Nieuw Amsterdam

Our cruise on Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam passed through the Panama Canal on Easter Sunday. Although it was Easter, most people spent the day canal watching and there wasn’t a lot of Easter activities on the ship. There probably wouldn’t have been anyway even without the distraction of the canal that day. There were Easter decorations in the Lido buffet and some special Easter food items throughout the day. Some passengers put up their own Easter decorations on their stateroom doors. There was also both a catholic mass and a non-denominational service scheduled for the day. They had those throughout the cruise so they weren’t specifically scheduled just for Easter, though I assume they would have had Easter themed services that day.

For our part some of the ducks we brought to hide during that cruise were Easter themed ducks. Little bunny ducks, some hatching out of Easter eggs, that sort of thing. I also made some Easter themed duck tags for them. I neglected to take any photos of the ducks, but these are the ones from the internet that I used on the tags.

Easter cake and baskets

The most Easter decorations were in the Lido Buffet at breakfast. They had little Easter baskets decorating all the different food stations.

Easter Cake in a jar

Lunchtime in the buffet brought Easter desserts with a couple different Easter cakes and some Easter cupcakes.

Easter dessert in the dining room

The dinner menu in the dining room included a ham option and an Easter dessert.

Easter chicks

Holland America has art classes on its ships, which include watercolor painting. There were no classes on Easter since everyone was busy canal watching that day, but close to Easter there were a couple Easter themed classes with one painting bunnies and the other painting chicks. My bunny did not turn out well at all, but I thought my chicks were cute. I thought sister’s bunny was actually better than the sample that the instructor painted. Its head was shaped more like a real rabbit’s. The art instructor mentioned in one class that some of the crew would dress as bunnies on Easter and hand out candy eggs, but if they actually did we did not find them because we never saw anyone dressed up as bunnies or handing out any candy eggs. Perhaps they did that in the children’s club.

Gatun Locks

We started the day on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal, first passing under the Atlantic Bridge and then through Gatun Locks, which is the old original lock on that end of the canal. The newer, larger, and more technologically advanced one Panama built that opened in 2016 on that end of the Canal is called Agua Clara. Our ship was of original Panamax size meaning it fit in the old locks and that is what we went through so we did not get to see the new ones since they are in a separate lane that was made at the same time the new locks were during the Panama Canal expansion project.

Culebra Cut and Centennial Bridge

The ship moves through 3 chambers in Gatun Locks, each one rising it a bit higher until it has risen from the Atlantic Ocean up to Gatan Lake. It’s a manmade lake created by damming the Chagres River. Regardless of which locks a ship came through they all end up in that lake, then separate again at the other end near the other locks. Islands in the lake used to be hilltops. Ships follow a channel through the lake along the original route of the river. The Culebra Cut on the far end of the lake is a narrow manmade passageway with tiered sides where the land was dug away. It often experiences slides. Dredgers are based at Gamboa, a town alongside the canal. The dredgers are kept busy keeping the canal passable for ships whether there are any landslides or not. One was blocking the entrance to Gatun Locks when we first got there. We had to wait quite awhile for it to get out of the way before we could proceed.

Barbara in the Panama Canal

Usually when I take sister cruises both of my sisters are there, but this one was just me and Linda. While we were in the Panama Canal we saw a container ship go by named Barbara, which is the missing sister’s name so we did see Barbara in the Panama Canal. Of course I texted her a photo of her namesake ship and she replied that it was much bigger than the Lady Linda fishing vessel we had seen in Alaska when we all took a cruise there.

passing under the Centennial Bridge

The ship passed under the Centennial Bridge shortly before entering Pedro Miguel Locks, then passed through Miraflores Locks and under the Bridge of the Americas before exiting the canal. It took all day to go through the canal, starting in the morning and not ending until dinnertime that evening. Pedro Miguel has just one chamber per lane and Miraflores Locks has two. Ships in the new lane don’t have locks where Pedro Miguel is so that lane is up above the old one until they reach Cocoli Locks at the end. It has 3 chambers.

Miraflores Locks

Panamax ships can fit into the old locks. The maximum size is 965 feet (294.1 meters) long, 106 feet (32.3 meters) wide, and a draft (depth in the water) of 39.5 feet (12 meters). Ships that are too big for the old locks, but can fit into the new ones are called Neopanamax. These ships can have lengths up to 1,200 feet (366 meters), beams (width) up to 160 feet (49 meters), and drafts up to 50 feet (15.2 meters). 

towel Easter bunny

When we got back to our cabin that evening we found a towel bunny that the steward had made for us on the bed. That was my most memorable Easter ever. Transiting the Panama Canal isn’t something people do very often unless they happen to work on ships that go through there frequently.

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life ring on Enchanted Princess

Like all major cruise ships, there is a lot to do on Enchanted Princess. The ship has several pools, a number of hot tubs, and lots of deck chairs to relax in. A couple of the hot tubs have lifts so even passengers with mobility issues can use them. There’s also a gym, spa, onboard shops, and quite a few bars and eateries. Some of those bars have live music, mainly in the evenings. The very top deck has mini-golf people can go play on their own.

seawalk

Unique to this class of Princess ship, there’s a seawalk on the Lido deck where you can stroll over a glass floor and look down at the lifeboats and the sea.

arcade

Throughout the day there are quite a variety of games scheduled in different venues around the ship. There are more options on sea days, but even on port days there are some activities scheduled for people who stay onboard.

port talk

Entertainment on the ship is not limited to theater shows, though they do have one each night. The theater is also used for other things like port talks, lectures, and sometimes even movies. One day they had a cooking demonstration that was more comedy than cooking lesson. It was better than most of the actual comedians and followed by a galley tour.

main pool area and movie screen

Outdoor movies or sometimes concerts play on the screen above the main pool deck. The movies are also available on the stateroom TV’s, which comes in handy if it starts to rain in the middle of a movie.

vegetable carving demonstration

Other than the outdoor movies on the screen above the main pool, most other shows are at either the theater or Princess Live, though some things like the vegetable carving demonstration take place in the piazza, which is the central area of the ship.

cornhole in the piazza

The piazza hosts quite a variety of different games. They held things like egg drop and paper airplane contests there as well as cornhole, giant jenga, and bowling down giant blow-up pins with a great big blow-up ball resembling a beach ball.

people dancing in the piazza

Dance lessons and dances are also held in the piazza, or sometimes music on its resident piano. Sometimes it’s just music and people start dancing there on their own.

champagne fountain in the piazza

The piazza has other events too, like a champagne fountain one one formal night. It’s a busy place.

heated ceramic chairs in the enclave at the spa

Much of the ship’s entertainment is free, but some things cost extra like wine tastings, the thermal suite (called the enclave) at the spa, or any spa treatments. Use of the gym equipment is free, but there are some classes held there that cost extra.

trivia

Sometimes there are events that people get invitations to like parties for people of high loyalty status, or a welcome event for first time cruisers (which had great prizes). Art auctions can be entertaining with the right auctioneer. There’s also karaoke, and the usual cruise ship standby – trivia. It’s usually held at Princess Live, a sort of theater in the center of the ship that also hosts nightly game shows.

casino

The ship has a casino, but unfortunately just before our cruise they turned the former fully enclosed cigar bar into an arcade and started allowing people to smoke in the wide-open previously non-smoking casino.

the track is just a painted line on the deck

One thing Enchanted Princess lacks is a promenade deck that goes all the way around the ship. It barely has any outside promenade deck at all, just a couple oversized balcony type areas for public use and a couple others set up as outside eating areas for a couple of the premium restaurants. Instead they just have a top deck track, which consists of a line painted on the deck.

duck under a table

Passengers also make their own fun by bringing rubber ducks to hide and searching for ducks hidden by others. It’s a popular thing on many cruise ships these days.

desserts at the Lido buffet

Eating and drinking are always a favorite pastime on cruise ships and there are plenty of places to eat as well as lots of bars. There’s always something to do on a cruise ship, and of course the option to do nothing is always there as well. It’s up to each individual whether they’d rather relax in a deck chair all day or participate in a variety of scheduled activities – or find their own things to do.

