port or starboard to Panama

[lmentzer]

We are cruising on HAL Westerdamn from San Diego thru Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale with a balcony room. Which side of the ship is best side for seeing anything, such as which side is best to see stuff going thru the canal, and which side does the ship dock at ports on so you can see the dock?

[KNOT2L82SAIL]

Going through the Canal is an awesome experience and you want to be out and about so that you can get so many different perspectives. On the starboard side, you might catch a glimpse or two of the train that parallels the Canal. On the port side, you will get to see the ships that heading towards the west. Be up on top and down on the promenade level, the views are just awesome. Going through the Canal itself, there will probably be another ship in the channel beside you and that is fun to watch too.

[CruiserBruce]

Scenery is all around you, particularly in the Canal. There is absolutely no way to predict which side the ship will tie up to.

 

So, there is no way to say a "best" side. And we have been thru the Canal 3 times.

[RuthC]

You won't know which side of the canal the ship will be assigned to until it actually enters the locks. You will want to spend some time watching ships in the next lane, as well as look out to the jungle. So, you need to plan to leave your balcony and watch from several viewpoints.

Plan to watch forward, aft, and each side. Plan on high and low viewpoints. The perspective changes with each of these. Yes, take a rest on your balcony for a while, then go back out for another view.

This is a day to move a lot!

Which side of the ship faces the port can, and does, vary from cruise to cruise. Again, there is no way to predict, even in the same port, from week to week.

[BillB48]

The best side of the ship for the Canal is topside! Things happen slow enough in the Canal you can position yourself to see whatever is of interest. During your Canal transit, if you limit yourself to one particular side you will be giving up half of the view. My only preference in choosing sides in is where the sun will be on the balcony for the majority of the cruise.... I prefer morning sun on the balcony. So in the direction you are going that would be port side. Now I'll complicate the decision making... when you arrive at the Pacific entrance to the Canal at 0:dark30 being able to see the skyline of Panama City along with the sun coming over the horizon in the Pacific is pretty neat from a balcony. That you will find on the starboard side.

 

Enjoy!

[doublebzz]

The best side of the ship for the Canal is topside! Things happen slow enough in the Canal you can position yourself to see whatever is of interest. During your Canal transit, if you limit yourself to one particular side you will be giving up half of the view. My only preference in choosing sides in is where the sun will be on the balcony for the majority of the cruise.... I prefer morning sun on the balcony. So in the direction you are going that would be port side. Now I'll complicate the decision making... when you arrive at the Pacific entrance to the Canal at 0:dark30 being able to see the skyline of Panama City along with the sun coming over the horizon in the Pacific is pretty neat from a balcony. That you will find on the starboard side.

 

Enjoy!

 

Agree completely. Don't lock yourself into one particular side. I'm sure of interest will be the construction on the Northwest side where they are widening the canal to accommodate the super large ships.

[sail7seas]

Flip a coin as you will not know which lane in which to transit your ship will be assigned. We have transited about 5 or 6 times and each time is was as exciting. We learned something new, saw something we had missed previously on every transit. Sometimes there was another ship right beside us and sometimes not. Sometimes it was oppresively hot sun and humidity and guests were reminded constantly to hydrate, to wear sunscreen if out on deck and other times the conditions were more comfortable.

 

Some people spend the day on open deck. Depending on which lane we were assigned and if there was a large ship beside us, we often stayed on our veranda for at least part of the time and enjoyed tremendously.

[DeepWaterMariner]

Last time we transited we had a great view of another ship transiting as our veranda overlooked the other cells in the lock. On our just completed partial transit our veranda view was scenery that didn't include the locks. Moving around the ship is the best way to view the working of the canal...fore, aft, sides, its all interesting but you want to see it from every angle. Oh, and make sure you have some Panama Rolls.

[seavoyager6]

Port side from Pacific to Atlantic.

 

Starboard the other way. Makes no diff on the actually Canal transit day but Port will land facing from SD south and Colon north

[Sir PMP]

We are cruising on HAL Westerdamn from San Diego thru Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale with a balcony room. Which side of the ship is best side for seeing anything, such as which side is best to see stuff going thru the canal, and which side does the ship dock at ports on so you can see the dock?

 

Both sides are good, make sure you get up early, like 5:30am