extended the normal canal itinerary of LA / Miami to Lima, Peru / New York City, making it an 18 day cruise. It was also our favorite ship (Marina) on one of our favorite cruise lines (Oceania). And, of course, it was on the list of available T/A priced cruises. Another bonus was that it checked off two more countries for us - Peru and Guatemala. The only bad part of the trip was the flight to Lima. It was split over two legs - Calgary to Montreal to Lima - with a total of 12 hours flying time. We find as we get older the longer flights bother us more. At least the flight home would be tolerable at 5 hours from New Jersey to Calgary.

The ship was not full. There were 1066 passengers whereas the double occupancy limit was 1250. About 150 of the passengers were already aboard from the previous Easter Island cruise , making it a 32 day cruise. The previous leg was even less crowded with only about 900 guests. There were only 2 children on our cruise - definitely an old peoples cruise! Choosing clothes to bring was complicated as it was (end of) summer in South America, hot in the Panama area and the Caribbean, and early Spring on the northeast US coast. One big plus of this cruise was that there was no great time zone change. In fact, the first half of the cruise was on Alberta time.

A first for us was an abnormal outbreak of a bacterial based gastro-enteritis that was sufficiently widespread to require extreme sanitization measures by the crew for several days. The following paragraph is based on what we saw and what we heard, realizing that every employee we heard from had a different set of facts! The outbreak was caused by a bacterial infection. (ie. definitely not Norwalk which is a viral infection). Apparently a number of passengers on a Machu Picchu pre-cruise tour came down with an infection after eating a meal at the same hotel in Cuzco. Even though sick, the passengers still boarded the ship in Lima which started the ball rolling. In support of this theory is that the ship was disease free for the whole of the previous 16 day Easter Island cruise. The infection finally ran its course about two weeks after we boarded. During this time more and more sanitization procedures were put into place. These included:

• hand sanitizer dispensers were placed throughout the ship
• chairs, tables, railings, etc. were regularly wiped clean with disinfectant
• all food was served by employees
• place mats, cutlery, condiments, etc. were placed on the table after being seated
• there were no hard cover menus, just disposable paper menus
• casino cards were trashed after each play
• the "crossing the Equator" celebration was cancelled
• the "staff olympics" event (if it is still an event!) was cancelled
• the library was locked down
• staff in the gym were wiping down the equipment after each usage
• people exhibiting symptoms were confined in their rooms for two days

Trivia was well organized on this cruise with two sessions of general trivia per day - at 4:30 and 8:30. Teams had a maximum of 8 members, which we have always found too large (6 is perfect). And, of course, the driving force was the accumulation of those much coveted BIG-O Points. We would turn in our points at the end of the cruise for fabulous Oceania paraphenelia like hats, t-shirts and umbrellas. But the true winnings were having fun with and getting to know our new team mates.

Day 7: We were up at 7:00 to watch us dock in Manta. There were no excursions that interested us so we stayed aboard for the morning. We did breakfast at the buffet, then I went to the gym while Marjorie headed to the computer room to do her T/A business. We had lunch at waves. In the afternoon we decided to take the free ship-to-town shuttle to see the town. Where the shuttle stopped there was a craft market, where every second stall sold Panama hats. We wandered the market for half an hour or so and then caught the shuttle back to the ship. Were were back in time for trivia and Mensa review. For dinner we went to Jacques where both Marjorie and I had the lobster thermadore. We placed second at evening trivia.

Day 10: This morning we were up at 6:30 to see us enter the Panama Canal. This was our third time transiting the locks over the years so it was more of an interesting experience rather than an educational one. One difference I noticed this time was that there weren't many ships transiting with us. The previous times ships were stacked up at either end of the canal, plus in Lake Gatun. The locks hold two ships side-by-side, and we always had a partner ship blocking the view on one side. This time there were fewer ships waiting and no one beside us in the lock. We had breakfast in the buffet then I went to the gym and Marjorie to shuffleboard. We had lunch at waves In the afternoon we played Top Toss for BIG-O Points and managed 4:30 trivia. For dinner we snuck into Red Ginger. Marjorie had a chicken stir fry while I had the miso sea bass. 8:30 trivia did us in, so a quick wander and to bed. Clocks back 1 hour.

Day 13: We were up at 7:00 ready for our day in Santo Tomaso, Guatemala. This would be a new country for us. Just like in Puerto Limon is was raining hard as we got up, but by the time we got to the buses it was bright and sunny. We had our breakfast in the buffet and then got ready for our 9:15 tour. We assembled on the dock and then walked to the buses. We drove to a village where the Rio Dulce flows into Lake Izabal. We loaded into motor boats to tour around Lake Izabal. We made a stop at Castille de San Felipe - built during the 17th century in honour of the Spanish King Felipe II. We got to walk through the beautiful grassy parkland and then entered the castle for a tour. The castle was small, but very interesting. After the tour and a return walk through the park we reboarded the boats and continued our tour of the lake. We slowly circled a small island where the trees were full of water birds - pelicans, cormorants, etc. Back on land, we went to the Catamaran Hotel for refreshments. We were back at the ship by 3:00. I went to the gym (empty!) and then we played afternoon trivia. We did dinner in Toscana where Marjorie had lasagne and I had a lobster tail. Wonderful. Afterwards we did the evening trivia, wandered and went to bed.

Day 18: The next day we were up at 7:30 to watch us come into Miami. We had a quick breakfast in the buffet. This was our first U.S. port so we all had to march out to the terminal building to go through US Customs. We didn't have any excursion booked for Miami, so we caught the free shuttle bus to downtown. We exited the bus at the Brickell Center (about 9:30) and wandered around the huge mall. Then we caught the shuttle to the Bayside Mall about 11:00. Marjorie decided to leave the bus and tour the mall, while I stayed on the bus and headed back to the ship. Marjorie arrived at the ship on a later shuttle (12:00). We had lunch in the buffet. The afternoon was straight forward with Top Toss and trivia. We enjoyed watching the ship fill with gas (several hours) from our balcony, plus the galley loaded up with pallets of fruits and veggies. Dinner was in Toscana. Marjorie had a veal cutlet, I had veal scalopini. Then 8:30 trivia, wander the decks and then to bed. Note: at some time in the afternoon the captain announced that due to an Atlantic storm we would be bypassing Norfolk, Virginia. Instead we would dock tomorrow at Port Canaveral and then have a sea day to New York. That's twice now that we have missed Norfolk! We are destined to never visit Norfolk!