Recap
Welcome back! If you missed Part I, we covered the first five days of our incredible 15-day journey aboard Norwegian Joy, sailing from Miami to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal. So far, we’ve flown out to Miami, boarded the ship, settled into The Haven, enjoyed a few relaxing days at sea, and spent a brilliant day exploring Cartagena, Colombia.
In this post, we pick up from Day 6, where we begin our transit through the legendary Panama Canal – a true bucket-list moment – and continue on through Panama City, on to Costa Rica, and back into a few more relaxing sea days.
Day 6: Panama Canal transit
Today was the day we had been waiting for! Waking up at 6.30 am, we were greeted by the sight of the Atlantic Bridge. Our transit had begun. I have covered the day in a post of its own.
Read more in: Sailing through history: A day traversing the Panama Canal
The Agua Clara Locks
Day 7: Panama City
We woke up around 7 am, we had an excursion booked today. While we wouldn’t head downtown, we would spend a few hours in the “Canal Zone” (an area extending 5 miles of the canal centre line) on a US Heritage tour, organised by NCL. We got ourselves ready, grabbed some quick breakfast from the Horizon Lounge, and headed to the meeting point (Haven bar). The Haven Concierge escorted us off the ship via a quick behind-the-scenes elevator. We were soon on dry land.
Coaches for days
We walked through the rather large Panama Canal cruise terminal (Terminal de Cruceros de Amador), which is on Perico Island. The terminal is huge and modern, but also mostly empty, save for a few vendors. It gave ‘new build house’ vibes, before anyone had moved in or decorated. When we exited, we were greeted by a number of excursion coaches, but with no signage, we had to wander from coach to coach checking for our tour number ourselves… Bingo! We found our coach, hopped on, and were soon being taken back to the Canal.
Now, I loved the Canal, but having completed a transit the day before, we were a little saturated and concerned that this might be repetitive. Our first stop – the Miraflores Visitors Center.
Miraflores Visitor’s Center
We arrived around 9.30 am, we were issued with tickets for entry and for an IMAX experience, and joined the queue and patiently waited to be admitted. We were instructed by our guide that we would see the 11:00 am IMAX showing and that we ought to be in line by 10:30 am for decent seats. So we went for an explore and were able to watch Oceania Cruises’ Sirena making her way through the Miraflores Locks. Our transit had made use of the larger locks (because of the size of the ship). The operation here was a little different and was interesting to watch.
Later, we attended the theatre. The IMAX theater has one of the largest cinema screens in the world. It was specially built to show a 45-minute-long documentary about the Panama Canal in 3D, narrated by Morgan Freeman. It was really engaging and informative. We both appreciated the show.
Corozal American Cemetery & Goethals Monument
We continued on our tour, making a stop at the Corozal American Cemetery which is the only place where the Panama and US flag continue to fly side by side; a rare sign of unity. The human cost of the Canal is astounding, this was quite a sobering experience, especially having just had the details from Morgan Freeman.
Next was the Goethals Monument, with the Administration Building nearby providing some fantastic views and a challenging number of stairs. The monument was constructed in honor of George Washington Goethals, the chief engineer of the Panama Canal and a United States Army General.
Goethals Monument in Panama City
Oceania Cruises’ Sirena makes her transit
Re-boarding the ship
Back at the terminal, we quickly found ourselves queued to get back onboard the ship. We don’t mind a queue, but this felt really at odds with the experience so far on the Norwegian Joy. Things went from bad to worse when we went from the covered walkway and into the air-bridge that had been set up. It must have been 40c + in there, and the queue was not moving. I think this was in part because there were several crew members returning to the ship who skipped past us to use the same entry point. We were held in this air bridge for 30 minutes, and I heard later that someone did in fact faint.
When we boarded the ship, it became apparent that there was only one security station set up and everyone would have to go through it. This was made even worse by a number of tours all finishing at the same time, but that shouldn’t have been a surprise to the cruise line. Our Haven escort was nowhere to be seen until the very last moment, but I’m not sure I would have been comfortable queue skipping here given the circumstances.
Back aboard
Once back onboard, we checked in with Irene at the bar and headed up to the sun deck to relax. We had missed lunch, but snacks were available in the Horizon Lounge. Later that evening, we enjoyed dinner at the Haven. The stresses of the day had melted away.
We thoroughly enjoyed the excursion; our concerns about this being repetitive were unnecessary. The local guide was excellent, but getting back onto the ship was an unpleasant experience. So much so that I would consider staying onboard if I found myself in Panama City again.
Day 8: At sea
Back into the routine. Gym, followed by breakfast. Sun-deck followed by lunch. Yet more sun and afternoon drinks.
We went to La Cucina in the evening. We had high expectations, especially since the Italian restaurant aboard Norwegian Prima – Onda – is outstanding. Sadly, La Cucina didn’t measure up. The service was ok, they seemed a bit rushed, and it took a while to get our drinks – they arrived after our starters did, which is a little unorthodox. The food was not great. I had the Spaghetti Carbonara to start, we shared a Meat Lovers Pizza, and I had the Pollo Cacciatore for my ‘secondi’. The Carbonara was not to my taste, the pizza was good, and the Pollo Cacciatore was awful. We skipped dessert. The atmosphere here is lovely, and we were able to dine outside.
Once we had scaled the stairs back to deck 17, we headed into the Haven bar for a drink. I was able to get a Samsung TV remote from the concierge so we could connect my MacBook via HDMI and watch some shows. We were excited to see the latest Wheel of Time episode and make a start on The White Lotus.
Day 9: Puerto Caldera Puntarenas, Costa Rica
We stayed aboard today. It’s always a quiet day on the ship during a port day. We remained mostly on the Haven sun deck, enjoying the area to ourselves. There were very few other folks around – most must have gone ashore. Activities for us today involved sun loungers and a completely reasonable amount of day-drinking (by cruise standards).
The port itself is very industrial, and you’re unable to navigate the port area on foot. The rainforest and terrain looked great, but the immediate view didn’t appeal.
We dined in the Haven Restaurant for dinner, the service was impeccable as always. There were now specials available to complement the already excellent Haven menu. The menu is the same every night, which would become tiresome on a 15-night cruise if not for these specials.
View from Puerto Caldera Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Day 10: At sea
With the exception of sending a bag of laundry (promotional price of $38 for a bag full), we did little else of note. I did enjoy watching Ben rolling our clothes as tightly as possible to maximise what we could fit in the bag. The Laundry department must get a laugh out of this, as we can’t be the only ones to fit a large suitcase into a small bag.
We knew that we had a long excursion the next day, so this was deliberately relaxed. We would spend almost 5 hours on a coach the next day.
Day 11: Antigua, Guatemala
We did the NCL Antigua on your own excursion, which was good overall. We had some coach confusion and traffic on the return leg, but I would recommend this tour.
Read more in Antigua: Colourful streets, colonial charm, and coach chaos
The Santa Catalina Arch
The view is worth it – La Merced
Read more …
If you’ve made it this far – thank you!
In Part III, we’ll pick up from our incredible day in Antigua, head north through the Mexican Riviera, and wrap up our journey with our arrival in Los Angeles and the journey home.
Stay tuned!
