Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound

[dmwnc1959]

Great Pictures !!! :D

 

THANKS! I'll keep getting web cam grabs (hopefully) until she passes the Centennial Bridge then it's off to bed for me. Hopefully someone can catch PunkiC going through the Gatun Locks this afternoon....

 

:D

[dmwnc1959]

Miraflores Lake and the Pedro Miguel Locks (still on the Pacific side)

 

[Pia1913]

Live from the Island Princess--Panama Canal Eastbound--Day 10, at sea

 

 

Did I tell you that I got a notification from my credit card company that almost immediately after our card had been read by Princess in San Pedro, fraudulent charges began to appear on our credit card. I was able to dispute the charges and block all charges where they don’t actually scan the card until we return home. I explained it to someone at the Purser’s Desk and suggested that they advise Princess of the problem, but they acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about. The card had to be compromised when Princess scanned it, because that is the only time the card has been used in over a month.

l.

 

Did you change the card you had entered on line to another one? Asking this, because it's been well over a year since anyone at checkin has wanted to see the card.

[RNGALNG]

Ah, trivia. . .We love to play as well. (All for those wonderful prizes they give when you win!! hehehee) Great for the brain, but when the directions are not informed or there are other answers that are also correct. . .we get cranky. Just want people to know there are other right answers too!

 

I still am amazed when I see a ship going through the locks. I really think this was one of my most favorite trips! So much that I think we need to do it again!

 

Thanks so much for taking us along. Brings back many memories!

[dmwnc1959]

Exiting the Pedro Miguel Locks

 

 

 

[dmwnc1959]

Centennial Bridge and entering Culebra Cut

 

 

(that's it from this end ;))

[caribill]

Interesting that the great views of the ship going through the locks show relatively few people out on decks or on balconies.

[PunkiC]

Yes, Pia, I did use a new credit card this time. It is a card I am using just for travel.

 

Thanks for posting all of the wonderful pictures of the locks. I don't have enough internet time to make that happen so I really o appreciate it.

 

It's pretty hot out so we watched half from our balcony and half from the Horizon Court.

[Pia1913]

Yes, Pia, I did use a new credit card this time. It is a card I am using just for travel.

 

I sort of figured that was the problem. Obviously they should be looking at the person who checked you in.

 

It's pretty hot out so we watched half from our balcony and half from the Horizon Court.

 

It's pretty hot here today too. Weather for the rest of the week is anticipated being in upper 80's to perhaps into 90's. We're seeing our good friends Gloria and Lew when they disembark on Saturday. Perhaps we'll get a glimpse of you too.

[lone_stranger]

dmwnc1959,

How did you get those pictures of the ship as it is going through the locks? It looks like they are taken from above, but there is no indication as to the source. Would you please explain? They are totally cool.

[dmwnc1959]

dmwnc1959,

How did you get those pictures of the ship as it is going through the locks? It looks like they are taken from above, but there is no indication as to the source. Would you please explain? They are totally cool.

 

Sorry about not linking the source to the lock pictures. :o

 

There is an HD cam at the Miraflores Locks that refreshes every 10 seconds or so here:

 

http://www.pancanal.com/common/multimedia/webcams/viewer-javascript/cam-miraflores-hi.html

 

The other webcam with the 'aerial' pictures is above the Pedro Miguel locks and is here under the tab 'Pacific Access Channel (West View Hi Res)'. It scans through five preset points and refreshes during each focus point for about 30-40 seconds each, and freezes often enough to be a pain in the b**t. Those two images I got of Island Princess were really a stroke of luck.

 

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/webcams-works.html

 

:D

Edited April 27, 2014 by dmwnc1959

[dmwnc1959]

Thanks for posting all of the wonderful pictures of the locks. I don't have enough internet time to make that happen so I really o appreciate it.

 

I'm glad that you liked them! It sort of provides a different perspective from where most people observe their transit. I'm sure you've done this voyage plenty of times, so hopefully adds to your album of wonderful memories.

 

:D

[The CRuIseLLS]

Sorry about not linking the source to the lock pictures. :o

 

There is an HD cam at the Miraflores Locks that refreshes every 10 seconds or so here:

 

http://www.pancanal.com/common/multimedia/webcams/viewer-javascript/cam-miraflores-hi.html

 

The other webcam with the 'aerial' pictures is above the Pedro Miguel locks and is here under the tab 'Pacific Access Channel (West View Hi Res)'. It scans through five preset points and refreshes during each focus point for about 30-40 seconds each, and freezes often enough to be a pain in the b**t. Those two images I got of Island Princess were really a stroke of luck.

 

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/webcams-works.html

 

:D

Thanks for posting the webcam pics & web addresses (& thanks to Steve...lone_stranger....for asking about them) .

With luck, we'll be able to watch ourselves going thru the canal in just over 5 month's time.

