twangster

Starting to feel real. It's a 15 night cruise... I wonder how many bought the DX? 🙂 $1,593 each. In fairness it was $62 not long ago, so only $1,100 per person.

If I recall both old and new locks use the power of gravity to do the heavy lifting while the new locks have additioanl resevoirs that are there to reduce water waste. Being larger lock chambers the new locks hold more water so there is more water to move potentially depending on the ship and how low it is riding. However being new and modern their plumbing and ability to move water may be more efficeint. The new locks have to acheive the same lift and drop to reach the lake in the middle compared to the old locks. Gatun Lake and Culebra cut, the waterways that are used to cross Panama are the same and used by all ships large or small. The only difference are the locks at each end. The old locks have an extra small "lake" in between two sets of locks on the Pacific side while the new locks have all 3 sets of locks togther. This may make them slightly more efficeint in terms of timing but ships are staggered and have to all fall in line to cross the lake in the middle so timing and speeds are carefully controlled. There aren't many places where ships going the same drection could pass each other. So I'm not sure if the new locks make for a faster overall transit. I'll try to remeber to ask.

Pictures shall be coming! (if Starlink internet lets me). Last time I had some cell coverage in places along the canal, especially near the ends where there is population. I think cell coverage was light in the middle, but at any rate I will be taking pictures!

Larger ships can't take the old locks. The new locks were added so that larger ships could use the canal. It isn't a lock problem really, it's the depth of water in between the locks on the Atlantic and Pacific - the waterways in the middle. When the lake levels fall they implement draft restrictions so deep ships don't run aground. Personally I prefer the old locks. Watching the mules in operation and being eye level with them is the best part. The new locks are new but lack the charm of the old locks.

That worked out well for Southwest.

Key West can only accomondate up to medium sized ships. For Royal that means Vision and Radiance class only. Voyager class and above can't visit KW. They tried a Voyager class once and determined it was too tight so they haven't taken one back since. There are some limited Vision class visits from Tampa. Grandeur and Enchantment for example on select dates but not the dates you are looking for. Try Celebrity.

Buy now and if it drops cancel and re-purchase. OBC used to make purchases in CP will be refunded immediately and available for re-use.

Once Pinnacle you don't need to manually enter DP340. No idea why, but D+ have to enter it every. single. time. This may be one of the biggest unpublished Pinnacle perks. I can't tell you how many times I have entered DP340 before that.

New to me: 18+ , sorry kids.

Labadee has a pickleball court now.

Apparently Bayley just slipped, or almost slipped, or fake slipped, on a call He (somewhat intentionally) started to state "Utopia is going into the short..." Then he stopped himself.

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/panama-canal-reduces-the-maximum-depth-limit-on-vessels-due-to-drought/ Drought forces the Panama Canal to change the maximum allowed draft for neo-Panamax vessels. This shouldn't impact Radiance as it applies only to the largest ships using the new locks but it is interesting to see even rain soaked Panama is expereincing drought. Maybe that means less chance of rain for us. 🙂

Does it show a fake handrail in the day? That snow could be the camera gain going up in the dark. If so that's common. When you first said snow I pictured the classic snow from analog TV days of old. At daybreak or after sunset does the snow gradually change to or from a picture of the outside?

Mine have always been black with the superimposed handrail at night.

Try an aft cabin on Quantum class. The mid-ship elevators are a hiking excursion you can book in the cruise planner. With the suite lounge located way back there and Star class way back there on a different deck it makes for a very long walk for Star guests. But it is great for the step count. Radiance class aft cabins never bothered me. The ship is small.

In other news, Southwest had a mini meltdown yesteday and asked the FAA to groundstop themselves across the US. I'm flying Southwet tomorrow. What was I thinking? Ugh.

Interesting. The once daily doesn't bother me. I'll often tell my attendant to just do evenings.

Makes me wonder if it was a Royal executive who was "found". Revenue mgmt isn't in the habit of soliciting guests especially when a cabin is booked. How exactly did they find someone willing to pay more? I believe it happened but I don't buy that revenue mgmt somehow found someone willing to pay more. I think it's more likely a Royal executive wanted the cabin and told revenue mgmt to deal with it.

Stateroom request form is new to me.

It's starting to get real...

And then there were three...

Voyager class has always been a sweet spot for me. Great size, good mix of stuff. The amplifications made a huge difference.

Another interior cabin popped open in my category so I've moved from a connecting interior cabin to a non-connecting interior. Nothing personal whomever used to be connecting to me, but I'm truly on my own now. 🙂

Move to Florida they said. Cruise all the time they said. Now I have to fly out of Florida to find cruise deals.

The rate at which work is progressing this week: