Cruise Day 4 (At Sea) & Day 5 (Panama Canal/Panama City)

After roaming around Aruba for the entire day, it was wonderful to have a day at sea again to give us a day to rest, before we arrived at the Panama Canal.

Since we were at sea, we explored the ship. The ship is truly magnificent. It is nicely decorated, very conveniently situated, and upscale in every way. All of the staff have been very pleasant and courteous, making the entire trip all that much better. We’ve also made some friends on board, and have enjoyed meeting up with them at different locations throughout the ship. Anthony has a made a few friends as well around the children’s pool and waterslide. At least he’s burning of some calories.

Exploring the ship makes you appreciate the attention to detail that has been given to all of the common areas, restaurants, and even the little cozy nooks. After being on several cruise ships in my life, I must say, this one is the best one I’ve ever experienced. The amount of balcony rooms on this particular ship is greater than any other from what I have been told. Although, there was a ship that pulled up next to us in the Panama Canal, called the Coral Princess, which seemed to have many balcony rooms as well.



Speaking of the Panama Canal, I must say it was definitely an amazing thing to view and experience. We were told that our ship was the largest class of ships that could pass through it, and that there was only two feet on each side, and thirteen feet in the front and back of space left in the locks we traveled. Pretty close for comfort! As you can imagine, Panama is now working on creating larger locks to accommodate the new mega ships that are being built. I believe they anticipate the new locks to open in 2008-2009.

To be clear, we did not travel all the way through to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. If we had done so, we would have to circumnavigate South America to make it back to Miami, and that would have never happened in ten days. Instead, we took a ‘tender’ boat from our ship to the mainland, and boarded tour buses. The buses took those who booked tours to the various drop off points so we could be picked up. However, if you choose not to take a tour in Panama, you could have stayed on board, and traveled inside Lake Gatun located in the middle of he Canal. Then, at the end of the day, go back through the Canal, exiting back into the Atlantic Ocean, through the locks we initially traveled, and docking at Cristobal Pier, where those of us who went on tours were brought back to by bus to shop and re-board the ship.



It was amazing to see both our ship, and the Coral Princess go through the locks simultaneously. We were able to see and feel what was happening to our ship, and then watch the Coral Princess, which was next to us go through the same process, and the parallel lock. We were very fortunate to have the other cruise ship go through the Canal at the same time as we did.

In the photos I will be posting, you will see many shiny metal train engines. These are custom built by Mitsubishi for the Panama Canal, and cost approximately $2.5 million each. These train engines tie up to the ships, and slowly pull the shops slowly through the canal. As you can imagine, larger and heavier ships require more train engines, which equates to a larger bill paid by the ship to go through the canal. However, the cost, time, and risk associated with circumnavigating around South America apparently is well worth it to the shipping and cruise companies. Not to mention, it’s pretty darn cool!

Also, pilots who work at the Canal board the ships, and get them through the locks and into Lake Gatun. This lake is the source of the water that is used to pass the ships through the locks system. An incredible amount of water is used for each ship, based its on weight, to be raised and lowered through the Canal, and this is the how the ships are billed. The pilots who maneuver the ships get paid $90.00 U.S. an hour to bring the ships through, and $180.00/hr on holidays. Not a bad gig, huh? There are approximately 280 Canal pilots, and only one woman. Also, I understand that this is a family affair. If your father is a Canal pilot, then most likely you will become one as well. These pilots are highly regarded here, and live very well compared to others. It should be known that one must be an apprentice for twelve years before you can become a Panama Canal pilot.

After taking the “tender” from the ship to the mainland, we boarded our first Tour Bus of this trip. It was a fair bus overal1, with an excellent tour guide, which made it that much better. She was very energetic and informative, and even spoke Italian, which made my Dad very happy. She was pretty knowledgeable about the Canal, and Panama in general, as she was born and raised there, and had been a professor before getting on the tour guide circuit.

We traveled through some pretty rural portions of Panama, in the port city of Colon, and took about an hour trip to Panama City, traveling through the rainforest to get there. By the looks of Colon, and what we saw during the first hour, I anticipated seeing a rough Panama City. However, as I was pretty ignorant about Panama before this trip, I was impressed and pleasantly surprised to see the magnitude of the downtown, and the apparent wealth which surrounded the Country’s Capital. The skyline was comparable to any big city I’ve ever visited, including Toronto and Chicago. It made Tampa and St. Pete look pretty small in contrast. The private super yachts in the Yacht Basin were big bucks!



