Suggestions on Panama Canal Curise

We have an opportunity to take advantage of a friends and family cruise deal. We can select from Celebrity & Azamara. We want to do the Panama Canal. We are both 52 and have cruised several times. Not sure which itinerary & ship would give us the best experience. Azamara may have too old of a demographic, but the 2 itineraries are appealing. Has anyone experienced either and which would you recommend. Here are our choices and many thanks:

Azamara:12 NIGHT NATIONAL PARKS OF PANAMA VOYAGE -

Miami, Florida - Willemstad, Curacao - Oranjestad, Aruba - Cartagena, Colombia - Fuerte Amador (Panama City), Panama - Panama Canal, Panama - Golfito, Costa Rica - Quepos, Costa Rica - Caldera, Costa Rica

Azamara: 12 NIGHT COSTA RICA COAST TO COAST -

Caldera, Costa Rica - Fuerte Amador (Panama City), Panama - Panama Canal, Panama - Puerto Limon, Costa Rica - New Orleans, Louisiana - Key West, Florida - Miami, Florida

The alternative would be 15 night Celebrity Infinity -

Eastbound Panama Canal Cruise -

San Diego, California

• Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
  
• Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  
• Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
  
• Puntarenas, Costa Rica
  
• Panama Canal, Panama
  
• Colon, Panama
  
• Cartagena, Colombia
  
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  

I can't think of a good reason to take a 12 day cruise when you can take a 15!! More days on the ship!

Any 10+ day cruise is going to skew older.

The Azamara cruise has some new ports not commonly seen. But I think flights and ground transport, overnight stays etc, would be more complex on the Azamara.

Was just at Puerto Quetzal- fun port. I would take Celebrity's cruise.

I like the way Cruiser Bruce thinks.... 15 is always better than 12:D!! The other point of ground transport and possibly overnight stays would be the main consideration for me. You would have to fly to San Jose CR and then transfer to Caldera via bus/auto or the other way around depending on which Azamara itinerary you chose. Caldera is some distance from San Jose so... airport to the ship transfers, hotel stays etc. would certainly be much less of a challenge if you were doing them in San Diego or Ft. Lauderdale.

On the Celebrity cruise you would see what the Caldera area has to offer with Celebrity's stop in Puntarenas, since Caldera is another port just a few miles from Puntarenas.

I have done the identical itinerary as the Celebrity example and was certainly satisfied.

I would first find out how expensive it is to come back from Caldera. It's probably great for people who add a land vacation in Costa Rica. Come to think of it, that could be me. :)

Then how many sea days do you have from Puerto Limon to New Orleans? Looks excessive to me.

Size of ship? Azamara's 2 ships are intimate with about 690 passengers maximum. I like that. How about the Celebrity ship? Advantage: It has a beginning and end port with plenty of flights.

Hey Cruiser Bruce, what did you do in Peurto Quetzal? (since you say it was a fun port :)).

We are currently planning our activities for our March westbound Panama cruise and I'm undecided on what to do there. If you don't mind sharing.

Thanks.

Hey Cruiser Bruce, what did you do in Peurto Quetzal? (since you say it was a fun port :)).

 

We are currently planning our activities for our March westbound Panama cruise and I'm undecided on what to do there. If you don't mind sharing.

 

Thanks.

Went to the Mayan Ruins about 2 hours away by bus. Past two active volcanos. Had a great ship excursion group and guide. Probably learned more about a country on one excursion than ever before. Saw lots of the small country. A very comprehensive and wide ranging excursion. People were very friendly and interested. Mayan culture is very ingrained in the society and very interesting.

Hey Cruiser Bruce, what did you do in Peurto Quetzal? (since you say it was a fun port :)).

 

We are currently planning our activities for our March westbound Panama cruise and I'm undecided on what to do there. If you don't mind sharing.

 

Thanks.

When we were in Puerto Quetzal we took a ship's charter bus up to Antigua. They have guides up there for $10 that would take you on a great walking tour of the city. The drive up and back was every scenic too.

Was just at Puerto Quetzal- fun port. I would take Celebrity's cruise.

We are on Celebrity Infinity on 11/20/15 and can't wait to visit all of these new (to us) ports.

We just returned from the Wind Spirit that went from Colon, through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific coast of Panama and Costa Rica.. We flew out of San Jose. We opted for a taxi from the post to the airport in San Jose instead of the ships transportation which was higher. It took us less than an hour to travel and was $120 for the four of us with luggage. We negotiated our rate before we got in the taxi. No worries at all. Only issue was there was an accident the other direction and traffic was backed up for MILES!

Went to the Mayan Ruins about 2 hours away by bus. Past two active volcanos. Had a great ship excursion group and guide. Probably learned more about a country on one excursion than ever before. Saw lots of the small country. A very comprehensive and wide ranging excursion. People were very friendly and interested. Mayan culture is very ingrained in the society and very interesting.

Hi Cruiser Bruce. Thanks for the information you're sharing. We're on a westbound FLL to San Diego the end of March, and are interested in the tour To Antigua. However, my wife has a problem with altitude sickness. Looks like Antigua is about 5000 feet above sea level? Did you see/experience any problems with the altitude?

Thanks! Shore Cruiser's SO

Hi Cruiser Bruce. Thanks for the information you're sharing. We're on a westbound FLL to San Diego the end of March, and are interested in the tour To Antigua. However, my wife has a problem with altitude sickness. Looks like Antigua is about 5000 feet above sea level? Did you see/experience any problems with the altitude?

 

Thanks! Shore Cruiser's SO

We went thru Antigua to get to the Mayan ruins, which were at 3 or 4000 feet. Other than noticeably colder (we were warned), no problems either at Antiqua or the Mayan ruins.

PCWalton1 posted above about going to Antiqua.