What ships can transit the panama canal?

[BillB48]

Yeah, I know, but, typically, if you take a cruise from the east coast of the United States to the west coast of the United States it's called a Westbound transit.

 

Ah... but that is where the error is... while it is certainly a westbound cruise, at the Canal it is a Southbound transit. Panama has a way with messing with people's mental GPS:D. Cheers!

[SantaFeFan]

Copied today from the Panama Canal Maritime Services webpage:

 

[OCruisers]

Which ships can currently go through the Panama Canal and which ships are best for taking a FULL Panama Canal transit is a different question. ;)

[CruiserBruce]

Which ships can currently go through the Panama Canal and which ships are best for taking a FULL Panama Canal transit is a different question. ;)

 

Oh, but we all know, that because Princess designed two ships specifically for the Canal (even thought the Canal is only sailed from September to May and that is a pretty recent development- it used to be pretty much only sailed by cruise ships in September and May) that Princess MUST absolutely do it best!!!

 

Seriously, the Canal is a wonder of the world. It is a must see for many (but of course not all) people. However, as Princess doesn't have capacity for everyone, many other ships will be just fine for seeing the Canal. We have done the Canal 3 times- none on a Princess ship, not to mention the special Princess ships. We have loved every minute in the Canal, and have been discussing seeing the new locks in the near future, not on a Princess ship.

[Underwatr]

Even if a ship will fit through the expanded locks under construction, the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific end of the canal can be limiting because of its relatively low clearance. For example, the Queen Mary 2 readily fits under the Verrazano Narrows bridge but will only fit under the Bridge of the Americas under certain low tide conditions. Nominally her height exceeds the unrestricted clearance.under the bridge. I think several of the mega-cruise ships built in the last 10 years are as tall or taller than QM2.

[john watson]

I believe that the Pacific end of the canal is actually east of the Caribbean end.

 

I think the thing that confuses people is that although the Pacific Ocean is to the West and the Atlantic Ocean to the East the canal runs to a more North and South route.

 

Regards John

[OCruisers]

Easiest to say "Caribbean to the Pacific" or "Pacific to the Caribbean". ;)

[SantaFeFan]

I think the thing that confuses people is that although the Pacific Ocean is to the West and the Atlantic Ocean to the East the canal runs to a more North and South route.

 

Easiest to say "Caribbean to the Pacific" or "Pacific to the Caribbean". ;)

 

It's still eastbound or west bound. If you start on the east side of the continent and end up on the west side, it's Westbound. If you start on the west side of the continent and end up on the east side, it's Eastbound. The physical position of the canal doesn't change that fact, just as the physical portions of the East bound direction of an interstate highway will not always head perfectly towards the east. They don't change the designation for highways every time it diverts around an obstacle.

Edited August 10, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[Underwatr]

More trivia: If you start in Panama City and end in Colon, in the morning you see the sun rise over the Pacific and in the evening you see the sun set over the Atlantic.

[Haoie]

This is an interesting topic. How about the Suez?

[CruiserBruce]

What about the Suez? A quick look on a map shows the Suez runs southeast from the Med to the Rd Sea, or northwest from the Red Sea to the Med.

Edited August 10, 2015 by CruiserBruce

[OCruisers]

It's still eastbound or west bound. If you start on the east side of the continent and end up on the west side, it's Westbound. If you start on the west side of the continent and end up on the east side, it's Eastbound. The physical position of the canal doesn't change that fact, just as the physical portions of the East bound direction of an interstate highway will not always head perfectly towards the east. They don't change the designation for highways every time it diverts around an obstacle.

 

Totally agree with you!

When going from the Caribbean to the Pacific, it's Westbound.

When going from the Pacific to the Caribbean, it's Eastbound.

 

LuLu

[paul929207]

This is an interesting topic. How about the Suez?

Suez Canal has no locks.

 

The canal is narrow so ships in one direction must anchor off to the side so the convoy in the other direction can pass. Whenever we have done it, the ships heading south were the ones that pulled over. North bound ships passed thru.

 

The Western (African) side is green most of the way due to irrigation. The Eastern (Asia) side is desert just about all the way

[SantaFeFan]

Suez Canal has no locks.

 

The canal is narrow so ships in one direction must anchor off to the side so the convoy in the other direction can pass. Whenever we have done it, the ships heading south were the ones that pulled over. North bound ships passed thru.

 

No longer. A new 22 mile long canal lane has just been opened to one section to allow traffic moving in both directions at the same time. It will decrease wait time from 11 hours to only 3 hours for most ships.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Suez_Canal

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/06/429931339/suez-canal-expansion-opened-with-pomp-and-ceremony

 

Edited August 10, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[paul929207]

Thanks for the update. We were last there in 2013 and had not heard of the expansion

[CruznMooses]

The only Princess ships that ccan go thru the existing canal are the Pacific, Ocean (being sold next March), Island and Coral

 

You seem to have forgotten 3 ships, The Sun, Sea and Dawn are also Panamax ships.

[Treven]

You seem to have forgotten 3 ships, The Sun, Sea and Dawn are also Panamax ships.

I did the transit on the Sea.

[Keith1010]

For the larger ships they will have to wait for the new locks.

 

Keith

[Velvetwater]

When her expansion is finished (predicted to be April 2016) all current cruise ships will be able to fit within the locks (even Oasis class) but RCL Oasis class et al, CCL Dream class and Princess's larger ships will be too tall for Bridge of Americas....theres a few more ships that will be as well but can't think right now.

