Then another day at sea before we get to Santa Barbara. Never been there, so no photo.

Moving along the California coast, we will next be in San Diego.

That is the end of the first leg. It was advertised as a wine country, 7-day cruise. We'll stay on the ship and continue to Ft. Lauderdale.

After leaving California, we have a couple of days at sea. Nice a restful after all the visiting with friends along the US west coast.

Our next stop is Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Then to another new-to-us port in Huatulco, Mexico.

Then, it gets sort of iffy, as our next port of call is scheduled to be San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. However, there has been a lot of civil unrest and it is unknown (now) if we will make that stop. In its place, it would be Puerto Chiapas, Mexico.

Nice! We spent 16 days when we did Panama Canal, from Florida to Los Angeles. I could easily have spent another week on the ship. Enjoy!

Another port that we have been to is Puntarenas, Costa Rica. That would happen right after the Nicaragua/Puerto Chiapas stop.

Our next port is Fuerte Amador, which is the stop for Panama City. Although we have done the canal transit several times, this will be our first stop in Panama City.

We will spend most of one day transiting the canal. Going under the Bridge of the Americas.

Next stop is Cartagena, Colombia. This will be our third time there and we will ride the Hop On/Hop Off bus in the old part of the city. There is a wonderful bird sanctuary at the end of pier. Part is enclosed and much of it is open.

I am not a cruise person and don't know the protocol but a 'wine country cruise' sounds very confusing to me :-) Except for Santa Barbara, there is no 'wine country' along the coast....it's all inland and in some cases, a good distance inland. Even the Santa Barbara vinyards and wineries are not exaclty in SB but up north and inland. Do they bus you to these destinations?

For both Santa Barbara and San Francisco, there will be tours offered by the cruise line (and independently) to get to the vineyards. In San Francisco, we will be there from 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., lots of time to visit. Astoria, a nice town on its own, is on the coast and the most of the wine is produced farther inland, we'll be there for 9 hours which will allow plenty of time for that. I will admit that San Diego is not much of a wine county. When we begin the cruise, we will carry aboard a few bottles of Canadian wine.

Have fun!

Wow, that looks like fun. I think the experience depends a lot on the cruise line so I hope it’s a good one. Enjoy!

Jim, I am jealous!

San Diego has a brewery tour that might be of interest to you if you happen to like beer. They load everyone on a bus and take them around to the various breweries in the area for beer tasting. Whether or not that is something you'd like to do depends on whether or not you like beer and how long you will be in port.

Here is a link: San Diego Brewery Tours

That's too bad about San Juan del Sur. We really enjoyed the day we spent there during our Panama Cruise.

Have fun and post pics!

Have fun!

Sounds like a great trip! Enjoy!

I think you meant that you'll be in Los Angeles, then San Diego. San Diego is south of Los Angeles, down by the Mexican border.

" Except for Santa Barbara, there is no 'wine country' along the coast."

I think it depends what someone considers as "along the coast". Our coasts are cool (delightfully so) and vineyards need to be a bit away from the immediate coast, typically just a range of hills away in valleys.

It's less than an hour from Santa Barbara to the Santa Ynez Valley, the local wine area, and just a shade over an hour from San Francisco to Napa or Sonoma. Same is true for vineyards and wineries near Monterey, San Diego, etc., I think these areas are considered coastal because they're near the ocean and have weather influenced by it.

Real "inland" means the Central Valley - good for growing table grapes but too hot otherwise and the site of only non-premium bulk wines like Two Buck Chuck, Franzia, Gallo's historical ops, etc.

jim - you don't want Canadian wine, you want BC wine. :)

Have a great trip. Sounds like fun.

The way the cruise was originally set up (a couple of years ago) we were to go from Vancouver to Victoria. However, there were to be too many ships there, so the itinerary was changed. So, yes, we go to San Diego and then back to Los Angeles the end of the 7-day itinerary that Princess Cruises calls "Pacific Wine Country". We booked the entire 22-days so that we can be back in Florida.

Next up is another Princess cruise in late November. From Venice to Ft. Lauderdale: 29-day itinerary on a ship that will carry fewer than 700 passengers. Fly one way and then drive home.

Yeah, I'm sorry, wonderful wine from British Columbia. We've done it before and we'll do it again. I know the store and the woman is helpful.

Which store do you go to? If you have never tried wine from Blasted Church Winery ask at the store about it. It's in Okanagan Falls and is a favourite of ours.

Robson Wine, Beer & Spirits on Robson downtown.

It sounds like a hoot!

Have a great trip. I love the pre-trip photo itinerary.

See if you can get a good picture of the lighthouse along the Canal at the Gatun side. Moonie would probably appreciate it.

If you're cruising past Monterey, give them a wave from me. I'd love to see a picture of all the sea lions/harbor seals from that side. I've certainly seen them enough from the wharf side. Bark at them from me too ;) Only thing cooler is the otters. And you'd have to be really close to shore to see those.