mahdnc

Gatun Locks Gatun Locks are on the Atlantic side and it consists of 3 consecutive locks to step us up to the level of Gatun Lake. To me, it was the most impressive view of the Panama Canal locks that we the entire day because: 1. There were 3 ships (not including us) in the locks when we arrived. So it was a hotbed of activity. 2. You could see huge ships at 3 different heights at the same time--with Summit being at the lowest level.

The helipad was open to all passengers during the entire canal crossing. The helipad is accessed on Deck 5 by going to the Celebrity Theatre. Signs directed you along the way. When I got out there, the railings were 3-5 people deep. It was difficult to find a spot to stand with an reasonably obstructed view. We were approaching our first set of locks of the day and there was a lot of excitement in the humid air. Looking back towards the bridge, you can clearly see that the outdoor Retreat area (highest deck visible in the photo below) had a nice elevated view of the locks without the crowds. It might have been the best seat in the house. If I were Celebrity, I would have driven that point home by hanging a large banner beneath the Retreat area in full view of the heliport passengers with the words, "This is the Retreat area--you could have been here" or something like that.

Sorry I haven't posted today as it was a real looong day! To me, the crossing started when we sailed under the Atlantic Bridge at about 7am and it ended at 6:30 pm when we passed the Bridge of Americas. So it was almost a 12 hour day. Before we went to bed the night before the crossing, I set my alarm at 7am and I filled out the room service breakfast card to be delivered at 7:30 am (no way we were we going to waste any time at the dining room for breakfast). When we woke up at 7am, the Panama Canal narrator came over the ship's public address system to announce that we were about to sail under the Atlantic Bridge as we lined up to go to the Gatun Locks. I hadn't fully decided about my viewing/photography spots for the canal crossing, but when I woke up, I was thinking about just staying in our aft cabin and watching the crossing from the comfort of our balcony. I turned on the stateroom television and turned to Channel 1 to hear the narration in our cabin. Channel 1 is the navigation channel and it cyclically shows a couple different navigation maps and an video image from the bridge of the ship's bow and horizon. When I saw the bridge camera view, I could see the the Gatun Locks and a crowd of passengers at the helipad. Upon seeing that, I immediately abandoned the idea of staying in the cabin and I decided to head out to the bow (Marcia stayed behind in the cabin/balcony because she is not as crazy about having to get the best view of the canal).

It's good to hear from you, Mary. As you know we did the full transit across the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There were no issues as far as water levels go. Now that Panama has entered the rainy season, it appears they are out of the woods as long as they get the expected rainfall over the coming months.

We have done several Christmas/New Years sailings including this past Dec. Specialty dining will not be bookable until about 90 days before sailing. When pricing does come out you will find that the prices are very high (with a special menu) for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. For the other evenings, the pricing is slightly above normal.

I am sorry that happened to you. Really bad luck. April weather is very unpredictable. General history says that Texas is best and Maine is worst. The actual weather turned out to be the exact opposite: Maine had the best conditions and much of Texas was fighting clouds with varying degrees of success. When we arrived at our viewing spot in Vienna, IL, it was extremely foggy. It took the whole morning for the fog to burn off and skies to clear. We still had very thin cirrus clouds to contend with when totality arrived but fortunately it was inconsequential.

A couple more photos of Summit docked at Colon:

This is what was issued in our Celebrity Today (for tomorrow):

After we left the Agua Clara Visitor Center, our bus crossed over the Atlantic Bridge so we could see the Atlantic side locks from a distance (the bus ended up making a U-turn after crossing the bridge to re-cross it again which allowed passengers on the other side of the bus to see it as well. The weather was raining at the time and so our view was compromised during the bridge crossings. For the second part of the tour, the bus took us to the Miraflores Visitor Center. This center was built in 2004. To me, it seemed to be better than the Agua Clara Visitor Center. It seemed to have a lot more covered viewing areas. There was a Morgan Freeman narrated IMAX documentary (approx 20 minutes long) where you could buy popcorn, soda, hot dogs, etc like you were at a movie theater. And yes, the theater was air conditioned. The movie is a 3D requiring special glasses to wear. I thought the 3D effects were pretty good. The theater is very large. When we arrived a few minutes after the start of the movie, we had difficulty in finding empty seats, but eventually we were directed towards the front where there were a couple of rows that were not occupied. I am not sure what you have to do to get on this tour that allowed you past the fence line and onto the locks themselves. The tour guide had a Panama Canal Authority shirt on.

Here is blizzard of photos and some words on the Celebrity shore excursion that we took today. The excursion was Destination Highlight: Expansion of the Panama Canal "The Present and The Future". I purchased the excursion through the Cruise Planner for $176 for the two of us back on Aug 30--during a Flash Sale. We were instructed to bring our passports but it was never examined by anyone. I believe that there were 3 motor coach buses devoted to this specific tour. The buses were fairly standard--clean, well air conditioned with 2 seats on either side of the aisle and an open shelf overhead for storage. We were permitted to leave personal items on the bus as we got on and off the bus a couple times. From a viewing standpoint, one side of the bus did not have a distinct advantage over the other side. The bus was staffed with a driver and an English speaking guide. We were instructed to meet at the Celebrity Theatre at 10:15 am. By 10:30 am we were led off the ship to board our buses. The buses took us back to the pier by 5:15 pm. It was longer than I expected it to be--or to put it more accurately, it was longer than what I led my wife to believe. There was a small box lunch served consisting of a ham sandwich on a french roll and a corn muffin. Cold bottled water was also handed out. The bus ride itself was comfortable. The roads were in excellent condition and did not wind around. The tour consisted of two parts--visting the Agua Clara Visitor Center and then the Miraflores Visitor Center. First, the bus drove from the pier in Colon to the new Agua Clara Visitor Center which has a nice view of the new (larger) locks located on the Atlantic side of the canal. When we arrived, a large red freighter was being escorted into the locks from the Gatun Lake side. However there were so passengers visiting the center (several bus loads from Summit) that I found it difficult to find a good unobstructed viewing area. @julieawill was telling me that she and her husband did not have a problem so perhaps I didn't look hard enough at all the viewing venues that were available. The doors to the new larger locks consist of double sliding doors: I found the crowd of people to be a bit of a problem. The small gift shop had a long line to check out at the single cashier station and we skipped the 10 minute film because of the long line: We were strongly encouraged to use the restroom before we left the visitor center because of the very long bus ride to the second part of the tour.

Tonight’s dinner menu at the MDR along with photos of the pasta primavera and the braised beef short rib: One of the kitchen’s chefs made an appearance at the dining room: My wife and I had Cherries Jubilee for dessert.

While patiently waiting for our number to be called, we met the person who fell yesterday during our independent shore excursion. Fractured wrist….

We are docked at Colon under cloudy skies. We arrived around 9am and were cleared at 9:25am. We are at the Celebrity Theatre in Deck 4 waiting for our group number (27) to be called. You are required to bring your passport with you ashore.

I used a DSLR camera (Nikon D780) with a 300 mm telephoto lens. In contrast, the Apple 15 Pro telephoto lens has an equivalent focal length of only 77 mm. I took a lot of photos of this month's total solar eclipse with the same camera (link). We traveled to an area north of my parent's home town of Paducah, KY to watch it.

The vendor pushiness was well above average, but no behavior that went over the line. However there were a lot of them.