Best time & Best line?

I am just beginning to investigate a cruise to the Panama Canal, and have some questions.

Is there a line that does a better job in the Panama Canal? (For example, in Alaska, Princess and HAL get into Glacier Bay most often and have the land tour facilities.) I'm not asking which cruise line I would like best in general. I think I've got a fairly good idea about what each cruise line is like. I'm asking if there are any advantages that one specific line has over the others SPECIFIC TO the Panama Canal. Are there any must do ports? I know I want to do a full transit, but there seems to be a big variation on ports of call before and after the canal.

Also, when is the best time of the year weather wise? In particular, when is the drier season, or when is it less humid? Is it any cooler during some months, or is it too close to the equater for there to be any difference?

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can tell this about the weather. We are doing RC's 10 day Brilliance of the Seas, which is a partial transit. When I ckd into possible dates, I discovered that the Brilliance only goes Oct-April. Supposedly, it gets real hot in Panama April-oct. We are going in January. My parents want to do a full transit in 06. I remember some of the searches we pulled up they really liked RC's itinerary over other lines (Cabo, Acapulco, Huatlco, Puntarenas, PC, Aruba on the Radiance and adding Puerto Rico/St. Thomas on the Serenade). Those 2 ships only do the full transit twice a year as part of a repositioning, which is usually april/oct. The Legend of the Seas does it year round I think, but is an older ship if you don't mind that. We also looked at Celebrity for them, but all we could find was a partial transit out of galveston, but maybe 06 isn't in their system yet. I'm not sure of other lines.

We did a full Panama Canal transit a couple of years ago on HAL's Veendam and had a great time. We leave from SF and ended up in Ft Lauderdale. We weren't overly impressed with some of the Mexican Rivera stops, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco and Hautulo although each of them had some sights worth seeing. We also stopped in Costa Rico before our canal transit and then stopped in Curacao after the canal. Curacao is really an interesting place and has some good picture taking opportunities. We tried the rain forest tour in Costa Rico and managed to get wet but didn't see much else. We like HAL but we have also sailed on other lines that do a good job that also do full canal crossings, RCCL and Princess in particular. You will probably spend most of the canal crossing up on one of the upper decks or on the promenade as that is where you can get the best pictures. I wouldn't worry too much about getting a veranah cabin to watch the canal from as your view from your cabin would be pretty restricted.

Anyway have a GREAT next cruise.

See the post below on the board re Need Opinions on Which Cruise Line to Take... might help you narrow it down also. We did Canal on Princess and thought it was marvelous.. lots of good onboard stuff if you're into history etc. of the area

My wife and I are taking our first cruise in a few months. We're booked on the Infinity (Celebrity) which departs San Diego on October 17th and arrives at Fort Lauderdale on October 31st. We're no experts on cruising, but we're excited about our "maiden voyage"!

Leaving San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale :) -- what can you tell us about the port of calls? Things to do on our own in each port, etc.:confused:

PORTS: Cabo San Lucas; Acapulco; Huratulco;

Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Cristobal, Panama;

and Aruba and then going home!!:(