Live: Apr 20, 2024 Summit 14 Night Panama Canal Westbound Cruise!

[hcat]

5 hours ago, expattraveler said:

hcat,

 

Agree with you.  “Path Between the Seas” was long, very detailed, but an excellent read. Read it prior to our canal transit last year on the HAL Niew Amsterdam.

I read through most of the linked material on the canal expansion...very interesting.  

 

While we are hopeful of doing a full E to W transit  but would need to save up $$$ for the cruise and return airfare.

 

For now I will follow this thread ! 

[hcat]

21 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Each course was given an introduction by the Executive Chef.  The first course was Curried Cauliflower Soup.  The soup was creamy and very good.

 

Did you enjoy the presentation by the Exec Chef,,? What was his culinary background?  We have always found  that the Chefs love to share info!

[hcat]

Great job with the name tags.. The  get togethers are different these days but still fun for those who attend. 

 

Roll calls are less active due to fb groups and they really do not mess very well. But still fun!

[mahdnc]

Tonight was our first Evening Chic Night.  The food was very good.  I had the Chilled Pear and Honey Soup, Baby Spinach and Treviso Salad  (photo), and the Shrimp Scampi (photo).

 

 

 

 

The dessert course took a long time and consequently we decided to skip the show.  When we got back to the room, our cabin steward hadn't turned the room down yet.  We could have gone to the casino to give him some time to get the room made up, but that could be expensive so we just told him to skip it tonight.  No big deal.

 

I always drag my suit/ties with me for EC nights including our last cruise to Asia this past Dec.  This time was no different.  I will say that I saw very few suits tonight--probably the fewest I have seen.

[mahdnc]

We had a total of 139 people in our roll call which included partners and friends.  Here are some demographic information (note the data is raw and unweighted).

 

 

 

Edited April 23 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Tomorrow begins the intense phase of the itinerary--3 ports + Panama Canal during the next 5 days.

 

[DaKahuna]

4 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

Are you talking about the Spaghetti Bolognese?

 

 Yes, I thought i had quoted where you mentioned ordering it and showed the picture.  If not, I apologize for being unclear. 

 

 

Edited April 23 by DaKahuna

[fshepinc]

Is anyone else having difficulty charging their devices in their cabins? I plugged my iPad in before dinner with 62% charge and left it overnight. In the morning it had 72%! Similar with my phone. Is this just a problem in my cabin, or are others noticing the same thing?

[mahdnc]

Just now, DaKahuna said:

 

 Yes, I thought i had quoted where you mentioned ordering it and showed the picture.  If not, I apologize for being unclear. 

 

 

 

Sorry, that it took me a minute to understand that.  My reading skills seem to deteriorate when I am at sea and that's why my wife is in charge of reading the "Be back onboard by...." sign at the gangway.

 

The spaghetti bolognese does not appear to be on the everyday menu.  I cannot comment about the children's menu.  Back in the day, our son used to order it for room service every late night.

[mahdnc]

Just now, fshepinc said:

Is anyone else having difficulty charging their devices in their cabins? I plugged my iPad in before dinner with 62% charge and left it overnight. In the morning it had 72%! Similar with my phone. Is this just a problem in my cabin, or are others noticing the same thing?

 

I presume your problem is from using the room supplied USB outlets?  We have mainly have been using our AC charging adapters which means we have been plugging in directly to the electrical socket (both the USA socket and the Euro socket with an adapter).  We have not had a problem with that.  

 

My wife has been using the USB outlet at the desk wall to charge her watch.  The power draw on that is pretty low; we have not had any problems with that either.

 

[mchell810]

8 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Some comments about our roll call sail away.  We scheduled it for 3:30 pm at the Sunset Bar (Deck 10, aft) in preparation for our schedule 4:00 pm departure.  The Sunset Bar is a very popular place to watch the sail away--whether you are part of a roll call or not.  Consequently is was difficult to set up any sitting/table space for the group also because many people were eating their lunch out there.  So I spent most of the sail away inside the Ocean View Cafe just by the sliding doors to the rear deck.

