What is "partial transit" of the Panama Canal?

Would I really be missing out if I scheduled a cruise that has "partial transit" instead of "full transit" of the Panama Canal? Thanks!

I have done both. The full transit is much better, although we enjoyed the partial transit. On the partial you will enter the Gatun locks......go through them........then the ship normally drops anchor in Gatun Lake to let people off for excursions and then returns through the Gatun Locks.

The full transit is just that..........from the Pacific to the Caribbean/Atlantic through all of the locks.

Different cruises indeed but you will experience the canal with the partial......

Still think the full transit is better..........JMO.

Actually, a partial transit can be done from either side, not just the eastern side. And it really depends on what you want from your cruise experience as to whether or not you will actually "miss out" by doing a partial. If you want to end the cruise in the same port you embarked, then you would need to do a partial. Look at the entire itinerary and see which one is more of what you want and go from there.

I was only able to do a partial canal cruise due to length of time. So in order to see the full canal I did a ferry excursion through the ship that takes you the rest of the way through the canal on a ferry and it was absolutely amazing.

I was only able to do a partial canal cruise due to length of time. So in order to see the full canal I did a ferry excursion through the ship that takes you the rest of the way through the canal on a ferry and it was absolutely amazing.

I did exactly the same thing and thoroughly enjoyed the ferry excursion. It was great to be on a small ferry(200 passenger) to actually go through the locks on the Pacific side. I have since taken the full transit and they both have their advantages.

Marilyn

I would like more infomation on the ferry that you took to go through the canal. Ship excursion or private? If private, was there enough time and easy to find a private tour guide? If through ship; which excursion and approximate what was the cost? Trying to make us our mind whether to do the partial transit or the entire transit. Any help you can give me would be appreciated. I figure the entire transit is going to be at least $600. more and I don't think I can justify it but don't want to be shortchanged and regret it later. Thanks

It was a ship's excursion and cost $175. I don't even think it is available as a private excursion (and if the ship enter's Gatun Lake most cruiseline's will only let you off the ship there if you are on a ship's excursion).

Thanks for your reply with an estimate of the cost.

M. Burr:)

What do you mean with a "partial" transit. I thought that all of the ship goes through the gates. Now you say only part of it goes through? Would it be best to be on the front or back of the ship? Confused.

There are 3 sets of locks in the Panama Canal between the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea. In a partial transit cruise, the ship goes through 1 set of locks then turns around and goes back out that same set of locks. This is different from a full transit cruise that goes through all 3 sets of locks.

Most partial transits are from the East Coast. They enter the Canal at the Gatun Locks, float around in Gatun Lake, let of passengers tender off the ship for shore excursions, and then go back out the Gatun Locks back into the Caribbean Sea without going the full length of the canal to the Pacific. From the West Coast, the ship enters the Miraflores Locks, floats around, then turns around and goes back out the Miraflores Locks into the Pacific Ocean without going the full length of the canal to the Caribbean Sea.

A full transit cruise enters one side of the canal, sails through all 3 sets of locks, and comes out on the other side.

Thank you for that easy to understand explanation - we're just starting to look into the Panama Canal cruises and I couldn't figure out what the "partial" or "full" transits were all about - THANKS!!

mishdoob, just wanted to point out that this thread is a bit old. Altough the info is still largely accurate, in wrp96's post about partial transits fom the Pacific is not any longer valid as no ships are offering that cruise. HAL and Princess offer a number of partial tranist cruises from around November through April from Florida.

thank you for pointing that out - i think i may have searched on google, rather than on here - hadn't realized the date!

Is there a difference in weather...better to travel through canal say, Dec-Feb rather than March or April?

If everything were equal I would pick January, but the honest answer is there really is little difference in those time periods. Anytime in that period would be fine.

Anyone know what the weather will be like in March? We are doing the full transit.

Thanks

March is well within the Dry Season in Panama and surrounding area. Dry Season runs from late December through April. Temperatures can be in the low 90s (32C I think) and for lows, it probably won't get below 76 unless you are in your cabin!. Coming from your part of the world it will seem on the warm side, but it's the humidity that is the problem. Don't let any of this scare you off because a breeze, shade and air conditioning are never far away. If you are out on deck for a long time on transit day, don't forget your sunscreen.

We booked a 11 days partial canal cruise on Nov 15, 2013. How the weather wil be like Panama ? One of us is mobility challenged, cannot walk more than 100 ft. We will have an electric scooter. What limitation we will have on board and at the ports.

