Panama Canal cruising questions?

I have been researching cruises through the Canal for our cruise In January or February 2014. If I had to make a decision right now I would select a cruise on Princess which has a 2-day Canal Experience.

However I still do have 3 questions:

1) On our Alaska cruise last year we made use of our balcony stateroom with all the beautiful scenery. In looking at several itineraries of different Panama Canal cruise lines there are as many as 8 days at sea. Plus I understand going through the canal it is best to be on deck for the best view. Therefore would it be worthwhile to have a balcony on the Canal cruise?

2) Would it be better to defer the cruise until the new canal is completed?

3) We plan on purchasing the cruise tickets in a couple of weeks. Are there any advantages to waiting for a few months to purchase?

Thanks

If you like a balcony, get one, but when you are actually in the locks it is best to move around the ship and not stay in once place or you'll miss a lot of the action. Crossing Gatun Lake is a good time to sit on your balcony. And it really doesn't matter which side of the ship you are on in terms of the Canal.

You made the best choice choosing the 2-day Panama itinerary!

The "new Canal" is actually new sets of locks on both ends feeding into the existing passage across Panama. As far as I can tell there is going to be no way to know whether you will be transiting the new or old locks. Frankly the old locks are always going to be the most interesting because of the "mules" or electric locomotives that assist in keeping the ship centered. The new locks will just use tugs at either end of the ship - not nearly as interesting. And the new locks will use rolling gates, again, I don't think it is as interesting as the old, historic lock gates. Right now is an excellent time to experience the Canal because there are shore excursions where you can actually view the massive construction project.

In terms of getting the best deal - I'd get what you want and to do so book it as early as possible. Most Canal cruises sail pretty much full.

In the meantime do your homework . . . ahem! . . . read and study about the Canal, how it operates, what to look for cruising the Panama Canal, and something about Panama and its history.

Regards, Richard

Balcony cabin. use main decks for full surround view when entering and exiting the locks. Friend of mine just came through the canal and there's talk the new locks aren't going to open on time.

I would say if you've never been through the canal-- go for it----- if you have been through before why not wait until the new locks are done?

there's talk the new locks aren't going to open on time

I believe the ACP formally announced that it will probably be another year from the originally scheduled date for the project to be complete.

Regards, Richard

Thanks for the great advise Richard and Big Feet!

By the way Richard, I purchased your book "Cruising The Panama Canal: Centennial Edition", on Amazon last week and am looking forward to reading it.

Life experience tells me..if you want to do it...do it now!

You can always do it again in the future..but live in the present.

Dr Alaok,

We were rarely in our cabin while crossing Panama, most everyone was out on the decks. So much to gawk at.

I think you would enjoy seeing the little tugger locomotives pull your ship in the old locks.

Some people save by waiting for the best possible price. Depends if you could tolerate a sold out cruise scrambling your plans. Locomotiveman Tom

When going through the Canal locks, the real action is forward and aft, and the Island and Coral have very nice viewing areas at both ends. If the Canal is your major sightseeing concern, a balcony would absolutely not be worth it. And when going through Gatun Lake, I sat on the wide promenade deck, which made it easy to alternate viewing from port and starboard.

And if this is your first cruise: fares go up, fares go down. As has been said, Princess trans-Canal cruises often are full, so waiting for a last-minute price drop might be futile. You can get a fare adjustment if the fare drops before final payment. Book now or take your chances.

To me, part of the interest in going through the Canal is historical. Having read the much-recommended "The Path Between the Seas," I greatly enjoyed seeing the places I'd read about.

And yes, by all means choose a cruise with a full day in Panama City.

We had an aft-facing balcony when we went through the canal, so were able to see both sides of the canal from our cabin. We really enjoyed this cruise.

I keep hearing that the best place to be for a canal cruise is "out and about.". However, there two situations where this may not be possible:

If one is mobility impaired, it's not easy to be all over the ship to see everything. For instance, on our San Francisco to FLL transit in 2003 on Norwegian Sky, the only way my elderly mother would have seen much was from our balcony. Yes, a limited view, but she was happy with it. Our balcony was starboard but we went thru on the left side of all the locks so we saw much of what was going on and could almost touch the workers in the middle in one of the buildings. We were often next to ships transiting in the same direction, and they were on our starboard side. On our cruise, there were many elderly, and I'm guessing this is often the case for full transits, so certainly something to consider when making recommendations.

If the weather is bad. The day we transited, it poured and was gloomy from The Bridge of the Americas to our exit (October). I was thankful we had a balcony, and even then we got a little wet. Again, it was a limited view, but we saw more than those crowded into covered viewing spaces.

Thanks for all the info, especially to Richard. I'm doing another transit on Regatta in December, Miami to LA, and plan to order his book soon. Enjoyed the thread about books to read.

If you like a balcony, get one, but when you are actually in the locks it is best to move around the ship and not stay in once place or you'll miss a lot of the action. Crossing Gatun Lake is a good time to sit on your balcony. And it really doesn't matter which side of the ship you are on in terms of the Canal.

 

You made the best choice choosing the 2-day Panama itinerary!

