Panama Canal

 

Friday, December 30, 2022

 

Yesterday, was the day we transited the Panama Canal. 

We were up early so started out by putting a load of laundry on. 

But first I want to talk for a moment about one of the things that will reoccur during this voyage. Refueling. When we got back from our excursion yesterday afternoon, we noticed a fairly loud noise coming from just outside our room. We were being re-fueled. Taking a look, it all seemed fairly simple. There was a hose running from a small tanker to the ship. The hose was about 12” in diameter. It continued to run for hours! Just something for us to be aware of.

 We were given an approximate schedule for the events of transiting the Canal. The 1^st locks (on the Caribbean side) around 6:45 a.m. We were very pleased that it would be daylight for our journey. 

Note all the lights on the horizon. Those are ships waiting their turn to enter the Canal. Daylight hours, all traffic flows from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side. That reverses at night for those ships bound for the Atlantic.

Before we made the first lock, a pilot boat pulled up and off-loaded about 20 men that would in some form be assisting with the transit today.

About 20 guys got off this little boat to jump aboard the Neptune. Later in the day, we saw them get off.

During the entire process we were sailing at a very sedate speed. Moving very slowly along the way. It was a delightful day. Beautiful scenery, good weather. Around 3:00 in the afternoon, we moved through the Miraflores locks on the Pacific side and headed for the Pacific Ocean. As we approached the Miraflores locks, we noticed a large contingency of people at one of the buildings along the locks. We later learned they were from the Viking Star which will transit the Canal today. A huge cheer went up from both the people on the shore as well as those of us on the ship. How fun!

In front of the closed lock doors, you can see whitewater gushing out of our lock.

Sailing into the sunset, we are on our way to Costa Rica. We’ll check back in, in a couple of days.

Cartagena, Columbia and Colon, Panama

 

Thursday, December 29, 2022

 

Cartagena, Columbia and Colon, Panama 

Tuesday morning, we arrived in Cartagena, Colombia. This is another continent for us. We will be walking on South America. So, this is the 2^nd Continent of this trip.  We are scheduled for the “included” tour this morning. Today that consists of a 2-hour drive around the city with one photo op stop and another stop for “shopping”. Shopping seems to be pretty much mandatory on these outings. 

Busses lining up for the tours and modern day Cartagena in the background.

Panoramic view of the busses and city in the distance.

The ship provides devices to all passengers that are a listening device for excursions. They refer to them as “QuietVox” (QV). They really work quite well. You are able to hear your guide without having to stand right next to them. 

This morning’s excursion indicated that our QV was not required. It should have been. We could hear very little of the guide’s dissertation. And what we could hear had such a heavy accent, you still couldn’t understand him. You never know from one excursion to the next what the quality of the guide will be. Some are great, some are pretty bad (today’s), and a lot are somewhere in between. 

The fort in old Cartagena. Think of "Romancing the Stone" with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Just a side street in old Cartagena.

Much of the old Cartagena is surrounded by a wall. This is just a small portion.

But, after the tour, we were dropped off at the entrance of the port. We would have to walk back to the ship. The local taxi unions would not let the busses drive back into the port. A big advantage to this was that we had to walk through a very nice little aviary and had the opportunity to see parrots, peacocks and peahens, flamingos, and some four-legged critters as well. 

And finally,

An early departure from Cartagena would get us into Colon around 8 am.

 

Wednesday morning. As we sailed into port this morning, we were amazed to the see the parking lot of ships all around us. We will be docking at the cruise port, but most ships transiting the Canal simply have to wait their turn by anchoring just off shore or in the harbor behind a breakwater which keeps the currents of the Caribbean from interfering with the Canal traffic. There were too many to count! 

This is a panoramic view.

Today we have signed up for an “optional excursion” which means we paid extra for it. We will be taking an excursion titled “Flora and Fauna of Panama”. We are hopeful to see some wildlife. The excursion left on time; our guide is Mariela. She seemed to be quite knowledgeable about her topic and quite enthusiastic. We took a bus for a bit over an hour. The drive through Colon was interesting as there are no signal lights in Colon. They tried to use them for a while, but the people didn’t like them, so they have reverted to no signals. Just stop signs. Mariela told us that accidents are rare. That may be the case, but we did see a few vehicles with evidence of having been in an accident. 

We drove through Parque Soberania. The largest National Park in Panama out of 7. The Park surrounds the Chagres River watershed. The Chagres River is what feeds the water to the Panama Canal. The River was dammed in 1913 and created Gatun Lake. Along the way to pick up our boat, the bus came to a quick halt. Our guide had spotted a 3-toed sloth in a tree right next to the road. His/her fur looked downright green. 

We stopped at a marina where our group divided into 2 boats. Off we went. As we reached the open water of the Lake, the pace increased so that we were pretty much flying across the surface. Then, we headed into the numerous islands to see what wildlife we could see. Capuchin monkeys were spotted almost immediately. The guides had brought along fruit to entice the monkeys to come down to boat level. They were happy to do this. Obviously, they see lots of tourists. Off again to look for more. All in all, we also saw howler monkeys, tamarind monkeys, another sloth, this one two-toed. A bit of trivia: sloths are related to armadillos and anteaters. 

