A Walk In the Clouds

Posted on April 17, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

suspension bridge

Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country in central America sitting north of Panama and south of Nicaragua. It has coastlines on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Within the country’s 19.730 square miles there are beaches, volcanoes, and jungles. About a quarter of the land is protected jungle. The capital of the country is San Jose. Spanish is the official language and money is the Costa Rican Colón. One US dollar was equal to 501.84 CRC at the time of our visit, but with the dollar’s falling value it is only worth 455.96 CRC now.

Puntarenas Costa Rica Cruise Port

Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam docked in Puntarenas, Costa Rica at the Puerto Caldera cruise ship dock. Unlike many cruise ship port stops on long cruises that go to lesser visited places, this one is not in a container port. Two ships fit on a long dock and excursion busses pick up and drop off passengers right in front of the ship. Puntarenas has a warm humid tropical climate. Highs average between 86 to 95°F (30 to 35°C). Lows rarely fall below 74° F. Total annual rainfall averages about 1603.5 mm (63.1 inches). 

Costa Rican flowers

Cruise Ship Excursions in Puntarenas

Excursions offered from the Niew Amsterdam included Aerial Tram, Tarcoles River& Lunch; Sloth sanctuary, botanical garden, oxcart factory & lunch; Aerial tram, butterfly garden & sloth sanctuary; Rain Forest Canopy Zip Line & Aerial tram; Villa Blanca Storytelling & Cultural experience; Discover Costa Rica (historical landmark & botanical garden); botanical garden & oxcarts; Andalusian horse show; butterfly garden; Corobici river raft float, scenic drive & lunch; Sky walk in the forest; Jungle crocodile safari; Panoramic scenic ride (bus tour; motorcoach transfer to San Jose; Simply Puntarenas – historical and cultural sites; Tortuga Island & beach break; Villa Blanca cloud forest & photography experience; A walk in the clouds; Scarlet macaw sanctuary & mangrove cruise; Eco tropical mangrove river cruise; and Costa Rica’s countryside & coffee experience.

flower in the Costa Rican cloud forest

A Walk in the Clouds

We booked an excursion called A Walk in the Clouds. The cruise ship description was as follows:

TOP 3 REASONS TO BOOK

Spectacular hummingbird aerobatics at an open garden

A bird’s-eye view of the cloud forest

Agua dulce (a traditional drink) and a Costa Rican lunch

ABOUT THE EXCURSION

Discover the richness of the cloud forest as you walk along beautiful trails, with striking green vegetation morphing into weird and wonderful shapes before your very eyes. Your tour starts with a short downhill walk leading to an open hummingbird garden, where many species of these tiny, brightly colored birds casually perform spectacular aerobatic maneuvers.

After this mesmerizing and strangely addictive experience, head to the first of four suspension bridges that collectively cover a half-mile of elevated trail, offering a bird’s-eye view of the cloud forest. Each bridge stretches between 95 and 253 feet and is suspended up to 126 feet above the ground. As you continue hiking among rivers and cascades, your naturalist guide will point out the most outstanding features of the misty forest. Several bird, butterfly and small mammal species inhabit the area, and plants such as orchids, heliconias, ferns, bromeliads and other species of aerial plants are part of this intriguing natural habitat.

Taste some delicious agua dulce (a traditional drink) and enjoy a hearty Costa Rican lunch. On the ride back to the ship, you will stop at El Jardín to browse in the souvenir shop.

Notes:

Wear comfortable closed-toe walking shoes. The tour operator suggests a minimum age of 8 years due to the walking required (time and distance); however, parents of children who are enthusiastic explorers are invited to use their discretion. Not advisable for guests with mobility limitations. Wear long pants; bring rain gear and a jacket.

view of a creek from a suspension bridge

The Actual Excursion

A long line of people snaked through the hallway of the Nieuw Amsterdam in an attempt to get into the shore excursion meeting place in the ship’s theater for all of the excursions in Costa Rica. Since all of the departures were fairly close together that meant pretty much everyone with an excursion. Ours was at the latest scheduled departure time of 11:45 even though it was one of the day’s longest excursions at nearly 7 hours. After seeing the long line in the hallway we headed to the theater earlier than otherwise planned and made it inside before our scheduled check-in time of 11:25. If an excursion has more than one bus it pays to arrive in time to get assigned to the first one because generally the first bus gets the best guide. If there are multiple busses and you end up on the straggler’s bus the guide is usually horrible. At least that’s been our experience from excursions past. This one only had one bus, as did the majority of excursions at this port.

The first few excursions were running late on the times they got called out due to congestion in the hallways and on the pier and something going on with the Caribbean Princess docked next to us. By the time they got halfway through calling the excursions they had started to catch up, and when they got to ours they had gotten ahead as we were called out at 11:30. A perfect example of why people need to be there by the check-in time because those waiting for the departure time to show up may find their excursion has already left.

We had a pretty long bus ride from the coast up a mountain to the cloud forest. The narrow winding road had not been designed with large tour busses in mind. It took both lanes to make the turn on quite a few of the curves. At one we came upon another bus coming the opposite way, neither of which saw the other until the corner where both stopped abruptly before ours slowly inched past the other one as it waited. There was more traffic behind each of them so backing out of the way wasn’t an option for either bus.

restaurant up on a mountain

Eventually we made it to our destination, which started with what the excursion description said was a traditional Costa Rican lunch. It was raining pretty hard while we ran from the bus to the restaurant, but by the time we finished lunch the rain had stopped. It was cloudy the whole time we were there, but I guess that’s to be expected in a cloud forest. It’s in the cloud though so it’s actually fog at that elevation rather than looking up at clouds in the sky. The lunch included rice, beans, salad, Pico de Gallo and a choice of fish, pork, or chicken. Drinks were Costa Rican coffee or white or red juice of unknown origins. I had the white and it was quite good. Linda tried the red and said it was good as well. People who drink coffee said it was as excellent as the tour guide claimed Costa Rican coffee to be. According to him they grow only the finest coffee beans and pick them all by hand so only the ripe ones are used which makes very expensive coffee, most of which is exported to large companies in the USA including Starbucks and Duncan Donuts who then blend it with lesser varieties.

The guide was very informative and talked quite a lot on the way to and from the excursion. He mentioned their ecosystem starting at the coral reefs and working its way up through mangroves and other things up to the cloud forest and beyond, though I don’t remember all of the different stages. He also said Costa Rica has no army. I had previously heard them referred to as the Switzerland of Central America so no army and staying friendly and neutral to other countries is probably why. They have not had an army for 76 years since a former dictator disbanded it figuring if there was no army then there wasn’t anyone in the country who could kill him. They do however have army ants which may explain a t-shirt that said Costa Rican Army depicting an ant wearing army gear.

coatimundi in Cozumel

After lunch we took a little walkway between the restaurant and some gift shops out to a back deck. There was a coatimundi in the bushes and a worker putting parts of bananas on a tree either to attract those or sloths. We went to a place in Mexico once where coatimundi were unafraid of people and begging for food under the tables of an outdoor restaurant. This one was much shier. It popped out of the bushes long enough to nose around briefly down below the deck before disappearing back into the bushes. It was too far away and too fast to get a good picture of it.

zipline near the restaurant

There was a rack of zipline equipment on that deck because the place also does zipline tours, but that was not part of our excursion.

