Panama Canal Cruise - October 1-16, 2011

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We finally did the Panama Canal Cruise we have talked about for the last few years.

On October 1, 2011, we boarded the Norwegian Star in Los Angeles. The ship pulled away from the dock about 5:00 PM and we were on our way to the Panama Canal.

We met some very interesting people on the cruise. There were three couples with whom we spent some time and who really added to the enjoyment of the cruise.

Aileen & Neil (picture) are the first couple we met. They are from England and spending time with them is always a pleasure. We met them at dinner the first night of the cruise then saw them frequently after that sharing meals and sitting together at shows. Sharing experiences we each had at the ports where we stopped was great, but even better was the interesting stories they told us about their travels. Read the story about Neil's elephant interaction.
Ruth & Jim (picture) is a couple we met at dinner the third night of the cruise. They are an interesting couple from the Midwestern US. We shared several meals with them and occasionally met them as we wandered around on the ship. They have visited many other countries and shared interesting data about the places where they have traveled.
Julia & Jamison is a couple we met at lunch one day. They are a young couple that were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. We had a few opportunities to talk with them, but not nearly as much as we would have liked. They had traveled to Alaska to meet some friends to bike (manual bikes not motorcycles) around the state. After biking throughout Alaska they made their way to British Columbia then took a ferry to Seattle. They started biking to Los Angeles with the intention of flying home from LA. Part way to LA they decided to check if there was a cruise that would take them to Florida. They signed up for the cruise and shipped their camping gear home. They are physical therapists, so as well as sharing travel stories Ernie had the opportunity to talk with them about exercising.
It was a pleasure being able to share our Christian beliefs with Aileen & Neil and Ruth & Jim as they are counted amongst our Christian brothers & sisters.

Cruise Itinerary (click on a day to jump to the story for that day.)
   Day 1 - Boarding & Departure
   Day 2 - At Sea
   Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
   Day 4 - At Sea
   Day 5 - Acapulco, Mexico
   Day 6 - Huatulco, Mexico
   Day 7 - Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
   Day 8 - At Sea
   Day 9 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica
   Day 10 - At Sea
   Day 11 - Panama Canal
   Day 12 - Cartagena, Columbia
   Days 13 & 14 - At Sea
   Day 15 - Key West, FL
   Day 16 - Tampa, FL

