BillB48

As far as I know they are the only game in town. What about the partial transit? If that would work you would at least see some of the highlights of the Canal. My daughter was just down in Panama (not on a cruise) and took her tribe on the Northbound partial.

Is there a private company doing this trip? We are coming in two days early to board the ship in Colon and would love to do the full transit on the ferry. Thanks for your help.

 

Trish

Below is a link for Panama Marine Adventures, who operate both partial and full transits at various times... with any luck maybe your dates will coincide.

http://www.pmatours.net/pacific_queen/

While I believe any of the lines would do a decent job for a Canal cruise, on a longer cruise like this, I would opt for a product that you have had experience with. If you have been satisfied with X and Princess from previous cruises, I would make them my first choices. In previous years both those lines offered numerous dates to choose from. The Canal cruise season starts in September when the cruise lines shift from the Alaska market back to the Caribbean, however the greatest selection of the Canal transits will begin in the November time frame.

Cleverd is right on:). The transit through the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut is one the tours you can select after the Z'dam reaches Gatun Lake. On your Canal day you will start into Canal waters rather early in the morning... 5ish... arriving at Gatun Locks a little after sunrise... 6: to 6:30. The entire lockage at Gatun (from arrival to reaching the anchorage in Gatun Lake) can easily run 2.5 to 3 hours. The Gatun Lake anchorage is the jumping off point for all the tours for Panama on this cruise. There are a number of popular tours you can select, the one that will take you through the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut is the one HAL calls The Canal Experience to Colon. All of the cruise lines have a slightly different name for this excursion, but here is how it operates. Upon leaving the ship at the GL anchorage you will be taken by bus to the Pacific side where you will board the smaller vessel. Usually they will take you from Balboa through Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks, through Gaillard Cut to Gamboa. Depending on Canal traffic they sometimes run the tour from Gamboa to Balboa, no significant difference.

While you are out on your excursion the ship will lock back through Gatun Locks and sail to Colon where you will rejoin it. There will be some passengers elect to stay on the ship instead of taking a tour. While it is interesting you really are retracing your footsteps to a certain extent. The combination of your cruise on the Z'dam and the excursion to the Pacific side Locks and Gaillard Cut will give an excellent feel for the Canal.

Even though I originally posted this on the Princess board, I think it addresses your question as well...

I am sure most people would recommend a full transit over the partial transit, but when you do have time off considerations the partial transit is an excellent compromise. In fact it may have an advantage… the partial transit cruise gives you a chance to pass through the locks with two different perspectives. First in the morning going through Gatun Locks on your Panamax ship and then later in the day going through the Locks on the Pacific side on the smaller vessel. From the smaller vessel you will get to see things up close and get a feel for just how big the locks actually are. Often times when you are on your large cruise ship, the operation can seem to be a bit remote, the smaller vessel helps tie it all together.

Although Gatun Locks are the largest on the Canal and are impressive in their own right, I believe a good deal of the eye candy is on the Pacific Locks and in Gaillard Cut. The "Cut" is where the bulk of the exaction took place but also where you cross the Continental Divide. In the Cut you will get to pass under the newest of the two statley bridges that span the Canal, the other is in the harbor at Balboa.

You can consider this a primer course for your class of Canalology 101… seriously if you take this cruise and decide to take a full transit cruise at a later date, the two cruises will compliment each other.

Wow, time flies… I knew he had children but did not think any were old enough to be working with him. Thanks for the feedback, hope you enjoyed your cruise.

Thanks,

 

Is the FLL-> TPA cruise stopping in one of the ABC islands?

Yes, but I forgot which one/s.

Edit: Went back and looked… stopping at Curacao and Aruba, skipping the "B."

The Vision is doing 4 and 5 day cruises out of FLL in May '14 and in June will do a 10 day Bermuda cruise from FLL also… that's a tad bit different.

Edit: Upon further browsing I found a PVSA sanctioned cruise from FLL-TPA at the beginning of November.

I am sure most people would recommend a full transit over the partial transit, but when you do have time off considerations the partial transit is an excellent compromise. In fact it may have an advantage… the partial transit cruise gives you a chance to pass through the locks with two different perspectives. First in the morning going through Gatun Locks on your Panamax ship and then later in the day going through the Locks on the Pacific side on the smaller vessel. From the smaller vessel you will get to see things up close and get a feel for just how big the locks actually are. Often times when you are on your large cruise ship, the operation can seem to be a bit remote, the smaller vessel helps tie it all together.

