NCL Panama Canal Cruise, Day eleven Daylight Transit Panama Canal

Panama City

Ships waiting to enter the Panama Canal.
You only enter by appointment.

Versailles is the main dinning room,
and where we enjoyed eating most of
the time.  I like it when I have
a waitress or waiter that serve me.
At home we do the cooking and cleaning
so this is a real treat for us. Sometimes
they will ask if you would like to share
a table. By sharing a table we meet some
really nice people.

The Panama Canal was built between 1904 and 1914 and over the intervening years has provided passage for over 800,000 boats between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The construction of the Panama Canal was one of the world’s greatest engineering projects.United States engineers excavated over 240 million cubic yards of rock and dirt, and find a place for it and military doctors had to overcome tropical diseases that had killed over 20,000 workers in the French effort to build a canal.

We entered on the Pacific side entering Balboa  at 5:30 AM.
At 8AM we were at the Miraflores lock a double lock,
at 9;40 we were at the Pedro Miguel single lock. Then we sailed
through the Gatun Lake. We enter the Ganton lock at 2;20, at 5;10 we reached the
Cristobal on the Atlantic side

The Panama Canal is a system of man made channels, locks, dams, and artificial lakes that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Panama Canal allows ships to cross the fifty mile wide isthmus at the narrowest part of the Americas. The Panama Canal uses locks to allow ships to enter the system from either ocean and to be raised to the level of an artificial lake, 26 meters above sea level. Boats transit central Panama via Lake Gatun before being lowered to sea level on the other side.

The engines were turned off and the
Locomotives would pull the ship
through the canal.  Very little room
on either side of the ship. They attached
rope or strong wire from the Locomotives
to the ship.  It took all day to go through
the canal.

The new locks for the Panama Canal.

The ship has a narrator who is a member of the Panama Canal Authority,
later in the day he also gives a lecture.  The lecture was very good
and he was welling to answer any questions that passengers might have.