April 18, 2018 – Transit the Panama Canal

We had two exciting milestones in our world cruise voyage yesterday and today.

Yesterday, Crystal Symphony crossed the equator northbound at approximately 4:00am. We were asleep then, so we didn’t notice the change. For the past 75 days (since early February), we’ve been cruising in the Southern Hemisphere (the South Pacific to be precise).

There was a King Neptune “right-of-passage ceremony” yesterday afternoon for those crossing the equator on board ship for the first time. They are now shellbacks, rather than their previous status as polliwogs. There were dozens of people kissing the fish this time. Even Captain Willheim got in on the action as well and jumped into the Seahorse Pool, along with the new shellbacks. We think he did it just for fun.

Today was our passage through the Panama Canal. We started at about 9:00am, and the weather was beautiful; this isn’t always the case in Panama. We’ve gone through the canal before, but it’s always exciting, as well as fascinating to watch. This time we entered the canal from the Pacific, near the port of Balboa, and we traveled in a northwesterly direction. We had a glimpse of Panama City through the morning haze.

Adding to the excitement today was seeing huge ships going into and out of the larger canal lane that became operational in June 2016 (see photo above). The new, larger lane parallels the old canal that we traveled on today. The canal expansion, and new lane of traffic, allows much larger ships to pass through. These ships, called “Neo Panamax,” are about 1½-times the size of the previous maximum size for the canal. As a result, these ships are now able to carry over twice as much cargo through the canal, avoiding the lengthy trip around South America and the Strait of Magellan. In addition to new, larger locks, they also widened and deepened existing channels and raised the maximum operating water level of Gatun Lake.

Back to Crystal Symphony, our “normal” size ship, as we travel through the old canal. The Panama Canal was originally built over a 10-year period and opened in 1914 (a little more than 100 years ago). Although there have been physical improvements over the years, the basic operation remains the same as when it opened. It currently handles over 13,000 ship transits per year (an average of 35 transits per day). We were told that Crystal paid over $200,000 for us to cruise through the canal today. Our destination lecturer told us that the canal collects over $2.5 billion per year in fees for passage. Transiting the canal is now possible 24 hours per day.

On each side of the Gatun Lake Divide, ships are raised and lowered 87 feet in a series of locks. There are three sets of locks (still original) for the canal. The 2-stop Miraflores locks and single-stop Pedro Miguel lock on the Pacific side of Gatun Lake and the three-stop Gatun locks on the Caribbean side of the lake.

After passing under the Bridge of the Americas (Pan America Highway), at sea level, we started in the Miraflores locks at about 10:00am, where we were raised 54 feet above sea level. Notice in the second photo below, there are two lanes of “traffic” at the lock. We’re headed for the left lane. After passing through this lock, we proceeded to the Pedro Miguel lock where we were raised up 33 feet higher. Each lock is 1,000 feet long and 110 feet wide.

Here’s the change in water level in the lock as we raised up (shown on the lock gate).

From there, we cruised for about three hours through the 9‑mile Culebra/Gaillard Cut ─ Continental Divide ─ (see below) and across the 23‑mile Gatun Lake.

On the Caribbean side of the lake, we were lowered, in a series of lock stops, a total of 87 feet back down to sea level, as seen on our stateroom television.

We exited the Panama Canal at about 5:30pm and turned to starboard headed for the port of Colón, where we will be docked.

Tonight, there was a private function, for full-world-cruise passengers only, at the Silk Restaurant on Deck 11. The event was called “Club Tropicana” and included cocktails (excellent White Sangria), 5-course dinner, and songs performed by the Entertainment Team’s singers and dancers, in-between courses of the dinner. The room was brightly decorated for the event, and all the entertainers were dressed like they were part of one of the old Cuban “hot” dance shows in Havana. Sarah Hayes, the World Cruise Hostess, was dressed like Carmen Miranda with a pile of fruits on top of her head and on her dress. The entire evening was planned and coordinated by Jonathon Hawkins, World Cruise Special Event Coordinator. Thanks go to Jonathon and Sarah, who are both busy entertainers in New York City, when they aren’t cruising with Crystal. Even Christine Andreas, an award-winning Broadway singer and dancer sang a number, along with her husband, Grammy-nominated arranger/composer Martin Silvestri who accompanied her on piano. The party was great fun.

We’ve stopped going to some of the evening entertainment shows being offered in the Galaxy Lounge, because there’s been so much repetition of the same production shows and the semi-permanent entertainers. They’re all good shows, but we don’t go to see the same show more than twice, unless it’s really special, and then we might go a third time.

All that being said, for this 13-day segment of the world cruise, we did see the following headline entertainers: Bob Arno, Pickpocket King; Salvatore Hasard, vocalist & multi-instrumentalist; and Martin Beaumont – British comedian.

Enrichment speakers this segment have been good: Prof. Bob Aalberts, destination lecturer; Dr. Bob Donaldson, world affairs lecturer: and Jon Malay, meteorologist, oceanographer, and space professional who spoke earlier on the world cruise -- praise to him, for preparing new materials.

Magic Castle at Sea remains a highlight with the Crystal world cruise. This segment, Magician John George had a great show. He is one of the best sleight-of-hand magicians anywhere and winner of many international competitions.

Of course, dining has been first class, as always on Crystal. Along with the Waterside (main dining room), we mix in visits to Prego (Italian), Silk (Chinese), Umi Uma (Japanese), and Churrascaria (Brazilian) specialty restaurants. Occasionally we invite friends to dine with us, and officers of the ship as well.

We have two more days in Colón, as we start Segment Six of World Cruise 2018.

Jim & Ginny