Day 7 - Crossing the Panama Canal!!!
1.12.11 - Today was Panama Canal day!!! The day everyone on board was anxiously awaiting! A once-in-a-lifetime experience.
They had told us we would approach the first locks, the Gatun Locks, around 6:20 a.m. So, knowing everyone would be fighting for a good spot to see the action, we figured we'd better get up on deck early. We were awakened to a boat refueling our ship. The picture I got looks kind of "otherwordly" ... the humidity (at 5 a.m.-ish) was already crazy to make the camera fog up. But made for a neat picture.
We were up on Deck 9 around 5:15 a.m. or so. I remembered Capt. Puckett (the retired Panama Canal pilot) saying we would be taking the right hand lock, so I knew we should go to the left (or port) side of the ship so we could watch the action in the empty chamber next to us. BINGO! I was right! (Thankfully I didn't listen to Barkley, he thought Puckett said we were going in the left chamber! *grin*)
So, we made our way to the 1st locks and proceeded to ... SIT. We had to wait for another ship to go through before us, so we were delayed at least an hour so. In the meantime (granted, it's only around 7:30 a.m.) it got hotter, and hotter and HOTTER! I kid you not, by 8 a.m. or so, it was SO hot and humid we thought we were gonna die. Thank goodness for SPF 50 suntan lotion!
But we finally made it into the first locks and were lucky to have the Sinbad tanker follow behind us in the chamber next to us. So I got a lot of great pictures and videos (sorry, can't post videos on this site) of the Sinbad's progress since we obviously couldn't get pictures of our ship's progress.
I will just say going through the Panama Canal is an awesome, amazing experience, but it is also a LOOONG process. It probably was a 12-hour day, but the breaks gave us time to cool off and get inside.
So, after the first locks was the Gatun Lake, which Capt. Puckett had said was crystal clear waters in a manmade lake. Ummmm ... the water was not clear but extremely muddy (later he explained it was due to 2 reasons: recent torrential rain storms they had experienced, as well as the dredging for the new locks they are building ... they are dumping the dirt in this lake). The surroundings were beautiful though.
We passed the Continental Divide, through the Culebra Cut, and went through the last 2 locks. At the 3rd lock, the people of Panama came out and "greeted" us ... cheering us on. That was kind of neat. After the third lock we passed under the Bridge of Americas and made our way into the Pacific Ocean! Whew! What a day.
Lunch that day was a buffet up on the top deck. Dinner was in Tritons tonight. I had prime rib and Barkley had oven-roasted chicken (see a theme here ... beef for me, chicken for him ... it was almost funny!)
After dinner we went to see the new movie "Tron: Legacy" in 3D with our tablemates, Jessica and Jordan. They were a fun couple, around our age, from California. Then, since we gained an hour of sleep tonight, we went to the 10:30 p.m. showing of the classic "Cinderella" ... again, neat to see a classic on the big screen.
They had told us we would approach the first locks, the Gatun Locks, around 6:20 a.m. So, knowing everyone would be fighting for a good spot to see the action, we figured we'd better get up on deck early. We were awakened to a boat refueling our ship. The picture I got looks kind of "otherwordly" ... the humidity (at 5 a.m.-ish) was already crazy to make the camera fog up. But made for a neat picture.
We were up on Deck 9 around 5:15 a.m. or so. I remembered Capt. Puckett (the retired Panama Canal pilot) saying we would be taking the right hand lock, so I knew we should go to the left (or port) side of the ship so we could watch the action in the empty chamber next to us. BINGO! I was right! (Thankfully I didn't listen to Barkley, he thought Puckett said we were going in the left chamber! *grin*)
So, we made our way to the 1st locks and proceeded to ... SIT. We had to wait for another ship to go through before us, so we were delayed at least an hour so. In the meantime (granted, it's only around 7:30 a.m.) it got hotter, and hotter and HOTTER! I kid you not, by 8 a.m. or so, it was SO hot and humid we thought we were gonna die. Thank goodness for SPF 50 suntan lotion!
But we finally made it into the first locks and were lucky to have the Sinbad tanker follow behind us in the chamber next to us. So I got a lot of great pictures and videos (sorry, can't post videos on this site) of the Sinbad's progress since we obviously couldn't get pictures of our ship's progress.
I will just say going through the Panama Canal is an awesome, amazing experience, but it is also a LOOONG process. It probably was a 12-hour day, but the breaks gave us time to cool off and get inside.
So, after the first locks was the Gatun Lake, which Capt. Puckett had said was crystal clear waters in a manmade lake. Ummmm ... the water was not clear but extremely muddy (later he explained it was due to 2 reasons: recent torrential rain storms they had experienced, as well as the dredging for the new locks they are building ... they are dumping the dirt in this lake). The surroundings were beautiful though.
We passed the Continental Divide, through the Culebra Cut, and went through the last 2 locks. At the 3rd lock, the people of Panama came out and "greeted" us ... cheering us on. That was kind of neat. After the third lock we passed under the Bridge of Americas and made our way into the Pacific Ocean! Whew! What a day.
Lunch that day was a buffet up on the top deck. Dinner was in Tritons tonight. I had prime rib and Barkley had oven-roasted chicken (see a theme here ... beef for me, chicken for him ... it was almost funny!)
After dinner we went to see the new movie "Tron: Legacy" in 3D with our tablemates, Jessica and Jordan. They were a fun couple, around our age, from California. Then, since we gained an hour of sleep tonight, we went to the 10:30 p.m. showing of the classic "Cinderella" ... again, neat to see a classic on the big screen.