Panama Canal - View from balcony or bow of ship?

[Fieldofdreams]

Any opinions from folks that have sailed Panama Canal crossing if there is any difference of viewing the passage from a balcony or bow of the ship?

[Bookish Angel]

But most everyone gathered at the bow of the ship before dawn as we approached the first set of locks and stayed there quite a long time. We could have had an interior and had the same access. We got onto a local ferry to go all the way through the rest of the locks and for us, that was the best way to view all to see along the way and to interact with some locals.

[Zach1213]

Any opinions from folks that have sailed Panama Canal crossing if there is any difference of viewing the passage from a balcony or bow of the ship?

While I've never personally done it, I assume the bow would be vastly superior as you have a full view of everything left, right and ahead of you, whereas from your balcony (seemingly on the side of the ship) you really only have a view of whatever is on your side.

 

That being said, the trip through the canal is quite long so I assume you could alternate between them.

[SeaTeach]

Yes there is a difference. From the bow you'll be able to see the workings of the locks as you approach as well as oncoming traffic. Those are things you will not be able to see from a balcony. There aren't chairs in the bow area, so the balcony will still allow you to experience the passage when you need a place to sit. Really,it is ideal to move around different areas of the ship. One of the neatest pictures I took is of the wood (yes wooden planks) being exposed during a lowering of the ship (I was in the MDR of the Coral sitting next to a window). If I had not been in the bow area I would have missed seeing crocs that were spotted by the Captain. Being on the balcony allowed me to have a longer view of some sights i.e. the work being done for the 3rd lane, the folks greeting us at the visitor's center. From the front of the ship I could really see how the mules worked. So, move around the ship. The day can be long and hot, especially if you start the process at 4:30 or 5:00. That is the best time to head to the bow...less crowded. I could go on and on, but I believe you have the picture.

[Kamloops50]

As you enter the locks most people congregate on the bow . With a full transit most people end up moving around the ship to get a different perspective on the locks. On some ships you can almost the walls of the locks . As you exit a lock you stand on the stern and watch the gates close.

You actually get a better view of the gates from the stern as you closer and level with them.

[Keith1010]

I always recommend viewing the canal from all over the ship.

 

Begin at the bow but also go to the aft of the ship and also to each side and view it from various sides.

 

Many people give up after an hour. They to continue to view it throughout the day. It is fascinating.

 

Keith

[sail7seas]

We've done transits about 4 or 5 times and seeing it is hours of 'action', we view from all positions. We start with breakfast on our veranda (depending upon our scheduled time to enter), we may then move to the stern to see the lock behind us and probably roam to the bow or the observation area over the bridge (on HAL ships) and view from there sometimes.

 

The views are interesting from all locations.

If it is extremely hot and the sun bright, we like being on our veranda so we can go in and cool off, reapply sunscreen and get cold drinks from Neptune Lounge if we want.

 

[Fieldofdreams]

Thank you for all of the feedback so far, very helpful. It's why the Cruise Critic forum is so great.

[boogs]

You will have time to do both. But, as for your balcony, it really depends on what side it is on and which lane you will be using in the locks. If your balcony is facing towards the other lock, you will see how everything works better than on the other side, for instance.

 

Here are a few photos to show what you might be able to see.

 

 

First, from either the bow or any forward looking areas:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And from a balcony cabin facing the middle of the locks:

 

 

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done quite a few full transits of the Panama Canal.

going from North to South (east to west) we like to book a balcony/verandah on the port side. Going from South to North (west to east) we book on the starboard side.

It is a long day going through the canal so that will give you time to be out on thhe bow and when you are tired of standing, then you can be out on your balcony/verandah.

It is very hot and humid -- you will need a hot -- take sun screen if you can't handle a lot of sun. Drink lots of water.

Remember that the ship will be going slowly through the canal -- thus no breeze.

[surfsidemary]

I vote for viewing the transit from all over the ship. But don't forget the Crow's Nest. It provides a panoramic view with air conditioning and comfortable seating. Up there at o-dark-thirty with a continental breakfast being served was just the right way to start the day. The only down side was that there were quite a few of the dreaded chair-hogs. They must have claimed their seats at midnight.

[fleckle]

Get a map of the canal and the ship's schedule for your transit through it.

Familiarize yourself in advance with the best viewing spots all over the ship.

 

Then as you travel through the canal, know what attraction will be coming up next, and the best spot on the ship to position yourself to see it.

 

Plan your eating times between the attractions so you don't miss any of the highlights.

