Panama Canal

I woke up this morning just after we had entered the first lock of the Panama Canal and the sun was just breaking above the trees. It's already very hot outside; the Captain said today would be very hot. We are on the port side of the ship and luck was with us that we are in the right-hand lane of the canal so we can watch all the activity in the middle as we go through the locks. If you read this early enough you might be able to catch the ship along the way on pancanal.com

Last night was our first Pinnacle Grill dinner for our Ensemble passengers. It was perfect. I'm always so relieved when things go as they should. We will actually be having 2 more dinners in the next week to accommodate everyone in our group as the private room in the Pinnacle only holds about 25 people. Everyone that was invited to the dinner came and seemed to enjoy it. We especially enjoyed seeing our friends, the Holtoms, from the 2010 S. America Grand Voyage.

I'll be going in and out of the cabin to the balcony all day; the heat gets to me really quickly anymore. But I can see very well from the couch in the cabin.

So far I've heard less complaining by passengers than on many other cruises – that's quite nice. I get tired of the chronic complainers very quickly.

Hmmm... it isn't letting me add photos.  I'll come back and add a couple canal pics when I get it figured out.