Panama Canal 2025

PANAMA CANAL

APRIL 12-30, 2025

APRIL 12 SATURDAY

JJ and I arrived at Orlando, FL after our non-stop flight from San Diego. After a short delay while our shuttle driver figured out where we were waiting we soon met up with our fellow travelers at the Country Inn hotel in Port Canaveral. While enjoying dinner at the Fish Lips restaurant we experienced a common event for this area: a rocket launch from the Cape with the loud roar and windows rattling!

APRIL 13 SUNDAY

This morning the eight of us were off for a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. This was important to me as I remember vividly those first years of space exploration! Indeed, the Soviet Union's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957 inspired me to become an aerospace engineer. We viewed many of the historic launch sites, saw a real, unused Saturn rocket booster (for the Apollo program), and the actual CBS news building from which Walter Cronkite once kept me spellbound as he described the launches.

Today this site along with a few others in Texas and California have almost daily launches. Times they are" achanging"

APRIL 14, MONDAY

There was a StarLink satellite launch last night at midnight but we slept through it. This is a busy spaceport!

By 11:45 we were lined up to board the Caribbean Princess with the thousands of passengers and we all wanted to have lunch at the same buffet on deck 15. Eventually, we were all squared away in our staterooms and finished up the day with a good dinner at the Palm Restaurant on deck 6. We had all our dinners at this same restaurant for the whole voyage.

APRIL 15, TUESDAY

Today was our first shore excursion at Nassau, Bahamas. Since, JJ and I had been here just one year ago we decided to do nothing except for a quick walk around downtown.

APRIL 16, WEDNESDAY

Today was our first at sea day so it was a good time to explore the ship. My trusty GAIA app on my iPhone showed that we were heading towards Cuba and Haiti as we made our way towards Cartagena, Columbia.

At 10:30 am I went to deck 7 theater for a talk about our coming shore excursions. I was not impressed upon realizing the ship's excursion person did not know how to pronounce the names of the ports!

Regardless, by 3:pm we passed Cuba and at 10pm our happy hour and dinner with our "eight" was complete!

APRIL 17, THURSDAY

Second day at seat. One highlight was to turn our clocks back one hour from the EDT and later I did a walk on deck 7. This is the only deck that goes completely around the ship with 2.7 laps equal to one mile.

APRIL 18, FRIDAY

Time for our second shore excursion and this time in Cartagena, Columbia. We endured long lines of fellow passengers departing the boat and by 8am we were on our hop on hop off bus tours. At 9am Paul and I exited the bus for a walking tour of the old city. We learned that Cartagena city was founded in 1533 and was originally an island for royal class Spaniards (I think). Independence from Spain was in 1811.

Our walking guide proudly showed up photos of all the Miss Columbia beauties including one that became Miss Universe. Some of us commented upon noticing the beauties were all white girls which is not typical of the local people's complexion. The guide acknowledged that fact and pointed out that one girl was a bit tanned.

We returned to the bus tour and drove through the very modern and new areas of Cartagena with many high-rise buildings (with third world electrical wiring outside.)

Before boarding the ship, we walked through a little zoo with tiny monkeys and colorful McCaw birds and opportunities to purchase stuff.

APRIL 19 SATURDAY

Today we actually do the Panama canal! At 6am we were in the canal and noticed about 15 other ships waiting their turns to enter.

We learned that there are two canals on the Atlantic side; the older Gatun from 1914 and the newer Agua Clara of 2014. The new locks were built to accommodate modern larger ships.

By 7:45am we were in the first lock and on our way to man-made Lake Gatun which is 65 feet above sea level. We exited the third lock and sailed into Lake Gatun by about 9:45am.

The large Lake Gatun was built as part of the Panama crossing in about 1914 and connects the Atlantic and Pacific locks. There are three canals on the Pacific side; Pedro Miguel, Mira Flores and the newer Cocoli from 2016.

There are five privately operated landing ports (companies) which handle cargo loading and unloading but the canal itself is operated by the government of Panama.

Finally, at about 4pm we exited the third lock of the Cocoli canal and we were in the Pacific!

APRIL 20 EASTER SUNDAY

Last night we docked at the Fuerte Amador port which is an artificial island connected via a long causeway to the mainland and to Panama City. Once again, we were surprised to see that Panama City also has a skyline with modern high-rise condos and office buildings.

