Ten Day Cruise to Panama Canal

Our ship in Port Lymon, Costa Rica
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We arrived at the pier in Ft. Lauderdale in the mid afternoon. After boarding our ship The R.S. Zuiderdam (Holland America Line) we located our stateroom and explored the ship. Had a nice lunch and at 5:00 PM sailed toward the Panama Canal. We met a really nice couple from Ft. Meyer, Florida and had dinner with them a few nights on the cruise. The ship is very impressive and the seas were calm. Our first stop was Half Moon Key in the Bahamas. We took a tender to shore where we enjoyed the beach and the beautiful blue waters. Other ports included Oranjestad, Aruba and Willemstad, Curacao. We arrived at the Panama Canal early in the morning and went through the Gatun Locks (three of them) to enter Gatun Lake. Gatun Lake is a man made lake in the middle of the passage. There are more locks from the lake to the Pacific Ocean which we did not enter. There was another cruise ship following us in the adjacent lock (there are two side by side canals) and it was so amazing to see these huge ships rising through the passage. In the afternoon we went back through the locks and docked at Cristobal, Panama. The canal is an amazing display of engineering and is still much as it was when originally built. There are many ships at the entrance and in Gatun Lake waiting their turns through. In Cristobal we left the ship and did some shopping at the pier. At 5:00 we sailed to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. The large American settlements in Costa Rica are located on the Atlantic coast. This area of Costa Rica is very run down and the government doesn’t invest much in this Province. We took a tour with one of the locals. Juan was a wonderful guide and we learned a lot about the culture and the people here. The next two days were spent at sea returning to Ft. Lauderdale. We traveled 3331 nautical miles. Mike and I both enjoyed the cruise but would have preferred less sea days. We did lots of dancing, so that was great – in fact I literally danced my shoes off – had to throw them away. It was good to get back to solid ground and as soon as we picked up our motorhome and car from storage we headed to Naples, Florida which is on the Gulf Coast. We will stay in Naples for a couple of weeks.