Pride canal partial transit, will they skip it?

[goldfish65]

Currently booked on March 16, 2024 sailing. Due to the severe drought and with the dry season approaching, traffic is being restricted incrementally and by Feb.1, it will be 18 ships per day. Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas dropped the canal portion from their 2024 itinerary. Thankfully we'll only lose $100 deposit; for us, the canal is the whole point of this cruise. Thoughts?

[ninjacat123]

Maybe Carnival will add another port instead of the Partial Transit.  I know I would be disappointed missing the Panama Canal.

[goldfish65]

38 minutes ago, 1stresponder2086 said:

If there is not enough water, what would you like them to do?

Let their customers know if the ship will be among the 18 ships that will use the canal that day, or not.  Or say they won't know until sometime nearer to the sailing date. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by goldfish65

[staceyglow]

11 minutes ago, goldfish65 said:

Let their customers know if the ship will be among the 18 ships that will use the canal that day, or not.  Or say they won't know until sometime nearer to the sailing date. 

Did you try asking Carnival? 🙂

Edited November 5, 2023 by staceyglow

[goldfish65]

No. That's a good idea. I will report back what they say.

[firefly333]

I'm on dream where we dock at colon Panama. I know we keep seeing the question asked if we will do a partial  .. no we dock and have to pay for a excursion.

 

If pride cant do a partial, docking would be a solution though I know the fees and taxes are more to do a partial. Better than not seeing the canal?

[goldfish65]

The Carnival phone rep was very good, he could not say anything definite but said that a refund would be a likely option if the ship could not traverse the locks. 

Our party agrees that doing an excursion from a nearby port to see the canal just isn't the same, so we will not be taking this cruise. 

For anyone thinking of a canal cruise in the near future, if you had not heard about the restrictions on the number of ships, I hope this is helpful. 

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by goldfish65

[ninjacat123]

11 minutes ago, goldfish65 said:

The Carnival phone rep was very good, he could not say anything definite but said that a refund would be a likely option if the ship could not traverse the locks. 

Our party agrees that doing an excursion from a nearby port to see the canal just isn't the same, so we will not be taking this cruise. 

For anyone thinking of a canal cruise in the near future, if you had not heard about the restrictions on the number of ships, I hope this is helpful. 

 

I didn't know that this was a possibility, not being able to traverse the locks, so I appreciate the info goldfish65.

[chengkp75]

2 hours ago, 1stresponder2086 said:

I'm sure the 18 ships will be priority with goods needed somewhere in the world over cruise ships

Nope.  As noted in articles from the Canal Authority, ships with reservations will get priority over other ships, and cruise ships always make reservations up to 2 years in advance.  The reservation fee, and the fee for a guaranteed daylight passage that all cruise ships book, generate a whole lot of additional revenue for the Canal Authority.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

I didn't know that this was a possibility, not being able to traverse the locks, so I appreciate the info goldfish65.

What they mean is not that the ship couldn't traverse the locks, as not getting one of the assigned slots.  But, as I said above, the ships with reservations will get the priority.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

Does a partial transit actually enter the locks, or just transit the canal as far as Lake Gatún and turn around?  If it doesn't go through the locks would the traffic restrictions still affect this cruise? 

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

Does a partial transit actually enter the locks, or just transit the canal as far as Lake Gatún and turn around?  If it doesn't go through the locks would the traffic restrictions still affect this cruise? 

Getting to the lake requires transiting a set of locks.

[jsglow]

And it's always best on a Panamax vessel such as Pride. She was designed to just barely fit in the 'old' locks. It's actually stunning when you see how the lock wall is mere inches away from the hull.  And yes, they do scrape because 'perfection' simply isn't possible. You'll then spend a few hours up in the lake and return down via the same locks. And the next day the paint crew will be out at your next port of call cleaning up the sides. Great trip.

[chengkp75]

52 minutes ago, 1stresponder2086 said:

Only one year, provided there are no mishaps or turn of events.  https://www.stormgeo.com/products/s-suite/s-routing/articles/the-panama-canal/

See the linked page from the Canal Authorities rules and regulations regarding the transit reservation system, which has a "special period" for requesting transit dates for "passenger vessels", from 760 to 366 days prior.  Nope, wasn't hard, didn't rely on "articles", went to the ACP itself.  Straight from the horse's mouth is always best.  It further states that the first seven slots out of the total allocated slots for a given day (when the day's totals were 31) would be allocated strictly to passenger vessels, when the "special period" opened. 

