Canal's Reservation System Changes

[BillB48]

As many of you probably know cruise ships almost always make reservations to transit the Canal on a particular day when the cruise includes the Canal on the itinerary.  While cruise ships are a big user of this function, reservations are made by other ships as well.  These include ships that are running on fixed schedules as well as ships that can't afford to gamble on a several day wait for their turn to transit.  The fee for reservations is a graduated fee schedule with the highest fee paid by the larger ships.  The Transit Reservation Fee, unlike making a guaranteed ressie at your favorite motel is an addition to the regular tolls that will have to be paid for the transit.  Also, it is largely non refundable if you are unable to make the scheduled transit date.  The top tier fee which the bulk of cruise ships fall under is presently $35,000 for the reservation, which was applied regardless of which locks were used (original or new).  New reservation fees will take effect in April and it might be time to watch your wallet!  The top tier fee for the Panamax Locks (original) will jump from $35K to $50,000 and the top tier fee for the NeoPanamax Locks (new) will move from $35K to $85,000.  The only silver to be found here is that most cruise ships using the new locks will generally fall into the second highest tier which will shave off $15K bringing the reservation fee to just $70,000, but that is still a hefty increase just to make a reservation.

 

The larger passenger ships pay in tolls, $138 per passenger berth to transit the Panamax Locks (original) and $148 per passenger berth for the NeoPanamax Locks (new).  To be sure you can't leave out tug fees, locomotive wire fees, linehandler charges which are in addition to the toll.   So the bottom line is if (maybe I should be optimistic and say when) cruises start back and you doing a Panama Canal cruise, don't be alarmed when you look at the taxes and government fees portion of your fare.  Nowhere to go but up!

Edited February 19, 2021 by BillB48

[Turtles06]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing that with us. 

[BillB48]

Not that it will change anything in the long run, but Canal authorities have delayed the implementation of the increases in the booking fees until June 1st.  So reserve your slot now!

 

https://gcaptain.com/panama-canal-postpones-planned-transit-booking-fee-hike/

[Banditswife]

Interesting, no wonder cruises through the canal are so expensive.

[BillB48]

Even though the only cruise ships that have been transiting the Canal are doing so without passengers, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is proposing a change in the manner tolls for cruise ships are calculated.  The big change is the elimination of the toll calculated on the maximum passenger berth count and only using the PC/UMS (Panama Canal Universal Measurement System.  It's not a completely new method of calculating tolls, they had continued to use the PC/UMS for the calculation of tolls for smaller cruise ships.  The PC/UMS is a measure of internal volume of a ship similar to the Gross Tonnage which most ships use to denote their size.  The big difference is certain areas of a ship are excluded in the Canal's calculations such as engineering spaces, crew quarters and any areas that are necessary to run the ship.  Normally the PC/UMS figure would be less the the ship's gross tonnage.

 

The only change in the table below from 2016 is the elimination of passenger per berth method of calculating the toll.

 

 

 

 

Ships the approximate size of the Coral Princess, Serenade of the Seas and the Zuiderdam would fall around the total in the second example.  Ships like Celebrity Edge and Caribbean Princess, the third example would best approximate the tolls.  While ships such as the Norwegian Bliss is best represented by the last example.  Small boutique cruise ships won't see any change as they have always been charged under the PC/UMS.

 

Also bear in mind that those totals above do not include the reservation fee, tug services, wire charges at the original locks and fees for line handlers add quite a bit to the toll.  As long as there is one paying passenger on board, the ship is considered laden in the calculation.

[srpilo]

I also just saw a YouTube canal information update, that passenger ships also pay a extra fee within their reservation fee guaranteeing a day-light transit .

[BillB48]

While the Canal is very attractive at night, I think cruise lines would have a hard time convincing their passengers the advantages on experiencing the Canal at night.  As a result the Canal has found a very profitable "option" that the cruise lines can select.  Daylight Transit Guarantee provides you to arrive at the first lock after sunrise and clear the last lock by sunset.   Panama's proximity to the equator gives you almost 12 hours of daylight and night year round and sunrise/set occur close to 6:AM/PM.  To include the Daylight Transit Guarantee in your checkout cart will only increase the tab another $30,000.

[chengkp75]

On 9/8/2021 at 3:11 PM, BillB48 said:

The big difference is certain areas of a ship are excluded in the Canal's calculations such as engineering spaces, crew quarters and any areas that are necessary to run the ship.  Normally the PC/UMS figure would be less the the ship's gross tonnage.

Panama Canal tonnage has always been closer to Net Tonnage than Gross Tonnage, but I know you are using GT since that is what most CC readers know.