Oceana leaving Acapulco in sunset

21 Feb 2009 18:06 the view as Oceana sails out of Acapulco bay. The sun is setting, and we're about to goto dinner. Our first sailaway.

Our first sailaway under way

21 Feb 2009 17:58 Video around the top deck as Oceana leaves Acapulco on our first sailaway

The view of Acapulco Bay as Oceana sails away

17:48 21 Feb 2009 Oceana leaves Acapulco Bay and this is the view as we leave. It's sad to sail away, but there are good things to come.

Oceana sounds its horn as we leave Acapulco

Our first sailaway, I meant to show the ship was turning by showing the land moving against the funnel, but as I started filming the ship's horn blew. Loud, you could say. Note the steel band playing in the background.

Romantic thunderstorm

After leaving Acapulco on our first night at sea and after dinner, we rested on the balcony in the warm night-time air and watched a thunderstorm over the land. We couldn't tell we were near land until the lightning strike lit the clouds and mountains. Clear sky over us .. stars .. cumulus and mountains and thunder over the land. Breathtaking. Tough weather pictures to get tho :-)

Leaving Acapulco

Here we are leaving land and sailing away for the first time. Wow.

According to the ship's log (we are given a short version of it on the last day), we 'thrust laterally' at 17:36 on Saturday 21 February 2009 from the dock at Acapulco and set sail for Huatulco. Wow.

On the top deck was the first sailaway party, complete with steel band.

Mustering practice on Oceana

Our first (and only) mustering practice on Oceana. We used the service stairs just this once and it was quite a few floors down so in an emergency I hope there would be nice people to guide us like at practice.

Pathetically, I struggled to understand my life jacket and needed help with the velcro. So much for reading the SAS Survival Book.

The security boat arrives

We had a security boat for our stay in Acapulco, this is him arriving for work at dawn, or maybe taking over the shift, or maybe delivering breakfast.

Feb 20 2009 VID00003

Our first view from Oceana cabin A546 in port at Acapulco, Mexico. Breathtaking view, especially after so many hours couped up in a plane.

First view of Oceana from a distance

When we walked back from Acapulco old town we got our first view of Oceana from afar, it's a beautiful ship.

Discovering Oceana's promenade deck

A delightful thing about being on a cruise for the first time is that everything's new. Discovering the promenade deck was one of those moments. Very romantic, it encircles the ship and is something like a third of a mile around so people tend to take a walk or jog around it in the mornings. It's shaded in the heat of the day, and you can take a seat, order a drink from a passing waiter and watch the world go by. Either that or play deck quoites.

I just love the style, it reminds me old ocean liners taking people to a new life in America. And it took me about a week to spot that those fans in the ceiling are the hulls of the lifeboats suspended above. 'Oceana', that's written on the stern of the lifeboat.

Acapulco transport

I loved the Acapulco transport. Herbie?

Woolworths in Acapulco

The Woolworths in Acapulco was trading normally. Wonder how that works. I mean, is it actually just the UK arm of Woolworths that's gone bust or what?

Acapulco hobo

If you are a tramp in the UK you need loads of stuff to keep yourself warm. But in Acapulco, keeping warm isn't much of an issue, so you can live with almost nothing, imagine that. This woman hasn't even got shoes, and seems to be wearing just a petticoat and a loose fitting top, no bra.

We saw her a few times. One theme of some of the countries we visited is .. survival. There's no safety net. I don't know if Mexico has. But I'm expecting no unemployment benefit, no health insurance, no social housing. So if you fall, there's nothing to catch you.

First steps into Acapulco

I'm quite careful and Acapulco is a big, foreign place and I'd no clue what to expect. Oceana was berthed near the old town of Acapulco it was quite easy to just walk left along the dual carriageway, and then turn inland as the road curved left to follow the bay. There we found a church and a leafy, shaded square, see it here alongside Calle Independencia, actually down and left from where that indicates.

The weather was hot, so we took a moment in the square. A guy approached us saying he was an official guide and wondered if we needed any help. We said no, but we just asked him where the market was. He confirmed where we were planning to walk.

If you do zoom in on Google maps (the link above), this photograph is the bandstand as you turn in off the road:

The church is a big deal, but I can't remember what it's called I'm afraid:

Acne Facials anyone?:

A local lady feeding the pigeons:

The square was filled with fabulous music. It was only after we'd sat there for a while absorbing the 'atmosphere' (perhaps Mexicans just party all day) that we realised it was coming from an aerobics class on the second floor of one of the buildings, and of course they needed all the windows open, here's a link to the You Tube video, for some reason I'm trying to embed it here and it's publishing some other video.

Flying westwards means early wakeup

Flying west makes it easy to wake up early. The first day we'd dedicated to recovering from the journey and starting to get familiar with the ship but here's sunrise the next day and it's probably good to think about walking into Acapulco, Mexico.

First evening dinner on Oceana

We opted to have a set time for evening dinner. You get to choose the size of the table you want to sit at. My parents tend to choose a six, but since we were together this time we chose an eight. However on the first night, it's just sit where you like, so we didn' t meet our other table guests this evening.

Acapulco, dockside

We hadn't actually walked around the ship to see what everyone else's view was so we wandered. It was a bit more noisy with traffic, our side was better :-)

Getting to know Oceana

Oceana is quite stunning. It's huge and it's beautiful, 2,016 passengers, 261m long, 32.25m wide, 11 passenger decks and 875 crew.

The accommodation deck corridors run the full length of the ship and are served by three lifts. Stand at one end and the corridors seem to reach infinity. Perhaps the first job is to explore the sun deck.

Acapulco bay view

The view of Acapulco bay from our balcony after so many hours stuck on a plane made us quite tearful even though we look out over the sea at home. We were moored here.

Our first cruise

I'd never considered going on a cruise. I always felt I wanted more from travelling, to get more embedded in the culture I was visiting. I wanted to spend a while in one place not just hop in and buy stuff from a tourist shop.

But my parents invited me on a two week cruise through the Panama Canal, how could I refuse. And .. I really enjoyed it.

So here's the story.

My partner and I live in Scarborough (UK), so we set off at about 11:30 and drove to my parents in Long Eaton (near Nottingham). From there, we'd previously booked an airport taxi to Birmingham for flight Thomson 243 to Acapulco. We arrived on ship at about 9:30 their time (we are 6 hours ahead, so that's about 15:30 ours). Door to door, it was a 28 hour journey, but it wasn't painful. It was disappointing not to be able to wander off the plane while refuelling at Miami, but we'd only have been in the airport while everything was closed.

This pic is us arriving in the cabin, A546, midships.