panama canal cruise

[nursewurmy]

Is there a naturalist onboard these cruises?

[wv4891]

We did this cruise in 2003 ( a full 14 day transit) and at that time they brought a person onboard to do a talk on the Panama Canal (employee of the Canal). Before the advent of CDS the talk was given in the Revelations Lounge. I seem to remember this person staying on the ship and giving commentary while we transited the canal, but not 100% sure. The talk was about an hour and was quite informative on the history of the canal and how it operates today. I don't remember any other naturalist coming onboard.

[Cruisin Rick]

When we did the Canal cruise, they brought in a guy who told the history of it, how it worked and what we were looking at as we sailed through. It was on the ships speaker system and on the TV. It gave us a lot of information and insight that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

 

 

Rick

[LSilver]

Each of the 3 times I've transited the Canal a Canal employee has come on board and narrated over the loud-speakers.

 

Additionally, there may also be guest lecturers.

[canderson]

Is there a naturalist onboard these cruises?

When we took this trip (San Diego to Ft Lauderdale, the Infinity) in Dec '03, they brought a lecturer on who covered the entire history of the Canal. Sounds dry, doesn't it? After word got around of his first lecture, the main theatre was SRO for the next two! Fascinating stuff. I previously had no idea what kind of ground was broken in the process of building the Canal. Medical history was made (this is where one doc stuck to his guns and insisted that the diseases that were killing workers left and right were being transmitted by mosquitos). As an Engineering feat, it proved that digging in rock isn't as easy as digging in sand (a certain hubris by the chief engineer of the Suez is what stalled out France's efforts). The politics between Europe, the U.S. and Columbia and Panama was amazing. The financial shenanigans pulled by the East Coast tycoons beyond belief. Hope you get someone as thorough and entertaining as we did.

[Lobbylin]

We did the Infinity Panama Canal in Jan 04 - so I'm guessing we had the same lecturer as Canderson (a man of Greek decent who lived near NY I think?!) - I loved to listen to his informative port lectures every day, plus his review of the building of the Panama canal...

 

You'll have a wonderful time - the Panama Canal is fascinating and the views change as the day progresses so be sure to miss nothing!! Myself, I was up for a 6am front seat as the sun rose above Panama City Skyline... and the day just got better and better... went for a leisurely breakfast at 10.30am... then took up other positions around the ship for the rest of the day to see everything from a different perspective! Marvellous!!

 

Enjoy!

[nursewurmy]

Thanks I was hoping, we had a naturalist on our cuise to Alaska and it made it a GREAT cruise.