Great Read.......Panama Canal

[seaulater]

Last year when we went through the Panama Canal, a friend recommended a book they had gotten prior to their cruise and said it was great, so we went and bought it.

Panama Canal by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising the Panama Canal by Anne Vipond, 2001

We bought it in March and read it as a family (DH, me and DD 11) and would have little family discussions about what we had read and learned. i.e. Do you know what the least expensive fare through the canal has been? How about the most expensive? (Just some interesting facts). It talks all about the building of the canal and the challenges, the countries involved, the diseases, well, I could go on and on.

Anyway, the best thing was the book had a pull out map and we took the book and the map with us. Put the map on our stateroom wall and brought along a highlighter and we tracked our progress each day on the ship. Had our DD write in a journal each day of our journey since she was missing school!

Anyway, it made the canal so much more meaningful when we actually made transit through the canal.

I would recommend that if you don't get this book that you get one and read up on the canal before going, it will make the experience so much more meaningful.

Can't wait till 5-14-05!!! Eight of us going, 4 staterooms!!

Linda

 

[ivanova]

thanks! just ordered it!!

 

[Juli]

Thank-you Linda,
I added this to my "wish-list" on Amazon. It looks like our Amazon Visa and the library card are going to get a work out!


I love your idea of the map. We do that on our maps at home or whenever we are on long car trips. Don't know if I wouldv'e thought to actually put it up in the stateroom. Great idea!

Juli

 

[Mboothby]

Funny you mention this book, I was JUST looking for books that would have info we could use for our repositioning cruise and saw this one. Looked good and went to Borders to get it, but they didn't have it in stock. Will order from Amazon, but wondering....does it have info on the ports we'll hit on the cruise?
Aculpulco, Cabo, Puerto Quetzal and Curacao? I can't find ONE book that lists all these ports.

 

[Verandah Man]

Thanks for the tip, I just went to Amazon and ordered mine, it will be here next week!!!

 

[MrsPete]

The cheapest fare ever through the canal would be ZERO. Paid (or not paid) by my father on manh occasions.

He used to tell us about his FAVORITE THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD to do as a kid: he and his friends'd take canoes (acutally cayucas, but I'll just say canoe because that's more familiar) to the Atlantic side on a long weekend, and they'd paddle the approximately 50 miles to the Pacific side. Apparently the boy scouts did this all the time.

His other favorite thing to do was to purposefully capsize the canoe right in front of a ship. Obviously, the ship couldn't stop, nor could it turn in the canal. They'd flounder around as if they weren't expert paddlers, and all the people on the ship would be screaming in terror, knowing that they were about to kill a bunch of kids. At the last minute they'd jump back in and paddle away in safety.

He must have been a really bad kid!

 

[seaulater]

That is sooooo funny Mrs. Pete. We didn't see any cayucas last year when we went through though. If I see any in May I'll think of you!

I am at my office right now, but I'll look in the book when I get home to see what ports they have in the book.

Someone told me on Amazon.com it was about $13.50. I think I paid closer to $18 when I got it last year. But then, I ran down to Barnes and Noble to buy it and didn't have any patience to wait for it to come in the mail.

It's kinda like spending my money, I told the DH, there was no reason not to spend it now, the only thing the kids would do when we are gone is fight over it, so I might as well spend it!

Linda

 

[Verandah Man]

I paid $13.27 for mine on Amazon this morning, for one of the new books, they also had used books as well.

 

[piglet33]

Thanks! I just ordered this too along with the Passporter for Disneyland. You can never have too much info to plan a vacation!

Thanks,

Renee'

 

[moocow35]

I ordered mine on May 3rd (nothing like preplanning before I was even booked!)

Andy,

You sure are getting a nice backup of cruises there! Congratulations on the "bringing the Magic home cruise" Wish I could be on that one, but DD college starts Aug. 23rd, so there was no way!

Robin

 

[Verandah Man]

Originally posted by moocow35
I ordered mine on May 3rd (nothing like preplanning before I was even booked!)

Andy,

You sure are getting a nice backup of cruises there! Congratulations on the "bringing the Magic home cruise" Wish I could be on that one, but DD college starts Aug. 23rd, so there was no way!

Robin

I know, I think I'm going "plum loco!!!" Between August 21, 2004 and August 20, 2005 we have three cruises lined up.

 

[piglet33]

Originally posted by Verandah Man
I know, I think I'm going "plum loco!!!" Between August 21, 2004 and August 20, 2005 we have three cruises lined up.

There's nothing wrong with that! I'm jealous since I only have two planned.

Renee'

 

[Luv2Dream]

Thanks for the info on this book. Great idea to get in the "mood".

 

[Juli]

I haven't had time to check any of my other usual book sources, but here's another possibility.

www.overstock.com

Price for this book with shipping: 11.29 + 1.40 shipping = $12.69

Sometimes Overstock.com runs shipping specials. Amazon has the free shipping deal with the Amazon Visa or a minimum order amount.

Juli

 

[RickW]

We just went out to B&N tonight and picked it up.

FYI, here is a quick overview about the ports-of-call listed:
Port Canaveral - No Info (the book doesn't consider this an endpoint of a Panama Canal cruise)
Curacao - About 5 pages
Puerto Quetzal - There are about 5 pages on Guatemala, and pretty much all it says about Puerto Quetzal is that many cruise ships stop here, but things to see are inland, and the section discusses those.
Acapulco - About 5 pages
Cabo San Lucas - About 4-5 pages
Los Angeles - About 5 pages

 

[ivanova]

got it today via Amazon!! I am so psyched about this cruise!! I plan on reading this book from cover to cover now!! <--- yes, that's me, I'm hyper about all this

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

We ordered ours from Amazon. I can't wait to read it.

 

[seaulater]

I was thumbing through mine over the weekend again! I just love all the info in that book. Got out the map and everything (I got the map laminated and rolled it up, put in luggage, and then hung on the stateroom wall).

Anyway, just think, one year ago at this time, we were on the RCCL PC cruise east to west, having a wonderful time and we were already depressed knowing that the cruise was going to end in another week! The first week just flew by, we didn't want to get off in San Diego, we wanted to continue with some of the others that were going on to Vancouver!

Have a great day!

Linda

 

[markmyboy]

We mentioned our plan to go on the Aug. 20th Panama Canal cruise to my father in law this weekend & he started in on this story about how his grandfather was one of the designers (engineers/architects??) for the canal. My father in law apparently has a book that was made from his grandfathers journal at the time & is trying to convince us to bring it on board with us...insisting that we would probably get to transit the canal on the bridge with the captain & crew!!

My father in law tends to take himself a BIT too seriously, but I did think it was pretty neat that "my family" had a little something to do with the building of the Panama Canal. Ever since I learned about the canal in elementary school I have been very interested in it, so this cruise is just going to be GREAT for me!!

I will try to get my hands on that book & see just what is in there!!

 

[trishy]

The book sounds very interesting - I'll have to check it out. Thanks for mentioning it.