Although Gatun Locks are the largest on the Canal and are impressive in their own right, I believe a good deal of the eye candy is on the Pacific Locks and in Gaillard Cut. The "Cut" is where the bulk of the exaction took place but also where you cross the Continental Divide. In the Cut you will get to pass under the newest of the two statley bridges that span the Canal, the other is in the harbor at Balboa.

You can consider this a primer course for your class of Canalology 101… seriously if you take this cruise and decide to take a full transit cruise at a later date, the two cruises will compliment each other.

While relaxing on the balcony during your transit has a nice sound to it, I really would suggest there is a lot you may miss by seeing only half of the view. Enjoy the balcony on your sea days, of course that doesn't mean you can't take a break on your balcony, I just would not make it may my main vantage point. Take this as an example, if you were lounging on your starboard side balcony, look at this great Kodak moment passing you on the port side.

My advice for your transit is to be out where you can see whatever is of interest, see the transit from multiple areas… from the puplic areas forward, from the lower outside decks while you are in one of the locks and so on. If you happen to pick the "wrong" side you could also miss a great deal of the construction for the Canal expansion. Things move at a pretty gentle pace at the Canal and you will have time to take it all in.

__________________

Glad to hear he's still there:)!

If you can use a ship transfer, that would the easiest option. I know many times the cruise line won't accept you for their transfer if the departure time isn't until after the noon hour. I don't know what the policy is for Colon, but I would think that if your plane doesn't depart until after 1PM or later you should be able to use the ship transfer. In normal traffic allow about 1.5 hours to get to the airport (Tocumen PTY). As a last resort you should be able to get a cab from the pier. I don't have any personal knowledge on the cost, but I have read elsewhere on this board the cost of a cab to the airport would run about $75.

I've done that general itinerary a number of times and have not had any problems at any of my ports of call whatsoever. As far as the Canal transit, you are definitely fine there. January is a great month for the Canal and there is almost always enough breeze to keep the bugs at bay even if one should wander by.

The Panama Canal held on to steam along time particularly when it came to cranes, in fact steam cranes were not phased out until the early 90s and that's 1990s. Unfortunately these cranes did not have any real historic significance and they of course were unceremoniously scrapped.

A side note, that Crane 64 caused a bit of a stir when it placed in the equipment display there at the Balboa RR station. It was put in the place of on the construction era steam locomotive U.S. 299. The ole 299 was rather hurriedly removed and shipped to the Transportation Museum in Patterson NJ in the waning days of U.S. administration of the Canal Zone. A few weeks went by before the government of Panama noticed there was a "ringer" in the 299's place. That caused a bit of a stir and for a while it looked like it was going to become a local version of the "Great Train Robbery." Feathers were eventually smoothed out in any event.

There are some equipment displays at the Locks in addition to the Balboa RR station and you may be able to see from your ship and from the ferry, but of course you won't get up very close while transiting. Lots of great things to take in at the Canal and Panama, you'll have to come back again!!

We are going on a partial transit on Coral Princess and then the ferry through to the Pacific.

 

Are there any original steam shovels that remain and will I have an opportunity to see them on the tour we are going on?

 

Thanks

The tour on the ferry will really eat up most of the day along with the transportation to and from the ship, so not much time for additional activities... that's the short answer. Now, the rest of the story... I don't believe there are any of the steam shovels that were used in Gaillard Cut left on the Isthmus any way. Two companies supplied the 102 steam shovels used, Bucyrus 77 of them and Marion the remaining 25.

I think the only remaining construction era steam shovel is a Marion in Le Roy New York. There is a Bucyrus Steam Shovel that was used at the Canal in Colorado, however I think that one was a post construction crane.

So you are saying there wont be any Panama cruises anymore with RC?

It certainly looks like RCI is not going to offer this itinerary next winter season, I looked for December 2014 and Colon was not listed as a departure port. The reason for the change might be because Pullmantur, RCI's Spanish cruise line has the Monarch doing that basic itinerary now and next December as well, so it may be intended to be the "replacement". The schedule I was looking at does not extend past Dec. 2014

Nice pic... they are on the big side, they weigh over 3000 tons. That is the first 4 of what will a total of 16. By comparison, one leaf of the largest of the present miter gates weighs a little over 700 tons.

