Scarlet's 2013 Adventures with Davidcito: October 8 - Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is the result of a saga of human ingenuity and courage that goes back to the early 16th Century when the Spaniards arrived on the Isthmus. Since then, the idea of building a route that would join the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was conceived.
The first firm effort to build an all-water route through Panama began with the French in 1880, but financial troubles and diseases made the initiative fail. After its independence in 1903, Panama negotiated an agreement with the United States for the construction of the Canal which the US would finish on August 15, 1914 and then managed the waterway until 1999.
At noon on December 31st, 1999, Panama took over full operation, administration and maintenance of the Canal, in compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties negotiated with the United States in 1977.
The waterway is managed by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP for its Spanish acronym).

Princess' organisation of this Panama Canal transit is very good - they have brought on board Dr Thomas Ryan, who has had an interesting career - military, advisory and scholar. He has written five books about the Canal and transited many times. He gave lectures in the lead up to the transit and also gave commentary throughout our transit - which took 11 hours.

The day we embarked, we went up to an area at the very back of the ship on deck 15, called 'The Sanctuary'. It is adults only and to enter you have to pay an extra $20 per day - for a private lounge, pool and spa. On the transit day, they offered entry for $60 per person to a limited number of passengers. We decided to pay because we thought it would be ideal to be able to move from one side of the ship to the other, especially at the locks. This turned out to be a very wise decision - because we were able to do just that. We didn't realise that the entry fee also included our own dedicated lounge, wait staff - who brought us champagne, mimosas (champers & orange juice), mojitos, snacks, evian water sprays, cold towels, lunch, afternoon tea with parties, and a photo! Wow - we had a ball!

It was a long, hot day. Photographers roamed the ship as well as taking video from shore. We'd made posters to show during the transit, Kerren won second prize for hers! Princess had negotiated the fee for our transit 14 months prior, to be $US343 000 to be the first ship on the day - when the pilot arrived, the fee on the day was suddenly $US346 000. Captain had to write the cheque. This is one example of how the Panamanian government holds ships 'to ransom' and some companies are now boycotting the Canal. There is also talk of expanding rail as the cost is much cheaper and the Nicaraguans are also thinking about building a canal. Interesting times!