Panama Canal: Balcony or Oceanview Help

[Pluto1976]

Hello DIS Cruisers, we are looking at booking the PC cruise in 2020 out of NOLA. On all of our past cruises we have had a balcony stateroom. However, the balcony prices for this PC cruise are quite high. So this brings me to the following questions:

1. We do enjoy our balconies, but how much does it add to the experience when going through the PC?

2. There is about a $1000 difference in cost between a deck 6 and deck 7 balcony. Is being one floor deck higher really that valuable? Does it have anything to do with the view when traversing the PC?

3. All of the Deluxe Oceanviews seem to be on decks 1 and 2. My DW is prone to motion sickness and I am wondering if being so low on this cruise we will be more prone to feel the movement. It seems like we have felt more movement in the past when on lower floors.

4. How much of a consideration should movement be on the PC cruise as opposed to other cruises?

I know "value" is subjective so really looking for others' experiences, and information on what activities are done during the PC crossing and at other times during the voyage to keep us busy. Our travel party would be all adults.

Thanks!

 

[jrabbit]

1) I have only booked a balcony room once - because we booked "so late" that there were no Cat 9 rooms available (early Fantasy sailing). Been upgraded to a veranda room twice - and we really never ever used the balcony - it was either way too hot or too windy (once too cold). The obvious advantage of a balcony on Transit Day is that you don't have to "fight for space" up on deck 10. You can sit and watch the canal slide by. But you have a limited view - you're not seeing what's happening on the other side of the ship, nor what it is like sailing into a lock from the front of the ship or out from the back of the ship.

2) No I don't think so. But the real estate trueism holds here for all sailings ... Location, Location, Location. The higher the deck the higher the price.

3) Since our 3rd cruise (we've now been on over 20 DCL cruises) we always book Oceanview rooms on Deck 2. For us it's a great value. And LOTS of stairs (get to eat more desserts that way). And there are plenty of public areas that are outside (deck 4 IS the Largest verandah on the ship!!), decks 9 & 10. Promenade lounge has seating by the portholes as does the Cadillac lounge in the After Hours area.

Just about the Canal Transit...
There is a LOT to see on the Canal Transit day! I don't know what it is like with the new locks that the Wonder now uses, but "back in the day" we would be up on deck 10 - to get the overall view of the locks, the process, the "event".

Being on deck 10 gives you easy access to either side of the ship. It's tough to get a spot all the way forward - LOTS of people trying to do this. But throughout the day there will be opportunities as people come and go. The views up here are great. An interesting thing is that you really don't feel yourself (ship) moving up and down as you go through the locks. But take a look at the light posts along the canal and you can tell that you are rising up or sinking down.

But deck 10 is NOT the be all, end all. Our first transit of the canal we spent the entire day (14 hours) up there. (Note: this was only the 2nd transit of the canal by DCL and they do it a lot quicker now -- again old locks). And as it turns out we missed some other interesting views. Deck 4 is an amazing view of the proceedings. As ships are raising or lowering, you can actually tell its happening. You get a great view of the workers and the workings of the locks. And you get a bit of the scale of the container ships. If you are on deck 4 watching, I would station myself by the doors so you can easily get to the other side of the ship to see what's happening over there. And since it frequently downpours in the canal zone, well you are under cover on deck 4.

Now for the deck 2 perspective ... again, old locks ... you most definitively would NOT want to spend the entire transit in your room looking out of the porthole. BUT you do want to be in the room as the ship enters or exits one of the locks. There is less than a foot clearance on each side of the ship. As you are sailing towards the lock, you have the view of the canal's "river". If your room is on the correct side, you will then see the "dock" that extends out from the locks. You are a little ways above the dock. Then as the ship enters the lock, you see the "ground" (concrete) start going uphill and and then all you can see is the wall, then you pass the door to the lock and actually enter the lock. After the ship is situated, they start filling the lock with water and you see the concrete wall move - your eyes are telling you that you are rising! then you can see the top of the lock, and then eventually you see the lock / dock below you.