 

Sometimes the best views will be from the front or the back of the ship, sometimes on the port or starboard side, sometimes up high above on the top deck (for full sweeping views passing under the Centennial Bridge and Bridge of the Americas), or down below for views inside the locks, or out on the promenade deck for closeup eye level viewing of the mules, and so on.

 

If you only stay in one place, you will miss so much.

 

[cb at sea]

You need to roam about the ship. There is a huge difference from different vantage points!

 

If you plop yourself in one place and don't move, you'll miss about 75% of the scenery! Move about! Side to side, front to back, and different deck levels!

[Husky61]

We have two cruises through the canal, and did our balcony and the bow, and the port and starboard side. For me after about 20 minutes, it got boring, and on our second cruise I didn't bother to see the canal other than our balcony.

 

But that is just my opinion.

[mizLORInj]

Agree about roaming the ship; keep in mind the transit through the canal takes all day.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

The first time to the Panama Canal we had an ocean view room which was woefully inadequate for seeing the canal and locks, so we spent time on the top decks walking around from place to place to see the panoramaic views. Also, I went back to my room and was looking out the porthole at concrete inches form the porthole as the ship was in a lock and up close to the walls.

 

Second cruise to Panama, we had a balcony, port side in fact. We spent much of the time on the balcony for comfort, but did go up to the top deck when we wanted the bigger picture. Oh, one other thing, on our ship someone, an authority on the canal and locks, was speaking and explaining what was passing by. He was hard to hear above decks, but we could hear him quite well on our room TV.

[Talisker92]

One of the problems I ran into was people with their little point and shoot cameras. They all have to stretch out their arms to look at the screen, and take up a lot of room. You can lean out of your balcony and get almost the same view

[Suitcasefull]

Think they're all correct about needing to go various places for different views. One of the things I enjoyed about our balcony was being able to look straight down and see exactly how tight the fit was for NCL Pearl going through some of the places. Couldn't have that perspective as well from the upper decks. DH enjoyed being up front most of the time; I roamed more. NCL did do a video of our day going through the Canal so that was a nice souvenir. Assume most lines do that, though. It's a great trip!

[boogs]

One of the things I enjoyed about our balcony was being able to look straight down and see exactly how tight the fit was for NCL Pearl going through some of the places. Couldn't have that perspective as well from the upper decks.

 

A picture is worth a thousand words! :) From our balcony two decks above the promenade deck.

 

[arlodog]

Agree that you will spend time wandering all over the ship to see different vantage points throughout the day. You will want to be at the bow of the ship to see it when you approach the locks. Fun to watch the ships before you go through!

 

Don't know if I got the attachment correct....

[EGG]

From most balconies the only thing you will see most of the time is the wall of the canal.

[boogs]

From most balconies the only thing you will see most of the time is the wall of the canal.

 

Absolutely not true!! :eek: Why would you tell people that???? :confused::confused:

 

We were on the second balcony deck on Celebrity Infinity (deck 8) and our balcony was always above the tops of the wall. To put things in perspective, each lock will raise or drop only 28 feet. That is the equivalent of only three decks. All three locks combined at either end of the canal will raise or drop a total of 85 feet, or the equivalent of 8-1/2 decks. The largest cruise ships that can pass through the canal often have 12 decks, so some of the decks wouldn't be blocked by the walls even if only one lock was used to lift the ship the entire 85 feet. At worse, you would only be facing the wall a small portion of the time since you would be in the raised position for at least half the time.

 

The photo below was taken as we were exiting the last lock. We are about 2/3 past the last gate heading out to the Atlantic Ocean. We were as low as we could be in that lock to do that, and you can clearly see that we are well above the tops of the walls on our balcony. Even the lowest level balcony, which is the deck below us, would have cleared the tops of the walls.

 

 

Also check out this thread started by CC member dmwnc1959 that shows the progression of a typically sized cruise ship through the locks (it happens to be the same ship as in the photo above). You can easily see that none of the stateroom decks are blocked by the walls at any time, whether when the locks were at the lowest level or the highest.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1618696

 

 

Now, if you were to pass through the locks on a small 50 passenger ship, then you might be staring at the walls. :D

[EGG]

I will change my reply slightly from seeing the wall. My memory of a cruise from 10 years ago has faded. We were on a HAL ship, maybe the Vandam? I do remember we went through the lock with a huge Chinese cargo ship, so maybe what I remember is the side of the ship. I do know we paid a premium for the balcony cabin so we could relax and and watch the transit and every time I went back to the room there was nothing of interest to see. The pictures reminded me that it was not so much the wall as walkway on top of the wall that we saw. It makes a difference which side of the canal you transit as to whether you will see land or another ship.

