Teeara

Today is our 3rd sea day. Here are the maps. Looks like we’ve spent most of the day off the coast of Panama. We slept in this morning until 8:00. Had breakfast in the WJ then went to the top tier event in the Aurora Theater. We gained 2 new Pinnacles on our sailing. Then they had the top 3 Pinnies: Afterwards we went to the Colony Club for some quiet time. Then back to the WJ for a light lunch before Pam went to the movie theater and I went back to the cabin to do a cabin tour video. Pam came back right after I started saying the movie theater was already packed and no seat were available. There’s only 30 seats in there so not surprising. It was for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”. I finished my video then did some reading on our balcony before taking a nap outside. Tonight was formal night. We each started with the Scallop Gratin and I then had the Mediterranean Spinach Pie. Pam had an alien baby bread tonight. I had the Vegetable Fried Rice for dinner and it was incredibly filling (I didn’t finish it). We both had the Pecan Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert. We returned to the cabin in time for the sunset. We’re back to the Centrum for the rest of the evening. We might take a walk later. Nothing is really tripping our trigger tonight. Here is today’s Cruise Compass: That’s it for today. We gain an hour tonight. Another sea day tomorrow. We’re supposed to have our FB cabin crawl tomorrow.

Did they roll you onto the ship? 😉😁 If that had been me, I’d just be waking up now. 😉😁

Thanks!!! That’s very interesting. I like that kind of information.

We had one guy who kept saying “The Windjammer is now open for breakfast!” trying to get those of us in the front to leave. When we saw the fish we told him if he’s so hungry there’s his fish breakfast. 😉😁😂🐟

I did, but wish we hadn’t been so delayed. All that standing is bad for my back. I’ve already had 4 leg cramps due to it.

Same here. It was an exhausting day and I got less than 3,000 steps!

Thank you! Can I share that information when I get around to doing my Panamá Canal video for my YouTube channel?

Missed it due to dessert in Chops. 😉😁😢

Humidity wasn’t too bad considering it was 90 today. We had a few drops, but no downpour. Best weather was going under the Pan American bridge at 8 pm. It was gorgeous outside.

I’ll try to get that for you.

Actually we only had one dead fish. 😉😁😂

To continue… I forgot to give you today’s maps in the first set, so here they are: So after lunch in the Windjammer with Linus and Louise, I went back to the cabin for a nap! After an hour it was 3:15 (our supposed time to hit the 2nd locks, but we were still in the canal making our way there). I went out onto our balcony to shoot some video and caught a train passing by us on its way to Panama City. We passed a big dredger (I think that’s what they said on the speakers - there’s a lot of echo when you’re out on your balcony). Then we passed the Chagras River where it feeds into the canal. Then we were in the Culebra Cut. So many men gave their lives trying to dig this section of the canal. The Centennial Bridge is in the distance. Before we went under the Centennial Bridge we passed Gold Hill. No gold was ever here and a lot of French folks lost a lot of money in the late 1800s buying shares in the canal venture because they were told the hills were full of gold. And here’s below the Centennial Bridge. It was at this point I realized that we had dinner reservations at Chops tonight. Grrr! It would’ve been fine if we had been on time with our original 8:00 a.m. time. So note for you future cruisers - do NOT schedule specialty dining on canal day. You’re going to be hot, sweaty and tired by the time the transit end and the last thing you’ll want to do is get all dressed up for dinner. Just stick with the Windjammer. Having said that, dinner was yummy. Here’s some food porn for you! My apologies but I kept forgetting to take the photos before I started to dig in. First up, Colossal Shrimp Cocktail. Alien baby or an onion roll. Your pick! Wedge Salad Petite Filet with a wine sauce and Gruyère Tater Tots. Then on to dessert. We both had coffee in these cute triangle cups. I had ice cream. Pam had the chocolate cake with berry compote and lemon sorbet. Here’s the MDR menu for tonight: After dinner we went to the Centrum to listen to the house band. Pam’s on the top on deck 7. This is our favorite place to sit since it’s next to our cabin. But again, when we’re in our cabin we can hear everything going on in the Centrum. You can see the casino on deck 6. So we get the smell of smoke in our cabin, too. We had gone through the Pedro Miguel locks during dinner so I was curious where we were at. Here is where we were at 8:38 p.m.: When I saw we were heading for the bridge I went up to Deck 12 to see what there was to see. We saw this cute older couple teaching the young lady on the bottom right some steps on the dance floor. It’s stuff like this that makes me love cruising. Here is today’s Cruise Compass: That about wraps it up for today. Tomorrow is a sea day, so I will be resting. See you then.

