BillB48

I meant to link the article... https://gcaptain.com/panama-canal-authority-defies-drought-challenges-with-transit-of-biggest-containership/

The container ship MV Ever Max became the the largest vessel to transit the Canal recently. It may have to have an asterisk included with the new record. The previous record was held by the MV Zephyr, another container ship with a capacity of 16,285 TEUs. The Ever Max has a capacity of 17,312 TEUs, however she offloaded 1400 TEUs at Balboa for shipment overland to Colon. The offloading was necessary due to the Canal's current draft limit of 44'. The Ever Max's draft for the transit was 43'. The Ever Max and the Zephyr have identical length and beam of 1201'x167', but the Ever Max has room for an extra 1000 or so TEUs. So perhaps the title may come with an asterisk.

If I my my druthers, I would prefer transiting the Canal via the original locks for the reasons Bruce stated. However, the new locks are only a small portion of the Canal in terms of distance and the remainder of the Canal is the same. I realize that most people look at the locks as the focal point of the Canal and they are without a doubt the portion you can see that has moving parts. Probably two other parts of the Canal are almost overlooked and are just as key as the locks. Those two parts are Gaillard Cut and the Gatun Dam, they were huge earth moving projects that would be enormous even by today's standards. Now they just are part of the landscape, but they were engineering milestones in their own right. Yes, it is worth it!

The Ft. Amador facility has been built as a cruise terminal. The main problem is that it has beset with delay after delay and the facility has not been completely finished. The pier is completed and has been used to disembark passengers, but not the terminal proper. In the past they have provided some sort of shuttle beyond the construction area. There are restaurants and shopping beyond the where the terminal is located. Just don't know exactly how things will shake out when you call at Ft. Amador.

Think a little misremembering, perhaps because you board a tender upon disembarking the ship. What happens when the ship locks through the locks on the Atlantic side and reaches Gatun Lake, they will board a tender to go ashore to board the bus that will take them to the Pacific side. This occurs whether you used the original locks of Gatun or the new expansion locks of Agua Clara. The bus will take you to either Gamboa or Ft. Amador to board the excursion vessel. While you are on the excursion the ship will lock back down the same locks and a short sail to Colon. You will be taken back to the ship by bus after the transit through the Pacific Locks and the Cut. A side note: If you are on Princess using the new locks, they have been docking in Cristobal in order for the excursion passengers to rejoin the ship. Cristobal is just another facility in the same general area, it is a container port and not a passenger pier as in Colon.

I stayed there a few years ago while it was a Country Inn and Suites. It was fine, no issues.

You are correct, all the cruise lines have their own name for this shore excursion and is the same operation for each cruise line. In each case it is a partial transit of the Pacific Locks and the Gaillard Cut. Depending on the position of the excursion vessel the trip can operate from Ft. Amador to Gamboa and then transportation back to the ship. It can also operate from Gamboa to Ft. Amador and then transportation back to the ship. Either direction is fine. There are a couple of different excursion vessels that can be used but the operation is the same.

What will be different in the Bliss's Canal transit will be the locks used. Other than using the new, larger locks the transit will be in the original Canal. The new locks and the original locks are only separated by a short distance and are within sight of each other. The bottom line is there are about 4 miles of the "new" Canal that are different from the original 50 mile Canal. The sights that you will see are essentially not any different than going through the original locks. Choosing this excursion will take you through the original locks where you could experience the operation, however the rest of the transit route will be a repeat of the Bliss's Canal transit. I assume you are thinking of visiting the section of Panama City known as Casco Antiguo. This is the old walled portion of the City that was founded after Henry Morgan sacked Panama Viejo. MAny interesting sights, Church of the Golden Altar, ruins of the Church of Santo Domingo (flat arch), Plaza Francia and Las Bovedas. Believe your ship arrives late in the day on the first day, so not sure if there will be any usable time for an excursion then or not. However it may be possible to combine a shore side visit to Miraflores Locks to view the operation as well as visit Casco Antiguo.

I am assuming you are embarking at Ft. Amador and then disembark at Colon after the cruise. If that is the case then getting to the ship in Ft. Amador won't be an issue. If you are staying at the same Panama City hotel on your return, check with them to see if they will arrange transportation back to the hotel when you disembark. As a backup there always has been ample transportation available for either the airport or to Panama City. Companies that provide these kind of services seem to be very ephemeral in this part of the world. They make an appearance, provide good service and the next thing you know, they are gone.

Good catch EM, I never drilled that far down in the two itineraries. I would imagine in the long run those transit times are more most "ideal" times for the each particular itinerary. As a practical matter the ship will have had to pay the additional daylight guarantee transit fee in order to accommodate the transit within either of those times. What the daylight guarantee means is the ship will enter the first lock by sunrise and clear the last lock by sunset. So the bulk of either transit should occur between those two times. I suppose the bottom line will be there may be a slightly better chance of a later start on the 10A to 10P itinerary than you would on the 4A to 4P. But knowing Canal scheduling I sure would not count on it😁.

