Going through the canal was fabulous, I thought there was much more to see than the Panama canal and quite a different experience because there are no locks.
It took around 12 hours, when we went to bed around midnight we had stopped and were waiting with several other ships for the journey to begin. I think we entered the canal in the early hours, we got up around 7 and had just gone under the big bridge. We had an aft balcony so we had breakfast out there with a great view. The cultivated land and towns are all on one side for most of the way, the other side is just empty dessert.
We were in Concierge class and had an invite to the helipad around 10am, while we were up there we came into a big lake with a large town/city right up to the shore. Unfortunately there was no commentary which we had been expecting (someone told us that they has made an announcement early on that this was for security reasons). It would have been nice to know exactly what we were seeing, if we do it again I think I'd get a good detailed map beforehand to take.
We could see the ships ahead and behind us in the convoy, and sometimes on the narrow parts there were small local fishing boats right by us (it looked a bit dangerous for them but I guess they are used to it). At one point there was a little car ferry that timed its trip across between us and the ship behind us.
It was a really interesting 'sea' day and something we'd love to do again,
Julie
Which side of the ship is built up and which is the desert? Would you recommend a balcony cabin, as we usually go for inside?
Just back from Constellation repositioning Rome to Abu Dhabi
in Celebrity Cruises
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Which side of the ship is built up and which is the desert? Would you recommend a balcony cabin, as we usually go for inside?