Those who have sailed HAL Panama Canal

[forwardho]

I am a little confused. As I am reading the itineraries for the Panama Cruises I don't see a port of call for Panama City or Puerto Amandor. So does this mean that the ship just travels the entire canal but does not stop at any port on the canal?

[carri cruiser]

I am a little confused. As I am reading the itineraries for the Panama Cruises I don't see a port of call for Panama City or Puerto Amandor. So does this mean that the ship just travels the entire canal but does not stop at any port on the canal?

 

That is correct, there is no port call for Panama City, or Puerto Amandor... the port calls for a HAL panama Canal cruise is usually Costa Rica, and Cartegena,

at least on HAL, that is the itinerary I have experienced.

[forwardho]

Thank you so much.

[Kamloops50]

Princess is the only cruise line that know stops near Panama City.

[8pawz]

Holland is stopping at Fuerte Amador on the sold out Sept 2014 Canal cruise but haven't checked for next year. We are taking the Princess two day Panama cruise next Feb. I strongly recommend a full day in Panama. I lived there for six years and loved it. We did take a partial transit last year and got to spend a couple of hours in the city but Princess offers the most time. I would also recommend not going in Sept as it is the rainy season. Have fun finding a cruise.

 

 

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[PathfinderEss]

We've stop in Panama City twice, once on Princess and once on Hal. The Princess cruise was a Panama cruise and the Hal cruises was a South America cruise. Both cruises originated in San Diego and went back to San Diego.

Under normal circumstance when you do a Panama cruise it does not stop going thru, it just does the transition. There are some Panama cruise that do not do a full transition. They go into Gatun Lake, stay over night in the lake and then go back the way they came.

[forwardho]

Thank you all. I think we definitely want to travel all the way through. But would love to stop and see Panama City for the full experience. We will keep hunting.

[tommui987]

We are on the cruise from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale two weeks from now.

 

The Zuiderdam stops for eight hours at Puerto Amador but four of the hours are before midnight! Puerto Amador is situated at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and is a manmade peninsula extending out into the Pacific Oceanbuilt to accommodate shipping.

 

What research I've done - if you want to go into Panama City, it should only be 20 or so minutes by taxi unless for some reason there is heavy traffic.

 

There suppose to be good shopping around the port area.

[PathfinderEss]

Thank you all. I think we definitely want to travel all the way through. But would love to stop and see Panama City for the full experience. We will keep hunting.

 

It is a very interesting city and you can definitely see the transition in housing for the different era's the city has gone thru. We've done several tours there. It is well worth if you can stop in Panama City, but you do not want to be there at night. Just saying.

[BillB48]

HAL a few years ago would sail from CA, enter the Canal from the Pacific and sail to the Gatun Lake Anchorage near Gatun Locks where passengers could take shore excursions. The next day the ship would sail out of the Pacific entrance and return to CA. The great thing about this partial transit cruise is you went through the vast majority of the Canal as opposed to the present partial transit cruises from FLL.

 

HAL was one of the early adopters of regularly including a stop in Panama along with the Canal transit, too bad they have wondered away from doing this with their current itineraries.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We did 2 PanAmerican and 1 PanAmerican/Ecuador cruises round trip out of Sam Diego.

All 3 we did anchor at Puerto Amador for a few hours and were able to take a couple of tours to Panama City. Everyone had to be back on the ship by 11:30 PM as we moved away from out anchorage place to get set up and in line for entering the Panama Canal.

The first time we did the cruise we got to Gatun Lake so late that most of the excursions were cancelled.

The other 2 times, no excursions were offered.

All 3 times we spent the night there and in the morning we began our cruise back to the Pacific.

[richwmn]

We are on the cruise from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale two weeks from now.

 

The Zuiderdam stops for eight hours at Puerto Amador but four of the hours are before midnight! Puerto Amador is situated at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and is a manmade peninsula extending out into the Pacific Oceanbuilt to accommodate shipping.

 

What research I've done - if you want to go into Panama City, it should only be 20 or so minutes by taxi unless for some reason there is heavy traffic.

 

There suppose to be good shopping around the port area.

 

Hi tommui987 -

We are on the same cruise, and we have 16 hours in Amador. The ship arrives at 8am on Oct 11th, and leaves at 4am although the recommended all aboard is around midnight. I confirmed this a couple of weeks ago with my PCC as I have a tour arranged there.

[Cashew14]

Thank you all. I think we definitely want to travel all the way through. But would love to stop and see Panama City for the full experience. We will keep hunting.

 

We are on the cruise leaving from Valparaiso with a full transit and overnight stop in Fuerte Amador if this helps.

[casamariposa]

The full transit is wonderful. You will have a narrator on board who will tell you about everything you'll be seeing and the history of the construction. If you are in Puerto Amador, I'd suggest a tour that takes you to the new observation center which is alongside the final lock. There is a wonderful film in the theater about the Canal's construction; one floor is dedicated to the fantastic equipment used to build the canal; a second floor is dedicated to the natural history (which is very rich in flora and fauna); and the top level overlooks the canal and is very close to it, so when a ship is passing through the lock, you can look down and watch the whole operation. If I have the chance to be there at night, I'd love to see it lit up. I've been through "the ditch" five times and would do it again in a flash!

[tommui987]

Hi tommui987 -

We are on the same cruise, and we have 16 hours in Amador.

 

Rich: (and others)

 

Mea culpa! You are absolutely correct!

 

One of these days I will learn "ante" and "post" - one before noon and one after :-)

 

The last time we were at the Canal, it was just straight through from the Atlantic side on the way to Valpariso.

 

See you in Vancouver!

[summersigh]

Our 10 day HAL partial transit goes into the locks to Gatun Lake -

(After HMC, Bonaire, and Aruba

 

Stops to let off passengers who are doing excursions -

 

Goes back out the locks -

 

Docks at Colon, Panama from 3-7pm to pick up those who were on excursions.

 

The next day you wake up in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

[Koshlong]

We did an overnight visit to Fuerte Amador on our Veendam SA relocation cruise a couple of years ago..............we did a waterfall climb and a visit to an Embera village.

[rkacruiser]

Sometimes the first segment of the World Cruise aboard the Amsterdam will anchor at Amador after going through the Panama Canal. I would totally agree with PathfinderEss's comment about Panama City's interest. One of the more interesting Central American cities I have visited, to be sure. New and modern; old; then, very old. Glad I had a chance of visiting the city!