We are booked on a 15 night Panama Canal cruise this October. I was looking over some of the daily deals I get email on and I saw this cruise with a price that I felt had to be a typo - it was for more than 50% of the normal rates but it was a Guarantee, and it was for a full Deluxe Verandah Suite.
Which brings me to another opportunity to talk about Guarantees. Not all Guarantees are created equal, a Guarantee is when you can book a cabin category without being able to choose the exact cabin. Some cabins within a category may be in less than desirable areas of the ship, like above or below a show lounge or the buffet, have an obstructed view outside, be somewhat smaller than other cabins within the category, be next door to the self service laundry, etc. Guarantees however can sometimes give you such incredible rates that they are hard to turn down regardless. Such is the case with our cabin category - there are no undesirable Deluxe Verandah Suite cabins on the entire ship (some have smaller cabins but enormous verandahs like those on the aft of the ship, some have larger cabins and somewhat larger verandahs, and others are right across the hall from the Neptune Lounge (which is the Concierge Lounge for full suite passengers - more on that amenity later).
We could have never afforded this cruise in this level of cabin without this tremendous guarantee rate. We will fly to San Diego (made these arrangements the moment I booked the cruise and was able to get super rate before all the ugliness started with the fuel issues) to embark and we'll end our cruise in Fort Lauderdale. We will cruise 3 oceans, the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic - WOW!
San Diego
At Sea
Cabo San Lucas
At Sea
Acapulco, Mexico
Huatulco, Mexico
Puerto Chiapas, Mexico
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
At Sea
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
At Sea
Full Transit of the Panama Canal (5am - 7pm)
Cartagena, Colombia
At Sea
At Sea
Fort Lauderdale
The amenites that will be included in the Deluxe Verandah Suite will be King size bed, large cabin (more than 500 sqft), large living area with leather sofa and chairs, large desk, dressing area, bathroom with double sinks, whirlpool tub, separate shower, toilet, abundance of storage areas. Priority Embarkation (quicker to get onto the ship when you first start your cruise), priority dining (we always want a certain dining time and a table for 2 and as suite passengers we always get this request honored), laundry and dry cleaning included for the duration of the cruise, use of the Concierge Lounge where the concierge will make arrangements for Pinnacle Grill reservations (special dining), shore excursion arrangements, there is food (finger foods) and specialty coffee, tea, and lemonade available from 6:30am - 9pm daily.
The majority of passengers on this cruise will be couples and most will be mid 40's or older as it's this demographic that have the time to cruise for 2+ weeks. The atmosphere on this cruise will be more laid back, much quieter, more leisurely, there will probably be few if any children onboard as school will have started up again.
I hope to post at least a few times during our cruise. Internet time is expensive and slow connection (but it works). We have already started researching our ports and booking our shore excursions and I've started staging our packing in our cruise closet. I will pack for 6-7 days for each of us and then we'll have our clothing cleaned onboard for wear the second week (this is especially handy with the luggage restrictions the airlines are currently struggling with).
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