14 day Panama Canal Cruise....part 3... the Panama Canal

Good morning.
After 2 days at sea, a daytime stop in Cartagena, we arrive the next morning at the Panama Canal.
We were scheduled for a daytime passage, and we lined up bright and early. There is a bay that leads to the first locks. Here's a pic of me as we were getting close to the locks....

As we arrived at the first lock, we are tied up to these little 'trains' so they can slowly guide us through.
The captain said we were the largest cruise ship that could go through the original locks. We had 2ft clearances on each side.

There was another smaller cruise ship following us. I'm assuming we didn't use the newer larger locks, as they probably cost more.

They had a little folding bridge that they opened while we were waiting for the lock to fill with water. It allowed cars and trucks to get from one side to the other, but only one way at a time. In the pic above, you can see a bridge in the distance. It was still under construction, but will eventually let traffic over the canal at the Atlantic side without waiting.

There were 3 locks total at each end. They were very similar to the locks at Sault Ste Marie, but more complex.

They were busy! They had ships going in both directions. The captain said they have around 33 ships per day that pass through the locks one direction or the other.
Below is the lake that was created when they dammed the river. We were told that the ships sitting in the lake were waiting for slower/cheaper times to go through the locks.
It's all about the money right?

The bridge above was about 2/3 the way through the Canal. The stepped slopes you see was the mountain they had to cut out called the Culebra Cut through the Continental Divide, to let the canal meet the pacific side.
And, President Woodrow Wilson sent the telegraph that signaled the destruction of a dam that let water flow into the Culebra Cut allowing the Atlantic and Pacific to be joined. What date was that???
October 10, 1913.   :-)

And near Panama City, as we went through the last 3 locks, there was a massive audience. Quite the sight! We found out later that people had come from all over the world to see us go through the locks...................Just kidding.
The Pope was scheduled to be in Panama City that week, and this was just a side excursion for some of them as they waited for the Pope to arrive.   :-)
The canal is a fascinating engineering marvel. Happy we did the entire length.
Now we have another day at sea, and then Costa Rica.

14 day Panama Canal Cruise....part 2....Cartagena, Columbia

Good morning.
After we left Miami, it was 2 days at sea before we reached Cartagena, Columbia. There were no stops along the way, since we were going all the way through the canal and up to LA.
A lot of cruises I looked at do round trips from Florida, which means they go through the first locks to the lake, turn around, and go back out. And because it's a shorter time, they can also stop at some of the Caribbean Islands. I'm glad we did the entire canal, because there were many interesting sights as we weaved our way through the canal to the Pacific Ocean.
Also, even though they also do the cruise from LA to Miami, we decided to fly to Miami and start there so we'd do the long 4 1/2 hour flight first. LA to Vegas is only about an hour.
Plus, that gave us 2 days at sea to start so we had a lot of time to explore the ship.
Below are some pics of Cartagena.....

It is a very large city! You can see that in the skyline. And we got some great views from the ship as we arrived.  Below is the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. An old fort in Cartagena. Built in 1536 and expanded in 1657. That's pretty old!

Above on the left is our Chiva Party Bus that we took for our city tour. Below are all the tour buses waiting for all the people from our ship that booked tours. There were around 10-15 different tours they had available. So if enough people booked a specific tour, they just added more buses. One tour we took in Acapulco, had 6 buses. Above you can see they had 3 party buses for our tour. These pics were taken from our balcony on deck 8. We almost always disembarked on deck 4.

Our tour guide was informative and entertaining!

Here's a pic of 5 out of 6 that came from Vegas for the cruise. The lady next to me is Gloria. She lives around the corner from us. The other 2 ladies are longtime friends of Gloria. Gloria's husband, Dave took this pic. That's the fort behind us.

Besides the fort, the 'old city' of Cartagena also had a wall to help protect it from attacks.

The area of the city in the distance is called Little Miami.
That's because that's where the nice beaches are.

It was a good tour. Got to stop and do some shopping. Although, about the only thing we buy are t-shirts. And we are only in each port for the day. We arrive in the early morning, and usually set sail late afternoon. From Cartagena, we headed for the Panama Canal.

