Live: Apr 20, 2024 Summit 14 Night Panama Canal Westbound Cruise!

[Beba-Beba]

Hi David

 

Just caught up and bookmarked this Live.  Will re-read when I am planning my Panama Canal cruise in 2026 on the Ascent.  Sooo much valuable advise from you and others following.  I already have that tiny rechargeable fan, as well as the wet neck wraps.  You balcony is heavenly.  Still laughing about so many mishaps returning your rental car. 

 

Loooved your April Fools post.  I totally bought it, lol!!!

 

Are you experiencing any issues due to low water levels in the locks?

 

I love the Boulud Chef's Tables too but after 3 of them IMHO they need to tweak the menu.  I agree it's not just about the menu -  the attendees make the evening memorable.  Now that Luggage Valet is back and my luggage is not being weighed I will be able to bring home the book that weighs a ton.

 

One day I hope to get one of your custom name tags.  I almost did once but not quite.....

 

Looking forward to following along.

 

Mary

 

 

Edited April 25 by Beba-Beba

[Barwick Cruiser]

So many great pics! Have only done the full transit so it’s helpful and very interesting to see the perspective from onshore. Too bad about the rain…our transit was clear but oh so very hot and humid. I watched mostly from the pool deck to cool off with occasional plunges into the pool. 😅 

[Essiesmom]

Entering Pedro Miguel locks

 

[raudacruise]

If it rains during my transit next year I will absolutely be outside standing in the rain.  Already have my fan, cooling towel and electrolyte powder.

[Essiesmom]

Miraflores locks, still dampish but the diehards are still on the helipad.

 

[90scruzer]

great job!  looking forward to seeing the rest of the transit.

[mahdnc]

9 hours ago, Beba-Beba said:

Hi David

 

Just caught up and bookmarked this Live.  Will re-read when I am planning my Panama Canal cruise in 2026 on the Ascent.  Sooo much valuable advise from you and others following.  I already have that tiny rechargeable fan, as well as the wet neck wraps.  You balcony is heavenly.  Still laughing about so many mishaps returning your rental car. 

 

Loooved your April Fools post.  I totally bought it, lol!!!

 

Are you experiencing any issues due to low water levels in the locks?

 

I love the Boulud Chef's Tables too but after 3 of them IMHO they need to tweak the menu.  I agree it's not just about the menu -  the attendees make the evening memorable.  Now that Luggage Valet is back and my luggage is not being weighed I will be able to bring home the book that weighs a ton.

 

One day I hope to get one of your custom name tags.  I almost did once but not quite.....

 

Looking forward to following along.

 

Mary

 

 

 

It's good to hear from you, Mary.  As you know we did the full transit across the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  There were no issues as far as water levels go.  Now that Panama has entered the rainy season, it appears they are out of the woods as long as they get the expected rainfall over the coming months.  

[mahdnc]

Sorry I haven't posted today as it was a real looong day!  To me, the crossing started when we sailed under the Atlantic Bridge at about 7am and it ended at 6:30 pm when we passed the Bridge of Americas.  So it was almost a 12 hour day.

 

Before we went to bed the night before the crossing, I set my alarm at 7am and I filled out the room service breakfast card to be delivered at 7:30 am (no way we were we going to waste any time at the dining room for breakfast).

 

When we woke up at 7am, the Panama Canal narrator came over the ship's public address system to announce that we were about to sail under the Atlantic Bridge as we lined up to go to the Gatun Locks.

 

 

I hadn't fully decided about my viewing/photography spots for the canal crossing, but when I woke up, I was thinking about just staying in our aft cabin and watching the crossing from the comfort of our balcony.  I turned on the stateroom television and turned to Channel 1 to hear the narration in our cabin.  Channel 1 is the navigation channel and it cyclically shows a couple different navigation maps and an video image from the bridge of the ship's bow and horizon.  When I saw the bridge camera view, I could see the the Gatun Locks and a crowd of passengers at the helipad.  Upon seeing that, I immediately abandoned the idea of staying in the cabin and I decided to head out to the bow (Marcia stayed behind in the cabin/balcony because she is not as crazy about having to get the best view of the canal).

 

[mahdnc]

The helipad was open to all passengers during the entire canal crossing.  The helipad is accessed on Deck 5 by going to the Celebrity Theatre.  Signs directed you along the way.

 

 

When I got out there, the railings were 3-5 people deep.  It was difficult to find a spot to stand with an reasonably obstructed view.  We were approaching our first set of locks of the day and there was a lot of excitement in the humid air.

 

 

Looking back towards the bridge, you can clearly see that the outdoor Retreat area (highest deck visible in the photo below) had a nice elevated view of the locks without the crowds.  It might have been the best seat in the house.  If I were Celebrity, I would have driven that point home by hanging a large banner beneath the Retreat area in full view of the heliport passengers with the words, "This is the Retreat area--you could have been here" or something like that.

 

[mahdnc]

Gatun Locks

 

Gatun Locks are on the Atlantic side and it consists of 3 consecutive locks to step us up to the level of Gatun Lake.  To me, it was the most impressive view of the Panama Canal locks that we the entire day because:

 

1. There were 3 ships (not including us) in the locks when we arrived.  So it was a hotbed of activity.

2. You could see huge ships at 3 different heights at the same time--with Summit being at the lowest level.

 

 

[mahdnc]

There was a lot of waving at passing ships.

 

 

 

But most of the time, we kept our attention at the locks ahead of us.

 

 

Sometimes it was hard to take a photo from the back row.