Back on Deck 10 I would want to be up there to see your passage under the Centennial Bridge and the Bridge of the Americas (both on the Pacific side). I think that they are working on a bridge over the canal on the Caribbean side, so I would be up on deck 10 for that as well. There's something magical sailing under a bridge.​

4) RE: Motion Sickness and feeling the movement of the ship: actually being on Deck 2 is much better than being up higher - and mid ship. Take a pencil and hold it between your thumb and finger at one end. Now rock it back and forth -- where does it move the most? At the top away from your fingers or at the bottom where you are holding it. In this example, the pencil is the ship and your fingers the ocean. The farther away (UP) from the surface of the ocean the greater the motion.

I have only been impacted by motion sickness on the ship about 3 days (out of about 150 days at sea), but one of those days was on the way to Cartagena. And generally speaking, the Pacific is much rougher with more motion than the Caribbean or Atlantic.

Hope this helps. Have a great cruise!

 

[jrabbit]

Deck 10 Forward - before entering the first locks



Deck 10 - Entering a lock


Deck 4 - and you can see that it does rain ... a little



Deck 2



Deck 2 - I think we are going DOWN in the lock, not driving into the lock here



Deck 2 and we are down!! - NO we did not scrape the sides of the ship!




Exiting the lock after going down - you can see the "hill"




and finally - approaching the Pacific - Bridge of the Americas ... Panama City out of the picture to the left - and a little behind us

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Hello DIS Cruisers, we are looking at booking the PC cruise in 2020 out of NOLA. On all of our past cruises we have had a balcony stateroom. However, the balcony prices for this PC cruise are quite high. So this brings me to the following questions:

1. We do enjoy our balconies, but how much does it add to the experience when going through the PC?

We always have a verandah stateroom. We have made the most use of the verandah on the PC and Alaska cruises, for the day-long canal transit on the PC and for the Tracy Arm day on the Alaska cruise. Although you can go up to decks 9 and 10 or down to deck 4, these are full days and being able to spend part of them sitting on the verandah with a cold drink and the fruit and cheese platter from room service makes for a great viewing point.

2. There is about a $1000 difference in cost between a deck 6 and deck 7 balcony. Is being one floor deck higher really that valuable? Does it have anything to do with the view when traversing the PC?

We always book deck 6 ourselves. I don’t see how being one deck higher up would make any difference. Decks 6 and 7 and all staterooms, so you might only be 10 feet higher up on 7 compared to 6. One of the most interest things during the canal transit is sitting on the verandah as the ship moves up or down as the water level changes in the locks. That experience should be unaffected.

3. All of the Deluxe Oceanviews seem to be on decks 1 and 2. My DW is prone to motion sickness and I am wondering if being so low on this cruise we will be more prone to feel the movement. It seems like we have felt more movement in the past when on lower floors.

My DW is more sensitive than I am. She notices the ship motion more in the aft dining rooms (also on lower decks compared to our stateroom), but this could be a difference between aft and our favored midship stateroom location.

4. How much of a consideration should movement be on the PC cruise as opposed to other cruises?

We did not find significant differences in ship motion on the PC cruise compared to the other cruises we have done, including Alaska and a Bahamas cruise also on the Wonder and now 9 cruises on the Magic sister ship, including 3 transatlantic crossings.

I know "value" is subjective so really looking for others' experiences, and information on what activities are done during the PC crossing and at other times during the voyage to keep us busy. Our travel party would be all adults.

Thanks!

One of the highlights of the PC cruise were the daily presentations by a now retired canal pilot who covered history, engineering, canal politics, and some great anecdotes from his many years guiding ships through the canal. He also now has a book out covering his life on the canal. There are also the series of “Anyone Can Cook” demonstrations that are not offered on the shorter cruises, plenty of available beverage tastings for adults, and a generally higher adult to child ratio compared to the Bahamas and Caribbean cruises.

