ABOARD THE CELEBRITY MILLENNIUM — Reflections on the waters of the Panama Canal (add it to your bucket list, please): • The three pilots and crew that boarded the ship on the Atlantic entrance were changed for a Pacific crew about halfway across the country, at Gamboa. There was one exception. Celebrity lucked out in… Continue reading The Aquatic Highway, Atlantic to Pacific
Category: Stories
Last of the Locks in Panama
ABOARD THE CELEBRITY MILLENNIUM — Have you any idea what it feels like to be four stories up at ground level? Right there on the other side of the railing is grass. Also railway tracks. And trains. And the bottom of the hull of a huge ship, just 50 yards away. And workers, at eye… Continue reading Last of the Locks in Panama
The Ongoing Ride to the Pacific
ON BOARD THE CELEBRITY MILLENNIUM — The longest stretch of the Panama Canal, a stretch that cruise ship employees have been known to call affectionately “a day in the ditch,” was also the most difficult terrain to cross when it was built a century ago. Think turn a mountainside into a man-made lake, with what… Continue reading The Ongoing Ride to the Pacific
A Celebrity Sibling Moment
On Board the Celebrity Millennium — At 10:52 this morning, thousands of people on two boats, people who had never met and who likely never would meet, spent a few minutes waving at each other across the water that felt about the width of a football field, from one Celebrity cruise ship to another. For… Continue reading A Celebrity Sibling Moment
Cruising Above Sea Level
On board the Celebrity Millennium — Estimates are it will take an hour and 15 minutes to navigate the Gatun Locks, and we will anchor for close to two hours in the lake. However, by being mere minutes ahead of schedule, we are able to follow the ship in front without anchoring, and go right… Continue reading Cruising Above Sea Level