IWantToLiveOverTheSea

2005 white lighthouse......

Thank you everyone. I never expected to get so much response to my questions about the lighthouses. But I'm determined to see every one I can on my next cruise. I saw a color coded (black, red, green) diagram of lighthouses on a nautical site, but didn't save it, so now I'll have to go back and search for it. And I found the webcam on the canal yesterday and watched as a container ship went through one of the (I think) locks near the Caribbean side. And now I'm going back to see if that now-black lighthouse was white in my pictures from my previous trip through the canal. I'm pretty sure it was....

It's ok. I've seen over 600 lighthouses, so I've already figured out what range lights are. And we have a few pairs in the Chesapeake Bay, too. So you can get technical if you like!

We're going from the Caribbean side (Gatun Lake) to the Pacific. I'd love to get a quick summary of just how a Panama Canal journey by cruise ship works. For example: Are cruise ships given a likely time to report to the Canal starting point for their journey? I'm wondering if I'll need to get up early on our "daytime transit" day. And we're on what I would call a medium sized cruise ship (if that matters). Are we likely to go through the new canal or old, or is that anyone's guess? Are the 2 canals pretty close to each other? Does a cruise line normally have someone on board who narrates what's being seen? How long might passage take, and are some areas of the passage faster than others? We are scheduled to arrive Panama City by 8 PM, with the ship staying overnight. Are any parts of the passage more scenic than others? Does anyone know how many lighthouses there are on the passage, non-functional or not? And can anyone give me a link to good articles/blogs, or photos?

Thanks for letting me know. However, I'm not really maintaining this list. I only update after I cruise. But you can copy the last list you find on this thread to a new post, add a notation about Ketchikan, and save it.

We are to do a daytime transit throught the Canal on Oceania after visiting Costa Rica. The next day we will be in Panama City tentively until 6 PM, with a day at sea the next day, to go to Peru. There is no port listed for the day in Panama City. Would anyone be willing to guess whether we will be visiting Panama City from the newish cruise terminal in Fuerta Amador or someone else? And would we likely tender? Our itineray doesn't indicate that, but I saw an old port review that stated tendering was involved.

I think someone on this thread or another asked me for contact info on the driver I used in Saigon. If it was you, could you please ask again? I didn't answer right away (sorry!) and now I'm having trouble finding the request. Also, if anyone is going to Singapore and wants a guide, we thought the one Oceania used for some of its pre-cruise extension tours was great. I can provide info on that guide. I think he guides for both groups and private individuals.

$30 probably was too much. I'm just not into bargaining much, so I took the easy way out. And if I had bargained with some of the folks closer to the port, I imagine I could have gotten a better price compared to deciding to use a tuk when I got to the park. I didn't really look for things to do in Manila, as I had been a little afraid of the traffic, and and the fact that it was Saturday, and right before Lunar New Year (people EVERYWHERE all throughout SE Asia). I had considered walking to the river to take a boat up (or down?) the river from Intramuros just for something different. But then I read the closest stop was not open due to renovation or whatever. And I considered the American Cemetery (with my spouse), Bamboo Organ, and Imelda shoes at the museum cross town, but never made it. I also considered walking south from the port to the waterfront to see what was there (some kind of promenade). And I knew there was a jitney bus that came near the port, but wasn't feeling very adventuresome that day.....so I just decided to take it pretty easy that day.

I'm about to sign up for a cruise that goes to Manta. So if anyone has more recent comments, I'd love to hear them! Thanks.

We were in Manila last month on a Saturday on Oceania Riviera, and docked where you anticipate docking. Before my cruise, I looked at Marine Traffic when I knew a ship was scheduled to dock in Manila, and the 3 or 4 I saw all docked there. (It's the Eva M cruise terminal, Berth 15 in South Harbour). I walked out of the terminal intending to go to Intramuros (old city). I had a map excerpt, plus I had my phone with me, pre-loaded with Philippines maps. But I didn't want to look like a tourist (which is stupid, because it's so easy to look like a tourist when you get off a cruise ship) so I didn't use a map. I ended up at one edge of Rizal Park, which I had also wanted to see, so it was OK. But then I decided I would prefer to see a bit of Intramuros, and was afraid it was too far to walk from where I was. There were tuk tuk drivers at the park, so I asked for an hour or so tour of Intramuros. The person wanted more but settled for $30 and took me around there, stopping at the cathedral and fort so I could visit each for a short while. He took me back to the port entrance, with a very short walk to the port terminal. In very early February the weather was not all that hot/humid, at least in my opinion -- and especially compared to Singapore, where my adventure started. The traffic was also not as bad as I had anticipated. I ended up going back out that afternoon on the shuttle to a mall, and walking a bit more in the city - not bad. And while there were lots of assertive vendors in the city once you left the gated port area, I felt safe everywhere. I just had to ignore politely and say no thank you a lot. Early on, one kalesa (carriage) driver followed me on the street for three or four blocks, trying to convince me to go with him. But I wasn't looking for a ride at that time. He tried hard but was not threatening in any way. I'm not sure how long it took to walk from the ship to one side of Rizal Park, but I'm thinking maybe 15 minutes or so. To Intramuros it would be more, however. There were no taxis or tuks at the port terminal itself, but plenty of eager vendors outside on the streets. There were also lots of people who I believe might have been waiting for crew members to come that way. Our ship had 100 people either going home after completing their contracts or being allowed to visit people for a few hours outside the port. Other info: The tuk driver accepted USD; I imagine many others do in the Philippines. There were vendors in the port terminal selling reasonably-nice souvenirs (accepting both USD & P pesos). Manila was certainly not my favorite port on this cruise, but it was really nice to be able to just walk off the ship and find things to do and see. Many SE Asia ports are not like that. I didn't take a lot of pictures but they are here if you'd like to look (no sign in needed):https://pbase.com/roothy123/manila_for_a_day_feb_2024&page=all

