Date: Jan 9, 2008 11:08 PM
Subject: 1/9/2008
1/9/2008
Panama Canal.
This morning at 7:30 AM we went down to deck seven, forward. Those going all the way around South America had invitations to go out on the forward deck to watch as we went through the first set of locks.
There were crew members waiting to guide us through the maze of corridors to get to the bow of the ship. Normally this is a crew only area. There are two spare propellers and a spare anchor here. There are eye hooks sticking up all over this deck, to tie
things down that might have to be stored there. By each of these eye hooks there had been a stand up height table placed and covered with table cloths. Waiters were walking around with trays containing coffee, fruit, sweet rolls, guacamole, salsa, chips, croissants, and lox and bagel sandwiches. The lox was in honor of the locks.
Each cruise ship gets a guide that explains everything and I mean everything about the locks. They speak over the ship sound
system and on a TV channel through the entire passage. At least every time I have gone through the canal, on every ship and cruise line there has been a guide. They have always been very knowledgeable and they speak good English. Some however, have an accent that can cause you to miss a few words. This time we got a lady who spoke perfect US American. She was also out on the front deck as was the cruise director.
The Amsterdam was now in the locks next to us. It is the largest
width size ship allowed through except for the US Military. It only has two feet clearance on each side. The US Military has ships going through with only eleven inches clearance on each side. Many years ago we had gone through on the maiden voyage of one of the Princess ships. It was shortly after the locks had been turned over to the Panamanians. Maybe they were still learning. This was the widest non military ship to ever transit the locks at the time. When we got to the other end of the locks, both sides of the ship had the paint worn off down to bare shiny steel. We had 
heard the sound of something scraping many times. They must have gotten better at it. The Amsterdam looks like it came through just fine.
After the last set of locks the last thing you see when going South is the Bridge of the Americas crossing the canal. Then normally it is out to the ocean. This time we are going to do a U turn and anchor. We will be taken ashore and bused back to a building overlooking the canal for a party and show by the locals. We will
have an early dinner at about 4:45 PM and then there will be snacks available back on the ship at 10:30. God forbid, we should go hungry.
I have to hand it to Regent. I have been to many of their whole ship events and events for world cruisers. I don’t think anyone can screw it up like they do. In Sidney they almost killed all the world cruisers on a glass enclosed barge. It was over crowded and it was getting so hot people were starting to panic because there was no air or anywhere to move. They had to hurriedly get that barge to shore. This event was close.
We waited for a very long time in the theater to be called to get on the tenders. There was a very long ride to shore and it was very rocky. Once to shore there was no place to dock the tender, so we bobbed up and down for a while. Finally we were off loaded and put on buses. Ours got lost three times. It too was a long ride. We had a woman speaker that was very good at giving us misinformation and changing history. It might have been interesting if it was not dark out and we were able to see something. We were taken to a building, on the canal, right at a set of locks we had just gone through.
Several years ago, we had gone by this building late at night on a New Years Eve. Bobbi had just gotten undressed and there she was, looking eye level at a crowd of partying people, on the fourth floor of this building, looking right at her sitting on the balcony of our room. This is the building we were taken too.
There are several floors of canal museum, a twelve minute movie, an aquarium, and at the top was the room where we were to go for another folklorico show, drinks, and Hors D’Oeuvres. The museum and movie might have been interesting had we not seen it all many times. What they called an aquarium was one fish tank. I have seen so many folkloric shows around the world I really didn’t need another one so we grabbed a couple of diet Cokes and two Hors D’Oeuvres and left. Leaving was a problem too. There were escalators for all but the top floor going up. Down, there were only stairs or a 20 minute wait for an elevator.
All the way back on the bus they insisted on playing “nice” music over the speakers. The nice music was blaring drums on speakers that died years ago and now just gave you a headache. It would have been great to have finally gotten off the bus had there not been a hundred people already ahead of us in line and no tenders in sight. The ship’s captain had been there also. I’d be real interested in hearing what he had to say about this fiasco.
Tomorrow morning we are suppose to get up early for a Virtuoso tour of Panama City. Almost all of theirs have been outstanding over the years. But I don’t know about tomorrow. If we have to stand in line to get back on a tender it just isn’t worth it. We stood there so long tonight that my feet went numb. We had to climb on and off the bouncing tender, up and down dock ramps and a flight of outside dock stairs once back at the ship. Not fun when you can’t feel your feet and you keep getting them hung up on stuff.
Panama Canal.
There were crew members waiting to guide us through the maze of corridors to get to the bow of the ship. Normally this is a crew only area. There are two spare propellers and a spare anchor here. There are eye hooks sticking up all over this deck, to tie
Each cruise ship gets a guide that explains everything and I mean everything about the locks. They speak over the ship sound
The Amsterdam was now in the locks next to us. It is the largest
After the last set of locks the last thing you see when going South is the Bridge of the Americas crossing the canal. Then normally it is out to the ocean. This time we are going to do a U turn and anchor. We will be taken ashore and bused back to a building overlooking the canal for a party and show by the locals. We will
I have to hand it to Regent. I have been to many of their whole ship events and events for world cruisers. I don’t think anyone can screw it up like they do. In Sidney they almost killed all the world cruisers on a glass enclosed barge. It was over crowded and it was getting so hot people were starting to panic because there was no air or anywhere to move. They had to hurriedly get that barge to shore. This event was close.
We waited for a very long time in the theater to be called to get on the tenders. There was a very long ride to shore and it was very rocky. Once to shore there was no place to dock the tender, so we bobbed up and down for a while. Finally we were off loaded and put on buses. Ours got lost three times. It too was a long ride. We had a woman speaker that was very good at giving us misinformation and changing history. It might have been interesting if it was not dark out and we were able to see something. We were taken to a building, on the canal, right at a set of locks we had just gone through.
Several years ago, we had gone by this building late at night on a New Years Eve. Bobbi had just gotten undressed and there she was, looking eye level at a crowd of partying people, on the fourth floor of this building, looking right at her sitting on the balcony of our room. This is the building we were taken too.
There are several floors of canal museum, a twelve minute movie, an aquarium, and at the top was the room where we were to go for another folklorico show, drinks, and Hors D’Oeuvres. The museum and movie might have been interesting had we not seen it all many times. What they called an aquarium was one fish tank. I have seen so many folkloric shows around the world I really didn’t need another one so we grabbed a couple of diet Cokes and two Hors D’Oeuvres and left. Leaving was a problem too. There were escalators for all but the top floor going up. Down, there were only stairs or a 20 minute wait for an elevator.
All the way back on the bus they insisted on playing “nice” music over the speakers. The nice music was blaring drums on speakers that died years ago and now just gave you a headache. It would have been great to have finally gotten off the bus had there not been a hundred people already ahead of us in line and no tenders in sight. The ship’s captain had been there also. I’d be real interested in hearing what he had to say about this fiasco.
Tomorrow morning we are suppose to get up early for a Virtuoso tour of Panama City. Almost all of theirs have been outstanding over the years. But I don’t know about tomorrow. If we have to stand in line to get back on a tender it just isn’t worth it. We stood there so long tonight that my feet went numb. We had to climb on and off the bouncing tender, up and down dock ramps and a flight of outside dock stairs once back at the ship. Not fun when you can’t feel your feet and you keep getting them hung up on stuff.
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