THE TRIP DL via PC 7126 miles total

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Problem is on most of the tours, unless specified, ecv's of any type are prohibited. This is something that DISNEY does not control since the tours are all contracted.

Well that just SMB.

I'm glad the private car worked out for y'all.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Okay... I'm a little late to the game but goodness, looks like you two had a wonderful time!  That session with the Captain...SUPER interesting stuff!  The window being cleaned?  Yeah, that freaked me out because, at first, I thought you had some really rough seas.  Made me stop breathing, just looking at the picture.  Was very glad to read that it was just Disney, being Disney :)   Oh...and your deck?  Goodness, that was really large :)  Very nice.

 

Loving the pictures.

 

So glad you got the chance to go :)

 

 

This being Fiends I cant let it go. Did you really just tell Grumpy he had a really large Deck?

 

I was going to post a vid but I cant do it. 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

This being Fiends I cant let it go. Did you really just tell Grumpy he had a really large Deck?

 

I was going to post a vid but I cant do it. 

 

 

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

LOL, There was talk of large decks at Townsend  :rofl2:

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

This being Fiends I cant let it go. Did you really just tell Grumpy he had a really large Deck?

I was going to post a vid but I cant do it.

:rofl2:

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Ok on YouTube look up New zealand Deck Sealant

[Lou... 3,118]

Agreed, Rich had his scooter in Gatlinburg, and its fairly small, and hit a curb at the wrong angle, and over he went. Fortunately, he is fine. Scared the stew out of all of us though.

 

I know what you mean. Whenever I've seen that happen, I've been behind the wheel and completely useless.

There are usually other people around to help them, but not always.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Did you really just tell Grumpy he had a really large Deck?

 

Did I leave the curtain open? :rotfl6:

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Had a busy day, another update tomorrow.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Had a busy day, another update tomorrow.

 

Waiting... patiently... 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

The big day finally arrives and the question is:

 

 Here is our anticipated schedule.

 

Arriving Gatun Locks                                  approx  7:30 am

Departing Gatun Locks                              approx   9:45 am

Passing Gamboa                                          approx 12:30 pm

Arriving Pedro Miguel Locks                     approx   2:00 pm

Departing Pedro Miguel Locks                  approx   2:45 pm

Arriving Miraflores Locks                           approx   3:15 pm

Departing Miraflores Locks                       approx    5:00 pm

Passing under the bridge of America       approx    5:15 pm  

 

As we made our way through Capt. Puckett's wife did a wonderful narration of the various stages of the crossing. 

 

Naturally many are lined up on the top decks towards the front in anticipation of what's to come. I did go up to snap some pictures, but why sit in the hot sun all day when we could also enjoy it all from our verandah which did allow for some shade.

 

From now until we exit into the Pacific we are no longer the DISNEY WONDER, we are now S14Z. S southbound,  14 14th ship of the day and Z we paid the priority fee.

 

As we make our approach you can see some of the constuction that is going on for the new canal which will be wider and when finished will allow both the Dream and Fantasy along with the other larger freighters and tankers use the canal.

 

Off to the right you can see the original channel that the French started when they had orginally planned on building the canal.

 

Here are some of the new gates which will be used on the new locks as well as more of the construction.

.

 

We make our approach and a tug sits in the ready to help get us lined up. 

 

You can see the mules (trains) waiting for us to get into the lock, contrary to popular belief they do not pull the ships through they only keep us centered so we don't hit the side. As we first approached we did make one bump and Capt. Puckett had mentioned in his presentation that it would probably happen once or twice. 

 

Also notice the guys in the row boats at the end of the center island. Believe it or not after trying just about every method possible to get the lines from the ships to the mules having a quy in a row boat turned out to be the tried and true method. Also as you can there is a smaller black gate directly in front of us that is to prevent a ship from ramming the actual lock gates. That is the larger white area behind the ship in front of us

 

The ship that was in front of us has moved on, the water level has come back down and the gates open to let us in.

 

Here is a picture of the ship in front of us in the chamber as well as the ship in the lock next to us..

 

We finally get into position, the rear mule is keeping us steady and the gates start to close.

 

Even some of the chefs come out to watch the adventure

 

If you look closely you can see the cars are also starting to cross. There is a one-way vehicle bridge that allows the locals to get back and forth. 

 

The water starts in and up-up up we go.

 

There is a ship in the lock next to us getting ready to head in and you can get a good picture of the line handlers in their little boats.

 

We repeat these same steps two more times as we go up 85' to reach the lake.

 

Here we are approaching the visitors center and observation deck.

 

Here is a picture of what the mechanism looks like that opens and closes the gates. As I said earlier they were originally operated by a 25 hp motor, but it has now been increased to 40 hp.

 

Here is a better picture of  the control house for the Gatun locks.

 

This was our view as we depart and head across the lake.

 

As I look around on the verandah I see we picked up a stow away.  Glad he didn't stay around long, not sure if those are eyes or just antennae. 

 

Next up the scenery as we cross the lake.

[Beckers 1,136]

Wow! That's awesome!! And no way could you get me in that little dinky row boat when there was all the massive ships around. No thanks!

[BigTom 76]

Wow! That's awesome!! And no way could you get me in that little dinky row boat when there was all the massive ships around. No thanks!

I once had a chance to take my 15' boat up next to an aircraft carrier. Amazing how anything that big can float also been up next to a cruise ship, really make you seem small. Glad both were docked.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Wow! That's awesome!! And no way could you get me in that little dinky row boat when there was all the massive ships around. No thanks!

