Panama Canal: Star Princess Completes First Full Transit as Princess Cruises Links Fort Lauderdale, Aruba, Panama, Mexico, Los Angeles and Seattle on One Route

Monday, April 20, 2026

The new‑build Star Princess, part of the Princess Cruises fleet, is entering the Panama Canal programme after debut seasons in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Current deployment plans show the ship operating Caribbean sailings from Fort Lauderdale through late 2025, before starting longer repositioning and transit cruises that include a full passage of the Panama Canal. One of the headline itineraries is a roughly 20‑day voyage that begins in Fort Lauderdale, crosses the Canal and continues up the Pacific coast to Seattle, giving passengers a single‑ticket route between the Atlantic and the Pacific. This adds Star Princess to the list of Princess vessels able to use the expanded locks, aligning the line’s newest hardware with long‑running Panama Canal cruise programmes.

Ocean‑to‑ocean itinerary: ports along the way

The published Fort Lauderdale–Seattle Panama Canal itinerary outlines a chain of ports that combine island, canal and Pacific coast experiences. From Fort Lauderdale, the ship first calls in Aruba, giving guests a southern Caribbean stop before pointing toward the Canal. The Panama Canal full transit uses the new locks on a route that takes around eight hours to navigate the 50‑mile waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific, according to Princess Canal transit information. After the Canal, the itinerary continues to Fuerte Amador, the cruise gateway for Panama City, followed by calls in Mazatlán and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico before reaching Los Angeles and then Seattle. The sequence allows passengers to experience a mix of colonial towns, resort ports and major U.S. coastal cities in one continuous voyage.

Canal transit as a structured travel experience

For many passengers, the transit day through the Canal is treated as a dedicated travel experience within the wider itinerary. Princess information on Panama Canal full transit cruises notes that ships typically take about eight hours to pass through the locks and channels, moving between sea level and Gatun Lake and back down via a series of chambers. On board, guests can watch each stage from open decks or indoor viewing areas while commentary and route maps explain key points of the crossing, such as the approach channels, lock structures and lake sections. Shore excursion programmes also offer options before or after the transit, including tours in the Panama City region departing from Fuerte Amador.

Positioning within the wider Panama Canal cruise season

The inaugural Star Princess transit joins a busy 2025–2026 Panama Canal cruise season that features multiple lines and ship sizes using both full and partial routes. Canal authority and regional briefings indicate that cruise passenger demand through the Canal is expected to grow by about 5 percent for 2026, with fleets expanding and large ships continuing to schedule transits as part of repositioning and extended itineraries. Earlier analyses of the Canal expansion noted that the new locks were designed to accommodate more and larger cruise ships, and to increase potential cruise ship crossings by an average of around 3 percent annually over the coming decades. Within this framework, Star Princess becomes one more vessel able to integrate the Canal into regular deployment patterns that link Caribbean, Pacific and Alaska seasons.

Linking the Canal to Alaska Inside Passage cruises

Following its Panama Canal transit and repositioning, Star Princess is scheduled to operate a season of seven‑night Alaska Inside Passage cruises from Seattle. Sample Alaska itineraries include calls at Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria, with scenic cruising in areas such as Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier. This means travellers can book the Panama Canal voyage as a stand‑alone ocean‑to‑ocean journey or combine it in planning with an Alaska cruise that uses the same homeport. For Princess Cruises, the pattern aligns Caribbean, Panama Canal and Alaska deployment, using Seattle as a northern end‑point connected by a single repositioning route from Florida.

How Panama Canal cruises are presented to travellers

Princess promotes Panama Canal cruises as a way to pair a major engineering landmark with visits to colonial cities, beaches and modern ports. Marketing materials emphasise strolling cobbled streets in ports such as those in the southern Caribbean, joining scenic excursions in Central America, and then spending a day on board observing the mechanics of the Canal transit. Typical Panama Canal cruise offerings include both full transits, which cross from one ocean to the other, and partial transits that enter the Canal and turn back after passing through one or more locks. With Star Princess now added to the list of ships scheduled for full transits, passengers have an additional large‑ship option alongside other vessels operating the route.

Planning a Star Princess Panama Canal voyage

Travellers considering a Star Princess Panama Canal cruise can look at factors such as voyage length, direction and onward plans when selecting a sailing. Those choosing the Fort Lauderdale–Seattle route will traverse two oceans and several climate zones in about 20 days, with port days spaced between at‑sea segments that frame the single Canal transit day. Booking tools and itinerary pages list available departure dates, cabin types and port calls, and they place the Canal day clearly in the mid‑section of the schedule so guests can plan around it. For passengers who also want to visit Alaska, aligning the transit cruise with an Inside Passage sailing from Seattle allows for back‑to‑back itineraries that cover the Canal, Pacific coast and Alaska fjords in one extended trip.

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