Panama Canal Pre-cruise excursion

[cruisetorelax44]

I posted this on the Panama Canal board, but no one has responded, so I thought I'd post it here as well.

 

We're on the March 30th sailing that starts in Colon. We booked a pre-cruise excursion with Royal that starts at 630am on embarkation day. Has anyone done this tour? Does anyone know where it starts? Because of the early hour, the tour start spot may impact the hotel location we choose. The only time I've done a pre-cruise tour was on a Greek cruise that left from Civitaveccia. That left from the airport outside of Rome. Thanks!

[smokeybandit]

I would imagine it would start from the port.

[DukeASUGirl]

I would contact the Shore Excursions department and ask them. Explain that you need to know where to book the hotel, given that super-early hour.

[orville99]

1 hour ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

I posted this on the Panama Canal board, but no one has responded, so I thought I'd post it here as well.

 

We're on the March 30th sailing that starts in Colon. We booked a pre-cruise excursion with Royal that starts at 630am on embarkation day. Has anyone done this tour? Does anyone know where it starts? Because of the early hour, the tour start spot may impact the hotel location we choose. The only time I've done a pre-cruise tour was on a Greek cruise that left from Civitaveccia. That left from the airport outside of Rome. Thanks!

Having been to (and driven through) Colon, the further you are from the port, the more distressed the area becomes. Colon apparently continues to exists solely to service the "duty free" shippers, and is (at least according to the people we talked with) in the process of being demolished so an Atlantic side version of Panama City can be built in its place. Even the new shopping mall that they built to attract tourists at the port is empty. The only activity we saw there is collecting people for shore excursions that get out of Colon as quickly as possible.

Edited June 11, 2023 by orville99

[twangster]

The Radisson Colon 2000 hotel is very close to the terminals. 

 

A few months ago Radiance stopped at the closest terminal.  During the day it was fine.  Grocery store and restaurants right there.  

 

That's a brutal start time though.  

 

Keep an eye on some roll calls before your sail date.  Surely someone will do it before your cruise.  Worst case cancel it a few days before or if you find something more appealing.  

[smokeybandit]

If you really wanted to do a Panama City tour, I'd do the post-cruise tour on the back end. 

[cruisetorelax44]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

The Radisson Colon 2000 hotel is very close to the terminals. 

 

A few months ago Radiance stopped at the closest terminal.  During the day it was fine.  Grocery store and restaurants right there.  

 

That's a brutal start time though.  

 

Keep an eye on some roll calls before your sail date.  Surely someone will do it before your cruise.  Worst case cancel it a few days before or if you find something more appealing.  

I think that's where we're going to stay. Thanks!

[cruisetorelax44]

40 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

If you really wanted to do a Panama City tour, I'd do the post-cruise tour on the back end. 

We thought about that,  but there's one direct flight home and it leaves at 12:40p. Otherwise,  it's a connecting flight that is about $400 more per person. We're early risers lol...

[smokeybandit]

21 minutes ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

We thought about that,  but there's one direct flight home and it leaves at 12:40p. Otherwise,  it's a connecting flight that is about $400 more per person. We're early risers lol...

 

With that being a new homeport + foreign country airport security/customs, I'm curious how early is too early for a flight. I'm on that same route 2 weeks prior and have a 12:30pm flight available for a lot cheaper, but worry that would really be rushing things.

Edited June 11, 2023 by smokeybandit

[cruisetorelax44]

20 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

 

With that being a new homeport + foreign country airport security/customs, I'm curious how early is too early for a flight. I'm on that same route 2 weeks prior and have a 12:30pm flight available for a lot cheaper, but worry that would really be rushing things.

We plan to walk off the ship.  We specifically chose this direction because we'll end closer to the airport.

[ARandomTraveler]

I'm excited to see these Panama Canal cruise itineraries! There's a few 14-16 day itineraries going from Los Angeles and ending in Ft Lauderdale in 2024.

I almost booked one today until I saw that the one I wanted had balcony cabins starting at $4400/person, plus an additional $2000+ to make it refundable ☹️. 
 

I guess I discovered this itinerary too late because there's only 3 balconies left, even at that price. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by ARandomTraveler

[orville99]

8 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I guess I discovered this itinerary too late because there's only 3 balconies left, even at that price. 

Balcony cabins on these itineraries sell out quickly. We booked our November 2023 transit cruises in March, and got the last available balcony cabins. OV and Interior are still available however.

[Cruise5life]

11 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I'm excited to see these Panama Canal cruise itineraries! There's a few 14-16 day itineraries going from Los Angeles and ending in Ft Lauderdale in 2024.

I almost booked one today until I saw that the one I wanted had balcony cabins starting at $4400/person, plus an additional $2000+ to make it refundable ☹️. 
 

I guess I discovered this itinerary too late because there's only 3 balconies left, even at that price. 

Wow that’s crazy prices.  
In January I just did a solo Panama LA to MIA 16 days balcony on a different cruise line(NCL).    2200.00 total.   With 50.00 excursion credit for each port and 250.00 stock OBC.    
it amazes me how crazy these prices are getting.    

[ARandomTraveler]

26 minutes ago, Cruise5life said:

Wow that’s crazy prices.  
In January I just did a solo Panama LA to MIA 16 days balcony on a different cruise line(NCL).    2200.00 total.   With 50.00 excursion credit for each port and 250.00 stock OBC.    
it amazes me how crazy these prices are getting.    

I figured it's probably because there's only 3 left and so they're priced really high. I can do 2 insides for about $7000 vs $11000 for the one balcony. It's for the October 5th 2024 sailing. I didn't pull the trigger on the inside rooms yet because I'd really prefer to do a balcony for a 16 day cruise, and I just need to convince myself that $11,000 is worth it (it's probably not).

 

I'm doing a 12 day cruise this summer in a balcony on a much nicer ship (spectrum) and it cost me less than $5,000. Of course the rest of the vacation, (airfare, hotels, and the land portion of that vacation) is costing me 5x that amount, but if I'm just comparing the cruise fare, it's ridiculous to be charged $11,000 a year and a half in advance when I got a similar trip on a nicer ship for less than $5,000 when I only booked it 10 months in advance.

 

I might put a deposit down on a refundable fare to hold the room and watch to see if prices drop, but I'm unlikely to take a 16 day cruise on a  crappy ship in an inside room for 11 grand. 

Edited June 12, 2023 by ARandomTraveler

[smokeybandit]

The 7 day Panama Canal cruises are still pretty reasonable. Which I guess makes sense since it's a niche market and homeport city with limited options for flights.

[orville99]

3 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

I'd really prefer to do a balcony for a 16 day cruise, and I just need to convince myself that $11,000 is worth it (it's probably not).

That’s insane. More than twice the price than what we paid for a balcony on Serenade Panama transit from LA to Miami for this November (and we booked in March).