Panama Canal partial transit itinerary change

[Turtles06]

26 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

Some where I read that some vessels were waiting up to 21 days or more to get a slot for Panama Canal.

In addition to the time issue for going around the horn you have the added fuel and other costs when ship is traveling.

Ships that are waiting have not reserved a time for a transit. According to the CNN article below, they are mostly bulk carriers and gas tankers. Container ships have been prioritized. 
 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/26/economy/panama-canal-supply-chain/index.html

[BLH613]

UPDATE:  I did a web chat with a HAL representative and found out that not only is the partial transit understandably canceled, but so are the stops at Cartagena Columbia, and Limon Costa Rica. 

 

Substitutions are:

 

3/23 Sat Bridgetown, Barbados

3/24 Sun Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe

3/25 Mon Basseterre, Saint Kitts, St Kitts & Nevis

 

Unfortunately, he said there was no fare adjustment shown, which I questioned since the port fees for the canal should have been high. We'll be canceling since we are far out from the final payment and booked on the $1 deposit sale. Other than Guadeloupe, these are ports we've already visited and we wanted something new. The rep couldn't answer my question as to why the website still shows the old itinerary nor why excursions were still available to book for the canceled ports but we all know of HAL's website issues.

 

We will try again in the next few years for the canal transit. On the bright side, now I get to research a new trip, which is honestly great fun for me 🙂. 

 

Happy sailing!

[3rdGenCunarder]

These are all nice ports, but if the point of booking your original cruise was the canal, I can understand cancelling. I think a lot of people will cancel. Let's all hope the rainforest lives up to its name and the canal gets back to normal operations at some point. 

 

I love planning, too. Sometimes I spend so much time planning that by the time I get there, I feel like I've already been there!

[hernstro]

We are sailing HAL's Zaandam 1/19/24 from San Diego, full canal transit, ending in Miami 2/3/24. We have not been notified of any changes to our canal transit. If anyone has information on this cruise, please reply. We will be following this topic closely. Thanks!   Dave & Marilyn, Northeast Ohio

[CruiserBruce]

52 minutes ago, hernstro said:

We are sailing HAL's Zaandam 1/19/24 from San Diego, full canal transit, ending in Miami 2/3/24. We have not been notified of any changes to our canal transit. If anyone has information on this cruise, please reply. We will be following this topic closely. Thanks!   Dave & Marilyn, Northeast Ohio

The changes have been about partial transits, for the most part. Not full transits.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 8/25/2023 at 4:42 PM, aliaschief said:

We are transiting the Canal in January and that could affect our World Cruise itinerary.

We went through the Canal on the Eurodam a few weeks ago when she repositioned. Ships that size that transit through the smaller locks are less affected by the reductions, we were told. The water use involved in the bigger locks are the greater concern.

 It makes sense though, that cruises that do a partial transit, look around, and go back the way they came might also get cancelled. They are wasting the same amount of water without actually going anywhere.  Cruises ships moving from one ocean to the other need to make an actual transit and not just popping into the locks for fun. Those reservations shouldn’t be affected.

And yes, we could see from the islands in Lake Gatun that the water levels are low.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Horizon chaser 1957

[shipshape sam]

On 8/28/2023 at 8:15 PM, BLH613 said:

UPDATE:  I did a web chat with a HAL representative and found out that not only is the partial transit understandably canceled, but so are the stops at Cartagena Columbia, and Limon Costa Rica. 

 

Substitutions are:

 

3/23 Sat Bridgetown, Barbados

3/24 Sun Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe

3/25 Mon Basseterre, Saint Kitts, St Kitts & Nevis

 

Unfortunately, he said there was no fare adjustment shown, which I questioned since the port fees for the canal should have been high. We'll be canceling since we are far out from the final payment and booked on the $1 deposit sale. Other than Guadeloupe, these are ports we've already visited and we wanted something new. The rep couldn't answer my question as to why the website still shows the old itinerary nor why excursions were still available to book for the canceled ports but we all know of HAL's website issues.

 

We will try again in the next few years for the canal transit. On the bright side, now I get to research a new trip, which is honestly great fun for me 🙂. 

 

Happy sailing!

Looks like they are making it a Southern Caribbean itinerary. In 2009 we were 1-2 days into our 15 day full transit of canal from FLL to SF and due to H1N1 virus  we lost all Mexican ports of call (3 of them) and got San Diego arriving around 3 pm and leaving 9 pm, Catalina for a day and a noon arrival into SF of the day before disembarkation. For us it was a half day in SF and a hotel night on ship before getting off.  For sure locals were not as pleased.  This was on Celebrity Infinity.

 

Still was a great cruise.  I was looking forward to Acapulco, Porta Varta and one other one.  

 

Sorry for  the change, but hope you have great fun and great luck on another cruise.  We actually are booked on Rotterdam for a partial transit in 2025.