Panama Canal Cruise Recommendations Needed

[luckyfriday]

we are looking into cruises through the Panama Canal. Right now we are narrowed down between Princess and HAL 10-11 days out of Ft. Lauderdale in February. Has anyone had experience with either? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[fishywood]

A 10 or 11 day round trip from Florida is only a partial transit through the Atlantic side locks to Gatun Lake where the ship turns around and returns through the same locks. If you wish to go completely through the canal you should take an open jaw cruise between Florida and California.

 

That said the partial transit still involves six times in the lock chambers, just twice through the three on the Atlantic side. Caribbean Princess uses the new larger locks, other Princess ships and all HAL use the older locks. But HAL does have a better itinerary of other ports on their partial transits.

 

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[CruiserBruce]

This is a referred to as a "partial transit". Have sailed on both cruise lines (only HAL for partial and full transits). You can get tons of feedback on both cruise lines on their boards here on Cruise Critic. Princess: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197

 

HAL: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

 

There is also a board here on the Canal, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89

 

If you have sailed on the lines, their product is the same if they go to the Canal.

 

Do you have specific questions?

[tip]

We did a fifteen day full transit from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale on the Coral Princess in late October. It was awesome.

[Keith1010]

IF you want a true transit experience as mentioned you will want to look for another cruise which normally is 15 days or so in length. If you can take the time to do this I highly recommend it.

 

Keith

[cb at sea]

We've done a "partial", and it was great! We didn't want to do a cross-country flight at one end of the trip, so this worked out fine for us. Unless you are a true "canal" aficionado, a partial will let you see enough of the canal to satisfy!

[Markanddonna]

We've done a "partial", and it was great! We didn't want to do a cross-country flight at one end of the trip, so this worked out fine for us. Unless you are a true "canal" aficionado, a partial will let you see enough of the canal to satisfy!

Agree. I've done the full transit and it was nice seeing the western side, but you get most of thrill of a PC transit with the partial. There are viable reasons for doing the partial.

[pwake]

We are leaving Fort Lauderdale this Friday the 5th on the Pacific Princess for a 17 day trip to Los Angeles. She is a small ship and will go through the old locks. I’ve never done a Panama transit. I’ll report on it and let y’all know how it goes.

 

 

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[Essiesmom]

We've done a "partial", and it was great! We didn't want to do a cross-country flight at one end of the trip, so this worked out fine for us. Unless you are a true "canal" aficionado, a partial will let you see enough of the canal to satisfy!

 

And as you claim never to have had a passport, that limited you to the partial transit. EM

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done quite a few full transit canal cruises -- most were 21 days -- both ways.

We have also done quite a few partial transits. Several on HAL -- Zuiderdam. Should you decide to do this cruise, remember that you need to be up early to watch the approach to the canal. You will want to be on the outside decks to watch the mules working. Once you have completed the 3 sets of locks, the ship will head over to Gatun Lake. If you have booked a shore excursion, tenders will be lowered and you will go ashore to meet up with your bus. The buses return to Colon where you will meet up with the Zuiderdam. Only people who have bought an excursion can go ashore as there is nothing where the tenders drop off the people to get their buses -- no vendors. You do have the option of staying on the ship and watching as it lines up to back through the locks and head over to Colon. One thing on HAL -- this is the only morning they will have the Panama buns to eat -- we love them.

[luckyfriday]

Wow! Thanks everyone for your very helpful responses. This info is exactly what I need. I was having trouble trying to figure out how the canal passage worked, but now with your help I see there are two different ways to go. Since we don’t want to fly back from CA, we’re going with the shorter trip. Looks like there’s still plenty of canal time with that.

Can you tell me if any of the excursions off the ship, at the canal, worth doing or is it best to stay on the ship and experience it all from onboard?

[ldubs]

We did the partial on Princess some years ago. From Gatun Lake there is an excursion via a smaller boat (like a ferry boat) that will take you all the way through to the pacific side. A bus takes you back to your cruise ship. It was very enjoyable.

[BillB48]

Looks like there’s still plenty of canal time with that.

Can you tell me if any of the excursions off the ship, at the canal, worth doing or is it best to stay on the ship and experience it all from onboard?

 

While there is plenty of Canal time, you are only seeing 8 miles of a 50 mile Canal and you see the same section twice:D! No doubt the Canal is worth seeing more than once, just not the same little part in the same day!! If one of your primary objectives in this cruise is to see the Canal then the excursion mentioned by the previous poster that takes you to the Pacific side where you lock through the two Pacific Locks and sail through Gaillard Cut by "ferry" is an excellent option. While the Atlantic side locks (I assume Gatun will be the ones you will use) are interesting in their own right, they are just a piece of the puzzle. There is much more visual interest between the "Cut" and the two Pacific Locks. There is so much history in the Cut as its excavation turned out to be one of the larger challenges in the construction of the Canal. Imagine as you smoothly guide through the Cut, 50 feet below and a little over a 100 years ago up to 200 spoil trains ran each day removing spoils to create the Cut.

 

There also is one particular advantage in taking a partial transit cruiseas opposed to a full transit cruise... it gives you a unique opportunity to experience the locks from your large cruise ship and then to see it all from the smaller ferry. It gives you a completely different perspective of the operation, well worth it.

 

On the off chance Gatun Locks satisfies your Canal quotient there are a couple of other interesting tours to look into. One is a visit to the Embera Indians, many people will compare that to something out of the National Geographic. There is also one that takes you to the Pacific side that will give a great history lesson in the settling of Panama. I always enjoy many peoples expression when they first see the skyline of Panama City... not what most expect. You will also get to see the skyline from the "ferry" excursion through the Pacific Locks and the Cut.

 

Panama lies at the beginning of European settlements in the Americas, it's a great place to explore.

[luckyfriday]

Thank you BillB48! You’ve provided so much great info about the Panama Canal. I’ve seen your comments on some of the other boards. Your insight is very much appreciated. We will definitely get off the ship and hook up with one of the tours you’ve mentioned!!

[BillB48]

You are welcome, whichever you choose... enjoy!