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Live Journal – B2B Fort Lauderdale to Buenos Aires – Come Along For the Adventure


Jim_Iain
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Welcome all. We areoff on a new adventure and welcome you to join in all the fun. I havelearned so much from fellow CruiseCritic forums this will be my small way ofgiving back.

 

First, a little about us.

 

We live in the San Francisco Bay area and started cruisingabout 17 years ago. Over the years wehave hit all of the ships with the exception of the ships that visit Galapagos. This trip we will be sailing onInfinity.

 

Iain and I have been together for about 30 years and fell inlove with cruising after our first cruise. Having just retired we are now able to start doing B2B’s and spendingmore time away. This trip was booked in2015 and we were happy to be able to grab the same Celebrity Suite for bothcruises. Our best friends David andRobert from Sydney, Australia will be joining us on this adventure. This will be the first time that any of ushave visited South America.

 

Please feel free to jump in and send suggestions andquestions along the way. If I don’tknow the answer to a question I will do my best to find it for you.

 

The Itinerary

 

Departure: November 23, 2017 (Thanksgiving Day) 4:00 PM Fort Lauderdale

 

Arrival: December 23, 2017 Buenos Aires

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Enjoy! We did SA on the infinity in 2012 and loved it. Look forward to hearing about the Panama Canal leg.

 

Thanks. We are really looking forward to the Canal. Was there any particular area of the Canal that your enjoyed most?

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Thanks. We are really looking forward to the Canal. Was there any particular area of the Canal that your enjoyed most?

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

 

The canal is interesting but after the 3rd lock, gets a little stale. in 2014, we were on a land-based trip my husband won through a sales incentive program at work. It was when panama canal was celebrating its 100 year anniversary...we did a partial transit. The first few locks are enchanting. Can't believe this was built 100+ years ago.. the skyline in panama is quite modern and commercialized. It reminded me a bit of the skyline in dubai...smaller scale but quite interesting.

 

 

Have fun and looking forward to hearing about your fabulous trip.

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Thanks. We are really looking forward to the Canal. Was there any particular area of the Canal that your enjoyed most?

I loved anything about the day we did the full transit from Colon to Panama City. Got up early and was on the deck above the pool before dawn. We were in line to start our way to the first lock at Gatun. Lots of other ships at the ready. When you go throught locks watch the mules, the open of the lock doors, built in the early 1900's , still working today. Go to various places on the ship to watch how close you are to the sides of the lock. Once in Lake Gatun , you pass all the small islands , see the small boats and even houses & docks on the small islands. Knowing all the water you are in is fresh water that comes from the mountain and rain forests of Panama is amazing.

Go to the port of call forum and look at the Panama forum .Tthere will be some great videos of the transit so you have some idea what is in store for you. A Panama expert will be on board to give a running commentary of what you are seeing and its history.

It is a wonder of the world. Enjoy the day and celebrate with some bubbly when you exit at Panama City. :)

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Enjoy your trip.

 

 

The canal is interesting but after the 3rd lock, gets a little stale. in 2014, we were on a land-based trip my husband won through a sales incentive program at work. It was when panama canal was celebrating its 100 year anniversary...we did a partial transit. The first few locks are enchanting. Can't believe this was built 100+ years ago.. the skyline in panama is quite modern and commercialized. It reminded me a bit of the skyline in dubai...smaller scale but quite interesting.

 

 

Have fun and looking forward to hearing about your fabulous trip.

 

Sounds like fun.

 

We did a cruise a number of years ago that docked at Colon. We took the train adjacent to the canal and had about a 30 minute stop at Gatun Lock. It was interesting and was just enough to wet our whistle.

 

We did the Suez Canal in April and I can understand what you mean about it getting a little stale after 6 or 7 hours.

 

Thanks for the pointers.

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I loved anything about the day we did the full transit from Colon to Panama City. Got up early and was on the deck above the pool before dawn. We were in line to start our way to the first lock at Gatun. Lots of other ships at the ready. When you go throught locks watch the mules, the open of the lock doors, built in the early 1900's , still working today. Go to various places on the ship to watch how close you are to the sides of the lock. Once in Lake Gatun , you pass all the small islands , see the small boats and even houses & docks on the small islands. Knowing all the water you are in is fresh water that comes from the mountain and rain forests of Panama is amazing.

