Old Locks or New?

[bookbabe]

Just starting to look at a Panama Canal cruise with NCL in the early part of 2023.  Definitely want to do a full transit, and it seems pretty easy to tell which ships do a full transit versus a partial transit.  However, I read that the old locks are better than the new...but how do you tell which locks your ship would go through?  

[BillB48]

The easiest way to judge if the ship will use the new locks or old is try and find the demensions.  Many times you can find it by Googling the ship.  Anything longer than 965' or wider than 106' will use the new locks.  When you are looking at the width, sometimes they will give you the extreme width that would include things like the bridge wings.  The 106 dimension is the at the waterline.

[Essiesmom]

Any in the jewel class and older will use the old locks.  Breakaway and Breakaway +, and Epic would use the new locks.  If you can tell us which ships you are looking at, we can be definitive.  EM

[bookbabe]

2 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Any in the jewel class and older will use the old locks.  Breakaway and Breakaway +, and Epic would use the new locks.  If you can tell us which ships you are looking at, we can be definitive.  EM

 

My possibilities are most likely Encore or Joy, or less likely Gem or Jewel.

[Essiesmom]

Those two will use the new locks.  EM

[BillB48]

Encore and the Joy would use the new locks, while the Gem and Jewel the old locks.

[Turtles06]

On 2/12/2021 at 2:55 PM, bookbabe said:

 

My possibilities are most likely Encore or Joy, or less likely Gem or Jewel.

 

FWIW, we've done two full transits of the Canal, the first on the Jewel and the second on the Gem, and they were wonderful cruises.   (We love NCL's Jewel-class ships, they are a very comfortable size.  No great interest in the mega-ships.)  As for the old locks being "better" than the new, I think especially for a first transit, going through the original locks would be more interesting, and certainly more historic.

 

In case this is of help to you, here's the full review (with photos) that I posted of our full transit on the NCL Jewel:

 

 

Enjoy whatever you decide!

[bookbabe]

17 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

 

FWIW, we've done two full transits of the Canal, the first on the Jewel and the second on the Gem, and they were wonderful cruises.   (We love NCL's Jewel-class ships, they are a very comfortable size.  No great interest in the mega-ships.)  As for the old locks being "better" than the new, I think especially for a first transit, going through the original locks would be more interesting, and certainly more historic.

 

In case this is of help to you, here's the full review (with photos) that I posted of our full transit on the NCL Jewel:

 

 

Enjoy whatever you decide!

Thanks for the link.  My dilemma is that the itinerary of the Joy/Encore longer cruises is similar to what you did on the Jewel, the Miami/LA route.  The Jewel and Gem are mostly doing shorter cruises that start on one side of the canal and go through, then do a couple of ports in that area.  I think there might be one medium length one on the Jewel, I’ll look into that more.

 

I guess my decision is whether I want the smaller ship, which we also prefer, and do a shorter cruise but get the old locks, or go with the larger ship to get a longer cruise and slightly more interesting itinerary but go through the new locks.

 

Ah, well, since there’s no cruising right now, the planning and research is the only fun we get... 😉

 

[Turtles06]

13 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

Thanks for the link.  My dilemma is that the itinerary of the Joy/Encore longer cruises is similar to what you did on the Jewel, the Miami/LA route.  The Jewel and Gem are mostly doing shorter cruises that start on one side of the canal and go through, then do a couple of ports in that area.  I think there might be one medium length one on the Jewel, I’ll look into that more.

 

I guess my decision is whether I want the smaller ship, which we also prefer, and do a shorter cruise but get the old locks, or go with the larger ship to get a longer cruise and slightly more interesting itinerary but go through the new locks.

 

Ah, well, since there’s no cruising right now, the planning and research is the only fun we get... 😉

 

 

I just took a look at the itineraries, and I see your dilemma.  Those shorter cruises on the Gem and Jewel are a far cry from what we did on the Jewel in 2017.  Even better was our Gem cruise in Jan. 2020, 20 days from NY to San Francisco.   I wish NCL had more itineraries like that.

 

Have you thought about a different cruise line for the Canal? 

 

You are right about the planning and research being the only fun for now.  Stay safe!

[bookbabe]

Thanks to all who posted with info and advice.  Our final verdict was to jump ship, as it were,  and we’ve booked an 11 day full transit cruise from Panama City to Ft. Lauderdale on the Viking Star.  Good itinerary, on a smaller ship that can do the original locks.

