There is brisk business in "transcontinental rail" traffic of containers across the Isthmus and Southern Mexico.

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Ryndam posted:
Princess is offering a Panama Canal ten-day cruise on the Grand Princess (check their site, it's true!).

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From Princess's site:
10-day Roundtrip Panama Canal cruise sailing from Galveston, Texas featuring Cristobal (for tours of the Canal), Belize, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Costa Maya

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Originally posted by Keitaro:
GRAND PRINCESS is not going through the locks, only offering tours to the Canal...

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As I understand it the plan is to build a completely new set of locks alongside the present ones which would continue to be used for smaller vessels. The US team would design one set of locks and the European the other - I'm not sure which was Atlantic or Pacific though.

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Originally posted by sslewis:

Mind you, ssFrance and rmsQueen Mary did it through the dangerous South American narrows,

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The France did it through the Straits of Magellan on the World Cruises in 1972 and 1974 but the Queen Mary sailed by the Cape Horn.

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Originally posted by Vaccaro:

Jan 20 and 21, 72: Rio de Janeiro
Jan 24, 72: Port Stanley
Jan 25, 72: Punta Arenas
Jan 26, 72: Straits of Magellan
Jan 28 and 29, 72: Valparaiso

Jan 18, 74: Rio de Janeiro
Jan 23 and 24, 74: Puerto Montt (after having passed through the straits of Magellan)
Jan 28 and 29, 74: Callao

Here's an article on the Queen Mary from here

October 31, 1967 Queen Mary left from Southampton to Lisbon, Las Palmas, Rio de Janeiro,
Valparaiso, Callao, Bilbao, Acapulco and finally Long Beach on December 9, 1967.

The voyage round Cape Horn was strange because the Queen Mary carried two London buses so that passengers on them could say they traveled round the Cape in a London Bus.

[ 12-02-2003: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

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Originally posted by cruiseny:

There is still no way for post-Panamax shisp to go through the Canal, which is an obstacle to positioning them on the West Coast and probably one of the biggest reasons that a VOYAGER-class ship will not be seen there in the near future.

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If the cruiselines wanted their ships to go through the Panama Canal they shouldn't/wouldn't have built them so big in the first place. They made their decisions; let them live with those decisions.

[ 12-02-2003: Message edited by: Brian_O ]

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Originally posted by Brian_O:

If the cruiselines wanted their ships to go through the Panama Canal they shouldn't/wouldn't have built them so big in the first place. They made their decisions; let them live with those decisions.

[ 12-02-2003: Message edited by: Brian_O ]

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Originally posted by sslewis:

I had no idea ssFrance did it twice.

Did they charge passengers for sitting in the Buses whilst rounding Magellan?

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Here's the link for the Vaccaro's thread.Cilck here

Queen Mary didn't round Magellan.

You may imagine the Points below if I show the figures from South America Pilot Book.

Point of East Entrance of Straits of Magellan is Punta Dungeness lies 52° 24' S, 68° 26' W
Point of Western Entrance of Straits Magellan is Cape Pilar lies 52° 43' S, 74° 41' W

Cape Horn lies 55° 59' S, 　67° 17' W

The vehicles themselves were provided to transport visitors from the center of Long Beach to the ship once she was put on display.
The proceeds of the "Cape Horn Trip" were given to an orphanage in Valparaiso.

[ 12-02-2003: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]

At that time Many cruise ships called either Punta Arenas(in the Strait of Magellan) or Ushuaia(in the Beagle Channel, Near Cape Horn).

In the late 80's, Cruise lines started to sell short South America Cruises for duration in 2 weeks.
Thereafter, They Planned to stop both Punta Arenas and Ushuaia and also they featured to sail by Cape horn in their itinerary.

Now some cruise ships sails Chiliean Fjords(like Inside Passage in Alaska) route between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas or Ushuaia and visits Seno Eyre Fjord(Pius XI Glacier) and/or Amalia Glacier.

Below are sample itinerary for Long and Short weeks South America Cruises.

PS. sslewis - I sent you a private massage that show cape horn in the chart.

[ 12-04-2003: Message edited by: Ocean Liners ]