Panama Canal Cruise question

[VitaminSea03]

We’re looking at a cruise in Jan ‘25, on the Pride from Baltimore. The cruise is advertised as a Panama Canal cruise but from some reading I’ve done, this cruise won’t go through the locks.  I’ve seen in some things I’ve read, if the description of the itinerary doesn’t say full or partial transit, than the cruise will not through the locks.  This is the itinerary for the cruise:  

https://www.carnival.com/itinerary/14-day-panama-canal-cruise/baltimore/pride/14-days/jp8/?itinportcode=bwi&military=N&pastGuest=Y&senior=N&numGuests=2&evsel=J&hideSailingEvents=true&locality=1&currency=USD&sailDate=01122025&roomType=IS
 

Can anyone help clear this up for me?  I’m not sure if this cruise is a partial transit or will this not go into the locks at all?  

[jedi bobs]

won't go into the locks at all but there will be excursions that will and/or go to the locks

 

[Elaine5715]

48 minutes ago, jedi bobs said:

won't go into the locks at all but there will be excursions that will and/or go to the locks

 

This is correct.  One of my most favorite excursions ever.

[hurricane0226]

23 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

This is correct.  One of my most favorite excursions ever.

done it twice on the Pride out of Tampa.

[jsglow]

Definitely not going through the locks. You'll dock in Colon which is the nearby town. We've done a similar cruise on Freedom and separately several years later on Pride a 'partial' that takes you through the locks up into Gatun Lake where you hang for a couple hours before descending the same locks back to the ocean. I very much enjoyed doing the locks themselves but both were great cruises. If and when you actually do the locks, Pride is a PERFECT ship as she is a Panamax; the largest ships allowed to do the 'old' locks. Epic. 

Edited January 24 by jsglow

[Elaine5715]

The excursion I was on drove across Panama to board the excursion boat.  That bus ride alone was worth the price.  The buses were nose to tail as we drove through the city with no traffic lights.  We were late returning but since there were three buses, no one was concerned.  

[Linsuesue]

I will be doing a Panama Canal cruise on the Spirit in 2025. Since the Spirit is a smaller ship, does that automatically mean we will go through the old locks? I prefer them to the newer locks, but it doesn’t specify on the itinerary. 

[Honolulu Blue]

7 hours ago, VitaminSea03 said:

We’re looking at a cruise in Jan ‘25, on the Pride from Baltimore. The cruise is advertised as a Panama Canal cruise but from some reading I’ve done, this cruise won’t go through the locks.  I’ve seen in some things I’ve read, if the description of the itinerary doesn’t say full or partial transit, than the cruise will not through the locks.  This is the itinerary for the cruise:  

https://www.carnival.com/itinerary/14-day-panama-canal-cruise/baltimore/pride/14-days/jp8/?itinportcode=bwi&military=N&pastGuest=Y&senior=N&numGuests=2&evsel=J&hideSailingEvents=true&locality=1&currency=USD&sailDate=01122025&roomType=IS
 

Can anyone help clear this up for me?  I’m not sure if this cruise is a partial transit or will this not go into the locks at all?  

As others have mentioned, this cruise will NOT go through the Canal, but excursions should be available to take you through if you want to go.

 

I'm on a cruise RIGHT NOW that stopped in Colon a couple of days ago. I've been through the Canal on three previous occasions, so I passed on the opportunity to do it again this time around.

 

3 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

I will be doing a Panama Canal cruise on the Spirit in 2025. Since the Spirit is a smaller ship, does that automatically mean we will go through the old locks? I prefer them to the newer locks, but it doesn’t specify on the itinerary. 

That's for the authorities in Panama to determine on arrival, but your chances are very that you will go through the old locks.

[bafinegan]

We booked the 8 day our of Tampa for Dec 2024.  It originally said partial transit, but has now changed to Colon.  The other (earlier) ones out of Tampa said the same, but as one got closer to the sail date, it changed to partial transit.  Hoping ours does the same because we are due to be there on Christmas day.