 

 

[mahdnc]

It rained most of the day when we crossed the canal.  It was at its worst in the morning when we were at Gatun Locks and I was at the helipad.  The crew handed out umbrellas which was good for those standing under them, not so good for those of us trying to look over them.

 

 

There was a fifteen minute period where the rain fall was pretty hard.  You couldn't get a good photo and I wondered what I was doing there.  What was worse were these flying insects that looked like small ants when they landed on you (and stayed on you and they collected on you).  There was a point when we were exiting the Gatun Locks that we were all heavily covered by these insects.  Gross.

 

 

As we were entering the Gatun Locks, we could see a container ship being escorted to the entrance to the new Agua Clara locks.

 

Edited April 26 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Here is a photo that I took from our balcony before I headed ot the helipad:

 

 

The myriad of activities at the Gatun Locks was absolutely mesmerizing and sometime helped me to ignore the lousy weather (but not the bugs, there was nothing that was going to make me forget about those things).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mahdnc]

Here is a link to a time lapse video I took from the back of our balcony was we crossed the Gatun Locks: link

 

I took the time lapse with my iPhone on a tripod.  A backpack of filled water bottles hung off the bottom of the center pole to provide weight for the tripod to prevent it from blowing over.

 

Edited April 26 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Here are a couple more photos before we entered the Gatun Locks.

 

This photo shows what is left of one of the ill-fated French attempts to dig the canal:

 

 

This yellow tug boat was positioning itself behind Summit as we approached the Gatun Locks:

 

[mahdnc]

After Summit cleared the Gatun Locks, she would sail through Gatun Lake and onto the Pacific side locks.  My wife and I headed to the MDR for lunch during that time.  The MDR was pretty crowded although we were seated by a window.

 

 

 

 

Here was the lunch menu:

 

 

 

I ordered the Chef's Recommendations again.

 

 

 

After we finished lunch we took a quick look outside in the port side public deck on Deck 4 before we went back to our cabin.

 

 

The canal had narrowed considerably while we were at lunch.

 

 

[mahdnc]

Just as there are 3 locks to get up from the Atlantic Ocean up to Gatun Lake, there are 3 locks to take Summit back down to the level of the Pacific Ocean.  However the 3 lock chambers are distributed between two named locks--the Pedro Miguel Lock (a single lock) and the Miraflores Lock (which has two locks).  Miraflores Lake, a little manmade lake, lay in between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.

 

I decided to watch the sailing through these locks from our aft balcony cabin.  Here are some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

The ship in the next photo is heading to the new Cocoli Locks.  The narrater said that the ship was short enough to go through the old locks, but it was 15 feet too wide.

 

 

A view off the starboard side from our balcony:

 

 

 

These two small boats shared a the same lock chamber with a large freighter.  They were headed in the same direction as Summit was (towards the Pacific) but they were west side locks while we were in the east side lock (both sets are the old locks).

 

 

Here is the freighter (black hull), entering the lock with the two small boats in front of it (not visible in the photo):

 

 

Here is a spy photograph of passenger(s) and butler on the balcony of a Celebrity Suite:

 

 

Edited April 26 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

And finally, some photos taken at the Miraflores Locks.  

 

 

 

In the next photo, you can see two small boats sharing the lock in the left of the photo with a big freighter.

 

[mahdnc]

Oh, I almost forgot.  Here is a time lapse video taken when we crossed the Pacific side locks: link

[hcat]

Awesome photography and  descriptioms .. Thanks for a brilliant presentation..sorry you got wet and swarmed by bugs!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Thanks for the pictures
I seen the locks in Panama but find the lift lock in Peterborough more interesting and it only a 1/2 drive  😁

 

Edited April 26 by Ex-Airbalancer

[Shiba_Lover]

This looks so exciting.  We will be doing this next April on the Summit, but it sails out of FLL.  Your posts are making me look Forward to it even more!  Thanks for sharing!!

[DaKahuna]

7 hours ago, mahdnc said:

Looking back towards the bridge, you can clearly see that the outdoor Retreat area (highest deck visible in the photo below) had a nice elevated view of the locks without the crowds.  It might have been the best seat in the house. 

 

 There is a great view from up there and it was a couple of people deep.  To get a clear view  I spent a lot of time standing on the edge of the pool on the Retreat Deck taking pictures, a lot of them in my live review were taken from there. 

 

 However, Marcia probably had the best view as the bridge camera showed wonderful scenes according to my DW who also decided to not brave the sun and crowds and watched from our balcony and in the room. 

 

 

[mahdnc]

Here are some more random photos taken from Gatun Locks during our canal crossing yesterday.

 

Here is another photo of the passengers line up at the heliport rail.  The rain did not seem to dampen our enthusiasm.  The crowds seemed to be the largest at the beginning of the day (Gatun Locks).  By the time we got to the last set of locks (Miraflores), the crowd had thinned out considerably

 

Gatun Locks' set of 3 locks in each direction was easily my favorite.  It was the busiest set of locks when we went through it (luck of the draw).  Gatun Locks had the largest elevation gain in the shortest distance so seeing these large freighters elevated above you was absolutely amazing.

 

 

 

A view of Gatun Locks from our aft balcony after we sailed through it.

Edited April 26 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

I never noticed this before, but many of the freighters we saw yesterday at the canal had nice names--names that you might give to your sailboat or yacht.

 

There was Cool Explorer:

 

Followed by Nirvana Explorer:

 

Crystal Sunrise went through the new locks:

 

Here is Clearocean Music:

 

And then Pacific Jade: