Panama Canal Cruise on Galaxy

[loveourcottage]

In the process of choosing a cruise line and ship for the Panama Canal. The Galaxy cruises the entire canal. Some other ships only cruise up to the lake area(though it does go thru some of the locks.) What is the advantage of doing the entire canal? Does it take away from your time for shore excursions etc. Would love some advice. Thanks

 

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BAD CRUISE--SOME ARE JUST BETTER THAN OTHERS!!!!!!

 

6/14 Horizon Bermuda Cruise

 

 

 

 

<marquee direction=left width=45%>SongofAmerica/96~~~Monarch/97~~~Rhapsody/98~~~DawnPrincess/99~~~Horizon/03</marquee>

[superjerryw]

We did the full transit last year on the Infinity and had a great time. If you are referring to shore excursions in Panama, you may miss some of the locks if you take them. We did the transit from west to east. On the Pacific side of the canal you go through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. On the Atlantic side you go through the Gatun locks. People that took shore excursions got off the ship after it transited the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks. They came back to the ship late in the evening by bus after the ship had transited the Gatun locks and tied up at a pier so they missing going through the last set of locks.

 

The ships that do a full transit usually sail for 14 days and go from the west coast to the east coast or vice versa. The ships that do a partial transit usually go for 10 days and sail round trip Florida. The other significant difference would be the ports as the ships sailing from Florida will stop in Caribbean ports and the ships sailing from coast to coast will make some stops in Mexico at Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas, etc.

 

 

Donuts, is there anything they can't do....

[excitedofharpenden]

loveourcottage

 

We are doing Panama Canal out of Galveston in November, but we are not going through the entire length, but cruising the lake. I am not sure which if any of the scheduled Galaxy cruises go through the entire length?

 

We are going to try the train across Panama, which I think means tendering from Gatun Lake after going through the lock, but missing out on the return journey though the lock and meeting up with the ship at Cristobal Pier.

 

As I understand it, a partial transit means you miss out the Gaillard Cut, which is supposed to be very scenic, but we'll hopefully get to see some of it from the train.

 

Phil

 

Mercury Western Caribbean November 2002

Galaxy Eastern Caribbean November 2003

 

<BR

 

Until Galaxy Panama Canal Out Of Galveston

13th November 2004

 

 

<center>

<a href="http://www.escati.com/counter98/free_time_codes.htm">

</center>

[Randyk47]

Not sure that Galaxy is going to do any full transits of the Panama Canal. The series Celebrity starts in November this year through April next year appears to be a partial transit. We certainly would have jumped at the chance of a full transit but there aren't many cruises through the whole Canal at the time we're planning our cruise. Unless Galaxy is doing Alaska this summer, and you can catch a repositioning cruise, I don't think she'll be doing a full transit.

 

Until Galaxy

 

 

[Texed]

You can see quite a lot during a partial transit. It was very interesting to watch how the locks worked, and the "mules" working also. We will be on Galaxy on the December 18th cruise.

 

Texed