Cruise ship traverses new canal locks
A new era for Panama Canal cruises kicked off last weekend as a passenger vessel transited the waterway’s new, bigger locks for the first time.
Disney Cruise Line’s 83,308ton Disney Wonder passed through the 10-month-old locks April 29 as part of a 14-night voyage from Port Canaveral, Fla., to San Diego.
There are two new sets of locks at the Panama Canal, one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides. The locks were added as part of a massive, nine-year canal expansion project that also included excavating channels to the new locks and expanding existing channels.
Begun in 2007, the expansion was designed to allow bigger cargo ships to transit the 103-yearold waterway. But it also is proving a boon for the cruise industry. Though the smaller locks at the canal are large enough for many of the world’s cruise ships, they can’t handle a rapidly growing number of mega-vessels. Until now, when moving between the Atlantic and the Pacific, these bigger cruise ships have had to travel around the tip of South America, adding 8,000 miles and many days to their journey.
The Panama Canal Authority says passenger ship companies have booked 18 transits of the new locks for the 2017-18 season. In its current fiscal year, the authority expects passenger ships to make 233 transits of the canal in all, using both the old and new locks.