[jsglow]

3 hours ago, bafinegan said:

We booked the 8 day our of Tampa for Dec 2024.  It originally said partial transit, but has now changed to Colon.  The other (earlier) ones out of Tampa said the same, but as one got closer to the sail date, it changed to partial transit.  Hoping ours does the same because we are due to be there on Christmas day.

Wow. You should check with Carnival immediately. Pricing on the two different itineraries should be significantly different in that Port Fees go down very significantly for cruise that do not enter the locks.

[jsglow]

8 hours ago, Linsuesue said:

I will be doing a Panama Canal cruise on the Spirit in 2025. Since the Spirit is a smaller ship, does that automatically mean we will go through the old locks? I prefer them to the newer locks, but it doesn’t specify on the itinerary. 

I almost guarantee that you will be in the old, smaller locks. The Passage fee paid by ships is hugely different between the two with the new locks being much, much more. I can also assure you that it's not determined as you pull up that day. Passage is slotted many months in advance. There's no 'decision that day' involved.

Now what I would NOT expect is for Carnival to say anything to you. You're not going to get some kind of email about it. But you can 'count on' the original locks; 95%. Enjoy.

[Linsuesue]

4 hours ago, jsglow said:

I almost guarantee that you will be in the old, smaller locks. The Passage fee paid by ships is hugely different between the two with the new locks being much, much more. I can also assure you that it's not determined as you pull up that day. Passage is slotted many months in advance. There's no 'decision that day' involved.

Now what I would NOT expect is for Carnival to say anything to you. You're not going to get some kind of email about it. But you can 'count on' the original locks; 95%. Enjoy.

Thank you for the quick response! I figured lock fees were based more off the size of the ship and didn’t realize that it costs much much more for the new locks. That makes sense though, they need to pay them off.  There are sites for port schedules that I have checked out before. Is there a site for Panama Canal scheduled transits? I will have to look. 

[Elaine5715]

20 minutes ago, Linsuesue said:

Thank you for the quick response! I figured lock fees were based more off the size of the ship and didn’t realize that it costs much much more for the new locks. That makes sense though, they need to pay them off.  There are sites for port schedules that I have checked out before. Is there a site for Panama Canal scheduled transits? I will have to look. 

Pretty sure there is a schedule.  I found a ton of interesting information about fees plus the number of people that you need to pay off and for cruise ships transits, you bring them aboard, put them in cabins and feed them.  Most of the Canal employees don't assist in the transit except as "safety".  I think there were at least 6 on the excursion boat.  

[Linsuesue]

1 minute ago, Elaine5715 said:

Pretty sure there is a schedule.  I found a ton of interesting information about fees plus the number of people that you need to pay off and for cruise ships transits, you bring them aboard, put them in cabins and feed them.  Most of the Canal employees don't assist in the transit except as "safety".  I think there were at least 6 on the excursion boat.  

I just searched for some schedules and found a few. None of the ones I found specified which locks the ship would enter. 

[Essiesmom]

4 minutes ago, Linsuesue said:

I just searched for some schedules and found a few. None of the ones I found specified which locks the ship would enter. 

There is a sticky at the top about Panamax ships.  If your ship fits the old locks, 99% it will transit through the old locks.  EM

[BillB48]

33 minutes ago, Linsuesue said:

Thank you for the quick response! I figured lock fees were based more off the size of the ship and didn’t realize that it costs much much more for the new locks. That makes sense though, they need to pay them off.  There are sites for port schedules that I have checked out before. Is there a site for Panama Canal scheduled transits? I will have to look. 

