Panama Canal - old locks?

[LibraryLaura]

Hey y'all. We're thinking about booking a 2023 Panama Canal cruise on the Wind Star - Costa Rica to Colon. Do the Windstar ships do the older, original locks?  I assume, but want to be sure as this would be our first time doing a transit.  And is there plenty of space for everyone who wants to get out on the ship and watch to do so?

Other tips to doing a Panama Canal cruise on Windstar? Pros/Cons?

Thanks everyone.

 

 

[r&rd]

We’ve gone through the canal about 9 times on Windstar - love the experience. Mostly only the big supertankers go through the new locks. We prefer going from Costa Rica to Panama instead of the other direction mostly because we don’t like having the first day be in the canal. Having a few days to prepare, read up on the canal, do excursions into the Canal Zone the day before and be well rested after travel all make the Canal experience much better.

 

There is plenty of space on the ship to see all sides of the transit. Be prepared for very hot sun. The nice part of being on a small ship is you get to see all aspects of going through the locks. Sometimes other ships are In the same lock and you get to watch that as well. There is a person from the canal who commentates the entire transit and let’s you know what is coming up. They also provide you with maps.

 

for the excursions, we have done them all but especially like the Monkey Island tour (not for the monkeys but being in a small boat in the middle of the lake). The Visitor Center at the locks is interesting if you want to see the operations of the canal from land and learn more of the history.
 

The locks live stream ships going through so you might want to send that link to your friends and family.

[TakingFlight]

We did the transit with Windstar in early February. Weather was ideal, maybe reached 80 degrees so warm but not too hot. I would avoid doing the Canal in July/August. 

[Strenz]

Highly recommend reading The Path Between the Seas, David  McCullough. Having the history made me appreciate such an incredible building feat. We loved that passage with the Wind Star. The smaller ships enabled us to passage the entire canal. We loved going under the Bridge of the Americas, the optical illusions were really fun.  We had a terrific guide on the ship that also gave us additional information. I would think the new addition would also be fascinating. Happy Sailing  

[milepig]

You won't need sunscreen if you go through in total darkness late at night like we did.

[LibraryLaura]

Thank you all for the information. I really appreciate it.

It's supposed to be a day crossing. Worth the sunscreen! 🙂

 

[marinaro44]

5 hours ago, LibraryLaura said:

Thank you all for the information. I really appreciate it.

It's supposed to be a day crossing. Worth the sunscreen! 🙂

 

Much of Panama is a rainforest.  Be prepared for that, too.