Escambia Bay Bridge Construction

On September 16, 2004 the storm surge from Hurricane Ivan nearly destroyed both sections of the Interstate 10 Escambia Bay Bridge outside Pensacola, Florida. Temporary repairs were made and limited traffic was permitted. Both sections of the bridge are now being destroyed and the new west-bound lanes are taking shape.

Here are some webcam photos to show the progress. You can visit the bridge's official site here. I will post more photos as the construction progresses.

In case you are confused by the pictures, the new west-bound lanes will be approximately where the old east-bound lanes were.

Coral Princess Cruise, April 2007 -- Embarkation

Sunday, Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Two weeks ago we headed south for a cruise. We left home on Friday and drove to Fort Lauderdale arriving on Saturday afternoon. The hotel was just six miles away from the port. On Sunday morning we dove to the Park'n'Cruise lot, left the car and took their van to the dock. Somehow the driver got lost on the two mile trip, but we told him where to go. And how to find our ship.

We got to the ship earlier than we meant to -- about 12:30 P.M. -- and much earlier than the Princess boarding pass said to be there -- 2:30. But we missed the early birds who had already checked in and there was no crowd at all. We were in our room before 1:00 and our bags arrived at 1:35. The fastest delivery ever.

We had a mini-suite with a balcony and it was all very nice. Big balcony, a living room area with a sofa and easy chair, two TVs and, instead of the usual tiny bathroom with a tiny shower there was a big bathroom with a bathtub even!


There were five other ships waiting to sail out of Port Everglades on this Sunday. Above are the Costa Magica and the Carnival Liberty. The others were Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas, Caribbean Princess and Costa Mediterranea.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and at 5:10 we sailed away for a 10-day cruise to Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Mexico.

Click here to see the current view from the bridge of the Coral Princess.

The Next Cruise

As soon as we returned from our Western Caribbean cruise last month, we booked another one. In the spring we will be taking a 10-day cruise on the Coral Princess. Launched in 2003, it carries a maximum of 1,970 passengers with a crew of 900.

It's a slightly smaller ship than the other two we've been on -- the Caribbean Princess and the Golden Princess. But the reviews of the Coral Princess are raves and the size is apparently just right. See the deck plans.

We sail out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. The ports of call are Panama with a partial crossing of the Canal, turning around in Gatun Lake, followed by a visit to Cristobal; then Limon, Costa Rica; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Grand Cayman and Cozumel, then back to Port Everglades.

Click here to see the current view from the bridge of the Coral Princess.

December 2006, Golden Princess Cruise -- Days 2 & 3

Sunday & Monday, at sea

Both Day 2 and Day 3 were at sea. It is 1040 nautical miles from New Orleans to Montego Bay making this the longest leg of our trip. The weather was pleasant and the sea was calm. We were heading southeast and the temperature was climbing as we got closer to the tropics. It was wonderful to have nothing to do and nowhere to be.

It was time to explore the ship. Last spring we cruised on the Caribbean Princess and like the Golden Princess it is in their Grand Class of ships (meaning very big). This ship is slightly smaller than the Caribbean Princess. They are nearly identical except the Caribbean Princess has one additional deck of staterooms. This means about 500 more passengers than the Golden Princess. You almost never notice the difference except the Horizon Court Buffet on this one is on Deck 14 instead of Deck 15.

The public spaces inside the Golden Princess, especially the atrium, are classier (a string quartet at cocktail time) and quieter during the day -- there are many great places to read a book and have a drink -- before going back to your cabin to have a nap. And then go eat.

We don't always travel during the Christmas holiday season. It can be good and bad. It certainly forces you to get all your Christmas shopping and chores done ahead of time. This year it meant wrapping it all up by December 15. So there's a little more pressure. But what a relief to get it all done ahead of time.

Sunday night was formal night, as opposed to smart casual at other times. Hell froze over and we took some dress up clothes this time so we could eat in the nice dining room on formal night. It didn't kill us.

Monday we went to see The Magic and Illusions of Gaetano in the Princess Theater. He is from Las Vegas and leaves the ship in Montego Bay on Tuesday to fly back to Las Vegas to perform there. It's a busy showbiz life he leads. The Princess Theater is an amazing performance space, very high tech and well done.

Here's what it looks like right now from the bridge of the Golden Princess.

If you want to check out other cruise ship bridge cams, and some ship-board wedding cams as well, then click on Kroooz-cams.com.

Web Cams At Sea -- Cruise Cams

The images aren't always very sharp, but when you go to Kroooz-cams.com you can see live views from the Bridge Cams of 73 different cruise ships. The shot below is the view earlier this afternoon from the bridge of the Diamond Princess. And sometimes there are pics from the Wedding Chapels, too.

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The Kroooz-cam.com site also lists the basic stats of each ship and shows the views of PortCams from around the world or at least the part of the world where cruise ships go.

May 2006, Caribbean Princess Cruise -- Day 4

Tuesday, St. Thomas, USVI

"Land at last, land at last!" from Sail Away, a 1961 Broadway musical by Noel Coward

Distance sailed so far:
Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas, 1131 nautical miles (that's 1302 statute miles)

There is a nautical chart on the wall on Lido Deck 15. That's the deck where the big pools are and the two buffets, Horizon Court and Cafe Caribe. The chart shows the route of the Caribbean Princess and it gets updated every day by somebody from the bridge. The published distance is actually only 981 nautical miles but because of the rough seas we went 150 n.m. out of our way on Saturday night for a smoother ride.

Here's a photo of the ship at the dock so you can see how big it really is.

We arrived at dawn in St. Thomas and at 7:00 A.M. we were slowly pulling into the dock. I expected the view to be ugly warehouses with oil tanks and typical rusting waterfront sheds. What we saw however were steep green hillsides with lovely houses. I guess you could call them villas. It looked like the French Riviera. And best of all -- a U.S. based cell phone works from the balcony!

Directly across the street from the dock is a shopping mall just for us tourists. In the photo on the left you can see our ship behind the shopping mall sign. Those life boats are on the ship's Deck 7.

If you don't need to shop for jewelry you'll have time to buy liquor and cigarettes. Not only is the liquor cheap there is an extra bonus for U.S. citizens. Oh, the knowledge one picks up when traveling...

In several possessions of the United States there are special duty free regulations, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is one of them. You can buy and take home, completely tax and duty free, five liters of liquor as long as one liter is made locally. In this case made in the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and obviously this means rum. No, you cannot open it on the ship. They won't even give it to you until just before you disembark.

Here's the view from our balcony, looking down toward the mouth of Charlotte Amalie Harbor.

Click here to see the current view from the bridge of the Caribbean Princess.