First Panama Canal Cruise -Advice please!

[svend52]

Dear Fellow Cruising Friends!

We are considering our first Panama Canal cruise for late 2012 or early 2013. We are East coasters and think we would like to do LA or SF to FL rather than FL Tto FL. We know it will be the Island or the Coral, neither of which we have cruised on and would also like to be in a mini-suite or suite. Would love to hear and get advice from any and all the veteran Princess Panama Canal cruisers out there to help us plan our cruise. Thanks in advance!:rolleyes:

Virgil

[ssbeagle]

The Coral Princess and sister ship (Island Princess) are great for the Panama Canal. When you go through the locks the best place to be is either fore or aft. We had the best view and least number of people on the aft deck. Our cabin was a minisuite on Dolphin deck and we just walked out the back to see the locks in action. You could do the trip in either direction. It doesn't really matter. You would just have a shorter flight home and longer flight out if you started from the west coast and went to Fort Lauderdale. But you also lose time during the time changes went you go west to east where you gain hours on the east to west trip.

[Astro Flyer]

I would definitely suggest the full transit (either direction) because you'd miss one of the most interesting portions (Gaillard Cut, aka Culebra Cut) of the transit with the 10 day FL roundtrip. There's no way to know in advance which side of the locks will be used so it doesn't matter whether you're on the port or starboard side. Try to watch the passage & the locks from different locations. We went forward & also from our BA balcony cabin but wished we had also gone aft & from windows in the atrium where they say the view is very dramatic watching the locks move up & down. The locks are 118' wide & as I recall the Coral was 112' wide! We sailed in January & while it was warm, it didn't rain nor was the heat too bad.

 

One suggestion, learn about the history of building the canal otherwise some may think "a couple of locks, a river & a lake...what's the big deal" by not knowing what an amazing engineering feat it is nor how many lives were lost during the construction.

 

We enjoyed the Coral & had a great experience! :D

[ilovhywd]

Your trip will be greatly enhanced if you read about the building of the canal before your trip.

 

I recommend "The Path Between the Seas". I think the author's name is David McCullough. After you read it, you will gain a new appreciation of what you will be seeing.

 

Some cruise lines also show a video of the building of the canal before the actual transit, but the book is actually better!

[Astro Flyer]

Your trip will be greatly enhanced if you read about the building of the canal before your trip.

 

I recommend "The Path Between the Seas". I think the author's name is David McCullough. After you read it, you will gain a new appreciation of what you will be seeing.

 

Some cruise lines also show a video of the building of the canal before the actual transit, but the book is actually better!

That's the book I read before our cruise & I agree with others that it's the best book on the construction of the canal. :D

[PescadoAmarillo]

I, too, read David McCollough's book and it is the definitive Panama Canal history. For a shorter version, read Anne Vipond's Panama Canal by Cruise Ship. She has a chapter on the history and another on the engineering and operations, as well as a wonderfully detailed pull-out map of the canal that points out important historical locations.

[dchip]

We have done full transits in both directions. You can't go wrong either way. I did like going West to East a little better because I loved seeing the Bridge of the Americas first thing in the morning.

 

We cruised on the Regal Princess from SF to NYC, 18 marvelous days in August 2004. The next time was on the Coral Princess in May 2006 from Ft. Lauderdale to SF, which is home for us. We had mini suite D712 which is a bump out section so the balcony was covered. It was wonderful.

 

I loved being on the Dolphin Deck aft going through some of the locks. It was amazing and there was nobody there!!!

 

I would do this cruise again in a heartbeat!

 

You can see pics of the Coral Princess cruise here:

http://www.pbase.com/dchip/cruising_the_canal

 

Cheers, Denise

[captainron]

Denise,

Ah yes...our May 06 on Coral was indeed a good one...and the alumni...LARGIN, kpalmer7, yourself, IrishJayne just to mention a few.

 

Suggestion ...if going from FLL to the west coast the cooler side of the ship is the starboard side. The opposite can be said for the other direction (choose port side to keep cooler).

 

Also the Ultimate Breakfast on the Balcony...if going to the west coast, you start entering Gatun Locks about 0815-0830 and are up in Gatun Lake by 0900. Even by then it is too hot and humid to sit on your balcony. We ended up taling the food inside where it was air conditioned.

 

POINT...

 

Just because you get a balcony or mini, whetever you do don't restrict your "Big Ditch" experience to what you see from your balcony. Some of the best viewing (other than the crew) is from the deck areas and those "secret" viewing areas forward overlooking the crew's pool.

 

As Denise has said, the view aft tends to really allow the true sensation of movement up and down in the locks.

 

Coral is a great ship and enjoy your experience in the canal.

 

Ciao for now!!!

[NSWP]

Good tips Capt Ron, many thanks. We are on Coral, November 8, FL to LA and for first time ever, got a BE balcony cabin, aft, starboad side. I reckon it will be worth it.

[Richard in Panama]

Since we are reviewing and commenting on a reading list for the Panama Canal in this thread . . . making this definitely "on topic" . . .

 

I bought a copy of "your day in the Panama Canal" from Amazon.com and loved the book. I started reading, thinking it was going to be dry and boring but wanted to learn something about the canal before cruising Jan 16th. Well!! did I get a pleasant surpise, the book was wonderful and I couldn't stop reading it. I loved the discription of the travel thru the canal but I also enjoyed the interesting history and facts that I wasn't aware of. Thanks again for a great read and it's packed to go with me this sunday!!!! Sandy J55 January 11, 2011

 

You might also want to check out MY book, YOUR DAY IN THE PANAMA CANAL, which was written just for folks like you and is based on the lectures and commentary I give on ships going through the Canal.

 

You'll find a lot of helpful stuff if you go to the Panama Canal board on CC.

 

Regards, Richard

[chrysalis]

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the Embrera tribe in Panama. Not to be missed.

[crusingnut]

We did the Panama cruise on the Coral in 2004. I wish I could remember who the CD was, because it was the best onboard cruise actitivities to date. There was a "build a boat" competitition it had to float from one end of the pool to the other and had to be made out of things you found for free around the ship. And a survivor contest around the pool. The ship is great! We went "Xtreme Cave Tubing" with Island Marketing, Ltd. in Belize. It still is one of the best excursions we have ever done. I highly recommend it! You'll love the Panama cruise, it's amazing!

[Lvs2Cruise2]

We just returned last month from a 10 day full transit on Coral Princess. (The Acapulco-Ft. Lauderdale transit which Princess is no longer offering) This was by far one of my favorite cruises!

 

The Panama Canal is an amazing piece of history. I am by no means a history buff, but I did my homework reading history of the Canal before we departed. This helped a ton! Plus we had Dr. Tom Ryan narrating throughout our transit and I was glued to whatever he was saying.. he made our transit so interesting!

 

I agree with others that you HAVE to roam the entire ship during the transit to see all aspects of the Canal. We found the "secret doors" forward for the entrance to the Miraflores Locks and it was spectacular. My favorite part was the Calebra (sp?) Cut. Absolutely beautiful! We had the Sanctuary for the entire trip and that was awesome on Canal Day. It was alot less crowded than other decks and we saw perfect viewing. We viewed the Gatun Locks from the Sanctuary.

 

We had minisuite B431 for this trip and I highly recommend a minisuite! We loved this cabin. It is a corner bumpout that is totally covered from sun. Traveling west to east we had the sun in the morning (we were starboard) Also enjoyed the extra room in this cabin and the tub/shower combo!

 

You will definately enjoy this cruise, I believe everyone should see the Panama Canal at least once in their lives! Enjoy your cruise!