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Forbes
17-06-2025
- Forbes
Viking's Panama Canal Passage Is A Luxury Cruise Through History
Viking Mars getting ready to enter the first lock of the Panama Canal One of the best things about travel, besides getting to visit new places and experiencing different cultures, is introducing other people to your favorite finds. So, when I decided to finally plan a Panama Canal cruise with a friend who also had always wanted to sail through the famous waterway, I made sure we booked Viking's 11-day Classic Panama Canal Passage itinerary. My husband and I have taken more than a dozen cruises on Viking and are so at home on their ships, the crew feels like family. So I felt like a proud parent as we stepped aboard the Viking Mars and I saw my friend's wide-eyed expression. She couldn't stop ooh-ing and ah-ing over the casually elegant Scandinavian design, our spacious staterooms with their balconies and all the thoughtful little details for which Viking is famous. Viking's beloved waffles at Mamsen's It was pure joy to watch her fall in love with my favorite Viking features: the gelato! The spa! Afternoon tea in the Wintergarden! Having recently sailed on a couple of other cruise lines, she especially appreciated that Viking includes many conveniences in their fare that others charge extra for, like wifi; self-serve laundry; beer, wine and soft drinks with lunch and dinner; and one shore excursion in each port of call. These can really add up on other cruise lines and leave you feeling like you're constantly being nickel and dimed — something Viking founder and chairman, Torstein Hagen, despises and has vowed never to do. As a huge fan of Viking, this philosophy is a big reason we keep returning — along with the fact that there are only 930 passengers and no casinos or kids under 18. So, for my first non-European ocean cruise (I've done a river cruise to Egypt with them and an expedition cruise to Antarctica), it was a no-brainer that I was going to choose them. The itinerary features port stops in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama and a full day sailing through the Canal. Here are a few of my personal highlights: Highlight of the trip! Hugging a sloth in Roatan, Honduras. Bucket list item checked off! Viking's Best of Roatan excursion includes a visit to Daniel Johnson's Monkey and Sloth Hangout and, honestly, we could have spent all day there. Each guest had a chance to hold a sloth (the best!) before heading over to play with the capuchin monkeys, who are hilarious. We ended by acting as pedestals for the macaws, who used our heads, arms and shoulders as landing pads. It was an animal lover's (and Instagrammer's) dream come true and I can't recommend it enough. Painting alebrijes in Cozumel, Mexico Painting our own alebrijes in Cozumel was one of the most fun and meaningful experiences of the trip. Alebrijes are those Mexican folk art sculptures you've seen in Coco and we learned so much about them before getting to paint one ourselves. All of the brightly colored pieces came out beautifully and my bird is one of my all-time most treasured travel souvenirs. View from our balcony Our long-awaited passage through the Panama Canal was the grand finale of an amazing trip. We got up early to ensure we'd get a good viewing spot at the front of the ship as we prepared to enter the Canal and were glad we did. We stayed to watch the first few lock entries, which gave us a real sense of the Canal's mind-blowing feat of engineering as well as its massive scope. The live narration provided fascinating commentary, facts and perspective and I loved that we could listen to much of it from the comfort of our balcony as the ship continued its cruise through the 48 mile Canal throughout the day. The Spa on Viking Mars My favorite parts of cruising are the days at sea, when you can take advantage of everything the ship has to offer and remember that the journey is as important as the destination. Viking, which appropriately bills itself as the 'cruise line for the thinking person,' offers a ton of enrichment programs, including daily port talks, to really immerse you in the local culture and give you a deeper understanding of what you'll be seeing and doing. This itinerary also featured fascinating lectures and presentations about the Canal, the Panama hat, the horses of the Conquistador, the rare birds of Costa Rica, the real pirates of the Caribbean and so much more. For me, sea days are synonymous with spa days and Viking's spa is my favorite place to relax and rejuvenate. I always get at least one massage and I take advantage of the entire Nordic-inspired thermal suite (another included Viking perk), going back and forth between the sauna, steam, hot tub, snow grotto and ice bucket. I consider it self-care. Barriecito is a must-visit in Cozumel during a Viking Panama Canal cruise Don't miss the Viking summer sale, offering special fares on Classic Panama Canal Passage sailings from October through December. The sale ends on June 30 so book now to have an amazing trip to look forward to later this year.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Panama Canal boss says MSC ports deal threatens neutrality, FT reports
(Reuters) -The sale of two ports near the Panama Canal to a global consortium led by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) threatens the canal's principle of neutrality, the canal's head Ricaurte Vasquez told the Financial Times. "There is a potential risk of capacity concentration if the deal comes the way it is structured as we understand right now,' Vasquez told the FT in a report published on Tuesday. "If there is a significant level of concentration on terminal operators belonging to an integrated or one single shipping company, it will be at the expense of Panama's competitiveness in the market and inconsistent with neutrality." MSC is one of the world's top container shipping groups. MSC and the Panama Canal Authority did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. CK Hutchison confirmed last month that MSC, run by the family of Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte, was the main investor in a group seeking to buy 43 ports, including the two ports in Panama, for $22.8 billion. The clarification follows weeks of scrutiny and criticism in China over CK Hutchison's plan to sell the ports to a consortium, which was previously led by U.S. investment firm BlackRock. BlackRock remains part of the group. The proposed sale has also drawn the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly expressed his desire to reduce Chinese influence around the Panama Canal and termed the deal a "reclaiming" of the waterway after it was first announced. In April, China's top market regulator said it was paying close attention to CK Hutchison's planned sale and that parties to the deal should not try to avoid an antitrust review. Vasquez added that the canal should use the ports deal as an opportunity to become a terminal operator itself by reactivating a project to build a terminal in the Port of Corozal at the Pacific end of the canal, according to the FT.
