In the event of cancelled Panama Canal

[Al2863]

This is for experienced Holland cruisers, their opinions:

If they end up having to cancel cruising through the canal will they cancel completely or just keep the southern Caribbean route minus the canal?  Hope this makes sense, of course I know it’s only guesses at this point.

Thank you!!

[DE Solo]

Are you asking about a full transit or a partial transit? 

[CruiserBruce]

15 minutes ago, Al2863 said:

This is for experienced Holland cruisers, their opinions:

If they end up having to cancel cruising through the canal will they cancel completely or just keep the southern Caribbean route minus the canal?  Hope this makes sense, of course I know it’s only guesses at this point.

Thank you!!

Some specifics about your cruise would be helpful. A couple of partial transits have already been altered, I think, as you mentioned, towards keeping the Southern Caribbean, minus the Canal.

 

Full Transits have not been affected yet, and probably won't be.

[shipshape sam]

I read here on CC somewhere, that the partial transit they were on had 3 ports of call changed to Southern Caribbean ports of call.  They dropped Columbia, the canal day and Costa Rica ports of call.  I do not recall what ports of call they added.  

 

I would think you could go to a January or February sailing and see what they have listed as the itinerary now.

 

Happy sailing!

[Al2863]

37 minutes ago, DE Solo said:

Are you asking about a full transit or a partial transit? 

Partial 

[Al2863]

24 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Some specifics about your cruise would be helpful. A couple of partial transits have already been altered, I think, as you mentioned, towards keeping the Southern Caribbean, minus the Canal.

 

Full Transits have not been affected yet, and probably won't be.

Partial Transit Feb 2024 Rotterdam

[Al2863]

5 minutes ago, shipshape sam said:

I read here on CC somewhere, that the partial transit they were on had 3 ports of call changed to Southern Caribbean ports of call.  They dropped Columbia, the canal day and Costa Rica ports of call.  I do not recall what ports of call they added.  

 

I would think you could go to a January or February sailing and see what they have listed as the itinerary now.

 

Happy sailing!

Thank you!

[Al2863]

41 minutes ago, Al2863 said:

This is for experienced Holland cruisers, their opinions:

If they end up having to cancel cruising through the canal will they cancel completely or just keep the southern Caribbean route minus the canal?  Hope this makes sense, of course I know it’s only guesses at this point.

Thank you!!

Just to add, partial transit Feb 2024 on Rotterdam

[CruiserBruce]

19 minutes ago, Al2863 said:

Partial Transit Feb 2024 Rotterdam

Do some research...Rotterdam has, I believe,  had some changes to some it's partial transits. Not sure how many. There have been some discussions here about those changes. 

[Torquer]

Has Holland America announced anything yet?  I have not seen it.  I know Royal Caribbean cancelled all its partial canal cruises back in early August 2023, but it is unclear to me if that had anything to do with the supposed water problems in the canal that came out a couple days ago.  I could perhaps see that it might, since partial transits are just a "pleasure cruise" where the authorities might want to conserve water, as opposed to a full transit where the ship really needs to get between the two oceans.  If full transits by cruise ships ever needed to be cancelled, that would not bode well for the overall cargo shipping network around the world.

[Al2863]

Has anyone’s Jan or Feb partial Panama Canal transit on Rotterdam been cancelled or altered?  If altered, what’s your new itinerary?

Thank you!

[Wehwalt]

Does this have to do with the drought which according to several news stories I've seen, is affecting the number and weight of cargo ships they will let transit?

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/panama-canal-drought-hits-new-crisis-level-amid-severe-el-nino.html

[Al2863]

20 minutes ago, Wehwalt said:

Does this have to do with the drought which according to several news stories I've seen, is affecting the number and weight of cargo ships they will let transit?

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/panama-canal-drought-hits-new-crisis-level-amid-severe-el-nino.html

Yes, I read a couple of lines have cancelled their Panama Canal crossings for 2023

[mckath]

We will be on the Rotterdam in January and while we have had a couple of ports changed on the itinerary (Curacao and Key West were cancelled), as of today we are still scheduled for the partial transit on the Panama Canal. 

[Al2863]

Did they replace those cancelled ports with others or just sea days?

[mckath]

They replaced them with Falmouth, Jamaica and Georgetown, Cayman Islands.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by mckath
Edited to add the correct name of the Cayman Islands stop.

[regnig]

I don't know about Jan & Feb but the 12 day 17March sailing had the Panama Canal cancelled about 2 months ago. The entire itinerary was changed to the Eastern Caribbean Wayfarer itinerary with an additional stop in San Juan.  Real Bummer!😞

[VMax1700]

According to news sources there are auctions to get to the front of the queue and recently Eneos offered nearly $4 million to get to the front!

https://fortune.com/2023/11/08/panama-canal-congestion-record-4-million-skip-line/

 

 

[Wehwalt]

I'd be curious to know if HAL is having to pay above the odds for the full transits it can't possibly cancel, for example the GWV in January.

[Lakesregion]

Zaandam is a small ship and uses the original locks. It is the larger ships that are in competition with the mega freighters and tankers that use the new locks. Sail small and enjoy, sail large and maybe not go where you want.

[J&Dhighdesert]

No notification for the partial sailing on December 22, 2023.

Jo

[Real NHDOC]

All of HAL's ships (except the Koningsdam) can go through the original locks.  The K-Dam had an issue with the placement of the lifeboats which prevented it from being able to go through with passengers aboard but they claimed it was going to be fixed.  I don't know if it has or not but know the later Pinnacle ships will go through the original locks.

[Al2863]

27 minutes ago, Real NHDOC said:

All of HAL's ships (except the Koningsdam) can go through the original locks.  The K-Dam had an issue with the placement of the lifeboats which prevented it from being able to go through with passengers aboard but they claimed it was going to be fixed.  I don't know if it has or not but know the later Pinnacle ships will go through the original locks.

Does going through the original locks solve the current problem?  Sorry for my ignorance, just learning about all the cancellations 

[tymike]

Hi all,

Just off the Rotterdam partial transit.  We stopped at Aruba instead of Curacao and Falmouth Jamaica instead of Key West. 

 

For the transit, we entered the new locks, did a donut in the lake and came back through.  All excursions were cancelled in the canal.  We were told it was because of protests (which we saw no evidence of) and no mention of drought.  But this was about a week ago so things may have changed.

[Host Kat]

@Al2863

 

Your two stand-alone threads on basically the same topic have been merged into one thread. Per the Cruise Critic software, all posts now appear in post date/time order on this newly merged thread.

 

If anyone reading this merged thread was not aware there were two threads, please read back through the thread to make sure you have seen ALL of the posts so far. 

 

Happy sails to all,

 

Host Kat