Day 1 - Boarding & Departure
The ship pulled away from the dock in LA about 5:00PM. We were about an hour late because they had ordered enough food to ensure it would last the full 2 weeks and it took longer to load the food onto the ship than expected. We ate lunch at windows that overlooked the pier where they were loading the food. There must have been 4 or 5 trailer loads of cartons of food on the dock. We met Aileen & Neil at supper.
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Day 2 - At Sea
The first full day was a day at sea. We spent the day relaxing and enjoying some of the ships amenities and activities. There was a really good show that night featuring songs from the late sixties and early seventies. We ate supper at "Endless Summer" the ship's Mexican restaurant.
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Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The ship set anchor in the bay at Cabo San Lucas and passengers were brought ashore by tender. Before leaving for the cruise, we had discussed some of the ports at which the ship would be stopping with our daughter Jeannine and her husband David who had been to these ports. We decided that we did not need to pay the exorbitant ship excursion price, that we would hire a water taxi to take us to Lovers Beach. Upon reaching shore and going through the secure area we immediately located a place to hire a water taxi. There were other people that were in the same taxi who paid for a tour of the bay and some to also rent snorkel equipment. We just paid $10.00 per person for the ride to Lovers Beach, but we got the complete tour of the bay and the end of the peninsula before being dropped off at the beach. We had a wonderful time at the beach and the taxi returned right on time to bring us back. At the gangway to get off the ship they were selling liter bottles of water for $4.50, we decided we could find it cheaper on shore. We asked the person arranging the taxi ride where we could buy some water, he took us to OXXO saying it was like a 7-11. The price on the shelf was $8.00 (Mexico uses the $ to represent pesoes), in US money a liter bottle costs 86¢. The show that night was a really funny comedian-ventriloquist named Michael Ziegfeld. We met Ruth & Jim at Supper. (Pictures)
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Day 4 - At Sea
Another relaxing day at sea. We decided not to go to the show that night.
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Day 5 - Acapulco, Mexico
The ship docked in Acapulco. We went on the "Baby Turtle & City Drive" excursion. We boarded a bus and enjoyed a tour of the city and country side. The tour guide was very informative & funny, though he occasionally made derogatory comments about the Mexican government that we thought unnecessary. We stopped at a few locations that overlook the bay, but though the scenery was beautiful and clearly seen by eye it was a little to hazy to get good pictures with our camera. We arrived at the baby sea turtle rescue location, listened to a talk about the turtles, and released baby turtles into the sea. The person running this place has a degree in marine life. Sea turtles come ashore dig a hole 12-14 inches deep, lay eggs in the hole, cover the hole and return to the sea. When the babies hatch they make their way to the sea. The turtle eggs and baby turtles are eaten by many predators including sea gulls and dogs. To help ensure more babies make it into the sea he has enlisted a few friends and they ride the beaches every night watching for turtles laying eggs. After the turtles return to the sea they dig up the eggs and put them in similar holes in a protected area on his property. When the babies hatch they are put into plastic pools for a couple of days then released into the sea. They only keep them for a couple of days so that they do not starve, they do not feed the babies so that the babies will go into the sea and not try to return to where they will be fed. To help finance this effort and make a living they provide the opportunity for tourists to release babies into the sea. After listening to the talk about sea turtles we were all given a turtle to release. We lined up about 10 feet from the water then put the turtles on the sand at the same time to have a race to the water. We thought this was great, especially Ernie who loves having contact with God's creations with which he has never had contact. On the way back we stopped in a store where Ernie bought a pewter sea turtle for his animal collection. An interesting feature of the store was that after letting us in they closed and locked the doors then someone standing at the door would let people out. This was done for safety purposes and so we were not pestered by the locals. On the bus ride the tour guide mentioned that some restaurants served iguana and armadillo, Ernie decided to see if he could find a place to get some. After returning to the dock Ernie headed off, but only got about 100 feet and had already been pestered by 5 people who wanted to give him a ride or in one case be walked to a restaurant. He did not ask how much for a ride, but the person who was going to walk him to the restaurant wanted $10. Ernie decided it was not worth the hassle and returned to the ship. There was a show in the afternoon featuring Acapulco's "Antonio Rameriz Mexican Folkorico Festival" that was really good. That night there was another good show "Oh, What A Night! Tribute to Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons". We really enjoyed the show, the songs were performed extremely well. (Pictures)
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Day 6 - Huatulco, Mexico
