Panama Canal Cruise

[dinojude]

THIS WILL BE OUR 4TH CRUISE ON AND I'M HOOKED! THERE ON RCL AND ONE ON PRINCESS. -- WE ARE IN OUR EARLY 60s AND ENJOY A VARIETY OF SHIPBOARD ACTIVITIES AND SIGHTSEEING IN THE PORTS.

 

WE ARE GOING ON BRILLANCE OF THE SEAS PANAMA CANAL CRUISE ON MARCH 14,2008. WOULD LIKE TO HERE FROM ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO HAS BEEN ON THIS CRUISE --WHAT WAS THE SHIP LIKE? WHAT EXCURSIONS DID YOU TAKE IN THE PORTS, ETC.

 

WE WERE ON RCL VOYAGEUR CLASS TWICE LAST YEAR AND ARE GOING ON THE ALASKA CRUISE ON AUGUST 11 ON SERENADE OF THE SEAS -- I'M SOOO EXCITED!:p :cool:

[The Big Booper]

A gentle hint. Posting all caps is considered screaming at the top of your voice and is considered bad manners all over the internet.;)

[dinojude]

No harm meant --just beginner's error. I'm very new to Message Boards and appreciate your comments.

[Lve2Travel]

We did this cruise on the Brilliance and loved it - a bonus was that we had an aft balcony cabin - so the morning we entered the locks, we ordered room service for breakfast and watched comfortably from our balcony.

 

On the a note, if you are planning to do the locks excursion, use the ship's excursion - we did and are ever so glad - since the ship had to wait for 1.5 hours for our tour group to return - lots of "traffic" on the locks --

 

But everything was wonderful - this is great ship and a great cruise.

 

Have fun.

[Daisy May]

We did this cruise last December and loved it. I haven't been on a Voyager class yet, but we do love the Radiance class ship. We loved eating lunch at the back of the Windjammer coming back through the locks.

 

Aruba is beautiful. We loved it so much we are looking at a land vacation there sometime.

 

The Tortuguera canals excursion is good for Costa Rica. It was much better than we thought it would be.

 

We keep looking at doing this cruise again it was so great.

 

Sherry

[krazy4kruisin]

Congrats on your up coming crusies. We are hooked as well. Panama is amazing. I too agree with the other persons comment about booking ONLY booking with the cruise liens. Traffic is horrible in Panama. They do not have stop signs:eek: . A couple of people on our crusie were in traffic accidents and were late coming back to the ship. Panama is a very interesting place to visit. Enjoy.

[jebl]

We did the 11 day Canal cruise on the Brilliance. Radiance class is our favorite and you will love the Brilliance. If you don't have a balcony, I would try to get one. It was great to be able to watch the transit from the balcony. We went up on deck for the transit into the lake then watched the transit back from the balcony. We did not do any excursions except the Tortuguera Canals. Go in the morning when it is cooler. It was a great trip.

 

In Aruba and Curacao we did our own tours. Found a tour bus as we got off of the ship. It was less expensive than the ship's tour and just as good.

 

Whatever you do, I know you will enjoy the Brilliance and the Canal.

 

Be sure to watch the video of the making of the Canal before you transit. It was shown on the cabin TV. Very interesting.

[BILL-WI]

You will love the cruise! The ship, the crew, the Canal, the whole deal is great!

 

We did the same cruise last January...see my signature for the photos of the cruise.

 

Have FUN,

 

BILL

[truffles2]

David McCollough's "Path Between the Seas" will give you a lot of information about the construction of the canal.

[gailc]

We have done this cruise 3 times. The 1st one was on the Sun Princess, the 2nd one was the 10 day Brilliance, & the 3rd one was the 11 day Brilliance. It's one of our favorite cruises. We are thinking about going on the 11 day Brilliance one again next year.

 

From what I remember, you can only take ship tours in Panama. We have never taken one since we like staying on the ship through the locks.

 

It's a very relaxing cruise with the ports & all the Sea Days.

 

Gail

[jules815]

We're seriously considering the Panama Canal on Brilliance in 2009. :D

[FreewayFortune]

We did the 11 day on the Brilliance last year and loved it:) The canal was amazing to see. We did the rainforest aerial tram in Costa Rica and loved it.

[KeywestK]

THIS WILL BE OUR 4TH CRUISE ON AND I'M HOOKED! THERE ON RCL AND ONE ON PRINCESS. -- WE ARE IN OUR EARLY 60s AND ENJOY A VARIETY OF SHIPBOARD ACTIVITIES AND SIGHTSEEING IN THE PORTS.

 

WE ARE GOING ON BRILLANCE OF THE SEAS PANAMA CANAL CRUISE ON MARCH 14,2008. WOULD LIKE TO HERE FROM ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO HAS BEEN ON THIS CRUISE --WHAT WAS THE SHIP LIKE? WHAT EXCURSIONS DID YOU TAKE IN THE PORTS, ETC.

