The Panama Canal reported the closing of the 2018-2019 cruise season. The closing was marked with the transit of the Panamax cruise ship Pacific Princess, with a capacity of 670 passengers, which took place on May 22.
This ship had sailed from Los Angeles, California, carrying out a 15-day voyage that contained the expedited passage through the inter-oceanic route. Its final destination is the port of Fort Lauderdale, in the US.
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Speaking on the occasion, Albano Aguilar, specialist leader in International Trade of the Division of Market Analysis and Customer Relations of the Vice Presidency of Traffic Business, informed that from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019, the Panama Canal will register 242 transits of passenger ships with over 260,000 passengers.
Regarding transits of neopanamax dimensions, for this fiscal year seven ships were received with a total of 12 transits of the Norwegian, Princess, Carnival and Disney lines (Norwegian Bliss, Caribbean Princess, Emerald Princess, Carnival Valor, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Triumph and Disney Wonder).
As the season has now closed, cruise lines such as Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, among others, maintain their proposal to offer itineraries to complete transits and partial transits that include Panama and in particular, the interoceanic way.
What is more, smaller vessels have also contributed significantly to segment traffic. These ships, with itineraries between eight and 12 days, respectively, have visited ports on the west coast of the Central American isthmus.