The busload of people got divided into two groups. Half followed our bus tour guide out onto the trail and the other went with a local guide. The driver was from the other side of the country so we waited for the local one figuring he would know more about that specific area. Probably a good choice because he definitely knew a lot about the place where we were.

We headed down some stairs and onto a trail which first passed by a bin of walking sticks which the guide recommended for anyone who might want something to help with balance as touching anything in the forest is not a good idea. Not even handrails as you never know what may be lurking on them and the forest was full of tiny assassins.

frog

We hadn’t gone far before the guide found a little frog sitting on a leaf. He said so long as nobody scared it away with a flash it would stay there. One by one everyone filed by and took their pictures and sure enough the frog stayed right on that leaf.

hummingbird

Soon the trail came to a small clearing full of hummingbird feeders. That area was their hummingbird garden. I thought we would see the sort of brightly colored tropical hummingbirds with really long tails like the ones I had seen at the top of Mystic Mountain (home of the Jamaican Bobsled Roller Coaster) in Jamaica, but the ones in the Costa Rican cloud forest looked similar to the sort we have at home, though they are not actually the same kind. There were not a lot of them, but enough that everyone got to see at least one and attempt to take photos of the speedy little birds. They didn’t hold still at all. Even at the feeder they just took a quick sip before flying off.

venomous little snake

The guide had some sort of light pointer to show us things we otherwise wouldn’t see. He pointed out a tiny snake wrapped around a small tree branch near a hummingbird feeder. He said it was a venomous viper that eats hummingbirds. He also warned us again not to touch anything in the forest because that wasn’t the only poisonous thing we weren’t likely to notice. A bite from that snake would send a person to the hospital for several days. It blended in so well to the tree branch that nobody other than the guide would ever have seen it if he hadn’t pointed it out.

poisonous caterpillar

Later down the trail he pointed out a very large caterpillar. He said touching it would also send a person to the hospital for a couple days. It would eventually turn into a beautiful swallowtail butterfly. I did see some small yellow butterflies in that jungle, but not close enough for photos. The caterpillar was quite large for a caterpillar. Though much shorter in length, its body circumference was probably pretty close to the same as the little snake.

bridge

The first two bridges we crossed had support structure underneath, but the rest were all actual suspension bridges. None of them were out in the open where anyone could get a good photo of them though.

switchback on the trail

We walked down a trail that was steep enough to have switchbacks in some places.

suspension bridge

There were a lot of bridges to cross. Some long and some short.

guide with an open cacao pod

Eventually we came down to a viewpoint just above a creek. While there the guide picked a cacao pod and opened it up to show everyone the seeds that are what gets made into chocolate. He let people each take one to taste, but at that point they don’t really taste like chocolate.

crazy looking caterpillar

Later the guide pointed out another caterpillar of a different species than the first one. It was also big for a caterpillar, poisonous to the touch, and would eventually become a beautiful butterfly. This one sported some crazy appendages. It sort of looked like a caterpillar version of a poodle.

bug carapaces

Along the way the guide found various things to show us including some sort of bug carapaces and the spines that were once used to make the blowdarts that use the poison from the little poison dart frogs. He said that poison can either be cooked out of the meat or will dissipate on its own from an animal after an hour or so making meat hunted with that poison safe to eat, whereas snake venom would render the meat unusable.

bungee jump platform

In one spot we could see something high above our trail that looked like half a bridge ending in wires. The guide said it belonged to a different company that used it for bungee jumping.

Though the excursion description only mentioned walking downhill, we also walked uphill on the way back up to the starting point. Some of the people not expecting an uphill hike were huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top. Due to the excursion description people likely assumed that the bus would meet us somewhere down the hill rather than back where we started at the top.

stairway on the trail

We passed over suspension bridges on the way up as well as the way down. The trails had lots of switchbacks and some stairways as well as all of the bridges. We took a loop route that only repeated the very first part of the hike between the restaurant and hummingbirds.

We got back to the hummingbird garden when we were nearly to the end of the hike. There was a wild hyderanga growing there that I hadn’t noticed the first time, but it just had one bloom. A bit farther up the trail I spotted a black caterpillar on the back of a leaf that the guide did not point out. I don’t know if that one was poisonous like the other two or not.

flower by the trail

The excursion wasn’t exactly the same as the description, but it was nice for anyone who enjoys hiking through a forest, is in shape enough to handle hiking on rough terrain, and can keep their balance well enough without holding onto anything for suspension bridges that are likely to sway and bounce a bit. The bridges do have handrails, but as our guide pointed out you don’t actually want to use them since one of those poisonous forest creatures could be sitting on it. We quite enjoyed the tour.

Not everyone followed the directions for this excursion because there were some wearing shorts and even a couple in sandals, but they weren’t turned away. The sandal people were lucky that none of the poisonous critters we saw were on the ground.

The people running this tour did not say to remember your bus seat number and don’t take someone else’s seat like they had on a previous excursion we took on this cruise. When we got back on the bus somebody had taken our seats and refused to give them up so we had to find seats elsewhere which isn’t easy. Everyone else plans to return to the same seat on the way back that they sat in for the trip there and we didn’t know where on the bus the seat stealers came from. Eventually found one that nobody else claimed. On the excursion we took in Aruba the guide said a fight broke out on their bus when someone sat in the seats where somebody else had started out which was why they said not to take anyone else’s seat. It’s also common courtesy not to take other people’s seats, and makes loading the bus a lot faster at each stop if people just go back to the same seat each time.

garden by the gift shop – still in the cloud

Probably somewhere around halfway back we stopped for half an hour at a gift shop. They had some little free samples of chocolate, coffee, and liquor. Behind the shop there was a garden on a hillside and a little enclosed butterfly garden that looked like it was in the process of getting an expansion. Most of the butterflies were perched either on plants or walls with their wings folded so they looked like half a butterfly. The ones that flew around were too fast to catch with the camera other than taking a video, which one person did. The seat stealers left their stuff on the seat so we couldn’t get our original seat back after that stop.

butterfly with its wings folded together

After another hour or so on the bus made it back to the port. On all my previous cruises having your ship card (or medallion if it’s Princess) was required for getting on and off the ship. On this cruise they just scanned our faces rather than our ship cards. We still needed to take the cards in each port though because getting back into the port whether on foot or on a bus they always need to see everyone’s card.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Majestic Princess Mini Suite

Posted on April 14, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Majestic Princess mini suite

The mini suites on Royal Class Princess ships like the Majestic Princess are quite a lot larger than their balcony cabins. These rooms run close to 300 square feet while standard balcony cabins are closer to 220.

small closet with shelves

The room has lots of storage space. At one side of the entrance to the room there’s a large open walk-in closet with a hanging bar and upper shelf and a smaller closet with doors that has 6 shelves, of which one holds the room’s safe. A door from that area leads into a larger than average for a cruise cabin bathroom with a bathtub.

room layout

Moving on into the room, there’s an area with what can be one or two beds as is usual for cruise ships.

nightstands

Princess has wider nightstands than found on some ships which means bigger drawers and a larger shelf as well as more space between the beds when they are separated.

couch area

A set of curtains which can be pulled all the way across sits between the bed area and the space with the couch. In this room the couch could be used as a bed and it also had a drop-down bunk.