The ship docked in Huatulco (wah-TOOL-co). We went on the "Mexican Dance & Colours Folklore" excursion. We boarded the bus, went about 1.5 blocks, made a U-turn, and pulled up in front of the hotel where the show was being performed. The show consisted of slide shows and dance demonstrations. Each slide show showed one of the Mexican states and was followed by a demonstration of dances done in that state. The dance part of the show was performed by a young (teens to mid-twenties) dance team. Dale had the opportunity to pose for pictures with some of the dancers. The show was very entertaining. After the show there were snacks available consisting of breads and cheeses from the area and grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were dried and crumbled, Dale did not try the grasshoppers, but Ernie ate about a tablespoon of them. They did not have much flavor of their own and were heavily salted. When we returned we wandered around the pier area where Ernie got to hold a fairly large iguana. We had supper at "Le Bistro" the ship's French restaurant. The show that night was great. It was a performance of skits and improvisation by "The Second City". "The Second City" is where many well known comedians got there start including most of the cast of "Saturday Night Live" and many of the regulars on "Who's Line Is It Anyway?". (Pictures)
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Day 7 - Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
The ship docked in Puerto Quetzal. We had seen an excursion that we were interested in doing, but we mistakenly thought we had a day at sea before getting there. When we went to sign up for the excursion it was already sold out. We decided to see what was right off the ship and just wander around. There was a large marketplace at the pier. We wandered around the market place buying a mask for one of our daughters-in-law, a t-shirt for one of our daughters, a couple of hand-made bookmarks, a hand-embroidered dress for Dale, and a shirt for Ernie. The marketplace was a group of shops off a winding walkway, at the edge of this was a portable booth a little ways off the walkway. We read the sign at the edge of the sidewalk and decided to check it out. They were selling tortillas. For $6.00 each we each got 3 black bean filled tortillas, a glass of rice milk, and a Guatemala cloth shopping bag. Some of the money we paid went to "Children's International". We were back on the ship for lunch where we met Julia & Jamison. Since most people wanted to get ashore early for their excursions and were off ship until mid-afternoon we had the health club in the morning and pool area after lunch pretty much to ourselves. That night's show, "Shout! The Mod Musical", was really entertaining. Five of the young ladies from the ship's show cast performed songs that made England swing during the 1960's. (Pictures)
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Day 8 - At Sea
Another relaxing day at sea. That evenings show was "Fourever". The description of the group in the daily event listing was 'Fourever was formed two years ago with the intention of doing a faithful tribute to the famous group "Il Divo".' According to Wikipedia: '"Il Divo" is a group of four male singers: Spanish baritone Carlos Marín, Swiss tenor Urs Bühler, American tenor David Miller, and French pop singer Sébastien Izambard', who are an operatic pop group. They sang several songs, some from other countries, but mostly pop songs popular in the USA. Some songs were sung in English, but many were sung in other languages such as Italian and Spanish. The four singers were each from a different place; Uruguay, Cuba, Mallorca, and the Canary Islands. That evening we ate supper at "Ginza", the ship's Asian restaurant.
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Day 9 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica
The ship docked in Puntarenas. We went on the "2^ND Pacific Train, Boat & Bus Adventure" excursion. The excursion started with a bus tour of the city and countryside. We then boarded a train. The train went through some back country where we passed beautiful scenery, farms & ranches, some average houses, and some very poor living conditions. The train stopped at one point so we could enjoy watching some monkeys. The farms were lush with vegetables & fruit. The ranches had horses and cattle that appeared to be well-fed, healthy animals. For environmental reasons they have fence posts that are living trees some cut off at a height of 4-5 feet and some just had lower banches trimmed off, we could see new growth starting on many of the tree-posts. Many of the houses we saw were similar to what you might see in a rural area of southern USA, but some were barely shacks built of scrap material, mostly corrugated metal sheets. At the end of the train ride we boarded the bus and went to where we would take a boat ride. The boat ride was on a river that had a lot of crocodiles. We saw quite a few crocodiles, many birds, and some fish & turtles. The tour guide was very knowledgable, friendly, funny, and had a positive attitude about Costa Rica. This is the second time we have stopped in Costa Rica, this time on the Pacific side the first time was on the Carribean side, both times we had very enjoyable excursions with guides that helped make the excursion so enjoyable. That evening we ate at "La Cucina" the ship's Italian restaurant. The show that night was a pair of jugglers,"Team Rootberry" (Jonathan Root and Bill Berry). They were very entertaining doing some juggling feats that were new to us. Their show included sword swallowing. (Pictures)
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Day 10 - At Sea
A day at sea meant relaxing and enjoying the ships amenities. That evenings show was a really good magician, Craig Christian.
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Day 11 - Panama Canal
The ship cruised through the Panama Canal. We got up and had breakfast fairly early and were lucky enough to get a spot near the railing in the bow of the ship on one of the upper decks. The ship was traveling really slowly for at least a few miles before entering the first lock so we enjoyed a good look at Panama City. The first set of locks (Miraflores Locks) we went through has 2 locks, each lock raises the ship 27 feet. After cruising through Miraflores Lake we went through a single lock (Pedro Miguel Locks) which raised the ship another 31 feet. We then cruised through the canal into Lake Gatún. It took a few hours to cruise through Lake Gatún during which time a ranger came aboard to give a presentation about the canal and to answer questions. It was a very interesting presentation. The two most impressive facts about the canal are:

