Cruise through the Panama Canal

This probably isn't the kind of Adventure/Trip envisioned for this forum.  But hey, it was a trip and it definitely was an adventure!  It didn't involve any trucks though, but I still thought I'd share it.

Lesley and I had a Panama Canal cruise booked for Feb 2021, but that didn't go for obvious reasons, so we rebooked it for March 2022 and were able to go this time!

With the flight delays and cancellations that were so common when we were making our travel plans to get to and from the ship we decided to rent a car and drive from Minnesota to New Orleans.  We got to New Orleans two days after Mardis Gras.  That's not a great time to be in New Orleans.  It's a huge mess, and a lot of places were closed to let their employees get a break.  But we were only there for one afternoon and night.  The next day we got on the ship.

But before we could board we had to test negative for Covid.  We had to test at the port, not a day or two in advance, so it was a very stressful 20 minutes waiting for the test results to see if we could get on the ship or if we'd need to turn around and go home!  But we were healthy and were able to board!

Starting a cruise in New Orleans means starting down the Mississippi river.  The Mississippi starts in Minnesota (we've waded across it at its head) and goes through the Twin Cities where we live (it's pretty big by then).  But it's obviously a LOT bigger in New Orleans.  Here's a view from the top deck of the ship shortly after getting underway on day 1.



Day 2 was sailing across the Gulf of Mexico and day 3 was our first port of call at Cozumel, Mexico.  Then days 4 and 5 were sailing across the Caribbean with day 6 being our second port at Cartegena, Columbia.  Day 7 was going through the Panama Canal.  That was really fun and interesting, in a really uneventful sort of way!  It's a slow process, taking 9.5 hours to go about 40 miles, with a lot of the time obviously being in the locks on either end.

The canal opened in 1914.  The original locks are still in operation, but in 2016 new locks were added to increase the capacity.  We went through the new locks on our trip.  Here we are in the first of the three lock chambers of the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side (we've already been lifted and the gate ahead is about to open, allowing us into the second chamber).



Most of the "canal" is actually a big lake.  Here's a view of some of the ship traffic on Lake Gatun.



As you get to the other side of the lake you enter more of a canal.  Here we are approaching the Centennial bridge, one of three bridges crossing the canal.



Here we are entering the first chamber of the Cocoli locks to lower us down again to sea level on the Pacific side.



Days 8 and 9 (the two days after leaving the canal) were very calm.  This picture shows some dolphins we saw on day 8 (the sea was even calmer on day 9).



Day 10 was not so calm!  We had to go through the Tehuano wind south of a gap in the mountains of Mexico.  We were sitting by the pool on deck 9, with deck 10 providing high walls around us.  About 100 feet above the ocean we were still getting some spray from some of the waves we were hitting!  Here's a view of the much more active ocean through the porthole window in our stateroom.



Day 11 was nicer again with a beautiful sunset.  This was one of two times on this trip (and the only two times in my life) that I (sort of) saw the "emerald flash."  As the sun goes below the horizon on a clear day the atmosphere acts like a prism and splits the sun's light into its separate components.  Right before the sun disappears it turns a deeper red, then goes through orange, yellow, green, blue and violet before disappearing below the horizon.  Most of the colors are pretty subtle, but in perfect conditions the green is supposed to be really vivid.  We didn't have perfect conditions so a pale blue/green was the best I saw.  No pictures of that unfortunately (it would be hard as the whole progression takes less than a second).  But here's a minute or so earlier.



On day 12 we stopped at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and day 13 was at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  In Cabo San Lucas we took a boat tour and looking through the rocks at the very tip of the cape we got this picture of our ship (the Disney Wonder) at anchor in the bay.



We also saw some humpback whales on this boat tour.



Day 14 was traveling up the coast of Mexico and we docked in San Diego in the morning of day 15, bringing our trip to an end.  We had traveled about 5600 miles by ship, and I didn't even need to finish my first package of Dramamine!  (I had brought 4 packs, just in case.  Lesley didn't need any.)  

