It IS awesome. We did the partial transit on Princess but then took an excursion boat all the way through to the Pacific. I think everyone should do a transit that way as well. With such a small boat, 250 pax, we were coming in to the very bottom of the locks with the walls about 15 feet or so over our heads. When you're on a cruise ship, you're basically on a skyscraper going through. It's still amazing, but experiencing it from the waterline is pretty dang cool too.