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Oops, make that 6 out of our first 7 ships had the MDR with two story wall of glass at the back.

Here is a photo of the Cosmopolitan dining room as it looks today (after its Revolution makeover): Here is what the dining room looked like when we last sailed on her in Aug 2010. I have always liked the Millennium class MDR because of its two story wall of windows that look out at the back of the ship. Century class ships were built that way as well and so 5 out of the first 6 ships we took with Celebrity had this design and it represents the good old days in my mind.

We had lunch today at the Cosmopolitan Restaurant (MDR).

I attended two Beyond the Podium presentations today. The first one was given at 10:15 am this morning: "Future Solar Eclipses With Kelly Beatty". Kelly Beatty is a retired senior editor for Sky and Telescope monthly magazine which is famous within the amateur and professional astronomy circles. I have been a loyal subscriber since 1973 (when I was 13) something that I am very proud of but it never impressed any of the girls in high school. Kelly is a veteran of 14 total solar eclipses and he caught the bug when he traveled to Hilo, Hawaii to watch the famous 1991 solar eclipse. He told me that his viewing spot got clouded out! By the way, Marcia and I saw that same eclipse (successfully) onboard Carnival's Jubilee. With all the interest generated in the USA over the total solar eclipse this month, people are wondering when the next ones will be. The next three total solar eclipses will be located in some very exciting places Marcia and I are booked to see the 2027 total solar eclipse at Luxor, Egypt. I've always wanted to go to see ancient Egypt and this solar eclipse cruise will include trips to see the Great Pyramids as well as the Vally of the Kings. Hopefully things in the Middle East will be more settled by then. Kelly also plans and leads tour groups to eclipse locations. However other than mentioning that he did this, he did zero advertising or promotion. On the sea days when the skies are clear and the sun is visible, he has been setting up his telescope for public viewing so people can safely see the sun and it's impressive sunspots. He also will be holding some outdoor night sky shows out on deck to help people locate the Southern Cross and our closest star system to earth, Alpha Centauri. Last night's attempt was cancelled because of the rain. I am very impressed and thankful that Celebrity Cruises was able to hire Kelly for our sailing.

We had breakfast this morning at the Oceanview Cafe. I wasn't planning on eating much for breakfast. Just three fried eggs (photo) and maybe some hashbrowns. However the layout of the buffet is still new to me and after wandering around in my unsuccessful attempt to find those triangular hash browns, I saw and ended up with a lot of other food on my plate. 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. So I guess they were heart healthy biscuits and gravy because I ended up not getting any. While wandering around, I realized that I liked the new layout and look of the Oceanview Cafe. I am impressed with the number of sinks available for passengers to wash their hands--something I have not seen on any other Celebrity ship (I presume that this is what they are for--hopefully they are not encouraging us to wash our own dishes!). While eating the ham I got from the carving station, there was a pod of dolphins that made an appearance on the starboard side by the window that we were seated at. Pretty cool--until I realized that I was surrounded by people standing around my seated area looking at them, too!

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.