fred549 Posted January 30, 2020 #1 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Hello, On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks? Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted January 30, 2020 #2 Share Posted January 30, 2020 3 hours ago, fred549 said: On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks? Yes. They have to. Even the Gatun Locks, on the Caribbean side of things, where locks are minimal There's a LOT more locks as a ship approaches the Pacific side of things but a partial canal cruise may not get there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_locks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted January 30, 2020 #3 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Oddly/not-so-oddly, the Suez Canal requires no such locking. You just sail straight thru -but then you're not ascending to a mountain lake halfway thru the terrain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jamman54 Posted January 30, 2020 #4 Share Posted January 30, 2020 3 hours ago, fred549 said: Hello, On the partial Canal cruises, do any of the ships go thru any locks? Thank you. You will sail through the Gatun locks into Gatun Lake. The ship will anchor for a few hours, then go back through the Gatun locks and back to the Atlantic ocean (Caribbean Sea). We covered this process extensively in our Pride repo cruise review, which can be found in my signature. 😎 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted January 30, 2020 #5 Share Posted January 30, 2020 2 hours ago, Aplmac said: Oddly/not-so-oddly, the Suez Canal requires no such locking. You just sail straight thru -but then you're not ascending to a mountain lake halfway thru the terrain Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEUB1112 Posted January 30, 2020 #6 Share Posted January 30, 2020 1 hour ago, chengkp75 said: Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean. That is very interesting, we were on the Splendor Miami to Long Beach a few years ago. They had a person on the bridge the entire day as a "Tour Guide" explaining the process, history etc. I didn't catch that info. Thanks!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare jimbo5544 Posted January 30, 2020 #7 Share Posted January 30, 2020 3 hours ago, Aplmac said: Yes. They have to. Even the Gatun Locks, on the Caribbean side of things, where locks are minimal There's a LOT more locks as a ship approaches the Pacific side of things but a partial canal cruise may not get there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_locks Great post 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted January 30, 2020 #8 Share Posted January 30, 2020 2 hours ago, chengkp75 said: Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean. Strange planet we live on -but not stranger than the others! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred549 Posted January 30, 2020 Author #9 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Thank you all for the replies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare jimbo5544 Posted January 30, 2020 #10 Share Posted January 30, 2020 4 hours ago, chengkp75 said: Add the fact that the Pacific Ocean is about 40cm higher at the 1000 decibar "sea level" than the Atlantic Ocean. I beleive you as always....but I would thought sea lever was....well....sea level 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengkp75 Posted January 30, 2020 #11 Share Posted January 30, 2020 1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said: I beleive you as always....but I would thought sea lever was....well....sea level Well, you have to understand that "sea level" is not really a constant. Is "sea level" the same at low tide as at high tide? The actual scientific term is "mean sea level", which means the average of many thousands of sea level readings over a long time. These readings change due to tides, currents, water temperature (density), salinity (also density), atmospheric pressure, and the rise and fall of the earth's surface (moving the reference point). Since tides are probably the largest contributor to sea level changes, what happens at the Panama Canal is that the tides on each side of the canal are not coordinated (they don't have high tide at the same time, even though only 40+ miles apart), so the "sea level" is always different between the two. Tides on the Pacific side of the canal average 18 feet, while the Atlantic side only average 18 inches. Also, the temperature and salinity of the water in the two oceans makes the Pacific water denser than Atlantic water. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aplmac Posted January 30, 2020 #12 Share Posted January 30, 2020 3 hours ago, chengkp75 said: Since tides are probably the largest contributor to sea level changes, what happens at the Panama Canal is that the tides on each side of the canal are not coordinated (they don't have high tide at the same time, even though only 40+ miles apart), so the "sea level" is always different between the two. Tides on the Pacific side of the canal average 18 feet, while the Atlantic side only average 18 inches. Geez! That last bit is the shocker!! 18 feet versus 18 inches! Wow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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