Sadly, we only have two photos from this cruise. We went through the Panama Canal but we have lost all the photos we took. I think we left for our cruise on Sept. 28, 1996. I have a note in my diary that Bill celebrated his birthday on the cruise in October.
Our birthdays are close together so our daughter organized a big birthday party and a big sendoff before we left for Mexico.
Bill was adamant that we would take a major cruise for my 50th birthday after I told him that I lost a chance to go on a cruise around the world.
Here's the story: I entered a writing contest in high school. We were supposed to think of something to do with the mothball fleet from WWII.
I came in #11 in the contest. The first ten winners won a trip around the world on a steamer. I was so disappointed. But I did get to go through the Panama Canal when I turned 50!
This was an old fashioned cruise where people were expected to dress to the nines on certain nights. So we rented a tuxedo for Bill and I bought a nice dress.
We had assigned seating for the cruise. We were with a group from a southern state who all traveled together.
We had a great time at every meal and that probably caught the attention of the Maitre D. We were asked to eat dinner with the captain at his private table in the dining room.
This was quite an honor at the time! We all gathered together on time but the captain was late. It took some time to get our order and start eating.
I sat to the left of the captain and I was worried about conversing with him. I needn't have been concerned. We had hardly sat down when he was called away and was gone for an hour. It turned out that he was involved in negotiations to sell the ship to another cruise line.
(The ship served under the Royal Caribbean banner until 1996, when she was sold to Sun Cruises, which renamed her the Sundream.)
By this time, we had been served and those who ordered wine had a chance to drink plenty. The lady seated to the right of the captain was curious about HIS wine. She decided to try it.
She liked the wine and was a little bit tipsy already. She drank it all.
When the captain came back, he was genuinely angry. It turned out that the wine was from his personal stock! It was no fun to see him angry. We all left the table as soon as we could.
The Song of Norway departed from Acapulco, Mexico. We bought some Tylenol there but that's all. I was hurting for some reason. This was before we carried an entire pharmacy with us as we traveled.
Our first stop was Caldera, Costa Rica on Oct 2. We took a ship excursion. It was river rafting. I was a little worried about it but when I asked the cruise consultant he said they take 90 year old people on these trips and not to worry. It was mild. We saw the howler monkeys in the trees.
We ate lunch in a building that had a tin roof. There was pouring rain overhead. We had black beans and rice for the first time. We loved it.
We went through the Panama Canal on Oct 4. Very interesting.
We went snorkeling at Willemstad, Curacao on Oct. 6. It was great.
Our next stop was Charlotte, Amalie, St. Thomas. I don't remember anything about it except that they tried to sell us things in town.
On Oct 9, we disembarked at San Juan, Puerto Rico and flew home.
