Panamakanal: Teilweise Tour – in südlicher Richtung

You must have patience. A ton of it. Panama Canal is a must see if you’re in Panamá. And, for us, that meant actually transversing on it. Going through the lochs is an experience and I’d highly recommend IF you have a day to burn. We opted for the half day (and were soooo glad we did). We got to sleep in and had a 10am pick up. Driver was prompt. We did the south bound tour (though I requested this - I believe if you do not - you just get what you get.) The drive to Gamboa was an unexpected treat. We drove through the jungle and national park to reach the boat. There were many people already on the boat who’d taken the full day and left to travel North. I’m glad we did not do this as we couldn’t rally that early (5:30am pick up!). When we arrived, we were given meal bracelets and boarded immediately. All of the seats outside were taken. We chose to stand. We had to wait 30 minutes to leave the dock due to waiting upon a large tanker coming from the south. Once it passed we S-l-o-w-l-y made our way to the first lock. You can move around at anytime so we just stood at the railings and took pics. Some people acted like they owned the seats and would “save them” if they got up. But, you could easily walk in front of these people to look and take pics. Once they called lunch, we took the top front row and it was great! We approached the first loch about an hour later. We entered and waited about an hour for 2 more ships to join us. Going through the lock and watching operations was pretty cool - especially watching a HUGE cargo ship enter behind us and join us in the descent. From there, we sailed about 7 minutes to the last loch, Miraflores. Again, we had to wait for the other 2 ships to join and and were here idle for about an hour. I would NOT suggest this tour for people with young children. They would be bored out of their minds during the waiting times. And, I felt the boat was way too crowded. People that saved seats were rude to not give them up to others from time to time. They’d save up to 8 at a time for their entire family as they would each get up to eat. The inside is magically and deliciously air conditioned - which was awesome when the sun was blazing. Food was good but very limited menu. Marinated chicken with rice, planarians, rice and a dry no dressing salad. Water and soda (from a plastic jug) is included. Beer, bottled water and snacks (popcorn, candy bars, chips) are available for purchase. I don’t think they’d care of you brought your own food on. Plenty of air conditioned inside seating. I’d recommend doing the half day. Transversing the Canal is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most and it was special. However, I strongly believe the half day (preferably North to South) is the best option. Caution- there are many tours who tout “Panama canal” but they just do the lake and then watch others do the canal from the bridge. Why come all the way to Panamá and NOT actually experience the full canal? ????‍♀️

Tour was fine; great experience to hear how canal locks and system was built and experience it. There's lots of down time on the tour boat waiting for ships to travel thru the locks with you. Food served for lunch was good and plentiful. Tour boat was packed to capacity and finding seating can be a challenge depending on when your tour privider drop you off for tour. Only suggestion is that they only book to the number of seats available on the boat.

I was very excited to take this tour as read the full history of the canal in David McCullough’s brilliant book, The Path between the Seas. The tour had limited commentary, there was so much more history that could have been shared. In addition, people hogged the best viewing positions at the front of the boat for going through the locks and the boat was very crowded. Overall was very disappointing.