Go to the port of call forum and look at the Panama forum .Tthere will be some great videos of the transit so you have some idea what is in store for you. A Panama expert will be on board to give a running commentary of what you are seeing and its history.

It is a wonder of the world. Enjoy the day and celebrate with some bubbly when you exit at Panama City. :)

 

Thanks AzulAnn -

 

You are getting me excited.

 

I'm an early raiser so may just be up at dawn. I usually like to get up to the Gym before it gets really crowded.

 

What were the temperatures like for the passage? As it is so close to the equator, I'm expecting it to be hot.

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Thanks. We are really looking forward to the Canal. Was there any particular area of the Canal that your enjoyed most?

We didn't do the canal. Chile to Argentina round Cape Horn and loved all of it. Sorry for the confusion.

 

Sent from my SM-G900I using Forums mobile app

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The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough is a fascinating read on the history of the canal. It’s a big fat book (698 pages) but worth the effort. Before reading it I didn’t see what the big deal was. Now I get it. My favorite spot is the Culebra Cut.

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I will be following your posts. I am booked on the Infinity in 2018 for the Panama canal cruise. I would be interested in hearing about the ship, entertainment and dining.

Thanks

 

Glad to see you will be along for the ride. I'll post a lot of pictures of Infinity and report on her condition. We have not been on Infinity since 2006, My real disappointment is the replacement of the Specialty Dining Room for Tuscan Grill. We are not a real fan of Tuscan.

 

I was surprise to learn from the Shore Side Concierge that we have 2 free Specialty Dining room grandfathered in since we booked our Suite prior to the end of 2015.

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I’m interested to hear all about the Infinity. We will be on that ship Feb 4, 2018 for Carnivale in Rio!!

Where do you live in the Bay Area? We are in the South Bay, in Sunnyvale.

 

I'll be updating all about Infinity once aboard. How exciting to visit Rio for Carnival. That is something I would enjoy doing.

 

Crazy.. We also live in Sunnyvale, approximately Mary and Central Expressway.

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The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough is a fascinating read on the history of the canal. It’s a big fat book (698 pages) but worth the effort. Before reading it I didn’t see what the big deal was. Now I get it. My favorite spot is the Culebra Cut.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I will have to see if I can pick up a copy of the book. I'm out of time to get it on Amazon. :)

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Tuesday, November 21– Packing and getting ready for our flight tomorrow morning.

 

It’s finally time to pull out the suitcases and getting busy packing for a 6 weeks’ vacation. Where do you start? The weather will be everywhere from the 30’sto the 90’s. We decided to pack for 10days and have laundry done on the ship. Having 4 bags of free laundry on each segment (Elite+) will help with the high cost of laundry.

 

We received an e-mailfrom the shore side concierge late last week and requested a couple reservations, pillows and for them to swap our Champagne for Chardonnay. I was pleased to get a confirmation on Sunday that all had been taken care of and forwarded to Priscilla, theMichael’s Club Concierge.

Today is flying by as we are running around doing all the last minute banking, shopping and pre-arranging a Lyft for out early ride to SFO.

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So excited to follow your journey. We did a like trip in reverse Feb. 2016, 3 cruises, each 2 weeks long for a total of 6 weeks. Our trip included Antarctica. It was an amazing cruise and will be fun to relive it through you. Have a great time.

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Looking forward to following you on your cruises, we would like to do a similar trip in 2019. Thanks for taking the time to take us all with you!

 

Only recommendation I have is to book early and keep track of the prices by a site like the Fishy Site.

 

I was able to get 1 price reduction on the FLL to Santiago and on the Santiago to Buenos Aires I initially only had 1 perk and later received all 4 perks plus 3 price reductions.

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So excited to follow your journey. We did a like trip in reverse Feb. 2016, 3 cruises, each 2 weeks long for a total of 6 weeks. Our trip included Antarctica. It was an amazing cruise and will be fun to relive it through you. Have a great time.

 

Sounds like a great trip for sure. We are booked on a B2B2B next September 2018 Alaska - Transpacific - Japan Emersion.

 

I would have really liked to visit Antarctica. It is one of the places on my bucket list.

 

Finally done with all our errands and almost packed - feel free to jump in and give suggestions at any of the ports that you enjoyed.

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Onboard currently for the last two panama canal transits. Temperature about 90 F with high humidity!

 

Thanks Tommy - Are you on the next cruise also?

 

I'll make sure we have some cool clothing packed for that portion of the cruise.

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