 

I agree!  It is awesome!  And I wouldn't be in that row boat either.  

 

Can you imagine how tedious a job driving a mule all day would be?

 

Great pictures, Dave!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Can you imagine how tedious a job driving a mule all day would be?

 

Great pictures, Dave!

The drivers actually like being in the mule. 99% don't have ac at home and the mules have ac.

And thanks.

[Judy in Texas 150]

I watched the ship that day on the various webcams. It's interesting to see the transit from the ship's point of view.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

 

Off to the right you can see the original channel that the French started when they had orginally planned on building the canal.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me guess.....they quit??  

 

:rofl2:

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

We head across Gatun lake , and remember this is all man made, just to supply water to the canal.  Every ship that crosses uses 52,000,000 gals of fresh water from the lake.

 

 When it was built it was the largest man made lake, today it doesn't even make the top 30 list.  It's area is 164 sq miles and it stores 4,200,000 acre ft of water which is equivalent to the average annual rain fall (200 inches) that comes down the Charges river. We always hear about the need to protect the rain forests well this is a prime example if why. Without the annual rainfall the canal could be in jeopardy of continued operation.  The lake also has a depth of about 85 ft and 1,100 miles of shoreline. The amount of rainfall in the area is the main reason the French plan for a "sea level" canal failed. They didn't know how they would handle the large amounts of water.  There are times when it rains people say it's like someone dumped a barrel of water on top of you.

 

As we cruise we are passed by numerous ships heading Northward. There is even an occasional pleasure craft.

 

The pleasure craft are required to anchor out until their is a large enough number to justify locking through

do to the large amount of water used each time.

 

Here are the remnants of some of the trees that ended up submerged when the lake was built.

 

A group of workers doing something along the bank.

 

The Capt said the area is also very prone to landslides and you here you can see some of the repair.

 

We also passed a dredging operation which is going on as part of the planned new locks since some of those ships will have a deeper draft. They dynamite and then dredge. The orginal plan was to just raise the lake "oops" that would put the exisiting gates under 8' of water. 

 

We pass by Gamboa which was originally a village that was built for all the construction people working on the canal. It is now a resort area.

 

See that large crane of the right. Spoils of WW ll. This is the Titan and was built by Hitlers Germany. The U.S. took it to Long Beach and then after 50 years it was floated to the canal. It is used to maintain the lock doors, it can lift 350 metric tons and is one of the strongest cranes in the world.

 

A tug passes us as we go by the mouth of the river and the one-way bridge that crosses the mouth of the Charges River

 

Here is the traffic control point for the bridge.

 

One of the old light houses.

 

More slide repairs underway.

 

We passed under the Centennial Bridge which was dedicated in 2004 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Panama. It spans 3,451 ft and is 262 ft above the canal which allows the larger vessels and "TITAN" to clear.  The West tower has been set back 164 ft to allow for the future widening.  It is the second bridge to connect the continent and is just before the Pedro Miguel Locks which will be the next update.

 

With that we end this segment with a "selfie".  (glad cameras have timers)

[Beckers 1,136]

What was the weather like? Hot? Humid?

Nice selfie!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

What was the weather like? Hot? Humid?

Really wasn't bad, temp was 81, humidity wasn't all that bad either. Rainy season is about to start so I'm glad they do the cruise in May.

Nice selfie!

Thanks.

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Wow... LOVE this trip report!  Cannot tell you how much my father would enjoy this cruise.  He would have sat next to you during the Captain's seminar :) Your cruise is a longer one... any idea if there are shorter ones that take you through the canal?  My poor mom gets extreme motion sickness (poor lady takes the drugs, wears the patches, heck she'd walk the cruise backwards if that would help but nothing makes a difference for her).  They've gone on 3 or 4 cruises and while they enjoyed the trips themselves, it's stopped being "fun" for mom.

 

Thanks for the photos and all the great information!  

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Loving all the information on the canal, Dave.  Pretty interesting to see the engineering challenges and how we overcame them, plus the widening plans.  

 

Gamboa doesn't looks very "resort-ish".  Who does it cater to?  

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I had no idea that lake is so beautiful ... or so crowded!

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

Gamboa doesn't looks very "resort-ish". Who does it cater to?

That's just part of the dock area. The main "resort area" is the hotel which allows access to the rainforest. The city is still the hub for the dredging operations. We were told the city is just a shell of what it was during the construction era for the canal.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

We are now approaching the Perdro Miguel lock which lower us to the Miraflores lake and then 1.3 miles later we enter the Miraflores locks as we head back to sea level. The Southern end is different in the fact that you have two sets of locks, one single and then one double, the Gatun locks are three consecutive. I also should have mentioned earlier, the locks and associated lakes are named after the Villages that were flooded when the lake was built.

A little repair work underway.

Our turn, the lock is empty.

Don't remember the name of the trees, but they bloom for a very short period (days)prior to the rainy season.

Remember we talked about the line handlers and their little boats. Well since each rope has a monkey fist on the end and the ropes are thrown to the ship each set of locks has a huge target where the line throwers compete to see who has the best accuracy.

More pics as we work our through.

The Pedro Miguel operations building.

This shows the turbulance created when the water is released from the lock chamber.

We are now past the operations building and almost of the lock.

More construction in preperation for the widening.

We leave the lock for our 1.3 mile journey.

More hillside stabilization.

Up next we head through the final two locks and are in the Pacific Ocean at Panama city.