Panama Canal Questions

For the past few years, we've considered a Panama Canal cruise. We weren't sure if it was better to do a full or partial transit--input would be helpful.

Anyways, with the 3 for free sale going on, I thought I would get some information for 2020. Unfortunately, it does not look like Princess will be doing Panama Canal cruises in 2020, with the exception of a full transit through the new locks on the Emerald On February 29, 2020.

Am I missing something? Are there really no Panama Canal cruises, other than the one mentioned in 2020? I know the full schedule is not out yet for that year, but winter seems like a great time for a Panama canal cruise. Thanks for any help on this matter.

For the past few years, we've considered a Panama Canal cruise. We weren't sure if it was better to do a full or partial transit--input would be helpful.

 

Anyways, with the 3 for free sale going on, I thought I would get some information for 2020. Unfortunately, it does not look like Princess will be doing Panama Canal cruises in 2020, with the exception of a full transit through the new locks on the Emerald On February 29, 2020.

 

Am I missing something? Are there really no Panama Canal cruises, other than the one mentioned in 2020? I know the full schedule is not out yet for that year, but winter seems like a great time for a Panama canal cruise. Thanks for any help on this matter.

According to the Princess Cruises atlas for April 2019 to May 2020-------

Emerald Princess is doing a full transit west to east on January 2nd, 2020 and east to west on January 17, 2020. The Coral Princess is doing a full transit east to west on April 6th, 2020 and a 19 day Panama Canal round trip from Los Angeles on April 21st, 2020.

I would recommend the full transit through the old locks aboard the Coral Princess.

According to the Princess Cruises atlas for April 2019 to May 2020-------

Emerald Princess is doing a full transit west to east on January 2nd, 2020 and east to west on January 17, 2020. The Coral Princess is doing a full transit east to west on April 6th, 2020 and a 19 day Panama Canal round trip from Los Angeles on April 21st, 2020.

I would recommend the full transit through the old locks aboard the Coral Princess.

Thank you! I don't have the cruise atlas, and my search only showed up the one cruise.

Still, there appear to be much less cruises through the Panama Canal then there have been in the past.

We've done a full transit old locks and a partial transit new locks. I preferred the full transit.

I agree with the others..... Coral full transit. We did it this past January and loved it.

I just got on the Princess web site and did a "Find a Cruise" search using the criteria of a Panama Canal destination and clicked on all the highlighted months in 2020. The results showed seven 10-day partial transits and one 19 day partial transit. In addition the results showed seven 15-day full transits.

I see a number of partial and full transits for the 2019/2020 fall/winter season for the Island, Caribbean, Coral and Emerald. Island and Coral will be old locks, Caribbean and Emerald, new locks. The fall/winter 2020/2021 season will not be available. Having done both full and partial transits the full transits are more interesting. The ports for the 10 day RT Ft. Lauderdale are not so interesting.

For the past few years, we've considered a Panama Canal cruise. We weren't sure if it was better to do a full or partial transit--input would be helpful.

 

 

 

Anyways, with the 3 for free sale going on, I thought I would get some information for 2020. Unfortunately, it does not look like Princess will be doing Panama Canal cruises in 2020, with the exception of a full transit through the new locks on the Emerald On February 29, 2020.

 

 

 

Am I missing something? Are there really no Panama Canal cruises, other than the one mentioned in 2020? I know the full schedule is not out yet for that year, but winter seems like a great time for a Panama canal cruise. Thanks for any help on this matter.

I booked a full passage on the Island Princess leaving Los Angeles on May 9, 2020

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We are booked on The Island Princess for the Panama Canal Partial Transit on March 7th, 2020.

Have done two full and two partial transits. We prefer the partial because the tours on the Pacific side are VERY long drives (plus new port in Mexico has little of interest). Also, lots of sea days. We do recommend taking the small boat tour through the canal at least once if you are doing a partial - much different perspective than from the ship.

Can you do a ferry excursion on a full transit? If so how does it work? Will you miss going through the pacific side locks on the ship because you will be on the ferry?

Another vote for the full transit on Coral. Love that ship. (You would have to give me a free cruise - or at least an extremely cheap cruise - to get me to do it on Island Princess.) We did the full transit (17 days) from SF to FLL in 2015 and loved it. We're booked in the same cabin for a 19 day partial transit in November. Yep. The full transit was 17 days and the partial out of LA is 19 days. There is an overnight stay in the lake. Coming from this direction there aren't any excursions from the lake as those all go west and we are coming from the west.

We are do he Partial transit on the Caribbean Princess, and adding an excursion that takes us through the rest of the canal, (and bussed back to the ship).

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Can you do a ferry excursion on a full transit? If so how does it work? Will you miss going through the pacific side locks on the ship because you will be on the ferry?

