CRUISIN’ THE BIG DITCH

Wednesday, November 9.  Ever since reading David McCullough’s “The Path Between The Seas” some years ago, Loni and I have wanted to take a cruise through the Panama Canal.  McCullough’s book is terrific, covering the history of the Canal from the earliest musings through the French failed effort, and then the fascinating politics of getting the U.S. behind the effort to complete it.  We recommend it to one and all.  It’s a great read.  So, scouring the various cruise sites that I follow, I found a discounted (natch) cruise on Celebrity that fit the bill.  This was our third cruise with Celebrity and the second on the Infinity, so it felt like old times.  I can happily say that their pastry chef hasn’t gotten lazy, with repeated verifications.

Our good friends, Chuck and Alice, did early a.m. taxi duty and got us to the airport in plenty of time.  Southwest is in the process of remodeling its terminal, and now has a couple of dozen kiosks for check-in and printing passes and luggage tags.  On this day, at least, it sure beat the old system of long, snaky lines, but this was a light volume morning so we’ll have to see how it goes on a busy day.  We again got lucky and received the magic TSA-PRE on our passes, so no shedding of shoes or belt.  Don’t know what mojo keeps delivering that boon to us, but I hope it doesn’t stop.  We flew from L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale on Southwest, having to change planes in Phoenix.  The flights were totally full, and we endured the usual nonsense of bag hogs hauling full-sized gear into the cabin.  Why oh why don’t the airlines USE those baggage measuring dealies to weed out the oversized?  They had to start making the folks at the back of the line check all of their bin stuff, as there was no more room.  One guy we watched was trying to stuff a full-sized folded quilt into the overhead.  He didn’t have it tied, so it kept springing out as he tried to push it in.  A circus.  We had about 90 minutes layover in Phoenix, and left L.A. on time, so weren’t too worried about the luggage making the 2nd flight.  I did sweat a bit on arrival in Florida as ours were about the last bags off, but at least we got them.  I called our hotel (Hampton Inn), which had advertised free shuttle from the airport.  The desk gal said to go outside, turn right, walk until we saw some sign, then watch for the bus with the “dancing flamingos.”  Okayyyy.  That sign turned out to be a quarter mile away, and poorly lit (it was about 8:30 pm), and was the pickup spot for a variety of ride services, all darting in and out and blocking our effort to spot the flamingos.  But, about 20 minutes later, it was unmistakable.  Plastic flamingo heads affixed all around the edge of the roof, sticking up and bobbing away.  Sorry, no pics, it was too dark.  The driver was chatty and gave us tips for dinner that turned out to be the same ones I had researched within walking distance.  Check-in was smooth, room was fine, if overpriced, and we promptly headed across the street to a large strip mall for food.  We nixed the sports bar and ended up in a Thai place that was just fine.  Except this was election night and they had the t.v. on.  It’s hard to eat and gag at the same time.  All in all, a pretty good travel day for us, a pretty awful voting day for the country.  In the hope of getting some sleep, we did not turn the tv on in the room, and went to bed with a glimmer of hope, which was thoroughly dashed in the morning.  Suffice to say, I am VERY glad we will be on the ship for the next two weeks with no internet package.

The next morning we had a liesurely get up and went down for the “free” breakfast that we had paid for in the inflated room price, a modest but adequate spread that did the trick.  No need for more;  15 days of pigging out are about to start.  The night before we arranged for a $6/person shuttle to the cruise terminal, and opted for the first departure at 10:30 am.  This turned out to be a wise choice.  The port was just starting to get cranking when we pulled in, handed our bags to the ship porters, watched to make sure they actually got loaded on the trolleys, and waltzed into the terminal to beging embarkation.  The cruise lines have this down to a science, and if you get there early there are virtually no lines at any stage.  We got photo’d for our ship passes, filled out some short forms, and were on the gangway in no time.  We had to have taken the obligatory embarkation photo in front of a backdrop of the ship, only the first of many photo importunities that the ship promoted throughout the cruise.  We resisted all and bought none.  As the rooms would not be ready until early afternoon, we of course headed straight to the cafe on the tenth deck.  They weren’t quite open yet, so we sat on deck with a couple from Jacksonville and shot the breeze until we could sit down to a lite lunch of soup and multiple desserts.

We sat at our window table, talked with a couple from Germany, and watched the port goings-on until the “cabins are ready” announcement was sounded.  We descended to deck 8 (no suites down here!) and found 3078, which I swear is the same cabin we had on our Alaska cruise on Infinity’s sister ship, the Millennium.  Of course, they all look alike, but the location was eerily similar.  It’s an interior, so no window, but for us that’s no loss.  We plan to sleep and bathe there and little else, so we’ll be out and about most of the time.  Plus, it’s low in the ship, and just about midship lengthwise, so minimal pitch and roll.  Although the room was ready, the bags must be delivered by some system of reverse Polish notation, as ours hadn’t appeared four hours later when the call sounded that we were underway.  Yikes!  Did that baggage trolly get to the ship?  We went on deck to watch us pull out of Ft. Lauderdale.  We were docked next to a Holland America liner, and another HA was just pulling out as I took this shot.  Busy port, as this is a big jumping off point for the Caribbean trade.  The channel out to the sea runs along a stretch of homes and high rises that I have to think are pretty pricey considering the views.

Once we were out in open water, we went back down to the room and . . . yesss!  The bags had arrived.  We stowed our clothes and went up for dinner just before 6.  We’re again on the open dining plan, so we don’t have an assigned table or time.  We take pot luck for our companions, which is how we like it.  Tonight we had a couple of gals from California and a couple from Jackson Hole, he recently retired from the Forest Service.  Good food (beef cheeks!) and conversation.  Afterwards, we went to the theatre

for the stage show called “The Three Divas,” three women who could belt out 60’s-70’s songs without screaming.  Backed by the house band which, it would prove throughout the cruise, was an exceptional group of musicians.  If all the entertainment is of this quality we’ll be more than happy.  We crashed early, planning to sleep late as it is a day at sea tomorrow as we wind our way south between Cuba and Haiti towards Colombia.  Not the gem of the oceans, as we shall see.