Question on the Panama Canal Touch Cruises on Lock timing

[cgolf1]

My wife and I being lock and dam junkies are curious on the timing of sailing into the first lock and then back out? I would guess the trip in would be during the day, but curious if the trip out is at night. I am almost hoping the trip out is at night as that would be really cool in a different way. Thanks

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Our Beyond sailing has us sailing the PC from 6:00 am to 3:00 pm.  Just look at the cruise you are interested in and check the itinerary for the timing.

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

It is always during the day but can vary several hours due to other canal traffic from the cruise planner.  Usually later rather than earlier.

[Jim_Iain]

I'm curious about your topic.     Are you on a Canal Crossing or a Panama Canal Touch as you didn't indicate ship and date-  My understanding is that a Touch does not actually enter nor traverse the canal.  

 

The Panama Canal Touch cruise I was on we ported at Calon and you could take various tours to see the canal and locks.     The Panama Traverse cruises you do the the full crossing between Panama City to Calon .

 

As for your question about timing.    It is impossible to get an exact time as there are so many variables.    On my crossings we were given an approximate time that we should be entering the canal but the exact time wasn't known until the Captain was given permission to enter.   Even after you are in the lakes many things can happen.   We were directed to sit in one area for about 2 1/2 hours because of congestion and then resumed our crossing.

[cgolf1]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm curious about your topic.     Are you on a Canal Crossing or a Panama Canal Touch as you didn't indicate ship and date-  My understanding is that a Touch does not actually enter nor traverse the canal.  

 

The Panama Canal Touch cruise I was on we ported at Calon and you could take various tours to see the canal and locks.     The Panama Traverse cruises you do the the full crossing between Panama City to Calon .

 

As for your question about timing.    It is impossible to get an exact time as there are so many variables.    On my crossings we were given an approximate time that we should be entering the canal but the exact time wasn't known until the Captain was given permission to enter.   Even after you are in the lakes many things can happen.   We were directed to sit in one area for about 2 1/2 hours because of congestion and then resumed our crossing.

It is the Panama Canal and S Caribbean itinerary on the edge and the itinerary one of the days lists panama canal cruising arrive at 6 and depart at 3. Your right I no longer list dates or join roll calls after seeing some issue with people doing that on social media. Not sure if that is the right wrong or other choice.

 

Below is what it says in the description, clear as mud lol. 'and experience the thrill of cruising across the Panama Canal.'

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by cgolf1

[GORDONCHICK]

Your ship should "line up" before 6am, so you will see it lit.  The boats and ships will enter in the order that those directing canal traffic arrange, which should the be line up order.  Sometimes small boats are shuffle to fit in with other smaller boats.  It sounds like you may be doing a partial transit.  Our partial transit was transiting the Gatun locks (before the Panamax canals but where they would be was pointed out to us) and floated around in Gatun Lake.  Some passengers took excursions that took them off the ship in different directions.  They did not board the ship again until we were docked at Cristobal Pier so they only saw the transit early that morning.

[Jim_Iain]

38 minutes ago, GORDONCHICK said:

Your ship should "line up" before 6am, so you will see it lit.  The boats and ships will enter in the order that those directing canal traffic arrange, which should the be line up order.  Sometimes small boats are shuffle to fit in with other smaller boats.  It sounds like you may be doing a partial transit.  Our partial transit was transiting the Gatun locks (before the Panamax canals but where they would be was pointed out to us) and floated around in Gatun Lake.  Some passengers took excursions that took them off the ship in different directions.  They did not board the ship again until we were docked at Cristobal Pier so they only saw the transit early that morning.

 

Thanks... Sure sounds like Edge may be doing a Partial like your experience.    When I did it they didn't enter the locks at all that's why they called it a Touch.  

[Northern Aurora]

I wonder if our OP has done a full transit of the Panama Canal?  Since they are self-described "lock and dam junkies" I suspect they have done so.  We have done six full PC transits and it is an itinerary we have not tired of.  While I realize some folks have vacation time limits and the partial transits can be appealing due to time constraints, I would suggest a full transit.

