15 day Panama Canal Transit Cruise/Carlos Pueblo
It was an
unexpected purchase of this 15 day Panama Canal Transit Cruise
trip three
day before it’s embark from Miami and a week before my long
scheduled
land trip to the U.K. The re-position mega ship, Bliss, sailed through
the straight
between Cuba and Dominican Republic into the Caribbean Sea.
After a stop
at Catagena, Columbia, continued to knock on the door step of
the Canal.
We entered the 1st lock at 7:00 am to wait for the rise of water
level
to the mark
of 20, I assumed that was 20 meters deep of the lock, then a powerful
small tug
boat hull the huge ship forward. 10 hours 7 locks to complete the entire
28 miles or
48 km length. At the Pacific end, we could see several huge containers
ships were
waiting on the lake to enter the Canal. There are two canals available
for the time
being, the old one was built by the U.S. and put into use in 1914 after
a purchase
of right to build from French in 1904. The U.S. returned the Canal
Authority to
the Panamanian Government in 1977 and there was an expansion
of a new
canal right by the old one in 2016 to hold larger ship to pass. The Bliss
is the 1st
of this kind to pass through on her maiden voyage in 2018.
After the
exit of the Canal, the ship sailed along the western coast of the Pacific
In the
Central and the North America through Caldera of Costa Rica; Quetzal of
Guatemala;
Acapulco, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas
of Mexico before the end
Port of Los
Angeles, California. The Bliss would stay at LA for a couple of weeks
to do the
Mexican routs before San Francisco and finally Seattle, Washington
for the
Alaska routes during the late spring and early fall. We took advantage of
the special
design new ship for Alaska glaciers view
to see the Canal comfortably
in 10 hours
three meals and nap included.
I found two
long missed adopted daughters on board right away due to my
information gathering
skill. I have added additional 45 daughters to my total
list of 250
plus daughters on board of this cruise line. I am pretty sure that I can
run into
some of them in any of the new ship which I have never been on. I
am
appreciated of these friendships and keep our together photos on my desk top
computer at
home as pretty flowers in a garden.
I have
utilized my perk of latitude status this time including dinners with two of
my daughters,
six time of free drinking of wine, free laundry once, and a behind
the scene
tour of this new ship, etc.