After taking a super quick tour around Panama City, we were taken to the Panama Railway, where we boarded a very nicely refurbished air conditioned train, which took us down the complete span of the Panama Canal, along side the shoreline. We were able to see many of the other ships that had already been through the Canal before us, which transporting large containers, and also one with a bunch of private yachts stacked on top of it. It appears private yachts can go through the canal, but the yachts have to be placed onto a special transport freighter to go through it, and go together all at one time on top of this freighter.

All in all, the trip from the ship to Panama City, and then train trip back down the Canal, to Cristobal Pier was very interesting and comfortable.

The Panamanian people we encountered were all very nice. The currency in Panama is the Balboa (you know, like Rocky). However, there are only coins, and do not have any Balboa dollars. As a result, only U.S. bills are used for all transactions.

Panamanians speak Spanish predominately, but were able to speak English rather well. In speaking to some of the folks, I understand that many from Panama, stay in Panama, and do not travel outside the country.

There are large rain forests here, with a variety of animals, including monkeys, that roam the jungle areas of the country. As for the city, it was pretty apparent, that there is a large Latin-style nightlife, which I would compare to South Florida, or South Beach. We passed a multitude of out door cafes and restaurants along the pretty portions of Panama City’s waterfront.




At the end of our day in Panama, we were able to shop at Cristobal Pier. It was very convenient, safe, and clean. They sold beer and food, and had live entertainment performed by some of the native groups from the area. To my surprise, and Anthony’s, the woman in these groups performed their dances topless, and they were heavily covered with tribal tattoos.

After a wonderful day in Panama, and traveling in and around the Panama Canal, we were happy to get back on board, shower, clean up, and head to dinner in the Minstrel Dining Room. The food on board has been excellent, and our waitress (Xemina from Pero) and waiter (Daniel from Trindad) are top notch people. Anthony has been pretty well behaved considering he is turning four at the end of the month. Having formal dinner each night is a nice treat, but it sure makes the belt line a little tighter.

After dinner, we headed to the show in the Pacifico Theater to watch an Italian singer who my folks enjoyed very much. I also thought he did a great job singing both well-known Italian and American songs.

Per my routine on this vacation, I made a visit to the Casino Royale, where I bellied up to the Craps table, and joined the melee of shooters trying to pay for their trip with dice.

Fortunately for me, this was my best night of all, due to an incredible roll that lasted about 30 minutes by one of the quietest craps players I’ve ever met. The gentlemen was probably 75 years, or older, and tossed the dice with a magic fling of the wrist which was pretty unique. It was a thing of beauty. Thanks to this particular shooter, my day ended with a permanent smile on my face, as a I watched the cashier in the casino cage laid down my cash payout from the handfuls of chips I collected and placed in front of her.

After collecting my loot, I headed down to Stateroom 8554, and climbed into bed for a night of rest. I can’t wait for Costa Rica tomorrow!!

~Frank

Cruise Day 3 – Aruba

Being stuck in my office most of the time, I’ve forgotten what the sun looks and feels like. Now I remember. We’ve been fortunate to have excellent weather since we left Miami, and today in Aruba was no exception. Aruba, as I’ve heard, is a pretty breezy/windy place due to the trade winds in this region of the world, and today was no exception.

We started our day off in the Windjammer Restaurant on the ship at around 7:30, where they served a pretty impressive breakfast. After getting powered up for the day, we disembarked, and were impressed by the kindness of the people of Aruba that we encountered. There’s no trying to work you over with tourist traps and pushy sales folks, which was nice compared to what I’ve encountered in other parts of the Caribbean. We promptly secured a Jeep Wrangler for the day, $80 total included tax, tag and title. It worked out great. We took the main road north, after perusing the downtown briefly. It was Easter Monday holiday here, so most of the shops opened late, and closed early. Since the downtown was slow, we headed for one of Aruba’s best known landmarks, the California Lighthouse, at the northern point of the island. It was pretty rough terrain, and we get bounced around a little bit, but Anthony sure loved every bit of it.



After the lighthouse, we headed down some to some sand dunes, and took a few interesting pictures of the rough waters off the northern tip of the island.



Before I continue with Aruba, I have to tell you that Anthony was selected to participate in the ship’s main show last night, which happened to be a magic show. He was a hit! The crowd really enjoyed his comments, and he’s a big celebrity on the ship now. We can’t go anywhere onboard without hearing, “HEY! Aren’t you Anthony, from the magic show? YOU'RE A STAR!!” He even got a magic hat as a souvenir.




