Within the last week, we've had two sets of friends tell us they're going on a cruise through the Panama Canal this year, and they were looking for a little expertise from us. We've made one trip through the famous Canal…and we're experts!
Hardly.
We do have the "experience" of going through the little Panama Canal before it becomes the big Panama Canal. Until then, we knew little about it, other than that it was this "little" canal across the Isthmus of Panama that connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Since then, we have told anybody who cared to listen that it's an amazing experience.
Put it on the bucket list.
Obviously, lots of people do. During the recently concluded "Panama Canal season" 222,203 passengers on 200 cruise ships did what we did. The last ship through before they turned out the lights — or closed the locks on the cruise ship season — was Celebrity's Millennium, which happens to be the ship that took us across the Isthmus. Then, as now, it was a re-positioning cruise, going east to west on its way to Alaska.
The rookie-of-the-year for 2011-12 was Norwegian's Jewel, making its maiden Canal crossing earlier this month, from New York to Los Angeles.
Seeing the Panama Canal is an education. It starts with the 14 hours it takes to go from ocean to ocean (we naively thought it was just a little trip through the jungle). To hear its story with live pictures passing by your ship helps you understand what a marvel it is, and what it will mean when bigger ships start going through two years from now.
Everybody should see it once. Hey, then you can be an expert!
Cunard Queen Mary 2
7 nights
November 20, 2012
Southampton to New York
Inside: $995
Cost per day: $85
www.cunard.com