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Main River on a map

The Main River is the largest tributary of the Rhine. It runs from headwaters in the Fichtel Mountains of northeastern Bavaria as the White Main and the Fränkische Mountains in Franconia as the Red Main, which join to form the Main. The river flows west through central Germany for 525 kilometers (nearly 311 miles) until joining with the Rhine. More rivers join into the Main River along the way before it gets to the Rhine.

in a lock

The manmade Main/Danube canal connects the Main with the Danube, creating a 2,200-mile (3,500-km) waterway joining rivers and canals from the North Sea to the Black Sea. There are 32 locks on the main plus 16 more in the canal. Our journey from Budapest to Amsterdam on Viking Skirner started in the Danube, passed through the Main Danube Canal, then through the Main and into the Rhine going through over 60 locks along the way.

spillway to a lock

Locks are necessary when passing through waterways that are not at the same level. The boat enters the chamber and then the doors close. Water either fills or empties until it reaches the level of the water the boat will enter next. Then the doors open and the boat sails on. During the first half of our journey locks filled as we moved upward inland. During the second half they emptied as we went back down toward sea level.

mistletoe in trees on the riverbank

Sailing through the Main River the ship passed many scenic little historic towns along the way. There are also forested areas. Throughout our journey we sometimes passed trees along the shoreline infested with mistletoe.

church in a little town on the Main River

There are many churches. Every town we saw had at least one church no matter how small the town was. Even very little towns frequently had more than one. Vinyards often sprawled along the hillsides rising steeply alongside the river.

castle

There are also some castles and castle ruins on the Main, though the Rhine is better known for castles having a stretch with many in a row.

view from the port in Würzburg

Our cruise stopped in several charming ports along the Main including Bamberg, Würzburg, and Wertheim.

bridge

The river is a significant trade route as well as a nice place for scenic river cruises. Like the cruise ships, cargo boats on the river are long and low. They have to be low to pass under the many bridges encountered along the way. Water levels are very important. When the water is too deep ships don’t fit under the bridges, but if it gets too shallow there’s not enough water under the ship to sail at all. Sometimes river cruises get interrupted due to unfavorable water levels and the passengers either have to change ships at an unpassable bridge or end up taking a bus if the ships can’t move. We never encountered water that was too high or low so our river cruise on Viking Skirnir went smoothly along on one ship for the entire journey as it is supposed to.

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Luminosa in Tahiti

Like most cruise ships, Carnival Luminosa has a variety of cabins for people to choose from varying from the cheapest inside rooms to the biggest and most expensive suites. On this ship even the lowly inside cabins have options – and some even have windows. Where other lines generally classify cabins with obstructed view windows as ocean view obstructed, on the Luminosa and other Carnival ships they are classified as interior with window. The ship also has the usual interior cabins without windows.

spa inside cabin

Interior Cabins

Some of the standard interior cabins are the usual rectangular shape of cruise ship cabins, but others are square. These are category 4A, can be found on deck 1. Some of the cabins are accessible, which as with any cabin category often run larger than other cabins of the same category on many cruise ships. Categories 4 B,C,D, E, and F are standard rectangular interior rooms these are found in various locations around the ship on most cabin decks.

interior with window – on other lines called oceanview obstructed (also has reflection of bed and photographer in the window)

Category 4K rooms sit behind the lifeboats. These have windows which can range from completely blocked by a tender to having a bit of view between lifeboats or tenders or above lifeboats.

square interior cabin

There are 4 accessible cabins among these, the last two of which are sort of L-shaped and larger than the rest. Beyond those the cabins have balconies. The other 6 window rooms classified as interior are at the front of deck 6 and 7 and are called interior with picture window.

interior with picture window

These look out onto a small upper bow walkway with a small window with a view above the outside structure. Both of the ones on deck 6 and 2 of the 4 cabins on deck 7 are accessible. Up on deck 8 there are category 4S cabins, which are spa interior. Like all of the spa cabins, these come with use of the ship’s thermal suite as well as upgraded bathrobes and toiletries within the cabin. They also get 2 free fitness classes and priority spa bookings and port day spa discounts. These extra amenities are included with all spa cabins not just the inside ones.

oceanview cabin

Ocean View Cabins

Deck 1 has category 6A standard ocean view cabins. ass previously mentioned, other cabins that would be called obstructed ocean view on most cruise lines are considered interior cabins with windows on Carnival ships.

aft extended balcony

Balcony Cabins

Luminosa has a variety of different balcony cabins, which of course come at different prices depending on what they have to offer. Standard balcony cabins are found on various decks with those higher up and closer to the center of the ship considered as higher categories and therefore more expensive than cabins found lower down or farther out toward the bow or stern of the ship. Most are rectangular, but there are a few odd-shaped cabins with more space and/or larger balconies.

premium balcony cabin

Premium balcony cabins are a bit larger with bigger than average balconies. Aft extended balcony cabins are at the back of the ship and have oversized balconies. There are a couple other extended balcony cabins that have double sized balconies without being at the back of the ship, and some square premium balcony cabins with bigger than usual balconies as well, which tend to be accessible cabins. Like the spa interior rooms, spa balcony cabins come with upgraded amenities and spa perks.

spa suite

Suites

As with most cruise ships, the most variety is found among the suites. Suites also include perks that the other cabins don’t get. These include priority check-in and boarding, immediate suite access after boarding, priority dining room time choice and reservations, priority tender, priority disembarkation, 1 free bag laundry service, 2 free bottles of water, pillow top matteress, and upgraded bath products.

junior suite

The smallest, called Junior Suites are found in odd spaces where there was a bit too much room for a regular cabin, but not quite enough for a full sized suite. There are two accessible junior suites near the middle back of deck 5 and two others at the front of deck 6.

ocean suite

Ocean suites are the most numerous of the suites on this ship. They generally have about 360 square feet of interior space or a little over 400 including the balcony. These are found in the middle of decks 6, 7, and 8. Spa suites are found at the bow of deck 8 and are similar to ocean suites, but with the addition of all of the spa perks.

grand suite

Grand suites are a bit bigger and are found at the front corners of deck 5. Extended grand suites sit near the center of deck 7 and have more square footage than the grand suites. Grand vista suites are found at the back corners of decks 4-8. These are the biggest suites of all and feature a wraparound balcony with balcony space running around the corner of the ship. They range from 569-733 feet including the balcony.

