BillB48

It's a small world after all! I grew up there also, went to school in the Zone and worked for the Canal. I had given the bridge commentary as well as a Canal lecture on a couple of cruises just before that "ill" wind blew in.

Yup, made perfect sense🙂. As you pointed out, the actual tolls for the transit are extracted from the taxes and fees portion. On Canal cruises the taxes and fees being as much as they are wind up being a chunk of the overall cruise price. I'm sure that comes as no surprise to any Canal cruisers! I think the biggest driver of the basic fare is whatever the cruise line believes what they can charge based on the time of year, demand and other such considerations. Basic fare prices can be all over the map, I was also looking at Celebrity (which wasn't included in my not so all encompassing survey) and they were $2800pp for an 11 day partial!! For that price I would expect to take Capt. McCue's cat home for a visit.

I came to the same basic conclusion as you did EM. So having an excuse to look at some Canal itineraries, I looked at three cruise lines and their fares. I tried comparing partials with partial and full transits of approximately the same number of days. Also I just looked at itineraries, not the number of times that itinerary was offered. Some of the itineraries were a once a season as shifting to or from Alaska and many of the itineraries were offered several times during the Canal "season." With all that in mind here is my completely unscientific, highly opinionated conclusion.😄 The cruise line I found that had the biggest difference in fares was Princess. A full transit of the original locks on the Island Princess was $1200. While the fare on ships using the new locks came in at right around $1000. There were many more full transits available on the ships that needed to use the new locks and only one full transit on a ship using the original locks. Perhaps a little supply and demand coming into play?? I also looked at NCL and Carnival. On these two lines there was less of a difference between cruises that used the original locks and those that needed to transit the new locks. The only trend I could easily spot was the original locks tended to run a little more, nothing huge, usually less than a $100pp. It used to be fairly simple to determine what the toll would be for any given ship at either of the locks. The original locks was $138 per passenger berth and $148 per passenger berth at the new locks. Now that they have returned to calculating the toll based on Panama Canal Tons it is less straight forward. In any event the price per PC Ton is higher at the new locks. One other thing that crossed my mind, is perhaps StevenUS is looking at fares on ships that have cabins for singles. I now some of the larger, newer ships that would use the new locks do have some single cabins that are not burdened with the dreaded single supplement. Maybe that is skewing fares higher at the original locks for him??

There certainly has been a lot of changes, some of them spectacularly wonderful and some not so much. I am sure you will be amazed at the transformation. IIRC wasn't the community theater at the end of the causeway called Surfside? Saw several productions there as well.

I just happened to run across this fairly recent aerial photo on FB this morning of the islands at the end of the causeway on the Pacific side at Ft. Amador where the cruise terminal pier is located. To put things in perspective to those not familiar with the area, these 3 islands sit about 4 miles offshore and are connected to the mainland by a causeway originally constructed for Canal purposes. The Canal channel is almost directly below the camera. Anyone wishing to learn a little more of these seemingly peaceful islands past, have a look at the included link. Briefly, Ft. Amador was the mainland portion and the islands were known as Ft. Grant. Ft. Grant would be the site of the coastal defense artillery for the Canal, consisting of 6" and 14" rifles along with 12" mortars all built into the islands. While the batteries and emplacements are still there, the artillery pieces were removed shortly after WW 2. Flamenco Island was home for Hawk missiles during the 60s. https://www.denix.osd.mil/cr/archives/historic/historic-structures-districts-and-landscapes-historic-contexts-archives/report-131/70_A History of Fort Amador and Fort Grant - The Former Panama Canal .pdf

I've been lured and caught😉! I presume Pacific Cruise Terminal is the "official" moniker of the new pier and terminal at Ft. Amador. In any case there is only one passenger facility for the Pacific side and it is at Ft. Amador. There hasn't been any news on the progress of the terminal, but that probably isn't unexpected since this is the off season for Canal cruises. As far as the number of excursions available, I too think that additional excursions will be added as the sailing date nears

Six years ago today the new locks for the Canal opened for their first paying customer, the MV Cosco Shipping Panama. The ship was renamed for the occasion, previously it was named Andronikos. Attached is a short video highlighting some of the major milestones in the last six years. The Canal in the past has provided English versions for events as this, but so far no English edition has been offered. Some of the major takeaways are... 46% of the vessels transiting are container ships, 22% are gas carriers, 96% of the world's maritime fleet is able to use the Canal, more than 17000 transits have been completed using the new locks and more than 50% of the total Canal tonnage and income is generated by the new locks.

Here's the trolley route, passes a variety of downtown businesses.