Here’s mine after we went under. I’m currently on Deck 7 overlooking the Centrum listening to the band with Pam.

I was up at 5:00 this morning and at the front of the ship around 5:45. We were originally supposed to hit the locks at 8:00, but got bumped to 9:45. We finally started moving towards the canal at 8:55. We were approaching the bridge by 9:10. We started approaching the locks at 10:10. It was slow going this morning. People were 8 deep by now and tempers were running a bit high at this point. And yet as you guys have been posting, we weren’t moving. Since I had a front row seat I can show you exactly what the hold up was. The left side locks were working fine. We had two ships go through the locks before we were even in our first lock. As they were waiting for the water to drain this is what it looked like. Notice the massive amount of water being released on the left side. Now, here’s how our lock looked like as it was draining. Note the small amount of water coming from the gates and that no water was being released on our side the way the left side was. As a matter of fact, there was a group of workers under the right arch. So obviously they were having issues with the pumps to get the water out of the lock in order for us to enter. The lock finally opened at 11:00, a full 3 hours after our original time slot or 1.25 hours after our second time slot. It was now 11:30 and I had been standing at the front for 6 hours. I was hot, tired and hungry so I left. But here’s me just before I left to give you an idea where I was, front and center. Here’s how the people looked during my walk back to the cabin. More to come.

6:27 a.m. crowd. We don’t enter the locks for another 3.25 hours.

Please feel free to add!!!

We were supposed to go through at 8:00. Our entrance has been pushed back to 9:45.

Reprosa also had the beautiful Molas that I wanted to get. Pam got one of the fish. We next stopped at a big shopping mall for lunch and then went to the old town area to learn a bit more about the history of Panama. We boarded a tram that took us to the museum. Inside there were several dioramas and maps to explain the time frame and what had happened in the time before the Spanish came and the effect on the native people. Then it was time to head back to the ship. All aboard was 5:30. We got there at 5:34, but because we were on a ship sponsored tour, we didn’t have to panic since we knew they wouldn’t leave without us. Sailaway was at 6:30, so only 30 minutes late. The dark building on the right is the cruise terminal. We exited through this terminal when we arrived. But when you return from a shore excursion, you have to go through the duty free shops in the bright building on the left then enter the terminal. We wish we had more time. The duty free building looked good and the duty free in the terminal looked good too. We had dinner in the Windjammer tonight so no food porn. Here’s some menu porn instead 😉😁 Lastly, here’s today’s Cruise Compass: Tomorrow we do the full Panama Canal transit. Originally we were scheduled for 8:00 a.m., but now they are saying 9:45 a.m. So a little more sleep tonight.

Today was a long day. We did the Panama Treasures Just For You. It was a 7 hour tour and it was jam packed. But first, the ship maps: When we disembarked the ship there were some dancers inside the terminal and these young indigenous people outside by the buses. We has a 90 minute drive from Colon on the Atlantic side of Panama to Panama City on the Pacific side. Our first stop was the Reprosa Factory where they take wax molds to make silver and gold jewelry. We had a demonstration where they filled the mold with silver and I got to help in the process. I was given a flawed silver piece that they were going to melt down and use in a new piece. Here, I’m putting it in the kiln. Then I was given a soda can filled with tiny balls of silver to fill up the holder they use to melt the silver. Here’s the finished product right out of the kiln. Here’s the same design. The right one still needs work. The one on the left has been polished. And here’s the top piece in gold for sale. They had so many beautiful things for sale and the prices were extremely reasonable, a lot of these pieces were under $100.

And here we thought we would be last. We got in at 5:35, so you won the tardy boarders award today. At least you weren’t a pier runner!

When do you leave to rejoin the world cruise, Pat?

Wait until the video series I’m working on for my YouTube channel. Should be similar to what I did with Wonder, but more videos and less photos.

From your mouth to God’s ears!

She was talking to me. We were on the Wonder WB TA in 2022. I earned my first crystal block on that sailing.