Wow, thank you. That's great info. I'm not going to Japan, but it's on my bucket list, so I copied the links to my packing list in case I go sometime in the future.

The brochure I got has prices in red or black for each stateroom/suite category listed for each cruise. For a few cruises, the French Veranda for Vista is priced higher than the veranda stateroom. Is this (possibly) because a lot of people are interested in trying this new type of stateroom? And there are a few places where the price of an inside stateroom on ships other than Vista is actually than a veranda room. I've never seen that before, and I've never really known Oceania to lower prices. But it's a new game out there, so anything's possible. But in any case, I'm now wondering what that red color means. The cruises in this brochure are all European cruises ones coming up soon. The outside cover says select sailings are 40% off, and offer expires March 31, but I don't know if that has any relevance to the pricing structure. And I didn't read the fine print or scan the QR code, so I suppose it might be explained somewhere. Does anyone know more?

Blogs are always helpful. And whatsinport gives very basic info on where ports are located. But Tom's guides, while they didn't cover the whole world, were the best.

I think this is the Boston guide. Obviously it's old, but may still be helpful. I went to Wayback Machine, played around, and found a link to Tom's home page. I tried something there other than the "Guides" tab, and found something which Tom had written about New England/Canada ports in general. My pc shows the url for Boston as https://web.archive.org/web/20211110152131/https://www.tomsportguides.com/uploads/5/8/5/4/58547429/boston-04-21-2013.pdf Good luck. I'll see if I can find more. Edit: Sorry. I guess Boston is reachable from the "Yumm" link above that was posted by Lyn (?? maybe). And I looked at that site and there are one or two other New England or Canada guides there too. If anyone is looking for Asia (which Tom never covered) I found a link to a site that has some guides. There aren't that many cities represented, or in as much detail as Tom's, but at least it's a start. And I think the person was working on more when I looked last year.

Hi achalker21. When we were there last year (after I posted the info above), our ship (Oceania Sirena) cruised the river and tied up in the city. We had about 3 hours in LeVerdon, but it was just a stop due to tides with nobody getting off. In Bordeaux, we tied up on the river, right in the heart of Verdon, and were there for the rest of the day and I think until mid-day or late afternoon the next. People were free to go off the ship, and there was a tram that went up and down the river that was convenient for people wanting to go farther than just the immediate area. I walked about and had a great time. There was maybe a 3 minute walk from the ship to where you could get outside a little barricade where the ship was (for security). Then once out, you walked another minute or two to get to the large buildings along the waterfront. I know there was a tourist info center up that way, but I didn't try to find it when there. I just walked around. The famous wine museum Cite du Vin was a very short tram ride away or you could just walk maybe 10 minutes. I took a little boat back that I found behind the museum. But of course, this my experience was on a smallish ship, and NCL's are pretty big. So your experience may be different. But I think one of Oceania's larger ships (Marina or Riviera) had already been to that same spot on the river before us, so at least it's apparently doable by more than just the ship I was on. But if a ship can't, I suppose they might offer an excursion that's just transportation, leaving 4 hours or whatever in a city to do as you want on your own. Oceania sometimes does that when the port is quite a ways from the city of interest. So that might be an option if NCL can't tie up on the river. https://pbase.com/roothy123/bordeaux__le_verdon_france&page=all is a link to photos I took. The pictures and captions may give you an idea of what's within walking distance of where we were assigned to tie up. And there are a few more here: https://pbase.com/roothy123/bordeaux__le_verdon__more&page=all