bunk

That portion of the room has an even larger nightstand as well as a desk containing several drawers and a refrigerator. Twice daily room cleanings meant that the bunk could go up in the daytime and only be down at night when it was needed.

balcony

The balcony is long and narrow and had two chairs and a small round table.

usb ports

The room had two TV’s. It also had two American outlets over the desk and one other one. There were 2 USB ports by one of the nightstands, but no outlets at the nightstands or USB ports on the desk. Motion lights under the nightstands and desks were intended to make light for anyone getting up in the dark, but we had to block the nightstand ones with extra pillows at night to keep them from coming on any time people move in bed if the blanket hanging over the edge moves at all. The blanket was just a heavy quilt, there was no separate top sheet so it was either heavy covering or nothing other than getting creative and using a bathrobe or towel for a lighter bed covering. There is space under the beds to store suitcases.

view from the balcony end of the room

Some ships have either motion lights or a low-level light that stays on in the bathroom which are more useful than the lights that this ship had. Especially the low-level one that stays on because then there’s no need to turn on a bright light if using the bathroom at night whereas the motion ones go dark after their set time. Plus if the light is inside the bathroom rather than out in the room it is less likely to disturb other people in the room when one person gets up in the night.

magnets

There was more than the average amount of open magnetic wallspace, which is useful for hanging anything magnetic. We had a lot of magnetic hooks that were empty at the start, but by the end of the cruise they all had something hanging from them. Even with a bathtub sized space for the pull-across clothesline there wasn’t always room to hang everything for three people so the still too damp to put away swimsuits would end up on hooks making room for the wetter ones in the bathroom. Other ramdom things came and went. Some hooks held hats, sweatshirts, or bags the entire time. We also had some little magnets for holding up paperwork. We always bring a print-out of the itinerary, and we had excursion information and tickets for things booked outside of the cruiseline. Sometimes there is information from the ship that is worth hanging too.

duck maiilboxes by the door

The doorway to our cabin was indented from the hallway, paired with the cabin next door which gave us some magnetic wallspace to hang decorations and duck mailboxes. Ours were the only duck mailboxes on this ship so we had more raiders than traders this cruise. We were a bit away from the elevators down a dead-end hallway so there wasn’t a lot of people passing by. Some came specifically looking for the duck mailboxes.  The door was also magnetic, but the wall was stronger so a better place for hanging things.

bath products

The shower had body wash and one labeled as a combo shampoo and conditioner, but it did nothing for conditioning so if you want conditioner that actually works bring your own. It’s disappointing when even the nicer rooms on cruise ships don’t have separate conditioner, which seems to be the case more often then not.

sink

The sink had liquid hand soap and hand lotion which was nice because not all ships have either. Some just have bar soap and no hand lotion.

bathroom

We did not have to ask for towels for 3, the room was already set up for 3 people. We did ask for extra hangers, but that’s pretty much a given on any ship even with just 2 people in the room. The stewards will always bring extra hangers if asked. There are rarely ever enough to start with unless the previous person asked for extras and the steward left them when they checked out.

walk in closet

Sometimes it seems that the things you ask for online at registration are just ignored, but on the Majestic Princess the bathrobes were already in the closet as requested online at registration. Standard balcony cabins on the Princess ships are pretty small so if you have the budget for a mini-suite it’s definitely worth the extra cost. The mini suites have a lot more space. They are both longer and wider than the standard cabins. Mini suites have both a desk and a full-sized couch whereas standard balcony cabins just have a desk and deluxe balcony cabins have no more space than standard ones, but replace the desk with a small couch.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Majestic Princess, Princess | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Decor on Holland America Noordam

Posted on April 10, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Noordam in Kona

For the most part the décor on Holland America Noordam is pretty tasteful, especially when compared to that found on some other cruise ships. Ships in Holland America’s Vista class, which includes the Noordam, were all originally done in something of an old world elegance style. While the Westerdam was modernized (to its detriment in my opinion as the modern furniture was quite uncomfortable and the new atrium centerpiece ugly), the Noordam seems to have retained much of its original charm.

Noordam atrium

I haven’t cruised on Zuiderdam, the 4th of Holland America’s directionally named ships, but the other three at least had atrium centerpieces of similar style, yet different from each other. The Westerdam’s crystal sailing ship was the nicest, but was replaced with an ugly gray spiral. Last time we were on the Oosterdam it still had the original crystal globe in the atrium. The Noordam had a less intricate and more colorful centerpiece, supported in a gold framework as were the others.

Noordam stairway art

Noordam’s stairway art was different on each of its three stairways. The front stairway had a sequential series with pictures of different renditions of the Noordam throughout the years, starting with the first Noordam and ending with the current one. There’s probably only so many ship names that end in dam. All of Holland America’s ships end that way (even the cruiseline calls them the dam ships sometimes.) When one ship of a particular name retires a new ship assumes that name so there have been a variety of different ships named Noordam.

stairway art

The middle stairway had encased ship models of old sailing vessels on most decks. Each one looked different in size and style. There were other models of old vessels in other areas of the ship as well. Old ships also appeared in some of the ship’s other artwork.

stairway flower painting

The aft stairway had old style Dutch flower paintings. These are likely to be found somewhere on Holland America’s ships, due to the tie-in with Holland. At least on their ships that we’ve been on anyway. Regardless of where our Holland America cruises start or end they all seem to end up taking place on the same few ships. The Noordam cruise was our first one not on the Westerdam, Oosterdam, or Veendam.

hallway painting

Pictures around the hallways to the staterooms seemed to have a theme around each deck, but not the same theme on all decks. Things like paintings of old-time scenes likely in the Netherlands, or old black-and-white photos from early sailings on ships from Holland America Line.

cruise ships love odd statues

Like all cruise ships the Noordam had lots of statues. Cruise ships love odd and ugly statues. Most of the ones on this ship fit in with the general old-time theme of the majority of the other decor around the ship. Around the elevators there were disembodied heads from various old Dutch royalty. Some painted with colors and some just gold. Other areas had things like faux ornate fish statues, or other things that all appeared old-world style.

whole statue and a close-up of a tiny duck hiding in its yellow ear

There was one multi-colored statue that did not fit in with the decor of the rest of the ship. It was a life-sized lady with random stripes of yellow, red, white, black and blue. This statue was a popular place for people to hide and find ducks. Mostly in its hands, but we did find a tiny one yellow one blending in inside of the statue’s yellow ear.

wall mural in a public hallway

Other artwork around the ship included large murals and carved wooden pictures, generally following the old-world scenes or sailing ships theme. This does not include the section with the art for sale because there’s always some really odd paintings there as well as some nice ones.

small vases of flowers

Flower arrangements around the ship initially looked perfect enough to be fake flowers, but since some of those flowers wilted and got replaced during the journey at least some of the flowers were real. Flower arrangements are also a popular place for hiding ducks. The ship had some really big fancy ones, but I neglected to take photos of anything but a small row of vases.

row of identical statues

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Holland America, Noordam | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Easter in the Panama Canal

Posted on April 5, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Nieuw Amsterdam

Our cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam passed through the Panama Canal on Easter Sunday. Although it was Easter, most people spent the day canal watching and there wasn’t a lot of Easter activities on the ship. There probably wouldn’t have been anyway even without the distraction of the canal that day. There were Easter decorations in the Lido buffet and some special Easter food items throughout the day. Some passengers put up their own Easter decorations on their stateroom doors. There was also both a catholic mass and a non-denominational service scheduled for the day. They had those throughout the cruise so they weren’t specifically scheduled just for Easter, though I assume they would have had Easter themed services that day.

