What to expect

We did a transitional cruise on Miracle from New York thru old locks to long beach calif. Great cruise. Going thru canal, Carnival brought some Panamanian dancers on board for shows and momentos to buy. Had an heliocopter fly over ship for a photo.

Did a partial cruise on Freedom out of Galveston thru new locks. Did excursion of Gaiten lake and an excursion of watching ships going thru locks. One of our favorite cruises.

Actually we did read this book. Highly recommend it. We also went to the talks. It depends entirely on the person giving the lectures. We had a great one on the first trip

Did partial transit on Island Princess (oxymoronically a small large ship). Old locks, we traveled before Panamax locks built. Ship transited the Gatun Locks, anchored in lake Gatun then exited back to Atlantic via Gatun Locks. We did a pre arranged tour on a small ship through the entire canal transiting the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks into the pacific ending in Panama city, Bus back to Colon where we met the ship. Old locks an amazing piece of engineering. If possible I would recommend the large ship/small ship (or all small ship) transit as it gives one views of the locks from different levels. Forget the talks read The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCulllough, everything you need to know. Most Panama cruises stop at Cartegena. We had our travel agent arrange a full day private tour for us, what a beautiful city.

We've done the complete transist twice(once on Carnival and once on Princess). I highly recommend it. We enjoyed it more on Princess because the expert on board gave better talks before each port and it's significance to the canal. Both were through the old locks and they are a facinating bit if history. I'd do it again!