Panama Canal 2025 Partial Transit

[MCARAB1]

We’re booked for March 2025 on the Beyond. Will be our 1st time with Celebrity. Chose this one because we’ve never been to any of the other ports/destinations and wanted to see the canal. Any recommendations, suggestions, or opinions welcomed.

thanks!

[hcat]

You have a long time to plan and research the ports, the canal and BEYOND. Did not know E class could do even a partial transit..interesting!

 

Have read that drought has had an effect on recent water levels..hope you stay up to date on that and report back.

 

You can check out the Cruise Critic Ports Board,  ship reviews,  and read The Path Between the Seas..a must for this itin!

 

We enjoyed this itin on a Royal C ship...loved Costa Rica!

Sailed on BEYOND recently..great ship.!

[Mark_K]

6 minutes ago, hcat said:

You have a long time to plan and research the ports, the canal and BEYOND. Did not know E class could do even a partial transit..interesting!

 

Have read that drought has had an effect on recent water levels..hope you stay up to date on that and report back.

 

You can check out the Cruise Critic Ports Board,  ship reviews,  and read The Path Between the Seas..a must for this itin!

 

We enjoyed this itin on a Royal C ship...loved Costa Rica!

Sailed on BEYOND recently..great ship.!

The new canal, I imagine on purpose Beyond’s height is just at the new Panamax.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Mark_K said:

The new canal, I imagine on purpose Beyond’s height is just at the new Panamax.

that,'s great...plus experiencing the new canal!  Cool!

[Cruise till you drop]

We did March 2023 Panama Canal on the Edge.  The only complaint I had on going through on an e class ship is if you don’t have access to the Retreat area (front of ship), you really don’t have a good view otherwise from the front as you go through the canal.  Of course you will have side and rear views from many places.

 

Also note that the ship starts going through at 6am so it’s an early day.

[BettyCruiser]

Is the Magic Carpet open while going through the locks? That seems like the place to be.

[Cruise till you drop]

6 minutes ago, BettyCruiser said:

Is the Magic Carpet open while going through the locks? That seems like the place to be.

It is open and was a place to view the Panama Canal crossing forward.  However the place was absolutely packed and unless you were near the glass viewing forward, it was not a good view

 

It was a good view of the side but no one was fighting to get that view

Edited August 22, 2023 by Cruise till you drop

[BettyCruiser]

I’d be fine with a side view from the Magic Carpet, I’ve been on two canal cruises with helipad access and never went down there. We did have an aft balcony on one though. 

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

that,'s great...plus experiencing the new canal!  Cool!

There is no “new” Canal. There is one Panama Canal. There are new locks that opened in 2016 that were built to accommodate the larger neo-Panamax ships. Celebrity’s E-class ships will use the new locks. Many people who are familiar with the Canal believe that these are not as interesting for a first transit, full or partial, as the original locks. 

 

If it is true that there are no forward-facing public areas, outdoor or indoor, for non-Retreat guests on the E-class ships, they might not be a great choice for going through any part of the Canal. When a ship is going through the locks, you want to be all around the ship, viewing the lockage from all different perspectives, high, low, fore, aft, midships. (Perhaps Celebrity opens up the bow area to anyone during the transit?)

 

Of course, if you have the option

on a partial transit to take a shore excursion from Gatun Lake on a small ferry-size vessel that takes you through more of the Canal and the original locks on the Pacific side, that would help make up for those shortcomings.

 

The Panama Canal ports of call forum here on CC is a really good source of information about the Canal, partial and full transits, shore excursions, etc.