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view of Ushuaia as the ship nears the dock

Ushuaia, Argentina

Though people seemed to have slightly different pronunciation for Ushuaia from one another, most of the locals seemed to say something like ooo-shy-uh, only all ran together smoothly rather than obviously separate sounds and the ooo part rhymes with boo.

shore view from the cruise dock

Ushuaia is the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province of Argentina. Although it’s a cold place at the southern end of Argentina, the name means land of fire. It came from Spanish explorers who saw the fires of indigenous people onshore when sailing past.

location of Ushuaia on a map

Ushuaia is on the Beagle Channel, named for the ship Charles Darwin used when exploring the area on a survey voyage in 1833-34. It was named after his ship because he was the first foreign explorer to document the channel’s existence.

lighthouse view

Local legend from the indigenous people who first lived in the area says that a witch froze all of the water, but one of their gods fought with the witch and won. This fight was done by supernatural beings up in the sky, and apparently gigantic ones at that. After the fight the god dropped his slingshot, opening up the ice into water and that’s what made the Beagle Channel, which is shaped like a slingshot. Glaciers there are retreating the same as glaciers pretty much everywhere, but there is still a lot of ice in the region.

view of the shore

Money in Argentina is the Argentine peso. It currently takes 1394.79 Argentine pesos to equal 1 US dollar. Of course that number changes over time. The language of Argentina is Spanish. A lot of Antarctic expeditions begin in Ushuaia so a lot of foreigners pass through there. It is easier to find people who speak English in Ushuaia than it is in a lot of other areas of South America. Most places take cards and some will take American money, but don’t try to use British pounds anywhere in Argentina. We were warned not to go onshore in Argentina wearing anything with any sort of logo from the UK. They still have hard feelings over the Falkland War. (It’s the opposite in the Falklands, which Argentina and some other Spanish-speaking countries refer to as the Ialas Malvinas.)

ships at the dock

Ushuaia Cruise Ship Port

Holland America Oosterdam docked in Ushuaia, which was rare on our Antarctic cruise since many of the ports required tenders. Tendering is when the ship docks offshore and brings passengers to land in small boats. Ushuaia was our last port before Antarctica so it was the last place for any new supplies – which definitely helps to have a dock.

small expedition cruise ship at the dock

Some small-ship expedition cruises to Antarctica start and/or end their voyages in Ushuaia. For the much larger Oosterdam it was just a port stop. Oosterdam is fairly small compared to the megaships some other cruiselines have, but it is big compared to expedition ships. On expedition cruises people get off their ship in Antarctica, whereas on ours we just sailed around and looked at it from the ship, but those cost a lot more.

long dock at the port

The dock is long and had multiple ships docked. There are some shops and a tour booth right on the dock. After leaving the port there is a tourist information building to the right and a taxi stand to the left. There is a train shaped city tour bus that has a miniature train shaped ticket booth across the street from the port. We also saw a double decker bus stopped near the port. Shops and restaurants are within walking distance of the dock.

shops on the dock

Other things to do in Ushuaia near the cruise dock include the Museo del Fin del Mundo which is just over half a mile away. This museum is about Tierra del Fuego’s cultural history and displays pre-Columbian artifacts and historical archive in two significant heritage buildings.

double decker hop on hop off bus

At just under 3/4 of a mile from the dock there is a century old Catholic church on San Martin Street that was built with convict labor. Just over 3/4 of a mile is the Museo Maritime and Museo del Presidio. These museums are housed in a former prison and are entirely funded by visitor support and local contributions. Displays are maritime and Antarctic heritage.

visitor’s center

Just over a mile finds the Cartel Ushuaia memorial honoring Argentine soldiers. The location provides striking views of the Beagle Channel and the Andes Mountains. At 1.4 miles the Antigua Casa Beban cultural center preserves Ushuaia’s architectural heritage. It has hosted exhibitions and events since its restoration in 1994.

city tour bus shaped like a train engine

Glacier Martial Ushuaia is 4.8 miles away and has panoramic views of the Beagle Channel and the Andes Mountains as well as hiking trails. Tierra del Fuego National Park is 7.8 miles away and was created to protect sub-Antarctic forests. The park contains glacial valleys, rugged mountains, diverse wildlife, and scenic coastline along the Beagle Channel.

train to the end of the world at the station near Ushuaia

The Train to the End of the World runs from outside of town to Tierra del Fuego National Park. This can be booked as a shore excursion or on your own. Either way advance booking is recommended as there may not be space available on a train if you just go there without a reservation. The train depot is about 8 kilometers from the cruise port. Booking as a ship’s excursion includes transportation from the port and a train just with people from the ship. Enough people booked this on our cruise that there were several busses and at least two trains just for people from the Oosterdam.

Tierra del Fuego national park

Other ship’s excursions offered in Ushuaia include a catamaran cruise to a penguin rookery and lighthouse, canoeing in Tierra del Fuego National Park, hiking, a wildlife cruise in the Beagle Channel, a visit to Tierra del Fuego National Park, or traveling by 4×4 to a fishing village to cook and eat King Crab.

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jungle guy from a TV show

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Amsterdam is not just a place to look at lifelike wax figures, though it is full of them. The journey starts in an elevator with a countdown on the ceiling as to when it will actually go. It opens on the opposite side after reaching the top of the exhibit. It doesn’t really feel much like it is going up, and certainly not so high. The lack of much detectable motion is deceptive though as we found out on the way down.

he’s not real

The soccer guy or whatever he is at the entrance looks very real. Since you’re not actually into the museum yet it might take a couple looks before your brain registers that he’s not an actual person.

she’s not a living person either

You have an option of purchasing all or any photos or videos taken of you as you work your way through the museum. Cameras are also allowed inside to take your own. Many of the sections have some sort of interactive feature and people are allowed to pose with the exhibits.

Santa Claus

Most of the wax figures have a tag or sign of some sort that says who they are, but there are a few that don’t. Some are easily recognizable, others are not.

at the A-list party

Early on we walked into a room with a party scene that seemed to be full of people. After looking around a bit we noticed that very few of those people actually moved. That’s because the only ones who move are visitors to the museum. The rest are wax figures.

Meghan and Harry

Meghan and Harry are there along with Jennifer Aniston and a whole lot of other people. There are other royals in an area specifically for royals, but Meghan and Harry are at the party. That area is called the A-List Party.

ET

The next room has a lot of familiar figures, though not necessarily all human. It’s the film area with famous movie characters, not all of whom were even actual actors.

Shrek

You can take your photo with Shrek or on the bike with ET, or just take photos of the figures.

skaters

The sports room held figures of people we didn’t recognize. They were probably Dutch athletes. Two had ice skates, likely people who performed successfully in the Olympics.

the lady on the bench is real

A fashion show area has a catwalk people can walk on if they want to do the interactive feature for that section. Most of the people in the room were wax figures, but there was a real live lady sitting on a bench. At first we thought she was just a random museum visitor sitting there, but she was actually running the catwalk activity.

view

We skipped most of the interactive features, but took some photos through a window that wasn’t really part of the exhibit. It had great views of the city from a higher vantage point than we had seen before. At the time we did not realize exactly how high that was.

singers

One of the rooms was full of singers. Around a corner at the back hidden from the main view there was a recording booth with Adele in it. People could go into that booth and sing a song from the selection offered with the wax Adele if they wanted to.

Freddy Mercury

There was an exhibit with DJ’s where people could pretend to be one, and one of a TV broadcasting studio where reading the autocues and pretending to be a TV show host was an optional activity.