 

Its worth also noting though that the QM2 will be able to do a Panama Canal cruise no problem.

[BillB48]

When her expansion is finished (predicted to be April 2016) all current cruise ships will be able to fit within the locks (even Oasis class) but RCL Oasis class et al, CCL Dream class and Princess's larger ships will be too tall for Bridge of Americas....theres a few more ships that will be as well but can't think right now.

 

Its worth also noting though that the QM2 will be able to do a Panama Canal cruise no problem.

 

I am getting the air drafts of the ship from the nautical cities web site's overlay of ship on a dimension graph. I believe these representations are reasonably accurate because several of the ships I have direct knowledge of are correctly depicted, so with that in mind... The presently maximum air draft permitted under the BoA is 205'. All of the ships you mentioned except the Oasis class ships appear to be under the 205' limit. Two ships, the QM2 and the Carnival Vista look to be just a bit over 200', but they both appear to be under the magic 205 number. Carnival's Dream class are just under or right at 200', while the Royal Princess class ships are well under 200'.

 

Celebrity's Solstice class ships may have an issue with the air draft, but this was addressed on the Solstice when a telescoping mast was fitted to the ship. The telescoping mast will enable the Solstice to pass under the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Lion's Gate Bridge as a clearance just slightly less than the Bridge of Americas. So there should not be a problem fitting any of the other ships in that class that want to use the Canal.

 

The good news is the BoA won't be a problem forever as there are plans to replace it in the future. Don't when that will take place however.

[Underwatr]

Technically QM2 is too tall according to the canal regulations, but she will fit under the bridge with a few feet to spare if the tide is right.

 

At high tide the clearance under the bridge is 201 feet.

 

QM2 's height (keel to funnel) is 236.2 feel and she nominally draws 33 feet, which suggests a height above the waterline of 203 feet.

 

From the Canal regulations:

4. Maximum Height:

The allowable height for any vessel transiting the Canal or entering the Port of Balboa is 57.91

meters (190 feet) at any state of the tide, measured from the waterline to the highest point.

Height may be permitted to 62.48 meters (205 feet), subject to approval of the Authority on a

case-by-case basis, with passage at low water (MLWS) beneath the bridge at Balboa.

 

I predict she will be permitted to transit the canal with coordination relative to the tides.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Underwatr

[Velvetwater]

I am getting the air drafts of the ship from the nautical cities web site's overlay of ship on a dimension graph. I believe these representations are reasonably accurate because several of the ships I have direct knowledge of are correctly depicted, so with that in mind... The presently maximum air draft permitted under the BoA is 205'. All of the ships you mentioned except the Oasis class ships appear to be under the 205' limit. Two ships, the QM2 and the Carnival Vista look to be just a bit over 200', but they both appear to be under the magic 205 number. Carnival's Dream class are just under or right at 200', while the Royal Princess class ships are well under 200'.

 

 

I am hoping you are right as initially I read that Oasis,Allure and Harmony would be the only ships not allowed to transit the new Canal.

 

More recently I have read a few things say various other larger vessels would be too tall also....has the authority started to be cautious? Saying that I remember going under both the Sky Bridge and the Øresund Bridge on my cruises with very very little clearance (at least it looked that way) and all was fine.

 

Its such an awesome cruise to transit the canal. :)

Edited August 17, 2015 by Velvetwater

[BillB48]

Strange, tried to quote you for continuity's sake, but feature would not work???

 

Actually I don't think the Canal people are actually any more cautious than before, it just more and more ships are getting in the space that was originally thought to be sufficiently high enough. I have heard that on the current Oasis class ships they don't use the retractable feature for the stacks as they had to do to facilitate passage under the Great Belt Bridge when those ships were delivered from Finland. The Harmony and the Oasis 4 are not being built in Finland so the Belt Bridge is not an issue and probably won't have the ability to lower the stacks. Regarding the Canal, I honestly don't know what the absolute clearance margin they would accept. Just by inference and some guesstimating I think they like to have around 10'. In the case of the Sunshine Skyway the clearance has been upped to 181' based on new calculations from 180.5,' I believe. I don't think they have they have changed the air draft of 175', so they are only requiring a 6' margin. The tallest ship that I have been under the Sunshine Skyway was 173' and it sure looked mighty close!

 

The tides at at Bridge of Americas have a range of a little over 20', of course you don't see that wide of a range most days. On many days of the month you will see tides with a 12 to 14' range, but even that would be enough to provide for a 6 to 8 hour window to provide around a 10' clearance.

 

The only other ships that I can think of that are outside the 205' limit are the Voyager and Freedom Class ships with RCI. These ships come in with an air draft of 208'. I think they could get a short term exception from the Canal if they really wanted to bring one of those type ships through. Of course they could do some modifications to trim that height. Don't know how feasible that would be.

 

At MWLS there is around 221' clearance at the BOA... of course that is slack water and when you have that size tide the water level changes almost 2' hour.

[Treven]

So even after the new locks open there will still be a Panamax grouping - those ships that will fit under the Bridge of the Americas.:)

[BillB48]

So even after the new locks open there will still be a Panamax grouping - those ships that will fit under the Bridge of the Americas.:)

 

Ah... there will always be a Panamax and soon there will be a New Panamax. Suppose we could infer that after the new locks open there still will be a post Panamax:). For the foreseeable future the BoA will be the controlling clearance, at least until its replacement is ready.

 

Here is a link that will take you to a site that discusses a lot of maxs... Suezmax, Seawaymax, Malaccamax and more.

 

http://maritime-connector.com/wiki/panamax/