Panama Canal - HELP!

[Lml513]

My wife and I are interested in a Cruise of the Panama Canal, but I have numerous questions.

 

Which Cruise Line and Ship is preferable? What is the best time of year? What would be the best itinerary? Is a full transit necessary?

 

My wife and I are both 61, and have taken two cruises on Princess which we enjoyed, but would be open to trying another Cruise Line.

 

Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

[Putterdude]

We did a full transit on the Coral Princess in Jan'09 and enjoyed it a lot. January is a good time of year, out of the rainy season but still pretty hot and muggy. I would certainly recommend a full transit over a partial transit if it works for you.

[BillB48]

As far as which line is prefferable, I'm sure if you have been satisfied with Princess any of the main mass market cruise lines will be fine. The biggest decision is just deciding on what exactly you want.

 

What is the best time of year? I would also suggest January and into the middlle of February is probably the "best" time of the year for Panama. Let me put a but in..... let this only be a deciding factor when you have nailed down all your other issues, ie. itinerary, length, price etc. You will find that cruises to Panama, partial Canal transits and full transits are generally found in the November to April time frame. The Dry Season in Panama runs from mid December through April. That's not to say you can't find a full transit virtually any month of the year, but the largest selection is in that period.

 

What would be the best itinerary? On this issue the best itinerary will largely be defined by which cruise you choose. As far as Canal cruises go, (as opposed to cruises that only stop in Panama) you have two choices, a full transit or a partial transit. A partial transit generally is a round trip cruise out of Florida and is your fairly typical Caribbean cruise with a few extra ports perhaps in South America and Central America. The defining point of the partial transit is that it enters the Canal, locks through Gatun Locks to Gatun Lake. If you wish to take a shore excursion you are able to do so when the ship reaches Gatun Lake. The ship will the lock back down Gatun Locks and dock in Colon.

 

Is a full transit necessary? No, but if your primary objective is to see the Canal I would certainly recommend a full transit. Honestly, I look at the full transit and partial transit as two completely different cruises. You can very easily take one and then the other without really repeating yourself. You may choose them in either order, they will compliment each other. If you decide on a partial transit, you can elect a tour in Panama that will take you through a partial tranist of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut. Electing this tour will give almost a complete transit and a very good look at the Canal but still leave something for you to see when you return for complete transit.

 

Princess and HAL offer both full transits as well as partial transits. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean right only are doing full transits. Most of their other cruises only offer stops in Colon. Carnival as well has stops in Colon. On ships that only stop in Colon, normally the partial transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut is offered as a shore excursion.

[cruisin'tex]

My wife and I are interested in a Cruise of the Panama Canal, but I have numerous questions.

 

Which Cruise Line and Ship is preferable? What is the best time of year? What would be the best itinerary? Is a full transit necessary?

 

My wife and I are both 61, and have taken two cruises on Princess which we enjoyed, but would be open to trying another Cruise Line.

 

Any suggestions or input would be appreciated.

 

We've done two partial transits (into Gatun Lake) of the Panama Canal. First was on Celebrity in October, '05, and second in April, '09 on Princess. Both times, we had excellent weather and really enjoyed the excursions that were offered.

 

In April, we are doing full transit b2b on the Coral Princess. On April 14, we depart from Ft. Lauderdale for 10 days to Acapulco arriving April 24. And then we're going to sail back to Ft. Lauderdale (depart Acapulco on 24th). Will do all the same ports twice but that's fine with us as we've found enough excursions in all that we can take different ones on both legs of the cruise.

[patrickmoran]

I have done 2 PC cruises, 1 being a full transit. I highly recommend the full transit. A recent development with Princess and Holland America is they have some cruises that includes a day before or after docked at either Colon or Panama City. The advantage of these cruises is that you would have an opportunity to see more on the Canal or Panama. We are doing a Coral Princess PC cruise in October for this extra time.

[LHT28]

We have done 2 full transits ( Recommended) one in Jan & one in Feb

We are going the end of Feb for our 3 rd full transit

 

If you have the time & budget look at Oceania cruises

We are going on the new Marina this trip but the smaller ships are great also

 

Enjoy whatever cruise you choose

 

Lyn

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4352

[aussiegirl]

We did a partial cruise on the Island Princess last April. We chose this option because we could not be away for longer than 10 days and because was wanted to fly in and out of the same city (Ft. Lauderdale in our case). We did the ferry excursion from Gatun Lake which went through the remaining locks and it was fascinating to get this perspective (small boat) through the Canal.

 

I'm sure a full transit is wonderful, but I don't think it's "necessary". You'll get a good feel of going through the Canal on a partial transit alone.