Can you get off in Gatun lake if you're not on a ships tour

[LisadelRio]

We are doing a partial tranist on the Galaxy in March. Does anyone know if there are options to the ships shore excursions from Gatun Lake. Or do you have to wait until the ships docks to do a non-ship tour?

 

Thanks in advance!

[nmtraveler]

We are doing a partial tranist on the Galaxy in March. Does anyone know if there are options to the ships shore excursions from Gatun Lake. Or do you have to wait until the ships docks to do a non-ship tour?

 

Thanks in advance!

Not too many answers yet Lisa. One thing for sure, the Cristobal port isn't much to see. Only 127 days to go!:) :D

[VikkiGarcia]

I returned from a full transit canal tour Oct. 17 with Royal Caribbean. You could not get off the ship at Gatun Lake unless you did a ship sponsored tour. Cristobal peir was a GREAT place for shopping, but shopping would not take more than an hour. I do not believe passengers could leave the peir itself. There was a armed guard near the only exit/entrance I saw vendors walking through.

[nmtraveler]

I just talked to the Captain's Club and they say that you can be tendered to shore with all the other shore excursion participants and take a locally offered tour. I would ask while you are onboard. Sometimes the Captain's Club doesn't know for sure. When we took the full transit this spring, we were scheduled to go to Fuerte Amador, which happened to be a tender port. Because of weather, no one was allowed to leave the ship so you would have been out of luck with your local tour operator. Celebrity credited our onboard account for the cancellation even though we had booked early on their website and charged it to our credit card.