 

One of my hobbies has been to make name tags for our roll call.  It was more useful when Celebrity sponsored the official Cruise Critic Connections gatherings.  The name tags that Celebrity had for those that registered for the connections party were small pieces of paper with a safety pin or something like that.  People would write only their first names on it and I found it difficult to figure out who was who because I knew them more from their screen name.  So that is why I began making custom name tags and setting up table space inside the Ocean View Cafe to lay out the name tags is much easier than doing it outdoors with a breeze and strong sunlight.

 

It is nice to be able to meet the actual people behind the Cruise Critic screen names we have been posting with over the many months.  However the amount time you have to meet so many people is not sufficient.  For me, I had to duck out of the sail away for a short period of time because my contact lens was acting up in my left eye and it looked like I was crying each time someone came up to introduce themself.

 

Judging from the number of name tags not taken, we had a 44% turnout of our roll call for the sail away which is about average.

 

 

I am always very impressed by the effort you put into making name tags.  I'm sorry you didn't get a bigger turn out from your roll call. 

 

Wishing you better luck on the next Blackjack Tournament  🤞🤞

[mahdnc]

Just now, mchell810 said:

 

I am always very impressed by the effort you put into making name tags.  I'm sorry you didn't get a bigger turn out from your roll call. 

 

Wishing you better luck on the next Blackjack Tournament  🤞🤞

Thanks. I like making the name tags and I know from the very beginning that less than half will show. The people that do receive them seem to like them so that’s good enough for me.

 

My blackjack luck cannot be worse next time.

[mchell810]

Love your positive attitude -- on all things!  😀

[raudacruise]

34 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

Thanks. I like making the name tags and I know from the very beginning that less than half will show. The people that do receive them seem to like them so that’s good enough for me.

 

My blackjack luck cannot be worse next time.

The name tags look just perfect.  They obviously took a lot of work.  I saved a name tag (not nearly as fancy) from many cruises ago.  I know it’s more than 10 years old.  I wear it for sailaways and events such as slot pulls.

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

8 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Tomorrow begins the intense phase of the itinerary--3 ports + Panama Canal during the next 5 days.

 

On day 6 is that when you take the bus to drive from Colon to Panama City due to the water storage in the canal?🤔😉😁

[mahdnc]

We have arrived at Cartagena, Columbia. 
 

[cruisinsusin]

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

We have arrived at Cartagena, Columbia. 
 

We were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed our Cartagena visit last year.

[wintrystew]

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

We have arrived at Cartagena, Columbia. 
 

Thank you for the name tag and the delivery to my cabin. They are beautiful. Wonderful job. 

[mahdnc]

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

Do you have an excursion planned for Cartagena today? We did Dora’s tour when we were there it was great. Curious to read what you and Marcia did. Also, any other excursions planned for your other ports? 
Cathy

[mahdnc]

4 hours ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Do you have an excursion planned for Cartagena today? We did Dora’s tour when we were there it was great. Curious to read what you and Marcia did. Also, any other excursions planned for your other ports? 
Cathy

 

Cathy,

 

We also did the famous "Dora" today at Cartagena.  It was nice but the heat and humidity slowly sapped us as the morning wore on.

 

Here is a list of our other activities including shore excursions: link

[Purplsmurf]

We had that same cabin category on a TA. We were spoiled. My husband wants it all of the time now. 😂

[mahdnc]

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

[hcat]

48 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Cathy,

 

We also did the famous "Dora" today at Cartagena.  It was nice but the heat and humidity slowly sapped us as the morning wore on.

 

Here is a list of our other activities including shore excursions: link

very welk organized..I  handwrite my list manually. Yours is neater!

 

Hydration always an issue in the tropics.  Aside from parts of Mexico, the heat and humidity in Panama was the worst we ever felt

[AZCruisergirl]

It is always very hot and humid in Cartegena but 3 things helped immensely, I brought flavored electrocyte powder to add to water bottle and fights the dehydration that happens even with drinking tons of water. We had cooling towels like many golfers use that you wet in the morning, throw in a ziploc and take them out for around your neck when needed. Ours stayed cool enough to help all day. The last thing was invaluable for me, a rechargeable hand fan that is small enough to fit in my tiny purse and has 5 speeds. Was so nice to point it down my neck and in my face. I won’t claim to have been completely refreshed but ended up a lot better than many people on our tour.