I am puzzled by the choices of times... are these two different times and transits for the same ship? Or is one of the times for a port call in either Colon or Ft. Amador on the the Pacific side?

Not knowing when you will be there and the even greater mystery as to what the state of construction will be when you are there makes it a little hard to know how easy it will be to access the nearby commercial areas. I feel sure that some sort of accommodation will be made to get you from the terminal building to the commercial areas nearby. Just don't know if it will be convenient to walk. The pier is in the upper left of the picture and the area where there are shops and restaurants is on the other side of the island (center left in the pic) and on down towards Naos Island. There are also some similar facilities on Flamenco Island. Just an aside, the Island is not known as Ft. Grant as indicated in the picture, the island is Perico Island. As far as popular tours... trips to see the original locks of Miraflores and the new locks on the Atlantic side, sightseeing in Panama City visiting El Casco Antiguo or a visit to one of the Embara Villages are things you may wish to consider. There is also a Hop on Hop off bus that makes about a 2 hour trek with various stopping points.

It's probably enough time, but it is on the tight side. The arrival time of the ship in Colon obviously would be a critical factor. If the ship is coming departing Cartagena for Colon the previous day it is a fairly short sail so an early arrival should not be an issue. Don't have any name to throw out for a recommendation but in the past securing transportation at the port has not been any problem.

After Thanksgiving in the US and before Christmas is historically a good time to look for lower cruise fares. The higher price in January just reflects higher demand after the holidays with people wanting to head to warmer destinations. Also January is the first full month of Panama's Dry Season and is a great time to be there. I would not put too much emphasis in the rain chances of Nov/Dec... while there is a slightly better chance of rain in November, the rains are usually brief and not all day events. It rains in the Dry Season as well. Decide on your cruise based on your preferences, convenience and price. Use weather only as a tie breaker between different cruises, the increased chances of rain on the earlier cruises is only slight.

I have not seen this excursion end at 2:30, think that must be someones overly optimistic guesstimate. Quite frequently you are not able to disembark the ship until somewhere between 9 and 10, then you have the tendering process to the Gatun Yacht Club. While it is not a long tender ride, it still is time a consuming process. Then there is the bus ride ride to the Pacific Side, where you embark on the tour boat can very as well. The embarkation can occur in Gamboa or Ft. Amador and the travel time to there could very from 1 hour to 1.5 hours depending on the actual embarkation site. I believe the tour description allots 4 hours for the boat portion. It can be done in 4 hours if every planned movement in the Panama Canal hits their mark with impeccable precision. In other words, the time estimate is possible, but very unlikely in the real world. Now you have the return trip back to the Atlantic side along with the same time estimates I mentioned previously. I just don't see how a 2:30 end to the tour is possible. Once again those who write these tour descriptions are at odds with the people who make the itineraries. The tour description mentions Colon, however the ship's itinerary has the ship docking in Cristobal. In the past the Ruby Princess has docked in Cristobal and not Colon. The biggest difference being at Colon there is a shopping mall attached to the pier where there are a number of shops for you to pass the time. This area is safe for the cruise passenger. On the other hand , Cristobal is a container port without any significant shopping available. In the past they have set up sort of an ad hoc area where you could purchase a few items. Regarding an additional trip out to Agua Clara Locks, I really don't believe you will be back to the ship at Cristobal with enough time to spare get out to the Locks and back. With the ship docking in Cristobal there will not be anything to attract passenger to stay on shore and ship's personnel will encourage you to get back on board as soon as possible. Besides you will have the best seat in the house when the Ruby locks up to Gatun Lake.

Only cruise line tours as Turtles06 says, been that way for some time. The reason is more practical than anything. Where you land after being tendered ashore is what was called the Gatun Yacht(less) Club which was near the town of Gatun. Since the construction of the new locks there is no longer a town of Gatun, as a result there is nothing there. If they were to permit private tours the cruise line could have a potential problem if they took you ashore and your tour did not show up as scheduled. Of course I am sure the cruise lines don't mind having a monopoly for tours at this stop!

