Cristobol pier questions

[39august]

Can passengers who have not taken a tour get off the ship at Cristobol pier? I understand there is a shopping area there where soda can be purchased. Is there a shop where wine can be purchased as well?

[cruislovin]

Yes, passengers who do not book an excursion can get off the ship at Cristobol Pier. However, we arrived there 2 hours late while on our Brilliance sailing in Feb. We actually started the day by going through the Canal 2 hours late in the morning and the whole day's time schedule was off.

 

What this meant was that we were not able to leave the ship until about 5:00 PM. We were on our way off the ship when the captain announced that we would not sail until 8:00 PM, rather than 7:00 PM. Since early seating was at 5:30 you would miss dinner if you chose to get off at Cristobol to shop. We had late seating so we had about an hour to shop and get back to the ship to get ready for the show. Unfortunately, many of the shows were pre-dinner for late seating on the 10-night BOS which we did not like. This, strangely enough, was one of the nights with a pre-dinner show. Scheduling on our sailing was rather unusual compared to our other RCCL cruises. Don't know if it was just that sailing or all Canal sailings in general on RCCL.

 

Sorry, I don't know about the soda and wine. We did buy very good bottled water at Cristobol for $1.00 a bottle.

[Nanatravel]

At Cristobel, there is a modern two floor shopping plaza including a Supermarket #99. They may have wine. It was a good place to buy Panamanian Coffee. Prices were pretty expensive for basic souvenirs.

The train tour to Panama City was great if you have time for that tour and well worth the money.

Bon Voyage