Colon & Panama Canal?

[big al]

Hi all- Four of us will be arriving in Colon at 6 am, leaving at 4 pm on the NCL Joy...we are NOT going thru the Panama Canal...does anybody know a way of going thru the canal on an excursion? I 've read Roberto E. Whitaker H does some tours...any suggestions? I'm calling NCL to see what excursions possibly do a separate tour of going thru the locks...thanks!

 

Big Al

[BillB48]

Normally the cruise lines will offer an excursion that is a partial transit of the Canal going through the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut.  It may or may not be available for booking before you embark.  Even if you were able to book this excursion through another vendor, because of the possibilities of delays on the Canal causing a late return to Colon, I would only book through the cruise line.

 

[quillwercruisers]

Don't mean to sound rude or anything, but are you sure you are going out of Colon? I did a search on NCL for the Joy, and came up with this:

 

This goes out of the Fuerte Amador port which is on the Western side of the canal and then does a full transit.

 

I may have searched wrong, but with the filters of "Joy" and "Panama City, Panama" which was the only choice for Panama and cruises with say Panama City whether it departs Colon or Fuerte Amador, I only came up with the one cruise leaving 6 Dec 23.

[big al]

16 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

Don't mean to sound rude or anything, but are you sure you are going out of Colon? I did a search on NCL for the Joy, and came up with this:

 

This goes out of the Fuerte Amador port which is on the Western side of the canal and then does a full transit.

 

I may have searched wrong, but with the filters of "Joy" and "Panama City, Panama" which was the only choice for Panama and cruises with say Panama City whether it departs Colon or Fuerte Amador, I only came up with the one cruise leaving 6 Dec 23.

 

The ship leaves out of Miami, and goes to Colon 4/20/23...

[quillwercruisers]

1 hour ago, big al said:

 

The ship leaves out of Miami, and goes to Colon 4/20/23...

Gotcha. Sorry for my confusion.  I would agree with BillB48 as far as only taking NCL excursions.  

[elbodans]

On 12/20/2022 at 9:06 AM, big al said:

Hi all- Four of us will be arriving in Colon at 6 am, leaving at 4 pm on the NCL Joy...we are NOT going thru the Panama Canal...does anybody know a way of going thru the canal on an excursion? I 've read Roberto E. Whitaker H does some tours...any suggestions? I'm calling NCL to see what excursions possibly do a separate tour of going thru the locks...thanks!

 

Big Al

There should be an NCL excursion that takes you through the canal on a ferry. I did this from Colon last month (on the MSC Divina). I wrote a detailed description of what that was like here: 

 

http://www.suitcasescholar.com/2023/01/10/transiting-the-panama-canal-by-ferry-an-msc-cruise-ship-excursion/

But the short version is: if NCL offers that excursion, do it. It's a long, LONG day but totally worth it.