BTimmer's Almost Live - Zuiderdam 1/2-30/22 -San Diego to Florida RT

[Btimmer]

We've transited the canal and I'm whooped. It was 85° and sunny.  I've got some cool drone pics a friend obtained.  We're now looking for a mirage location Fuerte Amador.  Lots of commercial ships plus the Norwegian Sun.

[zelker]

3 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

We've transited the canal and I'm whooped. It was 85° and sunny.  I've got some cool drone pics a friend obtained.  We're now looking for a mirage location Fuerte Amador.  Lots of commercial ships plus the Norwegian Sun.

The Sun was there at Thanksgiving without passengers.  Looked like they were working on her.  I don't think she's scheduled to start sailing until May (Alaska).  

 

[jeh10641]

Btimmer,

Sorry to have missed you the Rotterdam neighbor(ish). I am enjoying reading your content. Thanks.

 

Jim

[cccole]

Btimmer, Can't wait to hear about your day!!!!!!  I'm surprised that the Canal authorities would allow drones during transit.  Before/after transiting seems like it would be allowed, and the site from above of all of the waiting ships would be amazing.  I've seen the ships when flying into Panama City but a drone would be even better.  Cherie 

Edited January 21, 2022 by cccole

[john the pick]

On the Zuiderdam's trip to Fort Lauderdale, NMCruiser was placed in quarantine for testing positive for Covid.  He posted on cruise critic on a separate thread about his experience.  He stated that all of deck 4 and the very front of deck 6 were designated as quarantine decks.    Since boarding in Fort Lauderdale, I have found his statements to be consistent with my observations about the two decks.  Last night, I just happened upon a crew member opening the locked door to deck 6 forward.  There was another crew member behind in the closed off area but he did not appear to be any type of protective gear.  I did see a LOT of food trays on the floor outside of stateroom doors.  NMcruiser had stated that he did not know any numbers of people quarantined but he was sure that it was "more than a few".  From my observation, the "more than a few" characterization continues.  What we do not know is the reason for the quarantine.  New crew quarantine to be sure they are covid free while other quarantine for testing positive.  Thought this was interesting though.  Anyone else have observations?

 

By the way, our cabin attendant told me they have about 900 passengers on this cruise.

[JacquiKay]

Anybody know what happened with our Captain?

[Sea42]

2 hours ago, john the pick said:

What we do not know is the reason for the quarantine. New crew quarantine to be sure they are covid free while other quarantine for testing positive. 

I'm a bit surprised that those two groups aren't quarantined/isolated in separate areas. With how transmissible this variant is I would think the newly arriving crew should be keep away from those that are isolating with known infections.

[0106]

Brimmer-

Hope you are well.  Can’t wait to read your posts about the canal transit and the new port stop in Panama City.

[john the pick]

We don't know if they are separated or not. I agree that it would make sense to do that.  

 

As for our captain, that was certainly a surprise.  I have to think there is more to the story than what we are being told.  Our old captain did not bid us farewell which I would think he would if this was a planned change.  Something happened.  we can speculate butis what it is.  Likely will never know

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, JacquiKay said:

Anybody know what happened with our Captain?

Our Captain was scheduled to get off in Puntarenas; nave he left early.  I did see him yesterday on the bridge while transiting. The new Captain already onboard.  We were among the very last to reboard so we didn't hear the captain's announcement

Edited January 22, 2022 by Btimmer

[Btimmer]

1 hour ago, 0106 said:

Brimmer-

Hope you are well.  Can’t wait to read your posts about the canal transit and the new port stop in Panama City.

We had a fantastic transit and a great tour at Fuerte Adamor.  More later.

[Btimmer]

On 1/20/2022 at 8:06 PM, cccole said:

Btimmer, Can't wait to hear about your day!!!!!!  I'm surprised that the Canal authorities would allow drones during transit.  Before/after transiting seems like it would be allowed, and the site from above of all of the waiting ships would be amazing.  I've seen the ships when flying into Panama City but a drone would be even better.  Cherie 

It's not a ship drone, someone from land controlled it.  It was olive drab.

[Btimmer]

10 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

Our Captain was scheduled to get off in Puntarenas; maybe he left early.  I did see him yesterday on the bridge while transiting. The new Captain was already onboard.  We were among the very last to reboard so we didn't hear the captain's announcement.  From another passenger we learned there was a handoff announcement around 12:15ish.

 

[J&Dhighdesert]

The new captain introduced himself later in the afternoon.

Jo

 

 

 

[boze9999]

1 minute ago, J&Dhighdesert said:

The new captain introduced himself later in the afternoon.

Jo

 

 

 

who is it?

 

 

[Btimmer]

On 1/20/2022 at 4:45 PM, zelker said:

The Sun was there at Thanksgiving without passengers.  Looked like they were working on her.  I don't think she's scheduled to start sailing until May (Alaska).  

