Blogs from Panama Canal, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 4

Geo: 9.00968, -79.6018We are currently in the Panama Canal. We have passed through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks and are currently in the Culebra Cut heading to Gatun Lake then the Gatun Locks at approximately 1:50 this afternoon then we will be in the Caribbean Sea with a stop in Colon. If you are reading this before 1:50 on March 25th, there is a live web feed of the locks of Gatun.Check out www.pancanal.com You might see the Celebrity Infinity on her journey. She is classed as a PanaMax ship. There are just a couple of feet on each side. The new locks will handle larger ships.... read more

27thJanuary 2014 Transit of the Panama Canal This to me is one of the highlights of the World Cruise. The sheer size of everything is something to try and take in, they are currently undertaking expansion work and at the first lock, on the banks were the new lock gates (picture). The Queen Elizabeth is known as a Panamax ship, i.e. it is the biggest ship in width that can fit .through the locks. There was 2ft each side when entering the locks, a tight squeeze!! It costs Cunard in the region of 300,000 US dollars to use the canal (one way). We arrived at the entrance to the first lock at 8 am with the temperatures already in the high 70’s. The transit of the canal takes about 8-10 hrs depending on canal traffic. Some ... read more

Sunday 8th – Sunday 22ndDecember 2013 Including Jennie’s 50th Norwegian Star – Panama Canal transit and Mexican Riviera Two weeks of mostly fine and sunny with some rain – averaging 29c The Norwegian Star is our last NCL ship for this holiday adventure. It is not a large ship as it needs to be able to transit the Panama Canal. Its gross tonnage is 91,740 and guest capacity is 2,350 looked after by 1,100 crew. The Topaz Suite on the Norwegian Star was our two bedroomed apartment at sea for this sailing. What a great stroke of luck in getting this amazing suite. NCL had overbooked and so asked that we combine cabins with Di and Max and hence we got this amazing upgrade! A lovely birthday present and a great surprise. The master suite came ... read more

Today is officially our final day of our month-long tour through Central America. Over the past 28 days we have been through 5 countries, seeing and doing some amazing things including swimming with the dolphins, peering into an active volcano full of lava, canyoneering down cliffs and zip-lining across valleys. Its been an amazing 4 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed every minute and the people we've met along the way. Our final day begun with a sleep-in, whooop!! No Olly Murrs 'Troublemaker' would wake us up this morning. We had a free day in Panama City and we thought we'd get our 'chores' over and done with first. We had breakie at the hotel, I put on the biggest load of washing ever in preparation for our summer gear hibination as we would be travelling south to ... read more

This was the Signature Event of our cruise – going through the Panama Canal! This was quite an amazing day. I guess ships go through here all the time (40 were scheduled today) but this was our first trip through the canal and it was really special. The Canal Pilot arrived on the ship at 5:45 and David was up, dressed, and out the door by 6:00. It was a little cloudy on the horizon so sunrise over the Pacific wasn’t real clear. David grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for the highest deck on the front of the ship. He should have skipped breakfast because he was about 3rd or 4th back in the crowd. Fortunately except for the front row, most people were moving around and David got close enough to get some pictures ... read more