[cgolf1]

21 minutes ago, Northern Aurora said:

I wonder if our OP has done a full transit of the Panama Canal?  Since they are self-described "lock and dam junkies" I suspect they have done so.  We have done six full PC transits and it is an itinerary we have not tired of.  While I realize some folks have vacation time limits and the partial transits can be appealing due to time constraints, I would suggest a full transit.

Unfortunately we haven’t done a full transit of the Panama Canal, and that is why we can’t wait for this one. Our DCL cruises was while our daughter was in school. We did a 15 or 16 night round trip Hawaii cruise and had her study and do homework for at least two hours a day and she was caught up, but some teachers were rather rude and mad we took her out of school that long. So no long trips till she gets out of school. Well wife made a job change at that time and now she has finally built up enough vaca to do longer cruises again. 
 

Maybe after our Galapagos cruise we will do a full transit. We are definitely knocking some bucket list cruises off our list. 

[cgolf1]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Thanks... Sure sounds like Edge may be doing a Partial like your experience.    When I did it they didn't enter the locks at all that's why they called it a Touch.  

Got it, I miss named the thread. I thought the touch part was a name used on here and that was why I named it that way.

[Northern Aurora]

8 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

Unfortunately we haven’t done a full transit of the Panama Canal, and that is why we can’t wait for this one. Our DCL cruises was while our daughter was in school. We did a 15 or 16 night round trip Hawaii cruise and had her study and do homework for at least two hours a day and she was caught up, but some teachers were rather rude and mad we took her out of school that long. So no long trips till she gets out of school. Well wife made a job change at that time and now she has finally built up enough vaca to do longer cruises again. 
 

Maybe after our Galapagos cruise we will do a full transit. We are definitely knocking some bucket list cruises off our list. 

 

My husband spent fifth through eighth grade at the Canal Zone.  His air force officer father was stationed at Albrook.  He has fond memories of camping in the jungle and so forth.  In any event a full transit, which will take about ten hours, is definitely worth being on your bucket list.  It is a nice combination of interesting ports.  We've done it twice as a B2B.

 

We plan to go through the Suez Canal in 2023 -- one of our bucket list items.

[GORDONCHICK]

1 hour ago, Northern Aurora said:

I wonder if our OP has done a full transit of the Panama Canal?  Since they are self-described "lock and dam junkies" I suspect they have done so.  We have done six full PC transits and it is an itinerary we have not tired of.  While I realize some folks have vacation time limits and the partial transits can be appealing due to time constraints, I would suggest a full transit.

The partial we did was 12 nights, so it was as long as some full transits.  We liked that it returned to the same port and hit some quasi unusual ports along with some very common.

[GORDONCHICK]

1 hour ago, cgolf1 said:

Got it, I miss named the thread. I thought the touch part was a name used on here and that was why I named it that way.

I checked and all Edge Panama Canal cruises are RT Ft Lauderdale and are partial transits.  The ship will hang out in Gatun Lake.  Some passengers may elect for excursions and they usually leave the ship in ship lifeboats.  The ship stays in Gatun until they (the canal authority) get most of the traffic through going westbound.  They will then turn one side into eastbound traffic and the ship will go through.  If you're in a balcony on the port side, you would most likely see ships heading west while you're heading east in the canal.  It's very cool.

 

Docking in Colon at Cristobal Pier may have changed since I've been there (2004).  Back then, it was a warehouse with lots of booths of handmade things (and some junk).  It's a very industrial area, or at least it was, so walking around wasn't advised.  But there were some kind of carts that you paid the people to take you to a different area.  There weren't excursions from that area back then, but I would hope there would be now.  Hilarious thing I remember about this stop:  my son was 3.5yo, so very short.  We were standing by the rails and looking at the dancers, who weren't wearing a lot of clothing.  But my son couldn't see much and all he could see was there feet so he announced that they weren't wearing shoes - loudly.  Everyone around us just laughed.  He was pretty popular on that cruise.  There were 3 kids on the entire cruise.  My son, a 9yo girl named Jessica and a baby.  Aaron and Jessica ran that kid's program.  They got to choose everything they did.