Going thru the Panama Canal

 The Viking Neptune is still a big ship to me! But, at 930 passenger capacity, it's nothing like the 3-5,000 passenger cruise ships that are popular these days. And, because of the hurricane issues, they only had 786 on board. Nothing was crowded! Service was johnny-on-the-spot. We wanted to be front and center on the observation deck for the passage thru the first set of locks, so we wandered up there about 7:30am and got the best spot in the house! So that's where we stayed for the passage thru the locks on the Atlantic side - the Gatun Locks. 

Understand, there are 3 sets of locks: 1-Gatun Locks w/3 chambers at roughly 30 feet each  2-Pedro Miguel Lock w/1 chamber about 30 feet and 3- Miraflores locks w 2 chambers right before the Pacific

We had a good view of the Gatun Locks from our tour the day before

This is how it looked when we got closer. These are the Gatun Locks taking ships up about 90 feet from the level of the Atlantic/Caribbean Sea to the level of Gatun Lake. It takes 3 'chambers' to do it. The ship goes in to the first chamber and the gates close behind it. Then the water gushes in from below to even the water levels with the second chamber. The gates open to allow the ship to move forward and the the gates close behind. The process is repeated until the ship is at the level of Gatun Lake. and moves forward across the lake.

It was the peak event of the cruise and celebratory champagne was handed out when we were in the middle of the locks.

Here is a video where I combined some timelapse video with a few stills to show the whole passage.

But we're not done yet. That is just the first set of locks. Now the ship sails across Gatun Lake, down the Culebra Cut, and the Pedro Miguel locks (just 1 chamber going down) and the final locks - the Miraflores locks to the Pacific.

For the final locks and the passage to the Pacific, we joined our friends Alvin and Lisa in their special suite at the front of the ship. 

Panama City

What an experience. And we had chamber of commerce perfect weather for the whole day. We also had a lecturer offering commentary thru much of the day. We were so glad that we read the book "Path Between the Seas" before taking this trip. What a story! The french first started the process of a canal thru Panama in 1870. They went thru many trials and tribulations, not the least of which was hundreds of deaths by Malaria and Yellow Fever. The US took over in 1904 and completed the canal in 1914.