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The new, wider locks on the Panama Canal will
open June 26 with the first official transit of a cargo ship, but don’t expect
much traffic through them from cruise ships.
Only one cruise ship has reserved space to move through the new locks, which are
open to one cruise ship a day starting in June 2017, according to the Panama
Canal Authority.
 Princess
Cruises' Caribbean Princess is scheduled to make a series of thirteen 10-day
cruises through the canal beginning Oct. 21, 2017.
At 118 feet wide, the 3,080-passenger Caribbean Princess can’t fit into the
110-foot locks that were opened in 1914. The new locks had been scheduled to
open in time for the centennial but were delayed by disputes between Panama and
the consortia of contractors that built them.
The new locks rely on tugs rather than electric locomotives to move ships
through them. Doubts have been raised about the ability to fit the tugs in the
locks along with the longest ships, but at 951 feet, the Caribbean Princess will
have room to spare in the 1,400 foot locks.
For cargo ships, questions have also been raised about the record-low depths of
water in Gatun Lake, which connects locks on the Atlantic and Pacific side of
the canal. Depths hit 81.75 feet earlier this year. But large cruise ships
typically need only about 30 feet to operate.
Most cruise ships transiting the Panama Canal will continue to use the old
locks. Cruise lines have several ships operating in Alaska that would need the
new locks to move to the Atlantic, such as Royal Caribbean International’s
Explorer of the Seas and Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Solstice. But for now they
are stationed year-round in the Pacific, moving to Australia, New Zealand and
the Far East during the winter.
A spokesman for Carnival Cruise Line said Carnival doesn't have any full transit
Panama Canal cruises scheduled through April 2018.
Holland America Line recently launched the Koningsdam, the first HAL ship that
will not fit through the old locks, but it is currently deployed in Europe
during the summer and the Caribbean during the winter. |
