Do's and Don'ts before booking a Pananma Canal cruise

One of my husband's bucket-list cruise destinations is the Panama Canal. My job is to find out all the information I can about it and compare prices. I am not sure where to start. Tips/Suggestions would be helpful. I am not sure of the best time to go ...how long to go for...what to see and do. I heard there are multiple Panama Cruise options. As I am just beginning my research I am open to the opinions of those of you who have taken this cruise before and what your thoughts are on it. We usually get our best deals when we book a cruise while on a cruise and we will be on Carnival within the next month. We want to cruise Carnival but other cruise lines are also options for us. thank you in advance for your input. Gail

I don't know about dos and don'ts but just try to figure on what is ever best for you and what you would like to do. First there are two types of Canal cruises, full Canal transits (14-16 days), which are just as it sounds... FL to CA or the reverse. Then you have partial transit cruises which are round trip form Florida (10/11 days), enter the Atlantic Locks, turn around in Gatun Lake and exit the Canal. There are of course other stops on such an itinerary. For someone who has this cruise on their bucket list, I would really consider the full transit as the best option.

The cruise lines that have the most transits are Celebrity, Princess and HAL. RCI, NCL and Carnival also have Canal transits to a lesser extent. I looked at Carnival's offerings and they had only two Canal cruises in all of 2014, one in January and one in August.

In general the Canal "season" starts around September and runs until May, with the greatest selection occurring from November through April. Dry Season in the Panama area runs from late December through April which would minimize having to contend with the rain during your transit. That doesn't mean you should not consider a cruise outside that time frame, you just need to allow for a little liquid sunshine.

One last thing to consider, look for an itinerary that includes a full day stop in Panama in addition to your transit. A stop in Panama gives you time to reinforce what you will see or have seen on the transit.

Ports of call vary quite a bit so take a look at that too.

One of my husband's bucket-list cruise destinations is the Panama Canal. My job is to find out all the information I can about it and compare prices. I am not sure where to start. Tips/Suggestions would be helpful. I am not sure of the best time to go ...how long to go for...what to see and do. I heard there are multiple Panama Cruise options. As I am just beginning my research I am open to the opinions of those of you who have taken this cruise before and what your thoughts are on it. We usually get our best deals when we book a cruise while on a cruise and we will be on Carnival within the next month. We want to cruise Carnival but other cruise lines are also options for us. thank you in advance for your input. Gail

One place to start would be Anne Vipond's PC book. My personal recommendation would be the Coral or Island Princess. A partial transit gives you an option we loved - finishing the trasit on a small pontoon boat. Wow - talk about up close and personal! The bus ride back to the ship was fascinating - a totally different look at things. We are planning on doing the Canal again someday...

We have done three full transits of the canal, and while I understand that some folks have to do partial transits due to time constraints, I would suggest a full transit.

I also don't think that the type of stateroom is that important (ie, balcony versus ocean view versus inside). During the transit most folks are on the upper decks walking from side to side as the interesting scenery changes.

I would recommend the full transit as well. take the opportunity to see the entire process. My wife and I did that back in November and I did a live blog if you want to see what we did. Gives you an idea of a what it is like for a full transit.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1942047

Following. Hubby and I are considering doing the canal either in November or April 2014 as an early or late 30th birthday trip for both of us (December birthday's). I know we would like to do a full trip West to East beyond that we don't know yet

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We are doing the full transit in Feb 15 to celebrate my graduation (it's only taken 8 years) and hubby turning 60 in April. He definitely wants to go through the original locks so we pushed this up on our bucket list.

One of my husband's bucket-list cruise destinations is the Panama Canal. My job is to find out all the information I can about it and compare prices. I am not sure where to start. Tips/Suggestions would be helpful. I am not sure of the best time to go ...how long to go for...what to see and do. I heard there are multiple Panama Cruise options. As I am just beginning my research I am open to the opinions of those of you who have taken this cruise before and what your thoughts are on it. We usually get our best deals when we book a cruise while on a cruise and we will be on Carnival within the next month. We want to cruise Carnival but other cruise lines are also options for us. thank you in advance for your input. Gail

I have only been on two transits of the Panama Canal and both were wonderful filled with sites of a wonder of the world.

Read “The Path Between the Seas” by David McCullum before you go. It makes the transit much more interesting.

I am on the second leg after the thread link below, so read the post at this Panama Canal transit link. We are joining friends in Caldera that are doing their third transit of the canal.

I would recommend a Celebrity ship even though the thread below is on Azamara. I think Azamara might be more expensive than Celebrity.

HAL, and Princess are both owned by Carnival so you would essentially be on a Carnival ship with them. They are both good cruise lines.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1714390

Click this and read the post from the beginning and it will give you an idea what people are doing in planning their Panama Canal Cruise.

Below is just my cruise history.

