Panama Canal & children

[SailingBird]

We are trying to decide whether to book the Panama Canal - Jewel of the Seas - for Feb 09.
I am concerned as to whether there will be many children on the sailing - we would be taking our 12 year old son who is really interested in the canal and locks etc. but would really like to meet up with others his age.

Has anyone any experience on this matter. Thank you.:confused:

[wrp96]

Unless your sailing is the week of President's Day, there will not be that many children onboard. I sailed the Panama Canal itinerary the last week in February 2006 and I was one of the youngest people onboard and I just turned 30. There was a small group of children onboard though and they all seemed to have found each other and be having a great time.

Just realized you are from the UK. President's Day will be the 3rd week in February and a lot of kids are out of school that week in the US.

[girlfriendtoo]

Unless your sailing is the week of President's Day, there will not be that many children onboard. I sailed the Panama Canal itinerary the last week in February 2006 and I was one of the youngest people onboard and I just turned 30. There was a small group of children onboard though and they all seemed to have found each other and be having a great time.

Just realized you are from the UK. President's Day will be the 3rd week in February and a lot of kids are out of school that week in the US.


We just got off a Carnival cruise to Panama which did occur during the week of presidents Day and there were hardly any kids. They ended up combining alot of the 6..8 with the 9 .. 12 and the 9..11 with the 12..13.

[toledo]

girlfriendtoo, what did you do in Panama? Did they have the Panama Canal ferry excursion?

[girlfriendtoo]

Hey Toledo,
We (the women and children)did nothing in Panama except took the kids out to the pier for some souvenirs. The more we read, the less safe we thought it would be since the guys were fishing. We tried to find the flea market later but no one knew what we were talking about and we were directed to the Free Trade Zone.

The fishing according to the guys was not good with old and broken equipment. They ended up having to rescue another boat of people because they were stuck after losing their motor after hitting a stump. This other boat of people were shooken up pretty good as when the driver retreived his motor he apparently poured gasoline over the motor in an attempt to start it running again???YIKES!!! They all got 1/2 the cash back because they fished for only an hour.
My husband said when they did go down to the shore excursion desk to tell them of the experience it was full of people complaining about their whole Panama experience.
After speaking with the excursion desk a few times they indicated that they were going to check deeply into the fishing excursion as well as this stop as we were not the only complaint in the past months.
Lisa

[toledo]

Wow! I am sorry to hear that. We're stopping there next month and are signed up for the ferry excursion. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed that everything will go well. Thanks for responding.

[whale-watcher]

We are trying to decide whether to book the Panama Canal - Jewel of the Seas - for Feb 09.
I am concerned as to whether there will be many children on the sailing - we would be taking our 12 year old son who is really interested in the canal and locks etc. but would really like to meet up with others his age.

Has anyone any experience on this matter. Thank you.:confused:We did a partial transit on the coral, and my boys (age 8 and 13 then) really enjoyed the experience...including the ferry excursion through the canal. Make sure you read about the history of the canal before hand...it is an educational and fascinating experience.