Anne Frank at the wax museum

One room had Anne Frank in it. You can’t take photos in the actual Anne Frank house, but of course pictures of her in the wax museum are allowed. The room she was in was small, but bigger than the one she had in the real Anne Frank house. The wax one had furniture, which the actual one did not since the Nazis had taken it all when they raided the annex where her family had hidden for over 2 years.

bookcase at the wax museum

There was a wax model of the bookcase that hid the entry to the annex too. Anyone who went to the Anne Frank house and was disappointed about no photos allowed could visit the wax museum to take some.

Dutch royalty

One hallway had world leaders from different places, then Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana from the British royal family followed by some people from the Dutch Royal family. One of them was from the 1500’s, the others more recent.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein sat on the roof of a little booth thing that had some painters and other unknown figures around it at the bottom. One of the painters was Rembrandt, or at least we all thought so. He wasn’t tagged.

Van Gogh

There was a Mona Lisa figurine in a large picture frame with space for people to stand next to her and join in the picture. Van Gogh was there too, with an empty picture frame. People could stand behind that frame and it would make a picture of them that looked like a Van Gogh painting, which was of course available for sale at the gift shop. Of course there’s a gift shop at the end. Nearly all tourist attractions exit through a gift shop. This one was no exception.

wax hands

In one place people could make wax casts of their hand or buy a picture of themselves embedded into a wax cube.

only some of these people are real

Another spot had an actual bar where people could buy drinks. There were two bartenders behind the bar, but only one of them was real. Not all of the patrons in the bar were real either.

wax marvel figure

The last exhibit before the gift shop was of marvel comic figures.

Madam Tussaud herself

Madame Tussaud herself made an appearance in the gift shop. At least a wax figure of her anyway. It was shown working on making a wax head. Some of the figures are very life-like and could easily be mistaken for a real person until you notice they never move, but others are more obviously fake. There was a figure of Michael Jackson in the singers area that looked like an ugly woman. It took the tag attached to the figure with his name on it to know that’s who it was supposed to be.

Elvis was all alone on a seemingly endless stairway

The way out from the gift shop is down a seemingly endless stairway. It didn’t feel like the elevator went up much so it was a bit of a surprise to have to go down so many flights of stairs and then down and down and keep going down some more to get back out to street level at the end. There were some odd wax things on the walls along that stairway. Eventually we came across a life-sized Elvis Presley looking a bit worse for the wear. Maybe that’s why he’s in the exit rather than in the section with the other musicians.

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Miraflores Locks

Our Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam cruise transited the Panama Canal on Easter Sunday. There wasn’t much Easter stuff on board. A few decorations, some Easter food options, and a couple church services scheduled. Since we spent the day going through the Panama Canal most people were focused on the canal rather than the holiday.

mystery boxes

The pilot was late getting on our ship so we had a late start before even arriving at the canal. The commentary for the transit included that there would be 3 pilots onboard with the other two arriving later in order to have 2 pilots on the bridge and 1 at the stern watching the back end of the boat as it passed through the canal’s locks. After the pilot boat dropped off the first pilot another boat pulled up alongside and unloaded a stack of boxes. I have no idea what was in them or what they were for.

tugboats behind the ship

Going from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side was the opposite of my previous trip through the canal on Celebrity Infinity in 2015. Back then the Panamanians were busy building new locks for bigger ships. At some points during that transit we could see ongoing canal construction. The new locks opened in 2016 so this time those were in operation and had been for quite some time. At both ends of the canal the new locks pass through separate channels from the original ones so you don’t see a lot of one from the other.

Culebra Cut

During the construction they also widened the Culebra Cut according to our ship’s commentary. That was probably necessary to accommodate the larger ships that don’t fit into the old locks, but can now transit the canal through the new ones. The new section has 100 years of advancement in technology over the old locks which includes water-saving chambers to re-use much of the water so it doesn’t just all go downstream with the ships. The new locks are fully automated with horizontally sliding gates.

approaching the Atlantic Bridge

Traffic control was also updated. Originally there was just a sometimes hard to see arrow pointing to which lock chamber a ship was to enter and a series of land-based markers along the channel for navigation through the canal. The land-based markers were still there the first time we went through the canal. Now it has advanced navigation and monitoring systems and ship tracking capabilities. Command control has real-time information available for enhanced safety and better efficiency. Even the weather is taken into account within the new system. This affects the entire canal, not just the new parts.

passing under the Atlantic Bridge

Entering from the Atlantic side we first passed through Lincoln Bay from the Caribbean Sea, passing under the Atlantic Bridge which spans the canal entrance at that end. That bridge opened in 2016. Just beyond the bridge what looks like a little river off to the right is actually the bit of canal that the French dug way back in the 1800’s that would have been way too small and narrow for today’s ships even if they had managed to finish it. That bit was not used by the Americans back when the original canal was built starting in 1904 and finished in 1914.

entrance to what would have been the French canal had they been successful in building it

I was hoping to see the new locks since I had already been through the old ones on the previous trip, but we went through the old ones instead. My sister was happy about that as she had not been there before and that was the section she wanted to see. The old locks at the Caribbean end of the canal are called Gatun Locks and the new ones Agua Clara Locks.

ship exiting the canal and dredger blocking our lane

Though a lane was open in Gatun Locks as we approached it took quite awhile before we could enter because there was a giant dredger in the way vacuuming up mud to keep the canal clear. Daily dredging is required to maintain a navigable depth for the ships passing through the canal. The canal is open 24 hours a day so dredging has to be done while it is open since it is never closed. More work is done at night while there is less traffic, but we were there early in the morning and the dredger was hard at work. It kept looking like it would move out of the way, but then not actually doing so until eventually it finally actually did.

right channel goes to the old locks and left channel to the new ones

Gatun Locks has two lanes. Each lane has 3 chambers so it takes awhile to get through all 3. We went out to the big open bow on deck 5, but it was too crowded to see anything so we ended up on the smaller bow on deck 6. It was not as crowded, but still had a lot of people. At the entrance to the canal there’s a split around a bit of land where the right side goes to Gatun Locks, which as previously mentioned is the original smaller set and the left leads to Agua Clara Locks, the new one Panama built at the Atlantic end of the canal. There is an Agua Clara visitor center highlighting operation of the new locks.

entering Gatun Locks

Both sets of locks on that end of the canal have 3 chambers each. Gatun has 2 lanes and Agua Clara has one. It can accommodate 9 large ships at a time if there is one in each chamber of each of the locks, with 6 of old Panamax size in the three chambers each of the two lanes of the old locks and 3 larger ones with one in each chamber of the new set. Neopanamax is the new maximum size for the canal for ships too big for the old locks that can fit through the new locks. More than one ship can go into the same lock chamber at the same time if they are small enough. We did see 3 small sailboats go in together at one of the locks later in the journey. They barely took up any space in the lock whereas our ship took up an entire chamber by itself.

black lighthouse

There was a black lighthouse at Gatun Locks. It’s painted black to indicate that it is no longer in use.

train bridge over the Chagras River

Exiting those locks ships pass into Gatun Lake, which was created through damming the Chagres River to make a reservoir to run the locks. The dam there powers electricity for operating the canal and the reservoir serves as a municipal water source as well as water to fill the chambers in the locks.

Gatun Lake

Islands in the lake are the tops of what were hills before the manmade lake filled with water. Ships can easily pass by one another in the lake. When we transited the canal the first time all of the boats went the same direction with one way passing through in the morning and the other in the evening, but this time some areas had ships going both directions. Even the first set of locks had a ship coming out of one lane before we went into the other one. It was long gone before the dredger got out of the way. The next one coming out of that chamber had to wait for the dredger to move before it could come out just like we had to wait for it to move before we could go in. Between that and the late pilot we were at least an hour behind our scheduled time by the time we finally got into the first lock.