We booked a 11 days partial canal cruise on Nov 15, 2013. How the weather wil be like Panama ? One of us is mobility challenged, cannot walk more than 100 ft. We will have an electric scooter. What limitation we will have on board and at the ports.

We're in the tropics so more or less the weather is the same year round. Expect hot and humid and probably rain showers. It's unlikely to rain all day but in November I'd expect rain sometime. It is, after all, the rain forest.

You said a partial transit, most likely 11 days round trip from Florida. If you are dependent on the scooter it is unlikely that you will be able to disembark the ship in Gatun Lake via tender, so unlikely that you would be able to take a ship tour in Panama. Only people taking ship tours are normally able to disembark the ship by tender in Gatun Lake. You will, however, be able to experience the Canal and the locks from your ship.

I'd talk with the ship, and do some research on line with independent tour operators about what might be available in various ports with your scooter. Understand that outside the US, Canada and Europe there is a much different concept of accessibility . Frequently pavements are uneven and sometimes challenging even for walking without a scooter!

The nice thing about a Canal cruise is that it is possible to experience the main attraction [the Canal!] without leaving the ship.

Regards, Richard

You said a partial transit, most likely 11 days round trip from Florida.

 

The nice thing about a Canal cruise is that it is possible to experience the main attraction [the Canal!] without leaving the ship.

 

Regards, Richard

Hey Richard~

Am doing the cruise from FLL, Florida a week or so after the poster you responded to & am wondering about the earlier comments about the availability of cruising the other locks on a ferry. Is that still the case & do you know the current costs to do such? Thanks!

Hey Richard~

Am doing the cruise from FLL, Florida a week or so after the poster you responded to & am wondering about the earlier comments about the availability of cruising the other locks on a ferry. Is that still the case & do you know the current costs to do such? Thanks!

There is a tour available through many ships and locally on a ferry boat that goes from around Gamboa through Gaillard Cut, Pedro Miquel and Miraflores and ends up at Balboa or Amador. Ships usually have the same tour available. Runs around $150-190 as I recall. Pacific Queen Given scheduling, transport, and the fact that the cruise lines generally book most of the space, it is probably easiest to just book through the cruise line.

Going through on the ferry gives you a great sense of perspective and is totally different than on a big ship.

Regards, Richard

The OP posted in 2006, but since this thread has been revived, there may be others who will want to read the following review:

We did the partial transit on HAL Zuiderdam two years ago in March. Weather was fine -- sunny, warm/hot, humid. Didn't happen to rain on us.

My understanding from HAL, and I believe this is true of all cruise lines, is that no one will be disembarked from the ship who is not on a ship-sponsored excursion. You can check this with your cruise line.

Zuiderdam entered the canal from the north (Caribbean side), went through Gatun Locks, anchored in Gatun Lake, and pax who had booked excursions (ourselves included) tendered off the ship. The ship then returned through the locks and docked in Colon for the day. I do not believe pax were allowed off the ship in Colon -- although there may have been ship-sponsored excursions offered there, too. I am not sure, as we did not look into that.

My husband and I took the ferry excursion through the canal. That meant that after tendering off at Gatun Lake, we were bussed a good distance along the canal to a dock where we picked up the ferry; we then traveled on the ferry through the other two locks to get to the Pacific side (Panama City) where we disembarked, reboarded the bus, and returned to the ship in Colon. The excursion was an all-day affair; the actual canal transit took 4 or more hours (? -- I don't remember exactly...), and we enjoyed perhaps 30 to 60 minutes extra cruising on the Pacific side waiting for the ferry's dock to open up so we could pull in. That little bit of extra cruising, with the fresh sea breeze, the wide open view of the Pacific, and some close-up looks at some interesting boats in the harbor was a very enjoyable aspect of the whole transit experience.

The ferry excursion, which I imagine would be pretty much the same regardless of which cruise line sponsored it, had good and bad points. The best aspect, was, of course, experiencing the transit itself: seeing the canal, watching how the locks operate, learning the history, seeing the surroundings, and viewing the ongoing construction of the new canal.

