Come Cruise with Me-Jewel Review 4/8/11-Southern Caribbean/2,000+ Pics/Super Long

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Dinner

 

After the welcome back party, we headed for dinner

 

Started with the bread

 

 

The Caesar Salad

 

 

The strawberry bisque

 

 

The garlic tiger shrimp

 

 

I don't complain about food too much. I can eat about anything and if its average, I wouldn't even complain about that. But up to this point in my cruising career, this is the worst dish I have ever been served. It was cold, like it came out of the frigerator five minutes ago. It was stringy and seemed to be about half cooked. I don't care how good it has been in the past, I can no longer order this dish.

 

After we started eating the main dish, the wife's morning sickness started to kick in, which was a major bummer for me because they were serving the warm chocolate cake tonight, which is my absolute favorite dessert on the ship. But we stopped midway through dinner and headed back to the room.

 

After about 30 minutes, the wife was feeling better, so we decided to try the Love & Marriage Game Show.

 

 

 

We stayed for about 5 minutes, but we weren't really feeling it at this point and we have a big day tomorrow in Panama, so we called it an evening.

 

Coming up next time - Colon, Panama - Train Ride - The Canal - Panama City - & More. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - The Big Day - Panama - Early Morning

 

I got up around 6:30am and headed for the gym

 

 

I got back to the room and got ready for the day. We watched the ship arrive for a little while from the Balcony

 

 

Here are some of the ships exiting and waiting to enter the canal

 

 

Some of the smaller boats at port

 

 

More of the ships waiting to enter

 

 

The port area

 

 

 

 

Up next - Bus ride to the train - The City of Colon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Bus Ride through Colon

 

Here is where you get on/get off the ship

 

 

Here is the bus. Every bus we rode during the cruise had A/C

 

 

These are some pics of the nicer area's of town

 

 

 

 

 

Up next - More of Colon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - The Drive Through Colon

 

Most of what we drove by looked like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always like to get pics of the locals in real life

 

 

Up next - last few pics of the ride through Colon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Last few pics of the ride through Colon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up next time - we've arrived at the train station. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Train Station

 

After driving through town for 20 minutes, we arrived at the "station"

 

 

No actual buildings at the station, but it works

 

 

 

Loading area

 

 

Engine

 

 

The wife

 

 

Up next - The inside of the train. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 5 - Panama - Inside of Train & Heading Out

 

I forgot to mention that the Excursion we had planned was a 6 hour that includes a train ride beside the canal, bus ride to Mira Flores locks, bus ride around Panama City and back to the ship. It runs out we got to ride in the train both ways, which was an added bonus

 

Here are some shots of the inside of the train. It was air conditioned also

 

 

They sold drinks and snacks on the train. They were reasonable, coke for a dollar, beer for a dollar, gatorade 2 or 3 dollars, bag of chips a dollar, etc

 

 

Here are some shots of the area as we headed out

 

 

 

 

Off we go!!!

 

[bionicman97]

I forgot to mention that coffee was free on the train

 

I also forgot to mention that I highly recommend reading "The Path Between the Seas" by David McCollough if you ever plan on visiting the Panama Canal. I really enjoyed the background information and it made going to Panama a lot more exciting.

 

Here are some of the sites from the train ride

 

 

Cemetery dating back to the time the canal was built

 

 

 

 

It was a good sized train

 

 

 

More of the train ride coming soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Train Ride

 

If you weren't aware (I wasn't), they are expanding the Panama Canal to handle larger ships and more traffic

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had nice open platforms where you could stand and take pictures during the train ride

 

 

Up next - Train Ride over Gatun Lake

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Train Ride

 

Passed some buildings on the way

 

 

 

 

Workers clearing the area

 

 

For those of you that didn't know, the Panama canal is over 50 miles long. Part of the canal is actually a lake (Gatun). So its not a narrow canal the whole way. There are 3 sets of locks, 2 on the Pacific end and one on the Atlantic side.

 

Here we are crossing the lake

 

 

We kind of crossed the lake on a causeway with water on each side

 

 

More of the train ride - coming soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Train Ride - Continued

 

Here is the other side of the causeway

 

 

Most of the time you could see a ship somewhere

 

 

Every once in a while we would take a break and go back inside the train

 

 

Sometimes the canal did get narrow

 

 

Trying to prevent the landslides. Landslides were a big problem during the original construction of the canal

 

 

Saw a lot of jungle and swamps as we went

 

 

More train ride - coming soon. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Train Ride - Continued

 

At one point, we had to pull over to a side track to let cargo pass. They still move a lot of cargo from one side to the other by train

 

 

Some heavy equipment

 

 

I don't remember the story, but our guide told us Panama some how got this piece of equipment for free

 

 

Here is another ship passing by

 

 

This looked pretty cool

 

 

Had to go through a tunnel also

 

 

Up next - time to get off the train. . .

