Panama Canal...Princess or Holland ?

[beachsands]

The reason i am asking is my two adult sons want to come with us. One is 23 and the other is going to be 22.

 

I would take Royal Caribbean but they don't do much in the Panama Canal any more, plus the big ships cannot enter the locks anyway.

 

That leaves Holland and Princess to pick from. Which cruise line will offer more for my sons to do? I don't want them to be be bored. Neither of them are drinkers so that eliminates some activities although the youngest does like to dance.

 

Either line would be fine for the wife & I

I love to just sit on the balcony and watch the ocean go by....lol

 

So what do you recommend? Princess or Holland ?

 

Thanks, Joel

[CruiserBruce]

They will do fine on either line. The Canal is the destination, not the ship.

[cruiseapril]

Hi- Are you considering the round trip Panama Canal cruise?

 

If so, Holland America has, IMO, a better itinerary: Half Moon Cay, Aruba, Curacao, Panama Canal, and Costa Rica. This is for the 10 day cruise. The 11 day cruise adds Bonaire. This is a very good itinerary for beach and snorkel enthusiasts.

 

Princess offers the Panama Canal cruise to Aruba, Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, and Jamaica or Grand Cayman.

 

We like HAL and Princess and find plenty to do on either cruise line. If you like beaches and snorkeling- Half Moon Cay, Curacao, and Bonaire (as well as Aruba offer lots of water sports.)

[beachsands]

They will do fine on either line. The Canal is the destination, not the ship.

 

 

Thanks for the reply CruiserBruce. I know what you mean about the destination being the target. That's the way it is for me anyway, but the kids seem to always need entertaining these days. Fortunately there will only be two sea days in a row going down. Two broken up sea days on the way back.

They may just have to buck it up on the sea days and read a book....oops i mean a kindle. lol

 

 

Joel

[beachsands]

Hi- Are you considering the round trip Panama Canal cruise?

 

If so, Holland America has, IMO, a better itinerary: Half Moon Cay, Aruba, Curacao, Panama Canal, and Costa Rica. This is for the 10 day cruise. The 11 day cruise adds Bonaire. This is a very good itinerary for beach and snorkel enthusiasts.

 

Princess offers the Panama Canal cruise to Aruba, Cartagena, Panama, Costa Rica, and Jamaica or Grand Cayman.

 

We like HAL and Princess and find plenty to do on either cruise line. If you like beaches and snorkeling- Half Moon Cay, Curacao, and Bonaire (as well as Aruba offer lots of water sports.)

 

 

 

Hi April,

We are doing a 10 Panama Canal partial transit from Ft. Lauderdale. Looking at the Island Princess or the Coral Princess, and the Zuiderdam. I want to book the cruise this month. Right now we havent figured out what we want to do as far as excursions are concerned.

I wish there was a Volcano tour but doesn't look like there is as far as I can see.

 

Do either of the princess ships have an outdoor movies under the stars theater, how abut indoor movies?

 

~~Joel~~

[spunkie4]

We have cruised the 10-day Panama Canal on Princess twice. We are booked for the third in April on the Island Princess.

 

I think Princess would be more suitable for your sons. yes, Princess does have movies under the stars, as well as indoor movies in the theatre.

 

If you have any questions, I will be happy to try to answer them. We have cruised Princess 22 times, so maybe I can help.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Shirley

[Nebr.cruiser]

I think Princess would be better too. We've done the canal twice, a 10 day and 14 day. No matter which ship you are on, there will most likely not be many younger people, but the 10 day would probably have a younger age range.

 

Our recent 14 day cruise I would say had an average passenger age in the 70's and 8 kids on board. I saw a few young adults, mostly couples. I have heard (haven't sailed on them) that Holland America tends even older.

 

Princess has MUTS and had a lot of afternoon and some evening movies in the theater and large lounge.

[momofmeg]

I think Princess would be better too. We've done the canal twice, a 10 day and 14 day. No matter which ship you are on, there will most likely not be many younger people, but the 10 day would probably have a younger age range.

 

Our recent 14 day cruise I would say had an average passenger age in the 70's and 8 kids on board. I saw a few young adults, mostly couples. I have heard (haven't sailed on them) that Holland America tends even older.

 

Princess has MUTS and had a lot of afternoon and some evening movies in the theater and large lounge.

 

Holland America's small ships like the Masdam, Statendam (1200 PAX) do have an older crowd-not many lounges etc. -so not mcuh entertainment on them. Zuiderdam is not that class and holds 2000 PAX and has lounges that stay open to to around 1 am. We found on our ten day the group was pretty mixed. SOME older people but it felt more like RCI's mix than HAL's older ships do.

 

Now if they want to party hardy every night they would hate it-but they would hate RCI also.

 

this is why we picked HAL over Princess 2 years ago. We did not go to Columbia-did not want to go there-not safe to do anything besides the ships' tours. also we liked we got to go to Aruba and Curacao. The Princess ships did one or the other.

 

Our daughter did not do this cruise with us,as she is a teacher and we did this when she was working, but she did go with us on the Westerdam, a sister ship to Zuiderdam. She was around 24 at the time. She was out every night until 2 am. We know because she shared a cabin with us. She loved both the disco and Karaoke.

[DDMau]

We have sailed on both Princess and HAL and enjoyed both of them, our Panama cruise was on a different line. As stated before "the Canal is the destination" and either cruise line will get you there, the age will be about the same on either line. With the age of your sons there could be more for them on Princess. You book two balconys on the same deck but one on each side of the ship that way you will be able to enjoy the sights from a balconly. When were you planning on doing this cruise.

 

Enjoy the Canal, we sure did and plan on returning in 2014 when the new locks open.

[Putterdude]

We did the canal a couple of years ago on the Coral and enjoyed the ship and the itinerary a great deal....in fact can't wait to do it again. Having done a HAL cruise in the past 2 weeks and being quite unsatisfied with it my guess is that we will do it with Princess again.

[alcpa1]

I don't know when you are planning on going but Celebrity sails the Century and Infinity through the Canal. It would be a great option. Definitely better than HAL for the sons.

We will be doing a Century sailing in '13 from San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I noticed that you mentioned you are looking at a PARTIAL Panama cruise.

The Zuiderdam does not have an outdoor movie area like MUTS on Princess. Instead it has a small Screening Room which has seats for about 30 people.

Truthfully -- I think your sons would be much happier on Princess.

[beachsands]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I have no doubt that my wife and I would love either cruise line but was much more concerned about my young adult sons. Mostly the youngest, he always needs to be doing something, give my eldest a guitar or some musical instrument and he can burn away scores of hours just doing that.

 

Given all that along with the great responses from everyone, i think we will definitely go with Princess.

 

Thanks, again

 

Joel