The canal has needed no adjusts, it has been operating 24/7 since it opened in 1914
The canal has only been closed down twice, each time for 1 day

December 20 1989, when U.S. troops invaded the country to topple President Manuel Noriega.
December 09, 2010, due to flooding caused by unusually large rain fall.

The passage of the ship cost over $419,000. The cost for a cruise ship is determined by the number of berths on the ship, one rate for occupied berths and a different rate for unoccupied berths. Other passages are based on things like tonnage, the least expensive passage was $0.37 for the only person to swim through the canal.
Once we finished cruising through the lake we reached the Gatún Locks. This is a set of three locks together that lowered the ship the 85 feet it was raised at the beginning. Passing through the last lock brought us into the Atlantic Ocean. There are new locks being built to allow larger ships to pass through the canal, the Star's width is the largest allowed through the current locks with just two feet of clearance on each side. To keep the ship straight in the locks, "Mules" are used. These are not the animals that were used to pull boats through locks on small older canals, they are train engines. The Mules do not pull the ship through the canal they keep taut lines on either side of the ship to keep the ship straight. Most ships go through the locks under their own power, but some are assisted through the canal by tugboats.
That evening's entertainment was an encore by "Fourever". Though Ernie recognized their talent, listening to their type of music does not give him the enjoyment he gets from listening to other types of music. Luckily we had supper with Ruth & Jim, both Ruth & Dale were really interested in seeing the show so they went to the show. Jim turned in early and Ernie went to the ship's atrium to listen to the "Melodic Trio". (Pictures)
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Day 12 - Cartagena, Columbia
The ship docked at Cartagena. We did not see any excursions of interest to us. We had a bad experience at Cartagena the other time we had docked there, so we decided to remain on board for the day. It was a great day of relaxation as we were sharing the ship with only a few other passengers so it was like having our own private ship. The show that evening was comedy hypnotist Dr. Scott Lewis. Neither of us is interested in this type of entertainment so after supper we sat in the atrium and listened to the "Melodic Trio" then went to the "Country Hoe Down" in one of the lounges. Dale took some pictures from the ship.
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Days 13 & 14 - At Sea
Two days at sea to relax and enjoy the ships amenities. The show on day 13 was "Angels", aerialists Jérémie Lamourez & Eléonore Pagnard performed an amazing show of aerial acrobatics. The show on day 14 was mandolin virtuoso Radim Zenki, neither of us was very interested in this show so we spent the evening listening to the "Melodic Trio". Day 14 we had lunch at "La Cucina" where they had a special meal at which we could get featured dishes from any of the ship's specialty restaurants. There were so many good dishes we had a hard time deciding which we wanted and this is the one meal where we both definitely over ate. For supper that night we ate at "Cagney's" the ship's steak house.
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Day 15 - Key West, FL
The ship docked at Key West. It was raining, but had stopped when we first de-boarded the ship. We took a trolley tour that had stops where we could get off and back onto a later trolley. The trolley driver was very informative. When the trolley stopped at the butterfly conservatory we got off and visited the conservatory for a couple of hours. When we left the conservatory it was pouring, luckily we had rain ponchos with us and when we got to the trolley stop there was an overhanging roof to wait under. When we got back to the area where the ship was docked we found a place for Dale to have a slice of her favorite dessert Key Lime pie, she says it is the best Key Lime pie she has ever had. That night's show was a combination of several of the performers who had put on shows during the cruise, it was a really entertaining show. (Pictures)
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Day 16 - Tampa, FL
The ship docked in Tampa. We had a leisurely breakfast then an easy passage through customs. We boarded the shuttle to the airport where we rented a car to continue our vacation in Florida & Georgia.
This was the most enjoyable cruise we have had and that is saying a lot since we really love cruising and have always had a great time on all our cruises. We made it to the health club 4 days each week of the cruise, went dancing a few times, used the pools, relaxed a lot, and attended some of the day time activities. As mentioned at the top, what made the trip really special were the people we met and with whom we spent extremely enjoyable time. We know it is difficult over long distances, but we pray that we will be able to maintain friendship with these people.
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