Gamboa

Even though the lake is wide there is a set path ships take along the original course of the Chagres River. It meanders between the islands that were once hilltops. At the far end it narrows into a channel that passes by a town called Gamboa which is a base for dredgers. The canal’s dredging division has been based there since 1936. Before we ever took a cruise that did a full transit through the canal we took a partial transit tour as a shore excursion from MSC Divina in 2013 that ended in Gamboa.

slide in the Culabra Cut

The Culebra Cut is a man-made channel through the continental divide. Many of the sidewalls are terraced, some edged with rock reinforcements. This area was widened as part of the Panama Canal expansion which included the new sets of locks at either end to accommodate more and larger ships. Besides dredging to keep the channel clear some parts are prone to landslides so there’s a lot of maintenance involved. Areas of new digging or recent slide repairs were evident along the sides of the channel. Slides in that area were one reason why the French were unsuccessful with their early attempt at canal building. Landslides and disease killed a lot of their workers.

heading toward the Centennial Bridge

A full transit of the Panama Canal is an all-day thing so we were in different places around the ship throughout the day, intending to be at prime viewpoints on the ship for things like locks and bridges. Sometime in the afternoon we were relaxing out on the promenade deck with a daiquiri each (mango for me, strawberry for Linda). According to where the shipfinder app on my phone positioned our vessel it looked like we had some time to go before we got to the Centennial bridge until there it was looming large nearly above us. I had wanted to go under that from an upper deck at the back of the ship because it’s fun to watch a ship approaching a bridge where it looks like the ship is way too tall and will never fit under until you get there and go under, then looking back it looks as if you couldn’t possibly have fit.

nearly under the Centennial Bridge

We didn’t have time to get to the stern on an upper deck before it would pass under the bridge so we just saw it from the one side of the promenade deck where we already were. It still looked like the bridge was a lot lower than the ship and like the ship’s bridge would smack right into the side of the Centennial Bridge, but of course it sailed smoothly right under it.

Pedro Miguel Locks

We did go to the back for the next lock, which was Pedro Miguel Locks. At that end of the canal ships using the old original channel pass through two sets of locks while those in the new lane have just one. Pedro Miguel has just one chamber that lowers the ship 30.5 feet (9.3 meters). After that lock the lane for the new locks is raised well above the level of the lane for the old one since ships there haven’t gone through any locks yet. From our lane we could see an MSC container ship well above us in the new lane.

The tall building is the old visitor’s center. It had several levels of viewing areas, now mostly behind a black tarp. The new visitor’s center is behind it with the new viewing area next to the canal.

Miraflores Lake sits between Pedro Miguel Locks and Miraflores Locks at the far end. The locks there has a new visitor’s center right next to the old one. The old building was either undergoing some sort of repair or being prepped for removal because it was partially covered in plastic and looked to have some sort of work going on. The new stand for people to watch ships go by is smaller than the area they had to watch from the old building. There’s an exhibit on the canal’s history in the new visitor center.

people on the deck 5 bow and a few crew on the deck 4 bow watch the gates open in Miraflores Locks

Not a lot of time passes between Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks, but we had enough to go back to the bow. Since we started from deck 9, we went down to the one on deck 7 first to assess the crowd on the lower bows and found that there wasn’t one. We had a good view from there so we just stayed. As we got closer to the lock more people came out on decks 5 and 6 as well as 7. Previous Holland America ships I’ve sailed on had the big open bow on deck 4, but Nieuw Amsterdam has a crew bow on that deck. Instead of just a small bow on deck 5 it has one that comes closer to the end of deck 4 than the other ships have from deck 5, but not all the way to the end so it’s smaller than the big bow on other ships. It just has small bows on 2 other decks instead of 3 so there’s less total space for passengers to see the scenery on a ship that holds more people. A bonus for the crew since they get the one on deck 4, though most of them are working when the ship passes through scenic areas and don’t have the opportunity to use it.

little rowboat at Miraflores Locks

As we approached Miraflores locks we saw the little rowboat come out with the linesman bringing the lines to the ship. They do that at each lock, but we couldn’t see them through the crowd at the first lock or from where we were at the back on the second one.

one of the little locomotives in Gatun Locks

After the person on the tiny little rowboat throws the lines to the ship they are connected to several little locomotives on each side of the lock that will hold the ship and move with it through all chambers of that lock.

the little road section of the stayed flat against the wall since it is no longer in use

Miraflores Locks has two chambers. I remembered cars driving across when the gates were shut the previous time we went through the locks. That’s a thing of the past now. The little road sections of the canal stayed flat against the sides of the chamber and never closed across the lock.

road to nowhere on the side of the locks

The road leading to it on both sides ended abruptly where the road had been chopped off so it would be a long fall to the ground from the current end of those roads, which are now roads to nowhere. The cars used to come out under the archway that the road bit is tucked into. I guess people have to go to one of the 3 bridges to cross the canal now.

MSC container ship in the new lane

On the approach to Miraflores Locks we could see the MSC ship in the new lane heading for Coccoli Locks that would take it all the way down to the Pacific Ocean in one set of locks rather than the two we went through in the old lane. Coccoli Locks has 3 chambers so ships there still go through the same amount of steps. It’s just done all in one lock rather than two separate ones. All of the canal expansion projects including both sets of new locks were built by Panama. The new locks at both ends opened in 2016 using the newer technology with water reuse basins so it takes less water to run the new bigger locks than it does the old smaller ones. We could not see the actual new lock, just the MSC container ship passing through the lane above the level where we were and then lowering down so that we could see less and less of it when it got into the lock.

3 little sailboats in the other chamber while we went through Miraflores Locks

At the far end of the canal the ship passes under the Bridge of the Americas. We had set time dining on this cruise and since the ship was running late on its transit it hadn’t quite finished the last chamber of Miraflores when it was time to go to dinner. From the dining room we could see the lock chamber all around as the ship lowered to the level of the Pacific Ocean, and a rear view of the bridge through the back window. It’s a bit different view seeing walls all around you out the windows of the dining room. Passing through the Panama Canal is quite different from going through the Suez Canal since the Panama Canal has locks at either end and the Suez Canal is all at one level. The scenery is quite different too since Panama has a lot of tropical jungle and Egypt has sandy desert.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Radiance in Cabo

Carnival Radiance launched as Carnival Victory in 2000. It was renamed Radiance in 2021 following an extensive makeover. Renovations included the addition of 115 staterooms, a water park, updating decor, and updating many of the ship’s food places and other venues. At double occupancy the ship holds 2984 guests with a maximum passenger capacity of 3400. Maximum capacity of a cruise ship is how many people they have lifeboat space for rather than the most they could stuff into the ship if all the staterooms held as many people as possible for each cabin. Crew numbers about 1100. The ship is 893 feet long and 116 feet wide which is significantly smaller than Carnival’s largest ship, the Jubilee, at 1130 feet long and holding over 6000 passengers. My first impression of Carnival Radiance was too many people for the amount of public space available. Considering the renovation added 115 staterooms, that’s a pretty good explanation since that reduced public space while adding more passengers.

