{"id":11481,"date":"2016-12-05T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T22:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11481"},"modified":"2017-01-16T18:15:05","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T23:15:05","slug":"panama-canal-cruise-2016-getting-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=11481","title":{"rendered":"Panama Canal Cruise 2016 – Getting Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday Dec. 4 and Monday Dec. 5, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

Roberto of Yorkie’s car service picked us up Sunday morning to take us to JFK airport. \u00a0We were on our way to Los Angeles, California to board the Island Princess<\/em> for a 15-day cruise through the Panama Canal ending in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. \u00a0Total distance was 5014 Nautical Miles or 5,766 Statute Miles. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We had decided to fly to California one day early and stay the night in a hotel in Long Beach to facilitate boarding at noon on Dec. 5th. \u00a0Incredibly, there was a short security line at JFK and we had a smooth uneventful six hour flight. \u00a0We arrived in Los Angeles after dark and it took a taxi about 40 minutes in light traffic to drive from LAX to Long Beach. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Because we were excited and awoke early, we had time Monday morning to walk around the business district of Long Beach and we found a Starbuck’s for coffee. \u00a0Then we set out to Pier 92 by taxi to begin this 15-day cruising adventure. \u00a0The Port of Long Beach is humongous with shipping cranes lined up as far as you can see and it is one of the world’s busiest commercial seaports and a gateway for trade between the United States and Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

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We arrived at the Island Princess <\/em>before noon but had to\u00a0<\/span>wait for a couple of hours in the terminal. After we got settled in our stateroom, we found the Horizon Court buffet for a surprisingly good lunch and then explored the ship and relaxed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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About 5:00 pm (17:00) the sun was setting as the Island\u00a0Princess <\/em>slowly pulled away from the dock and steered\u00a0for the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Island Princess<\/em> is a “Panamax” ship which means she conforms to the size specifications\u00a0of width, length, height, and draught allowable to enter the locks and pass through the Panama Canal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Island Princess Facts:<\/strong> \u00a0Overall length: 964.3 ft. \u00a0 Breadth: 105.6 ft. \u00a0 Draught: 27.2 ft. \u00a0 \u00a0Built from 2002 – 2003 by Chantiers de L’Antique Shipyard of St. Nazare, France \u00a0 \u00a0maximum passengers: 2390 \u00a0maximum crew: 810 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday Dec. 4 and Monday Dec. 5, 2016 Roberto of Yorkie’s car service picked us up Sunday morning to take us to JFK airport. \u00a0We were on our way to Los Angeles, California to board the Island Princess for a 15-day cruise through the Panama Canal ending in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. \u00a0Total distance was 5014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,31,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-central-america","category-cruising","category-western-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11481"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11738,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11481\/revisions\/11738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}