I Love the Little Fishies. Don't You?

[wilma-bride]

You know, it's funny - even though the Panama Canal cruise was Gary's choice, I can't help but get excited at the thought of passing through the locks. The Panama Canal is so iconic and such a feat of technology that you can't help but be impressed. I can't believe that guy said he was bored and you had only just passed through the first lock!

I am so looking forward to it.

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like you had a great "at sea" day. Your haircut worked out just perfect, and Palo sounded wonderful as always. Glad you were able to get a server that you liked again.

I love the Mixology classes, so much fun and I'm glad that you liked all your drinks. Your character photos came out quite nicely that day.

The Fort in Cartegna looks quite interesting. I would have freaked out with the bus maneuvering on the way to La Popa. The plants and flowers are definitely beautiful though. The chapel is also beautiful. Good job on finding the emerald!

The Old Town area looks quaint and clean. I would have been fretting about getting back to the boat on time as well, it's nice that Disney had things under control by not making you wait in long lines in the sun. Your dress and necklace are beautiful!

The crossing of the Panama Canal sounds fascinating. I can understand that simple minded people who are not interested in technical and mechanical workings could get bored, but I would find it fascinating too!

Glad you were able to get in so many character photos and the passport stamping as well. Lots of great pictures of the crossing process!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Lovely pics of the two of you on deck. We had a balcony cabin and alternated between that and the deck 7 back deck in '08. I loved the "mules" and had to giggle when we saw some men "mowing" the grass on the sections with a weed whacker!

 

[jedijill]

What an awesome day! The Panama Canal is on my bucket list.....you had some prime viewing!

Jill in CO

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Great update I found this fascinating! How long were you in the canal in total would you say? I would be hanging on for every technical detail they could give! I love all the talks on the cruises but of the Canal! That would be something else! Thanks for sharing.

Cool re getting your passport stamped! Love Mickey's tropical outfit!

Glad they wised up over the BBQ arrangements. We have had that issue too after paying balance in pounds!

Dinner sounds delish! What a wonderful day great photos thank you.

 

[jenseib]

What an interesting day. You know I would love all that stuff too.
I have another interesting tidbit for you about the canal direction. Not only were you going south.....you were also going EAST! Yes !!!! ....from that side it goes SouthEast to the WEST coast. it's really weird, but if you look at it on a map it makes sense. It starts at the north going down at a diagonal and it exits out at the bottom but more East than where you started.

I could see Skip contemplating skipping dinner to stay out and watch as well.

 

[Wonder93]

Hi Corinna,
WOW!!! Loving, loving the pictures of the canal crossing and you two with that lovely background. I cannot wait till next May.

 

[dgbg100106]

The line this morning sounds awful for the excursion to Cartengena

As Pam mentioned, I'm glad you found your emerald! and I agree Cartagena really reminds me of Puerto Rico.

I can't believe the tour was 2 hours late

Princess Corinna, looks lovely in that Blue Dress....

 

[dgbg100106]

Love the crossing photos. We did the canal in 2005, I would like to go back, David not so much. People shot at him there, so he is not in a hurry to go back...

Love the pink background photos...

 

[DH of dolphingirl47]

Two crossings of the ditch, some video and a bit of history

https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/67642879/367/

Going back two steps, Cartagena did not really grab my attention, yes its got some history but it doesn't compare with the original stuff in Spain, the City Walls are nice but again there are better examples closer to home. Nice view from the monastery.
Would I make a special effort to go again, no. If it happened to turn up on a cruise we were on anyway then there is certainly more to explore.
Suspect the coastal islands might be worth a look.

 

[dolphingirl47]

You know, it's funny - even though the Panama Canal cruise was Gary's choice, I can't help but get excited at the thought of passing through the locks. The Panama Canal is so iconic and such a feat of technology that you can't help but be impressed. I can't believe that guy said he was bored and you had only just passed through the first lock!

I am so looking forward to it.

You are in for a real treat. Gary made a wise choice. When we did this in 2011, we thought it was a once in a lifetime experience, but now we have done it twice and are tentatively planning a third one for 2017.

Sounds like you had a great "at sea" day. Your haircut worked out just perfect, and Palo sounded wonderful as always. Glad you were able to get a server that you liked again.

I love the Mixology classes, so much fun and I'm glad that you liked all your drinks. Your character photos came out quite nicely that day.

The Fort in Cartegna looks quite interesting. I would have freaked out with the bus maneuvering on the way to La Popa. The plants and flowers are definitely beautiful though. The chapel is also beautiful. Good job on finding the emerald!

The Old Town area looks quaint and clean. I would have been fretting about getting back to the boat on time as well, it's nice that Disney had things under control by not making you wait in long lines in the sun. Your dress and necklace are beautiful!

The crossing of the Panama Canal sounds fascinating. I can understand that simple minded people who are not interested in technical and mechanical workings could get bored, but I would find it fascinating too!

Glad you were able to get in so many character photos and the passport stamping as well. Lots of great pictures of the crossing process!

Yes, I had a pretty amazing sea day and they kept on getting better as the cruise progressed.

The Old Town area was very nice. It was just a shame that we were kind of rushed through it.

Lovely pics of the two of you on deck. We had a balcony cabin and alternated between that and the deck 7 back deck in '08. I loved the "mules" and had to giggle when we saw some men "mowing" the grass on the sections with a weed whacker!

Well, during out first Panama Canal cruise we had an inside cabin. This time we had an ocean view. Maybe we get lucky next time and get a veranda.

What an awesome day! The Panama Canal is on my bucket list.....you had some prime viewing!