 

WE WERE ON RCL VOYAGEUR CLASS TWICE LAST YEAR AND ARE GOING ON THE ALASKA CRUISE ON AUGUST 11 ON SERENADE OF THE SEAS -- I'M SOOO EXCITED!:p :cool:

 

We did this cruise last December and loved it. If you decide to disembark the ship while you are at the Canal, however, you can only do that if you purchase your excursion through the cruiseline. We stayed on the ship so we could view the locks coming and going. Loved it!!!! In Puerto Limon (Costa Rica) we did the Tortuguera Canal tour, and we booked it through an independent operator, Oscar Brown Tours (www.oscarbrowntours.com) and it was excellent. Better than we even hoped it would be, and it cost approximately half of what the cruiseline wanted for the same excursion. Aruba is great.....did the beach and shopping during the day, and the Pub Crawl tour (booked through RCI) in the evening. Loved it--so much fun. If this will be your first time in Grand Cayman, I can very safely advise you to do whatever tour you want through an independent operator. They are all at the dock when you get off the tender, and you can pick and chose whatever interests you.

 

Have a great cruise! You're going to love this itinerary.

 

Karen

[vjh8799]

We did this cruise 3/16/2007 and booked on 3/14/2008. You'll love this ship, crew and itinerary. Weather was very nice, warm - not hot and we were lucky with no rain!

We stayed on the ship in Panama - which was very interesting. Try having lunch in the dining room with a window view as you travel back through the lock - you'll find this interesting .

In Costa Rico we did the ship's tour Old Banana Route Train Adventure and it was one of the best ship excursions we have done.

Grand Cayman and Aruba we did on our own - both places very easy to get around on your own and very safe.

Enjoy - maybe we'll meet up next March.

[dubaihammer]

We are on the same cruise. Come and join us on the roll call http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=482574

[Pumbaamd]

Another thumbs up for the Brilliance/Panama cruise!!! You will love it.

Hi Judy!

Rick and Deirdra

[MissKise]

We loved this ship and the cruise.

 

My father (76 years old) and his wife, about 30 people from Ohio and my DH and I booked this cruise March 5th, 2007 for 11 days. It was an amazing trip, that I am glad I took. I booked primarily to go and be able to spend some time with my father, but it was an eye opener for DH & I.

 

The Panama Canal was amazing. We stayed on board (we did get off the "shop" a little) and enjoyed the locks. I did not expect to be as impressed as a I was. We went up top for entering (we were early, it was still very dark) and listened to the narrative. It got very crowded and we went down to deck 5 and enjoyed the passage even more.

 

In Labadee we went to the beach, pulled up a chair and enjoyed the BBQ. Very relaxing, clean and next time I will be hopping on the little tram to explore more of the island. On a side note, my father rented a scooter for the whole trip, and he stayed on board in Labadee, because we did not know about the big tire wheelchairs available. I wish he would have been informed that he could come ashore.

 

Aruba was fun, we took a tour off the ship with a bus we found outside the ship to the castle rock, around the island to the windward side of the island, and back to the ship. We enjoyed seeing the sites.

 

Curacao was fun, clean and we walked off the ship, grabbed a taxi into town and shopped a little then grabbed a cab to KonTiki Beach. IT WAS AMAZING. Sheltered white sand beach, palm trees, clean bathrooms, changing rooms, bar, shop and cabana with a native girl to give massages. DH was in heaven, I booked an hour massage for him and we snorkled. Very relaxing and enjoyable day. It was $3 to get into the beach and a few dollars charged for the chair. Very good investment. We grabbed a cab back to downtown, shoppped a little more and walked back to the ship over the floating bridge. They had to move it while we were on it for some ships to pass.

 

In Costa Rica, we booked a tour with Oscar Brown (the link is above) and really enjoyed the tour. Small van and driver who took us to the banana plantation, to the canals, shopping, on a tour of the island and back to the ship. We loved the canals with all the wild life, and we stopped at the private animal rescue house, with monkeys, peacocks, huskies, birds, and other various animals. My dad was unsure of the boat and his mobility ( he had a stroke years ago) but the crew helped and made sure he was ok. He loved it. Oscar does a good job. Some of the group booked the "similar tour" through the ship and did not see anything close to what we got to see....we talked over dinnner and they were very disappointed that they paid double the cost and had less to see.

 

The ship was wonderful, great crew, You will enjoy it all!

[dinojude]

Thank you all for the information about this cruise on the Brillance of the Seas. We booked a JS so it should be fabulous!:)

[cb at sea]

Js's are fabulous--theonly way to travel. Hubby thought the 10 day had too many sea days (6 sea, 4 ports) and would not do this route again. I like sitting at the pool, so it was ok with me.

The Panama Canal is an interesting thing. One time, tho, is enough!

[wrp96]

If you decide you want to get off the ship in Panama, I highly recommend the Panama Canal by Ferry tour through RCCL. You get to see the entire length of the canal plus part of the Panamanian countryside. The canal itself is absolutely amazing.

 

The Brilliance is one of my favorite ships. All that glass and elegance, while still having tons of activities and options onboard if you want to partake of them.