mahdnc

Here are all the Celebrity Todays up to and including today: 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

When we arrived back at the pier (around 5:00 pm), it was raining very hard--a good ol' fashion downpour. The bus parked as close to the gangway as possible and Celebrity crew and officers were there to greet us by handing out umbrellas. Lots of umbrellas. And when we stepped onto the ship (but not past security) beach towels were immediately handed out to each of us to dry off. Nice touch. You don't see that in the brochure. Having a 5:30 pm seating at the MDR is a pain for days like today. Nevertheless I was able to change out to suitable casual smart clothing and Marcia felt well enough for both of us to make it to the MDR with one minute to spare.

An employee at the sanctuary, Rachel, took us on a tour. Here are some photos taken during that time. The first animal we were introduced to were the sloths. We saw birds. Lots and lots of birds. Like scarlet macaws--and together they made quite a ruckus of sound: Our sanctuary guide, Rachel, is in the black shirt in the right side of this photo: There were several kinds of monkeys there: There was a wild howler monkey that was watching us from above: And there were termite nests throughout the grounds. Yuck: The plants were interesting to look at as well. There were jaguars (photo), pumas, and an ocelot. and more birds: And turtles (photo), tapir and boars.

When we arrived at the NATUWA wildlife sanctuary, there were restrooms and we were given some fresh cut fruit as a welcoming snack. Before our tour started, we saw our first animal:

It was a beautiful morning here in Puntarenas. I think I mentioned this part before: I purchased the shorex for $174 for both of us back on Aug 30 during some kind of sale. I believe there were two groups that visited this wildlife sanctuary--one group in the morning and the one that I was assigned to for the afternoon. The bus that was supplied to us had 8 rows of seats with 2 seats on either side of the single aisle. The 9th (and last) row of seats had 5 seats across. So there was essentially seating for 40-41 passengers not including the driver. The bus was clean, well air conditioned, and gave a smooth ride. There was a driver and an English speaking guide on the bus. The ride to the NATUWA wildlife sanctuary took about 45 minutes from the pier as it took us out into the rural areas. The guide did some narration on the bus ride in both directions. Here is a photo of the beach at the pier entrance. There was a nice view of Summit from our bus as we headed away from the pier. There was interesting country side scenery during the bus ride.

thank you for that explanation. Makes sense to me. Since our aft balcony is on the starboard side, the only question for me was whether Summit would be using the east locks or west side locks. It turned out that the answer was both: west side locks for Gatun and east side locks for Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.

thank you so much for posting this video! It’s better than trying to imagine how they switching station is used!

I will ask our Panama Canal expert on Summit, but my feeling is that the M class ships are always sailing through the legacy locks. Our narrator never mentioned that we were lucky for getting assigned to the legacy locks.

I didn’t declare this explicitly, but the chateaubriand was served at the MDR yesterday (our second of three EC nights)

yes, let’s see your photos!

It came that way, Ruth.

The Panama Canal is very interesting partly because of the complexity of the lock operation. So you are watching a show while you are crossing it. It is impressive as it is entertaining. Depending on your interest and patience, there are so many details to examine during the long 12 hour day. One example is this photo below. Notice the circular wheel with tracks on it--although we did not see it in action, it is obviously a switching station which rotates and allows you to re-route the mules to a different track. In this case, the switching station allows a mule to go to the shed at the bottom of the photo perhaps for maintenance. It is reminiscent of the rotating circular platforms used to turnaround the famous cable cars of San Francisco.

During our sea day yesterday, it was pretty humid outside and the cumulus clouds started to develop. By the time we went to dinner at 5:30 pm, the clouds were getting darker. You could see a lightning bolt every now and then during dinner. In the middle of the evening, I decided to to take my camera out to our balcony to try to get some lightning photos. Too late, I didn't realize it but it was raining real hard outside. There was a pool of water on the back third of our balcony. We got some claps of thunder that were the loudest I have ever heard while on a cruise ship.

Last night was our second Evening Chic night. Here is a photo of the chateaubriand: The dessert menu: I ordered the creme brulee with a side of ice cream.....

which is why I am earning my Club Points the old fashion way this month:

I purchased the Specialty Dining Trio through our Cruise Planner on May 24th last year for $222 for two people including the gratuity charge. The "trio" is 2 dinners + 1 lunch. Anytime you buy a dining package in advance, you cannot schedule the meals until you get on board. We were given only one date that was available for lunch at the Tuscan Grille--and that was for yesterday (Fri Apr 26, Sea Day #3 of 8). The restaurant was pretty busy for lunch. Here is the menu and a coupe of food photos: Here is the crab parfait: and the mushroom cappucino. After enduring the flying ant-like insects that swarmed me at the ship's heli-pad at Gatun Lock on the day before, I inspected this soup very closely before eating it: I had the buttered poached lobster black truffle emulsion for the main course: Limoncello cheesecake for dessert. This cheesecake looks like it is topped with melted cheese in the photograph--I assure you that it was not:

I think you will be looking at a non-Celebrity cruise sailing then. I know several years before COVID, Celebrity did offer that type of Florida to South America itinerary. I haven't seen it for a while--heck Celebrity isn't even doing South America this year. As you know, Celebrity now positions its fleet so it stays on the same ocean year round for most of its ships. Some ships do the Caribbean/Bermuda in the winter and then Europe in the summer. Other ships do Alaska in the summer and then Australia/Asia in the winter. And (as you know) Summit is the only one doing the full transit as she moves between Alaska (summer) and Caribbean (winter). But that means that Celebrity does the full Panama Canal only twice a year. The funny thing is that Celebrity used to do the Panama Canal a lot when the fleet was smaller. Here is a link to an old eight page Jan 1998- Apr 1999 Itinerary Guide that I got during a cruise aboard Mercury. Looking at it now several things stand out to me: 1. Celebrity only had 5 ships--none of them are currently sailing for Celebrity anymore. 2. However there were 30 full Panama Canal sailings scheduled during that 16 month period. 3. Some of her Alaska sailings included Glacier Bay. 4. The back cover lists Celebrity's advertising resume' which includes "Award-winning cuisine by master chef Michel Roux. Fresh food, always prepared from scratch." Those were the days! I hope you find a Panama Canal itinerary that suits you in the near future.