[Kim4]

Cruise Critic better not undergo their maintenance before I see the rest of the Panama pictures!! :)

 

I'm LOVING these pictures -- you've put this on my list of things that I'd like to see!!

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - End of the train ride

 

Here are the Mira Flores locks, which was our next stop

 

 

Here is the Bridge of the Americas

 

 

This is where we got off the train. Alltogether, the train ride lasted one hour and fifteen minutes and we spent 20 of those minutes pulled over to let the cargo train go by.

 

 

Inside of the terminal

 

 

Mom to be at the terminal

 

 

They gave us a sandwich as we got on the bus. The excursion didn't mention food, so this was a surprise. They were homemade by someone or some shop. They also gave us a bottle of water.

 

 

Up next - a quick bus ride to Mira Flores. . .

[bionicman97]

Cruise Critic better not undergo their maintenance before I see the rest of the Panama pictures!! :)

 

I'm LOVING these pictures -- you've put this on my list of things that I'd like to see!!

 

Thanks :)

 

I'm working fast & furious to get up as many as I can tonight :D

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Short bus ride to Mira Flores

 

This was one of the nicest houses we saw on the way

 

 

Some businesses

 

 

Some building?

 

 

Welcome to the Panama Canal

 

 

They produce electricity with some excess water

 

 

Entry area into the Mira Flores Observation Center

 

 

Sorry about the quality on some of these pictures. Remember, 90% of these are shot while we are on a moving train/bus.

 

Up next - A set of locks in operation!

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Mira Flores Observation Center

 

This was the first thing we saw at the Locks - very cool

 

 

One of the control areas

 

 

Observation area

 

 

A ship in the other side of the locks

 

 

Part of the locks

 

 

Our timing was absolutely perfect as a ship was just arriving

 

 

Up next - the locks in action. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Mira Flores Observation Center

 

Here comes the ship

 

 

Another of the ship

 

 

The ships don't go through the canal under there own power. There were four of these pulling the ship through

 

 

Now you can see a couple of them

 

 

Here is one of the rear ones

 

 

You can see how they can control the speed

 

 

Up next - going up!

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Mira Flores Observation Center

 

You can see they closed the back gate

 

 

Now they open this one to raise the water level of both areas to the same height

 

 

See how high the water was before?

 

 

And now how low it is

 

 

Now the ship is raised to the same level and can pass through

 

 

Now you can see a tug is also being used to move the ship into the next lock

 

 

After reading "The Path Between the Seas", I can't describe what it actually felt like to watch the canal in action - a great experience.

 

Up next - Time to leave Mira Flores. . .

[bionicman97]

Day 6 - Panama - Mira Flores Observation Center

 

Now you can see how much the water was raised in the first lock

 

 

Here's the wife at the observation center

 

 

And one of me

 

 

And one of my uncle taking a picture of my wife taking a picture of me

 

 

Inside the observation center

 

 

 

Well, that's it for the observation center and for me posting new review material tonight.

 

Coming tomorrow - A bus ride by Panama City - another train ride - back on the ship & more. . .

[Fishfish]

What a fabulous trip so far! I love the pics of all the artwork, the cathedral and even the torture I mean inquisition chamber. Your review really makes me want to go there.

 

Your favorite picture of the cruise made me laugh out loud. That is just too cute!

[bionicman97]

What a fabulous trip so far! I love the pics of all the artwork, the cathedral and even the torture I mean inquisition chamber. Your review really makes me want to go there.

 

Your favorite picture of the cruise made me laugh out loud. That is just too cute!

 

Thanks :)

 

I am enjoying your review of the Voyager also. That ship will always be special to me because we took our Med cruise on it.

[proudpatriot07]

I love all the Panama Canal pictures! I really want to visit it one day now that I've seen them. Plus the train ride looks cool too. Hubby's never been on a train so I think he'd really like that excursion.

[charliegirlac]

STILL loving your review!! You are doing a brilliant job - thanks for taking the time!

[Just Jo]

Sorry about the quality on some of these pictures. Remember, 90% of these are shot while we are on a moving train/bus.

 

 

 

Your very worst photos would probably outshine my very best by miles. What a terrific review!