For our part some of the ducks we brought to hide during that cruise were Easter themed ducks. Little bunny ducks, some hatching out of Easter eggs, that sort of thing. I also made some Easter themed duck tags for them. I neglected to take any photos of the ducks, but these are the ones from the internet that I used on the tags.

Easter cake and baskets

The most Easter decorations were in the Lido Buffet at breakfast. They had little Easter baskets decorating all the different food stations.

Easter Cake in a jar

Lunchtime in the buffet brought Easter desserts with a couple different Easter cakes and some Easter cupcakes.

Easter dessert in the dining room

The dinner menu in the dining room included a ham option and an Easter dessert.

Easter chicks

Holland America has art classes on its ships, which include watercolor painting. There were no classes on Easter since everyone was busy canal watching that day, but close to Easter there were a couple Easter themed classes with one painting bunnies and the other painting chicks. My bunny did not turn out well at all, but I thought my chicks were cute. I thought sister’s bunny was actually better than the sample that the instructor painted. Its head was shaped more like a real rabbit’s. The art instructor mentioned in one class that some of the crew would dress as bunnies on Easter and hand out candy eggs, but if they actually did we did not find them because we never saw anyone dressed up as bunnies or handing out any candy eggs. Perhaps they did that in the children’s club.

Gatun Locks

We started the day on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, first passing under the Atlantic Bridge and then through Gatun Locks, which is the old original lock on that end of the canal. The newer, larger, and more technologically advanced one Panama built that opened in 2016 on that end of the Canal is called Agua Clara. Our ship was of original Panamax size meaning it fit in the old locks and that is what we went through so we did not get to see the new ones since they are in a separate lane that was made at the same time the new locks were during the Panama Canal expansion project.

Culebra Cut and Centennial Bridge

The ship moves through 3 chambers in Gatun Locks, each one rising it a bit higher until it has risen from the Atlantic Ocean up to Gatan Lake. It’s a manmade lake created by damming the Chagres River. Regardless of which locks a ship came through they all end up in that lake, then separate again at the other end near the other locks. Islands in the lake used to be hilltops. Ships follow a channel through the lake along the original route of the river. The Culebra Cut on the far end of the lake is a narrow manmade passageway with tiered sides where the land was dug away. It often experiences slides. Dredgers are based at Gamboa, a town alongside the canal. The dredgers are kept busy keeping the canal passable for ships whether there are any landslides or not. One was blocking the entrance to Gatun Locks when we first got there. We had to wait quite awhile for it to get out of the way before we could proceed.

Barbara in the Panama Canal

Usually when I take sister cruises both of my sisters are there, but this one was just me and Linda. While we were in the Panama Canal we saw a container ship go by named Barbara, which is the missing sister’s name so we did see Barbara in the Panama Canal. Of course I texted her a photo of her namesake ship and she replied that it was much bigger than the Lady Linda fishing vessel we had seen in Alaska when we all took a cruise there.

passing under the Centennial Bridge

The ship passed under the Centennial Bridge shortly before entering Pedro Miguel Locks, then passed through Miraflores Locks and under the Bridge of the Americas before exiting the canal. It took all day to go through the canal, starting in the morning and not ending until dinnertime that evening. Pedro Miguel has just one chamber per lane and Miraflores Locks has two. Ships in the new lane don’t have locks where Pedro Miguel is so that lane is up above the old one until they reach Cocoli Locks at the end. It has 3 chambers.

Miraflores Locks

Panamax ships can fit into the old locks. The maximum size is 965 feet (294.1 meters) long, 106 feet (32.3 meters) wide, and a draft (depth in the water) of 39.5 feet (12 meters). Ships that are too big for the old locks, but can fit into the new ones are called Neopanamax. These ships can have lengths up to 1,200 feet (366 meters), beams (width) up to 160 feet (49 meters), and drafts up to 50 feet (15.2 meters). 

towel Easter bunny

When we got back to our cabin that evening we found a towel bunny that the steward had made for us on the bed. That was my most memorable Easter ever. Transiting the Panama Canal isn’t something people do very often unless they happen to work on ships that go through there frequently.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Things to Do on Enchanted Princess

Posted on April 3, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

life ring on Enchanted Princess

Like all major cruise ships, there is a lot to do on Enchanted Princess. The ship has several pools, a number of hot tubs, and lots of deck chairs to relax in. A couple of the hot tubs have lifts so even passengers with mobility issues can use them. There’s also a gym, spa, onboard shops, and quite a few bars and eateries. Some of those bars have live music, mainly in the evenings. The very top deck has mini-golf people can go play on their own.

seawalk

Unique to this class of Princess ship, there’s a seawalk on the Lido deck where you can stroll over a glass floor and look down at the lifeboats and the sea.

arcade

Throughout the day there are quite a variety of games scheduled in different venues around the ship. There are more options on sea days, but even on port days there are some activities scheduled for people who stay onboard.

port talk

Entertainment on the ship is not limited to theater shows, though they do have one each night. The theater is also used for other things like port talks, lectures, and sometimes even movies. One day they had a cooking demonstration that was more comedy than cooking lesson. It was better than most of the actual comedians and followed by a galley tour.

main pool area and movie screen

Outdoor movies or sometimes concerts play on the screen above the main pool deck. The movies are also available on the stateroom TV’s, which comes in handy if it starts to rain in the middle of a movie.

vegetable carving demonstration

Other than the outdoor movies on the screen above the main pool, most other shows are at either the theater or Princess Live, though some things like the vegetable carving demonstration take place in the piazza, which is the central area of the ship.

cornhole in the piazza

The piazza hosts quite a variety of different games. They held things like egg drop and paper airplane contests there as well as cornhole, giant jenga, and bowling down giant blow-up pins with a great big blow-up ball resembling a beach ball.

people dancing in the piazza

Dance lessons and dances are also held in the piazza, or sometimes music on its resident piano. Sometimes it’s just music and people start dancing there on their own.

champagne fountain in the piazza

The piazza has other events too, like a champagne fountain one one formal night. It’s a busy place.

heated ceramic chairs in the enclave at the spa

Much of the ship’s entertainment is free, but some things cost extra like wine tastings, the thermal suite (called the enclave) at the spa, or any spa treatments. Use of the gym equipment is free, but there are some classes held there that cost extra.

trivia

Sometimes there are events that people get invitations to like parties for people of high loyalty status, or a welcome event for first time cruisers (which had great prizes). Art auctions can be entertaining with the right auctioneer. There’s also karaoke, and the usual cruise ship standby – trivia. It’s usually held at Princess Live, a sort of theater in the center of the ship that also hosts nightly game shows.

casino

The ship has a casino, but unfortunately just before our cruise they turned the former fully enclosed cigar bar into an arcade and started allowing people to smoke in the wide-open previously non-smoking casino.