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
These locals want Trump to win the battle for the Panama Canal
Huddled together on a dirt bank outside a building site on the edge of the Panama Canal, the men shout fervidly about Donald Trump. The majority of Panamanians have reacted with revulsion to Mr Trump's pledge to 'take back' the key waterway – with thousands having marched and burned effigies of the US president in protest. But this gaggle of out-of-work construction workers are not excoriating Mr Trump – they are passionately cheering him on. 'May Trump come, take the canal in his pocket and remove all those people from its administration. They are thieves,' one worker, who asked to remain anonymous, bellows, his arms flailing. Amid rising frustration with José Raúl Mulino, Panama's president, is an emerging belief that the canal benefits just a few 'elites', resulting in some Panamanians to call for Mr Trump's intervention. In his first 100 days, Mr Trump has turned the 51-mile waterway which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans into a political hot rod, claiming it is under Chinese control. Although the Panamanian government has repeatedly denied any Chinese influence, a Hong Kong-based firm, CK Hutchison Holdings, does manage two ports adjacent to the canal, which some analysts have suggested raises competitive and security concerns for the US. Panama was one of the first countries to recognise Taiwan as part of China. The Trump administration has pressured the firm to sell those interests to a US consortium that includes BlackRock Inc. In December, a spokesman for China insisted the country 'will as always respect Panama's sovereignty' with regards to the waterway. Only Panamanians are entitled to work on the canal and it is run by the Panama Canal Authority – but some workers have cited concern with Mr Mulino and what they claim is Chinese influence. Work is currently under way on the canal's fourth bridge after a Chinese consortium won a $1.4 billion contract to build it, with local workmen claiming they have been shafted in favour of foreigners. 'We are Panamanians and we want to work here but we are unemployed, but the Chinese, they are working. The Panamanians are humiliated,' another worker, who did not want to be named, said. Marvin Moreno, a welder who is currently working on the construction of the fourth bridge, is among the cohort of Panamanian workers egging Mr Trump on to seize the canal. 'Right now [Trump] is the best option because the president we have is putting Panamanians practically against a wall. He is practically acting as a dictator,' he told The Telegraph during his lunch break. Mr Moreno, 42, said Mr Trump has 'his good things and bad things'. He said the Panamanian government was 'attacking our sovereignty', not Mr Trump. Since taking office, Mr Trump has criticised former president Jimmy Carter for 'foolishly' returning the canal, which was constructed by the US in the early 1900s, to Panama. Two treaties signed in 1977 ceded the canal back to the Central American country – with the canal turned over on Dec 31, 1999. The US is the canal's biggest user, with some 40 per cent of all US container traffic crossing it each year. Amid claims America is being 'ripped off' by the canal, Mr Trump had dispatched Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, and Pete Hegseth, his defence secretary, to Panama – with the latter delivering a press conference from the side of the canal, the US flag next to him, telling the world: 'We will take back the Panama Canal from China's influence.' Both visits paid dividends. Following Mr Rubio's visit in February, Mr Mulino said he had made an 'important' decision to pull out of China's Belt and Road Initiative, the country's massive investment project. But the biggest wins for Mr Trump were those ironed out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the two countries during Mr Hegseth's visit in April. The deal agrees to give US military vessels free passage of the canal, something critics say violates the neutrality treaty, and, crucially, it allows US troops to return to three areas on Panamanian soil for joint military training. 'It is an invasion... I said camouflaged invasion, because that's how I view it,' Ricardo Lombana, the leader of Panama's opposition, told The Telegraph. 'This is our country, and you're giving a designated area to a foreign government or to foreign military,' he said, adding that the concessions are likely illegal and are being challenged in court. Javier Martínez-Acha, Panama's foreign affairs minister, has insisted the deal 'does not imply a surrender of sovereignty, nor does it violate the national constitution, nor the neutrality treaty'. Days after The Telegraph spoke to Mr Lombana, Mr Trump said he wanted more. Writing on his Truth Social platform, he demanded both US military and commercial ships be given free passage through the Panama and Suez canals – claiming they would 'not exist' without the US. One person taken aback by Mr Trump's allegations about the canal was Jorge Quijano, the former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority. When he hosted Mike Pence and Mr Rubio during Mr Trump's first term, both men, he said, praised the canal and how the Panamanians were operating it – and made no mention of Chinese influence. 'The way he negotiates is like a magician, he has his hand here, but he's doing something else over here… I think his intention was always having military forces here,' he told The Telegraph. Mr Quijano fears that the canal by nature is 'indefensible' and the only way to protect it is to 'keep it neutral'. While some workers are supportive of Mr Trump, other Panamanians are so vehemently opposed they are willing to lay down their lives to stop him. Sebastian King, special adviser for the union of marine engineers, can still remember the moment US troops tied his hands behind his back and held a rifle to his head during the US invasion of Panama in 1989. Mr King accepted that China may have a 'soft fist influence' in countries in Latin America, but blamed the US for allowing China to win infrastructure projects by not putting in competitive bids for infrastructure projects. 'The people who think Trump is the answer to our problems are mistaken,' he said.