We then flew home from San Diego.

This was the longest vacation we've ever taken.  It was great, and it makes it easier to imagine retiring at some point!  (But it also makes it harder to imagine affording retirement if we want to keep taking trips like this!)  Sorry that there were no trucks involved, but hopefully at least someone will enjoy reading this, and it might even give people something to think about for their own future adventures!

Interesting! Nice pictures!

I don’t think I can be on a ship like that with all those people.

I did go on a helicopter carrier, but that was a little different and I was 20 or so years old.

Cool!  I like it, and am glad you posted it.

I didn't realize that the Panama Canal goes through a lake.  Interesting.  I assume it is a fresh water lake?  If so, what water do they use to fill the locks, and does that put salt water in the lake?

And you answered a question before I got to ask - it was a Disney cruise.  I'll bet it was chock full of kids with this having been spring break for a whole lot of schools.

As for the "emerald flash", I've never seen it.  I've heard or read about it, but never been in the right place at the right time to see it.  Or, didn't look?  Anyway, that is something I'd like to see.  What conditions are best for it?

grumpin wrote

Interesting! Nice pictures!

I don’t think I can be on a ship like that with all those people.

I did go on a helicopter carrier, but that was a little different and I was 20 or so years old.

Cruising isn't for everyone.  But then again, I didn't think it would be for me.  Lesley and I went on our first cruise for our 25th anniversary in 2015 and I warned her that it may well be a once in a lifetime experience (because I might not be willing to do a second!).  But I really liked it (and Lesley LOVED it) so this was now our 5th cruise.

Gary Lewis wrote

Cool!  I like it, and am glad you posted it.

I didn't realize that the Panama Canal goes through a lake.  Interesting.  I assume it is a fresh water lake?  If so, what water do they use to fill the locks, and does that put salt water in the lake?

And you answered a question before I got to ask - it was a Disney cruise.  I'll bet it was chock full of kids with this having been spring break for a whole lot of schools.

As for the "emerald flash", I've never seen it.  I've heard or read about it, but never been in the right place at the right time to see it.  Or, didn't look?  Anyway, that is something I'd like to see.  What conditions are best for it?

There are locks at both ends that lift the ships up about 85 feet to the lake as they come in and then lower you back to sea level before you go out.  Sea level is essentially the same at both ends (it HAS to be the same at the tip of South America!).  Using locks to lift you up allowed them to avoid digging the entire canal that extra 85 feet deep.

The lake was formed by damming up a big river, so yes, it's fresh water.  The locks are filled strictly by gravity (no pumps) with the water flowing in from the high side (the lake) so they don't pump salt water into the lake.  I'm sure the ships pull some stuff in with them, including some salt.  But it's a rain forest, so the lake is getting replenished with clean water pretty well ("the solution to pollution is dilution").

Yes it was a Disney cruise, but there were very few kids on it.  Disney cruises are pretty expensive, so most of them are primarily adults.  The exception to that are the shorter 3 and 4 day cruises that the Disney Dream does, so that ship typically does have tons of kids.  I've heard about 60% of the passengers on the Dream are kids, but on the other ships that take longer cruises it's more like 30 - 40% kids, and on the really long cruises like this one it's more like 10 - 20%.  Lesley and I, in our upper 50s, were probably near the median age on this cruise, with about as many people older than us as there were younger.

To see the emerald flash you need to have a very solid horizon (I've heard that it's possible to see in on the Great Plains, but typically you only see it over the ocean).  You also need to be looking right at the sun in the second or so that it's disappearing below (or coming up from) the horizon.  Now having seen this weak version at sunset I think it would be difficult to see the weak version at sunrise (too hard to be looking at exactly the right place at the right time, and too hard to differentiate the pale blue/green when you didn't have the normal color to compare it to).  But if it was the vivid green that I've heard it can be I think it might be even more impressive in a sunrise.

As to what constitutes perfect conditions, mostly I think that's very clean air.  Any clouds or even haze will prevent you from seeing it at all.  I don't know if we had just a little haze or if it was air pollution (we weren't that far downwind from Mexico when I saw it).  But it was still very cool to see.