the track is just a painted line on the deck

One thing Enchanted Princess lacks is a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship. It barely has any outside promenade deck at all, just a couple oversized balcony type areas for public use and a couple others set up as outside eating areas for a couple of the premium restaurants. Instead they just have a top deck track, which consists of a line painted on the deck.

duck under a table

Passengers also make their own fun by bringing rubber ducks to hide and searching for ducks hidden by others. It’s a popular thing on many cruise ships these days.

desserts at the Lido buffet

Eating and drinking are always a favorite pastime on cruise ships and there are plenty of places to eat as well as lots of bars. There’s always something to do on a cruise ship, and of course the option to do nothing is always there as well. It’s up to each individual whether they’d rather relax in a deck chair all day or participate in a variety of scheduled activities – or find their own things to do.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Enchanted Princess, Princess, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Main River

Posted on March 27, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Main River on a map

The Main River is the largest tributary of the Rhine. It runs from headwaters in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria as the White Main and the Fränkische Mountains in Franconia as the Red Main, which join to form the Main. The river flows west through central Germany for 525 kilometers (nearly 311 miles) until joining with the Rhine. More rivers join into the Main River along the way before it gets to the Rhine.

in a lock

The manmade Main/Danube canal connects the Main with the Danube, creating a 2,200-mile (3,500-km) waterway joining rivers and canals from the North Sea to the Black Sea. There are 32 locks on the main plus 16 more in the canal. Our journey from Budapest to Amsterdam on Viking Skirner started in the Danube, passed through the Main Danube Canal, then through the Main and into the Rhine going through over 60 locks along the way.

spillway to a lock

Locks are necessary when passing through waterways that are not at the same level. The boat enters the chamber and then the doors close. Water either fills or empties until it reaches the level of the water the boat will enter next. Then the doors open and the boat sails on. During the first half of our journey locks filled as we moved upward inland. During the second half they emptied as we went back down toward sea level.

mistletoe in trees on the riverbank

Sailing through the Main River the ship passed many scenic little historic towns along the way. There are also forested areas. Throughout our journey we sometimes passed trees along the shoreline infested with mistletoe.

church in a little town on the Main River

There are many churches. Every town we saw had at least one church no matter how small the town was. Even very little towns frequently had more than one. Vinyards often sprawled along the hillsides rising steeply alongside the river.

castle

There are also some castles and castle ruins on the Main, though the Rhine is better known for castles having a stretch with many in a row.

view from the port in Würzburg

Our cruise stopped in several charming ports along the Main including Bamberg, Würzburg, and Wertheim.

bridge

The river is a significant trade route as well as a nice place for scenic river cruises. Like the cruise ships, cargo boats on the river are long and low. They have to be low to pass under the many bridges encountered along the way. Water levels are very important. When the water is too deep ships don’t fit under the bridges, but if it gets too shallow there’s not enough water under the ship to sail at all. Sometimes river cruises get interrupted due to unfavorable water levels and the passengers either have to change ships at an unpassable bridge or end up taking a bus if the ships can’t move. We never encountered water that was too high or low so our river cruise on Viking Skirnir went smoothly along on one ship for the entire journey as it is supposed to.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Europe, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Carnival Luminosa Cabins

Posted on March 24, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Luminosa in Tahiti

Like most cruise ships, Carnival Luminosa has a variety of cabins for people to choose from varying from the cheapest inside rooms to the biggest and most expensive suites. On this ship even the lowly inside cabins have options – and some even have windows. Where other lines generally classify cabins with obstructed view windows as ocean view obstructed, on the Luminosa and other Carnival ships they are classified as interior with window. The ship also has the usual interior cabins without windows.

spa inside cabin

Interior Cabins

Some of the standard interior cabins are the usual rectangular shape of cruise ship cabins, but others are square. These are category 4A, can be found on deck 1. Some of the cabins are accessible, which as with any cabin category often run larger than other cabins of the same category on many cruise ships. Categories 4 B,C,D, E, and F are standard rectangular interior rooms these are found in various locations around the ship on most cabin decks.

interior with window – on other lines called oceanview obstructed (also has reflection of bed and photographer in the window)

Category 4K rooms sit behind the lifeboats. These have windows which can range from completely blocked by a tender to having a bit of view between lifeboats or tenders or above lifeboats.

square interior cabin

There are 4 accessible cabins among these, the last two of which are sort of L-shaped and larger than the rest. Beyond those the cabins have balconies. The other 6 window rooms classified as interior are at the front of deck 6 and 7 and are called interior with picture window.

interior with picture window

These look out onto a small upper bow walkway with a small window with a view above the outside structure. Both of the ones on deck 6 and 2 of the 4 cabins on deck 7 are accessible. Up on deck 8 there are category 4S cabins, which are spa interior. Like all of the spa cabins, these come with use of the ship’s thermal suite as well as upgraded bathrobes and toiletries within the cabin. They also get 2 free fitness classes and priority spa bookings and port day spa discounts. These extra amenities are included with all spa cabins not just the inside ones.

oceanview cabin

Ocean View Cabins

Deck 1 has category 6A standard ocean view cabins. ass previously mentioned, other cabins that would be called obstructed ocean view on most cruise lines are considered interior cabins with windows on Carnival ships.

aft extended balcony

Balcony Cabins

Luminosa has a variety of different balcony cabins, which of course come at different prices depending on what they have to offer. Standard balcony cabins are found on various decks with those higher up and closer to the center of the ship considered as higher categories and therefore more expensive than cabins found lower down or farther out toward the bow or stern of the ship. Most are rectangular, but there are a few odd-shaped cabins with more space and/or larger balconies.

premium balcony cabin

Premium balcony cabins are a bit larger with bigger than average balconies. Aft extended balcony cabins are at the back of the ship and have oversized balconies. There are a couple other extended balcony cabins that have double sized balconies without being at the back of the ship, and some square premium balcony cabins with bigger than usual balconies as well, which tend to be accessible cabins. Like the spa interior rooms, spa balcony cabins come with upgraded amenities and spa perks.

spa suite

Suites

As with most cruise ships, the most variety is found among the suites. Suites also include perks that the other cabins don’t get. These include priority check-in and boarding, immediate suite access after boarding, priority dining room time choice and reservations, priority tender, priority disembarkation, 1 free bag laundry service, 2 free bottles of water, pillow top matteress, and upgraded bath products.

junior suite

The smallest, called Junior Suites are found in odd spaces where there was a bit too much room for a regular cabin, but not quite enough for a full sized suite. There are two accessible junior suites near the middle back of deck 5 and two others at the front of deck 6.

ocean suite

Ocean suites are the most numerous of the suites on this ship. They generally have about 360 square feet of interior space or a little over 400 including the balcony. These are found in the middle of decks 6, 7, and 8. Spa suites are found at the bow of deck 8 and are similar to ocean suites, but with the addition of all of the spa perks.

grand suite

Grand suites are a bit bigger and are found at the front corners of deck 5. Extended grand suites sit near the center of deck 7 and have more square footage than the grand suites. Grand vista suites are found at the back corners of decks 4-8. These are the biggest suites of all and feature a wraparound balcony with balcony space running around the corner of the ship. They range from 569-733 feet including the balcony.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Carnival, Luminosa | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ushuaia Cruise Ship Port

Posted on March 20, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of Ushuaia as the ship nears the dock