 

It's a pity the position of the bridge cam on the Island has been changed.....when we went to Alaska we synchronised watches with family & friends in the UK & had them look out for us in Glacier Bay.....worked a treat because at that time, you could see more of the deck area (& what you could see wasn't obscured by the greyed out location banner)

Unfortunately, the one person charged with the task of taking a screen shot of us managed to lose it between copy & paste!! We did, however, get an official foto of us holding up (our pre printed) "Hi UK" posters.

 

As they're on the same side as our balcony, we may try it again with the canal cameras (doubt we'll see much of us, but there'll be no harm in trying)

Thanks again

Edited April 27, 2014 by The CRuIseLLS
Deleted the hashtags tht appeared after posting!?

[dmwnc1959]

dmwnc1959,

How did you get those pictures of the ship as it is going through the locks? It looks like they are taken from above, but there is no indication as to the source. Would you please explain? They are totally cool.

 

Here is another web cam grab from the second link I provided above. This one is at the Preset 1 view of the five views it scans through. It is of yesterdays transit showing Island Princess entering the Pedro Miguel Locks, and on a clear day really shows off the progress of the new construction on the Pacific Approach channel...

 

[dmwnc1959]

Thanks for posting the webcam pics & web addresses (& thanks to Steve...lone_stranger....for asking about them) ��.

With luck, we'll be able to watch ourselves going thru the canal in just over 5 month's time.

 

It's much, much easier for me to get the web cam grabs from the 'Eastbound' morning transits at the Pacific side (which has better, and more web cams), than at the Gatun Lock (Atlantic side) in mid-late afternoon when I'm usually asleep for my midnight shift.

 

Maybe in five months I can try and get some too of you passing through and post them in a new thread for you. ;)

 

And I agree on the positioning of some shipboard web cams, shame they don't show more people on them.

[PunkiC]

Live from the Island Princess – Day Eleven—The Panama Canal

 

We woke up bright and early to see the pilot boat pull up alongside the ship. It looked like three people boarded. Does that make sense? Shortly after that another boat pulled up and four people disembarked the ship with a bunch of equipment. They must have been the videographers who are going to film the ship by helicopter as we go through. Shortly thereafter another person, probably an entertainer left.

 

I hung out on deck until we went under the Bridge of the Americas while DH ran up on top to get some pictures before he left for the gym at 7:00 a.m. I had no idea that Panama City was such a big city, but I guess it makes sense.

 

The locks are very interesting and very efficient, but I think they are something that we will only do once. There are so many places in the world that we still want to go so doing the Panama Canal the second time will be something that we will do after we have done everything else once, unless we find some crazy smoking deal that we can’t resist.

 

Amazingly, we were pretty darned close to our schedule going under the bridges and through the locks. There are two locks at Miraflores and one at Pedro Miguel before the Centennial Bridge. It takes a fair amount of time to get from the Centennial Bridge to the Gatun Locks.

 

I was surprised how greedy people were about saving seats for other people who never showed up in the Horizon Court. We aren’t pool people so I don’t have first-hand experience about pool chair hogs but I have read about them and I was getting the idea this morning. As amazing as they are, actually going through the locks is about as exciting as watching the grass grow—lovely for a first for moments, but then rather boring. We were in the Horizon Court at a large table in the bow where we enjoyed talking while we watch. As I am sure you have probably figured out by now, I am a pretty social person. DH, on the other hand, has some engineering genes so he gets more involved with and fascinated by the physical structures.

 

 

There are three locks at the Gatun end and they took much longer than the earlier locks. We finally exited the Gatun Locks about 3:30 which was about a half hour ahead of schedule. Despite the fact that it is the end of the dry season, the country is very green and lush. It would be interesting to see is during the rainy season.

 

As we exited Gatun Locks heading into the Atlantic, it became quite dark and the temperature cooled down considerably. That was a relief.

 

We decided on early dinner tonight and met another group of interesting folks. After dinner we enjoyed dancing until the band took a break and then went up and changed shoes before we went down to the Universe Lounge to see the new show, “On the Bayou”. This is a brand new show and it is a bit different from most Princess productions. Make sure you see it as it is lots of fun. Because the capacity of the Universe Lounge is less than the Princess Theater, they had three shows: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:45 pm. The 6:30 was over filled a half hour before it began, but by 9:45 there was room even though we showed up just a few minutes early.

 

Today’s “Where on the Ship” photo was in the Universe Lounge, but, unfortunately no one could get in the Universe Lounge until the show began in the evening—they were rehearsing and preparing the stage all day long—so only two people, a married couple had the right answer. Since I knew that the locations wasn’t anywhere else on the ship, I almost guessed it was the Universe Lounge, but didn’t think of that until after the 11:30 cut off.

 

Tomorrow is Cartagena where we are hoping to go to Mass, but so far neither the tour manager nor the purser’s desk seem to have any information.

[Colo Cruiser]

[The CRuIseLLS]

:

 

Maybe in five months I can try and get some too of you passing through and post them in a new thread for you. ;)

 

Thanks, that would be really great. Think i may hold you to that :),

It'll be the Island's first canal cruise of the season, we pass thru it on 7th Oct. Keep looking out for a thread similar to this (end sept). If i dont set it up, i'm almost certain someone from our roll call will

 

:D :D

[toothmaker]

My wife and I will be on the May 1 sailing. We were wondering if would tell us what movies are being shown on MUTS? We are enjoying your live from. Thank you.

