2005 Panama Canal Cruise -- July 4th at Sea

Updated August 14, 2005

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Since this ship was the first American-flagged passenger ship to be built and launched in many decades, we assumed that the American-themed style would be reflected in a big celebration on July 4th. There were a few events, primarily a very late-night poolside "party", but were dismayed by the low-key nature of the celebration.

So, we tried to liven things up a bit. First of all, we had pre-planned to decorate our cabin door with a patriotic display, and packed some special equipment for our own "Uncle Sam" to parade around the ship. In the end, the cruise staff at least threw a "party" late at night on the 4th. At least they handed out flags to the passengers. We saw only one other group of passengers dressed up for the holiday. Note that the 4th was celebrated at sea. We had left Costa Rica on the 2nd, and weren't going to be near land again until the 6th, nearly 4 days at sea. Would have been a perfect time to get the passengers' imaginations fired up for the big event.

It was actually rather hard to find patriotic July 4th decorations on Maui. We were looking in early June, but most stores had nothing. Later in the month, they would make a lot of money selling safe fireworks, but that seems to be the limit. Next time, we'll get things by mail order well before the cruise!

These pictures were taken primarily with our (now not so) new Kodak DX6490, which we love. The 10x optical zoom is great, and the electronics do a fine job of automatic adjustment and flash operations.

Our cabin door decorated for the 4th.	Closeup of Nalani, our cruising mascot, along with various red-white-blue items.	Bob, trying on his Uncle Sam hat. This proved to be a big hit with passengers and crew.	Sunset, July 3rd, at sea off the Mexican coast.	Even the bear in the Goldrush Saloon is wearing a patriotic hat.
Bob and our cabin attendant Jenny holding the flags we'll display later in the evening.	Jenny took this photo of Bob and Sandi dressed up for dinner with flags and hat.	Our dining table in the Liberty Restaurant had a few patriotic items.	Bob did take his hat off to dine.	The fountain/display at the front of the Liberty Restaurant is quite patriotic.
The lights on the "flag" switch on and off.	The Skyline Restaurant had a July 4th theme, unlike any other part of the ship.	More bunting decorates the Skyline Restaurant.	Bob after a "walkthrough" of the ship. He got a lot of attention, including salutes from the WW II vets on the cruise.

2005 Panama Canal Cruise -- July 4th at Sea

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