Ever wondered what a giant container ship passing through the Panama Canal might look like? Well, it just so happens we were visiting down there last week, and managed to stop by the Miraflores Locks, on the Pacific side, to witness a giant Dole container ship—full of pineapples, we assume—ease its way into the canal.

The entire process involves three sets of locks (Miraflores, Pedro Miguel and Gatun) and takes about 8-10 hours (though they allow multiple ships to travel along the canal at once) from one ocean to the other. But worry not. We've gone ahead and sped up the process to cram a 45-minute Miraflores Locks crossing into an easy-to-swallow two-and-a-half minute video clip. See below! ]]> ASchechter 2012-02-02T09:22:00-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/20/11816/3469

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

Check out that postmark on the above postcard from 1924. It seems that this little greeting, from folks sailing onboard the SS President Grant of Admiral Oriental Line between Seattle and "The Orient," made it all the way from somewhere off the coast of Japan to a teensy-weensy town in Northwest Ohio. Serious, Google Map Tontongany, Ohio and count how many roads it has on your hands. Then think about it back in the 1920s; it boggles the mind.

The point of all this is really to draw your attention to the words of the traveler who mailed this card, as their situation onboard says all you need to know about the pace of getting from Point A to Point B in the days before airplanes and taxis and turbojet ferries. Here ya go:]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-20T11:45:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/18/9737/80621

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

Water Aerobics. Mixology. A lecture on wildlife photography. Hairiest Chest Contest. These are just a few standard daily activities you'll likely find listed on the schedule of a modern cruise ship. However, it was back when passenger ships were called "liners" that schedules focused on the social, rather than the active and educational, advantages of the journey.

It's within this schedule for the old Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth—her third day of a crossing from New York to Cherbourg/Southampton—that we see this for sure. Where iPad classes would be listed on a 2011 cruise shop activity list, the 1949 version favors watching horse racing or listening to the news broadcast.]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-18T09:50:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/5/16330/01338
A mug from third class on the Titanic

Anyone got $189 million just chilling in the bank? If your answer is yes, then you've probably also got enough extra space to house some 5,500 artifacts raised from the ocean floor wreck of the RMS Titanic, because all that is about to be auctioned off...in one fell swoop.

That's right; if you want to buy just one piece from the massive collection, you're going to have to buy all of it, since the auction comes complete with a 19-page document of what you can and cannot do with the items. It's mostly cannot do. So there'll be no drinking your morning coffee from a steerage class mug, nor will there be fogging up a porthole with your breath, only to write "J + L = <3" with your finger. You've got to treat these items with respect, just as the salvage company has attempted to do until now: ]]> JetSetCD 2012-01-05T16:33:00-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12/16/103617/81

The latest Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!, opens today, and follows the characters we all got to know as kids as they embark on their first cruise vacation.

Most of the movie was filmed on the Carnival Dream cruise ship last January, on open decks and within the ship’s recreation areas. ]]> cmb 2011-12-16T10:45:04-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/11/10/12186/478

Walk through Times Square and at almost any of the cheapie souvenir shops in the area, you'll be able to score 10 postcards for $1. A steal for sure, but a closer look at the cards reveals that they're often outdated, faded or—worst of all—boring.

Travelers from the 1900s through the 1960s would have had a heart attack over this, since back then sending a postcard meant something. It was almost required of you to mail postcards from your destinations to your family, friends and neighbors, and the quality of the card was important.

Real Photo Postcards were popular for this reason. Printing on photo paper meant the picture would be solid, with no printing dots or gradients; it was as close to actually being there (except it was black & white). We were recently presented with this photo postcard from the heyday of the first Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth. At 724 feet long and 85,000 gross tons, she was the largest ship in the world and sailing on her meant you'd be sending a slew of photo postcards. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-11-10T13:35:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/10/17534/086

The Isle of Man is a mysterious place, a nearly sovereign territory out in the middle of the choppy Irish Sea between England and Ireland. What sort of people live there? What's there to see and do? These are all questions we wanted to answer, so we went ourselves...because why not? All this week we'll be sharing our experiences in this curious island destination.

We'd been in London too long. It was time for a sidetrip, and with Liverpool only two hours away by train and the Isle of Man only another two hours by ferry from there, the mini-adventure was a no-brainer. If we were actually close enough with time enough to make it to the Isle of Man, then by all means we were going to go.

Some hotel price comparisons later, we decided on a holiday package from the ferry company Steam-Packet (the only ferry company between Liverpool and Isle of Man), for 109 GBP ($170) per person for two nights' hotel and roundtrip ferry tickets. Not bad! If you're thinking of going anytime soon, the price has dropped to 99 GBP and here's the link.

Anyways, all aboard!]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-10T17:05:34-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/