Panama Canal excursions

Cruising to Panama Canal on Triumph March 2015. Does not include transit. Would like info about booking excursions for a partial transit through canal. It is better to book through Carnival or look for one on line? We will be in Colon on a Sunday. The sight I was checking out did not show any transits on Sunday. Please advise. Thanks so much.

Cruising to Panama Canal on Triumph March 2015. Does not include transit. Would like info about booking excursions for a partial transit through canal. It is better to book through Carnival or look for one on line? We will be in Colon on a Sunday. The sight I was checking out did not show any transits on Sunday. Please advise. Thanks so much.

I booked mine through carnival, worked out just fine. You end up quite a ways from the port. If the private tour's bus breaks down you could be late back to the ship. Just check out the times and don't run it close and the private on should not be a problem.

Definitely book through Carnival for a Canal Tour. You are transported to the other side of Panama. Traffic delays on the return trip are common.

Got to agree with both posts above. We started in Colon and took a bus(very nice tour bus with AC) to the pacific side in Panama City. Then boarded smaller excursion boat for passage though 3 of the locks. Very nice excursion which included lunch on board. Booked through Carnival.

Still one of the highlights of ALL the excursions on all of our cruises.

Cruising to Panama Canal on Triumph March 2015. Does not include transit. Would like info about booking excursions for a partial transit through canal. It is better to book through Carnival or look for one on line? We will be in Colon on a Sunday. The sight I was checking out did not show any transits on Sunday. Please advise. Thanks so much.

I'm on this cruise also. We have a good roll call going here on Cruise Critic - check it out and join in on the conversation:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2075570

As far as the Panama Canal excursions, several of us have already booked it through Carnival. I'd suggest booking this one through the cruise line, not independently.

Hope to see you on the Roll Call - it's going to be a great cruise!

I would prefer booking privately but would go to port of call to see what others have done. Myfriendmario is well thought of and we have taken two of his tours.

We booked through Carnival and were glad we did. The excursion was fantastic and we booked with a bunch of people from our roll call. We were glad we booked through Carnival because there was a big accident and our bus was late getting back to the ship. There were 2 buses that came back after us too.

Back when Carnival used to sail the 8 days cruises down to Colon on the Miracle we did the partial canal excursion thru Carnival. If I remember correctly we had about 20 some buses and ended up completely filling up 2 of the ferries. We were late getting back to the ship and because it was a Carnival tour the ship waited. I think this is one excursion you want to book thru Carnival because I wouldn't want to chance missing the ship in Panama. JMHO

Glad to find this post! I'll be on this cruise in March 2015 also, and was disappointed to find the only reviews of the Panama Canal tour were several years old. I emailed Carnival to find out if they had any more recent, they said they didn't. Several people in our group have already booked the tour, based on answers here, I'll go ahead and book for me and my husband. And I'll check out the roll call! Had a bad experience back in February booking a private tour from Progreso to Chichen Itza to save money, tour bus broke down on the way back and we nearly missed the ship! Never again on a long tour, not worth taking that chance.

I booked mine through carnival, worked out just fine. You end up quite a ways from the port. If the private tour's bus breaks down you could be late back to the ship. Just check out the times and don't run it close and the private on should not be a problem.

good idea.:eek:

I'm on this cruise also. We have a good roll call going here on Cruise Critic - check it out and join in on the conversation:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2075570

 

 

As far as the Panama Canal excursions, several of us have already booked it through Carnival. I'd suggest booking this one through the cruise line, not independently.

 

Hope to see you on the Roll Call - it's going to be a great cruise!

thinking about it.

On rare occasions it seems far wiser to just bite the bullet & book through Carnival. I definitely put this tour in that category. It is a very long tour & I've heard several stories of people having transportation problems getting back to the ship. One person even told about being hung up in the canal itself for several extra hours due to an accident. I just wouldn't risk it on this one.

That looks like a great itinerary! Have a great time. :)

On rare occasions it seems far wiser to just bite the bullet & book through Carnival. I definitely put this tour in that category. It is a very long tour & I've heard several stories of people having transportation problems getting back to the ship. One person even told about being hung up in the canal itself for several extra hours due to an accident. I just wouldn't risk it on this one.

 

That looks like a great itinerary! Have a great time. :)

I will emphasize the point that most posters have already made about booking excursions through Carnival at this port in particular. On my very 1st cruise stop in Panama, there was a traffic accident and our bus was almost an hour late getting back to the port. I wasn't worried since we knew that our guide had contacted the ship, appraised them of our situation and ETA and that the ship would wait for us. It seems that traffic delays are fairly common here, both on the road and through the canal itself. I would definitely advise playing it safe.

Even if it's more money, go with Carnival. We were on the ship in Panama when the captain announced they were holding departure until tour buses arrived. About 1 1/2 hours later, after 3 buses came we left. Those of us on deck could see another bus (apparently not a Carnival tour) pull into the lot----the ship continued to sea. Here is a video of a similar occurrence.

Fully agree with the other comments about using Carnival for longer day-trips here. We booked thru Carnival for a tour of Panama City as well as the workings of the canal. We were a little over 2 hours late and were the 2nd to last bus to return. The last bus was right behind us.

The ship started to loosen the ropes just as the last person boarded. The crew were running faster than pier runners.:)

Kev

Actually, the trip through the locks IS an "excursion"! You really don't NEED to get off the ship! But, you do need to move about the ship and view this from different sides, deck levels, etc,...to give you the best perspective. If you sit in one spot, you will miss 3/4 s of the sights!

Late arrivals for excursions seem to be the norm when involving the canal. We left late on the Miracle by almost 2 hours because of tour busses coming back late after 'traffic jams' at the locks. They waited for their excursions but do not have to wait for privately booked ones.

The canal tour offered by Carnival is fantastic. You will not regret taking this one. :D

I did that excursion back in 07. It's a long bus ride there or back. We were over an hour past departure tine getting back. Mi was so glad we boomed through Carnival. That's one excursion I would never go private tour company

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We booked thru Carnival, and were extremely happy. We left Panama almost 2 hours late because a fbunch of our tour-mates were held up in traffic and got in VERY late. The ship waited for them. Had that been a private tour, we would have been waving in the rear-view mirror.