Ushuaia, Argentina

Though people seemed to have slightly different pronunciation for Ushuaia from one another, most of the locals seemed to say something like ooo-shy-uh, only all ran together smoothly rather than obviously separate sounds and the ooo part rhymes with boo.

shore view from the cruise dock

Ushuaia is the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province of Argentina. Although it’s a cold place at the southern end of Argentina, the name means land of fire. It came from Spanish explorers who saw the fires of indigenous people onshore when sailing past.

location of Ushuaia on a map

Ushuaia is on the Beagle Channel, named for the ship Charles Darwin used when exploring the area on a survey voyage in 1833-34. It was named after his ship because he was the first foreign explorer to document the channel’s existence.

lighthouse view

Local legend from the indigenous people who first lived in the area says that a witch froze all of the water, but one of their gods fought with the witch and won. This fight was done by supernatural beings up in the sky, and apparently gigantic ones at that. After the fight the god dropped his slingshot, opening up the ice into water and that’s what made the Beagle Channel, which is shaped like a slingshot. Glaciers there are retreating the same as glaciers pretty much everywhere, but there is still a lot of ice in the region.

view of the shore

Money in Argentina is the Argentine peso. It currently takes 1394.79 Argentine pesos to equal 1 US dollar. Of course that number changes over time. The language of Argentina is Spanish. A lot of Antarctic expeditions begin in Ushuaia so a lot of foreigners pass through there. It is easier to find people who speak English in Ushuaia than it is in a lot of other areas of South America. Most places take cards and some will take American money, but don’t try to use British pounds anywhere in Argentina. We were warned not to go onshore in Argentina wearing anything with any sort of logo from the UK. They still have hard feelings over the Falkland War. (It’s the opposite in the Falklands, which Argentina and some other Spanish-speaking countries refer to as the Ialas Malvinas.)

ships at the dock

Ushuaia Cruise Ship Port

Holland America Oosterdam docked in Ushuaia, which was rare on our Antarctic cruise since many of the ports required tenders. Tendering is when the ship docks offshore and brings passengers to land in small boats. Ushuaia was our last port before Antarctica so it was the last place for any new supplies – which definitely helps to have a dock.

small expedition cruise ship at the dock

Some small-ship expedition cruises to Antarctica start and/or end their voyages in Ushuaia. For the much larger Oosterdam it was just a port stop. Oosterdam is fairly small compared to the megaships some other cruiselines have, but it is big compared to expedition ships. On expedition cruises people get off their ship in Antarctica, whereas on ours we just sailed around and looked at it from the ship, but those cost a lot more.

long dock at the port

The dock is long and had multiple ships docked. There are some shops and a tour booth right on the dock. After leaving the port there is a tourist information building to the right and a taxi stand to the left. There is a train shaped city tour bus that has a miniature train shaped ticket booth across the street from the port. We also saw a double decker bus stopped near the port. Shops and restaurants are within walking distance of the dock.

shops on the dock

Other things to do in Ushuaia near the cruise dock include the Museo del Fin del Mundo which is just over half a mile away. This museum is about Tierra del Fuego’s cultural history and displays pre-Columbian artifacts and historical archive in two significant heritage buildings.

double decker hop on hop off bus

At just under 3/4 of a mile from the dock there is a century old Catholic church on San Martin Street that was built with convict labor. Just over 3/4 of a mile is the Museo Maritime and Museo del Presidio. These museums are housed in a former prison and are entirely funded by visitor support and local contributions. Displays are maritime and Antarctic heritage.

visitor’s center

Just over a mile finds the Cartel Ushuaia memorial honoring Argentine soldiers. The location provides striking views of the Beagle Channel and the Andes Mountains. At 1.4 miles the Antigua Casa Beban cultural center preserves Ushuaia’s architectural heritage. It has hosted exhibitions and events since its restoration in 1994.

city tour bus shaped like a train engine

Glacier Martial Ushuaia is 4.8 miles away and has panoramic views of the Beagle Channel and the Andes Mountains as well as hiking trails. Tierra del Fuego National Park is 7.8 miles away and was created to protect sub-Antarctic forests. The park contains glacial valleys, rugged mountains, diverse wildlife, and scenic coastline along the Beagle Channel.

train to the end of the world at the station near Ushuaia

The Train to the End of the World runs from outside of town to Tierra del Fuego National Park. This can be booked as a shore excursion or on your own. Either way advance booking is recommended as there may not be space available on a train if you just go there without a reservation. The train depot is about 8 kilometers from the cruise port. Booking as a ship’s excursion includes transportation from the port and a train just with people from the ship. Enough people booked this on our cruise that there were several busses and at least two trains just for people from the Oosterdam.

Tierra del Fuego national park

Other ship’s excursions offered in Ushuaia include a catamaran cruise to a penguin rookery and lighthouse, canoeing in Tierra del Fuego National Park, hiking, a wildlife cruise in the Beagle Channel, a visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park, or traveling by 4×4 to a fishing village to cook and eat King Crab.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Holland America, Oosterdam, Port Cities, Ports of Call, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Posted on March 17, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

jungle guy from a TV show

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Amsterdam is not just a place to look at lifelike wax figures, though it is full of them. The journey starts in an elevator with a countdown on the ceiling as to when it will actually go. It opens on the opposite side after reaching the top of the exhibit. It doesn’t really feel much like it is going up, and certainly not so high. The lack of much detectable motion is deceptive though as we found out on the way down.

he’s not real

The soccer guy or whatever he is at the entrance looks very real. Since you’re not actually into the museum yet it might take a couple looks before your brain registers that he’s not an actual person.

she’s not a living person either

You have an option of purchasing all or any photos or videos taken of you as you work your way through the museum. Cameras are also allowed inside to take your own. Many of the sections have some sort of interactive feature and people are allowed to pose with the exhibits.

Santa Claus

Most of the wax figures have a tag or sign of some sort that says who they are, but there are a few that don’t. Some are easily recognizable, others are not.

at the A-list party

Early on we walked into a room with a party scene that seemed to be full of people. After looking around a bit we noticed that very few of those people actually moved. That’s because the only ones who move are visitors to the museum. The rest are wax figures.

Meghan and Harry

Meghan and Harry are there along with Jennifer Aniston and a whole lot of other people. There are other royals in an area specifically for royals, but Meghan and Harry are at the party. That area is called the A-List Party.

ET

The next room has a lot of familiar figures, though not necessarily all human. It’s the film area with famous movie characters, not all of whom were even actual actors.

Shrek

You can take your photo with Shrek or on the bike with ET, or just take photos of the figures.

skaters

The sports room held figures of people we didn’t recognize. They were probably Dutch athletes. Two had ice skates, likely people who performed successfully in the Olympics.

the lady on the bench is real

A fashion show area has a catwalk people can walk on if they want to do the interactive feature for that section. Most of the people in the room were wax figures, but there was a real live lady sitting on a bench. At first we thought she was just a random museum visitor sitting there, but she was actually running the catwalk activity.

view

We skipped most of the interactive features, but took some photos through a window that wasn’t really part of the exhibit. It had great views of the city from a higher vantage point than we had seen before. At the time we did not realize exactly how high that was.

singers

One of the rooms was full of singers. Around a corner at the back hidden from the main view there was a recording booth with Adele in it. People could go into that booth and sing a song from the selection offered with the wax Adele if they wanted to.