 

We spent most of the time in different areas in the front of the ship. I do remember on the way down, being in the back of the ship and looking up and seeing the huge ship behind us before it was lowered. That was awesome, but again not from our balcony.

 

The pictures you have posted were interesting and I may be wrong but I don't think all of them were taken from the balcony of the ship. Maybe either from the observation tower at Gatlan locks or maybe some other stop on an excursion.

 

If the OP's question is, is it worth it to get a balcony to see the transit or watch from the bow I would suggest watch from the bow or save your money for an excursion.

 

Every transit is different because a lot depends on the ship that goes through the canal next to you.

 

Our second cruise through the canal was on the Island Princess. This time we did not take a balcony because we knew we would be running all over the ship. I spent a half hour on the treadmill (don't remember whether cruise 1 or 2) and I can say I walked through the canal. We enjoyed ourselves even more knowing we had saved a lot of money on the cruise.

[fleckle]

From most balconies the only thing you will see most of the time is the wall of the canal.

:confused: :confused:

The canal transit takes almost the full day, of which only a relatively short time is actually spent in the locks on either end.

(Gatun locks on one end, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores on the other.)

 

For most of the journey through the Panama Canal, there is no wall.

 

 

But, as previously mentioned, you will miss a lot if you only stay in any one spot because the highlights to be seen are on different sides and at different heights at the different locations you pass throughout the day as you travel along.

[boogs]

I will change my reply slightly from seeing the wall. My memory of a cruise from 10 years ago has faded. We were on a HAL ship, maybe the Vandam? I do remember we went through the lock with a huge Chinese cargo ship, so maybe what I remember is the side of the ship. I do know we paid a premium for the balcony cabin so we could relax and and watch the transit and every time I went back to the room there was nothing of interest to see. The pictures reminded me that it was not so much the wall as walkway on top of the wall that we saw. It makes a difference which side of the canal you transit as to whether you will see land or another ship.

 

We spent most of the time in different areas in the front of the ship. I do remember on the way down, being in the back of the ship and looking up and seeing the huge ship behind us before it was lowered. That was awesome, but again not from our balcony.

 

The pictures you have posted were interesting and I may be wrong but I don't think all of them were taken from the balcony of the ship. Maybe either from the observation tower at Gatlan locks or maybe some other stop on an excursion.

 

If the OP's question is, is it worth it to get a balcony to see the transit or watch from the bow I would suggest watch from the bow or save your money for an excursion.

 

Every transit is different because a lot depends on the ship that goes through the canal next to you.

 

Our second cruise through the canal was on the Island Princess. This time we did not take a balcony because we knew we would be running all over the ship. I spent a half hour on the treadmill (don't remember whether cruise 1 or 2) and I can say I walked through the canal. We enjoyed ourselves even more knowing we had saved a lot of money on the cruise.

 

The first three photos I posted were taken from the observation lounge at the front of the ship. These are of our entry into the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side. The rest of the photos were of the Gatun Locks taken from stateroom #8056 on Celebrity Infinity, a post-panamax size ship, about 25% larger than the Veendam.

 

Even on the Veendam, the balcony level staterooms are much higher than the walls of the locks. So you are probably correct that perhaps a large ship was next to you to block the view. However, I personally would view that as a bonus. Watching the process taken to move these ships through the locks is fascinating to someone like me who likes to learn how things are done. We paced the Maersk Dortmund through the last three locks and I learned a lot about how these ships are moved through the locks, especially since there is only about 6" clearance on each side of the ship to contend with (see my last photo in post #9 for an example of this).

 

My experience, as demonstrated in my photos, is that a balcony stateroom is worth the money, and I would always recommend a person treat themselves to the close up views of this unique passage experience that a balcony can provide.

 

Sometimes having the best experience possible is more valuable than saving a few dollars. :D

 

One more note: the captain on our transit mentioned in a presentation that the Celebrity tries to arrange to have the ship traverse the first set of locks with one side of the ship facing the center of the locks, and to have the other side facing when going through the last set of locks. This is to give all balcony cabins an up-front-and-personal view of the lock systems. I suspect that all cruise lines would want to do the same.

 

Here is yet another photo, this time taken while we were having lunch at the pool grill area. Another example of why it is important to move around the ship during your transit instead of staying on your balcony or in one place the entire time. This ship was on the port side - our stateroom was on the starboard side, so this photo could not have been taken if we had stayed on our balcony.