Azamara Quest through the Panama Canal – January 5-17, 2014

Day 1:

Stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn a couple miles from the airport. Watch for the right van, there’s 3 Hampton Inns… Decently clean, better then usual TP, towels. Granite counter in the bath and a large room. Good dinner at the Cuban restaurant next door. Good breakfast included, a little birding behind the hotel (separate report in the Ecology Board), then a $12 pp trip to the pier. Look at the lines for the other big ships, walk right up to the Azamara counter, second in line, and pick up our boarding materials. Up to the Windows Café for some sushi and salads and some of that free beer (very limited selection for free, but I’m not too picky). In the cabin about 2, muster drill at 4. Dinner was shrimp cocktail, French Onion Soup, Tenderloin. The white wine is Albarino, good. Taste them first if you like your wines, sometimes they have leftover bottles from the day before if you don’t like tonight’s selection. Nice sugar-free strawberry gelato for dessert. Very important: don’t accept a seat in the aft 20 feet or so, unless you like propeller vibration and noise. Read more