And Lesley was out on the open deck with me the second time I saw it, but she looked away at the wrong time so she didn't see it at all.  As I said, it's only about a second long, so you really need to be paying attention to see it.

Interesting on the lake bit.  As said, I didn't realize there is a lake, much less a big river, so hadn't thought about the fresh water bit.  Nor did I realize it is gravity fed, which makes sense.  That's really a neat system.

On the number of kids, yes we were on a short cruise on the Dream, and it was probably 60 - 70% kids.  It was a blast, but mainly because we had the grands with us.  Left to our own devices we'll do the Viking cruises where the median age is maybe 65.  Not saying they are better than Disney, but Viking seems to align their excursions and on-board entertainment to our age group very well.

As for the emerald flash, I guess we've not had quite the right environment for seeing it.  But I'll watch for it.  

As I replied to Dane, cruising isn't for everyone.  But to expand on that, Disney cruising isn't the right fit for all cruisers.

However I disagree that it's an age group thing.  There are a lot of people in their 70s and 80s on Disney cruises, and the ones I've talked to mostly wouldn't consider any other line.  That's true at Walt Disney World as well.  When Lesley and I started going to Walt Disney World as empty-nesters we found that we aren't alone in that.  We see a lot of grandparents there on their own.

The thing with Disney cruises (and Walt Disney World obviously) is that they are very "Disney."  For some people that's a big plus, for some it's sort of neutral, and for some it's a big negative.  Lesley and I are definitely in that first group, and I really don't see that changing as we get older.  Nor do I see our interests changing to the point where we'd want to do a Viking cruise.  But that doesn't mean that others should feel the same (whether they are our age, older or younger).  It's just different strokes for different folks.

I should also allow for another group, people who don't see it as a big plus on their own, but do when traveling with others who do see it as a plus.  It sounds like that's the group you fall in, at least when those "others" are your grandkids.

Cool trip, and great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Having lived next to the ocean my whole life, I've spent a lot of time on boats, ships, ferries, and offshore oil platforms. A big part of the work I do is supplying equipment to marine vessels. I've never done a cruise before, and probably never will, but we have some friends that absolutely love them. Maybe we'll try one someday, but for now I'll have to live with enjoying the sights through the eyes of others;).

We did a tourist trip on the Steamboat Natchez in Louisiana a few years ago, and it took us downstream from New Orleans. I was probably more interested in watching the old engine in operation driving the big paddle wheel, but I must admit, it has got to be one of the strangest sensations in the world cruising along the water on a boat, and looking down at the streets and houses below the water line. It's just visually strange, like it's not supposed to even be like that lol.

Glad you enjoyed the trip, and great pics.

I didn’t mean that Disney is an age thing. More that Viking is. So my expectation is that Viking’s excursions are more tailored to my preferences than those done by Disney. But I don’t know if that’s true. It is just an expectation.

Anyway, I do think it is safe to say that we are in the last group - we believe Disney is the way to go when the grands are with us, and Viking is when by ourselves.

Just discovering this part of the forum!!

I have a lot of reading to do and maybe some posting.

This thread caught my attention due to the mention of “the green flash”.

My background is Astrophysics and phenomena like this are my heart and soul.

I have seen the green flash once. When I was in Maui. I think I ruined a weeks worth of sunsets for my wife unfortunately… It is a rare and wonderful sight to behold.

It was very cool to see!  Fortunately I don't think I annoyed my wife too much!  But then again, she married an engineer and has already had to come to grips with the fact that we don't think like real people!

I feel sorry for the "real people" who marry engineers, and I'm sitting next to one.  

My wife used to think it was call, back in the day dating an Astrophysicist. Now it almost annoys here.

For the record, the number of telescopes (n) one person needs needs is always n+1.

Reminds me of something I read on FTE once.  Someone had asked "why do you have three old Ford pickups?"  The response was "because I haven't bought the 4th one yet!"