14 day Panama Canal Cruise....part 1

Good morning.
This is the first of many posts on our 14 day Panama Canal Cruise.
We flew to Miami on A Thursday. Spent the night in a hotel by the airport. Took a shuttle to the ship Friday morning.
Left Miami that afternoon, sailing 2 days at sea. The 3rd day we arrived in Cartagena, Columbia. 
I'll post more about that and the rest of the cruise later. First, a few pics of our ship......

The pool deck with sun loungers all around it and the next level.

Our ship in the harbor in Cabo....

The grand Atrium on the 7th through 9th floors. The ship had floors 4 through 13 available for guests to use. Part of 4 and below were crew cabins and storage and such.

And a few pics of our balcony stateroom......

We even had a small couch and desk. I couldn't get a decent pic of the bathroom, but very roomy! The shower was very large for a cruise ship.
And of course, there were 11 restaurants, 8 bars, a theater, casino, library, a pool, 7 hot tubs, and a seating area in the Grand Atrium. This ship had open dining, so instead of a set time and table, you could go to any of the complementary restaurants any time. The 5 specialty restaurants had a surcharge and needed reservations. We ate at 2 of those and I'll tell you more about them in a later post.
So, we had good weather the entire trip. Quite warm and humid in most ports. Good food. Met a lot of other people during the cruise also. Most of the people we met had been on many, many cruises. We were like newbies this being our 3rd.
But I must go for now as I have a ton of unpacking and laundry to do. Craig won't be of much help as he came down with a terrible chest cold the last day of the cruise. I'm happy he made the trip home okay.

Sunday post

Good afternoon.
I appear to be posting less and less. I guess it's because I don't have  much going on.   :-)
Here's the latest puzzle I'm slowly working on.....

This one is a hard one! A lot of blended colors. But I'm slowly getting it done.
And here's a couple of pics I took as I left the fitness center yesterday.....

I just never get tired of looking at the mountains!
Then I thought I'd share a couple of pics of the ship we'll be on for 14 days......

The Norwegian Star. It holds  2300 people. Kind of small compared to some of the newer ships that hold over 4000. Our Carnival ship Splendor held just over 3000, and that ship in the news a couple of days ago, the Oasis of the Seas, holds 9000! I can't imagine trying to get on and off that ship! It took over 2 hours to get off the Splendor after we docked.
I think we'll like the size of the Star much better.
I also made another batch of breakfast muffins. Craig really likes them!
We gave each other haircuts today. And Craig is making a turkey rice casserole for dinner.
I'm still walking every day. Sometimes twice a day with Craig in the afternoon. And going to the fitness center on Saturday.
Have a routine Doctors appt tomorrow morning. Should go quick as all my test results were normal.
Well, I guess that's all for now.....

A new year begins

Good morning.
And so, a new year begins.......
They seem to be whizzing by faster and faster!
You would think being retired with a lot of time on my hands the days would drag by, but apparently not.   :-)
Here's the latest puzzle we finished.....

And if you look close, you'll see one extra puzzle piece at the top of the puzzle.
Now, I'm very careful when I dismantle the previous puzzle to make sure I get all the pieces back in it's bag so I'm pretty sure this piece came with this puzzle. Now Craig says now we know what happens to the occasional puzzle that has a piece missing. It ends up in a different puzzle! That may very well be!
In other news......
Craig had another birthday. We went to Big Dog's Tavern and had lunch to celebrate.
We have all the decorations and outside lights down and put away.  It's nice doing this in 50 degree weather instead of 30.   :-)
Having brunch next Wed with neighbors and their friends, all of whom are going on our cruise. Getting together to talk about possible plans for the cruise.
Had a hard freeze here a couple of nights ago. Did in all the flowers and leaves on my Bougainvillea vine. To cold even for all the lights I have on the plant. Hopefully, the lights kept it warm enough to protect the wood so I don't have too much die back. Spring will tell!
In a bit, I'll head to the fitness center. Been going there a little more as some morning's it's been a bit too cold to walk.
Well, Happy New Year to you all!