Where to watch the Panama Canal transit from?

[ReallyThere2]

People mentioned the "secret" doors on Baja and Caribe, but there are also places at the stern that are much less crowded (Aloha, Baja, and Caribe). All doors are at the end of the passageways, the ones in the stern have small windows and there are loungers on Caribe.

[trbarton]

Go to the photo page on Flickr. (Not the Beta page, it's missing so many features.) Below the photo on the right you'll see a rectangle with an arrow coming out of it. Click on that and go to "Grab the HTML/BBCode". Then tick off the BBCode tab. Pick the size you want. I like Medium 640. Copy the code you see and paste it into the Cruise Critic comment field. It sounds complicated, but once you get used to it, it's really quite simple.

 

 

Here's the code that I copied and now you see the results, no photo just the code.

 

<iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82121422@N00/11990158433/player/46e0ea8e1d" height="334" width="500" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Tom:)

[trbarton]

People mentioned the "secret" doors on Baja and Caribe, but there are also places at the stern that are much less crowded (Aloha, Baja, and Caribe). All doors are at the end of the passageways, the ones in the stern have small windows and there are loungers on Caribe.

 

Any photos of the secret doors and what's beyond? I tried this on the Grand and I wound up going through 2 doors and wound up on the promenade deck with a door on the outside that said "Crew Only".

 

Tom:)

[Jasperdo]

Here's the code that I copied and now you see the results, no photo just the code.

 

<iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82121422@N00/11990158433/player/46e0ea8e1d" height="334" width="500" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Tom:)

I think the problem might be that you hadn't ticked off "BBCode". It's kind of hard to see, but it's just below the size option. You should have "Embed" "HTML" and BBCode". Click on the BBCode one, and copy and paste it to the comments here on CC.

[Jasperdo]

Any photos of the secret doors and what's beyond? I tried this on the Grand and I wound up going through 2 doors and wound up on the promenade deck with a door on the outside that said "Crew Only".

 

Tom:)

I believe the Coral/Island sisters are the only Princess ships that have these "secret doors" that are available to passengers. The forward one looks like this, and goes here:

 

Coral Princess by Jasperdo, on Flickr

 

Panama Canal: Culebra Cut by Jasperdo, on Flickr

 

The aft "secret door" goes to this nice secluded place with lounge chairs. It was never crowded:

 

Coral Princess by Jasperdo, on Flickr

[JimAOk1945]

Jasperdo,

 

I just finished viewing your fantastic pictures taken on the Coral Princess Panama Canal transit. I have a question about the excursions you took.

 

Did you book your excursions through Princess?

[Jasperdo]

Jasperdo,

 

I just finished viewing your fantastic pictures taken on the Coral Princess Panama Canal transit. I have a question about the excursions you took.

 

Did you book your excursions through Princess?

Thank you for the kind words. We booked four excursions through Princess on our 15 day full transit. They were:

 

Colonial Cartagena Sightseeing Tour On Your Own - It included a short guided town of the Old City, followed by time to explore on your own. Photos

 

Scenic Drive and Walking Tour of Old Panama City - Drove through the former Canal Zone, had a guided walking tour of Casco Viejo, drove through downtown Panama City, stopped at an archeology museum, then continued to Panama Viejo, the ruins of the original city. Photos

 

Scenic Train Ride and River Cruise - Out of Puntarenas, a boat ride along the Tarcoles River followed by a train ride on the old Pacific Railroad. Photos

 

Colonial Antigua On Your Own - An hour and a half bus ride to Antigua, Guatemala with about 5 hours to explore on your own. (I haven't posted the photos from this excursion yet.)

 

All of the excursions were great, enjoyed them all.

[trbarton]

I think the problem might be that you hadn't ticked off "BBCode". It's kind of hard to see, but it's just below the size option. You should have "Embed" "HTML" and BBCode". Click on the BBCode one, and copy and paste it to the comments here on CC.

 

 

DSC_0627 by trbarton, on Flickr

 

OK I figured it out. Thanks for all of the help!

 

Tom:)

[Fuzzyape]

Thanks for all this useful information! One of the many reasons I like Cruise Critic!

[Times Prince]

What the best places to go to watch the transit through the locks.

In my opinion there isn't a "best" place - there are plenty of great alternatives, and if you are doing a full transit you probably will want to be in a different location for each set of locks. We watched from our balcony, various locations on the Promenade deck, from our table eating lunch, and from fore and aft decks.

 

There is something unique to see from each location. My personal favorite after initially watching from our balcony was close to the stern on Promenade Deck 7 where we go to talk a little with operators on shore, and see the action up close (it was the only place, too, where one could look straight down to see the small clearance on the side of the ship).

 

One trip through the Canal on Sun Princess had us on Deck 7 forward when one of the mules and the ship collided as the water level dropped - it was very interesting watching the ship's engineering staff and the Staff Captain hanging over the side to assess the damage (a pretty good scrape, but high above the waterline)... you never know when there will be some excitement!