Live: Apr 20, 2024 Summit 14 Night Panama Canal Westbound Cruise!

[Texed]

Beautiful pictures and great posts.  Thanks.  😊

[DaKahuna]

14 hours ago, mahdnc said:

I also found the biscuits and gravy and was going to put some on my plate until I tried to grab the biscuits with the tongs--all the biscuits in the heated tray were rock hard and dry. 

 

 This is what you have to add extra sausage gravy — to soften them up !!

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

10 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

I don't think I ever got back to you on this: Surprisingly, Marcia's dive at Key Largo did not go well.  She did not think the reef looked in very good shape compared to our visit back in 2010.  Moreover she banged both shins by accident against the submerged part of the ladder used to get back into the dive boat.  So with two very bruised shins and a disappointing view, she skipped her second dive.  We also forgot that the dive crews in Florida do not help the customers like they do in other countries we've been to and so the whole effort of putting the gear together, getting it on, and struggling with the weight of the whole set up, she started to have serious thoughts that her diving days may be over.  I'd like to think that she simply had one bad diving day (and some rust) and that there will be other dives in our future that will be much better.  

Sorry to hear that the dive excursion didn’t go well, I know how disappointing it can be when you’re looking forward to an experience and conditions and extenuating circumstances let you down. Hopefully Marcia tries again and renews her love of diving. Also hope her shins heal up…ouch! 
Thanks again for all your great pics! Bringing back lots of memories! 
Cathy

[mahdnc]

The seas are very calm this morning.  Here’s a current view of the ocean from our breakfast table at the Oceanview Cafe.  During his 9:45 am report from the bridge, the captain officially declared our weather as being “amazing”. 
 

 

Yesterday I thought I was getting a touch of seasickness so I put on my prescription ear patch last night. Looks unnecessary today. 

Edited April 29 by mahdnc

[txtechmk]

Great photos.  Thanks for sharing.  Panama Canal is on our bucket list.

[mahdnc]

We’re eating again as it’s lunchtime. We decided to get something at the Oceanview Cafe and we took it back to our balcony which is not too far away to enjoy the view and the weather. 
 

 

[raudacruise]

Re: Puntarenas

Years ago a pair of scarlet macaws followed our tour bus for most of the day.  Lots of squawking.

 

On our river cruise a huge crocodile watched our boat with interest, slipped into the water and bumped the boat with his snout.  Hands on laps after that.🐊

[Fly and Sail]

Love following along, I'm missing last years voyage on the Millie already (and the casino).

 

Have fun!!

[DaKahuna]

16 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

I'm missing last years voyage on the Millie already (and the casino).

 

 Me and you both and I am a couple of days away from embarking on Millennium again. 

Going to see how your favorite slot machine treats me. 

 

[hcat]

Sorry the dive excursion did not work out for Marcia.. Only she can decide if she is done with diving.. Maybe if you both can go together it might work better. Or go with a better provider.

 

We gave up snorkeling after our last mishap..It was off a nice dive style boat on  St Croix  across from an island..It was with an experienced crew and not overcrowded.   

 

But the water was very rough,  it was a narrow trail,  and the group was moving very quickly.  I got caught up in coral..Sal  came to my rescue and was scratched badly.  He had an awful reaction..same as his lobster allergy.. He took benadryl asap .. but we had to wait for the others to finish up,   boat ride  back to port and then a  long bus ride to the port pier...He saw the ship's dr asap and also our dr at home.Took abt a month for his system to clear.  

 

So no more snorkel trips!  We will sign up for glass bottom boats and semi submersibles ..not the same but safer for us!

 

 

 

 

[Fly and Sail]

57 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Me and you both and I am a couple of days away from embarking on Millennium again. 

Going to see how your favorite slot machine treats me. 

 

 

If those two are still there, please go and donate a couple bucks.

[mahdnc]

Marcia and I attended the 10:45 am Beyond the Podium presentation: Mysteries of Stonehenge with Kelly Beatty.  It was an interesting presentation--makes me want to go and see it now.