 

It's still in layup.

[12cruise2]

Sea 42, from my experience, the crew waiting to start work are isolated on one deck and the passengers with cov. are isolated on another deck; they are not intermingled.  I don't believe they mix those with/without.

[Btimmer]

The ship internet was sketchy yesterday, so my update failed.  I'll try again today as for us it's a light programming day.  We'll do the coffee chat at 9am, Pinnacle Lunch at noon, and wine tasting at 2pm.

 

Here's a teaser picture. It was a purchase at the indigenous village.  

 

[0106]

Beautiful sculpture.  What kind of wood? Is this a traditional type of craft for the indigenous people?  

[zelker]

21 minutes ago, Btimmer said:

The ship internet was sketchy yesterday, so my update failed.  I'll try again today as for us it's a light programming day.  We'll do the coffee chat at 9am, Pinnacle Lunch at noon, and wine tasting at 2pm.

 

Here's a teaser picture. It was a purchase at the indigenous village.  

 

Did you do the tour that visited an Embera village or buy it from someone selling them at Old Town in Panama City?

 

Apparently they are now serving lunch in the PG?  Excellent!!

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by zelker

[Btimmer]

19 minutes ago, 0106 said:

Beautiful sculpture.  What kind of wood? Is this a traditional type of craft for the indigenous people?  

I don't remember  the species, but it's a root with no oil applied to it.  I don't also know if this traditional craft or just created for tourists.  I'll try to do a whole post on the indigenous people.

[Btimmer]

14 minutes ago, zelker said:

Did you do the tour that visited an Embera village or buy it from someone selling them at Old Town in Panama City?

 

Apparently they are now serving lunch in the PG?  Excellent!!

 

We did the ship's Best of Panama tour.  Since the Pandemic we've only done ship's tours particularly because we have had extensive shipboard credit and the Have It All fare.

 

There was no PG lunch going to FLL.; but it's showing on the Navigator this leg.

[Btimmer]

Today, January 21, 2022, was a super fantastic day in Panama.  We hovered in position over night just off Fuerte Amador which is at the end of a breakwater connecting Isla Flamenco with Panama City and was built from Panama Canal construction debris.  We took an all day (HAL) tour (Best of Panama) which took us from the Pacific Ocean city of Panama City to the Atlantic Ocean city of Colon. (This bus trip is the reverse direction of a bus excursion we did on our first transit 9 years ago on the Celebrity Century.). 

 

At a high level, we drove directly to Colon, went over the new Atlantic Bridge two directions with a stop at the center of the bridge, visited the new Atlantic end locks at the Agua Clara visitor center (terrific stop), motor coached back south to the Chagres River and did a boat tour up to an indigenous tribe's village and watched a presentation, spotted fauna on the return trip, and motorcoached back to the ship via the Pedro Miguel Locks via a different route.

 

We ended up being the 3rd and 2nd to the last to reboard the ship.  We watched the last tender get retrieved and watched the sunset slowly make its appearance as we slowly left our anchorage position and made our way around the hundreds of ships at anchor.  It was also blazing hot again today but the A/C on the bus was really cold.

 

it was also interesting that we transited the canal by bus in about and hour and a half compared to our 7 hour transit by water.  It was also interesting to see many sights from a different perspective.

 

We missed the announcement that our Captain changed.  Perhaps he'll repeat the info tomorrow.

 

This evening we took in the comedy of Kristin Key (edgy tonight, but some pretty funny parts), and the crowd was really into the performance.  We then watched a showing of Musicology by the Step One Dance Company (short one dancer) before raiding the 10:30pm buffet.

 

I'll try break my picture submissions into groups for ease and higher probability of success uploading.  Hang on.  Lots coming.

 

First up is Centennial Bridge & the Agua Clara locks. I tried reduce the image sizes due to multiple errors on CC uploads.  Even with that I received many upload errors, so extensive picture updates are going to have to wait for a day until I have cell service in Costa Rica.

 

Our route

 

New style sliding locks at Agua Clara

 

Canal Administration Building built on debris removed in construction of the canal.  It's foundation is at the same height as the canal.

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Btimmer

[Btimmer]

2 hours ago, Btimmer said:

We did the ship's Best of Panama tour.  Since the Pandemic we've only done ship's tours particularly because we have had extensive shipboard credit and the Have It All fare.

 

There was no PG lunch going to FLL.; but it's showing on the Navigator this leg.

I tried to make a reservation for today, but it's closed for Sel d Mer preparations. We'll try again in a few days on a sea day..

[zelker]

@Btimmer  Good to hear that Kristen Key is back out on the cruise circuit.  We think she's a stitch!  (and not just because she loves to crochet like I do!) ... would be awesome if she stayed on for our Hawaii/South Pacific cruise but I just checked her schedule and she disembarks on February 7th.  😞  

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by zelker