Panama Canal Eastbound Or Westbound?

[Nannieandpapa]

We are planning a Panama Canal cruise in Spring 2008 and are trying to decide whether to take an Eastbound or Westbound cruise, Florida to/from California. Have heard that traveling "uphill" from the Panama Canal to the California coast can be quite rocky. Any suggestions?

[Pudgesmom]

If you are planning a springtime cruise, almost all of the cruises offered will be Westbound. At that time of year, the cruise lines are repositioning the ships to the Pacific for the Alaska summer season.

 

Maybe you will find an eastbound cruise, but I would be VERY surprised to hear of it.

 

Beth

[MTemple212]

I know there are east bound cruise from CA to FL in Late February/March. WE are taking this years Celebrity Mercury sailing on Feb 18th from San Diego and arrives in Ft. Lauderdale on March 4th. Oops, I mean next years.

[fllady]

We prefer to fly to the opposite placefrom where we live in Florida, so that would be California, play tourist there for a fewdays and then cruise back to Florida. Makes it easier than having to catch a plane back home after a longer cruise. Just our opinion.

[edste]

We took the cruise from Florida to SF in May and found the water a little rocky the last day of the cruise. Nothing terrible though. We spent a few days in SF playing tourist and it was a wonderful ending to the vacation.

[MTemple212]

I would also think cruise west to east is better, especially on the body. You don't have any jet lag that way either. It just seems that flying west is so much easier than flying east.

[AWED23]

We are planning a Panama Canal cruise in Spring 2008 and are trying to decide whether to take an Eastbound or Westbound cruise, Florida to/from California. Have heard that traveling "uphill" from the Panama Canal to the California coast can be quite rocky. Any suggestions?

East bound for smoothest ride for sure.

[Cruisin Kay D]

So are you saying that the repositionings eastbound in Sept/Oct are smoother than repositioning westbound in April/May?

[retrembl]

We are planning a Panama Canal cruise in Spring 2008 and are trying to decide whether to take an Eastbound or Westbound cruise, Florida to/from California. Have heard that traveling "uphill" from the Panama Canal to the California coast can be quite rocky. Any suggestions?

 

It all depends on what you are looking for. We sailed West to East back in 1999 and the weather was a bit rough on the north costs of South America. Hurrican Lenny don't you know. Also we were unable to see much of Acapulco.

 

This year we are sailing the Island Princess from San Juan to Acapulco. We are staying in Acapulco for an additiona two days, so the flight home to Boston is no big deal.

[Desert Cruizers]

My husband I took the April 27 Cruise out of Ft Lauderdale back to Seattle thru the Panama and once we got to Cabo, it got a bit rough out there but nothing that bothered that old Sun Princess. She rode those waves beautifully. Only drawback we were 2 hrs late getting into Seattle after leaving San Fran. All and all a wonderful trip.

[Sadowskib]

We are planning a Panama Canal cruise in Spring 2008 and are trying to decide whether to take an Eastbound or Westbound cruise, Florida to/from California. Have heard that traveling "uphill" from the Panama Canal to the California coast can be quite rocky. Any suggestions?

 

Hi,

 

We are planning to take the HAL reposition Panama Canal cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle in April 2008. We did the reverse in 2000 and are seking to see what the other side of the ship looks at! LOL I'd never worry about safety - those captains have orders to never endanger the passengers. No worries -go enjoy. Bernie and Rita

[lobstertail]

I don't know if Eastbound is smoother - we've not done it before - but we will be on the Westerdam Oct 1, 2008 doing just that - starts in San Diego and finishes in Fort Lauderdale. We are from Penna. and wanted the shorter plane ride at the end. It's hard to believe they're booking that far ahead, but they are. We're really looking forward to it.

[Desert Cruizers]

We took the cruise from Florida to SF in May and found the water a little rocky the last day of the cruise. Nothing terrible though. We spent a few days in SF playing tourist and it was a wonderful ending to the vacation.

We sailed out of Ft lauderdale April 27 thru May 14 of 2006 on the Sun Princess, a 17 day Cruise and had a great time. We live on the WEst Coast so made it much easier to fly direct from Seattle to home at end of Cruise. Only rough part was from Cabo up. Got to use pool day after leaving Cabo but ended there.

[denhur]

We'll be on the Radiance o/t Seas november 4th on its eastbound trip, according to the travel agent eastbound is significantly calmer. It probably has to do with the time of year (eastbound:fall versus westbound:spring) but the effects of the California Current (north-->south along calif./baja coast also known as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre) is the main culprit.

 

My advice: eastbound!

[pretenda]

Hi there - we're doing the LA to FL on Island Princess - looking forward to it so much. Counting down already!:)