A Man, A Plan, A Canal - Panama!

January 12-13, 2025 - Avoiding Cartagena, Colombia and transiting the Panama Canal

Oceania Vista in the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal. From the Panama Canal webcams on PanCanal.com.

In case you’re wondering about the weird title, it’s a palindrome!

Yesterday we were in Cartagena, Colombia. We didn’t even get off of Oceania Vista for three reasons:

1. We’ve been there twice before

2. We’ve seen most of the more important sights

3. The last time we were on a shore excursion in Cartagena, we spent way too much time stuck in traffic or being hassled by street vendors.

It was also hot and muggy. Instead, we had another nice “sea day” aboard Vista, just slacking as much as we could. Here are some photos of Cartagena and our neighbor in port, Norwegian Jewel:

Clockwise from top left: The modern skyline of Cartagena, Colombia; more of the skyline and the busy container port; sailing away from Cartagena to the Panama Canal; the brightly painted Norwegian Jewel

By the way, you can tap or click on any of these images to see them in full-screen. All photos on this page are © 2025 Barbara and Steven Sande.

I’m surprised that I’m actually writing this fairly quickly today, considering I’m a bit sleep-deprived. Last night at 1 AM ET, Blue Origin was supposed to launch its huge New Glenn rocket for the first time. Well, the launch time kept slipping, so I’d set an alarm or timer to wake me up a little later. Finally, after 3 AM they discovered an issue and just postponed the launch for a day. If that happens, I’ll have another night of on-and-off sleep…

When we woke up at 7 AM this morning, we were already heading into the inlet channel for the Gatun Locks. These locks are on the Atlantic (north) side of the canal, and the first time we went through the canal in November of 1996, they were the only locks at this location. Now they are joined by the larger Agua Clara Locks, which opened in 2016.

If you’re not familiar with canals, locks serve the purpose of raising and lowering ships. Until the new locks were built, the largest ships that could transit the canal from the Caribbean to the Pacific were less than 1,000 feet long, 110 feet wide, and with a rather shallow draft of 42 feet. Those were called Panamax Locks.

The new locks are “Neopanamax Locks” and can serve ships up to about 1,200 feet in length, 180 feet wide, and with up to 60 feet of draft. Larger ships can now go through the canal, and the “traffic jams” of ships waiting to go through the locks from Gatun Lake have pretty much been eliminated. The last time we went through the canal, we started through at sunrise and finished at sunset; it was about an 11 hour transit if I remember correctly. This trip through was much faster, as we exited the canal on the Pacific side at about 3:15 PM (a little over 8 hours).

Don’t understand all of this canal and lock stuff? Here’s a link to a wonderful article that explains how the Panama Canal works.

Remember Norwegian Jewel, the other cruise ship in port in Cartagena? It went through the Gatun Lock just ahead of us, but did not continue through the canal. Passengers had the choice of visiting Colon City on the Caribbean side of the canal, or taking a smaller excursion boat down to Panama City through the canal, then returning to the ship on a 75-minute bus ride.

Enough of this — let’s see some more pictures:

Left to right, top to bottom: the Atlantic Bridge on the Caribbean entrance to the canal; another view of the Atlantic Bridge; a “mule” locomotive used to center the ships in the locks; Shandong Xinfu exiting Gatun Lock; Gas Kaisern (left) and Norwegian Jewel in Gatun Locks; Gas Kaisern being lowered; closeup of a lock gate; Gatun Locks control building ca. 1913; Panamanian flag.

And more…

Left to right, top to bottom: The Panama Canal logo; Norwegian Jewel at anchor in Gatun Lake; crew aboard the tanker World Harmony taking pictures of us taking pictures of them; a fully-loaded Neopanama container vessel “Titan”; Holland America Lines Zaandam heading for the Caribbean; the Centennial Bridge; control building for the Pedro Miguel Lock; the new approach channel to the Cocoli Lock (for Neopanamax ships) - it is above our channel; Panama City from the Miraflores Locks.

And a few more!

Left to right, top to bottom: A Frigate Bird; crowds of people at the Miraflores Locks watching ships pass through; the last lock opening into the Pacific - that small boat is filled with passengers from Norwegian Jewel; another closeup of a lock gate; the entrance to Miraflores Locks completed with large lighted (at night) arrow designating which side ships should enter; the Bridge of the Americas (carrying the Pan-American Highway); Panama City skyline with the colorful Frank Gehry “Biomuseo” in foreground.

If you’ve never sailed through the Panama Canal in either direction, you should put this trip on your “bucket list”. It’s fascinating! Be sure to share this post with any friends who might be interested in cruising with you…