Jewel ~ S. Caribbean and Panama Canal ~ April 25th & May 2nd ~ My Diary

[maxs mom]

Of course it was raining.....as it always does here.

 

 

A few more:

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We sat on our balcony and watched for a while:

 

 

We came out into Lake Gatun and then cruised along in the canal for a while. It was very beautiful. We went up to the CL and had a nice view from there.

 

 

 

We went back to our balcony after our cabin was cleaned for some more viewing.

 

 

Soon we came to the Mira Flores Bridge:

 

 

[maxs mom]

 

 

 

Another bridge and some tourists: (We were on their tour!!)

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Here's another bridge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Lunch was in the WJ today. Afterwards we walked around on Deck 11 for a while as we were going through the second set of locks. This was right after the bridge.

 

 

 

 

Everyone was enjoying this!!

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

We then went down to Deck 5 to get another vantage point. Wow! Was this different!

 

 

 

The helipad was busy!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2015 by max'smom

[CRUISEMAMI]

Beautiful pics: bring back lots of memories!

We did the Gatun looks, at least 20 times with the BR! We loved it: every time was kind of different! Miss doing it!

Thanks for the pics and this great review!!!

This is one of those time: from the Bridge on BR.....we were guests of Captain Remo and his wife, Tove!

Edited June 1, 2015 by CRUISEMAMI

[CRUISEMAMI]

Haha..... It should read LOCKS, not looks!

That automated speller :(

[Dick and Jane]

I love the images in posts 125 and 126. They have such an artistic look to them. You should tell everyone you meant to do that.

[Dick and Jane]

Hi Dick and Jane!

 

 

Always nice to get a shout out from fellow cruisers!

[Dick and Jane]

I assure you......a lot of research and trial and error have gone into our selections. You won't be disappointed. It would be even better if we could go with you as your personal guides!! :D

 

 

We would love to meet up with you on a future cruise! By the way, I've never had a personal guide before.

[pinkroses]

Jane,

Enjoying your review! We are headed to San Juan in November to cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. One question for you, why do you prefer the Hampton Inn over Embassy Suites? Thanks!

[maxs mom]

Jane,

Enjoying your review! We are headed to San Juan in November to cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. One question for you, why do you prefer the Hampton Inn over Embassy Suites? Thanks!

 

Well......the Embassy Suites is so big and soooo crowded. We've stayed there many times and it's been fine. It's not so crowded in September, but other times when we've stayed there, we've had to stand in such long lines for breakfast.....had a hard time getting a seat at the cocktail party, etc. At the HI......it was just a little nicer......a lot less crowded. The cocktail hour was out by the pool....so relaxed....comfortable seating. When it was over we just moseyed over to the grill, which was also by the pool, and had dinner. Not crowded....just a nice evening. The place isn't anything luxurious or fancy. I just liked it. When we were ready to leave in the morning.....there weren't crowds of people all over the lobby......we just walked right out and got a taxi right away. No muss....no fuss. We'll definitely check out staying there again if the price is right.

[maxs mom]

We would love to meet up with you on a future cruise! By the way, I've never had a personal guide before.

 

I would be glad to be your personal guide any time!!!

[Nannyof2]

We spent the rest of the day doing "at sea" stuff like looking at pictures and picking out what we wanted. Which reminds me......I forgot to post this picture back on the Dominica page..........getting off the ship

 

Another favorite "at sea" activity for me is to stroll around outside on Deck 5. This is just the best. Great quiet and relaxing place to hang out. I much prefer this to the pool!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Jane

We were on the Jewell for the Panama Canal cruise with you. And one of our favourite places to sit, read and watch the ocean go by was on deck 5. Like you said...quiet! Our aft suite was also great place to watch the wake! Looking forward to reading on about the canal cruise!

Linda

[maxs mom]

It wasn't long before we went through the last set of locks, but I laid down on the bed for a minute, and before I knew it, we were passing by Panama City. I took a little nap and missed a little of the last of the canal. John sat out on the balcony and took it all in, though....and I came out when we went under the bridge and out into the Pacific. So cool. There was an observation deck out near the last locks and John said everyone was cheering us on!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LeeBe]

I hope the liquid sunshine at Gatun did not put a damper on things:)!

[maxs mom]

And here we go.........

 

 

 

It was a beautiful crossing.....one of our favorite cruises to do! We got a certificate in our cabin later saying that we had officially done this crossing on May 5, 2015! Cool!

 

Yes.......it is Cinqo de Mayo!!! We had a Meet and Mingle Margarita party scheduled for 5 o'clock that Karen worked really hard to put together. We were worried that not many people would come due to the time they assigned us to have this. We did this through the event co-ordinator and arranged it while we were on the last cruise. At first they wanted to charge us $10pp!!!! For chips and salsa?????? Se finally agreed to a $60 flat rate and we said Ok. We'd pass the hat at the party and hopefully get enough to cover the fee.

 

Anyway we had a part of the Safari Lounge for this.....and it was very nice!!! A couple of RCI personnel were there to greet us. We had a really nice turn out......30 people. Almost everyone there were the core people that were doing all the chatting on the roll call.....so that was great.

 

Everyone got their own drinks....we were provided with a bar tender, a couple of waiters and chips and salsa. We had plenty of donations to cover our cost and enough to tip the bar guys!

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

Hi Jane

We were on the Jewell for the Panama Canal cruise with you. And one of our favourite places to sit, read and watch the ocean go by was on deck 5. Like you said...quiet! Our aft suite was also great place to watch the wake! Looking forward to reading on about the canal cruise!

Linda

 

Hey Linda!! So nice to meet you and your family! Deck 5 was the best!! Hope you all had as much fun as we did on this cruise!

[maxs mom]

I hope the liquid sunshine at Gatun did not put a damper on things:)!

 

Lee.....not at all!! It rains every day there. But we had some nice sunshine at the end of the day. It was actually good that it was rainy, because otherwise....it would have probably been too hot!!

[LeeBe]

The pictures heading towards the Bridge of Americas looked wonderful!

[maxs mom]

This party was so great. We all went around and introduced ourselves and told our screen name, which was nice. We didn't have a chance to do that at the other M&M. This was such a nice gathering and I'm so glad we did it! A big shout out and thank you to Karen and Skiergirl, too, for getting this together.

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

Since your review is so much better than anything I could possibly do, Jane....If you don't mind, I will just add one photo of the new Canal construction. We thought it was pretty amazing. (It is what we really wanted to see) But we did miss that colorful structure on the Panama City side. :D

 

 

:)

Edited June 2, 2015 by Coralc

[The Big Booper]

Since your review is so much better than anything I could possibly do, Jane....If you don't mind, I will just add one photo of the new Canal construction. We thought it was pretty amazing. (It is what we really wanted to see) But we did miss that colorful structure on the Panama City side. :D

 

 

:)

 

Looks like they are a "tad" behind on the big dig.:rolleyes:

[cruisingrightalong]

Such fun reliving the cruise! Was nice to have the aft balcony so that we could "lean" a little and see the new dig and the Panama City skyline and all the sights.

 

I thought it was interesting to see the huge dredging projects along the way. Hard to think they have to throw all that sand so very far.

 

Lou