atrium

The centerpiece of the ship is its atrium. At its lowest level on deck 3, a popular bar sits in the central space. It was generally filled with people all day long. The atrium extends all the way up the ship with a skylight at the top. Decks 4 and 5 have public spaces surrounding the atrium with a fancy stairway running from deck 3 to deck 5 within the atrium. Decks above that have an open area above the atrium with a view down to deck 3 and of the glass elevators running up one end.

piano bar

The ship has a lot of different bars which is mainly what it has for public space, especially within the interior of the ship. The Red Frog Pub is pretty spacious and often hosts activities throughout the day. The smaller Piano Bar also occasionally hosts some activities. The third bar in the same area is the Alchemy Bar which is fairly small, but has seating by windows that is usually full of people whether the bar is open or not.

looking down on the atrium from a higher deck

Space at the back of the ship on a deck of otherwise all public areas on deck 5 that would generally be some sort of lounge on most ships – and in fact is on the similarly laid out Splendor – is just more staterooms on this one. It feels like they are trying to stuff as many people as possible onboard, which they probably are, but then there aren’t enough places for all those people to go. Teenagers tended to hang out in the space between stairways as other than the arcade or kid’s club they had nowhere else to go inside of the ship.

breakfast buffet

Some of the hallways between spaces aren’t very wide either, particularly where people wait in line at Blue Iguana on the burrito side in an already too narrow walkway heading into the buffet between the Blue Iguana and its seating area. Even without the line of people waiting there’s barely enough room for scooters to pass through. Seating at the buffet can be hard to find during busy times even when adding all inside and outside tables anywhere near there including those on the next deck up. Besides the buffet and Blue Iguana, deck 9 (the Lido deck) is also home to Guy’s Burgers, Pizza, and Big Chicken. Guy’s Pig and Anchor barbecue sits on deck 10 above the pizza and chicken places. There’s also an upstairs Italian place on deck 10 inside above the buffet called Cucina del Capitano that is free at lunchtime, but costs extra at dinner. Other pay-extra eateries include the steakhouse, sushi, chef’s table and a seafood shack.

production show in the theater

The main theater – called the Liquid Lounge – is nice, but small. Considering that part of the renovation included shrinking the theater to make room for more staterooms the fact that it is small is not surprising. The seats in the lower area are movable so they can rearrange them for different shows or remove them to use that space for other things. Having a flat floor there means that there is no drop from any seat to the one in front of it so sitting in the ones along the sides of the theater is a better choice for seeing shows since the ones in the balcony type area along the sides have a good drop from one row to the next. The back of the theater has a big bar.

comedy show in the theater

We saw a show there where almost none of the floor seats were facing the stage, but they had a lot of extra things extended from the stage where much of the show took place. The lower seats were arranged around those. That show had a lot of singing and dancing and some drone lights. Drone lights in a cruise ship show used to be unique to Symphony of the Seas, but apparently they have gotten easier to program or just more popular because we were recently on a Princess ship that had drone lights as part of a show as well. Radiance had them going for quite awhile and in changing colors where sometimes they were all the same color and sometimes all different colors. Maybe drone lights are the new aerialists. Years ago we saw an aerialist on a Celebrity ship and they were the only ones with any so it was new and different and unique. A few years later practically every ship had at least one show with at least one aerialist. They’re still around, but getting scarcer now. It’s probably not as easy to expand the drone lights though and they haven’t done so nearly as quickly. They can’t fly on regular GPS on a moving ship so they have to be programmed to something internal. At a comedy show we saw later in that same theater all of the lower seats were arranged in rows facing the stage and there wasn’t any of the additional apparatus for the performers to spread out onto, just the regular stage.

hot tub on the Serenity deck

The ship has 10 full decks and 3 partial ones. Only one of the full decks and two of the partial ones have no staterooms. Seven of them have at least some outside space, but there are very few deck chairs in the shade. There are a lot of deck chairs, just mostly out in the sun (or whatever the weather may be.) On the Serenity deck the one space that is under another deck where there is good shade is taken up by a bar. There are some shade structures in places, but they don’t fully shade anything.

main pool area on the Lido deck

The Lido deck has two pools and 4 hot tubs. There’s one additional hot tub on the adults only Serenity deck on deck 14, which is really deck 13 since deck numbering goes straight from 12 to 14, skipping 13 as is usual on American cruise ships. During our cruise hot tubs in the Lido deck pool area were best avoided as there was nearly always someone with a diaper baby in them even though that’s against the rules for any pool on all cruise ships for obvious reasons. The one on the Serenity deck was free from babies, but the water was not very warm. The others probably weren’t very warm either since normal hot tub temperature would be too hot for babies. They could have solved that problem by turning the heat up.

thermal suite

The thermal suite in the spa had a good number of the heated ceramic chairs, which were a different style than usual and not as ergonomic. It also had a sauna and steam room, but no pool or hot tub of any kind. The closest was the outside hot tub on the Serenity deck one deck up, which would have been nice if the water had been warmer.

inside spa cabin

Our cabin had a few things wrong with it like a drawer that didn’t close and a closet you had to fight the door to open. It was also the least magnetic ship we’ve been on, at least since we started bringing magnets. Even our super strong magnetic hooks couldn’t hold anything up on the cabin walls. Doors couldn’t hold magnetic decorations other than the strip around the door where only small ones fit. It was definitely not our favorite ship. More public spaces, shady deck chairs, hotter hot tubs, and a pool in the thermal suite would have improved it.

gluten free spaghetti carbonara

The dining room we were in was nice. It looked pretty new and did not sport the wild décor that Carnival ships of the Victory’s era generally had. Most likely it was completely redone when the ship had its makeover. On Carnival gluten free and vegan options are available on the dining room menu without having to order in advance like on most cruise lines. There’s a whole separate menu for them in the app if you scroll past the main menu and the wine menu. The paper menu in the dining room doesn’t show those options, but anyone without the app could ask the waiter about them.

waterslides and splash park

Things to do onboard besides the pools and hot tubs include waterslides, mini-golf, a ropes course, basketball court, games, casino, and relaxing in deck chairs. Scheduled activities included trivia and other games, dance lessons, yoga, Pilates, and other gym stuff, theater and comedy shows, movies, scavenger hunts, and music in different venues around the ship. Thery had some lectures on jewelry and gym and beauty stuff, but those are intended to get people to buy things so don’t really count as entertainment. There’s a lot of things they do to try and get people to buy stuff. A lot of space in the daily Fun Times was taken up by stuff for sale rather than stuff to do while important things like the all-aboard time on sea days was not displayed anywhere obvious if at all in the Fun Times.

one of the upper front bows

There are a few secret areas on the ship that very few passengers find. Decks 6, 7, 10, & 11, all had doors at the end of the front cabin hallways that went out onto open bow areas. There was a stairway between the bows on 6 & 7. There are lower bows too, but they were for crew only. Most people don’t know about it so you don’t often run into anyone else out there. Everybody knows about the outside promenade down either side of the ship on deck 3 which has some deck chairs, but the deck above also has an outside walkway on either side.

outside promenade on deck 4

People go there to check in for muster stations, but most aren’t aware that passengers can go out there during the cruise too. At least they were allowed to during our cruise. Passengers are only allowed on the sides though. Crew can go farther back. It feels like you are somewhere you aren’t supposed to go, but any crew we ran into were friendly. On the Splendor which had the same feature passengers were not allowed in that area, but on the Radiance when it was open for people checking into their muster stations we asked. The crew guy said we could go there so we gave it a try. The few crew we ran into were kind of surprised to see passengers, but nobody said we couldn’t be there. Not even the officers.

