MyTMo777

My TA told us that for $25 per change, we can change our flights to a different day so we can arrive a day early and stay a few extra days at our disembarkation port. Our cruise is still too far out to receive our flight info so I can't test this out yet. Flying from Canada (Edmonton) to LA and back from Panama City.

We did the same itinerary on the Bliss in November 2018. I agree with the suggestion to the ship's tour to Antiqua and do the "on your own" walk about. Our tour bus broke down and was two hours late getting back to the ship, and they waited for us. We love just wandering through foreign towns/cities, so we enjoyed Antigua. On the day of the transit, don't just sit on your balcony. Go all over the ship to see the transit from different angles. Be sure to go out on the bow! It's probably your only chance to ever do that on a ship unless you go to Alaska. When we crossed there were so many ship employees who were allowed to go up on deck and mingle with the passengers because they hadn't been through the canal before either. I loved chatting with the entertainers, laundry employees, an engineer, etc. And do educate yourself about the building of the canal first. You'll find it much more interesting that way. But don't buy cheap Panama souvenirs on the ship. Everything I bought broke or shrunk. Lesson learned.

Our ship in November is in PV from noon to 10 pm. Other than just eating in a restaurant, any suggestions of things to do in the evening? We've to PV before on a land vacation so have a bit of an idea of the area, but I'm no expert. I don't think we'd have time to go see the big show that's outside of town (forgot the name of it).

I just posted on another thread how much we enjoyed Ensenada in November 2018. I had only heard terrible things about it, but it turned out to be my second favorite port of our entire cruise. We enjoy getting a taste of the local culture rather than doing the typical touristy things. We wandered down to the harbor, took a one-hour boat tour with one of the locals (got some great photos of our ship!), chatted with people, ate local food and drink, enjoyed a Sunday festival in the park/square. I've never felt uncomfortable with any vendors in any port anywhere. I just smile and say, "No, gracias." Stay friendly but firm and they just move on.

I can't answer your ATV/zip lining question, but when we were there in November 2018, we walked down to the harbor and found several local boats offering tours for $2-$5 per person. They only go out for about an hour. You get to see sea lions and just enjoy the ride, but the biggest draw was that they go close to your ship, and I got some great photos of our ship (NCL Bliss) that I would never be able to get anywhere else. It was a lot of fun to interact with the other passengers on the tour boats, support the local economy, and get to know the owner of the boat. We also enjoyed wandering the shops and restaurants in the harbor area. We enjoy getting a taste of the local culture more than doing the typical tourist activities, but that's just us. Despite being told Ensenada was a terrible port, it turned out to be my second favorite of our entire cruise.

Maybe that's a port for a ship excursion.

Great info, Mike! Thank you!

We are cruising LA to Panama City (Colon) this coming November. We want to spend a couple of extra days in Panama after our cruise, so I looked into transportation options from Colon to Panama City. Not sure if you're wanting to go directly from Colon to the airport, but if you want to go to Panama City, there is a train that takes about 1.5 hours as well as busses to, which take a little longer but are cheaper (I imagine they stop along the way). Reading on other travel forums, it seems the consensus among land vacationers is that the train is the way to go - reasonably priced and efficient.

We're going on a cruise in November that stops at all three of these ports. We want to do at least one beach day, maybe two. Which of these ports would you recommend? Hoping we can just take a cab to the beach. I don't think it's necessary to book an excursion.

Before our first cruise in 2013, we were also deciding between two different cruise lines, one with a large, new ship and one (NCL) on an older, smaller ship. Our travel agent gave us great advice: "On your first cruise you will be so in awe of the luxury and wonder of the ship, you won't know the difference whether you're on the biggest, newest, fanciest one or not. Save your money, go on the smaller ship, and save some wonder and awe for your next cruise." She was absolutely right. We had no idea what we were missing anyway, and we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. We've been on bigger, newer and fancier ships since then, but we didn't necessarily love them more. There were good and bad about both of them Also, although almost all of us base our cruises on itineraries, don't base your decision solely on that. Ports change, ports get closed, weather prevents the ship from reaching port - lots of things can happen that change your itinerary and stop you from getting to that one special place you planned your whole trip for. Just keep that in mind.