Coral Princess Panama Canal 2016

[jbfilms]

Will the Coral Princess go through the new or old locks in the Panama Canal by April 5 2016 or does anyone know?

[Kamloops50]

Will the Coral Princess go through the new or old locks in the Panama Canal by April 5 2016 or does anyone know?

 

Probably the old locks . The new ones aren't scheduled for opening until spring 2017. Even Princess will keep using the old locks (most of the time) because people go thru the Panama to see them.

[bhopal21]

Probably the old locks . The new ones aren't scheduled for opening until spring 2017. Even Princess will keep using the old locks (most of the time) because people go thru the Panama to see them.

 

Actually the new locks are scheduled to be operational by April 2016.

 

Mike:)

[Colo Cruiser]

Actually the new locks are scheduled to be operational by April 2016.

 

Mike:)

 

 

Yes they are making up some lost time now.

[Kamloops50]

The last update video said they are hoping for Spring 2016 but still are about 6 months behind schedule.

[caribill]

Actually the new locks are scheduled to be operational by April 2016.

 

Mike:)

 

From Wikipedia: "It was initially announced that the Canal expansion would be completed by August 2014 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal but various setbacks, including strikes and disputes with the construction consortium over cost overruns, pushed the completion date first to June 2015 then December 2015. [/url]On 14 April 2015, Canal Project Minister Roberto Roy announced that the Canal expansion would be operational by 1 April 2016."

 

No cruise line will set its schedule based on the predicted availability of the expansion locks.

[h20skibum]

Even after the new locks open, there is no guarantee which one you will go through, unless you are sailing on a ship larger than can be accommodated in the current locks.

 

Now, you never know if you will be going through the left or the right lock, until the Canal Authority assigns you your time and position to transition the locks. It will likely be the same after the new locks are open, with priority given to the larger ships. If there do not happen to be any in line, there may be a chance you would go through one even though you are on a ship the size of the Coral.

 

By the way, here is a link to a video of the latest canal update from 8/19.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=47485047&postcount=1

Edited August 22, 2015 by h20skibum
Added link

[BillB48]

Welcome to Cruise Critic jbfilms:)! While no one can say with certainty your ship will go through the old or the new locks, I would just about give you a Sears guarantee that Princess will use the old present locks for a number a reasons. There is expected to be sufficient demand for post Panamax ships (ones too large for the present locks) to be ready to use the new locks. Even if for some reason there are not enough post Panamax ships available to fill transit slots, a secondary pool of ships is expected to want to use the new locks. This secondary pool of ships are current Panamax ships that want to use the new locks to be able to take advantage of transiting the Canal with increased draft. Many of these ships can only load enough cargo to meet the maximum draft allowed presently which is 39'06''... draft limit for ships using the new locks will be 50'. Princess may also be a tad hesitant about using the new locks that early in the game, they just might wish to let the newness of techniques and procedures for locking ships through the new locks settle in. Since mules will not be use at the new locks, only tug boats, there no doubt will be a learning curve. While tugs are used at other large locks like the one at Ijmuiden near Amsterdam, Panama's new locks will have two additional chambers to add to the complexity.

 

As far as the April in '16, from what I have been told by a couple of friends that have direct knowledge, that date is doable. In fact there is a good chance things will be up and running before that date as they are really pushing hard to beat the much delayed original target date... August 2014... the 100th anniversary. Of course all that is predicated on nothing too serious going haywire. Canal officials dodged a bullet just last week when a threatened strike was averted by one of the larger unions. I think Yogi Berra would opine... it ain't over till it's over!

[scienceteacher]

I would rather go through the old locks. There is history involved here. To me, there is nothing sensational about the new ones.

[Colo Cruiser]

From Wikipedia: "It was initially announced that the Canal expansion would be completed by August 2014 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal but various setbacks, including strikes and disputes with the construction consortium over cost overruns, pushed the completion date first to June 2015 then December 2015. [/url]On 14 April 2015, Canal Project Minister Roberto Roy announced that the Canal expansion would be operational by 1 April 2016."

 

No cruise line will set its schedule based on the predicted availability of the expansion locks.

 

You can go on Wikipedia and change the dates/information yourself.

[Country Cruiser]

According to the Panama Canal website, the canal expansion is to be completed in April 2016.

[Northender]

I would rather go through the old locks. There is history involved here. To me, there is nothing sensational about the new ones.

 

I am with you on that.:):)

[BillB48]

Thought this may be of interest to Canal watchers who are waiting for the first of larger ships to make use of the expanded Canal. This potentially serious problem came to light late last week concerning a significant crack in the Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side. I posted the following and a link to an article with accompanying video showing the leak over on the Pan Canal forum.

 

Just when everything was looking like it was finally moving along as planned albeit a tad behind schedule, what could be a serious problem has surfaced. A large crack has developed between the middle and lower chambers of the Cocoli Locks which is allowing water to pass through the concrete chamber floor. I have no idea just how serious this condition may turn out to be or what the remedy will be.

 

Anyway here is a link to the article and a video showing the leak.

 

http://gcaptain.com/a-big-crack-now-threatens-the-panama-canal-expansion-video/#.VdrvDJcnXGs

 

[Kamloops50]

Looks like the two concrete pours didn't bond properly . You can see the cast line between two parts of concrete.

[Thrak]

There "may" also be an increased fee structure for the new locks. It currently costs Princess something like $400,000 to transit the current locks. Given the increased capacity in the new locks there may also be an increased cost. I obviously have no idea how that will be handled but it's a thought...

 

Note: I'm sure someone who has done the transit in the past can give a more accurate cost figure. I know I've seen a picture of a slide used during a PC presentation during a transit.

Edited August 24, 2015 by Thrak

[Kamloops50]

They have already raised the rates to include the new locks. Princess pays about $500,000 per transit

[BillB48]

Presently tolls for most passenger ships is $134 per passenger berth and is scheduled to rise to around $152/berth for ships using the new locks. The toll will be about $10/berth less for those that use the current locks. However in addition to the tolls there are some fairly hefty other fees that cannot realistically be avoided. Some of them are $35,000 for a day certain reservation, $30,000 for day light transit, around $12,000 for tug services. These are the current tariffs in effect, they may increase as well when the new toll structure goes into effect. There are other lesser charges that probably will add another 10K or so.

 

I believe the Norwegian Pearl paid just under $420K for a transit... that is tolls and all the other fees. I think the reason it was so high is they bid on the transit spot since the Canal has one transit each day open to the highest bidder.