After our tour on the water, we returned to the marina and spotted a crocodile on the opposite side of the marina. 

This photo is actually of a 2-toed sloth. How anyone spots these, I've no idea as they blend in so well.

Kind of a round blob right in the middle.          >>>>>

Of course, we had hoped to see a little more wildlife, but were entirely satisfied with our excursion. 

We decided to try a different venue for dinner. We had reservations at Manfredi’s. This is an Italian specialty restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and look forward to going back. 

Signing off for another day. Tomorrow, we transit the Canal.

Cozumel to Cartegena

 

This is Monday, December 26, 2022 

Cozumel to Cartagena 

Saturday morning, we awoke to a lot of rock and rolling. It was also a bit rainy. Actually, we had felt the rolling a good part of the night. As daylight neared, we pulled into Cozumel for the day. A very busy port. We were docked right across the dock from a Virgen cruise ship that pretty much blocked any view of the city of Cozumel. After breakfast, we went up to the Explorer’s Lounge and out on to the wrap around deck. We were hit with light rain falling at a horizontal angle due to the stiff wind. We went downstairs and cancelled our excursion for the day. 

So that gave us a down day which was great! We rested, we continued to work on organizing the room. Got more hangars from housekeeping and finished unpacking. We had also signed up for dinner at the Chef’s Table.  More detail here: 

King Crab appetizer. Chinese dumplings first course, granita palate cleanser, Mandarin Duck main course, and dessert.

Sunday the weather continued to be a bit rough, but it is Christmas Day. Merry Christmas everyone. Activities aboard continued as though it were just another sea day. We continued our Beginning Bridge lessons, with Angela Taylor. We think the instructor is doing a great job explaining the game of Bridge. We attended a lecture in the afternoon about the decline/collapse of the Maya culture. 

By afternoon, the sun was out and the seas had calmed. It was 80+ degrees out and we sat on our balcony for a while enjoying a libation and soaking up the sun. We opted for dining in The Restaurant this evening. A little more formal environment than The World Café, where we eat many of our meals. 

We were standing in line waiting to be seated and picked up on a conversation with the couple in front of us. They turned out to be a couple from Australia that had difficulty getting to the ship. They were unable to get to Fort Lauderdale in time so ended up rerouting and joining the ship in Cozumel. This couple has been active on Cruise Critic over the last two years, so we felt we knew them. We joined with them for a seating and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them face to face. 

Monday is another Sea Day. But with decent weather. Our colds are pretty much history, and we are feeling fairly normal today. Also beginning to feel like we have a bit of a routine in the morning. We even did our stretches this morning. First time in a week or so that we could. 

Another Bridge lesson today that was less than enlightening. Only because we were paired with a woman who had missed the first two classes and hadn’t a clue what to do. She also didn’t seem to be paying attention to the instructor. Hopefully, the next class will go better for us. 

In the evening we once again enjoyed The Chef’s Table. This menu was also Asian in influence. The menu:    Amuse Bouche - Hot and Sour Soup

                                       First Course – Fried Prawns

                                      Granita – Coconut

                                      Main Course – Wok-Fried Beef

                                      Dessert – Chilled Mango Cream

          The wines they paired with each course were the perfect complement to each dish.

 

Tomorrow morning, we will be in Cartagena, Colombia. For now, we will close this episode.

We're off to see the World, the wonderful wonderful World

 

	Friday,December 23, 2022)

We’re off to the see the World, the wonderful, wonderful world.

Yesterday was embarkation day. The Neptune was at the dock in Fort Lauderdale before 6:00 a.m. That was encouraging. We went for a short walk, then decided to partake of the included breakfast. Supposedly one of the best breakfasts in Fort Lauderdale. It wasn’t bad, but if that is one of the best in Fort Lauderdale, they have very low standards. 

Then it was wait around time until the busses were supposed to start loading and transporting to the pier around 11:00 a.m. Finally the process started. We were supposed to be on Bus 2, but ended up on Bus 1. Arrived at the port, checked in (all very well organized) and then sat and waited and waited. There was a glitch that started very early that day for Viking. This is the first time this ship has been in US waters. Therefore, the Coast Guard had to inspect the ship, as did the FDA. During the inspection process, the normal routines of transitioning from one set of passengers to another could not be done. This put everything behind by a couple of hours. Sail Away had initially been scheduled for 5:00 pm. At 6:00 we finally pulled away. The Adventure has finally really begun. So many steps and stages to get here. 

As we sailed away, we could see the lights of Miami and the Keyes to the south. 

But we are here, we are underway, most of the luggage is unpacked although a lot of it has not been put away. The bags dribbled into our cabin all afternoon. The last one to arrive was one we had shipped ahead. It was wrapped in Saran wrap to ensure it did not fall open as the zipper had been destroyed. Something we will deal with tomorrow.

