Leaderboard

Like all good fortresses built nearly 500 years ago it has a series of internal passages and access corridors. These were also used by soldiers as sleeping quarters. You had better remembered the days password because in the dark corridors they couldn't recognize friend or foe so failing to respond with the correct password when challenged meant a knife. They've updated the fortress with modern restrooms accessed through an old corridor. It was kind of bizarre walking down an old passageway, turning the corner and walking into a modern, nicely appointed, well lit restroom.

You can walk to the eco park from the ship. If you don't feel like walking the rest of the way back to the ship there is a free shuttle bus. Thinking of my next visit here I think I'll spend the day in the old city. Towards that end I noticed they have Uber here. With that our day in Cartagena was done and we sailed away in the dark. I was very impressed with Cartagena and will definitely look for itineraries that stop here.

I was impressed with how nice the old city is and how pleasant it was to walk around. Colombia is open to many religions but the Catholic church played a distinct and primary role in the religious history of the nation. This is the Sanctuary of Saint Peter Claver that we saw from the fortress. Admission is included in our tour. Quite breathtaking inside.

Our bus dropped us off at the other end of the cruise terminal. The cruise terminal in Cartagena is kind of unique. It includes an eco park. This is free and you have to walk through it to reach the ship. Giant anteater. There are two aviaries within the park. It's a very nice way to return to a ship.

At this point we were given some free time to explore on our own. The Hard Rock Cafe. This seemed like a good spot to sample a local beer.

We walked through the streets of the old city to reach our next stop. Since Spain had conquered Colombia when Spain went through the period of the Inquisition so did Colombia. Our next stop was at the Palace of the Inquisition. Within these walls justice was served for various crimes including being accused of being a witch. Off with their heads! It was quite a dark time in the history of Cartagena until residents had enough and stormed the Palace to end the inquisitions.

Back on the bus we drive around the old city to reach our next stop. The old city is very nice and I could easily see myself spending a day just here.

Back on the bus to soak up some the cool air coming down from the air conditioning vents we head into the old walled city. Our guide provides some history of how this area has had numerous conquerors. Our next stop is at a market where we can do some shopping. Our guide informs us vendors accept USD and most vendors will provide change in USD. Prices are in Colombian dollars so some math is required but prices appeared typical for many goods. This leads up to the top of the wall that protected the old city.

Ha - yes, and good catch. He was a club DJ here in town and I was working in a bar where he had a residency when we met. He still gets some gigs here and there, but I’ll always be “the DJ’s Mrs. ” ??

Day 15 - Grand Cayman Work day for me so I never left the ship. Grand Cayman is a tender port. The Solarium roof was open once again.

What does it cost a for ship like Vision of the Seas to transit the Panama Canal? Bill Benny admits he hasn't seen our bill but he can guestimate it pretty close. Ship are charged based on capacity. For cruise ships it's the number of berths regardless if they are being used or not. For cargo ships it's based on their cargo capacity regardless of the amount of cargo actually being carried. Cruise ships pay $138 per berth. To go through on a specific day they have to make a reservation. This costs $35,000. To go through in daylight hours also has a fee of $30,000. The tugs come with a charge between $12,000 and $14,000. The Panamanian sea men who come on board to handle the cables cost around $4,000. Each cable on a locomotive has a $300 charge. There are some other fees and charges that are pocket change in the bigger picture. Bill's guestimate for Vision is about $380,000.00. Ship's are tagged with a new name when they transit. We were N 29 Zulu. Northbound, 29th ship of the day and zulu means preferential treatment (daytime reservation). Remember the NCL Bliss that used the new locks last year? They paid $880,000.00

Day 13 - Cartagena, Colombia I had few expectations for this day and it turned into a highlight port that I intend to revisit. Today's excursion "Deluxe Cartagena & Fortress". Our first stop is at Castillo de San Felipe. This old fortress built in 1536 was placed at a strategic point to protect the old walled city behind it. It's cannons pointed towards land to deal with attackers approaching by foot. This is a walking tour that at times was uphill, both ways. While not hot by Colombia standards it was pretty hot and humid today and I was glad I brought water from the ship. Modern Cartagena with a bridge to the old walled city in the foreground. A church in the walled city in the distance our guide informs us we will visit later today. The fortress is pretty massive.

