Anyway to avoid canal transit.

My husband wants to go somewhere warm and suggested the Panama Canal, but he doesn't want to go through the canal. (We have done the Suez, Danube locks, and others.) I called Princess and Holland and you at least have to take the partial from Ft. Lauderdale to Gatun Lake and then get on their ships tours to return. You can't book your own.

My husband says that his brother took a Panama Canal cruise a few years ago which docked in Colon where people could get off (and save money by not going through the canal--but had to take a ship's tour). Then the ship would pick them up on the way back.

i called his brother and he wished he had known about this as he would have saved the $300 pp charged to go through the canal--included in the fare, but refunded if you didn't go. So they did the partial transit back and forth.

Can someone enlighten me on this. Did Princess at one time do this? Things change but would like to know if it was in the past?

Thanks.

Of the top of my head the only cruise line presently offering Colon as a port call only is Celebrity with a 11 day Caribbean cruise on the Equinox. Carnival offered something similar a while back, but I don't know if they still do.

As far as Princess offering to let you disembark without going through the Canal in order to save $$ is not something I was aware of. They may have allowed passengers to disembark to do a land tour rather than the transit for example, it would not save the passenger any money. The way the toll structure works is as long as there a single paying passenger on board then the ship will pay the full rate of $134 on each passenger berth occupied or not. If for some reason the ship is on a "non revenue" transit (no paying passengers at all, crew only) then a reduce rate per passenger berth is applied, I think it presently is $108 per berth.

About the partial transits offered by Princess and HAL you mentioned, the way this presently operates... the ship will sail round trip from Florida and along with various stops in other Caribbean ports of call arrive at the Atlantic entrance to the Canal. The ship will then proceed through Gatun Locks to the Gatun Lake anchorage. Once the ship reaches the anchorage, passengers taking shore excursions will tender off the ship to meet their tour. These shore excursions must be purchased through the cruise line at this particular stop. While the passengers who are on shore excursions, those remaining on board will lock back through Gatun Locks and proceed to dock in Colon where the touring passengers will rejoin the ship. The tolls for the ship are not reduced in any way because there are less passengers on the ship for the return trip through Gatun Locks. By the way, the ship pays the same in tolls for a partial transit as it would for a full transit.

Thank you Bill for your detailed answer. That is what I suspected all along and my brother in law doesn't know what he is talking about!!!! :D:D:D

I have read with interest your other posts and I have appreciated them.

In the scurry to get something settled since we booked last weekend for Jan 2, after my husband came to me with a calendar and HAL brochure. I just read him your post which makes total sense. He just wants someplace warm and we haven't been to Panama nor Costa Rica.

Cruise Critic is the best!

Thank you.

Thanks for the kind words. And you sure do learn things on Cruise Critic, I just happened to see this on the Princess board... Of course the dates won't help in your present plans, but it certainly ties in with visiting Panama on a cruise without a transit. In March 2016 out of Houston, Princess is offering 11 day cruise that includes Cartagena, Colon (port call only), Limon and Cozumel. The port fees and taxes for that cruise are only $115 on top of what seems to be a very reasonable price, which demonstrates that fees and taxes for a transit do elevate the price a wee bit!

Check out the March 30, 2016 trip on the Caribbean Princess. It doesn't go in to the canal but stops in Colon.