Cruise ship expert says passengers all make ‘same | Travel News

Cruise ship passengers have been making a huge mistake when they set out on one of the world’s most iconic routes, an expert has claimed.  

Gary Bembridge, a cruise ship expert who posts videos offering travel advice on his Tips For Travellers YouTube channel, recently shared his thoughts about visiting the Panama Canal. 

Located in Central America, the hugely popular tourist destination is considered to be one of the major feats of engineering history, according to the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. 

However, in one of his recent videos, Gary outlined the mistakes that cruise passengers often make when visiting this engineering marvel and went on to point out one “huge” error. 

Gary said: “There is not just one Panama Canal to transit but two quite different routes, depending on the size of (the) cruise ship that you book. This is a huge issue, as in my view, one route is a better experience than the other and is the must-do.”

He continued: “The original route, which opened in 1914, uses those sets of locks that I went through, but only ships of a certain size can fit in and use them, what are known as Panamax ships. 

“As the size of freight ships grew, it meant only a third of those could pass through the old canal locks, so a new set of locks at both sides were built and opened in 2016. These take what are known as New Panamax or Neopanamax-size ships”. 

He went on to say that this doubled the capacity of the ships able to pass via the canal system, resulting in many large and mega cruise ships being able to navigate the new locks.

The ships include such famous vessels as the Queen Mary 2, Cunard Queen Anne, Celebrity Edge-class ships, Norwegian Bliss and Prima-class, as well as the Sun Princess. 

Gary said the original 1914 canal is the one worth travelling through as it’s more dramatic, interesting visually and offers much for history fans, among other things.  

The Panama Canal enables ships to sail between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via a 48-mile route, which means the vessels can avoid a vast 15,000-kilometre trek around South America. 

Initially opening on August 15, 1914, the canal reportedly transports 4 percent of the entire world’s trade and 16 percent of U.S.-borne trade, writes the WWF. 

It also said that each year, a whopping 12,000 to 15,000 ships cross the canal, which is mostly used by the US, equating to around 40 every day.