 

Dec 2020.pdf

Edited November 6, 2023 by chengkp75

[SASA13]

22 hours ago, goldfish65 said:

The Carnival phone rep was very good, he could not say anything definite but said that a refund would be a likely option if the ship could not traverse the locks. 

Our party agrees that doing an excursion from a nearby port to see the canal just isn't the same, so we will not be taking this cruise. 

For anyone thinking of a canal cruise in the near future, if you had not heard about the restrictions on the number of ships, I hope this is helpful. 

 

Thanks for the info.  I am currently booked on this cruise.   I had no idea about this.  I will touch base with my PVP, and see if he has any further info.  Thanks again.

[chengkp75]

7 minutes ago, SASA13 said:

Thanks for the info.  I am currently booked on this cruise.   I had no idea about this.  I will touch base with my PVP, and see if he has any further info.  Thanks again.

Just note that the closer to the transit date that a ship cancels the booking, the more penalty is paid.  The cruise line has to put a deposit down when making an advance reservation, so they stand to lose a lot of money for a last minute cancellation.

[80sGal]

Are these changes the reason Carnival doesnt have any more partial transits listed after 2024?  We were looking at 2025 but its all full transits or port in Colon.   I didn't find any more Partial Transits of the 7 or 8 day variety but couldn't figure out why they would drop those. 

[bstel]

On 11/5/2023 at 4:21 PM, goldfish65 said:

 

Our party agrees that doing an excursion from a nearby port to see the canal just isn't the same, so we will not be taking this cruise. 

 

 

I have just did one partial transit on the Pride, but you might not rule that excursion out.  My parents have done both and said they are both very different experiences.  One you are in a large ship, probably on main deck above the canal walls, squeezing through the locks.  The other, you are in a smaller craft and could be crammed into a lock with a larger ship and most definitely be below the lock walls looking up.  So both totally different.

[Joebucks]

Can someone explain the correlation between a draught and limited ships? 

[Essiesmom]

I’ll make another stab at some correlation and hope that @BillB48 will come along and correct my errors. There is a drought, not enough rain for the Chagres river to keep the level of the lakes and canal deep enough for the largest ships. Every time a ship leaves the last lock and sails out, a locks worth of canal water goes out to sea. The new locks were built with collection reservoirs to conserve water so it can be reused. I’m the old locks they don’t have that option, but at times have used another. If you watch the ships on the Panama Canal cams you can sometimes see on the old locks that tha neighboring lock is empty. As the ship rises, the water in the neighboring lock falls, because they are shifting the water sideways. I have been told this saves the water for up to five transits. I realize that might be clear as mud. EM

 

[BillB48]

You have got the essentials EM!😀  The water saving basins for new locks are supposed to lower the amount of water spilled to sea to less than the water spilled to sea at the original locks.  In other words the new locks will use less water even though they are bigger than the original locks.  The original locks are trying to duplicate the use of the water saving basins by cross spilling into the adjacent chamber.  Of course the position of the ship in adjacent lane impacts when you can cross spill, so it can't be used every time water needs to be spilled/filled.

[BillB48]

3 hours ago, Joebucks said:

Can someone explain the correlation between a draught and limited ships? 

By limiting the number of ships "should" balance out the amount of water lost from Gatun Lake as a result of transits with the amount of water that flow into the Lake, at least that is the plan (hope).  If this balance is reached then the draft limits for vessels transiting will not have to be further reduced.  Maximum draft for vessels using the new locks is 50', which has been reduced to 44' presently.  The max draft for vessels  transiting the original locks is 39.5'.  Canal authorities are trying not to make further draft reductions, so maintaining Gatun Lake at or near its current level is necessary.

[BillB48]

12 minutes ago, Ifixthings said:

The drought ended their usefulness 

Not really, the Lake would have been lower sooner.  Glass half full, not half empty!