Panama Canal (partial) excursions

[jrobinso]

I am looking at excursions for our 10 day Panama Canal cruise in October. The excursion I am interested in lasts 5 hours and is completed about noon. The ship (Coral) returns to Colon at 5pm (according to the itinerary) . What is there for us to do until we can reboard the ship at 5?

 

Thank you.

[taxatty]

There is shopping inside a protected area next to the ship with souvenirs, electronics, restaurants, and a supermarket, but we didn't find it to be that great.

Edited April 23, 2015 by taxatty

[cheeks78734]

We stayed on the ship and it anchored in Colon at about 300pm.

[jrobinso]

We stayed on the ship and it anchored in Colon at about 300pm.

 

That is great news. 5 hours is a long time to just hang out around shops and restaurants. 3 hours I can handle.

[cb at sea]

The partial transit is an "excursion" in itself. You really can't go anywhere on your own, and if you check out the surrounding area with binoculars, you won't WANT to go there...it's pretty rough...looks war-torn!

 

Most of the excursions that leave from Lake Gatun take MUCH more than 5 hours.....sometimes the ship sits in the lake for hours, before going to the Colon Pier. The "shopping" area (and I use that term lightly) will take about 30 mins. to completely navigate....it's full of crap, IMO! It's more like a "flea market" than shops...and restaurants...nope...more like snack stands. 3 hours would be WAAAAY to long to hang out there!

[kitkat343]

The reboarding time is determined entirely by the Panama Canal authorities, and the exact timing will depend upon ship traffic. It could be 3, it could be 5. The port area has a supermarket, and some of the port restaurants/bars have wifi, so you can sit and catch up on your email or internet use. It isn't a very exciting area, and I would consider a longer tour if there is anything you are even remotely interested in.

Edited April 23, 2015 by kitkat343

[BillB48]

I saw your question over on the Canal board... here is what I wrote over there:

 

What excursion are you planning... as some easily run over their estimated times? I think the earliest you would be off the ship is 9AM to begin your tour and that would be under the quickest of circumstances. As you might expect the 5PM ship arrival at Colon is on the late side of what would be a "normal" arrival time. I think you would probably tender off the ship somewhere between 9 and 10 with the tour concluding at the pier in Colon around 3 ish. There is a shopping mall associated with the pier and it is safe to explore the mall shops. Of course there are many things that can interfere with the scheduling of the timing of events at the Canal, so it is always possible everything could go south... and in the case of the Canal even north:D!

[jrobinso]

I saw your question over on the Canal board... here is what I wrote over there:

 

What excursion are you planning... as some easily run over their estimated times? I think the earliest you would be off the ship is 9AM to begin your tour and that would be under the quickest of circumstances. As you might expect the 5PM ship arrival at Colon is on the late side of what would be a "normal" arrival time. I think you would probably tender off the ship somewhere between 9 and 10 with the tour concluding at the pier in Colon around 3 ish. There is a shopping mall associated with the pier and it is safe to explore the mall shops. Of course there are many things that can interfere with the scheduling of the timing of events at the Canal, so it is always possible everything could go south... and in the case of the Canal even north:D!

 

Excursions were just released last night, so Princess may need to tweak the departure times on them. I am interested in the Gatun Lake cruise and locks and Embera. It is listed as a 5 hour excursion departing at 7am. If the 7 am departure time is incorrect by a few hours that would mean a more reasonable wait to reboard.

 

Thanks for your insight.

[BillB48]

Excursions were just released last night, so Princess may need to tweak the departure times on them. I am interested in the Gatun Lake cruise and locks and Embera. It is listed as a 5 hour excursion departing at 7am. If the 7 am departure time is incorrect by a few hours that would mean a more reasonable wait to reboard.

 

Thanks for your insight.

 

Even though your transit could start as early as 5-5:30, your ship probably will arrive at the sea entrance to Gatun Locks sometime in the vicinity of 7AM. At this point you would begin the passage through Gatun Locks on the ship to the Gatun Lake Anchorage where tendering takes place. I think a little "tweaking" in the times when the tours start is an excellent idea!! Also the tour to the Embera Indians is routinely one of the tours that run over the posted time, so your shopping time upon your return to Colon just might be short... which may not be a bad thing.

[jrobinso]

Thank you BillB48.

[luckysadie]

We did the excursion on the small ferry to the Pacific side in October, 2014, from the Coral Princess. We expected to be back to the ship around 5 p.m., but due to restrictions by the Panama Canal Authority we had to transit the locks at the Pacific side with another ship. We did not get back to the Coral Princess until 8 p.m. All the shops at the pier were closed and we were hustled inside very quickly. It was one of those "things happen" events, but we did have a great story to tell.

[Kybabe]

We did the excursion on the small ferry to the Pacific side in October, 2014, from the Coral Princess. We expected to be back to the ship around 5 p.m., but due to restrictions by the Panama Canal Authority we had to transit the locks at the Pacific side with another ship. We did not get back to the Coral Princess until 8 p.m. All the shops at the pier were closed and we were hustled inside very quickly. It was one of those "things happen" events, but we did have a great story to tell.

 

We also did this excursion in Oct. '14 and really enjoyed it. And we also got back to the ship a lot later than expected. We had cool weather on our Canal day but the days in Aruba and Cartegena were very hot and we were glad to get back to the ship and spend the second half of the day in air conditioning!

[TW6cruiser]

The time the morning excursions will leave are not really finalized until that morning. In the patter it will list approximate times but really the order they leave. After the partial transit they will begin to make announcements as to which group is gathering to leave. You won't be off the ship at 7 am.