I have been reading those articles with interest, although the first time I tried to read the WSJ article it was behind a pay wall. Your link was not behind the pay wall... hooray! While not trying to minimize or discount the potential for a real problem later on down the road, I believe what is being reported is a lot of Henny Penny and the sky is falling. Seems like it always the worst and the never has been a situation like this in all of recorded history. If they would just take a look back to 2016 when the new locks were opened the Canal was going through an extremely dry period and Gatun Lake reached very low water levels, the accompanying Rainy Season was 20% less than normal but wasn't even the "driest" Rainy Season on record. There had been 4 drier Rainy Seasons previously. This Rainy Season will probably be sub par due to the El Nino setting up in the Pacific. The affect in Panama is the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) tends to form a little more south of Panama durin the El Nino. The ITCZ is the rainmaker for Panama's Rainy Season, it doesn't mean no rain, just not normal rain that reaches over the watershed area of Gatun and Madden Lakes. Draft limits for ships using the new locks has been reduced to 44' (max draft is 50') and there has been no change to the draft limit for ships using the original locks at 39.5'. Rains have returned sufficient enough to suspend further draft limit cuts for the time being. That certainly doesn't mean mother nature will continue to cooperate, but the sky isn't quite ready to fall. A finite amount of water for Canal use and what to do about it has been on Canal authorities radar for a long time. All the way back in the 70s the Canal commissioned studies to build another dam in a part of Gatun Lake to increase the Canal's ability to store water for use in the dry periods. These studies were shelved for a number of reasons, but the need was for additional water was clearly understood. In 2003 the Authoridad de Canal de Panama (ACP) commissioned a study for an additional reservoir to the west of Gatun Lake and that study has been collecting dust like most of the other studies. I guess my point is, this is not a new or unique set of circumstances, these dry spells occur every 4 to 6 years along with El Nino, always sends the Canal into a tail spin, always the worst drought, rains return and nothing happens to address the problem. I'll step down off the soap box for now, good night all.

I haven't look at MSC's tour description and too often the cruise lines just have some customer service agent penned up in some cubicle parroting off a script. In most cases the trip from Colon to Panama City will be just a little more than an hour, so the balance of time will be what your tour will consist of. I would think the 4.5 hours is a rather conservative time estimate.

The drive by portion was in Panama Viejo, but there was a walking portion on a street in el Casco Antiguo which also included over Las Bovedas (prison area) and La Plaza Francia. It was more of an organized walk, not really time on your.

First, there are not too many sailings available for 2025 yet. Second, the 7/8 day cruises are a little hard to find at the present that transit the Canal, although there are some. This may improve when the cruise terminal on the Pacific side of the Canal becomes fully operational. Third, much easier to find 10/11 day partial Canal transit cruises. These cruises will generally sail from Florida and enter the Atlantic Locks and exit the same locks. Taking the shore excursion that offers a partial transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut is a good way to see the major portions of the Canal.

I doubt that you would experience any exhaust issues. The Radiance class ships which the Serenade is one of are gas turbine vessels. They are very quiet and clean burning.

A minor point... don't recall making LA-MIA Canal cruises but I have done several LA-FLL as well as San Diego-FLL and the reverse from Florida to LA. Have made a transit on the Serenade and one time followed it all the way from California through the Canal to Cartagena where we went separate ways. Here is a pic from the time we followed her through the Canal. The Serenade is entering Gatun Locks.

I will echo CruiserBruce's opinion as far as rain goes. Yes it can be a rainy time in Panama, but there is even a better chance it will be ideal weather. Late November/early December is a transitional time in so far as weather in Panama, going from wet to the dry season. So it is possible to get some of the best or worst weather at that time. Most of my full transits have been in the Oct to Dec period and have not been bothered by rain that it would have marred the transit. Choosing which side for a balcony is something you can overthink very easily, maybe the best selection criteria is where do you prefer the afternoon sun? The starboard side would give you more PM sun on the way to the Canal and then after that it really depends on your route back to the States. I would give a slight preference to a starboard side balcony the day of the transit, but when you defer to viewing the Canal from your balcony there is a lot you will miss. Which way your balcony will face in port? Who knows, location of the berth, which way the ship is docked and what port you are in will all influence your view while you are in port. Usually there are fewer children on the longer cruises, but there are normally some. Royal Caribbean has a good youth program, so I would think your daughter will do well.

In taking the shore excursion what you will miss is the return trip back through whichever of the Atlantic Locks you used to reach Gatun Lake. While the return trip through either the Gatun or Agua Clara Locks and the short sail to Colon, it basically is all grounds that you have already covered on your way into the Panama Canal and Gatun Lake. It is an excellent opportunity to see a large part of the Canal and to see it from a smaller vessel gives a completely different perspective to the operation. The primary reason for the short stop in Colon is to pick up passengers who have taken a shore excursion.

The way I read your schedule is... you will transit on Monday the 4th. Upon completion of the transit your ship will leave Canal waters and go far enough off shore to be in international waters in order to open the $hops and ca$ino. On Tuesday the 5th you will arrive back at Ft. Amador by 7AM. Since you won't have to leave the ship until Wednesday the 6th your ship will be your hotel for the day/evening of the 5th. Since the ship won't be very far from Ft. Amador when it clears the Canal, there should not be any issues delaying the 7AM arrival. You should be able to head off the ship shortly after that time and tour for the entire day.