[BillB48]

Sounds great!  Cruises starting and ending in Panama at Ft. Amador will be among the newest of itineraries since the cruise terminal there has yet to see the first ship.  The Canal has made some very attractive offerings to cruise lines who commit to using Ft. Amador as an embarkation or disembarkation point on cruises.  Perhaps you can arrive early and see some of Panama City and surrounding area.

[bookbabe]

2 hours ago, BillB48 said:

Sounds great!  Cruises starting and ending in Panama at Ft. Amador will be among the newest of itineraries since the cruise terminal there has yet to see the first ship.  The Canal has made some very attractive offerings to cruise lines who commit to using Ft. Amador as an embarkation or disembarkation point on cruises.  Perhaps you can arrive early and see some of Panama City and surrounding area.

I didn’t realize the terminal was new.  That’s exciting.  We are hoping to arrive at least the day before to see some of the area.  It’s a new destination for us, so we’re really looking forward to it.

 

[Heidi13]

6 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Thanks to all who posted with info and advice.  Our final verdict was to jump ship, as it were,  and we’ve booked an 11 day full transit cruise from Panama City to Ft. Lauderdale on the Viking Star.  Good itinerary, on a smaller ship that can do the original locks.

 

Enjoy Viking and the canal transit. A great cruise line.

[Smokeyham]

We're looking at a Princess cruise on the Ruby (SF to Fort Lauderdale) and I believe that will require a passage through the new locks.  Is there really much difference in the experience?

 

Thanks.

[Essiesmom]

Yes.  Read the other threads...  EM

[BillB48]

2 hours ago, Smokeyham said:

We're looking at a Princess cruise on the Ruby (SF to Fort Lauderdale) and I believe that will require a passage through the new locks.  Is there really much difference in the experience?

 

Thanks.

 

I think the only two Princess ships left that can use the original locks is the Island and Coral Princesses.  Because of the beam of the Ruby, she will use the new locks.  As a practical matter the original and new locks are basically within sight of each other so the trip through the Canal is largely over the same route.  Many people view the locks as the "heart" of the Canal since it is where you see things (other than transiting ships) move... ie. miter gates,  the mules along with ships in the opposite lane rise and fall on the water.  Where you can see some of that at the new locks, there is just somewhat less to draw your attention.  There are no "mules" and often times from your vantage point you won't have clear sight of the gates opening and closing.  Also the new locks are just a single flight of locks, not the dual flight like the original locks where you can see another ship in the opposite chamber.   In short there is just less things for you to focus on while you are in the locks.

 

While I would recommend seeing the original locks first, if that is not practical I certainly would not have any second thoughts about my first transit being through the new locks.  Should be great either way!

[Smokeyham]

2 hours ago, BillB48 said:

 

I think the only two Princess ships left that can use the original locks is the Island and Coral Princesses.  Because of the beam of the Ruby, she will use the new locks.  As a practical matter the original and new locks are basically within sight of each other so the trip through the Canal is largely over the same route.  Many people view the locks as the "heart" of the Canal since it is where you see things (other than transiting ships) move... ie. miter gates,  the mules along with ships in the opposite lane rise and fall on the water.  Where you can see some of that at the new locks, there is just somewhat less to draw your attention.  There are no "mules" and often times from your vantage point you won't have clear sight of the gates opening and closing.  Also the new locks are just a single flight of locks, not the dual flight like the original locks where you can see another ship in the opposite chamber.   In short there is just less things for you to focus on while you are in the locks.

 

While I would recommend seeing the original locks first, if that is not practical I certainly would not have any second thoughts about my first transit being through the new locks.  Should be great either way!

Thanks, that is a very helpful summary of the differences between the old and new lock experiences.

[bookbabe]

Returning back here to update that we’ve jumped back, and are now doing an 11 day NCL Gem, Fuerte Amador to NYC.  While we do want to try Viking at some point, the NCL itinerary is going to fit us a bit better in terms of ports and dates, and we should still get the old locks.  

[Bugswatter]

To answer the question, I've only seen Princess mentioning which locks its ships sail through, and only the Island Princess will go through the old locks.

Look up PANAMAX size and then compare that with the size of the ship doing the transit.  If it is smaller than Panamax, one blogger says that it's a good bet that the ship is using the old locks.  (Larger ships must transit the new ones due to their size.)  If the ship can handle 2000 passengers or less, that is another good indicator.  But I wouldn't trust anything not published by the cruise line.  So I'm asking the lines themselves about which locks will be used for the cruise, as I don't want to waste my time making half assed guesses....