 

 

[mahdnc]

I also attended the afternoon Beyond the Podium presentation: The New Panama Canal With Bill Fall

 

It was interesting and well attended.

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

It's a nice day out there.

 

[mahdnc]

Celebrity Today Day 10 At Sea 5 of 8

Celebrity Today Day 9 At Sea 4 of 8

Celebrity Today Day 8 Puntarenas

Celebrity Today Day 7 At Sea 3 of 8

Celebrity Today Day 6 Panama Canal Transit

Celebrity Today Day 5 Colon

Celebrity Today Day 4 Cartagena

Celebrity Today Day 3 At Sea 2 of 8

Celebrity Today Day 2 At Sea 1 of 8

Celebrity Today Day 1 Miami

[hcat]

Many of the Beyond the Podium  presentations are worth attending in person and taking another look on the TV..both on your cruise look great.

 

. Have you ever thought about doing a lecture series?

[mahdnc]

Now that we have been in our cabin for a little over a week now, I can more confidently comment on its condition of 8166.:

 

Appearance-wise the interior of the cabin looks new.  Cabinets and and bathroom look great.  This is largely attributable to the Revolution makeover.  There have been 3 minor performance problems:

 

1. Rain water collects on the balcony as it is slow to drain.  In the photo below, the drain is located at the corner of the bathtub wall.  Fortunately that drain is located at a low spot.  During a couple of the storms, the standing water would occupy half of the balcony floor.  I did not report this as a couple of the rains that we experienced was very hard and the pool of water did not hang around for very long.  I do know from having been in the Millennium class FV (now UV) cabins for 6 cruises that the slow drainage is unusual.  Our stateroom attendant had already noticed it and he had maintenance repair it (presumably they cleaned out the drain pipe).

 

 

2. The sliding balcony door will not latch shut.  The door has two locking points and both "holes" in the door jam are deformed and so the closure hooks built into the door has nothing to latch on to.  Here is a photo of the upper locking point.   Ignore the chrome hardware mounted on the door as it does nothing:

 

 

This was a problem because a couple of nights ago, we woke up to balcony door having slid all the way to its fully open position while we were sleeping.  I pointed this out to our stateroom attendant and within a couple of hours a maintenance person came to our cabin installed a new strike plate for the hook in the sliding door to latch on to (photo below).  Nice job.

 

 

3. The shower drains slowly.  It never builds up a level high enough for it to come close to spilling out over the threshold and onto the bathroom door.  One thing that is odd is that the problem seems to be intermittent.  Our stateroom attendant told us that maintenance is aware of the problem.  No picture to show of the problem while the shower is in use.  Sorry.

[Oceansaway17]

I enjoyed this thread, and I also watched the ship go through various locks.

 

I love the Summit and I sailed on her in 2016 to Bermuda (with Captain Kate) out of NJ and then I sail on Summit last year from Boston up to Canada and ship stayed overnight in Quebec City. We even got to go to Bar Harbor since this year only very small boats are going.

Now I am looking forward to meeting Summit again for yhe 3rd time in Vancouver to sail up to Seward.  

As for the PC, I went through once on small excursion with HAL after just doing Gatun Lock and they were building the new canals off to the left. Then I was lucky to sail on the NCL Bliss in 2018 for her first trip through the PC and at that time the largest cruise ship and we did the new locks.

I found the older locks more interesting. 

Here is a photo of a small excursion through the locks and how interesting it is to be way down

 

 

 

So, I enjoyed this thread for both PC and the Summit.  Thanks for photos and I agree some of the best one are in the back of the ship. I was lucky to have perfect weather. sorry dude..   Bye have a great sail up to Canada.

[mahdnc]

Just now, hcat said:

Many of the Beyond the Podium  presentations are worth attending in person and taking another look on the TV..both on your cruise look great.

 

. Have you ever thought about doing a lecture series?

 

If you are directing that question to me, what subject could I possibly make a living at? 😃

[mahdnc]

Just now, Oceansaway17 said:

I enjoyed this thread, and I also watched the ship go through various locks.

