Our cruise ship tour took us here. It was great seeing the ships passing thru the locks from a high vantage point. There was a short film presentation on the history of the canal which was interesting too.

This is a great way to see the upgraded Panama Canal lock but you may not see a ship pass through!. I did it as part of a cruise ship tour and we stayed about an hour. A ship was just entering the lock and I was able to see it go through the first change in water level from entry to exit, but there were no other ships in sight. I expected a line of ships waiting to get through, but only a few in the distance. So if your tour gets there with no ship in process you may be disappointed. The vantage point offers a good view of the lock from above. There is a live person voicing the process in Spanish and English. There is a video that shows the history but I did not watch because I wanted to see the whole operation from start to finish. Used the short time the water was going down to grab a souvenir shirt from the gift shop.

We took a shore excursion to see the Panama Canal. Our driver took us to the old locks first, then to the new locks. The new locks (Agua Clara) have a very nice viewing platform and beautifully maintained grounds with lots of information about the locks. They also have a room with a short film you can watch and clean restrooms.