My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
As the itinerary that included the Panama Canal approached, the cruise staff started to get whiney. Ugh! Panama Canal! It’s the worst!
This was very surprising to me. When my mom had gone through the Panama Canal, she told me how cool it was and it became one of the more obscure places to go on my bucket list. At the end of my mom and Ron Voyage’s first world cruise there was a 17 day stretch where they would go through the Panama Canal and they invited me to come along over a year before they went. At the Art Institute I only got 16 days of vacation a year and that would wipe it out, so my plan was to quit my job, go on the cruise and then do a fun job that involved more acting and travel. Well, 9 months before the trip my boss approached me and suggested I apply for the Director of Admissions position. I told her I was honored, but I was planning on quitting the following April so that I could go on a cruise. If she would allow me a leave of absence so I could use all my vacation days I would apply. She said yes. So I stayed at the Art Institute and made a lot of money. But the point is, I was so excited about going through the Panama Canal, I was planning to quit my job in order to go. In 2016 I went through the original Panama Canal on the Pacific Princess which is a much smaller ship than the Caribbean Princess. Ron upgraded us to a suite on the back of the ship where we could almost touch the walls as the mules (trains not animals) pulled the ship through the canal. We could go in and out of the air-conditioning and watch the front on the giant TV on the bridge cam and then go out on the huge balcony to see the back. It was awesome. In 2016 the new bigger canal wasn’t quite finished yet. Now I would get to go through the new canal on the bigger ship.
There is a deck on the front of the ship outside my room where I could see everything.
Here I am with the canal!
The whole process is very slow. So slow that just watching it by itself isn’t very entertaining.
It was more exciting for me because I’d gone through the old locks. On the big ship we were guided by tug boats.
There’s me with the tug boat!
There’s the crew pool! We were in the lake in the middle waiting to go out of the locks again.
There’s the ship ahead of us going out and the tug boat. Like hanging out on the island with the Statue of liberty, there isn’t a lot to do besides taking pictures as the view slightly changes.
Yay! We’re next!
I decided to practice my Zumba routine out on the deck. I wasn’t put on it yet so I needed to remember all the steps. That was fun and surreal– Here I was on the front of the ship, dancing and listening to upbeat music as we went through the locks of the Panama Canal.
The locks moved so slowly I couldn’t remember if they opened like doors on a hinge or a sliding door.
Like a sliding door!
Here we go!
It was very windy.
So it turns out that when we go through the Panama Canal, the whole process starts very early. A good portion of passengers take tenders to their tours, we go through the canal, we go back out and then pick everyone up very late after their tour, but there isn’t much time to get off the ship. So it’s a port day but as cruise staff we have to work, which is why they don’t like it. It was very exciting to go through the canal the first time. The second time was less exciting and the third time I hardly noticed. I still think going through the locks is pretty cool, though, even if it takes all day.