January, 2023

One of the highlights for us on the ATW cruise was sailing through the Panama Canal. While we had been through it before in 2012, we were still excited to go through it again and see the completion of the new locks.

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This saves ships over 7,000 miles and some really rough seas going through the Drake Passage. The French began construction in 1880 and lost 25% of their workforce due to malaria and yellow fever.

In 1904, President Roosevelt helped the new country of Panama by paying them 10 million in gold for the rights to the canal. For the following 99 years, along with a yearly payment of $250,000, the US had control of the canal.

Our journey through the locks started from the Atlantic Ocean. We will travel through a set of three locks and then cross Lake Gatun before passing through the final set of three locks, under the Bridge of Americas and out into the Pacific Ocean. We will be traveling through the old locks on our journey as our ship isn’t large enough for the new locks.

The Island Princess has been through the locks over 250 times and costs around $366,000 (paid in advance) and around 8-10 hours to complete this journey to the Pacific Ocean.