REVIEW - Island Princess Panama Canal - Jan 18-28, 2012

[alphouston]

Thanks for sharing your review and pictures. We are in the process of planning a Panama Canal trip and I appreciate you time and effort sharing your wonderful experiences.

[BoopTennis]

Hi goldens4ever; I have cruised on larger ships, not sure i can point out anything "different or exciting" from those on the smaller ship. I will say I did not notice that it was smaller, there was still plenty to do, never a dull moment. We tried to see every part of the ship that we could, it still took me all ten days to remember where some stuff was located LOL. Maybe there seemed to be more activities on Lido Deck than before (games and contests) or maybe it seemed that more people participated. There are more (public) places I think to go to view out on the water --- front, back, sides, all over the place. Fun to find all the different places to go. Have an awesome trip I am anxious to hear from the people that just got off this morning to see how their trip went. It all goes by too fast!

[BoopTennis]

make sure at dinner some night you order this for dessert, if it's still on the menu...i don't even remember the name of it but some sort of little souffle with vanilla bean sauce...it was awesome and we started ordering at dinner or getting at Horizon Court everything we could find with that vanilla bean sauce poured on it LOL

 

[dutrie]

Your dessert is one of the souffles. My wife never misses one!

 

I recognized our assistant waiter Clark in your photo of the "fireworks". We were at table 103 early seating. He played his guitar for us one evening and we had a sing-a-long after dinner.

 

I agree. The weather was near perfection on this cruise with warm sunny days and light seas.

 

What was the name of the bar you stopped at in Jamaica?

[BoopTennis]

hi dutrie -- that is funny about recognizing the waiter. I loved when they all did the "fireworks". we were at table 161 at the late seating.

 

Unfortunately I do not remember the name of the bar we stopped at in Jamaica. But it was across a little bit of water from Margaritaville. You could see our ship from the bar we were at. They had some live music going and great drinks and it was connected to a little souvenir shop, that is all i can remember!

[lkrcanada]

Thanks for posting!!! So helpful and I will do the same.

 

 

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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.620769,-79.482453

[Potstech]

Great review. Just got back from this same cruise on February 8th. Loved the heck out of it. Agree with everything you have posted so far.

 

Wife and I took the excursion the rest of the way through the canal on the small ferry. Was worth every penny of the cost as you get an entirely different perspective on the locks from there. Were actually able to reach out and touch the sides of the locks as we dropped down each of the levels. Entire ferry was now below the upper levels of the locks and we had several other yachts and boats in with us. I tell people we went from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific Ocean and back to the Atlantic Ocean in about 6 hours and didn't fly at all. They look at us funny when I say that then realize where w were at.

 

Keep posting more and the pictures are fantastic. Great job.

[BoopTennis]

potstech -- good the hear about that panama excursion, sounds cool...

 

its fun to read about others' experience on this ship and itinerary, helps keep the memory alive longer....

 

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just two more pics as I still have such good memory of this cruise...

the first one to remind me one of the many reasons i love to cruise, it's so peaceful and relaxing..

 

 

and another one of the reasons I love to have a balcony cabin, just looking out over the wide ocean....

 

 

 

I want to go back!!! I am so envious of those out there enjoying it right now!!!

[LARGIN]

Can you tell me the name of the Maitre D' and Captain? Thanks :)

[BoopTennis]

Hi Largin,

 

Captain was Fabio Amitrano

Cruise Director Richard Joseph

Maitre d'Hotel (is that who you mean?) was Ig****o D'Agostino

Exec Chef Klaus Baumgarten

[trojangirl90066]

potstech -- good the hear about that panama excursion, sounds cool...

 

its fun to read about others' experience on this ship and itinerary, helps keep the memory alive longer....

 

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just two more pics as I still have such good memory of this cruise...

the first one to remind me one of the many reasons i love to cruise, it's so peaceful and relaxing..

 

 

and another one of the reasons I love to have a balcony cabin, just looking out over the wide ocean....

 

 

 

I want to go back!!! I am so envious of those out there enjoying it right now!!!

 

Thank you so much for your review and all the wonderful pics. My DH & I are going on this cruise in February or 2013 so I found your information extremely informative.

[Katecat]

An absolutely amazing review. Thanks so much for taking the time to be so thorough.

 

A question - I understand that you can get an excusion and do the remainder of the locks into the Pacific Ocean by ferry. Do you have any information regarding this?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Katecat]

Just wondering - as I have heard that it is very hot - temperature wise.

[BoopTennis]

katecat -- there are definitely various other excursions at Panama available to get off the ship in Gatun Lake and go thru the other locks on smaller boats. Check out Princess website because I think I heard that you cannot do an independent tour at that stop -- your only choice is one of the Princess excursions offered. Several people have done them and you can probably find their reviews either on the Princess thread or over on Ports of Call.