Freddy Mercury

There was an exhibit with DJ’s where people could pretend to be one, and one of a TV broadcasting studio where reading the autocues and pretending to be a TV show host was an optional activity.

Anne Frank at the wax museum

One room had Anne Frank in it. You can’t take photos in the actual Anne Frank house, but of course pictures of her in the wax museum are allowed. The room she was in was small, but bigger than the one she had in the real Anne Frank house. The wax one had furniture, which the actual one did not since the Nazis had taken it all when they raided the annex where her family had hidden for over 2 years.

bookcase at the wax museum

There was a wax model of the bookcase that hid the entry to the annex too. Anyone who went to the Anne Frank house and was disappointed about no photos allowed could visit the wax museum to take some.

Dutch royalty

One hallway had world leaders from different places, then Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana from the British royal family followed by some people from the Dutch Royal family. One of them was from the 1500’s, the others more recent.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein sat on the roof of a little booth thing that had some painters and other unknown figures around it at the bottom. One of the painters was Rembrandt, or at least we all thought so. He wasn’t tagged.

Van Gogh

There was a Mona Lisa figurine in a large picture frame with space for people to stand next to her and join in the picture. Van Gogh was there too, with an empty picture frame. People could stand behind that frame and it would make a picture of them that looked like a Van Gogh painting, which was of course available for sale at the gift shop. Of course there’s a gift shop at the end. Nearly all tourist attractions exit through a gift shop. This one was no exception.

wax hands

In one place people could make wax casts of their hand or buy a picture of themselves embedded into a wax cube.

only some of these people are real

Another spot had an actual bar where people could buy drinks. There were two bartenders behind the bar, but only one of them was real. Not all of the patrons in the bar were real either.

wax marvel figure

The last exhibit before the gift shop was of marvel comic figures.

Madam Tussaud herself

Madame Tussaud herself made an appearance in the gift shop. At least a wax figure of her anyway. It was shown working on making a wax head. Some of the figures are very life-like and could easily be mistaken for a real person until you notice they never move, but others are more obviously fake. There was a figure of Michael Jackson in the singers area that looked like an ugly woman. It took the tag attached to the figure with his name on it to know that’s who it was supposed to be.

Elvis was all alone on a seemingly endless stairway

The way out from the gift shop is down a seemingly endless stairway. It didn’t feel like the elevator went up much so it was a bit of a surprise to have to go down so many flights of stairs and then down and down and keep going down some more to get back out to street level at the end. There were some odd wax things on the walls along that stairway. Eventually we came across a life-sized Elvis Presley looking a bit worse for the wear. Maybe that’s why he’s in the exit rather than in the section with the other musicians.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Europe, Port Cities, Skirnir, Viking | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Panama Canal Transit

Posted on March 13, 2026 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Miraflores Locks

Our Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam cruise transited the Panama Canal on Easter Sunday. There wasn’t much Easter stuff on board. A few decorations, some Easter food options, and a couple church services scheduled. Since we spent the day going through the Panama Canal most people were focused on the canal rather than the holiday.

mystery boxes

The pilot was late getting on our ship so we had a late start before even arriving at the canal. The commentary for the transit included that there would be 3 pilots onboard with the other two arriving later in order to have 2 pilots on the bridge and 1 at the stern watching the back end of the boat as it passed through the canal’s locks. After the pilot boat dropped off the first pilot another boat pulled up alongside and unloaded a stack of boxes. I have no idea what was in them or what they were for.

tugboats behind the ship

Going from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side was the opposite of my previous trip through the canal on Celebrity Infinity in 2015. Back then the Panamanians were busy building new locks for bigger ships. At some points during that transit we could see ongoing canal construction. The new locks opened in 2016 so this time those were in operation and had been for quite some time. At both ends of the canal the new locks pass through separate channels from the original ones so you don’t see a lot of one from the other.

Culebra Cut

During the construction they also widened the Culebra Cut according to our ship’s commentary. That was probably necessary to accommodate the larger ships that don’t fit into the old locks, but can now transit the canal through the new ones. The new section has 100 years of advancement in technology over the old locks which includes water-saving chambers to re-use much of the water so it doesn’t just all go downstream with the ships. The new locks are fully automated with horizontally sliding gates.

approaching the Atlantic Bridge

Traffic control was also updated. Originally there was just a sometimes hard to see arrow pointing to which lock chamber a ship was to enter and a series of land-based markers along the channel for navigation through the canal. The land-based markers were still there the first time we went through the canal. Now it has advanced navigation and monitoring systems and ship tracking capabilities. Command control has real-time information available for enhanced safety and better efficiency. Even the weather is taken into account within the new system. This affects the entire canal, not just the new parts.

passing under the Atlantic Bridge

Entering from the Atlantic side we first passed through Lincoln Bay from the Caribbean Sea, passing under the Atlantic Bridge which spans the canal entrance at that end. That bridge opened in 2016. Just beyond the bridge what looks like a little river off to the right is actually the bit of canal that the French dug way back in the 1800’s that would have been way too small and narrow for today’s ships even if they had managed to finish it. That bit was not used by the Americans back when the original canal was built starting in 1904 and finished in 1914.

entrance to what would have been the French canal had they been successful in building it

I was hoping to see the new locks since I had already been through the old ones on the previous trip, but we went through the old ones instead. My sister was happy about that as she had not been there before and that was the section she wanted to see. The old locks at the Caribbean end of the canal are called Gatun Locks and the new ones Agua Clara Locks.

ship exiting the canal and dredger blocking our lane

Though a lane was open in Gatun Locks as we approached it took quite awhile before we could enter because there was a giant dredger in the way vacuuming up mud to keep the canal clear. Daily dredging is required to maintain a navigable depth for the ships passing through the canal. The canal is open 24 hours a day so dredging has to be done while it is open since it is never closed. More work is done at night while there is less traffic, but we were there early in the morning and the dredger was hard at work. It kept looking like it would move out of the way, but then not actually doing so until eventually it finally actually did.

right channel goes to the old locks and left channel to the new ones

Gatun Locks has two lanes. Each lane has 3 chambers so it takes awhile to get through all 3. We went out to the big open bow on deck 5, but it was too crowded to see anything so we ended up on the smaller bow on deck 6. It was not as crowded, but still had a lot of people. At the entrance to the canal there’s a split around a bit of land where the right side goes to Gatun Locks, which as previously mentioned is the original smaller set and the left leads to Agua Clara Locks, the new one Panama built at the Atlantic end of the canal. There is an Agua Clara visitor center highlighting operation of the new locks.

entering Gatun Locks

Both sets of locks on that end of the canal have 3 chambers each. Gatun has 2 lanes and Agua Clara has one. It can accommodate 9 large ships at a time if there is one in each chamber of each of the locks, with 6 of old Panamax size in the three chambers each of the two lanes of the old locks and 3 larger ones with one in each chamber of the new set. Neopanamax is the new maximum size for the canal for ships too big for the old locks that can fit through the new locks. More than one ship can go into the same lock chamber at the same time if they are small enough. We did see 3 small sailboats go in together at one of the locks later in the journey. They barely took up any space in the lock whereas our ship took up an entire chamber by itself.

black lighthouse

There was a black lighthouse at Gatun Locks. It’s painted black to indicate that it is no longer in use.

train bridge over the Chagras River

Exiting those locks ships pass into Gatun Lake, which was created through damming the Chagres River to make a reservoir to run the locks. The dam there powers electricity for operating the canal and the reservoir serves as a municipal water source as well as water to fill the chambers in the locks.

