Panama Canal Cruises

Full or partial: the only decision that matters

The full transit is the bucket-list version: ocean to ocean in a day, the original Gatun, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks or the newer Agua Clara locks depending on ship size, and a coast-to-coast itinerary that doubles as a repositioning between Florida and California. It costs more days and more money, and it means one-way flights.

The partial transit is the clever version: round trip from Florida, into the Gatun locks, a day on Gatun Lake with excursions into the rainforest or to the Miraflores visitor center, then back out the way you came. You experience the canal's engineering theater without committing two weeks or a one-way flight. Purists sniff at it; most passengers cannot tell the difference in wonder-per-hour.

The locks day, hour by hour

Transit day starts before sunrise with the pilot boarding and the bow lined with passengers holding coffee. The ship rises 85 feet through three lock chambers in the morning, mules (the electric locomotives) holding her centered with feet to spare on each side, crosses Gatun Lake past jungle islands through midday, and descends the Pacific-side locks in the afternoon with the Bridge of the Americas framing the exit. It is the rare sea day where nobody complains about being at sea, and the narration from the bridge is genuinely worth hearing. Book a starboard cabin southbound for the better lock-wall views, and be on deck, not at the buffet, for the first chamber.