"Two Oceans by Railroad" Excursion in Panama

I wanted to hear from anyone who has been on this excursion. I have read threads on the PORTS OF CALL board about it. It would seem that one of the cars of the train is a DOMED CAR, the rest are of a more standard variety. The domed car is said to offer the best views (stands to reason). The threads indicate that those people were able to "request" the domed car when booking (it filled up first) - however none of those people were on Carnival ships - mostly Celebrity and others...

The Carnival webpage offers no such option, and upon calling Carnival, they were CLUELESS (hmmmm:rolleyes: ) about booking "some sort of domed car"...

I e-mailed a previous fellow CC'er that (while on the Legend) took this excursion last year - he did not recall that as an "option" either, but reported that upon entering the train he was able to go sit in that area (and the excursion was not very crowded)...

What experiences have any of you had with this excursion?

Thanks!

Tom

We went on that trip about 3 yrs ago it was great. The train was very clean and comfortable. They served lunch. You could see out both sides. There also was a place in another car where you could stand outside and receive the fresh air. But I will say we did not know about that special car. we were satified with what we received. We are going again in Feb to Panama thinking about doing the train again.:) :)

We went on that trip about 3 yrs ago it was great. The train was very clean and comfortable. They served lunch. You could see out both sides. There also was a place in another car where you could stand outside and receive the fresh air. But I will say we did not know about that special car. we were satified with what we received. We are going again in Feb to Panama thinking about doing the train again.:) :)

From some posts - it seems that the ride on the train was ONE-WAY (with a bumpy bus ride back) and that you should try to get on a specific side of the train when boarding. From more recent posts, it appears it is now ROUND-TRIP...

What about yours?

Thanks,

Tom

We took this trip thru Carnival two years ago and loved it. Also have never heard of a "doomed car" until your post. It was round-trip and wonderful. As a matter of fact, we are considering doing it again next March.

You walk into refurnished cars that have tables on both sides of the train. You can see from anywhere. While the train is running, you are allowed to step outside and ride there.

The serve you a box lunch and on the way back, the local girls, all dressed up in their native costumes entertain for you. The only think we weren't prepared for is that the train was very cold, so carry a sweater with you....

We took this trip thru Carnival two years ago and loved it. Also have never heard of a "doomed car" until your post. It was round-trip and wonderful. As a matter of fact, we are considering doing it again next March.

 

You walk into refurnished cars that have tables on both sides of the train. You can see from anywhere. While the train is running, you are allowed to step outside and ride there.

 

The serve you a box lunch and on the way back, the local girls, all dressed up in their native costumes entertain for you. The only think we weren't prepared for is that the train was very cold, so carry a sweater with you....

Well, hopefully we won't find ourselves on a DOOMED car..:eek: LOL ;)

Thanks for the advice (especially the COLD part - very helpful for Cheryl!) This sounds like one to look forward to!

Tom

Can you do this excursion on your own or do you have to go thru Carnival?

I took the Holland America version of this tour a couple of years ago. Seating was first-come, first served, and I don't remember reservations for the dome car. All of the cars on the train were rebuilt from what they were in the US and had partially-open platforms that provided better viewing possibilities than ordinary seats, although not as good as the domes.

Our trip was not one-way but round trip. We took a short bus ride to the tracks, road the train to Panama City [Or was it Balboa? My geography is shaky], took a bus that slowly rolled around the park on the Pacific Ocean, then rolled back to the passenger station where we reboarded the train.

Can you do this excursion on your own or do you have to go thru Carnival?

yes you can book self, Try shoretrips.com--it is warrantied by the ships for money back and late from the excursation.

yes you can book self, Try shoretrips.com--it is warrantied by the ships for money back and late from the excursation.

I checked - and I do not see Panama listed on their port list..!..?

Tom

We are doing to 3/18/05 Liberty cruise to Panama and are considering the train excursion. Is any one else on that cruise? Are you going to take this excursion?

I did this trip back in 2001 and it was great. Bus trip from the ship to the train station and back. The train does not have a domed car, but it does have an observation deck. I stood on this deck the entire trip from Colon to Panama City. It is the section between 2 cars, open on both sides. Don't stick your head out too far though, there are tunnels that are VERY close to the sides of the train.

They take you by bus from the train station in Panama City over to Miraflora locks where you can watch a presentation on the building of the canal. There is also a gift shop there to buy things.

On the train ride back to Colon, they served us a cold lunch of ham sandwich an apple and bottled water. Nothing fancy, but it was ok and I was hungry.