 

Regarding temps -- we went in end of January, it was hot but not overly so. I like hot so I was happy. But it was no where near unbearable, just nice and sunny and warm. Might be warmer as you get further into the year

 

good luck and have fun!!

[Loonbeam]

Correct, tours when anchored in Gatun are Princess only...

 

katecat -- there are definitely various other excursions at Panama available to get off the ship in Gatun Lake and go thru the other locks on smaller boats. Check out Princess website because I think I heard that you cannot do an independent tour at that stop -- your only choice is one of the Princess excursions offered. Several people have done them and you can probably find their reviews either on the Princess thread or over on Ports of Call.

 

Regarding temps -- we went in end of January, it was hot but not overly so. I like hot so I was happy. But it was no where near unbearable, just nice and sunny and warm. Might be warmer as you get further into the year

 

good luck and have fun!!

[cruiserdru]

Could you see the ongoing construction for the additional locks at any point?

 

We are looking at a full transit in 2013 and wondered if it was worthwhile to wait for the opening of the new locks in 2014. I have heard that the small ships will still go through the original locks (and that is fine) I just wondered if we will be able to see the new locks (or in 2013, the construction).

 

Thanks, you have upped my level of excitement about booking this trip in the future.

[BoopTennis]

hi cruiserdru,

As you entered the locks, you could see part of the new construction of the new canal to the left. You could not see the ground level, but you could see BIG piles of dirt piled up and trucks etc moving around. I am not exactly sure how far from the current canal the new one is.

 

 

I took these photos with zoom lens so seem closer than they are.

 

 

 

 

I don't know if there is any sort of "excursion" that takes you over to look at the new construction, that might be fun!

[ibfern]

Thanks for your review, love your pictures too!

 

Can you tell me who the Maitre d was???

[BoopTennis]

Dear ibfern, is this who you mean?

 

Captain was Fabio Amitrano

Cruise Director Richard Joseph

Maitre d'Hotel (is that who you mean?) was Ig****o D'Agostino

Exec Chef Klaus Baumgarten

[BoopTennis]

Post did not come thru right

 

Maitre d'Hotel was

I g n a z i o D'Agostino

[BillB48]

Could you see the ongoing construction for the additional locks at any point?

 

We are looking at a full transit in 2013 and wondered if it was worthwhile to wait for the opening of the new locks in 2014. I have heard that the small ships will still go through the original locks (and that is fine) I just wondered if we will be able to see the new locks (or in 2013, the construction).

 

Thanks, you have upped my level of excitement about booking this trip in the future.

 

Even though the new locks are not far away from the present locks, but because of the terrain and really lack of much of a vertical profile, for the most part you will not be able to see much of the new locks. Probably one of the best views you will get of the new locks will be approaching Gatun Locks from the sea. There is more construction visible on the Pacific side, as this is due to the construction of a several mile long access channel to connect with the new locks and an earthen dam. However on the Pacific side the new locks will even be a bit more obscured because of a hill in between them and the present Miraflores Locks.

 

In the first pic, the present Gatun Locks lies in a general direction behind those three buildings and trees. I put a black line over the pile of excavated material shown in the previous pictures. The orientation of the camera is from near Gatun Lake, looking north towards the sea.

 

In the second picture, I included it to show a ship approaching Gatun Locks from Gatun Lake, again marked with a black line. The camera was panned to the left a bit for this shot.

 

It would be great if they had a tour to see the construction, that would be great for all of us sidewalk supers:D! To my knowledge the don't.

 

 

[BoopTennis]

those are AWESOME pics of the new canal, did you take those? or where did you find them?

[Raamo]

This will be our first Princess cruise on one of the "smaller" ships....anything different or exciting to do on these ships?

sybil

 

Coral and Island are not small ships. They are Pana-max in size which basically means they are not as wide as the gem class. They have more space per passenger because they don't have 2 rows of internal cabins. The ships still hold over 2000 passengers.

 

The true small ships like the ocean carry 650 passengers.

 

I much prefer the Coral to the other ships (I've yet to be on her sister the Island) due to the greater space per passenger.

[BillB48]

I wish I took them:)! They are screen shots taken daily and updated, usually around this time of day. I don't know if this link will take you directly to that shot or not. If it doesn't and takes you to the live cameras, just click on the expansion program button and you can have your pick of a bunch of daily pictures on the Atlantic and Pacific sides.

 

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/webcams-works.html

[riansgrammy]

Thanks for the review and great pictures. We are on the cruise on March 8th - getting really excited. My only ? is whether to brave a zipline or do the tram!

 

Pat

 

 

Do the zip line! I'm not much of a heights person but it was easy. My only "complaint" was having to wait a while on a tree stand while the rest of the group caught up. Our tour included the aerial tram. It was nice, too. Frankly, I was more uncomfortable on the lift going up the mountain at Ochos Rios. It just moved too slow.