Best line and best time for a Panama Canal Cruise?

[VacationsRme]

We are interested in doing a Panama Canal cruise in 2015. Not sure which line is best and what time of the year has the best weather. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[BillB48]

The best line that's a hard one. I see you have done a number of RC, they do a couple of Canal cruises a year not a whole to pick from, but their closest relative, Celebrity has many more dates to choose from. In all honesty I would not think you will find Princess or HAL unsatisfactory either. Those three will have the greatest selection in so far as cruises and dates. There are of course other lines like NCL or Carnival that have a ship here and there with a Canal transit but you are going to have to search for those a bit more.

 

Time of year... You will find that Canal cruises start to appear in earnest around the end of September when the Alaska season finishes and they start to move the ships back to the Caribbean. The Canal cruise "season runs from then to the end of May. Probably the best time to cruise the Canal would be in Panama's Dry Season which runs from late December thorugh April. If I were to make a decision based on weather alone I would pick the January/February time period. That period is generally one of the drier times and the weather is about as good as it ever is going to get. Full disclosure, I have actually cruised a number of times outside that "recommended" time frame a number of times and had excellent weather, so I really would not let that be your prime consideration in deciding when to go, just let it be a tie breaker.

[Keith1010]

There is no best line. I would just see which ones are sailing during the time you are interested.

 

My preference for sailing the Panama Canal is in the January and February time frames when you should not have any rain.

 

Keith

[PCWalton1]

If you go with Royal Caribbean it will be either March or November.