We are on one of the largest cruise ships that can fit in the Panama Canal. We cruised through the new locks that can take the larger ships. You can always tell when you are on a big ship when the workers come out to take pictures of the behemoth in their locks and Chanels. The new Panama Canal locks can accommodate larger ships. There are three locks on the Pacific side and three on the Atlantic side. The locks can fit a ship up to 1,400 ft. long. We are 1100ft. The locks lift ships from the Pacific or Atlantic side to the level of a man made lake in the middle of Panama. From there, ships can cruise across to the opposite side, where the remaining locks lower them back down to the ocean level. The locks do all of this with fresh water from the lake. The system uses gravity to feed water into to locks to raise the level inside each of the locks.