At noon we were all on our buses for a tour and learnings of the area. Here are a few high-lights from our guide:

the country of Panama runs east/west (no surprise there)
the balboa is the local currency
the location and canal make for much commerce
the main businesses are:

the canal
duty free stuff
the cross isthmus railroad
the ports that service the canal docks

the Tarjitos/Carter treaty of 1977 turned the canal over to the Panamanians
Panama has no military but does have a well paid police force
the modern high-rise buildings were mostly built within the past 20 years

At 1:30 some of us did a brief walking tour of old colonial Panama city and by 4pm we were back on the ship and ready for happy hour and then dinner in the Palm Dinning restaurant.

APRIL 21 MONDAY

This was another at sea day. Highlights included turning our clocks back another hour, spotting a water spout and Lowry's learning that a helicopter trip in Costa Rica cost $4500 for a half hour. Forget it!!

APRIL 22 TUESDAY

In the morning we found ourselves in Costa Rica and some of us had an early 8am start for a long bus tour towards the Arenal volcano and some hot springs. During our 2.5 hour ride our guide, Jonathan, provided local information some of which might be correct. Here is a summary:

there are nine active volcanos
last lava eruption in 1850?
not much pineapple exporting
coffee is a big deal and workers are mostly from Nicaragua
5 million population with good government services
DunkinDonuts buys lots of their coffee
the president is Rodigo Chavez
there is a three term limit but there is a 4 year break between terms
Jonathan pays about 10% of income in taxes and receives a pension and health benefis
lots of stuff I did not hear well

By 12:45 we arrived at the hot springs for some very nice soaks and then lunch.

After 6 hours of bus riding through some 3rd world surroundings, central mountains with steep hills and lush, green jungles we returned to the ship. Due to the clouds and rain, we never saw the Arenal volcano, but it must be somewhere north of the capital city of San Jose.

APRIL 23 AND 24

We had two full days at sea as our ship headed north in the Pacific and towards our next shore excursions in Mexico.

APRIL 25 FRIDAY

At 8:15 we were ready to go ashore for our excursion in Huatulco, Oaxaca Mexico. This was my first visit to the Mexican state of Oaxaca. We all did the best of Huatulco bus tour which started with a long hot walk from the ship to the buses. Here are a few highlights from our guide:

Huatulco means "place of the wooden cross". I did not understand how this name came about.
there are 9 bays and 36 beaches here and no sewage goes to the sea
there are 8-10 hurricanes per year but generally no damage
the modern hotels and building started construction in about 1980 and today there are 2500 five star hotel rooms.
the English pirates, Drake and Cavendish, visited here and did stuff about which I could not hear.

At 10am we did a walk to an art shop for the opportunity to see and buy some of the arts and crafts for which Oaxaca is well known. By 11am we visited a church with the world's largest portrait (on the ceiling) of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Finally, at 2:30 we were back on the ship and our shore excursion was concluded.

APRIL 26 SATURDAY

Another at sea day with a chance to walk around in much cooler weather as we cruised about 100 miles off the west coast of Mexico.

APRIL 27 SUNDAY

Today, at Puerto Vallarta, MX, we had our last shore excursion. We did the country side and tequila tasting bus tour. The now familiar sight of modern high rise condos and businesses greeted us. At the tequila tasting, hosted by Hacienda Dona Engracia we learned how to turn a blue agave plant into tequila and then we tasted a variety of flavors.

Our tour did include a drive through the older parts of the city with cobblestone streets and beachfront statues. This was the part that some of us recalled from long ago visits.

APRIL 28, 29 MONDAY TUESDAY

Well, we are approaching the end of our cruise with two final days at sea as we head to Los Angeles. Now it is quite chilly on the decks with lots of wind.

APRIL 30 WEDNESDAY

OK, this is disembarkation day and we all decided to drag our luggage off the ship and to the ground transportation locations. The ship will continue to sail north and eventually reach Alaska with a stop in Vancouver. There were a lot of Canadian citizens onboard and Vancouver was their destination.

By about 9am we were loaded on our shuttle van, previously arranged by Don (thanks), and off to San Diego areas!

This excellent adventure was over!

THE END