Now, back to Aruba. After the dunes, we traveled back to downtown using what is called the “highway” here. It’s basically the one main road on the island that gets you from the north to the south, and back. Unlike many of the other islands I’ve been on, there is not one main road that goes around the whole island and just makes a big circle. From what I could tell, the southern part of the island is quite mountainous, and the parts that aren’t were for the airport, Aruba beer factory, and an oil refinery. Dad and I went to the southern part of the island, and it was no where near as nice as the northern portion. I wouldn’t recommend going that direction if you ever come here, there’s not much to see on that end. The Casino downtown in Aruba was pretty nice actually. I didn’t play because the Ship’s casino has been treating me incredibly well. Donna sends me often, as she’s been very happy with the results thus far. We’ll see how that goes, it’s only Day 3 after all.

Here's a picture of Dad snorkeling. For those of you who know him, he loves the sea, and would live in it if he could. We just pulled off the road, and wandered through the various topless tourists until we found the water and enjoyed the crystal clear waters of Aruba. I've got plenty of underwater photos, but I will post them on Ofoto when I get back to town, because the internet connection is pretty poor for big items like photos & video.





We're at sea today, and arrive at the Panama Canal bright and early at 5:30 a.m. I hope to be up to see all the action in the locks. If not, we go back through them at the end of the day. I was told the cruise line pays $250,000 for the ship to travel through the canal. Sounds pricey, no?

Expect more pictures soon.

~Frank

Cruise - Day 2 (At Sea)

Hello everyone! We’ve been at sea for two days, and apparently traveled about 850 nautical miles. We’re headed to our first destination, Aruba. We will arrive late tonight, and are able to disembark as soon as 7:00 a.m. It’s a full day in Aruba, as the ship doesn’t leave until 1:00 a.m. We’re hoping to get a lot of fun activities into tomorrow while in Aruba. I’ll be snapping away, so expect a lot of pictures. I brought my underwater case, so I’m hoping to get some nice video and pictures of the sea life.



So far the seas have been very calm, with waves about 2-3 feet for the first day, and about 3-4 feet today. On a ship this large (about 90,000 tonnage), you barely feel anything. If you are inside(without any windows), it is unnoticeable that you are even moving. Cruising is truly amazing! The Freedom of the Seas is about 140,000 tonnage, and I understand that the new Royal Carribbean ship, Project Genisis(not of the Phil Collins variety) is supposed to be 220,000 tonnage -- It must be surreal!



These first two days have been very relaxing at sea. There’s a lot to take in and do. In fact, there’s a sports bar, movie theater playing first run movies, shopping, comedy club, art auction, just to name a few. There’s also a coffee shop(like Starbucks), several internet wireless hot spots (wifi), and solarium.

Anthony is in heaven. He’s really enjoying the children’s pool. There’s waterslides, putt putt golf, and a basketball court. Oh, and a pretty cool rock climbing mall that I am definitely going to try and do!



The food has been excellent, although I’m trying to be reasonable so I don’t come back looking to buy those pants with the elastic waistlines. Drinking lots of water, and taking the stairs as much as possible. The gym is pretty impressive, but I haven’t made it there…. just yet.

We splurged for a balcony, and I must say, it’s definitely a treat. There’s nothing quite like having your own private view anytime you want it. It’s a little spooky at night, as it is VERY dark, and windy. Having breakfast, reading, or just having a drink on the balcony gets an A+ in the relaxation department.



I’m probably gonna jinx myself, but the casino has been pretty generous to me so far. The “hard eights” have been plentiful!! ☺

The ship’s passengers range from all ages and nationalities. I understand from the crew that this trip is more full than the past few, but is not filled to capacity, which has made the boat atmosphere feel pleasant. This is our (Donna & I), second time on Royal Carribbean, and its even more impressive than it was on our honeymoon. Did I mention it’s are ten year wedding anniversary?

I hope you are enjoying the photos, video, and blog, and also wanted to extend all of you a Happy Easter Sunday.

~Frank

Cruise 2007 -Day 1

We're out here in the middle of the Caribbean and having some pretty nice weather. I will keep you posted on our daily adventures. Here's one of the many photos from first day aboard.

I did have a great night at the craps table last night! :-)

Frank