As two adult seniors who sail without children or grandchildren along, we find the longer cruises with multiple sea days are our favorites. We are booked on the WBPC next February after doing the EBPC in October/November of 2017.

 

[Disneypeach]

I'll echo the above...I've been thru both the original locks and, last April, the new ones.

For experiences, since there are generally fewer children on these cruises there were "adult only" times in the kids clubs. Usually later in the evenings where we could play video games, paint animation cells or make "flubber". FUN stuff!

 

[southerngirl528]

My DW is prone to motion sickness and I am wondering if being so low on this cruise we will be more prone to feel the movement. It seems like we have felt more movement in the past when on lower floors.

Actually the lower the deck, the less motion one would feel. Midship and lower decks are most recommended for those who suffer motion sickness.

 

[MelSpees]

One of the highlights of the PC cruise were the daily presentations by a now retired canal pilot who covered history, engineering, canal politics, and some great anecdotes from his many years guiding ships through the canal. He also now has a book out covering his life on the canal. There are also the series of “Anyone Can Cook” demonstrations that are not offered on the shorter cruises, plenty of available beverage tastings for adults, and a generally higher adult to child ratio compared to the Bahamas and Caribbean cruises.

As two adult seniors who sail without children or grandchildren along, we find the longer cruises with multiple sea days are our favorites. We are booked on the WBPC next February after doing the EBPC in October/November of 2017.

The pilot you speak of is Capt. Kenneth Puckett. He is really great, as is his book. It's an easy read, informative and fun. He may be doing his last transit with us on the EBPC in 2 weeks. I'm hoping it won't be his last, but there are rumors to that effect.

We went through the old locks in 2013 in an ocean view on deck 2 and loved it. We lucked out with only some drizzle that I recall on transit day. We enjoyed seeing the view through our port hole part of the time as we went up and down in the locks. We spent lots of time on 10 where you can wander back and forth, side to side. On the entire cruise we never felt a lot of motion.

 

[Pluto1976]

This is all great information and I thank everyone for the time taken to compose detailed replies along with actual pictures with different vantage points!! Also,

deck 4 IS the Largest verandah on the ship!!

I had not even thought of this but the "largest verandah on the ship" is only 2 decks up.

At the moment we are heavily leaning towards the Oceanview with large port hole. The $3000 difference for a balcony is allot.

One other question; does everyone find that the popular excursions fill up quickly because Platinum and Gold members have the first opportunities to book them (i.e we are Silver)? We're looking at allot of the more active excursions and feel they might be unavailable when it comes time to book them (one can only sit in the sun for so long) and this would be a major letdown.

Thanks again!

 

[ScooterScott44]

I’ll add that our family is extremely biased toward the veranda but would still vote for it on this cruise anyway. We did the EBPC a number of years ago and while it may be faster to transit in the new canal it still can be a long day. Our transit started early in the AM and finished in the afternoon. We took a nap while in Gatun lake and were able to stroll out to the veranda as we approached the next locks.

With so many sea days (which we loved) it is nice to just get outside without having to get up and out to the pool decks. The Pacific side was beautiful and many mornings the dolphin were swimming and bouncing along the ship. It would have been tougher to see them from a porthole view. (Some dolphin, spinner I think, will feed at night and then travel not too far off the coast from feeding to another spot in the AM, putting them near the ships path Each morning.) Only you can know if that is worth the cost difference but wanted to share some things to consider.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

We had a veranda in 2013 and enjoyed it because, it is an all day cruise through the canal and the crowds on deck 10 never ceased, except maybe lunchtime. So sitting on our veranda and watching the mechanics and movement of the locks was great. And you can duck inside your room to escape the heat and humidity for a while.

When we went through the old canal, we were silver CC and had no problems with excursions. But everyone has probably moved up the food chain in 5 years, like us who are gold.