Panama Canal

[arizonaperson]

Anyone know of a great cruise thru the Panama Canal around 10 days? I'm interested in what cruise line people have felt they enjoyed. I'm leaning towards Princess.I know some only go thru 1st lock then turn around in Gatun Lake. Is that as good as going all the way thru? I'm limited on the number of days. Thanks.:)

[gizmo]

I enjoyed my 10 day cruise on Hal which only goes through 1 lock.

 

I feel I saw enough of the canal. We didn't leave the ship at Gatun but stayed on to go back through the lock. My husband and I both enjoyed it.

 

You will need a much longer cruise to go through the entire canal. Most are repositioning cruises and run from 15 to 20 some days.

[wrp96]

I think Princess offers a San Juan to Acapulco Panama Canal cruise that's only 10 days, and possible Celebrity Mercury might be doing a short full transit Panama Canal cruise this season as well. But most full transit Panama Canal cruises are a minimum of 14 days.

 

BUT, I did the 10 night RCCL Brilliance of the Seas partial Panama Canal and had a great time. The ship did only go through the one set of locks, but I then got off the ship and continued through the rest of the Panama Canal on a ferry which was amazing. So I still got to see how the entire Panama Canal worked, but it fit within my time schedule.

[lougee1043]

we were on celebity galaxy 10 niter out of galveston r/tdoing a partial pan canal in march 05

[newmexicoNita]

WRP is right, Princess does, but we choose the HALs and only partial Panama Canal. Both were 10 days; we really liked the ports offered by HAL better, plus the ship Princess uses isn't one of their better ones. Combining that with the difficulty of getting to or out of Acapulco compared to flying to and from Ft Lauderdale was the deciding factor. NMNita

[arizonaperson]

Thanks to all of you that gave your opinions. I love this board, everyone is so helpful. Many thanks.:) :) :)

[sea_breaze]

We went through the partial transit and really enjoyed our trip. Going through the locks once was good enough for me, but like Gizmo said if you liked going through it that much you can stay on the ship and go through twice. Costa Rica was amazing. Planning a land based vaction for CR.

 

Went on the Coral Princess 10 days out of FLL and it was a terrific ship.Newer(2002), clean, and beautiful. Perfect size as well, not too big/not too small. Our favorite ship so far. I believe the sailing out of San Juan is on an older Princess ship. There were also stops in Grand Cayman,Cozumel, and Jamaica with a short stop(3-4hours) in Panama on our itinerary.

[c-legs]

I enjoyed my 10 day cruise on Hal which only goes through 1 lock.

 

I feel I saw enough of the canal. We didn't leave the ship at Gatun but stayed on to go back through the lock. My husband and I both enjoyed it.

 

You will need a much longer cruise to go through the entire canal. Most are repositioning cruises and run from 15 to 20 some days.

:) Hi,

Actually, Regal Princess runs 10 days full transit SanJuan--Acapulco.

And I beleive Oceania has a couple Florida-CostaRica 10 day run.

Cheers

Claude G

;)

[Cruise Lover Kathy]

I agree with gizmo...the HAL cruise is round trip from Florida which means cheaper airfare. The ports were great and we felt the one lock expperience was fine. I didn't need to transit more locks but it would have been interesting to travel the waterways across Panama which would seem so small when you are traveling on such a large ship.

[chasetf]

We have done both the partial and full transit. The full transit is the way to go, but I understand your time is limited (10 days). All lines basically do the same thing on the partial, into Gatun Lake in the morning, then back out in the afternoon. You see the locks, but miss the cut and bridges and passage through Gatun Lake.

[Chuggiebug]

The 10 day RCCL on Brilliance of the Seas was a great trip. The main difference between a full transit and partial transit is that you go thorugh the same locks twice rather than each set once.

 

We too stayed on teh ship in Gatun Lake so that we could experience the locks in reverse.

[FunCruiser56]

I agree, we took the Brilliance of the Seas (Royal Carribean) on an 11 day partial transit and loved it. It was the best cruise we have taken so far. We would love to do a full transit some day.

 

Bev