That’s kinda what I figured. I did a search of PADI Certification on the message boards, and didn’t see much come up. I thought any info would be helpful for those trying to decide what’s best for them.

We decided to take everyone's advise and leave Friday instead of driving all day on Saturday. This should make the drive a lot more bearable and also means we can leave a day early and out run the cold. We got about two inches of snow which is nothing for most of y'all but for this Southern girl, that is way too cold. Steven, being originally from Maine, didn't mind it and the kids enjoyed playing in the snow. We also got an email from RCI today stating that we would be leaving at 2am Monday morning instead of 4:30pm Sunday afternoon. This is due to routine maintenance and does not impact when we can board the ship or our itinerary just the time that we leave Port Everglades.

OK, this has been kind of bugging me and I just have to ask... Are your husband's initials "DJ", and you're his missus? Or is your husband a disk jockey and you're his missus? Or is he a DJ who's also got the initials DJ? Kind of hoping for at least the second one; we need more disc jockeys in this place. So far the only one I'm aware of is @Jaymac Radio. ?

Nothing compares to Oasis class! Aqua Theater, Central Park, Broadway shows, enough said.

Because we have already had 33.5 inches of snow here in the Mitten State and I am not a big fan of that nonsense, I spend a lot of time thinking about upcoming cruises. I love reading about people's experiences and living vicariously through them to pass the time. I'm sure a lot of us have countdown to cruise apps on our phones and I've read in numerous posts "Only 623 or 17 more sleeps until we board!" I am currently sitting in my 6 x 8 jail cell (oops, I mean cubicle) at work looking out the window at a dull monochromatic landscape and since I am a numbers person, I have been thinking of other milestones to use for our countdown to cruise. Only 3 more hair appointments! Does anyone else have a fun way for countdown or do you stick to days and/or sleeps?

With our time up we met as a group and headed back to the bus. One last look at some street art. Naval hero. Admiral Jose Padilla.

I informed my husband this morning that a Panama Canal cruise is now on our list of future cruises to book. Your pictures are amazing and convinced me it’s worth the time and price. Looks absolutely incredible.

We ran on the track on deck 5 - I GPS'd it for fun, I averaged 2:49/mile! The ship moved 10 miles across the ocean... Strava doesn't have to know it wasn't really me all that way!

I'm so on board with you on this one ..... Sovereign of the Seas was our first cruise too. In fact, I have a Sovereign T-shirt that I wear as I board the ship every time we cruise ...

@Chef Sandra, it is HIGHLY unlikely boarding will actually be delayed until 2:30PM. These form emails (and in fact all emails giving you specific boarding times) should be ignored. You'll find this advice in many, many threads on these boards. Most people report still report boarding around 11 even when they've supposedly had a Coast Guard inspection. If you have the Key and showed up at 2:30, you would probably be told you missed your Chops Key lunch. Also, purchasing the Key for an earlier embark time doesn't make sense. If you are there (and checked in) before boarding starts, yes, you'll be among the first to board. However, non-Key guests who also showed up that early will be following you onto the ship. The Key has its benefits, but embark time is not one of them (in my opinion of course).

I am still working my way through the ships, and have sailed on several more than once, but one thing that the wife and I agreed on was that anything Oasis class was our favorite, if I had to pick a second and third at the moment it would be Brilliance, and Rhapsody. I have to say that my absolute favorite ship will always be whatever I am currently on, and I have yet to have a bad day at sea. I have COMPLETELY enjoyed every cruise that I have been on, once I started letting go of the fact that not every ship is anything like an Oasis ship (that was my first cruise ever) and started to sit back, relax, and just enjoy myself and appreciate the ship for what it was vs what it wasn't I found myself having an absolute amazing time.