There are no excursions while the ship does the full transit. There are excursions if your ship anchors overnight at Fuerte Amador for Panama City.

I have done both: two full and one partial. I recommend the full. Partial gives a taste but the trip from one Ocean to another can’t be replicated..opinion. Mike

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Another vote for the full transit on Coral. Love that ship. (You would have to give me a free cruise - or at least an extremely cheap cruise - to get me to do it on Island Princess.) We did the full transit (17 days) from SF to FLL in 2015 and loved it. We're booked in the same cabin for a 19 day partial transit in November. Yep. The full transit was 17 days and the partial out of LA is 19 days. There is an overnight stay in the lake. Coming from this direction there aren't any excursions from the lake as those all go west and we are coming from the west.

We are doing this same itinerary in Sept 2019. We were hoping to do an excursion to see the new locks. Have done full transit 4 previous times but not since the new locks opened. Are you saying there won't be any excursions whIle anchored in Lake Gatun?

For the past few years, we've considered a Panama Canal cruise. We weren't sure if it was better to do a full or partial transit--input would be helpful.

 

Anyways, with the 3 for free sale going on, I thought I would get some information for 2020. Unfortunately, it does not look like Princess will be doing Panama Canal cruises in 2020, with the exception of a full transit through the new locks on the Emerald On February 29, 2020.

 

Am I missing something? Are there really no Panama Canal cruises, other than the one mentioned in 2020? I know the full schedule is not out yet for that year, but winter seems like a great time for a Panama canal cruise. Thanks for any help on this matter.

I'm doing a partial transit on the CB in January 2020

Another vote for the full transit! We did the Island in February 2015 FL to LA and it was so great---our favorite cruise! Loved the Island, but that was before it was refurbished:(. This February doing SF to FL on the Coral and in the same cabin as the last cruise. The day in the canal was magical for us (history & engineering nerds)!

First I did the partial and departed the ship while it was in Gatun Lake to take a train over to Panama City which I enjoyed. Then I did the full transit which was much more impressive because I was able to see the entire canal. Both cruises were on the Island just before they sadly butchered the ship and both through the old locks.

On the partial I had become friends with another couple and they had taken the ferry through the canal. The ferry was behind a very slow moving freighter and as they finally returned and boarded the ship, the gang plank was pulled since the ship had been waiting over an hour. If you decide to do a partial and take the ferry through the canal, definitely only do it on a ship excursion so they will wait for you in case you are late.

We have done 2 full transits of the Panama Canal old locks & loved each passage :D. Although we did these cruises on Celebrity ships we would do a 3rd on a Princess ship as well ;)

Thanks for all of the replies! I was able to find more cruises when I used the advanced search; I only got the one cruise when I used the search on the front page.

We're researching now, but it seems like the most popular option is full transit on the Coral, which I assume are always the old locks. Any preference to Eastbound or westbound?

We are doing this same itinerary in Sept 2019. We were hoping to do an excursion to see the new locks. Have done full transit 4 previous times but not since the new locks opened. Are you saying there won't be any excursions whIle anchored in Lake Gatun?

There have been zero excursions in the personalizer for the overnight stay in the lake. The excursions they normally do are on the east to west partial. The excursions go through to the Pacific side. Since we are coming from that side and going back to that side the excursions would be pointless.

I just now checked to see if there were any changes but there are none. The itinerary just shows this:

Tue, 11/27/18 Panama Canal Partial Transit (from Pacific) Historic Locks

Scenic Cruising

overnight 6:00am Wed, 11/28/18 Panama Canal Partial Transit (from Pacific) Historic Locks

Scenic Cruising – 2:00pm

If you decide to do a partial and take the ferry through the canal, definitely only do it on a ship excursion so they will wait for you in case you are late.

On the partial transit, only Princess excursions allow passengers to leave the ship. There will be no private excursions possible.

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We're researching now, but it seems like the most popular option is full transit on the Coral, which I assume are always the old locks. Any preference to Eastbound or westbound?

The Canal is equally rewarding regardless of the direction you transit. The preferences come in how you prefer transportation to port of embarkation and then your trip from port of disembarkation, in other words longer flight first, shorter flight last or the other way around. If you are fortunate you perhaps could drive to or from one of the ports! Some people like to gain hours during the time change as you travel east to west, while others don't mind losing hours west to east during the time changes. A minor point for traveling west to east (which is going north in the Canal), that gives you the best chance of a breeze on the open decks as the breezes at the Canal are usually out of the north.

The Coral will use the old locks, it would have to be unusual circumstances for the Coral to use the new locks. There are a fixed number of transit slots available daily at the new locks and they really want to save those for the ships with deeper pocket$.