On a related topic I read on another forum where the company delivering the new gates has gone bankrupt. I have scoured every news source I can think of to find out if there is anything to that or not, but I have not seen a thing on the subject. I was able to track the ship that carried the new gates and it was sailing to Turkey from Trieste, so I guess we'll just wait and see.

If I helped in any great! In any event I did enjoy your live reporting on the RCI board. Not only were your pics of the Canal great, but since I had done the reverse itinerary last year on the Vision it was good seeing everything again. I know there are a lot of cruises yet to conquer, but the Canal is one of my favorites!

Thanks to those who straightened me out on laden versus ballast. I don't believe everything I read on Cruise Critic [if I did MOST cruises would be simultaneously the best AND the worst cruise ever]. But when there is reasonable consensus among people who seem to know what they are talking about, I do feel that I have learned the correct answer.

 

THANKS

Thom

Whoa.... I thought they could not put anything on the internet that wasn't true;):D! I got that from the internet!!:)

The Autoridad del Canal de Panama website <www.pancanal.com/enf/op/tolls.html> lists Tolls per Berth for Passenger Vessels as $134/berth laden and $108/berth ballast. I ASSUME laden means occupied and ballast unoccupied. I will also note that the website seems to have been last updated for 2011 pricing (and may be out of date). Can you give a source for same pricing per berth whether occupied or not?

 

Thom

I'm sure they are current because the rates listed in the next entry were effective in Oct. '13. As to the "in ballast" portion, this is from another section of the site... "The appropriate rate is applied depending on whether the ship is laden or in ballast (empty). The "laden" rate is applied to ships carrying cargo or passengers, and the "ballast" rate is applied to ships that are not carrying passengers or cargo." In the past for a ship to be considered "in ballast" there could not be any commercial cargo transported whatsoever. That was to mean if so much as one bolt, one screw or one ping pong ball was being transported commercially then the ship was charged the laden rate, regardless if it was minimally loaded or at it's max. While per passenger berth is a relatively new method of assessing tolls, I would think the same criteria of ballast/laden would apply. That was the basic policy under the U.S. administration and I am not aware that has changed since the turnover. Panama has not had any qualms about a robust toll structure.

I never have received any blocks (3 so far) on the cruise on which they were earned. To be fair I did not speak to the LA either, I just contacted the C&A and they mailed them.

Never been on a panama canal sailing but would love to. Is their any kind of port other destination that ships could use in Gatun Lake? Seems like that could become a prime destination if done right and the new canal is a success. One could easily make the other.

In the long term who knows what they can come up with, however for the foreseeable future I believe that a Gatun Lake destination will be about the same as it is now. Gatun Lake will just be the place where you get off the ship to take a tour after you have gone through the locks. There is practically nothing nearby that is not Canal related in an operational sense, so nothing really to build a tourist industry upon. As it is now, save for a few historical type excursions to Portobelo and Ft. San Lorenzo practically all of the excursions end going to the Pacific side.

From what I understand the Panama Canal is being widen for the now huge and even huger cargo ships being built. Follow the money.

 

Not really being done at all for cruise ships but now larger cruise ships will benefit from being able to use it.

 

LuLu

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You are exactly right. Of course any business wants all customers, but if for some reason all the cruise ship traffic should disappear, their absence would hardly be noticed. Presently cruise ship traffic accounts for only about 1½% of the total Canal traffic. The cruise industry will no doubt benefit from the improvements though.

It's also the only place I've lived where someone flipped me off when THEY ran a stop sign.

 

 

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That's classic:D!

I would agree the sail-away is neat in Miami... it seems a little longer, passing MacArthur Causeway and seeing all the buildings on Miami Beach... very nice. Being one who drives from east central Florida to the ports in south Florida, the exit to Port Everglades is a welcome site. Continuing on down To Miami really gets you into the creative driving zone:eek:! Then exiting off of 95 to drive through some of the more "quaint":rolleyes: sections of Miami by all the urban outdoors-men encamped under some of the overpasses is something I really don't miss.

Even though the sail-away is a little shorter up at Port Everglades, it's a pretty area too and the condos give you a great send off.

If you have the name of a tour operator that you might be using for sightseeing, they most likely handle that. Another option if you are staying at a hotel pre cruise, they could do help as well. If you are going to Colon directly from the airport you could arrange for transport right there.