Gatun Lake

Islands in the lake are the tops of what were hills before the manmade lake filled with water. Ships can easily pass by one another in the lake. When we transited the canal the first time all of the boats went the same direction with one way passing through in the morning and the other in the evening, but this time some areas had ships going both directions. Even the first set of locks had a ship coming out of one lane before we went into the other one. It was long gone before the dredger got out of the way. The next one coming out of that chamber had to wait for the dredger to move before it could come out just like we had to wait for it to move before we could go in. Between that and the late pilot we were at least an hour behind our scheduled time by the time we finally got into the first lock.

Gamboa

Even though the lake is wide there is a set path ships take along the original course of the Chagres River. It meanders between the islands that were once hilltops. At the far end it narrows into a channel that passes by a town called Gamboa which is a base for dredgers. The canal’s dredging division has been based there since 1936. Before we ever took a cruise that did a full transit through the canal we took a partial transit tour as a shore excursion from MSC Divina in 2013 that ended in Gamboa.

slide in the Culabra Cut

The Culebra Cut is a man-made channel through the continental divide. Many of the sidewalls are terraced, some edged with rock reinforcements. This area was widened as part of the Panama Canal expansion which included the new sets of locks at either end to accommodate more and larger ships. Besides dredging to keep the channel clear some parts are prone to landslides so there’s a lot of maintenance involved. Areas of new digging or recent slide repairs were evident along the sides of the channel. Slides in that area were one reason why the French were unsuccessful with their early attempt at canal building. Landslides and disease killed a lot of their workers.

heading toward the Centennial Bridge

A full transit of the Panama Canal is an all-day thing so we were in different places around the ship throughout the day, intending to be at prime viewpoints on the ship for things like locks and bridges. Sometime in the afternoon we were relaxing out on the promenade deck with a daiquiri each (mango for me, strawberry for Linda). According to where the shipfinder app on my phone positioned our vessel it looked like we had some time to go before we got to the Centennial bridge until there it was looming large nearly above us. I had wanted to go under that from an upper deck at the back of the ship because it’s fun to watch a ship approaching a bridge where it looks like the ship is way too tall and will never fit under until you get there and go under, then looking back it looks as if you couldn’t possibly have fit.

nearly under the Centennial Bridge

We didn’t have time to get to the stern on an upper deck before it would pass under the bridge so we just saw it from the one side of the promenade deck where we already were. It still looked like the bridge was a lot lower than the ship and like the ship’s bridge would smack right into the side of the Centennial Bridge, but of course it sailed smoothly right under it.

Pedro Miguel Locks

We did go to the back for the next lock, which was Pedro Miguel Locks. At that end of the canal ships using the old original channel pass through two sets of locks while those in the new lane have just one. Pedro Miguel has just one chamber that lowers the ship 30.5 feet (9.3 meters). After that lock the lane for the new locks is raised well above the level of the lane for the old one since ships there haven’t gone through any locks yet. From our lane we could see an MSC container ship well above us in the new lane.

The tall building is the old visitor’s center. It had several levels of viewing areas, now mostly behind a black tarp. The new visitor’s center is behind it with the new viewing area next to the canal.

Miraflores Lake sits between Pedro Miguel Locks and Miraflores Locks at the far end. The locks there has a new visitor’s center right next to the old one. The old building was either undergoing some sort of repair or being prepped for removal because it was partially covered in plastic and looked to have some sort of work going on. The new stand for people to watch ships go by is smaller than the area they had to watch from the old building. There’s an exhibit on the canal’s history in the new visitor center.

people on the deck 5 bow and a few crew on the deck 4 bow watch the gates open in Miraflores Locks

Not a lot of time passes between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, but we had enough to go back to the bow. Since we started from deck 9, we went down to the one on deck 7 first to assess the crowd on the lower bows and found that there wasn’t one. We had a good view from there so we just stayed. As we got closer to the lock more people came out on decks 5 and 6 as well as 7. Previous Holland America ships I’ve sailed on had the big open bow on deck 4, but Nieuw Amsterdam has a crew bow on that deck. Instead of just a small bow on deck 5 it has one that comes closer to the end of deck 4 than the other ships have from deck 5, but not all the way to the end so it’s smaller than the big bow on other ships. It just has small bows on 2 other decks instead of 3 so there’s less total space for passengers to see the scenery on a ship that holds more people. A bonus for the crew since they get the one on deck 4, though most of them are working when the ship passes through scenic areas and don’t have the opportunity to use it.

little rowboat at Miraflores Locks

As we approached Miraflores locks we saw the little rowboat come out with the linesman bringing the lines to the ship. They do that at each lock, but we couldn’t see them through the crowd at the first lock or from where we were at the back on the second one.

one of the little locomotives in Gatun Locks

After the person on the tiny little rowboat throws the lines to the ship they are connected to several little locomotives on each side of the lock that will hold the ship and move with it through all chambers of that lock.

the little road section of the stayed flat against the wall since it is no longer in use

Miraflores Locks has two chambers. I remembered cars driving across when the gates were shut the previous time we went through the locks. That’s a thing of the past now. The little road sections of the canal stayed flat against the sides of the chamber and never closed across the lock.

road to nowhere on the side of the locks

The road leading to it on both sides ended abruptly where the road had been chopped off so it would be a long fall to the ground from the current end of those roads, which are now roads to nowhere. The cars used to come out under the archway that the road bit is tucked into. I guess people have to go to one of the 3 bridges to cross the canal now.

MSC container ship in the new lane

On the approach to Miraflores Locks we could see the MSC ship in the new lane heading for Coccoli Locks that would take it all the way down to the Pacific Ocean in one set of locks rather than the two we went through in the old lane. Coccoli Locks has 3 chambers so ships there still go through the same amount of steps. It’s just done all in one lock rather than two separate ones. All of the canal expansion projects including both sets of new locks were built by Panama. The new locks at both ends opened in 2016 using the newer technology with water reuse basins so it takes less water to run the new bigger locks than it does the old smaller ones. We could not see the actual new lock, just the MSC container ship passing through the lane above the level where we were and then lowering down so that we could see less and less of it when it got into the lock.

3 little sailboats in the other chamber while we went through Miraflores Locks

At the far end of the canal the ship passes under the Bridge of the Americas. We had set time dining on this cruise and since the ship was running late on its transit it hadn’t quite finished the last chamber of Miraflores when it was time to go to dinner. From the dining room we could see the lock chamber all around as the ship lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean, and a rear view of the bridge through the back window. It’s a bit different view seeing walls all around you out the windows of the dining room. Passing through the Panama Canal is quite different from going through the Suez Canal since the Panama Canal has locks at either end and the Suez Canal is all at one level. The scenery is quite different too since Panama has a lot of tropical jungle and Egypt has sandy desert.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026
Posted in Holland America, Nieuw Amsterdam, South and Central America | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment