Panama Canal Cruise: October 24 - November 11, 2021

PANAMA CANAL cruise

On Oct. 24th we left Moscow and flew to NYC (9hrs 20 mins), stayed overnight in NYC and then flew to San Diego (5+ more hours) total 9899 kms.

On Oct. 25th we were reunited with Francine & Alain in San Diego. The next day we toured San Diego a bit (after our antigen tests), then enjoyed a fabulous Mexican dinner at Miguel's by the water (highly recommend that place).

 Finally, on Oct. 27th, we walked to the port and boarded the ship (+21°C). I say "finally" because we originally booked this trip in 2019 - before we knew we were going to move back to Moscow. It was postponed due COVID. Travelling these days is not simple! To get into the US, we had to be fully vaccinated (to avoid quarantine) + get an antigen test. We had a minor hiccup getting this test at Medsi in Moscow, but it all worked out with the help of Craig's wonderful Russian assistant, Anastasia (Thank you! We are so grateful). 

Let's get cruising!

Celebrity Millennium

October 27 - November 11

Our route: Day 1: San Diego Day 2: @ sea Day 3: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico Day 4: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Day 5: @ sea Day 6: @ sea Day 7: Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala Day 8: @ sea Day 9: Puntarenas, Costa Rica Day 10: @ sea Day 11: Cruising the Panama Canal! Day 12: Colon, Panama Day 12: Cartagena, Columbia, Day 13 & 14 @ sea day 15: Arrive in Ft. Lauderdale & fly back to Moscow 😭
4624 nautical miles sailed - the equivalent of 8563.65 kilometers!

Pre-cruise in San Diego, CA

Doing a little shopping at the drug store. You are a big hunk Alain! 💪

It was SO wonderful to reunite with this awesome couple for an epic 15-night cruise together. Sadly, Shawn & Tanya were unable to join us due to the whole "mixed vaccine" issue. 😩Missed you guys!

We toured around a bit in the Gaslamp District ... we were a little too early in the day for the fun stuff to open

A chilly, but very enjoyable Mexican feast (and my first margarita) at Miguel's before our cruise

Our inside-cabin cruise ship: a.k.a. "home" for the 15-nights

It ain't huge, but it's efficient

It was a glorious day as we set sail from San Diego

Although still a little cool in San Diego, it began to warm up as we set sail, so we soaked in a little sunshine 🌞

Despite the chilly pool temperature, the boys didn't waste any time getting in and throwing the football around

As always, we had to do some chillin' at the Sunset Bar as we cruised away

Our 1st glorious sunset aboard the ship at the Sunset Bar... naturally

Francine & Alain at our 1st dinner aboard

1st stop - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico! 28°C 

The Arch at "Land's End" in Cabo San Lucas

Impressive! 😍We were going to hire a boat to go there, but since we could see it right from the ship, we decided to just hit the beach instead! We managed to find some clear vanilla in the market first. Awesome.

We weren't the only cruise ship in port today ... lots of people to tender ashore

The tender boat looks so teeny! It was a little choppy, but the process went smoothly

And we're off! 

We immediately got ripped off in Mexico by taking this bicycle taxi ($10 US) for about a 3-minute ride! We didn't realize how incredibly close it was. Silly rookie-type mistake. It was stinkin' hot though, so we were ok with it, but we decided to just walk back!

We enjoyed the local beach with the ships behind us and all the tour boats passing by. It was a very busy port with 3 cruise ships in town

I wonder what they're all looking at? 👀

"Hoist him out of the water for a picture" I said... it didn't quite work as I had pictured in my head! 😆

There weren't any wild adventures planned on this trip, so Alain & I had to create our own adventure wherever we could

It was so relaxing and enjoyable on this locals beach with only one or two people trying to sell us stuff.

The two chicks hangin' out before returning to ship

Alain's yacht 👌 

This cheeky seal surprised the lady on board

Back on board after a wonderful beach day 

Cabo sunset

We like to have fun anywhere we go! We arrived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (30°C) and decided on this very hot day, to just walk to Walmart. Not too exciting, I know, but it gave us a chance to check our email and buy sunscreen!

After Puerto Vallarta was a day at sea for Halloween. "Anonymous" masks brought from Moscow were a hit on the ship. It was nice to see a lot of people dressed up for a little Halloween fun 

Francine & I doing a little aqua aerobics on a sea day. Based on the expressions on our faces, Francine enjoyed it more than me - and she went to several more of these classes on our journey

Arriving in Guatemala was easy and the market was right there off the pier for us to enjoy some shopping. The weather was again hot and sunny! (31°C)

Kerry, Alain, Francine & the beanstalk

The beautiful tapestries for sale at the market

They had tons of beaded items...I bought 3 of these quetzal birds - the national symbol of Guatemala

More of the beautiful tapestry. We were the first cruise ship to come through in a very long time. Hopefully the cruisers bought lots of souvenirs from them

Craig enjoying his first Guatemalan beer

A young lady creating a new tapestry. Now we know how much work goes into each and every item! I so would not have the patience for that!

The lovely market area

I wish we could have also enjoyed some exotic Guatemalan adventure here, but the choices were not exciting. I think they just haven't realized their potential to earn a living off us cruisers

The talented Canadian musician playing for the tourists. We were serenated as we entered the port, but then they stopped playing, so Craig took over

After some shopping, we were headed back on the ship... heaven forbid we miss a meal on board! 😄

Our 3 quetzal birds. They're so cute!

Sunset in Guatemala

Francine & Alain taking on the ping pong champ!

Alain's new Guatemalan shirt

In Puntarenas, Costa Rica we had our only booked excursion to go see butterflies, hummingbirds and frogs on Monte Verde...oh wait, no frogs. It was a cloudy 28°C. Because we did not see any frogs, Celebrity gave us a 30% discount on our excursion. Sweet!

The blue morpho butterfly... it was difficult to get a good picture of this in the greenhouse, so I took a picture of this one under glass.

After a nail-biting bus ride up the mountain (Monte Verde) and a wrong turn onto a ATV type dirt road in a big tour bus (we had to back up a hill on this very narrow "road" with culverts on each side... I was seriously concerned we were going to get stuck up on this mountain)…we finally arrived at the sanctuary. We were introduced to this little scorpion. Nothing unusual, just a scorpion on a stick! Apparently they are not deadly to humans!? Who knew? 

Millipede... sadly, they do not have a million legs. The average is between 80 - 400 legs. The millipede will just curl up when threatened, but the centipede - they can bite and inject you with their venom and it will be painful, but "likely" won't kill you. 😵

Here's Alain holding a giant cockroach! Gross! It was, at least, very docile and hardly moved. Thank goodness because I was right next to Francine and did NOT want that thing jumping on me!

The "cute little" cockroach up close

The harmless walking stick bug. Alain held one of these before on a previous cruise in the Southern Caribbean, but this one did not want to leave the lid

Yup, you can just keep that tarantula in the bucket, thank you very much! He said they are harmless, but he didn't want to risk it dropping on the ground because it's quite delicate and would go "splat"!

The very interesting and  intimidating Atlas beetle (a.k.a. rhino beetle). They can grow from 25 to 145 millimeters in length. They are not dangerous to humans, but apparently if you touch their larvae it will hurt pretty bad

Craig & Alain tamed these giant Atlas beetles! 😆

These two blue morpho butterflies are blue on the inside, but it doesn't show when they're not flying

They were tricky to capture, but these blue butterflies are the same as the dull, spotted ones in the picture above

Some of the lush, tropical vegetation up in the mountains. Costa Rica is very lush, but we also were here at the end of the rainy season, so that makes sense

Only Craig & Alain saw this fella on the path...They are called Agouti and look like a big rodent... I'm very glad I didn't run into him!

Mr. Pelican having a stretch.  Reminds me of Craig in the morning.....lol

And then we were on to the Hummingbird Café. I was mesmerized by them all flying around us and you could hear them as they flew by your head. Such beautiful and amazing birds

This guy is quite a lot bigger than the normal hummingbird, but such a gorgeous colour!

I've never seen a still hummingbird before

Some local monkeys decided to check us out

More and more hummingbirds... I loved it, didn't want to stop watching them

Bye bye hummingbirds! After the tour returned us to the port we had a little time to shop and came as close as we've ever come to "all aboard" time. The time to be back on ship was 4:30 and we arrived back at 4:15! Never want to see that ship sailing away without us!

And now for the main event...The Panama Canal! It is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal is a conduit for maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan and the even less popular route through the Arctic Archipelago and the Bering Strait. 

France started construction in 1881, but had to stop because of funding, engineering issues and the high mortality rate of the workers (many due to dengue fever). The US took over on May 4, 1904 and opened on August 15, 1914. They continued to control it until 1977 when a treaty was signed with the Panamanian government. The handover lasted until 1999 when Panama took over.

The Panama Canal was one of the most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken and was dubbed one of the "Seven wonders of the modern world" by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

 

The United States spent $500,000,000 finishing the construction the French started (equivalent of $9.1 billion today). It has 3 locks: Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks (on the Pacific side) and Gatun Lock (on the Atlantic side).

On average, it takes a ship between 8-10 hours to pass through the canal. This saves ships over 2 weeks if they had to go around South America. I believe it took us 9 hours.

Artificially created in 1913, by damming the Chagres River, Gatun Lake is an essential part of the Panama Canal. It provides the millions of litres of water necessary to operate the locks each time a ship passes through. For the future, they need to find a sustainable way to recycle the water used because the Gatun Lake is having a hard time keeping up with the demand.

According to the commentary we heard while passing through the locks (by staff on the ship) it cost us about US$600K to pass through the locks based on the # of beds the cruise ship has (whether all occupied or not) - plus some palm greasing money to get us through before other ships! How is this possibly profitable for cruise ships? It's definitely profitable for the Panamanian government!

Only Panama Canal pilots are able to captain a ship through the canal. When a ship enters the canal, they are boarded by a Panamanian pilot who takes full control until it exits the canal.

This was a presentation we watched on the TV about the building of the canal

A map to help you visualize what the Panama Canal is like

Their system for removing the debris from the channel

The size of the canal lock is in black ink (above) and the size of our ship is in red! Less than 2.5 feet of clearance on either side of our ship! Wow! 😬

These are the mules that hold the ship steady as it goes through the canal locks

This map gives you a better idea of our journey from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale

Sunrise in Panama City

Panama City skyline

Craig was out at 5:30 am to get us this sweet viewing spot at the back of the ship for our crossing of the Panama Canal! Thanks Love! 😘 It was a scorcher with full sun and 31°C, but I somehow managed not to burn while watching us pass through the locks. 60 sunscreen and an umbrella definitely helped! 

Other ships waiting to cross the Panama Canal locks

Bridge of the Americas as we approach the Panama Canal area... are we gonna fit??

Yup! We fit! It looks like we barely fit, but there was actually quite a bit of space above

There's all your Christmas gifts! They went through the locks at about the same time as us, but in the newly built area

Francine holding our spot at the back of the ship

Maintaining the canal is a year-round job.  Here is a dredger removing sediment so the big ships can make it through 

The Ship ahead of us going into the locks

It seems to be a well-organized operation

We're getting hooked up to the mules

Here we go... the 1st lock

It's hard to tell, but there's basically no space on the sides of our ship and at one point we did rub up against the walls of the locks and it did a little damage to the ship. 

One of the dams controlling the water levels

Francine & Alain melting in the scorching heat

Those mules do a really good job keeping us steady. Must be nice to have such a huge balcony like those people down there! Holy moly!

Centennial Bridge

Lunch break... can we just eat cake? I tried the "rose water" cake. It looked better than it tasted. The avocado cake wasn't bad though!

A little liquid refreshment at our the wonderful Sunset Bar at the back of the ship

Cheers guys to another fabulous vacation!

The mule hard at work on the ship beside us

Hold it steady guys!

