Panama Canal itinerary

[stunned]

I would appreciate your opinions on the best itinerary for seeing the Panama Canal. I want to do a cruise through the canal and am not partial to any cruise lines. I just want to book the cruise that has best ports and gives the ultimate unforgettable experience since there are never any guarantees I will get a second chance to take a Panama Canal crossing cruise.

 

Judy

[spirit rev]

We did a full transit of the canal this past January. Loved it. What made it better for us was the full day we had in Panama before our day going through the canal. This made the whole canal experience even better. We were on Princess. The other ports were fun but not nearly as important as Panama itself and the canal. My recommendation would be to be sure to have a full day in Panama before or after the canal transit.

[CruiserBruce]

We did a full transit of the canal this past January. Loved it. What made it better for us was the full day we had in Panama before our day going through the canal. This made the whole canal experience even better. We were on Princess. The other ports were fun but not nearly as important as Panama itself and the canal. My recommendation would be to be sure to have a full day in Panama before or after the canal transit.

 

This is a common statement- that a full day stop before or after your Canal transit is important to you enjoyment. Our experienece was great without the full day stop, and we have sailed the Canal 3 times.

 

Most of the full Canal transits are in the 14 day range. Hard to do it faster, but many run out towards 18-21 days.

 

"Best" is a purely personal opinion. What is a great port for you, may not interest me at all. If you were able to look at all the Canal sailings, chances are the same 6 or 8 ports would come up almost every cruise.

 

If you look over on the Panama Canal board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89

 

You will see more extensive discussion of your question.

[kestrel]

We did a full transit on a Princess cruise and had a wonderful time. It was before cruise line came up with "full day in Panama City" idea :rolleyes: Therefore, we didn't get a chance to visit Panama City, but I think it would have been very nice.

 

You may want to consider going during the dry season, which is around mid December to mid April.

[Keith1010]

There is no best. There are many cruise lines to choose from as almost all of them have a transit so it's important to find an itinerary and a cruise line that works for you.

 

Having done the full transit many times my preference is one that goes say from Miami or Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles or San Diego. I prefer East to West because the clock will be turned back three times and find that is easier to do on a cruise then forwarding the clock three times.

 

Keith

[dorisis]

We did a B2B on the Island Princess from FT L to Mexico and back from Mexico to Ft L. That was the best of the 3 or 4 Canal cruises we have taken,

 

~Doris~

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done quite a few full transit Panama Canal cruises -- on Princess and HAL.

 

We have done it both directions -- we do prefer going east to west (really north to south).

 

And we have also done a couple of cruises where we anchored at Amador to do tours of Panama City. I wouldn't say that this was better than not touring Panama City as we were there on Sundays when nearly everything was closed.

[BillB48]

Since you are not wedded to any particular line, that makes it easier. Princess, HAL and Celebrity give you the most dates during the "normal" Canal season. By "normal" I mean you will find the first few showing up sometime in September with the bulk of them from around November through April. You won't find very many after May or June. Other cruise lines that have some Canal offerings are RCI, NCL and Carnival. You probably be able to find some others I've forgotten.

 

As mentioned earlier, if you laid all the itineraries out you'll find they will have more in common. Choosing will be more of which has the best price and suits your schedule. While not absolutely essential, I do like the full day stop at Panama or Colon before or after your Canal transit. I just booked a Canal cruise that does not contain a stop in Panama... so it is really what works best for you. One thing to watch out for in considering the stop in Panama, a few itineraries will have a stop in Colon the day of transit on the Pacific to Atlantic transit. This is OK for those who have been through the Canal before, however it does require you to skip part of the transit if you wish to take a shore excursion. If you have not been through the Canal before it seems a little counterproductive IMO.

 

Have fun choosing!

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Go through all 3 locks ...

[Dayenu]

Here I am, going against the flow again :o

 

When we were going on the Panama canal cruise, we were advised to go West to East, and the advisers (on this website, by the way!) were right.

 

The locks on the Pacific side are more interesting, you see them in the morning when your attention is still there, you are not tired from absorbing all information, and by the time you are at Gatun lake, you can take ship tours - you've seen the best already!

[CruiserBruce]

Here I am, going against the flow again :o

 

When we were going on the Panama canal cruise, we were advised to go West to East, and the advisers (on this website, by the way!) were right.

 

The locks on the Pacific side are more interesting, you see them in the morning when your attention is still there, you are not tired from absorbing all information, and by the time you are at Gatun lake, you can take ship tours - you've seen the best already!

 

Not sure how many full transits have tours out of Gatun lake. You may not get there until 3 or so on a full transit.

[fleckle]

Here I am, going against the flow again :o

 

When we were going on the Panama canal cruise, we were advised to go West to East, and the advisers (on this website, by the way!) were right.

 

The locks on the Pacific side are more interesting, you see them in the morning when your attention is still there, you are not tired from absorbing all information, and by the time you are at Gatun lake, you can take ship tours - you've seen the best already!

We have thought about doing it that way, but East to West keeps winning out for us because not being early riser "up-and-attem" types, we find it so much easier to gain an hour at each time change than to lose it.