stairway art

Stairway art on the back stairs was sea creatures. Each level had something different. Various types of fish or on one it was seahorses. The middle stairs had water scenes. Beaches or islands or something with bodies of water. The front stairway was sunrises or sunsets over water scenes. All tasteful and nothing weird like we have seen in stairway art on some ships. The ship in general looked a lot more modern in the décor than what was typical of Carnival ships when it was built so it was likely all redone when it changed from Victory to Radiance. It used to seem like odd or ugly statues were a requirement on all cruise ships, but we have seen a lot less of them lately and did not notice any statues at all on this ship so either there weren’t any or they didn’t stand out enough to take note of them.

elevator repair or maintenance

One of the elevators was closed for maintenance for a couple days. On deck 6 it had a barricade around it and there was a roll of cable on the floor within the barricade. Good that they are replacing it if it’s necessary, but a bit frightening that they need to when it had been open and running just the day before. Hopefully it was routine maintenance done long before there’s any danger rather than having something seriously wrong on the verge of failure. It worked fine after it got fixed.

duck trading mailboxes

Duck trading mailboxes are getting more popular on cruise ships. People put ducks in them and other people come by to trade their ducks for the ones in the mailboxes. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Some people just raid what’s there and don’t leave anything. We saw 8 duck mailboxes on this ship. Several of them looked like maybe the people had their own 3D printers and made ones similar to the little yellow ones people buy, but better. Sturdier and a bit bigger on one and a better design on the others. People have been hiding rubber ducks around cruise ships for years, but the duck mailboxes are fairly new. Most of them were small enough to fit on the little magnetic strip around cabin doors, but ours were too big. Mine had enough super strong magnets that it actually stayed on the wall, though it tended to slide down a bit when people opened it. On the next ship we went on with normal magnetic walls it never budged when people used it and in fact held so tightly it took a lot of effort to pry it off the wall. John’s didn’t have as many magnets as mine and had to be tied to a rail that ran along the wall on the Radiance, but has no problem sticking to the wall on other ships.

shore tenders picking up passengers from the ship

We had one tender port on this cruise. People who don’t have priority tender booked their tender tickets in the app, which meant they didn’t have to wait in a long line to get them. We had priority so we just had to go to the right place at the right time. Since we didn’t have to book ours through the app I don’t know how well the app reservations worked or how people who didn’t have the app got tickets. If it worked well it would definitely beat waiting in a long line. Cruise ship apps often have issues, though we didn’t have any problems with it on this cruise. The people next to us at dinner could never even get the menu to come up, though I think that was more the people than the app. Excursion tickets and info are also in the app rather than printed tickets, but you just need your key card to check in so excursion tickets aren’t actually necessary.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

Noordam in Nuku’alofa

Approaching the port in Nuku’alofa on the island of Tongatapu in Tonga on Holland America Noordam, we saw a pilot boat keeping pace with us for awhile. Whether the same boat had dropped off our pilot or not I don’t know, but eventually a somewhat distant cargo ship going the other direction came much closer and the pilot boat either picked up or dropped off a pilot there. Soon a red tugboat appeared to guide us into port. The ship backed up for a bit, spun a few circles, then remained relatively stationary for quite some time. Waiting to clear customs or for permission to dock or something. Only the people in control of the ship and port knew for sure.

tugboat helping the ship to shore

After watching our ship take an excruciatingly long time slowly inching into the dock, it took quite a while to get it tied up there as well. Finally all was done and the gangway popped out from the side of the ship so people could get off. Of course even as they had announced not to clog up the elevators and stairways to the gangway as the ship was docking there were people who think the rules don’t apply to them headed there. The cruise director repeatedly announced for people to go wait in public areas away from the stairways and elevators, but that never stops the me-first-I’m-more-important-than-everyone-else crowd. This cruise seemed to have more than its share of entitled people.

cruise ship dock

We waited a bit to go down to the gangway after the announcement saying people could get off the ship and by that time there was no line. We had no plans for this port so were hoping to find a last-minute tour. Most of the booths along the pier were selling the sort of things made from materials that have some restrictions and require declarations when passing through customs in both Australia and New Zealand so that probably hampered their sales since all the passengers were disembarking in either Australia or New Zealand. Lots of shells or things made from shells, wood, and other natural products. There were some things like t-shirts and such that would not have any customs issues, but they were quite overpriced.

busses and taxis at the end of the pier

One booth was labeled tourist information. They had maps, brochures, and signs for a bus tour and a diving tour. Farther up the way a sign pointing into a large gravel lot said lava tour this way, but we did not go that way to see what it was all about. Down near the end of the walkway there were all sorts of people offering last minute island tours. In USD for a bus of 39 people it was $35 per person. In a 6-8 person van or 17 person mini-bus it was $50 each, or for a private taxi tour $150 total for the tour, which for 2 people came out to $75 each. The cruise ship’s bus tour shore excursion around the island at this port was $70 per person so for nearly the same price we got a private tour, opting for the taxi since it would leave right away and all of the others would stay and wait for more people to show up before they would leave – plus with the private tour we could take whatever time we wanted at each stop without worrying about what anybody else was doing, and it could stop in places where a larger group couldn’t go.

Three Headed Coconut

First we went to a tree called the 3-headed coconut. It even has its own sign next to the tree. It’s a very unique coconut palm that branches out into 3 tops instead of the usual one top on a palm tree. The driver said it is the only one in the south pacific like that, and that it naturally grew that way rather than as a result of damage.

vendor both by the blowholes

Next we went to the Mapu’a Vaea Blowholes. The name means whistle of the noble. Other than locals with booths set up to sell their wares, we were the only ones there, having arrived before any of the other tours left the pier. There were several blowholes of varying sizes right there, and more visible up and down the coast. They did not all go off at the same time. Sometimes they just made a little splash, but with a big enough wave the splash would get quite large.

the shelf and drop-off ran down the entire shoreline

As was the case by the blowholes, a lot of the shoreline that we saw on Tongatapu had a bit of shallow water at the shoreline, with a sudden dropoff at the edge of a coral shelf. Waves crashing into that feature created the blowholes along that shoreline.

Mapa’a Vaea Blowholes

At some point we drove past the old royal palace, which the driver pointed out as we went by, but we didn’t stop there. The current royal palace is in the capitol city where the ship docked.

Captain Cook monument

We stopped by a Captain Cook monument, commemorating his landing site on the island. Captain Cook seems to have been everywhere. We saw monuments to him everywhere we went from Hawaii to Australia. That monument was just a small roadside attraction, but every tourist bus, car, or van that went by stopped there so it was pretty crowded.

