Panama Canal-Best Time/Best Ship

[grandpa cruiser]

We are planning a Panama Canal cruise for next year--could you please advise me as to which cruise line has the better itinerary and transit (I've heard that some lines transit in the dark and visiblity is minimal) and what time of year would be best. We would like to do the entire transit.

 

Many thanks for your great advice!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Full transits - east to west - spring time - usually the end of April/beginning of May when the ships are repositioning from the Caribbean to Alaska.

 

West to east - September - ships returning to the Caribbean from Alaska.

 

Those are the longest and best cruises. We have done both several times.

 

Some cruise lines will have shorter transit cruises during the winter - very few ports.

 

HAL does their transits during the day light hours.

[grandpa cruiser]

Thank You Krazy Kruisers!!--

 

any thoughts/opinion on Celebrity??

[mr green]

February to May is the 'Dry Season'. Take a full transit on the Coral Princess, you will not miss a thing. john

[Big Al B.]

We had a great time on an April/May full transit on the NCL Sun. 17 days of pure relaxation :)

[wrp96]

If you look on the Panama Canal board, somebody has posted their pictures from a full transit on Celebrity. The post is less than a week old and titled something like Panama Canal pictures.

[flashdog_1]

Try to book outside the hurricane season June-November. But you can see in my signature I've done it once mid Nov and am doing it again mid November, taking my chances with the craziness of the erratic hurricane season we just had.

[Pudgesmom]

We had a wonderful transit on the Windstar in December for our New year's cruise. If you're interested in Costa Rica and Panama, I highly recommend it.

 

A local guide boarded the ship before our transit and provided an excellent commentary during the day. We were served sherbets and ice cold water to keep everyone cool during the day. I felt we got an amazing feel for the rise and fall of the locks in the smaller ship.

 

On the rest of the cruise, we visited many small ports and avoided some of the more busy places like Fort Lauderdale, the Mexican Pacific coast and southern California.

 

Most of the cruise lines pay extra for daylight transits of the canal. You probably could expect this with all the lines.

 

Beth

[Cathy Maneri]

I'm doing a 15-night Panama Canal Repositioning from Miami and ends in San Francisco. It's on the Infinity and leaves Miami on April 2, 2006.

 

I choose this itinerary because of the time of year, length of cruise, and it ends in San Francisco where I will stay another 5 days.

 

This cruise goes through the canal during the daylight hours and we spend 6pm to 11pm in Panama.

 

We then go to the Mexican Rivera and it ends in San Fran. Lots of sea days as well.

 

I personally would only do this cruise in April. I would not chance it during hurricane season. The ships come back West to East in September. September is peak season for hurricanes Something to keep in mind.

[CaliforniaDreamin]

on Celebrity Summit. FLL (Dec 4th), Aruba, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Mexico (3 ports), Los Angeles (Dec 18th). Excellent weather the entire cruise. December is past hurricane season and not as humid as April or later.

[mylord]

Grandpa cruiser, I was on Panama cruises, all I can say- don't be afraid to take this cruise on summer months- it will be not too hot. The longer cruise, the better, though. And don't think they will let you out somewhere in Panama to walk...;)

[Jim B]

We just finished our 12/27/05 to 01/10/06 Seven Seas Voyager FLL to LAX cruise thru the Panama Canal. We started our entrance on the East side at 6:30 am on 12/31/05. We were in lake Gautun about 8:45 am anchored. had tenders take us to Lake Gatun Yachet Club. Started for the west gates about 5:45 pm.

Started thru the first gate about 8:45 pm and was in the Pacific ocean about 11:00 pm. Really was perfect.