On both sides of the canal there have been ships at anchor waiting to transit the canal. This leads to the question how long do they have to wait? Bill Benny offered that the typical wait time without a reservation can be up to ~ 36 hours. Timing varies based on demand and how many ships have reservations. Typical volume is forty ships per day. The new locks don't have locomotives. Each ship is allocated two tugs, one forward, one aft. They do all the control, forward or aft or lateral movements that the locomotives do in the original canal. The entire Panama Canal system uses gravity. There are no pumps. Water flows from Gatun Lake into upper lock chambers then to the next lock chamber down to the ocean. This area of the Americas receives a lot of rain, it always has. The Chagres River which was dammed to create Gatun Lake flowed into the ocean. The man made Gatun Lake is a reservoir that flows water into the locks as they operate replacing the natural draining of the Chagres River into the sea. Too much rain isn't a serious issue as spillways can dissipate excess water. If nature changed rainfall amounts downwards there are concerns about a lack of rain impacting canal operations. If there was a major change in weather patterns that denied the region the rain it normally receives it is conceivable the canal would reduce operations compared to how it operates today. Gatun Lake is freshwater. It also supplies drinking water to millions of people. Gatun Lake has Crocodiles and Caiman. The canal generates around 3 billion USD in revenue annually. Roughly half of this goes to the Panamanian treasury and half is consumed by the canal for operational use and development.

I wanted to start this blog by sharing our Open Water Diver Certification process on board Harmony OTS, Nov 2019. Hopefully this will help answer any questions or concerns. This will be partly live since we are still on board; if you have any questions you want me to relay, let me know! (We disembark on Nov 16, 2019) We signed up for the excursion about a week prior to the cruise. I asked a bunch of questions, and THAT same day the excursion team reached out to the dive team. All my questions were answered that same day (appreciated the quick responses!). They also included copies of our medical questionnaire (see pictures) and asked us to send them back. The same day I sent them back, they responded with my PADI redeem key so I could start my eLearning modules. I HIGHLY recommend getting them done early (obviously...) this was a last minute decision (largely thanks to @twangster and noting some advice he posted. I owe you a beer on our next cruise...provided I get certified... ??) Since it was a last minute decision, we spent most of the morning of our embarkation (both before and after we were on the ship) frantically trying to finish ?? Ultimately it didn’t seem like a huge deal if we hadn’t, since all open water stuff was going to be done the following day. They didn’t seem too concerned that some of our modules appeared as not complete (even though they were), they just softly reminded us to finish them and encouraged us to get them done ASAP. There are NUMEROUS glitches with the PADI eLearning app (known as “PADI Library” in the Apple store). We found the iPad to be WAY easier to use vs. just an iPhone. Even with the large screen of the iPhone 11 Pro... it still was difficult to navigate, watch videos, take exams, etc. Once on board, we showed up before 3:pm to prove all our pre-cruise requirements were completed, our medical questionnaire, doctors note (if needed), and PADI folder were all filled out. I would HIGHLY suggest you review the medical requirements and get all issues signed off by your MD well in advance. We had to show back up at 6pm to fit our gear (and buy what we didn’t have). They (Francois and Kelly) seemed really friendly, and probably would have let us borrow equipment had we pressed the issue, but we wanted to just buy our own anyway. If you’re smarter than we are, I would suggest going to your local PADI (or dive) shop, try on products there, and buy them in advance. Ultimately the masks they offered ranged in price from $20-120 , but they had limited options for colors, styles, brands etc. This is like going into your local bowling alley and seeing all the pretty, fancy pro gear, and then going online and seeing about 8 million different options than what was offered. You may not only save some money, but also have something that fits better or you like more. That was it for day 1!! They were supposed to have us do our confined water dives on Perfect Day, but the pool was down for maintenance apparently. This meant we got a free day in Cocoa Cay! BUT it meant we had to use the on board pool (and NOT the aqua pool like I’ve heard they used in the past) for our initial confined dives. This meant our first sea day was an almost all day practicum day and only in 4.5 ft of water ? Day 2 (our 3rd cruise day and first sea day). We met at 6:30am at the dive shop. We grabbed our gear (prepared and fitted previously) then prepped it like they taught us, and went into the pool. There are 7 in our class and they said that is about typical for on board certification. People ranged from having previous dive experience to having none. Overall our class went until about 10:30am. At that time one of our classmates apparently gagged on something and threw up in the pool ?? Whatever, lol ? happens. Rolling with the flow of the ocean is what cruising is all about. They did have to clean out the pool which meant lessons were over for the morning. This was kinda a hindrance since we need to come BACK this/that evening at 4:30pm for more training. As of writing this (I’m sitting in the hot tub in the solarium relaxing until evening class), things haven’t been too crazy difficult or hard. Super basic skills (removing mask and regulators, practicing emergency procedures etc) were all we completed. (But according to our instructors we are doing relatively well!) I’ll keep you all updated with the thing that happen next and relay any lessons learned I thought might be useful!

