TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

Hilda Sanchez took it upon herself to let the ship’s crew know that

she and her husband were aboard the Royal Princess to celebrate their

25th wedding anniversary last month.

So during their 10-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Cartagena,

Colombia, journeying through the Panama Canal, the Newport Beach couple

enjoyed special treatment. Limon, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico were

some of the ports the couple went to.

On March 5, their anniversary, the ship sat the pair at the captain’s

table for dinner. They gave them credit in the photo gallery and the spa.

The staff even streamed balloons and banners outside their cabin door and

throughout the duration of the cruise, continued to invite them to

private cocktail parties including one in the captain’s cabin.

“We had a fabulous time,” said Hilda Sanchez, who runs a printing

company in Long Beach. “And the Panama Canal has always been on our list

and it was a place where the weather was good in March.”

David Rigby, a data processing consultant in Newport Beach, said

they’ve always been avid cruisers and chose the Royal Princess ride

simply because they’ve never been on it.

“We just figured it was time,” he said.

In the Panama Canal, the ship’s passengers traveled through three

locks (a nautical elevating tool that takes you to higher levels on the

ocean) while the Atlantic Ocean remained at sea level.

“It’s kind of like taking an elevator up one floor,” Sanchez said.

In the picturesque town of Cartagena, the couple saw old churches,

other colonial sights and wandered through narrow streets while being

followed everywhere by street vendors.

In Limon, they encountered vendors who stayed put, requiring shoppers

to approach them.

“It’s very low key, and the setting was very lush. There was a rain

forest nearby,” Sanchez said.

At Grand Cayman, they witnessed turquoise colored oceans and visited

the links on land because both are avid golf “fanatics.”

When asked why they chose a cruise to celebrate their anniversary,

Sanchez listed that you get to see a number of places and only pack and

unpack once.

“And you can be as active or as inactive as you want,” she said. “We

did a lot of relaxing during the day and a lot of partying at night.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.