 

I love the Summit and I sailed on her in 2016 to Bermuda (with Captain Kate) out of NJ and then I sail on Summit last year from Boston up to Canada and ship stayed overnight in Quebec City. We even got to go to Bar Harbor since this year only very small boats are going.

Now I am looking forward to meeting Summit again for yhe 3rd time in Vancouver to sail up to Seward.  

As for the PC, I went through once on small excursion with HAL after just doing Gatun Lock and they were building the new canals off to the left. Then I was lucky to sail on the NCL Bliss in 2018 for her first trip through the PC and at that time the largest cruise ship and we did the new locks.

I found the older locks more interesting. 

Here is a photo of a small excursion through the locks and how interesting it is to be way down

 

 

 

So, I enjoyed this thread for both PC and the Summit.  Thanks for photos and I agree some of the best one are in the back of the ship. I was lucky to have perfect weather. sorry dude..   Bye have a great sail up to Canada.

 

In 2005, we took a cruise on board Horizon out of Tampa for a Western Caribbean sailing.  During its stop at Colon we took the ferry tour of the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks.  You get a much different perspective of the locks than from a large cruise ship.  For example, we were allowed to touch the walls of the locks from our small ferry boat.  A motorcoach took us from the pier at Colon and drove us to the Pacific side of the canal where we boarded our ferry boat.  After we sailed through both sets of Pacific side locks, the bus picked us up somewhere at a pier at Gatun Lake and then the it took us back to the ship.  It made for a very long and grueling day.  This shore excursion is still offered by Celebrity and was available for our cruise.  If you are a hard core Panama Canal enthusiast, I would highly recommend taking this excursion even on a cruise that crosses the canal simply because of the different perspective and experience that you get.  

 

Here are some photos from our 2005 canal shore excursion:

 

 

Edited April 29 by mahdnc

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

If those two are still there, please go and donate a couple bucks.

 

 You can count on it.  The one you kept winning on never treated me well the whole cruise.  Then again, I did not fare any better on any of the others.  The roulette wheel was the only one that paid off for me. 

 

[Northern Aurora]

17 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

The Panama Canal narrator, Bill Fall, also lived in the Canal Zone--in fact he was born there.  I assume that he has been on some of your cruises.

 

He mentioned something about the Boy Scouts doing a re-tracement trip of the historic and abandoned El Camino Real trail which connected Nombre de Dias and Panama City back in 1519.  He said that the crossing was dangerous and involved hiking through heavy jungle and that it was only done twice before it was deemed to dangerous.

 

At least twice we have done PC cruises B2B, and, if my memory is correct, Bill Fall was the PC featured speaker on one of those pairs.  The other really interesting PC speaker was a gentleman named Marty Harrington (again, if my memory is correct).

 

My husband certainly did not participate in any re-tracing of the El Camino Real trail.  My MIL would have not allowed it!

[DaKahuna]

48 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Ignore the chrome hardware mounted on the door as it does nothing

 

 Actually, if you wanted you could use a padlock to lock the door closed using the chrome hardware.  The hole should line up when the door is closed.  Great way to keep kids off the balcony if that was a concern. 

[mahdnc]

7 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Actually, if you wanted you could use a padlock to lock the door closed using the chrome hardware.  The hole should line up when the door is closed.  Great way to keep kids off the balcony if that was a concern. 

I left my padlock at home

[mahdnc]

13 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

 

At least twice we have done PC cruises B2B, and, if my memory is correct, Bill Fall was the PC featured speaker on one of those pairs.  The other really interesting PC speaker was a gentleman named Marty Harrington (again, if my memory is correct).

 

My husband certainly did not participate in any re-tracing of the El Camino Real trail.  My MIL would have not allowed it!

 

I’ve heard that there is a passenger(s) onboard who sailed eastward through the canal on Emerald Princess earlier this month. 
 

That means that they got to see this month’s total solar eclipse at sea and they sailed through the new and old locks!