I’m starting this blog for my sailing on the Empress. Seeing so much content on the Empress already on this forum, my blog will not be an exhaustive one, especially because I know that a much better blogger is also on this sailing (*cough* @twangster*cough*) For those who would like some recon mission on this ship, I’d gladly do what I can.

This may actually be my first post!

That's one I read to prepare. There are also some videos out there. The first one deals with the transition of the canal from the U.S. to Panama:
 
 https://www.pbs.org/video/panama-canal-prized-possession-angekx/ This next one deals with the widening of the canal before it was completed 
 Post-Panamax construction: 


I've wondered that myself as I've read this blog! He does such an amazingly detailed job with his live blogs. One of the best out there!

We are sailing on Freedom leaving the 17th too! My email said to arrive after 12:30 but, like others have commented, that's just a suggestion. We are in grand suite and concierge email says boarding begins at 11:30. Our usual target arrival time is 11:00 and we have never had an issue boarding.

No reservations needed, by purchasing the key that is your reservation. Just show up during the time it is offered.

So I got my flights confirmed. Orlando to Miami on the 18th, 2 nights in a hotel, and the joining Oasis on the 20th. Not long to go now!

The jacuzzis are ....... on the pools I’m going to say no.

Adventure of the seas, summer 2020

Sovereign of the Seas, this ship began our love of RC cruises in 1990. I have a print of the ship hanging in my study. We must do Majesty before she is retired.

@Dan Curtis thanks so much for the great tips! Love this blog. People are so helpful and friendly.

I love this thread! I was a lurker until I had a question I couldn't already find an answer to and never looked back. I am at 31 days til HAL (oops) to the Mexican Riviera 172 days till my first OA class, lovely amped Oasis and a whopping 439 days till Navigator with a double dip to Coco Cay where I will be going slide crazy! Having those two future RC cruises pleases me because I am finally back on watch-it-like-a-hawk cruise planner duty, HAL's Already Booked interface is trash! Hoping for Black Friday sales to book some drink packagessss!!! WOOooo

We are over 1,280 views! Ok fellow Lurkers, let’s keep this conversation going. For those that are comfortable with sharing (I know, I know... it’s hard to share when you are devoted to lurking), drop the name of the next ship you will be on and the countdown to your departure. I will start: For 2019, doing the Holiday Cruise on Mariner - 40 days! For 2020, doing a Summer Cruise on the Independence - 250 days

I appreciate all the info. It's always good to hear people's experiences both positive and negative. I am under no misconceptions of how much time and effort is involved, and neither is my wife. ? I'd be concerned if the whole course was short and simple. I have a childhood friend who is a rescue diver up here. He has been a great source of info for me and has made sure I know what a commitment the process is. He also goes to St Maarten a couple times a year to dive and is hoping I go with them in June to do some diving in areas he is familiar with. Getting certified is a bucket list thing for me. I missed a chance to get certified in 1991/1992 when I was in the service, and have regretted it for many, many years. Our cruise is 8 nights...Labadee, San Juan, St Thomas, St Maarten. I'll have time to relax. ? I will read any and all experiences that people want to share.