Anahulu Cave

The best stop on the tour was Anahulu Cave. I’m sure no cruise ship bus would ever go there. Especially not from this cruise. On the Noordam they closed the lowest level of the glass stairway to the Atrium because 4 people fell down it the first week of the cruise. It’s an old ship and people have used that stairway for many years, but the ones on our cruise couldn’t handle it. Those sorts of people would never make it through a cave full of uneven ground and stairs of different lengths and depths both in and on the way to the cave. Good thing we were not on a cruise ship tour. I love caves and was very happy to see this one.

cave entrance

At the entrance we first had to go down a stairway carved into a bit of a hill and then duck down to go through a short tunnel of rock to get inside the cave as it was only a few feet tall there. Once fully inside the ceiling opened up way above our heads where even the tallest person could stand up fully and still have a vast amount of space above their head. That entryway alone would be enough to keep the cruise ship tours out, not to mention steep and narrow pathways winding their way through the cave.

formations in the cave

The cave had a few low-level lights so people could find their way through, but not so bright as to ruin the effect. We were the only ones in the cave the whole time we were there, though a couple people had just left the cave and were headed to the nearby beach when we first arrived. Another advantage of taking a private tour.

inside the cave

We could hear bats in the biggest room of the cave. Sometimes one would fly around, but they were too small and too fast to catch with the camera. The numerous stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave formations were stationary though so we could take pictures of them.

cave pool

After some ups and downs and twists and turns along the narrow pathway through the cave we reached a stairway into a deep blue pool. The taxi driver had mentioned that swimming in the cave was allowed. It looked like it would be fun to snorkel there and see what was under the water, but we were not dressed for swimming and had no snorkel gear with us so we just admired the pool from the path. We did not test the water temperature, but considering it was in a cave it was likely on the chilly side.

beach by the cave

A trail veering off from the one to the cave entrance led to a nearby little beach which had a pretty cove. It looked like the shallow part by the shore probably went out to the edge of a shelf and then dropped off deeper just like at the blowholes only without such a big splash, but we weren’t wearing anything we wanted to get wet and did not investigate that.

tree over an ancient rock monument across a field from Ha’amonga

Part of the drive took us along the shore where coral restoration is in progress. The road ran close to the water there and lots of little pathways led from the edge of the shore out into the water and then stopped.

Ha’amonga

Last we went to see an ancient monument called Ha’amonga, which is easier to remember as humongous. That works since it is quite large. It’s been there since around 1200 and is said have been built either for an ancient king as a gateway to his palace or for astrological purposes. It is constructed from 3 slabs of coral limestone. Each slab weighs 30 to 40 tons. In the local language the structure’s name means Maui’s Burden, due to the belief that as the stones are too heavy for a human to handle the monument was built by the god Maui. How it was built and the actual purpose remain a mystery. It was in a small roadside nature reserve with mostly grass, some trees, and other small stone monuments.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2026

yellow plane

When we took our granddaughter Hannah on a Caribbean cruise, the one thing she said she wanted to do was see the airplanes at Maho Beach at our port stop in Saint Martin – which is actually Sint Maarten since both the airport and cruise port are on the Dutch side of the part Dutch and part French island. There was also another teen and her mom with us so we had a group of 5 on this cruise.

airplane coming in for a landing

Princess Juliana airport sits just across a narrow road from Maho Beach so when airplanes come in for a landing they fly very low over that beach. People like to go there to get photos of the underside of airplanes flying directly overhead.

don’t be stupid

There’s a warning sign on the fence next to the runway because people used to hang onto that fence when planes took off and get blown off by the jetwash, which resulted in injuries for some people. Now there is a secondary fence where they’d likely get blown into barbed wire if they tried that.

airplane approaching the beach

The first time we went to Maho Beach it was a big beach with a little beach bar. There was a surfboard standing upright out on the beach with the day’s schedule of all the large airplanes landing there.  The beach had lots of space for people to relax in beach chairs and wait for planes to fly overhead. Some people went in the water.

once the planes get close they fly over quickly

The next time we saw Maho Beach some years later there was practically no beach at all. People perched on the rocks next to the narrow road to watch for planes. The once small bar had morphed into a giant bar attached to a shopping area with a pool. Someone there said that a storm had taken all the sand away, but it would come back so we didn’t really know what to expect this visit.

plane over the beach

Symphony of the Seas was the 4th of 4 ships to arrive so the port was quite crowded when we disembarked the ship. The line of people waiting for water taxi tickets was so long that they probably could have walked to town quicker than waiting to buy a ticket and then waiting again for the water taxi. The shops were full of people too. When we got to the taxi stand there was quite a long line. Most of the people want to go to Maho Beach so they filled van after van of people going there and the line moved fairly quickly. The fare was for a round trip so we were given wristbands that would allow us on for the return trip and told where to meet the vans from that company since there were others at the beach.

little beach by the Sand Bar

As to be expected by the constant stream of vans heading there, Maho Beach was pretty crowded. The original Sunset Bar now has the surfboard that was once out on the beach enclosed within the bar, but it still has the schedule of the days large airplanes written on it. Another bar called the Sand Bar which was on the other end of the shopping area also had a surfboard, but theirs had a menu instead of the airplane schedule. Both bars have some covered seating area, but the Sunset Bar is on the side where the airplanes land. There was a small bit of beach by the Sand Bar that had no crowd, but would also not have the airplane view that the beach on the other side of the Sunset Bar has.

girls with coconuts

Both of the bars serve food. The Sand Bar had a little stand selling coconuts for drinking coconut water from, and it also had ice cream.

Maho Beach

There was a lot less sand at the beach than on our first visit, but more than on our last. It was still a tiny beach with big beach bars and some shops. There was a bit of sand below the rocks along the road that passes by the end of the runway this time, and some within the rocks as well. There wasn’t much beach so a lot of people sat in the rocks or on the cement barrier between them and the road. Others stood or walked in the road, which barely had enough room for cars going opposite ways to squeak past one another so the multitude of people slowed the traffic considerably, sometimes stopping it entirely.

the cement barrier by the road is where a lot of people sit

The bit of the beach directly in line with the runway was solidly filled with people so we found a spot on the cement barrier a short distance from there. The two teen girls went out into the water for a bit and we all saw a lot of planes and a couple of helicopters. Small private planes come in between the larger commercial planes so there are a lot more landings than what the schedule on the surfboard shows.

small plane

Instead of going to Maho beach, people can take excursions on a boat that will hang out in the water under where the planes fly over so they can see the low flying aircraft without ever setting foot on the beach. There were several boats out in the water, but they did not come close to the beach so it was safe for people to swim. The girls said the swimming was good, which most likely meant that the water was warm since they more hung out in the water than actually swam, as was the case with most of the people in the water.

distant plane

Looking out over the water and in the sky beyond, the first clue that an airplane is coming is distant lights on the horizon, which eventually materialize into a plane. They start out as a distant speck, but it doesn’t take long before the plane is over the beach and gone. From the viewing area at the edge of the Sunset Bar or the beach adjacent you get a bit different perspective, but still a good view.

pool in the shopping area

The little pool in the little shopping area looked kind of like nobody ever used it. Which is likely the case since there is a beach there. One of the shops on the side by the parking area sold sweet treats and for awhile they had free samples.

beach and shops in Phillipsburg by the port

If you want a beach for beach purposes there are better ones on the island. There’s a really nice one right at Phillipsburg by the port which people can get to by water taxi or on foot. For snorkeling there are other better beaches elsewhere on the island. For parasailing and water toys there’s Orient Beach on the French side. Taxis aren’t as easy to come by going anywhere but Maho Beach, but there was a separate line at the taxi stand for people who wanted to go elsewhere so it is possible.

American Airlines plane

Maho Beach is all about the planes. If you want to see planes fly close overhead it’s the place to be. Otherwise not. The beach is small and very crowded. Our taxi van driver said it’s the smallest beach on the island, though likely it’s also the most popular one because of the airplanes headed into the runway across the street.

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