Question for Richard?

[Lvs2Cruise2]

Hi Richard, I hope you can answer a question for me. I will be on a full transit of the Panama Canal in April on Coral Princess. I'm a bit confused. We leave from Acapulco, make a few stops, then cruise through the canal. Then our itinerary says "Colon, Panama 5pm - 9pm". I don't understand why such a short stop in Colon? Also, will we be able to take any tours? It doesn't sound like it because of the limited time there. Plus, in our shore excursions there is nothing listed for Colon. Why would Princess stop there if we don't spend much time there, and won't be able to see anything? Thanks in advance for any help, you are a wealth of information on these boards!

[Richard in Panama]

Hi Richard, I hope you can answer a question for me. I will be on a full transit of the Panama Canal in April on Coral Princess. I'm a bit confused. We leave from Acapulco, make a few stops, then cruise through the canal. Then our itinerary says "Colon, Panama 5pm - 9pm". I don't understand why such a short stop in Colon? Also, will we be able to take any tours? It doesn't sound like it because of the limited time there. Plus, in our shore excursions there is nothing listed for Colon. Why would Princess stop there if we don't spend much time there, and won't be able to see anything? Thanks in advance for any help, you are a wealth of information on these boards!

 

These are good questions for Princess! CORAL's Canal itinerary bounces around. On the 10-day round-trip cruises from Flordia you disembark the ship by tender in Gatun Lake, do the tours [Listed under Panama Canal] and then reboard the ship in Colon. You are doing, I gather, the April 24th cruise, which understandably shows nothing for Colon since you are not there long enough to do anything. If you look under Panama Canal you will see tours supposedly available, although the copy indicates departing from Colon not Amador- not sure what's up with that - so I suspect that they are going to take folks off either at Amador by tender, or somewhere else in the Canal, and put them on tours that go across the Isthmus then rejoin the ship on the other side. Does that mean you miss the transit, all or part? I haven't done this itinerary, which looks confusing at best, so it's a good question for Princess, or maybe someone who has done this exact version of CORAL can enlighten us all.

 

Regards, Richard

[Lvs2Cruise2]

Thankyou Richard for your reply. I don't want to get off the ship and catch up with it later. That's the reason I wanted to do the full transit. I want to see it on the cruise ship! So I guess if I want to see Colon I'll have to take another cruise that actually stops there for a longer length of time. Thanks again!

[Tikibird]

Richard, I am on the same cruise and was somewhat expecting we would go through the first few locks, anchor in Gatun Lake, tours disembark by tender. Then we catch up with the ship in Colon. The strange thing is that Princess has all the tours loaded for purchase in all the ports except Panama. That's what has me worried, why haven't they loaded the Panama tours yet?

[Richard in Panama]

Richard, I am on the same cruise and was somewhat expecting we would go through the first few locks, anchor in Gatun Lake, tours disembark by tender. Then we catch up with the ship in Colon. The strange thing is that Princess has all the tours loaded for purchase in all the ports except Panama. That's what has me worried, why haven't they loaded the Panama tours yet?

 

Good question for Princess.

 

I used to do this run with Holland America and I know that folks liked to book in advance online. But I still recommended folks come to the Shore Ex Manager's talks and learn about the tours. Sometimes what's on the Internet isn't current or isn't the best description of a tour. The best source of current information is the Shore Ex office on board. The only Panama tour that was ever sold out in advance was the dome car on the Panama Railway. But IMHO I'm not sure being in the dome car is that much of a big deal. You pretty much see the same stuff, and the folks who paid extra for the dome car often complained that it was hot and there were no shades to block the sun (and the view for which they paid dearly! - go figure!).

 

Regards, Richard

[BillB48]

Richard, I am on the same cruise and was somewhat expecting we would go through the first few locks, anchor in Gatun Lake, tours disembark by tender. Then we catch up with the ship in Colon. The strange thing is that Princess has all the tours loaded for purchase in all the ports except Panama. That's what has me worried, why haven't they loaded the Panama tours yet?

 

 

I looked at the tours available for the April 24th sailing under the "Panama Canal, Panama" section and a number of tours were there. In the past tours on Pacific to Atlantic transits have started in the same place as the tours on the partial transits, the Gatun Yacht Club which is near Gatun Locks. You will arrive at the Pacific anchorage off Ft. Amador at O'dark:30, before you tender off on a tour you will have passed through Miraflores, Pedro Miguel Locks, Gaillard Cut and crossed Gatun Lake to the Gatun Anchorage, near the GYC. Arrival at the Gatun Lake anchorage is sometime around noon-1PM, with tendering starting right after that. At this point you will have been through about 80% of the Canal, missing Gatun Locks and the 5 mile trip down the Atlantic approach to the entrance of the Canal and Colon.

 

As far as the tours go, they will actually commence on the Atlantic side with a number of them taking you back to the Pacific side to Panama City and surrounding areas. You then will rejoin the ship in Colon. Look at it this way, depending on the tour you select, you may have crossed the continent 3 times in one day! Once on your transit and twice on your bus during the tour:D!