Panama Canal

[janetz]

Hi all

Looking at 10 day cruises to the PC.

What ship would you suggest and why?

Month?

I believe the Island Princess is the only one that does the old locks because of size?

Thanks ahead! 

 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, janetz said:

Hi all

Looking at 10 day cruises to the PC.

What ship would you suggest and why?

Month?

I believe the Island Princess is the only one that does the old locks because of size?

Thanks ahead! 

 

 

Coral Princess is also a Panamax class ship. We've done the old locks twice - both times on Coral. Given the choice between Coral and Island we would choose Coral every time. It's not even close. Heck, our favorite cabin on Coral doesn't even exist anymore on Island.

[janetz]

Thank you 😊 

[Cruzinnana47]

BTW, if you want to do the 10-day Panama Canal itinerary....it will be a "partial" canal cruise.  We did it on the Caribbean Princess a few years ago in late April.   It was a little humid, but for the most part, we had good weather and enjoyed the ship.

 

To second Thrak's opinion, I would definitely take the Coral Princess for a full canal cruise through the old locks.  

[Rick&Jeannie]

This will not be of any help for you now...but we did a full transit just immediately before everything crashed to a stop in January 2020.  It was on the Pacific Princess.  Sadly, Princess chose to sell that ship.  That was the first time we had sailed on her and we had decided that this was to be our favorite ship in the Princess line.  Oh well...I guess we could always go and try Azamara.

[Rick&Jenny]

Coral Princess hands down when she comes back to her old haunts.  She rides smoothly and quietly, no vibration.  I recommend Baja deck aft. Miss the pizza lunches in Sabatini’s and the full promenade deck and lounges. The Coral and Island Princess were initially twin ships until they added aft cabins across the stern of the Island. The Canal is always hot and humid.

[STREETKING]

Coral Princess for sure. a great ship to do the Panama Canal. Our favorite ship so far!

[Daniel A]

15 hours ago, janetz said:

Hi all

Looking at 10 day cruises to the PC.

What ship would you suggest and why?

Month?

I believe the Island Princess is the only one that does the old locks because of size?

Thanks ahead! 

A word of advice if you go.  If you choose a cabin with a balcony and plan to take videos or photos, secure your cameras on the balcony somewhere.  Taking the camera from your airconditioned cabin outside into the hot, humid air of Panama will cause the camera lenses to fog up and they don't clear up quickly due to the high humidity.  Learned from experience.  ☹️ 

 

BTW, the lenses fog up on both the exterior and interior surfaces of the lenses...

[Esprit]

8 hours ago, Rick&Jenny said:

 The Canal is always hot and humid.

We did the partial transit on Island Princess during November. Possibly the worse month weather wise. Loads of rain!

The best place to view the start of the transit is on the open deck just below the bridge. Then once you are about the leave the last lock go to the stern. Amazing photo opportunities as the ship descends and others behind are sitting up so much higher. 

[BillB48]

16 hours ago, janetz said:

Looking at 10 day cruises to the PC.

What ship would you suggest and why?

Month?

 

Think you have received good advice on the ship, but you may have to settle for whichever is offering that particular itinerary.

 

Month?  The Dry Season in Panama runs from late December through April.  Always keep in mind that the Dry Season in Panama doesn't mean no rain at all, but a much better chance of drier weather.  Rains that may occur during this time are more than likely be in the form of a scattered shower and not part of a wide spread storm.

[skynight]

If you want to sail on a Princess ship you are limited to the schedule. Most of the 10 RT PC itineraries are on grand class ships that have to transit the new locks. I only see a few sailings on the Island that transit the old locks. I have done both new and old. While the old are interesting I would not sail on the Island just to see them. 

[RoyDeb]

My wife and I did a partial transit on the Caribbean Princess in January 2020.  I would not recommend that ship to anyone because the places where you could view the locks were very crowded and we tried scrambling around to find a better viewing area but just met with more crowds.

[rabin1]

What about the Sanctuary is that a good place to view?