Canal views - Would you sacrifice a midship location?

[Tapi]

I’m looking at a partial Panama Canal Cruise. For the stateroom category that I’m interested in, I can either have a midship stateroom that looks straight down at lifeboats 2 decks down, or I can have (literally) the last stateroom all the way aft, but I can look straight down at the water. 
 

Im guessing that it would be neat to be able to look straight down going through the locks without lifeboats obstructing my view, but I want to ask the experts. Would you sacrifice a more desirable and centrally located midship stateroom? Also, is there any advantage to selecting port or starboard side going through the canal? 
 

Thanks for any input that you may provide! 

[CruiserBruce]

If you look around the board, you will see this discussed almost daily. There is NO ONE BEST side of the ship. You need to be wondering around, looking at the sites from all over the ship, particularly during your time in the locks. Be on the bow, if you ship allows it, for a locking. Be on the open promenade deck for a locking, etc. 

 

As to your specific cabin question, I would take the aft cabin, unless you have sea sickness issues.

[Tapi]

5 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

If you look around the board, you will see this discussed almost daily.

Thank you for your response!  And I appreciate your suggestion about going with the aft location. I tried different word combinations using the search function. I could find an answer for the port/starboard portion of my inquiry, but not for the midship/lifeboat vs aft/no lifeboat portion of it. Once again, thanks for chiming in! 😀

[BillB48]

I don't recommend spending a lot of time on your balcony during your partial transit.  The Canal, particularly the locks are better viewed from the open decks where you can change your point of view depending on what there is to observe.  Upper decks facing forward are great for the approach to and entry into the first chamber, followed by some time on the lower outside "promenade" deck.  On a port or starboard side balcony your view may be confined to just one of the side walls of the locks, you would then miss all the interaction of the other lock lane during your passage through the lock.  On the other hand an aft facing balcony would be great for the rest of the cruise😀

[Tapi]

1 hour ago, BillB48 said:

I don't recommend spending a lot of time on your balcony during your partial transit. 

Thanks for the info. If it were up to me, I’d be out on deck for the entire transit! 😀 But I need to be realistic. Traveling with two young kids, and a wife that’s not a big fan of spending extended periods of time on deck, I know that we will be spending more time in our stateroom than I’d like, which is why I’m putting a bit of effort into selecting a more desirable location. 

[Essiesmom]

If you are doing a partial transit on a ship that would be using the original locks, I would choose a balcony on the port side.  The Gatun locks have two 'lanes', and currently ships entering the Gatun locks are being routed through the east lane, and leaving via and west lane.  Here is Island Princess doing a partial transit today.  The ship ahead of her in the first pic is NCL Star:

 

 

 

 

If you choose starboard, you might have interesting views of cargo shipping... 

 

You really should move around during the transit, especially if your chosen ship has an outside promenade deck.  Crowds in the viewing areas will be thick early, but by the time you get into the third lock at Gatun, they should be thinning out.  If you choose not to do an excursion while in the lake, and are on the ship for the transit back out to Colon/Cristobal, there will not e crowds at all.  EM

 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Essiesmom

[cb at sea]

You do NOT want to stay on your balcony for the transit.  You will want to see things from ALL sides of the ship, and from different deck levels.  You will miss 3/4's of the views if you stay on your balcony.  So...it really doesn't matter where your cabin is...get out of it and see the sights!

[Tapi]

On 12/11/2019 at 7:13 PM, Essiesmom said:

If you are doing a partial transit on a ship that would be using the original locks, I would choose a balcony on the port side.  The Gatun locks have two 'lanes', and currently ships entering the Gatun locks are being routed through the east lane, and leaving via and west lane. 

 

Im guessing that we will be using the original locks since we will be on a ship small enough to fit. And yes, I selected a port side stateroom. 😀 Thanks for the reassurance that I made the right decision.

[Tapi]

11 hours ago, cb at sea said:

You do NOT want to stay on your balcony for the transit.  You will want to see things from ALL sides of the ship, and from different deck levels.  You will miss 3/4's of the views if you stay on your balcony.  So...it really doesn't matter where your cabin is...get out of it and see the sights!

I’m planning on being out on deck as much as possible. But I know that it’s a long day and that we will spend part of it in our stateroom, which is why I want a good location. Thanks for your post!

[CalgaryMac]

We have been on 2 Panama Canal full transit cruises and both times we watched  from our mid-ship balcony. We enjoyed being able to watch the action of the locks from our balcony and we were reasonably close. For us the trains, lock gates, changing water levels, watching other ships transiting the canal, and all the activities needed to make it all happen is what we look for and maybe we have been lucky that our cabin has facilitated that.We have viewed the canal from the outside decks and perhaps that was best for pictures of the bridges on both ends of the canal. One of the most interesting views was from a lounge in the ship (about deck 6). As the water started to drain from the lock, the ship with the water level and we were able to watch the concrete walls of the lock appear and then disappear. To imagine that that concrete was 100 years old and still fulfilling its purpose was impressive.

 

We love the Panama Canal cruise - it is always interesting.

[teachberry]

My first ocean cruise was the Canal on NCL Jewel. My daughter and son-in-law had an aft suite. That's the only way to go through the canal, in my opinion. We had a beautiful view, standing in the shade and privacy of the balcony. The bow of the ship was available for viewing...they were standing in the hot sun, four or five deep. Hopefully, we will be returning to the Canal via the Jewel in 2022...same room!