MY PAST CRUISES: 1.Stella Oceanis 1975 South America, 2. Stella Oceanus

1977 Black Sea and Crimean Peninsula. 3. Mermoz 1979 Med. Rome,Sicily,and Nice,Malta. 4. SS Freeport to Gulf Mexico. 5.Vistafjord to Caribbean 1981. 6. Sagafjord to Alaska 1983. 7. Stella Solaris to Aegean, Israel and Egypt 1984. 8. Mississippi Queen out of New Orleans. 9. Nantucket Clipper out of Boston 10. Fairsky to Caribbean 1987. 11. Royal Odyssey Med.& Dubrovnik 9/1988. 12. Carnivalle to Bahamas 1990. 13. Crown Odyssey to Eastern South America 1991. 14.Monarch of the Seas Eastern Caribbean 1995. 15 Royal Odyssey (Old Royal Viking Sea) Panama Canal 1995. 16 Egypt-Nile River Cruise 1996.

17. Splendour of the Seas- Fjords of Norway 1997. 18 Sun Viking –Orient Cruise 1997.

19. Renaissance R-4 Barcelona-Lisbon 1999. 20. Paradise- Caribbean 1999.

21. Millennium to Baltic Capitals 2000. 22. Summit to Caribbean 2001.

23. Constellation –Fjords of Norway 2002. 24.Horizon –Mexico 2003. 25. Infinity to Alaska 2003. 26. Holiday to Mexico 2003. 27. Infinity -South America Cape Horn 2004. 28. Constellation- Transatlantic 2004. 29.Legend of Seas- Western Caribbean 2005 out of L.A.

30. Millennium- Panama Canal 2006. 31. Rhapsody of Seas- Western Caribbean 2006 out of Galveston. 32. Constellation- New England/Canada 2006. 33.Millennium-Caribbean 2007. 34.Voyager of the Seas- Caribbean out of Galveston Jan 2008 35.Mercury- South Pacific 2007. 36. Mariner of Seas-Mexican Riviera 2/09. 37. Summit to Southern Caribbean. 4/09. 38. Amadeus Symphony- Rhine River Basel-Amsterdam 6/09 combined with Switzerland Trip.

39.Antarctica on Prof. Multanovskiy 2009 40.Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston Jan 2010

41. Silver Whisper New York to Bermuda October 2010. 42.Silver Shadow Seoul Korea to Anchorage,AK May 2011

43. Silver Cloud Fort Lauderdale to San Juan Jan 2012

44. Statendam Alaskan Cruise tour June 2012

45. Millennium Singapore Cruise SE Asia Jan 2013

Following. Hubby and I are considering doing the canal either in November or April 2014 as an early or late 30th birthday trip for both of us (December birthday's). I know we would like to do a full trip West to East beyond that we don't know yet

 

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Read up on the actual direction of the canal to determine which veranda you want. Port or Starboard. Depends if you want the evening sun or the morning sun. When you enter on the Pacific (west side) ,the sun should be on the starboard side of the ship in the morning. I think the canal runs from southwest to northeast and because of the shape on Panama you could exit at the Gatun lock and be west of the west Pacific entrance. It is kind of confusing and I may have it wrong.

Read up on the actual direction of the canal to determine which veranda you want. Port or Starboard. Depends if you want the evening sun or the morning sun. When you enter on the Pacific (west side) ,the sun should be on the starboard side of the ship in the morning. I think the canal runs from southwest to northeast and because of the shape on Panama you could exit at the Gatun lock and be west of the west Pacific entrance. It is kind of confusing and I may have it wrong.

Thanks.

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This trip also is on my bucket list. We are doing a partial, because of limit of vacation days. But plan on taking the ferry thru to the other side. This year is the 100th anniversary of the completion of the canal. Does any know of any special celebrations ?

February is festival or Mardi Gras time. It can be more crowded with locals on vacation, some places close and there is also more crime then. Just don't wander or drive around alone in some areas. Generally it is a very safe and beautiful country. You just have to be aware.

We are doing the West to East on the Norwegian Sun in October. We are SOOOO looking forward to this! We love NCL Sun because it is a smaller ship. The crew seemed so attentive on our last cruise, that we decided we wouldn't do the transit on any other ship!! When you are on a cruise that has a lot of sea days, you really want to choose the ship/activities/ratio of crew members to passengers, etc.

Oh - and I am reading David McCullough's book (Not McCullum).

One place to start would be Anne Vipond's PC book. My personal recommendation would be the Coral or Island Princess. A partial transit gives you an option we loved - finishing the trasit on a small pontoon boat. Wow - talk about up close and personal! The bus ride back to the ship was fascinating - a totally different look at things. We are planning on doing the Canal again someday...

There are so many pros and cons to this excursion (recent thread on Princess). Was there adequate shade and mobility wise - easy to move around the smaller boat? Not that anyone is in a wheel chair or scooter but slow on stairs. Bathrooms, easily accessible? Thanks for your input. We're going in March:D

We just returned from a full Panama Canal transit on Azamara. It was a great trip! We had a wonderful lecturer (Richard Wainio) who was a former head of strategic planning for the Canal and another one (on Costa Rican wildlife) from Animal Planet.

We did a small boat excursion on Gatun Lake to see the monkeys (and other wildlife), and yes it was covered.

We brought a ton of insect repellent, but the only time we needed it was on a night excursion to an ecocenter inland in Costa Rica. And I'm one who's always first to be bitten.