Jill in CO

If you get the opportunity, grab it with both hands. Deck 4 is a perfect viewing spot. It also was a perfect viewing area for the Tracy Arm day on our Alaska cruise last year.

Great update I found this fascinating! How long were you in the canal in total would you say? I would be hanging on for every technical detail they could give! I love all the talks on the cruises but of the Canal! That would be something else! Thanks for sharing.

Cool re getting your passport stamped! Love Mickey's tropical outfit!

Glad they wised up over the BBQ arrangements. We have had that issue too after paying balance in pounds!

Dinner sounds delish! What a wonderful day great photos thank you.

The pilot came on board at 6:30 in the morning and I took those photos of us approaching the Bridge of the Americas at 16:16. So the whole process took about 10 hours. They offer all kinds of lectures on different aspects of the canal during the cruise. We did those in 2011 so gave them a miss this time round.

Hi Corinna,
WOW!!! Loving, loving the pictures of the canal crossing and you two with that lovely background. I cannot wait till next May.

The crossing is amazing.

The line this morning sounds awful for the excursion to Cartengena

As Pam mentioned, I'm glad you found your emerald! and I agree Cartagena really reminds me of Puerto Rico.

I can't believe the tour was 2 hours late

Princess Corinna, looks lovely in that Blue Dress....

I have to say I started to panic a little about us being so late especially as I knew that we were on a tight schedule and needed to be away from Cartagena promptly. I am always amused when people mention that they won't do independent tours or do their own thing. There have only been two occasions when we got back very late from a tour and both of them were DCL excursions.

Love the crossing photos. We did the canal in 2005, I would like to go back, David not so much. People shot at him there, so he is not in a hurry to go back...

Love the pink background photos...

I can understand that he feels that way, but it is just an amazing experience to go through the canal. I am already looking forward to next time.

Corinna

 

[rentayenta]

Love the crossing photos. We did the canal in 2005, I would like to go back, David not so much. People shot at him there, so he is not in a hurry to go back....

Why were people shooting at him? Who was shooting at him?






Thanks for the canal photos. Very interesting. Love the jungle look of the palms. Was it humid?
Lunch and dinner both sound delicious.
Once again, love the character photos.

 

[wilma-bride]

You are in for a real treat. Gary made a wise choice. When we did this in 2011, we thought it was a once in a lifetime experience, but now we have done it twice and are tentatively planning a third one for 2017.

Corinna

Funny but, even though we haven't done it yet, I suspect we will go again as Gary really wants to see the 'new' part once it is open. In fact, he actually wanted to wait until we could do the new bit but I persuaded him we needed to do the 'old' bit first.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Thanks for the canal photos. Very interesting. Love the jungle look of the palms. Was it humid?
Lunch and dinner both sound delicious.
Once again, love the character photos.

It did not feel especially humid to me this time round. When we did this in January 2011 there was a lot more humidity.

Funny but, even though we haven't done it yet, I suspect we will go again as Gary really wants to see the 'new' part once it is open. In fact, he actually wanted to wait until we could do the new bit but I persuaded him we needed to do the 'old' bit first.

You never know, we may end up on the same cruise when the time has come to go through the new locks. I am definitely with you about doing the old locks first.

Corinna

 

[wilma-bride]

You never know, we may end up on the same cruise when the time has come to go through the new locks. I am definitely with you about doing the old locks first.

Corinna

That would be fun - and a high probability as it would likely be 2017 (at least) before we could fit it in

 

[dgbg100106]

Why were people shooting at him? Who was shooting at him?






Thanks for the canal photos. Very interesting. Love the jungle look of the palms. Was it humid?
Lunch and dinner both sound delicious.
Once again, love the character photos.

My husband was a US Army Captain at the time that the US invaded Panama to oust Manuel Noriagia 1989. He was a paratrooper and was dropped behind the lines, and the Panamanian Army was shooting at him. So he told me once that he does not want to go back to a place for fun, where people were shooting at him.

 

[Pinkocto]

The crossing looks fascinating!!! This cruise is very high on mom's list, her man is an engineer.

Did the bored guy not know what the cruise was about?

 

[ImDMous]

All your pictures brought back great memories for me. That blue princess night dress is just stunning!!

We did a private excursion with other people from the DIS group in Cartagena and it looks like it was very similar to yours. We did go to La Popa first, I think we were the first group there in the morning, maybe we were the bus coming down while you were trying to go up . Then we went to the fort and walked to the top and through, very cool! Then the "cells" for shopping, Old Town, the wall, etc. It seems like we did everything very similar, just started a little earlier. We did have a long time to walk through Old Town and we didn't do the church or naval museum. Our guide was great, Dora (the Explorer).

I really thought Cartagena was a great city also, I was really surprised how much I liked it and would love to go back.

You got so many great pictures of the canal. Our camera was lost/stolen/gone the day of the group mixology class so after that we just have video and phone pictures. Kind of disappointing but what can you do? Go Again! This was our first time through and we had Palo brunch that day. While the view was beautiful from there, I don't think I would do it again because with getting ready and eating the resulting food coma, I think I lost too much deck time soaking in the atmosphere.

We were on the visitor center side on deck 9 and it was pretty cool to watch everyone wave and get so excited when they blew the horn.

I can definitely see us doing this cruise again in a few years.

 

[Chilly]

I'm not caught up yet and someone else may have already asked but what do you plan to do with the Emerald?

 

[Sultana]

I am loving your trip report, it's almost as if I have been there myself (oh, wait, I *have* been there myself, just not on DCL, lol)


Did you ever see these shoes? They are (were?) sold at Harrods and are gorgeous, and would go so well with all your gowns! Good thing about the sparkle is that they match everything (and no need for a matching pair for each dress since that would be a PITA to pack!)