View the Marvels of Modern Engineering on a Panama Canal Cruise

A fascinating Panama Canal cruise allows visitors to experience the most extraordinary engineering accomplishment of the 20th century.

A Panama Canal cruise is like no other cruise you'll ever take. Not only do passengers on such a cruise have the opportunity to visit ports of call in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, but there's also the chance to experience one of the truly magnificent feats of modern engineering…the Panama Canal itself.

Going Through the Canal
You'll never see as many people on deck as you will when your ship makes its way through the 51-mile man-made canal on your Panama Canal cruise.

Nearly the entire passenger list and plenty of the crew will gather to watch your cruise ship be raised from the waters of the Pacific Ocean to those of the Atlantic.

It takes a whopping fifty-three million gallons of water to accomplish this. The entire process, from start to finish, occupies about nine hours. No one really watches the whole transformation, but many travelers are glued to their spot by the rail for hours to watch the water flow into the locks and the boat rise.

It took 50 years to build the canal. Nonetheless, it opened in 1914 and eliminated the need to travel 8,000 miles to get from one ocean to the other. Imagine how long your cruise would be if not for the canal!

Panama Canal Cruise Itineraries
Nearly every well-known line - at least a dozen different ones - offer Panama Canal cruises.

Starting destinations vary. Some passengers choose to sail from Florida and head towards the west. Other cruises begin in Southern California and head east.

Stops along the way are quite diverse. You might have the opportunity to enjoy the sights of Mexico, such as Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, or Ixtapa.

Costa Rican ports of call include beautiful Limon and exotic Puntarenas. Several cruise lines also stop in port cities along the coasts of neighboring Guatemala or Nicaragua.

When a Panama Canal cruise is combined with a Caribbean excursion, ports may include such destinations as the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Aruba, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The country of Panama itself is lush and green. You'll find rainforests here as well as a number of other diverse biomes and your trip will most likely provide you with the opportunity to explore this beautiful country as well. You'll see much of it during your trip through the canal.

Why Choose this Cruise?
A Panama Canal is perfect for those who enjoy longer cruises. Most are a minimum of about ten days and can be as long as three weeks.

On this cruise, you get to travel a really long way and you do it quite slowly. That gives you extra time to enjoy the shipboard activities. Because of the length of the cruise, there aren't a lot of kids on board, so if you prefer not to travel with children, a Panama Canal cruise is a wise choice.

Posted by Pat on Thursday, November 17, 2005