We agree with @WannaCruise in that we love the Oasis class ships right now for the sheer variety of entertainment, activities and dining options. We too absolutely love the neighborhood concept and especially loved Central Park. Currently prefer bigger, newer and more modern... I love to just stare at each ship in amazement when we're in port! We loved every Royal cruise, but this would have to be our current order (follows the bigger bias!): 1. Allure 2. Liberty 3. Explorer 4. Majesty We currently have Oasis booked for May 2020 and Symphony for April 2021... surprise, surprise! We really want to try Anthem or Odyssey and Navigator or Mariner now too!

We have added people before thru the cruise planner as well, one thing to check, when you get your sea pass card, check and make sure the table numbers match as well, if not as was said go to main dining room. Enjoy the cruise, your getting very close to,departure.

What a perfect ship on which to do the crossing. The wrap-around Promenade deck is my favorite part of that class of ship, and your photos just reinforced how much I love them. Thanks so much for always sharing fabulous photos and information about your amazing cruises.

I guess I could pull a Tom Brady and quote that "my favorite cruise ship is my next cruise ship". But if I have to answer I would say number 1 is Allure and number 2 is Anthem. The reason for my choices is that I remember having the most fun on those ships and both are amazing engineering marvels. (Besides I am old now and have a short memory)

What's my favorite ship??? lol -- those that know me know the answer to that one, the soon to be, "Late Great Grandeur" ---- But I will say this, I haven't been on anything larger than Voyager Class (Navigator), but one of the features on any ship that I truly loved, was the Outdoor space of the Windjammer on Brilliance. The way you can enjoy a meal at the back of the ship is amazing. Now, I'll be on Freedom in March right after it's AMPing.... so we'll see if my opinion on a favorite changes.

Food- I found the food to be good. The windjammer got a little stale for breakfast by the 7th day, but that is to be expected. The fresh squeezed OJ was great! We ate lunch in the windjammer most days, except the last sea day we ate in the main dining room (American icon) and found the menu to be a nice change from the windjammer. They also had a smaller buffet set up in the MDR at lunch. MDR for dinner was great. They had the staples of chicken, steak, etc every night, accompanied by a few different items every night. The turkey dinner was very good, as was the prime rib. the lobster was ok, not sure why people go ga ga over small lobster tails that are generally overcooked. Our server, Lina was awesome! Always gave us hints about the menu and the fish of the day. The girls liked plain dinner rolls, so Lina always had a plate of rolls for them to start dinner. My wife got a cheese plate before dinner every night after she ordered one the first night. These are the touches I like about traditional dining times

The ship delivered certificates to our cabins:

One of my dilemmas as I thought about how to capture this day was where to go on the ship for the best pictures. I captured the timelapse on my GoPro while I waited on deck 10 forward for the morning approach and the first set of locks. However I didn't want to stay there the whole day guarding my GoPro. At the same time I really wanted a full transit timelapse so I cheated a little bit. Vision of the Seas has a TV channel dedicated to the forward facing bridge camera. It's channel 41 on the TV system. Hmmm. What if I used my other phone to capture a timelapse of channel 41? The full transit in 21 seconds.

I forgot to mention the phone call the other day. My cabin phone rang and a woman from guest services introduced herself. They had noticed I was booked on Empress out of Miami when this cruise ends. They would be offering transportation from Vision in Ft. Lauderdale to Empress in Miami. Details would be forthcoming as we get closer to Ft. Lauderdale. This was unsolicited. I didn't mention my plans to anyone. I was planning on using a rideshare figuring I could take my time debarking and making my way to Miami. This is even better. #royalwow

Hot tubs... of course they are... Pools... not sure, but someone will know! Not likely heated if in a hot climate like the Caribbean... maybe for colder climates/itineraries like Alaska?