[Loonbeam]

If you see this prior, see if you can email Lee Miles - google him please because I don't want to put his email up for the spam traps.

 

He arranged out tours in Cartagena and might know where mass is an option. He also arranges great tours I need to point out.

 

Live from the Island Princess – Day Eleven—The Panama Canal

 

We woke up bright and early to see the pilot boat pull up alongside the ship. It looked like three people boarded. Does that make sense? Shortly after that another boat pulled up and four people disembarked the ship with a bunch of equipment. They must have been the videographers who are going to film the ship by helicopter as we go through. Shortly thereafter another person, probably an entertainer left.

 

I hung out on deck until we went under the Bridge of the Americas while DH ran up on top to get some pictures before he left for the gym at 7:00 a.m. I had no idea that Panama City was such a big city, but I guess it makes sense.

 

The locks are very interesting and very efficient, but I think they are something that we will only do once. There are so many places in the world that we still want to go so doing the Panama Canal the second time will be something that we will do after we have done everything else once, unless we find some crazy smoking deal that we can’t resist.

 

Amazingly, we were pretty darned close to our schedule going under the bridges and through the locks. There are two locks at Miraflores and one at Pedro Miguel before the Centennial Bridge. It takes a fair amount of time to get from the Centennial Bridge to the Gatun Locks.

 

I was surprised how greedy people were about saving seats for other people who never showed up in the Horizon Court. We aren’t pool people so I don’t have first-hand experience about pool chair hogs but I have read about them and I was getting the idea this morning. As amazing as they are, actually going through the locks is about as exciting as watching the grass grow—lovely for a first for moments, but then rather boring. We were in the Horizon Court at a large table in the bow where we enjoyed talking while we watch. As I am sure you have probably figured out by now, I am a pretty social person. DH, on the other hand, has some engineering genes so he gets more involved with and fascinated by the physical structures.

 

 

There are three locks at the Gatun end and they took much longer than the earlier locks. We finally exited the Gatun Locks about 3:30 which was about a half hour ahead of schedule. Despite the fact that it is the end of the dry season, the country is very green and lush. It would be interesting to see is during the rainy season.

 

As we exited Gatun Locks heading into the Atlantic, it became quite dark and the temperature cooled down considerably. That was a relief.

 

We decided on early dinner tonight and met another group of interesting folks. After dinner we enjoyed dancing until the band took a break and then went up and changed shoes before we went down to the Universe Lounge to see the new show, “On the Bayou”. This is a brand new show and it is a bit different from most Princess productions. Make sure you see it as it is lots of fun. Because the capacity of the Universe Lounge is less than the Princess Theater, they had three shows: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:45 pm. The 6:30 was over filled a half hour before it began, but by 9:45 there was room even though we showed up just a few minutes early.

 

Today’s “Where on the Ship” photo was in the Universe Lounge, but, unfortunately no one could get in the Universe Lounge until the show began in the evening—they were rehearsing and preparing the stage all day long—so only two people, a married couple had the right answer. Since I knew that the locations wasn’t anywhere else on the ship, I almost guessed it was the Universe Lounge, but didn’t think of that until after the 11:30 cut off.

 

Tomorrow is Cartagena where we are hoping to go to Mass, but so far neither the tour manager nor the purser’s desk seem to have any information.

[caribill]

before we went down to the Universe Lounge to see the new show, “On the Bayou”...... it is a bit different from most Princess productions.... they had three shows: 6:30, 8:00 and 9:45 pm.

 

Has this show also been shortened to about 30 minutes or is it still at its original length of about an hour?

[Pia1913]

Has this show also been shortened to about 30 minutes or is it still at its original length of about an hour?

 

On the Coral it was approx. 38 minutes

[lone_stranger]

:

 

Maybe in five months I can try and get some too of you passing through and post them in a new thread for you. ;)

 

Thanks, that would be really great. Think i may hold you to that :),

It'll be the Island's first canal cruise of the season, we pass thru it on 7th Oct. Keep looking out for a thread similar to this (end sept). If i dont set it up, i'm almost certain someone from our roll call will

 

:D :D

 

I am not quite sure who posted what, but the thread for the Island's eastbound transit of the canal is San Francisco to Ft Lauderdale Panama Canal Sept 27,2014.

[lone_stranger]

Live from the Island Princess – Day Eleven—The Panama Canal

 

As amazing as they are, actually going through the locks is about as exciting as watching the grass grow—lovely for a first for moments, but then rather boring.

 

Last year we went from Amsterdam to Budapest along the rivers in central Europe that required us to go through some 60 locks. I heartily agree that the experience pales rather quickly. The new thing for us will be the immense size of the Panama Canal locks. River locks are miniscule by comparison.

[High C's]

Thank you so much for this Live From. We did this sailing in February, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its nice having the opportunity to relive it! :)