 

The "new Canal" is actually new sets of locks on both ends feeding into the existing passage across Panama. As far as I can tell there is going to be no way to know whether you will be transiting the new or old locks. Frankly the old locks are always going to be the most interesting because of the "mules" or electric locomotives that assist in keeping the ship centered. The new locks will just use tugs at either end of the ship - not nearly as interesting. And the new locks will use rolling gates, again, I don't think it is as interesting as the old, historic lock gates. Right now is an excellent time to experience the Canal because there are shore excursions where you can actually view the massive construction project.

 

In terms of getting the best deal - I'd get what you want and to do so book it as early as possible. Most Canal cruises sail pretty much full.

 

In the meantime do your homework . . . ahem! . . . read and study about the Canal, how it operates, what to look for cruising the Panama Canal, and something about Panama and its history.

 

Regards, Richard

Would you recommend to see /experience the construction of the new locks

We are doing full transit in March 2014 on the old locks but would love to see the current construction

Would you recommend to see /experience the construction of the new locks

We are doing full transit in March 2014 on the old locks but would love to see the current construction

Although I haven't done it, there is now a shore excursion that takes you to watch the lock construction under way. There is a new visitor center from which you can get an excellent view. When the existing Canal was being built people came from all over the world at great expense and inconvenient ways of travel, just to see the project under way. There is a fascinating old book you can sometimes see on Amazon from 1913 entitled PANAMA AND THE CANAL IN PICTURE AND PROSE by Willis J. Abbot which is a kind of travelogue of the writer's visit to the Canal construction site.

Regards, Richard

Although I haven't done it, there is now a shore excursion that takes you to watch the lock construction under way. There is a new visitor center from which you can get an excellent view. When the existing Canal was being built people came from all over the world at great expense and inconvenient ways of travel, just to see the project under way. There is a fascinating old book you can sometimes see on Amazon from 1913 entitled PANAMA AND THE CANAL IN PICTURE AND PROSE by Willis J. Abbot which is a kind of travelogue of the writer's visit to the Canal construction site.

 

Regards, Richard

 

I don't see this shore excursion listed with our March, 2014 Princess cruise. Do you know any info about whether it is available through Princess or how we could get info about it? Also, what about the bathroom facilities on the buses and boats that the excursions use? Are they readily available and clean? Thank you.

Have not been on this tour since it has been added since I was last there. I just picked a March date for a full transit and this is the tour that will take you to the construction of the expansion locks. http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.do?voyageCode=2407&itinCode=TLE150&tourCode=&trade=T&date=0314&noOfPax=2&resType=C&ship=&bID=PCDIR&meta=I&ppax=false&itinPort=&tourIds=&duration=&tourdur=&orderBy=&filterBy=&order=#exlistforvoyage.do?&ppax=false&noOfPax=2&meta=I

Looks like it will take you to the present Gatun Locks as well. Don't remember if there were facilities on our bus or not, but there will be facilities at Gatun Locks and the observation area for the new locks.

Also, what about the bathroom facilities on the buses and boats that the excursions use? Are they readily available and clean? Thank you.

Welcome to Panama! Forget the idea of bathrooms on buses. In an emergency bus can pull over . . . hop out and find a tree guys, or, for the gals the bus driver will find a gas station. So, best bet . . . skip the coffee in the morning. Clean? Let's just say I suggest you bring your own TP. In most countries of the world, outside the US, Canada and much of Europe, TP is not provided. In Europe you can usually buy some from a bathroom attendant who keeps things clean. In Panama . . . bring your own. "Clean" is a very culturally relative concept. Pretty much the world over any public facility is not going to be as clean as what you are used to at home.

On the boats . . . say the Canal Ferry . . . functional "head". Smaller boats, unless you fancy hanging over the side . . . go before you leave the ship.

Skip the morning coffee. And just before they call your tour . . . or even en route to the gangway make a quick pit stop on the ship. I realize a lot of folks, particularly as you get more "mature" (like me!) take medications, etc. I sometimes think the cruise lines and tour operators forget this. Guys I'm not above taking an emergency "pee bottle" (old plastic Coke bottle) along . . . gals maybe a little more difficult. I always wonder how HRM, the Queen, handles this. I suppose she just doesn't drink anything before public engagements, but it must be tough.

And there are definitely usually facilities once you get to where you're going. If it's a cruise line tour usually the facilities are what you would hope for and expect. One of the things crew who go along as "escorts" on ship tours are reporting back are the number of bathroom stops and the condition of the bathrooms.

Regards, Richard

Thanks Richard--exactly the info I needed and unfortunately what I had expected.

We spent the morning on our balcony as we went through the locks, then spent the afternoon on deck on the way back through the locks. Both were terrific experiences.

No restrooms on any of the busses we used during our trip, but the restrooms during walking excursions/stops were fine. Not great, but not horrible either. And they all had paper.

We were on Coral Princess and there was an excursion available to tour the new locks while the ship was idling in Gutan Lake.

Unforgetable trip. I wouldn't wait.

To clarify: if you're on a ship excursion the rest rooms they use will be not great, but acceptable and with toilet paper. If you're on your own, or if the bus has to make an "emergency stop" for someone at a local gas station, etc., you're on your own. Regards, Richard