Took this tour on our trip in December. We did not get the domed car and were quite happy with the one we were in. It is round trip. You got to order drinks going-just remember don't get ice with your drinks!!!!! It melts and then you are ill for the next 2 days-my husband didn't listen and paid the price and so did I having to cancel all plans the next 2 days while he stayed in the room eating nothing but rice and baked potatoes. We were not sailing Carnival at that time -we were on Celebrity.Colon,Panama is a high rise /apt. dumpy dirty city. The area we turned over when we left/military is neat, clean and alot of empty housing as the govt. there took over and the local people cannot afford the houses. The Pacific side at the other end of the train ride is a high rise city that looks like Tampa,Fl. It was interesting and a way to see the area. My husband was stationed there 30 yrs. ago and he saw a great change. And he thought he could still have the stomach he had back then too. :D

Here is a very interesting link I located - that gives the history of the DOME CAR... a good read!!!

http://www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/861kemxt.asp

Gee... I almost feel like DERF now.... LOL

Tom

Thanks for the info! We're doing the Panama Canal at Christmas! I really appreciate the link.

Your welcome CRUZNON!

here is some info I found on a Holland America excursion page:

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More information specific to the DOME CAR (from a Princess review):

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We booked the Panama Canal Railroad tour. I had pre-reserved the Deluxe Car (dome observation car - $156 pp) very early on using the Cruise Personalizer feature on the Princess website. I would highly recommend pre-reserving this tour sooner than later as we talked to many people who wanted the Deluxe car but got closed out. Once we got ashore, everyone with deluxe accommodations was bussed together, separated from those who had booked the Executive Car (standard) excursion. One of the nice perks in booking the Deluxe car was that we were given preferential boarding on and off the train. Our group was the first to board the train in the morning and when we returned to Colon later that afternoon, we were the first group allowed to exit the train and re-board our bus for the short trip back to Cristobal. Our tour guide Maria was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. As we bussed to the train depot at Colon, she made an effort to point out the biodiversity of Panama, even stopping the bus at one point to let us look at iguanas lounging on rocks in the sun. The dome car was beautiful! Nothing I had read prior to booking the excursion did the dome car justice. Upon entering, there was a lower lounge portion with a bar and club-style seating. A short flight of stairs led to the observation portion of the car. Seating was in booths along both sides. They were tight accommodations.

Even though it was a bright and sunny day, the air conditioning did a good job keeping the car cool. However, it was always cooler in the lounge portion downstairs by the bar. We had 3 girls in the deluxe car serving as bar tenders and waitresses. We were offered complimentary coffee or could purchase sodas & juice ($1) or beer ($2). There were also snacks available for purchase. The local Panamanian beer was excellent (even at 11:00 AM)! The train tour along the canal took just about 50 minutes. Along the way, we paralleled Gatun Lake (and could see the Coral still at anchor), marshes (where you occasionally saw turtles resting on logs), rainforest and plains. The train moves away from the Canal at the Culebra Cut so you don’t really see much of that portion of the Canal, which was unfortunate. However, we did get to see the Pedro Miguel locks in passing and did catch glimpses of several ships making the entire transit through the Canal during the train ride.

Once we got to Panama City the tour took a slight turn for the worse. We were loaded into tour busses (fully air conditioned and comfortable) and taken to the Panama Canal administration building and the monument to Goethals (the chief engineer during the American effort). This was okay as was our next stop to view the Bridge of the Americas at a park on the Pacific side. However, we were next taken to a nice-looking but practically vacant shopping mall for 45-minutes. The only retail store in operation was a large duty-free store that was nice…except it had much of the same merchandise you could buy on the Coral for the same price!! 45-minutes was simply too long to be there. We got some nice pictures of Panama City, but otherwise this stop was a joke. Once we re-boarded our bus, we were next taken to a large craft market for another 45-minute stop. This was actually a little better than being dropped at a shopping mall but each vendor tended to have the same items. And, the market was un-air conditioned. At this point, many in our tour group decided to stay on the busses or find a spot in the shade near the market. You could sense that at this point in the day most on this excursion were either tired, hungry or both. Mercifully, the busses next took us back to the Panama City train depot where we were able to relax in the dome car. The depot actually has a nice selection of Panama Canal Rail Road merchandise, including high-quality t-shirts. In short, the highlight of the day was the train ride. However, the round-trip train ride made up only about 1 hour and 40 minutes of the 6+ hours we were away from the Coral. We felt the cost was excessive given that we were taken to shopping venues while ashore in Panama and did not get to see the Canal in operation up close as I had previously thought. I was glad that I had booked an excursion for Panama thus allowing me to step foot ashore. However, this particular excursion was a disappointment. I have since written a letter to Princess expressing my disappointment in this particular tour in the hopes that 1) it could be tweaked to have more focus on the Canal or 2) that the literature describing the tour is updated so folks are fully aware of what they’re getting. Maybe one could simply lobby to stay aboard the train and ride it back and forth across Panama couple of times?!?! :)

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Tom