Panama Canal Transit overview

Spend an unforgettable day cruising the Panama Canal, a fifty-one-mile waterway through the rainforest that is one of the world's engineering masterpieces. The ship glides down the canal with inches to spare, through locks that raise and lower it like a toy. Along the way it crosses enormous Gatun Lake, and the amazing Gaillard Cut, blasted out of a solid mountainside.

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651 Panama Canal Transit Port Reviews

by AuntPinkie

Panama Canal Transit: what the cruise is all about. We heard doors start slamming about 6:00AM so decide to get up. We were waiting with several other vessels to enter the locks. While we hadn’t started the transit yet we could see a lot from our balcony. Humberto was live on the TV and we were able to follow our progress. We went under the Bridge of the Americas then enter the Miraflores about 10:45AM, then the Pedro Miguel a half hour later. We transited the Gillard Cut and went through Gatun Lake. We finally enter the Gatun Locks about 4:00 PM and watched from deck 5 in the coffee shop. This was a wonderful spot as we started with window at the top of the lock and went down so the wall filled the window (kind of spooky). We were finally through about 5:30PM. While we did not go through the new locks we watched a ship enter and we could see it as we did the transit. This experience should definitely be on your “cruise to do list”.

Visited: Dec 05, 2016

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5

by CarolynBull

We got up very early and went to the front of deck 11 for a good view. We enjoyed the running commentary given on the PA system. It was so fun!

Visited: Feb 08, 2011

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5

by Cynthiaryan

This was just amazing! We stayed top side for most of the day. There was an expert on board who explained every step of it while it was happening, which was very informative. Also, the same man gave a presentation in the theatre the day before on what to expect. Get up early to get your favorite spot on the ship to view, it is crowded on that day.

Visited: Apr 09, 2019

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