Panama Canal Cruise: Full Transit Ft Lauderdale to San Diago
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| MS Eurodam |
On April 7, we flew to Ft Lauderdale and stayed at the Hyatt near the cruise port -great spot with an easy walk to restaurants, grocery and drug stores. We also had a nice walk down to the Hilton Marina to see the ships on the morning before our departure.
We embarked the beautiful MS Eurodam on Saturday April 8 - Then had lunch, explored the ship, unpacked, and settled in for our 16 day cruise through the Panama Canal to San Diego.
Here are a few shots of the ship
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| Cabin 8044 |
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| Fishy Bar stools |
Gala Night and the AM740 cocktail party on our fist day at sea
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ARUBA
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Oranjestad |
Eagle Beach, Aruba
Eagle Beach in Aruba is one of the most breathtaking beaches on the island. Boasting the widest beach in Aruba and famous for its pristine and soft white sands, Eagle Beach offers clear, sparkling Caribbean water, ample parking, shaded picnic areas, some huts, and a variety of motorized water sports. Eagle beach won the 2017 TripAdvisor Traveler Award for 3rd Best Beach in the World.
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| Divi Divi tree on Eagle Beach |
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| Getting ready to depart |
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| Sailing past the airport - beautiful water |
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| Resort on a beautiful beach |
Warm Tropical Evenings on Deck
The Panama Canal
Here is a 1 minute video of our trip through the Canal taken by the Eurodam photographers. As the ship is going throught locks you can also see ships going through the brand new locks for the bigger ships.
We arrived at the Canal about 6am wth lots of ships at anchor waiting their turn to get into the canal
At about 8am we entered the canal. Our direction of travel through the canal is North to South
(not east to west)
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| Entering the Canal |
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| This branch shows where the original canal was planned and dug by the French in the 1800's |
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| Following the container ship into the first Gatun Lock |
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| Lock doors are opening for us |
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| These locomotives called "mules"would help the ship stay centred in the canal. You can see how the depth of the lock and far up we will float by looking at the water line on the side of the canal. Our ship is 106 ft wide and the canal is 110 ft. A difference of 2 feet on each side of the ship |
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| Looking behind us as the loc doors close. There is a traffic bridge on top of one set of doors. (each lock has sets of doors at each end) |
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In this photo, you can see a fire truck crossing on the gate bridge. You can also see the rapids where they emptied water out of the lock across from us.Looking over to the side of the canal, you can see how thick the jungle is around the canal zone.   An oil tanker entered the lock beside us We were waving at the tanker and the tanker waved back.  The oil tanker is lowered on it's way to the Atlantic     Gatun Lake is seen beyond the last gates. The 3 Gatun locks raised us 85 feet.   Cruising Gatun Lake
It was a beautiful day. Lot of sun and temps in the low to mid 80's.
-Very pleasant for this part of the world.      Entering the Culebra Cut - one way traffic only.  Dredging of the canal is an ongoing operation  Culabra Cut - known for it's unstable geology and many landslides  The Centennial Bridge  Shoring up the hillside because of landslides  Entering the Pedro Miguel Lock. You can see the new Pacific lock on the right, and faintly in the distance, the Bridge of the Americas.  The beautiful landscape around the canal  Being lowered in the Pedro Miguel lock. We are now looking up at the mule (and a very friendly driver)  As we enter the final set of locks, Miraflores Locks, the rowboats come out to hook up the mule lines. This is how they have hooked up the lines since the opening of the canal. Our guide said they have tried more modern methods but the little rowboats still work the best in each lock.   Miraflores Locks  Frigate Bird. These birds with the beautiful tails were seen all through the canal and in the Central American ports.  Skyline of a very modern looking Panama City  The Bridge of the Americas - We hit the pacific at about 5:45 pm; so our transit of the canal was approximately 10 hours.  Central America ports are continued in Part 2, 3 and 4 of this blog Link for part 2:Puntarenas Costa Rica to Corinto Nicaragua Link for part 3: Guatemala Link for part 4: Mexico |
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