Panama Canal January 2022

[smileyjannie]

We are looking at a Panama Canal cruise in January 2022.   Embarking in San Diego, disembarking in Panama City (Colon).

Would anyone know how many locks we will be going through?    Thanks in advance.

 

Jan

[MeHeartCruising]

I have not been on this itinerary.  Starting in San Diego means you will enter the canal from the Pacific Ocean.  The port of Colon is on the Atlantic side of the canal, outside the canal.   So you will passing thru the entire canal to reach Colon.  Panama City is back on the Pacific side of the country.
 

if your ship uses the older locks, there are 3 sets of them.  I believe there are still 3 sets if the route uses the new locks, but I’m not positive..

Edited December 16, 2020 by MeHeartCruising

[versuco]

How the Water Locks of Panama Canal Work? (marineinsight.com)

[bonvoyagie]

Three locks on each end for the old canal and two for the new. Panama City is on the Pacific side - Colon is on the Atlantic however I don't believe that there is any transportation out of Colon - Panama City on the otherhand is a very modern city.

 

[bonvoyagie]

On looking at the photos both canals have three locks

[Turtles06]

6 hours ago, MeHeartCruising said:

if your ship uses the older locks, there are 3 sets of them.  I believe there are still 3 sets if the route uses the new locks, but I’m not positive..

 

Sorry, but this is incorrect as to the new locks.  There are two sets of new locks, the Cocoli locks on the Pacific side, and the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side.   As to the historic locks, you are correct that there are three sets: Miraflores and Pedro Miguel on the Pacific side, and Gatun on the Atlantic.

 

OP: there's an excellent Panama Canal forum here on CC, where you will find a great deal of information on the Canal, and Canal experts answering questions.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/54-panama-canal/

 

In terms of which locks your ship would use, if it's one of NCL's older ships (like the Jewel-class ships), it will almost certainly use the original locks.   New mega-ships like the Bliss will use the new locks. 

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, bonvoyagie said:

On looking at the photos both canals have three locks

 

No, please see my comment above.   (Some of the locks have more than one chamber, which may be the source of your confusion.)

[Turtles06]

41 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

In terms of which locks your ship would use, if it's one of NCL's older ships (like the Jewel-class ships), it will almost certainly use the original locks.   New mega-ships like the Bliss will use the new locks.

 

OP: I just took a look at January 2022 Panama Canal cruises on NCL's web site, and the only one listed for that month departing from San Diego is on the Jewel, so you will almost certainly go through the original locks (which, if this is your first transit, I think would be a very good thing).

 

Our first transit of the Canal was on the Jewel, and it was fabulous.  (As was our second, on the Gem, a sister ship of the Jewel.)  A few of the ports were the same as on the itinerary you are considering.  In case this is of any help to you, here's my detailed review (with photos) of that cruise (including information on what we did in each port):

 

 

If you do take this cruise, I highly recommend reading The Path Between the Seas before you go.  You will appreciate the marvel that is the Canal even more.

[bonvoyagie]

7 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Sorry, but this is incorrect as to the new locks.  There are two sets of new locks, the Cocoli locks on the Pacific side, and the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side.   As to the historic locks, you are correct that there are three sets: Miraflores and Pedro Miguel on the Pacific side, and Gatun on the Atlantic.

 

OP: there's an excellent Panama Canal forum here on CC, where you will find a great deal of information on the Canal, and Canal experts answering questions.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/54-panama-canal/

 

In terms of which locks your ship would use, if it's one of NCL's older ships (like the Jewel-class ships), it will almost certainly use the original locks.   New mega-ships like the Bliss will use the new locks. 

Technically each chamber is a lock - therfore there are three lock chambers on both the new and old passages. On the pacific side the old passage has a two lock system followed by a single lock because they felt that there was not enough bedrock in the lower location - the new locks have all three chambers at the lower location. The canal is 26' higher on the new side until the final lock on the old side. Both atlantic side locks have three chambers each. 

[Turtles06]

4 hours ago, bonvoyagie said:

Technically each chamber is a lock

 

My post that you were quoting was correcting post number 2  that said there were three SETS of original locks (that's true) but thought that there were also three SETS of new locks, which is not correct, there are only two.  That poster was not referring to lock chambers, but rather to SETS of locks. 

 

If you want to count each individual lock chamber, then there are six locks in a full transit, whether one transits the historic lane of the Canal or the new, expanded lane.   I'm pretty sure we are in agreement on that! 😊

[prov2727]

I'm also looking at a January 2022 through the Panama Canal leaving/returning Miami. It would be on the Pearl so should go through the old locks from what I had read on the Panama Canal forum and it goes to most of the locations that I was supposed to go to in January 2021. Hoping we'll be back to cruising normally by 2022. 🙏

[MeHeartCruising]

59 minutes ago, prov2727 said:

I'm also looking at a January 2022 through the Panama Canal leaving/returning Miami. It would be on the Pearl so should go through the old locks from what I had read on the Panama Canal forum and it goes to most of the locations that I was supposed to go to in January 2021. Hoping we'll be back to cruising normally by 2022. 🙏

 

The Pearl is a great ship for this cruise.  I did it in November 2019.  I'm sure you're probably aware that the ship won't navigate through all of the locks discussed in this thread.  You will go thru the Gatun Locks and then turn around in Lake Gatun and return to the Atlantic Ocean by going back out thru the Gatun locks again.  Still a rewarding trip.  I highly recommend taking the excursion that puts you on a smaller boat while in Lake Gatun which then does traverse the rest of the canal locks all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  You then are driven back to the ship on a bus.  It's a very long day (timing is somewhat unknown due to the uncertainties of how long it takes at each lock), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Being on the smaller boat, is a different experience than the cruise ship going though the locks, so a nice mix.

[prov2727]

3 hours ago, MeHeartCruising said:

 

The Pearl is a great ship for this cruise.  I did it in November 2019.  I'm sure you're probably aware that the ship won't navigate through all of the locks discussed in this thread.  You will go thru the Gatun Locks and then turn around in Lake Gatun and return to the Atlantic Ocean by going back out thru the Gatun locks again.  Still a rewarding trip.  I highly recommend taking the excursion that puts you on a smaller boat while in Lake Gatun which then does traverse the rest of the canal locks all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  You then are driven back to the ship on a bus.  It's a very long day (timing is somewhat unknown due to the uncertainties of how long it takes at each lock), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Being on the smaller boat, is a different experience than the cruise ship going though the locks, so a nice mix.

Thank you! It's sometimes hard to tell from the info on NCL exactly how this works. I'll plan to go through the rest of the locks by ferry.

[bonvoyagie]

9 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

My post that you were quoting was correcting post number 2  that said there were three SETS of original locks (that's true) but thought that there were also three SETS of new locks, which is not correct, there are only two.  That poster was not referring to lock chambers, but rather to SETS of locks. 

 

If you want to count each individual lock chamber, then there are six locks in a full transit, whether one transits the historic lane of the Canal or the new, expanded lane.   I'm pretty sure we are in agreement on that! 😊

We are in agreement