Panama Canal Experience

I wish I could say I have been, sadly not!  My lovely clients, Mr & Mrs B recently returned from a fab trip from Miami to San Francisco on the Coral Princess.  Mr B always sends me a synopsis on all his trips and kindly let me use his words. I think it will hopefully give people an insight of cruising through the Panama Canal.

“We have just returned and we both thoroughly enjoyed the cruise. The itinerary was to fly to Miami, stay a night at Miami Beach, ( a hotel, not on the sand ! ), transfer to Fort Lauderdale and board the Coral Princess. First stop was Cartagena in Colombia, then through the canal, mooring off of Puntarenas in Panama, followed by Fuerte Amador in Costa Rica, San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua, Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, and finishing in San Francisco.
The weather was constant throughout the first 14 days, hot, a bit humid and barely a cloud in sight. Most days for us, it was not possible to be out on deck for more than a few minutes at a time; it was very easy to burn quite quickly.

The highlight of the trip for me, and I suspect many others was the transit through the canal. It took 8 hours from start to finish, and is a feat of engineering. It took 100,000 men to complete the task. There are 3 series of
locks, some larger than others, and whilst it is not necessary to watch the  whole way through, it is still fascinating to see the operation. After the first set of locks, the ship cruises through the man made lake before departing the  canal through 2 more locks. However, you can’t please everyone, as I overheard some woman say to her friend, “ once you’ve seen one lock, you’ve seen them all “ !! How wrong, can you be ? Bearing in mind that here is only a foot either side between the ship and the lock, it is some feat to guide it through unscathed. Certainly, I never felt any scrapes and it has to be so precise. That’s all catered for in the design of the locks. We went through the original locks, which are two way, and opened in 1914. The newer portion of the canal is now also open, for the larger tankers, but is one way only, so will take much longer to get through. It is all done very slowly as it has to be, but it is interesting to watch.

We both very much enjoyed our cruise and would recommend it to anyone who would like to see a world somewhat different from Europe.”

If this cruise happens to be on your bucket list, let me know and we can look at what is on offer as not all cruise’s go from Miami to San Francisco.

Till next time x