MSC Divina in Panama

We are looking into Panama Canal cruises in December of 2019 and I came across the MSC Divina that has an 11 night itinerary that includes a stop in panama, it does not however say anything about transit so my question is does this ship just port at colon panama and not actually go through the locks? It says it’s in colon panama from 9am-6pm. Has anyone done this sailing on here? I am also curious to see if excursions will be available, if the ship doesn’t actually go through the locks maybe we can take an excursion that will allow us to see them. I would love to hear your experiences!

I would be asking this on the MSC board, here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=80

In looking at the schedule, I see no indication this is even a partial transit. It just says "Docked" in Colon. So you will need to take a tour to see the Canal.

When cruise ships call at Colon, tours to transit a portion of the Canal are normally offered. This tour goes by several different names, what is involved is a bus trip towards the Pacific side where you board vessel often times referred to as a "ferry", even though only one of the vessels used looks like a ferry. While on your tour boat you travel the Pacific approach to the Canal, pass below the Bridge of Americas, lock through Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks, sail through Gaillard (Culebra) Cut to Gamboa. Then you are bused back to Colon, this tour can run in either direction, no difference. There are also usually tours to just visit the new and the old locks, tours to Panama City, Embera Indians and other historical sites.

Check with other cruise lines to see what they offer.

11 days from Miami is not a cruise through the canal. It is a partial visit.

You can see the map of the voyage on the MSC web site.

They will certainly offer an excursion to give you a taste of going through the canal. IF you want a complete transit through the canal you need to be on board the ship for longer, about 15 days minimum.

Princess cruise line offers many of these.

Thanks guys! I’m good with a tour/excursion to the locks, would like to see Panama City as well. We are pushing it by taking 12 days off as it is so I couldn’t do any longer. The princess cruise is tempting too but it’s about $1000 more for us so I’m leaning towards the MSC Cruise

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Just watched an episode last night on the TV series " Mighty Cruise Ships" of the MSC Divina doing the eastern / western Caribbean. Having done it as a passenger & then see the behind the scenes how it's done was interesting & brings back fond memories..

We are looking into Panama Canal cruises in December of 2019 and I came across the MSC Divina that has an 11 night itinerary that includes a stop in panama, it does not however say anything about transit so my question is does this ship just port at colon panama and not actually go through the locks? It says it’s in colon panama from 9am-6pm. Has anyone done this sailing on here? I am also curious to see if excursions will be available, if the ship doesn’t actually go through the locks maybe we can take an excursion that will allow us to see them. I would love to hear your experiences!

We are doing this cruise in Feb 2019; they just posted their excursions. The ship does not go through. There is a 8-hr excursion, however.

We are doing this cruise in December.  The ship docks but does not go through the Canal.  They do offer an 8 hour tour for $155pp.

We are on the Davina in January doing the same itinerary.  The excursions offered include visiting the locks and partial canal tours, eco tours, visiting villages and train and bus trips to Panama City.  I would go to MSC's site to see the excursions.  I understand Colon is NOT safe, so you will want to do a ship excursion.  

2 hours ago, Nashna said:

We are on the Davina in January doing the same itinerary.  The excursions offered include visiting the locks and partial canal tours, eco tours, visiting villages and train and bus trips to Panama City.  I would go to MSC's site to see the excursions.  I understand Colon is NOT safe, so you will want to do a ship excursion.  

Colon is certainly not the place for you to leave the pier area and wonder around by yourself.  However, there is no problem if you want to engage a private tour operator... you really don't have to restrict yourself to the ship's excursion.  Of course there are always some advantages with the ship's excursion, particularly returning to the ship in a timely manner.  Many of the available excursions at the Colon stop are a considerable distance from Colon and in rather remote areas.  The Embera Indian excursion would be an example.

There would be nothing inherently unsafe about hiring a cab to take to and from Agua Clara Locks if you did want to take an all day tour, they are available at the port.  You just would want to hire the cab for the trip to the Locks, wait for you and return to the ship.