Here is a time lapse video of our sail away from Miami (link). I had trouble getting this 24 second video to upload until recently which is why I am posting it now.

We got our first bag of laundry back (18 pieces) yesterday afternoon after we sent it out on the evening of Apr 23. Our stateroom attendant, Gede, said that it was done the evening on the day before but we had the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. So 48-64 hr turnaround time depending on how you look at it. We got chocolates on the first night of the cruise but nothing afterward. I asked our stateroom attendant what the current practice is. He said chocolates are available upon request. So we made the request on the spot--and I asked for backpay in chocolates for the nights missed as well. And since I was in the requesting mode, I asked for all the chocolates to be milk chocolate and not the dark ones.

For some reason, our itinerary was adjusted many months ago to have us dock at Puntarenas (Costa Rica) at 5:30 am. At 7:30 am there was an announcement that the ship has been cleared by immigration. We are heading to breakfast now.

That's ok. In Post #260, I posted several photos of the many mules that we saw during the crossing. The Beyond the Podium speaker said that they cost a couple million dollars each (I cannot remember the exact figure). It was interesting to watch them work and they are part of the charm of the old locks. The new locks do not have them. The ship positioning is managed completely by tugboats which accompany the ship into the locks.

Yeah, I think the Cruise Critic website works now on my Chrome browser. I have received error messages on a couple of different days during this cruise indicating that the CC website/server is down. Thank you for posting screenshots of Summit crossing the canal as I wanted to do that, too, but simply didn't have time. When I was up at the bow, I was able to get a weak Wi-Fi signal and quickly took one screenshot and iMessaged it to my parents to remind them to look at the canal webcam to watch us.

Here is a final set of photos from our day at the Panama Canal. If you are a hard core Panama Canal enthusiast, there really is no dead time during the 12 hour crossing that you can break away and not miss something. I ordered room service for breakfast and paid the room service charge to get a hot breakfast because I didn't want us to miss the start of things. That was a good decision looking back on it. In my mind I figured I could take get lunch at the MDR while we were cruising Gatun Lake. However we ended up sailing through some of the Culebra Cut while we were eating. Knowing that, I would have done something different like get room service again or run up to the Oceanview Cafe and grab something to take back to the cabin. And as I mentioned in another post, our MDR dinner early seating time was at 5:30 pm and we were still going through the Miraflores Locks at the time. When we got back to the cabin after lunch, we were sailing through the last parts of the Culebra Cut on our approach to the Pedro Miguel Locks under the watchful eye of a tugboat trailing behind us. Sailing through the cut is interesting not just from a history perspective, but also because it is unusual to be on a cruise ship and see the shore so close to either side for an extended period df time. A forward view from the helipad (or Retreat area) or the view from an aft balcony (or Sunset Bar) really gives you that river cruise view effect. Thankfully we got back to our cabin in time to watch Summit sail under the second of three bridges along the canal route--the Centennial Bridge. Roll call member @julieawill and her husband happen to book the Ultra Deluxe Veranda cabin next to ours and you can see both of them in the above photo. We later invited them to our balcony so they could get a starboard side view of the canal because the other set of locks were on the starboard side of Summit when she crossed the Pacific side locks. When Summit crossed the Atlantic side locks, the other set of locks were on the port side of the ship. I presume that this is all random and nothing you can plan the cruise by. Summit's crew required access to the Penthouse Suite's balcony when we arrived at the Pedro Miguel Locks to help get the ship connected to the mules (photo below). I guess that is what the external stairs that pop up on the Penthouse Suite deck are for--so that the crew do not have to trudge through the Penthouse Suite itself when they have to do this type of work. Watching the crossing of the Panama Canal from the Penthouse Suite balcony must be nice. The Penthouse Suite on the port side of the ship in the photo below had friends over to watch Summit cruise through the Pacific side locks. Most canal enthusiasts are well aware that the Panama Canal does not use pumps to fill and empty the locks. The large amounts of water are moved by gravity. To facilitate the movement of water by gravity, there are a number of huge culverts (pipes) on floor of each lock. Below is a photo where you can the surface of the water in the lock being disturbed during the filling of the lock. Even though I have seen it with my own eyes, the large scale of this man-made canal and the ships that pass through it are hard to fathom and certainly are not reflected in any photo. Below is a photo taken from the bow of the last set of Gatun Locks that brought us up to Gatun Lake's level. You can see the two cables on the left side of the photo that connect Summit to one of the mules. Walkways are installed on many (but not all) of the doors of the locks that permit personnel to walk across when the doors are closed.

For the past 12 hours or so, I have been unable to get on the Cruise Critic website. First I thought it was a connection problem on Summit. Then I thought it was a problem with the website. This morning I tried a different web browser (used Safari instead of Chrome) and that seems to have solved the problem. I have some catching up to do on this thread. Sorry.

We may do just that. It's funny though--since November we have been on cruise vacations that have taken us to Ecuador (Nov Xpedition), Vietnam (Dec Solstice), Ethiopia (Dec Solstice flight home), Columbia (Apr Summit) and they all claim to have the best coffee!