 

Next day –

 

We are “at sea” today. Lovely sunrise. Time to get more organized. After a walk around the ship, and then breakfast, we were back at the cabin to unload the last of the suitcases. That’s done, so we took the damaged suitcase down to the Explorer’s Desk (guest services). They agreed, it was damaged, and are hopeful that their upholsterer might be able to repair it. We will need to wait and see. 

Last night when we boarded, there were a few Christmas Decorations around. This morning when we went down for coffee, we were greeted with this:

Many, many activities to choose from today. Viking certainly makes sure you are kept busy if that is your desire. If you are bored, that is your problem, not theirs. We chose a lecture on the Pre-Columbian civilizations of this area, followed by a Beginner’s Bridge lesson. Followed by another lecture on the wildlife we should expect to see between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. 

That was followed by lunch. We could have spent a couple of hours with the lecturer on the wildlife, trying to spot wildlife in the waters around us, but we were being blessed with light rain, so took it easy for a while in our cabin and continued to get things organized. 

We also inventoried what was being left in suitcases under the bed, so we would know where to find things if we needed them. Mostly cool weather clothes which we won’t be needing for a while. 

4:30 “Port Talk” about our port for tomorrow – Cozumel. 

Followed by enjoying an evening libation with friends and then dinner that was focused on seafood. There is a Welcome Reception this evening at 9:15 for an introduction to the Captain and the Senior Officers. We will more than likely be in the Land of Nod by the time that kicks off. 

To all, a good night and we’ll be back with an update soon.

Tucson to Pompano Beach - December 16-18, 2022

 

Date: December 16 – 18                Temp: 66 at 6am (better than yesterday at 30)

Place: Tucson – Pompano Beach Florida

 

S – 4          (Sail minus 4 days)

 

Our journey on 12/16/2022 began with a trip to Tucson International Airport Friday at 2:45pm. Our driver was a very nice lady from SCOV. The trip was impacted with a fatal auto accident on Oracle. So, we detoured around that and arrived at the Hampton Inn around 4:15pm. 

For dinner we chose a restaurant very close to Hampton Inn so Russ would not need his walking sticks. It was an Ok dinner $18.00 for 3 fish sticks and fries. Beer $7/each. 

After a poor night’s sleep, we rose at 3:10 am to gather our stuff and head to the airport, got there just before 4am (American and TSA open at 4am). Checked in, moved out to B 10, and sat until boarding at 5:25am. Full flight, very full. Got our seats and took off, after de-icing the wings at 6:15. NO breakfast and the pilot stated rough weather ahead, so no service. We did manage to get a Bloody Mary each prior to take off. 

About halfway to DFW our phone notified us that our flight to FLL was delayed about an hour, this made it easy for us reach the terminal. We landed at C terminal and had requested assistance with transportation, a wheelchair, for Russ. Since we had ample time (we thought,) we asked the pusher of the wheelchair to take us to the American lounge. Once there, we were told the American “Admirals Club” was for international travelers and holders of first-class tickets ONLY or people that had purchased a membership, not what we thought we saw on their web site. OH Well. 

As it turned out the movement between C terminal and D was a 29-minute train ride, we got there and had a 45-minute wait. Jan found a Chick-fil-a and we had breakfast. Got on the plane, early as we checked our last bag, it had all our meds in it for the 150+ day trip. Fingers crossed they don’t lose it. 

Arrived FLL about 3:15pm local time and it took 45 minutes to get our luggage. Then a short hike to the bus that would take us to the Rental Car area. Turned out to be 5 minutes driving time. The car rental took about 20 minutes, and we were on the road for a short 19-minute drive per Google Maps. Well, it took about 30 minutes with several turn arounds we got to Wyndham Santa Barbara condos. Checked in. 

We had brought lunch from the plane for dinner, thank goodness as we were both exhausted from the early morning flight, the delay of the afternoon flight and the GD traffic here in the Fort Lauderdale area. 

Had a restful night, got up early, unpacked some, asked the desk where a good breakfast was, and it had to be near-by.  They suggested Stingers. When we got there, we were told they opened at 9am and it was 20 minutes ‘til 9. The wait gal suggested we wait and that we did, drinking a large glass of water each. We split a Corned Beef Hash and 2-eggs with deep fat fried potatoes. Wow what a breakfast. We came back to the condo and planned our shopping trip. 

Shopping trip was to purchase consumables that we did not want to ship, we went to Walmart and found most everything we wanted. On the way back to the condo we noticed that the check engine light was on. 

Once we unloaded the car, and got back in the condo, we called and left a message regarding the check engine light being on. 

They said the car had to be returned to FLL and they would give us another vehicle. We left at about 3pm, the trip took right on 30 minutes (much quicker than the day before.) We turned in a KIA for a Toyota. The whole process took from 3pm to 6:30pm as we took the beach route back so we could see the Westin. The traffic in front of the Westin was bumper to bumper at 10 MPH. 

What the traffic was like. 

 Here is the view from our room.