The tolls are determined by the size of the ship and you are correct that normally it does cost more for a ship to use the new locks.  However, the primary reason it costs more is because the ships using the new locks are larger.  Take for example, if the Carnival Spirit for some reason requested to transit the new locks, they would pay more in tolls than what it would cost to transit the original locks.  The reason is there are slightly different rate charged for each Panama Canal Ton.  Ships are measured by Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) and is a measure of volume and not actual weight.  It is a measurement similar to a ship's Gross Tonnage.  For a ship like the Carnival Spirit, it would cost about $400,000 for transit though the original locks.  Because there is a slightly different rate charged per PC ton the cost for the Spirit to transit the new locks would run about another $30,000.

 

There have been numerous times ships that could have transited the Canal using the original locks have been diverted to the new locks for Canal convenience.  To date these ships have all been ships carrying cargo... containers, grains, autos,, petroleum products and so on.  Only once since the new locks were opened did a passenger ship that could use the original locks use the new locks.  There were so many unique circumstances to that transit it can't be taken as anything that you would consider precedent setting.  Without almost any doubt, if the Spirit can fit in the original locks, that's where she will go.  

[Linsuesue]

8 minutes ago, BillB48 said:

The tolls are determined by the size of the ship and you are correct that normally it does cost more for a ship to use the new locks.  However, the primary reason it costs more is because the ships using the new locks are larger.  Take for example, if the Carnival Spirit for some reason requested to transit the new locks, they would pay more in tolls than what it would cost to transit the original locks.  The reason is there are slightly different rate charged for each Panama Canal Ton.  Ships are measured by Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) and is a measure of volume and not actual weight.  It is a measurement similar to a ship's Gross Tonnage.  For a ship like the Carnival Spirit, it would cost about $400,000 for transit though the original locks.  Because there is a slightly different rate charged per PC ton the cost for the Spirit to transit the new locks would run about another $30,000.

 

There have been numerous times ships that could have transited the Canal using the original locks have been diverted to the new locks for Canal convenience.  To date these ships have all been ships carrying cargo... containers, grains, autos,, petroleum products and so on.  Only once since the new locks were opened did a passenger ship that could use the original locks use the new locks.  There were so many unique circumstances to that transit it can't be taken as anything that you would consider precedent setting.  Without almost any doubt, if the Spirit can fit in the original locks, that's where she will go.  

That is an astounding amount of money either way! If it is for the canal’s convenience to move you to the new lock, do they charge the ship the extra fee? I am thrilled to pass through the old locks anyway, so all of this is good news for me.

[BillB48]

As far as I as I know, if the ship is is scheduled to use the original locks and instead is shifted to the new locks, the ship will not incur any additional charges.  The Canal makes that decision because it it advantageous to them, so no additional charges to the vessel.  To put it in perspective, out of 14,000  total transits it happens less than 200 times.

 

Some of the largest container ships have paid just over $1 million in tolls.  This should not be confused with ships that can bid to "go to the head of the line", the recent record for the highest bid is just under $4million.  Those bids are above and beyond the toll charges.

[Linsuesue]

1 hour ago, BillB48 said:

As far as I as I know, if the ship is is scheduled to use the original locks and instead is shifted to the new locks, the ship will not incur any additional charges.  The Canal makes that decision because it it advantageous to them, so no additional charges to the vessel.  To put it in perspective, out of 14,000  total transits it happens less than 200 times.

 

Some of the largest container ships have paid just over $1 million in tolls.  This should not be confused with ships that can bid to "go to the head of the line", the recent record for the highest bid is just under $4million.  Those bids are above and beyond the toll charges.

So the Panama Canal has First to the Fun also! 😂

[Shadow1526]

I’m on the Gem in a couple of weeks and it’s a partial transit, Has anyone done the Ferry excursion? I’m interested to find out what the ferry ride was like.

[BillB48]

The ferry excursion is a great way to see a large part of the Canal when you are on a partial transit cruise.  The biggest negative about the excursion is it can turn out to be a long day, not always but it is a possibility.  The excursion also gives you the opportunity to experience your ship passing through the locks and then experience the trip through the locks on the much smaller ferry.  This provides you a view of the locks operation from two completely different perspectives.