This is a shot from the front of the ship. I was up there on the helipad for a couple of hours to get a different perspective

My selfie attempt... notice the cloth on my neck? It was THAT hot out there

The wonderful entertainment staff (top left to right: Flores & Tim - bottom middle is Kelly from Alabama (can't remember the other two girls names) 😔

The pool deck area after dinner

The funny little loop we did over night to end up back in Colon the next morning

A little poolside shenanigans ... always fun to get Alain good! 💦

I didn't realize Francine was bunny ear-ing me while I was doing the same to Craig!

Lucky man! 😉

In Colon, Panama, we were unable to get off the ship unless we had a Celebrity Cruise excursion booked - apparently the city is too dangerous 

Our certificates arrived to our staterooms for the Panama Canal crossing... that's a nice touch!

All of us wearing our similar t-shirts purchased in Costa Rica - Batik style

This is Colon... not so pretty from the ship

On our way to dinner in our matching t-shirts we decided to get a few more pics

This was a cool fortress as we were coming into the port at Cartagena, Colombia

Obviously a man-made peninsula ... looks like they're practically in the water!

A view towards Old Town Cartagena as we pull into port

The welcome area at the Cartagena port was awesome!

We were first greeted by flamingos 

And then by these gorgeous parrots! They make me laugh... it's like they're gossiping

That's my "I'm not that comfortable" smile. I don't trust birds! lol

They've done a really great job at this port area to welcome guests

A simple taxi ride brought us to Old Town where we just did a little walk around. This was the hottest place yet at 33°C! 👅

Some interesting decorations around town

Entry arch to Old Town... prepare yourselves for the onslaught of people trying to sell you things. When we last were here, it's where we decided to count just how many times we had to say "no gracias" in one day. I forget the count, but it was a LOT as they are relentless here. Despite that, it is a charming Old Town... probably one of my favorites

The lads couldn't resist posing (for $$) with the ladies who get up close and personal

Love the narrow streets of Old Towns

High five! ✋

Me with the Pope and my new US$6 hat made from coconuts

The fortress city walls

Can't pass up free wifi! We had very little opportunity to check in on this trip

Sweet treats sold around Old Town

Isn't he pretty sitting up there in the bushes? Pretty as a peacock!

Francine made a few new friends on the trip

She was talking to him, but he was shy

This is as close as I would get! 😬

A couple of monkeys decided to say "hi"

Flamingo yoga!

Ok, that was stinkin' hot out there... back on board and time for a drink and a little pool time!

Early to dinner

This was a gorgeous tanzanite ring in the Effy shop that I stopped in to inquire about. The price started at $17,000 US and he quickly got down to, I believe, $7200. THEN he said we could basically make an offer. I couldn't believe it when he said I could wear it around the ship if I wanted so I decided to play a trick on Craig to make him think I bought it and I wore it to dinner. He took a long time to notice, but he didn't believe it was THE ring I was looking at earlier - nor that I had bought it. It sure was lovely to try it on for the night, but I brought it right back after dinner as I did NOT want to lose it! 

It was lobster night! Alain started with beef wellington first, followed by lobster

Craig started with duck-a-l'orange followed by 2 lobster tails, but he got full and gave me one!

I had two lobster tails + one of Craig's! Yum!

Dessert of strawberry cheesecake and baked Alaska

Fancy desserts at the buffet

They were definitely impressive looking

The last day we pigged out on more gelato along with our "African Solstice" and "Bombay Chai" tea

LOTS of card playing in our usual spot at Cafe Al Bacio. Sometimes we'd arrive and others would be in OUR spot! How dare they! lol
The Wizard winner count started off good in San Diego with one game each. The total tally of wins was Alain: 1  Francine: 2  Kerry: 8 and... of course... Craig with 11 wins! See Eric D, Craig is the Wizard Champ! lol
We also played a few games of "5000"

This was another awesome vacation! And zero sea-sickness from any of us (let's face it, me)! Yay! 

All good things must come to an end though and we have to say good-bye to Francine & Alain. See you soon!

We went from this relaxing time at the pool the day before to snow back in Moscow. Booo!

Not so pleasant to come home to, but we had an amazing time and thankfully all the testing, etc. went smoothly and we were able to fully enjoy the 18-night vacation in the tropical weather.

Thank you Francine & Alain for spending this incredible vacation with us! Love you guys. Cheers to many more!
💕