Negatives: The ferry was crowded, and though there is a good deal of covered deck space, getting a good view of things, and especially photographing, meant moving around quite a bit on the boat to avoid simply taking shots of the backs of other pax heads. The best views (whether seated or standing) were pretty much only on the bow, in full sun, although if you happened to get a front row, rail-side seat on either the upper or lower deck of the ferry, you would get some good views, too. But of course there were only a few dozen such seats. If it had rained and everyone had tried to crowd onto the lower deck and under the upper deck canopy, that would not have been very pleasant -- there would not have been enough seats for everybody, and therefore those seated would have had their view blocked entirely by folks standing in front of them. But that happened anyway as pax moved around the boat, often disregarding -- as people do -- the folks whose view they were blocking.

The other negative aspect of the ferry excursion, for us, anyway, was the non-stop monologue over the PA system. Someone continually rambled on, mostly repeating the same history, anecdotes, facts, and figures about the canal, with occasional breaks for an attempt to lead the pax in singing "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Anniversary" to various folks on board. Then the speaker would change, but the monologue remained basically the same, until you were sick to death not only of the constant (often unintelligible) chatter, but of hearing the same info over and over. It's not like the pax hadn't heard it before in the previous half hour! Adding insult to injury was the fact that we had heard the same stories, history, etc., first from the lecturer on the Zuiderdam, whose remarks were audible over the PA system in certain parts of the ship as well as on the cabin TV's, and then from our tour guide on the bus during the previous hour's ride to the ferry dock!! It was endless, and there was no escape. In addition, after we got off the ferry, our tour guide talked almost the entire way back from Panama City to Colon on the bus! -- another hour and a half or so of personal stories and Panamanian history. It was all too much.

Though we were interested in the history and some personal anecdotes, having heard them once, maybe twice, would have been plenty and we would have enjoyed peace and quiet after that. But we have always been people who would rather enjoy a boat ride, train ride, bus ride, etc. in relative quiet, free to think our own thoughts and form our own impressions. We appreciate a short informative monologue or occasional interruption to explain or describe something interesting, but not non-stop repetition.

So although I am glad we did fully transit the canal, I would never do it again on the ferry. I am waiting for an opportunity to take the full transit on board my chosen cruise ship, where I have more control over where I stand or sit, what I can see, and what I choose to listen to, as the pax on HAL's Statendam were doing at the same time we were on the ferry.

Seagoingmom: Thanks for the review of the ferry transit excursion. Now I am totally confused. Initially I thought I would do the full transit, then started reading about the ferry excursion offered on the partial transits, and that actually sounded like it might be better than being on a cruise ship. However now, it is looking like I would not enjoy the ferry experience based on your comments. Mainly I am concerned about the over crowdedness on the ferry. Thanks for the details. It is something for me to weigh carefully.

Seagoingmom: Thanks for the review of the ferry transit excursion. Now I am totally confused. Initially I thought I would do the full transit, then started reading about the ferry excursion offered on the partial transits, and that actually sounded like it might be better than being on a cruise ship. However now, it is looking like I would not enjoy the ferry experience based on your comments. Mainly I am concerned about the over crowdedness on the ferry. Thanks for the details. It is something for me to weigh carefully.

Not to muddy the waters further, but you know there are folks who have taken the ferry excursion and really enjoyed it, and I am sure you can find their reviews on these boards, or somewhere else online...everyone has a different viewpoint, of course.

I am sure you will be able to come to a decision you feel comfortable with. $$$ would have to play into it for me, as the full transit requires the extra cost of one-way air travel, or the expense of doing a back-to-back on board (which I would dearly love to do!) I know these expenses are not an issue for some -- those who are in the travel business, for example, but that is not my situation.

We chose what was best for us, and we are glad we did it -- just wouldn't do it a second time.

Not to muddy the waters further, but you know there are folks who have taken the ferry excursion and really enjoyed it, and I am sure you can find their reviews on these boards, or somewhere else online...everyone has a different viewpoint, of course.

 

I am sure you will be able to come to a decision you feel comfortable with. $$$ would have to play into it for me, as the full transit requires the extra cost of one-way air travel, or the expense of doing a back-to-back on board (which I would dearly love to do!) I know these expenses are not an issue for some -- those who are in the travel business, for example, but that is not my situation.

 

We chose what was best for us, and we are glad we did it -- just wouldn't do it a second time.

I will look for reviews of others, but just from reading your post I get the feeling I would feel a lot like you did. In the end I will do what I always suggest to others and that is: follow your gut feeling. Right now my gut is saying I might not like that small ferry experience, but I will read more. I am just glad I am aware of the points you made.