IWantToLiveOverTheSea

I'm curious how long it might take on a day when the ship is docked (not for embarkation) to get outside the port to meet (with police presence!!) a taxi driver or tour provider. It sounds like a shuttle will be provided by the port to outside to a staging area. So if that's correct, would you think maybe a half hour would be needed to get on a shuttle and be taken to a place where you could meet a driver? And also, are taxis available on embarkation day? We'll be staying over a day so need to get transportation to a hotel in Lima (likely Miraflores area).

I should dig out my picture from Australia or New Zealand....our O ship next to one of the monsters.

Wow> Is that a P& O or what?

We used Efendi Travel to go from the airport to a hotel in Sultanahmet; we pre-paid with credit card. They gave explicit instructions on where/how to meet them. Our luggage didn't make it so we had to go fill out forms to get that straightened out. So we got to the location a bit late, but they had a rep there & he called an Efendi driver for us. Overall we were happy with them. But yes, traffic in the city is awful, though I don't know where your hotel is. But Sultanahmet area near the Blue Mosque has one-way streets and lots of traffic congestion, so it took forever. It was also the end of the week of Ramadan, so that probably added to the normal congestion.

Only one I've seen was on a long cruise in the Pacific with lots of sea days. Hilarious.

Definitely too early!

I don't know how Vista and the other O ships like Riviera & Marina compare in size and depth. But I know that one of the larger ships docked in the heart of Bordeaux last year for an overnight. I tracked her on Marine Traffic. So I'm guessing Vista will too, assuming she's overnighting. Here's where Sirena (smaller ship) docked - near the Bourse. It was great to walk off the ship. And we had a lot of interested people looking on as we got tied up! If you stop in Le Verdon, it's due to tides. We were there for a couple hours and had to stay onboard unless we were taking an O excursion to Bordeaux (to meet ship later after tour).

My first trip on Sirena was not that long ago (maybe 2022?) and we made all ports on our 14 day cruise with many ports. My second trip on Sirena was last year, and I think we may have missed one port out of 14 days and many ports. Both were in Europe, though different times and regions. And in Australia & New Zealand, we did experience 3 port misses. One was due to horrible fires in Australia, another to weather, and I don't know what the third was attributed to. One port was replaced with another port and the other 2 became at sea days. It was definitely disappointing, but unfortunately it's something you can experience with cruising, and perhaps with all kinds of travel. And as everyone is now back to vacationing after a long pandemic drought, and with cruising becoming extremely popular, I wouldn't be surprised if more than the usual number of dock overbookings occur for a while. I don't like to book with any vendor that has a hard and fast rule about either 24 hour or 48 hour notification of a cancelation. But some will put in writing that if your ship doesn't visit the port at all, they will not charge anything. And many vendors don't even charge anything anyway until the day of the cruise visit to their city. And a few vendors (like the mailman's tour in Akaroa, New Zealand), do make it clear no cancelations of any kind are accepted. In this last case I determine if the price of the tour is such that I'd prefer not to lose any money if you don't make the port. So far I have not lost any money from booking with a third-party provider, and I've been on quite a few cruises in various regions of the world at different times. But it IS best if you clarify things before you book, and get things in writing, as weather/sea/dock conditions don't always make themselves known to a Captain more than 24 or 48 hours in advance. As for other cruise experiences, it's my feeling (but not based on any data) that the other cruise line we use about a third of the time has more skipped ports than Oceania does. I always figured it was because their ships are newer and they don't want to risk them, but who knows? And as for the larger, more main stream lines, they tend to stick to the larger, tried and true ports, and repeat the same itineraries from one month to another. And Oceania goes to smaller places, with smaller ships, and with less experience. So maybe that accounts for some difference, if there are differences. Again, who knows? Maybe the higher seas from global warming, or port congestion, or a ton of other factors are at play. I've just learned to roll with the punches....and I tell myself that a missed port is an opportunity to go back. In any case, good luck. Australia and New Zealand are fabulous places to visit.

Thank you for the information! Now I see why we aren't scheduled to be in Panama City for our overnight until (I think) 8 PM. And from what I've read, the last part of the journey, as you implied, is the latter portion. It sounds like I'll be quite awake by then, although possibly eating dinner. But if so, dinner on the Terrace sounds perfect.

2005 white lighthouse......

Thank you everyone. I never expected to get so much response to my questions about the lighthouses. But I'm determined to see every one I can on my next cruise. I saw a color coded (black, red, green) diagram of lighthouses on a nautical site, but didn't save it, so now I'll have to go back and search for it. And I found the webcam on the canal yesterday and watched as a container ship went through one of the (I think) locks near the Caribbean side. And now I'm going back to see if that now-black lighthouse was white in my pictures from my previous trip through the canal. I'm pretty sure it was....

It's ok. I've seen over 600 lighthouses, so I've already figured out what range lights are. And we have a few pairs in the Chesapeake Bay, too. So you can get technical if you like!

We're going from the Caribbean side (Gatun Lake) to the Pacific. I'd love to get a quick summary of just how a Panama Canal journey by cruise ship works. For example: Are cruise ships given a likely time to report to the Canal starting point for their journey? I'm wondering if I'll need to get up early on our "daytime transit" day. And we're on what I would call a medium sized cruise ship (if that matters). Are we likely to go through the new canal or old, or is that anyone's guess? Are the 2 canals pretty close to each other? Does a cruise line normally have someone on board who narrates what's being seen? How long might passage take, and are some areas of the passage faster than others? We are scheduled to arrive Panama City by 8 PM, with the ship staying overnight. Are any parts of the passage more scenic than others? Does anyone know how many lighthouses there are on the passage, non-functional or not? And can anyone give me a link to good articles/blogs, or photos?

Thanks for letting me know. However, I'm not really maintaining this list. I only update after I cruise. But you can copy the last list you find on this thread to a new post, add a notation about Ketchikan, and save it.

We are to do a daytime transit throught the Canal on Oceania after visiting Costa Rica. The next day we will be in Panama City tentively until 6 PM, with a day at sea the next day, to go to Peru. There is no port listed for the day in Panama City. Would anyone be willing to guess whether we will be visiting Panama City from the newish cruise terminal in Fuerta Amador or someone else? And would we likely tender? Our itineray doesn't indicate that, but I saw an old port review that stated tendering was involved.