Our Carnival Pride Repo Journeys Cruise (with pics) - 2/26/17

[Jamman]

Patti got these shots of the Carnival Pride docked in Port Limon, after leaving the Souvenir Market and heading back to the ship…..

Six hours later these guys are still banging away on the xylophone…..

The gangway of the Carnival Pride……

Once back on board, Patti got herself a chocolate mocha getaway…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

Patti and I met up and went to Guy’s Burgers for a snack, and then over to the Red Frog Rum Bar for a couple of drinks, before heading back to the cabin to watch sail away…..

To be continued……

 

[Jamman]

Tonight, we are back in the Normandie Restaurant for dinner. Here are tonight’s menus…..

There is a table of ship’s officers nearby that Ken is attending to…..

We both had the crab melt as a starter…..

I also had the potato skins……

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

Patti also had a Caesar’s salad…..

For my mains I had the pork chop which was very good as usual, and the penne Newburg, which wasn’t that good…..

Patti had the chicken breast for her entrée……

Here is tonight’s dessert menu…..

Patti had butter pecan ice cream…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

For dessert I had a banana split and the apple dumpling…..

Today was Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and they had a celebration in the Atrium…..

To be continued……..

 

[Jamman]

Here are a few more Dr. Seuss celebration pictures…..

In the Taj Mahal tonight, was the comedy and ventriloquism of Phil Hughes. There were no comedy shows tonight, because comedian JR Brow, who was to fly into Costa Rica to join the ship, didn’t make it. After a walk around the ship, Patti and I made our way back to the cabin where we found tonight’s towel animal……

Coming up next: a partial transit of the Panama Canal. Simply Awesome!!!

 

[Jamman]

Friday, March 3rd - Partial transit of the Panama Canal - 9:15am to 3:55pm (times are approximate).

Here are today’s Fun Times……

We awoke to a beautiful day, though the seas were a little choppy……

We were excited about today, as we had never been to the Panama Canal before. We decided that instead of fighting with the masses up on deck for a prime viewing spot, we would watch our transit from the comfort of our balcony. This way if it got too hot, we could just slip inside to cool off.

But first,we would head up to the Lido for some breakfast. I grabbed my usual breakfast burrito from the Blue Iguana, and Patti had an omelet. After breakfast we made our way back to the cabin, but first I stopped at the Red Frog Rum Bar to say hello to Winston, and get a bucket of beer to enjoy while we watched the action from our balcony.

Okay folks, Patti and I, well mostly Patti, took a boatload of pictures today, and though we won’t be showing you every one, we will be showing you quite a few. This was a great experience, so sit back, relax, and enjoy our presentation of the Panama Canal…..

To be continued…….

 

[Jamman]

First, an explanation of what a partial canal transit is. We will be going through the Gatun locks, a set of three locks that will raise the Pride from sea level, about 85’ to the level of Gatun Lake. Once we exit the locks, we will cruise into Gatun Lake, where we will anchor for a couple of hours. Then, we will return through the Gatun locks, back to sea level, and out into the Caribbean Sea.

We are now sailing past the port of Colon on our way to the Gatun locks…

There is a split in the waterway off to the left which leads to the new Panama Canal expansion, a single lane which can handle larger ships that couldn’t fit through the old locks. We will be going through the old locks…..

Now, where are those guys, and more importantly, who are those guys?

Those guys are way up there, and they are helping to build a new bridge over the Panama Canal……….

Here are a couple more far away views of the Panama Canal expansion……

After this point you really couldn’t see it anymore, so let me give you a few facts. They began the expansion in 2007, and it opened just last year. The three locks on both the Caribbean and the Pacific sides are each 1,400ft in length, and 180ft wide. They can handle just about any ship BUT, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class is still too big to fit!!

The old locks are each 1,000ft in length, and 110ft wide. The Pride, which is 106ft wide, has two feet to spare on each side!

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

This is where we will be going…..

There is a fleet of canal tugs to give any ship a helping hand if needed…..

The Avila Star has just exited the last lock, and is heading out towards the Caribbean Sea…..

We will be following the Maersk Batur through the locks…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

Now that’s a tight fit!

The guys in the rowboat row lines out to the ship so that the “mules” can be attached on both sides…..

These are the “mule” drivers…..

The Maersk Batur is in the first lock and the gates are starting to close. Notice the roadway in front of the gates? When both gates are closed, traffic will be allowed to cross…..

To be continued……

 

[Jamman]

The gates are just about closed…..

The “mules”are attached. There will be two in the front, and two in the back, on each side. The purpose of the “mules” is to keep the ship from scraping the sides of the locks. The ship moves through the locks under it’s own power. Of course, there is a certified Panama Canal Pilot on the bridge the whole time…..

Now that both lock gates are closed, traffic is allowed to cross…..

Most of the pictures of the canal that you see are taken from the air, so you really don’t realize what a marvel of engineering this is until you see the height of the locks. These next two shots let you see the height that these ships are raised and lowered…..

To be continued….

 

[Jamman]

The two “mules”on the left will be attached to the stern of the Carnival Pride…..

The Federal Clyde is entering the lower lock…..

Once she is completely in the lock, and the gates behind her have been closed, the valves are opened and the water in the lock is lowered…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

The Federal Clyde is lowered to sea level…..

The last few vehicles scurry across…..

The roadway begins to swing open…..

To be continued……

 

[Jamman]

The roadway continues to open, and then the gates open…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

The Federal Clyde can now sail from the lock, detach from the “mules”, and then head out to sea…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

Then the roadway and the gates close, and the process begins all over again…..

The Carnival Pride is now moving into the lower lock…..

The numbers on the signs are the distance in feet, to the end of the lock…..

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

As the Carnival Pride slowly makes her way into the lower lock, we get a closer look at the roadway that crosses the canal…..

We see an armed guard escorting some photographers across the closed gate…..

They are three of our ship’s photographers. We wonder when they left the ship…..

As we slide by, they begin taking pictures of the passengers that are on their balconies…..

It looks like he’s pointing his camera at us!

To be continued…..

 

[Jamman]

He got us! There we are…..

Great job guys!

We are almost completely in the lower lock……

You can see that over in the other lane, the CSL Tarantau is being lowered to our level…..

To be continued…….

 

[Jamman]

The Carnival Pride is completely in the lower lock…..

The CSL Tarantau is leaving the middle lock and heading into the lower lock…..

Our photographers and their escort are walking to the middle lock…..

That’s a heck of a lot of stairs to climb…..

To be continued……

 

[Jamman]

The CSL Tarantau makes her way into the lower lock…..

The Carnival Pride is being raised up so she can enter the middle lock…..

Here is a view to the front as seen on our cabin television…..

To be continued……