Full transit or partial?

Opinions, please. Has anyone done both and what are the benefits of the full transit other than getting to the other side into Mexico/Caribbean?

Contemplating FLL round trip and don't know if that is the right choice.

thanks.

I did a partial transit from the Caribbean side ( which I believe most partials are done from ) a few years back and it was interesting going thru the Gatun locks. Basically we went through Gatun locks into Gatun Lake, turn around without seeing much of the lake to cue up to return back to the Caribbean. The return thru the locks was kind of boring and it didn't help that one of our ship's major generators broke down so there no AC in most common areas as a result. This may have shorten our time on Gatun lake as the ship made an unscheduled stop in Colon to get a replacement generator but I don't think so as our next day stop was San Blas island Panama which was not far away. I seem to remember losing $ in the casino along with many others during the return portion as this was just before the American turned the canal over to Panama and I believe the casino was open. It was interesting watching the sailors on the passing freighters with their cameras and binoculers cheaking out the topless ladies on our ship's rear top deck as this cruise had many Europeans on board.

I read that going thru the cut thru the mountains and the two locks on the Pacific side of the canal as well as going under the Bridge of the Americas is the best part of the transit. I will be embarking Nov.28/06 on the Regal Princess for full transit cruise from San Juan to Acapulco and will try post reply on this thread after doing the full transit.

One interesting fact is that to go from the Caribbean to the Pacific you are actually going in an easterly direction as the panama canal goes north west from the Caribbean to south east to the Pacific.

Thankyou, Robtulipe, that answers my question. Just have to remember not to be naked on the top deck at that time.

That is really interesting - actually heading east when one would think it would be going west. Learn something every day!!!

Opinions, please. Has anyone done both and what are the benefits of the full transit other than getting to the other side into Mexico/Caribbean?

Contemplating FLL round trip and don't know if that is the right choice.

thanks.

We did the FLL round trip because we preferred for the rest of the trip to be in the Caribbean. Do you like Mexico.....the full transit will probably have a good portion of the port calls there.

Can't say I care too much for Mexico. We have been to all the places listed on the trips, so nothing new about that. Do you think that we would get a good experience just from doing a FLL/FLL (or wherever) round trip?

I am going to have to investigate more because setting off from San Juan has more appeal than Florida.

In the meantime, am also investigating a China trip - never been there at all!!! Then again, a trip down the Amazon; South America (round the Horn); plus a few others are always hovering around in my head.

So, we just may do the roundtrip because your comment about Mexico made sense because we have been there three times.

Can't say I care too much for Mexico. We have been to all the places listed on the trips, so nothing new about that. Do you think that we would get a good experience just from doing a FLL/FLL (or wherever) round trip? So, we just may do the roundtrip because your comment about Mexico made sense because we have been there three times.

We did thre ful ransit on the Fair Princess in 84 and the in and out at Gatun in 02.

I think you would enjoy the in and out at Gatun....you spent the same amount of time in transit of the locks both ways.

I would like to add that the RCCL Brilliance of the Seas has two itineraries that do the partial transit of the canal. There is a 10 day and an 11 day version that alternate sailings.

We chose the 11 day because except for Aruba we had never done any of the other ports. We are stopping in Aruba, Curacao, Costa Rica, and Labadee which is RCCL's private island and of course Panama. The 10 version had too many islands we had already been on.

Either cruise is roundtrip out of Miami. Good luck in making your decision.

Sue

I posted this same question a couple of months ago. Since then, we have decided on the full transit from San Diego to San Juan next October. The partial had many ports that we have been to before. I haven't been too impressed with the Mexican stops we have done before, but we have never been to any on the west coast of Mexico. We're looking forward to Acapulco and Cabo especially and DH is absolutley fascinated with the actual workings of the locks so I think we'll all be happy. Good luck with your decision.

Hope you have a wonderful cruise. We have been to Acapulco, Cabo, Puerto Vallarto, and a couple of other places at least three times, so have now figured that we will pay much more to see places we have already been to more than once.

Have been to various places in the Caribbean also, but enjoyed them much more than Mexico. We did take a trip to see the Acapulco Princess Hotel on one trip. Beautiful hotel with gorgeous pools, beaches, and golf course.

One place we might consider going a staying for a week. The cliff divers also are worth seeing. We did visit Ixtapa on one trip but from what I can recall it was a West Coast trip and I don't believe cruises setting off from the east coast ever stop there - another beautiful place!!

Have fun.

Hi- I'm trying to decide between the Coral (Princess), or RCCL's Brilliance of the Seas. Any thoughts? Thanks- Susie

I did the Brilliance of the Seas 10 night Panama Canal cruise and had an amazing time. I haven't been on Princess so don't have any comparisons there.

If you're interested, I posted Live from the ship, with my review at the end of the thread. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=299889

I did a partial transit from the Caribbean side ( which I believe most partials are done from ) a few years back and it was interesting going thru the Gatun locks. Basically we went through Gatun locks into Gatun Lake, turn around without seeing much of the lake to cue up to return back to the Caribbean. The return thru the locks was kind of boring and it didn't help that one of our ship's major generators broke down so there no AC in most common areas as a result. This may have shorten our time on Gatun lake as the ship made an unscheduled stop in Colon to get a replacement generator but I don't think so as our next day stop was San Blas island Panama which was not far away. I seem to remember losing $ in the casino along with many others during the return portion as this was just before the American turned the canal over to Panama and I believe the casino was open. It was interesting watching the sailors on the passing freighters with their cameras and binoculers cheaking out the topless ladies on our ship's rear top deck as this cruise had many Europeans on board.

I read that going thru the cut thru the mountains and the two locks on the Pacific side of the canal as well as going under the Bridge of the Americas is the best part of the transit. I will be embarking Nov.28/06 on the Regal Princess for full transit cruise from San Juan to Acapulco and will try post reply on this thread after doing the full transit.

One interesting fact is that to go from the Caribbean to the Pacific you are actually going in an easterly direction as the panama canal goes north west from the Caribbean to south east to the Pacific.

As promised above here is my impressions of the full Panama Canal transit we just completed yesterday.

The full transit was so much better than the partial transit we did five years ago. Cruising on Gaton lake was fantastic with it's sigths and wilderness passing slowly before your eyes. The Gaillard cut into which the major rivers of Panama supplies the fresh water that is necessary for the canal to operate and which crosses the great divide at Gold Hill was one of the highlights of the transit. At the Miralflores Locks on the Pacific side a 5 or 6 storey observation tower was full of visitors to the Canal and you could see, feel and hear the excitement building up in the crowd as our big white beautiful Princess cruise vessel fully filled and pass through the locks there. Passing under the high level Centeninal Bridge before the Miraflores locks and the Bridge of the Americas just before the Pacific coast were the other great highlights of the full transit.

The west coast ports of Central America and Mexico were a pleasant surprise. Costa Rica is wild and beautiful. Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala with Colonial Antigua nearby was very nice. Huatulco, Mex. with it's nine bays, rugged coastline and beautiful beaches was just lovely. Even good old Acapulco looked pretty good to me.