28 day Panama Canal r/t San Diego

[giltedge]

Planning on taking the November 28 day round trip cruise from San Diego through Panama Canal - Ft Lauderdale and return. Has anyone taken this trip recently and if so - did you enjoy and/or recommend this cruise? What about the Statendam? Have heard some bad reviews since it was in dry dock - have these problems been corrected? Thanks for any advice before I make this commitment.

[catl331]

This ship is a smaller ship making it very easy to get around. Less Walking. Check out the review at the top orange margin and see what passengers say. It looks like the rooms have been renovated. The actual cruise through the Canal is just wonderful.

[arlodog]

We took the Statendam pre-drydock last spring through the canal. Lots of people were on the 28 day (we only did 14 days). I was amazed at how friendly everyone was and how you got to really know people on board. You get to know the same people and see them routinely on the ship. It was my longest cruise to date and would love to do more long cruises!:rolleyes: We only had 1 day in port the first 5 days or so before we went through the canal so lots of time at sea means lots of opportunity to meet others. We also had open seating for dinner and met lots of interesting people this way. Highly suggest open dining--first time I had done that also, but now don't want to go back to fixed seating.

 

I enjoyed HAL so much from this experience that we booked Alaska for this year and can't wait to go back on HAL. Previously we had mostly sailed RCCl and thought we liked it, but HAL really is a better experience overall. Enjoy your cruise! The canal is great. Suggest reading the book The Path Between the Seas if you haven't read it.

[Davidson Duo]

We did the 28 day San Diego return through the Panama Canal in March/April this year but were on the Maasdam. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and were just as interested and awed by the canal going through the second time as we were the first. The ports of call were interesting and well organized, and offered good choices of things to do or places to relax at, depending on how we felt that day.

 

We did find the middle of the cruise a bit on the slow side - after the canal there are a lot of sea days with few ports of call until you get back to the Pacific side, so we did make sure we got off the ship in Fort Lauderdale and had a full day of adventure. By knowing there are a lot of at sea days during this period, you can easily find things to do to keep yourself satisfied. And then you have another great group of ports that offer a multitude of things to do.

 

We have not been on the Statendam, but I have read a few posts recently that make it sound like they have corrected most of the deficiencies that showed up after the drydock. HAL is well known for addressing issues that occur after these makeovers, and I would not hesitate to book this trip if it were me.

 

You are considering a great trip filled with both history and adventure. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. :)

[michmike]

Seriously consider reading "The Path Between The Seas" by David McCullough before taking this trip. It's about the building of the canal. I just finished listening to 27 CDs of it during my commute. We plan a complete transit trip when we retire in just over 2 yrs and I think I will enjoy it so much more, having read the book.

[SwissMyst]

Seriously consider reading "The Path Between The Seas" by David McCullough before taking this trip. It's about the building of the canal. I just finished listening to 27 CDs of it during my commute. We plan a complete transit trip when we retire in just over 2 yrs and I think I will enjoy it so much more, having read the book.

 

We just saw the NOVA video on this by David McCullough since we too will be on the 14 day Statendam trip (SD-FLL) and am I mistaken he was on the Royal Viking Star when he did the transit - which is now the HAL Prinsendam? We go this from Netflix.

[Mary Ellen]

Prinsendam was formerly Royal Viking Sun (later Seabourn Sun) see: Wiki

[SwissMyst]

We just saw the NOVA video on this by David McCullough since we too will be on the 14 day Statendam trip (SD-FLL) and am I mistaken he was on the Royal Viking Star when he did the transit - which is now the HAL Prinsendam? We go this from Netflix.

 

The name of this PBS video was "A Man, A Plan and A Canal".

[prescottbob]

...to the excellent McCullough chronology / history book, "Path Between the Seas" book (a tad dry IMO) & the Nova / PBS DVD documentary, "A Man, A Plan & A Canal, Panal" (visually stunning) are two more resources I found useful prior to a PC transit a while back.

 

One is Matthew Parker's book, "Panama Fever : the Epic Story of the Building of the Panama Canal" (held my interest more / more readable IMO).

 

Another documentary of interest would be the Modern Marvels Panama Canal episode. I had to purchase the VCR tape at the time since the DVD was not available at the time of purchase. The documentary isn't quite as good as the Nova DVD IMO however.

 

BTW, all the books plus the DVD and VCR were available on Ebay (used) for $5 or less (plus S&H) were I got them. Another option, if so interested, would be to check them out at the local library.

 

Also at the time of our cruise HAL played the McCullough / Nova DVD several times on one of the shipboard channels.

 

Have a GREAT CRUISE!

 

Bon Voyage & Good Health!

Bob:)

[DiscoMom]

We did one way San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale this past Jan. 22nd on the Maasdam and it was wonderful. The whole canal transit is very interesting. Very relaxing cruise-you will love it. There were about 55 people who did the round trip.