jdb in AZ
It could end up curdled
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2011
Holy Cow! We leave in 7 days for the EBPC cruise. I should get a suitcase out...
Just curious about timing on canal day. Headed east, when do the locks start happening? How many are there (for different picture taking opportunities)? Once in the locks, how long does that process take?
Thanks - we'll see some of you very soon!
DCL pays extra to go through the locks during the day (instead of overnight. The Canal is busy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.) It basically takes all day for a ship to make it from one side to the other. The DCL Navigator will tell you exactly what time to expect to start watching, but IIRC we started about 8 a.m.
At one point the ship passes a restaurant along-side the Canal, and patrons flock outside to wave at the ship. It's like all the passengers are "on stage."
PP is right about Panama being hot and humid! Good excuse to spend part of the day inside with a pina colada smoothie. The ship will have a huge barbeque/picnic up on deck during the crossing. The food was really good.
I'm not big on attending dry lectures during a cruise, but found the presentation about the Canal fascinating. Felt stoopid for not knowing all that stuff before hand, so it's nice DCL had the lecturer -- former Canal pilot -- onboard. There weren't many kids onboard, but the students were busy taking notes for reports.
The Wonder and her sister the Magic are the largest cruise ships to ever pass through the Canal, and it's a tight(!) squeeze. Even with 8 locomotives holding the ship in place, and being guided by several pilots onboard, we scraped. The crew had to repaint part of the hull at the next port, and a chunk of concrete from the Canal was found on the outside of a porthole.