Classic Panama Canal post trip review.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

Bumping this thread -  Any recent report backs/reviews of the Star's Panama Canal cruise?  

We are sailing in just under a month 

 

Thank you  

We did the Christmas/New Year's sailing.  Thoroughly enjoyed the cruise!  I do suggest, as we did, that you just make sure to set your expectations properly for being on shore and also excursions.  We've been to the Caribbean many times so that was pretty easy for us.  This is Not Europe, and things are different here in these countries.  Have a little patience, go with the flow, don't expect too much.  Things happen!  We noticed those of us who approached it this way had a great time and those that were perfectionists and kept comparing this to Europe were very disappointed.  Which do you want to be?

 

That said, we had an outstanding excursion in the Cave Tubing in Belize!  What an amazing adventure.  Can't be immobile though.   We also enjoyed our Jamaica snorkeling excursion.  Lots of fun and the water was great.  

[Mimiya11]

55 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

We did the Christmas/New Year's sailing.  Thoroughly enjoyed the cruise!  I do suggest, as we did, that you just make sure to set your expectations properly for being on shore and also excursions.  We've been to the Caribbean many times so that was pretty easy for us.  This is Not Europe, and things are different here in these countries.  Have a little patience, go with the flow, don't expect too much.  Things happen!  We noticed those of us who approached it this way had a great time and those that were perfectionists and kept comparing this to Europe were very disappointed.  Which do you want to be?

 

That said, we had an outstanding excursion in the Cave Tubing in Belize!  What an amazing adventure.  Can't be immobile though.   We also enjoyed our Jamaica snorkeling excursion.  Lots of fun and the water was great.  

Thanks so much for responding

 As most of our cruises have been to the Caribbean (we tend to do Europe by land), we are used to going with the flow.    We are booked to go Cave Tubing through a private tour guide found on CC.  Very excited.  

 

Did you take any of the included excursions?   Any highs and lows? 

 

[longterm]

On 12/3/2022 at 2:23 PM, CCWineLover said:

I think that going to the Caribbean on any cruise line these days is going to require a lessening of expectations post-COVID.  Just have to accept that.   I fully expect the tours to be sub-standard and dragging us on bad buses through poverty.  Some countries really do not have good buses so not sure that is Viking's fault.  

Nor am I interested in local shopping or shopping on the ship.

What we haven't heard much of is anything positive on this thread.

Can't anyone find ANYTHING that they liked?  Come on people . . .

We went on the Viking Caribbean cruise (10 or 11 days, don't recall) in December 2021, a trip that was twice postponed due to Covid. 

 

Although masking and testing were still mandatory at that time, we had a great time; anyone traveling to the Caribbean should expect to see abject poverty, because that's just the way it is on many of those islands. 

 

We enjoyed our time on the beaches there, but the excursions into most of the towns were disappointing, only because there's not much to see. On one, the guide pointed out the electric company... not much of note to show us, so that's what we were shown. 

 

Our best excursion was on St. Lucia, when we got off the ship and started walking into town, met a driver, who took us on a private excursion for a few hours up to see the bubbling lava pits of the extinct volcano on that island--well worth the trip. Because we were on our own, we did what we wanted and had a great day there. 

 

We bailed on our Panama Canal trip, which was booked for March, because of the preponderance of sea days; just didn't make sense, given the cost of the trip--plus, the remaining port days, other than the Canal, just didn't seem to offer much. We decided that, if we want to spend time on the beach, which we really enjoy, we'll simply do a weeklong trip to Cancun every year and get our time that way, and choose Viking trips to other destinations, like a river cruise this fall, the British Isles next year, and Australia/New Zealand/Indonesia in 2025.

[Mariastreby]

2 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

 

 As most of our cruises have been to the Caribbean (we tend to do Europe by land), we are used to going with the flow.    We are booked to go Cave Tubing through a private tour guide found on CC.  Very excited.  

 

Did you take any of the included excursions?   Any highs and lows? 

 

we also took the holiday Panama Canal cruise. We did not take the included tours in Cancun, Roatan, or Colon. You’re smart to do the cave tubing in Belize, as the ruins weren’t as impressive as what I’d seen in Mexico. Do NOT take the included Roatan excursion, as it involves a longish bus ride in buses that are mostly barely larger than school buses, and built for kids. We did the Embera village excursion from Colon, and found it interesting and very unique. Did the bamboo rafting in Jamaica, and that was fun. 
 

As @CCWineLover said above, keep your expectations of the ports low. We took the cruise more for the sea days, warm weather in winter, and the holiday celebrations. We just enjoy the Viking onboard experience. Hint: we think that some of the best food is served in the World Cafe. 

[Mimiya11]

17 hours ago, Mariastreby said:

As @CCWineLover said above, keep your expectations of the ports low. We took the cruise more for the sea days, warm weather in winter, and the holiday celebrations. We just enjoy the Viking onboard experience. Hint: we think that some of the best food is served in the World Cafe. 

 

Thanks.  This is our first Viking cruise, so we are really looking forward to the sea days and warm weather (we are from Canada).  Appreciate your warning about the Roatan excursion.    

We are particularly looking forward to seeing the Panama Canal and taking two excursions in Costa Rica.     

And the World Cafe? .... What I have read on this forum and seen on You Tube, amazing.  The sushi and seafood alone sold me.   

[formernuke]

On the Classic PC cruise on Star right now (in fact in a canal lock at the moment). We definitely enjoyed all our excursions, a mix of included and optional.  Crew is excellent. Food overall is very good, but not many ‘great’ dishes (a few) and no ‘bad’ dishes. Have eaten at all venues except CT

[CCWineLover]

13 minutes ago, formernuke said:

On the Classic PC cruise on Star right now (in fact in a canal lock at the moment). We definitely enjoyed all our excursions, a mix of included and optional.  Crew is excellent. Food overall is very good, but not many ‘great’ dishes (a few) and no ‘bad’ dishes. Have eaten at all venues except CT

Enjoy the canal!  You should be out watching!

I agree with you re: meals.  Of all our 12 Viking cruises, this was likely the most "average".  A nice "B" - nothing spectacular.  (The others were A- to A+).   This time was a greater variation between very good to not so good.  Inconsistent.

But the Canal tops it all!!

[formernuke]

Watching from the Explorer Lounge and going outside in the heat for pics as needed. Watched the full set of locks outside this morning when it was cool!

[Mimiya11]

1 hour ago, formernuke said:

Watching from the Explorer Lounge and going outside in the heat for pics as needed. Watched the full set of locks outside this morning when it was cool!

Just got an email from Viking to say Mahogany Bay is now the port for Roatan.   Is that where you stopped?   Looks like there is a beach very close by as we most likely will bale the included excursion based on comments.   

[formernuke]

Yes we stopped in Mahogany Bay. Makes the tours about 10-15 longer bus trip. Don’t know about the beach

[formernuke]

We passed the other port and it looked like there was pier maintenance going on

[CCWineLover]

26 minutes ago, formernuke said:

Yes we stopped in Mahogany Bay. Makes the tours about 10-15 longer bus trip. Don’t know about the beach

We did Mahogany Bay.  So glad we did.  For us, we were at this small pier, since 1 or 2 really large cruise ships got ahead of us into the other pier a ways away from us.   The beach is close and you can walk to it, but you'll have to pay to go in.  Don't know how much.   Also a skyway.  There is a nice little nature trail you can take.  On the other side of the entryway is a whole series of shops (for tourists), where you could wander around.  I didn't notice that long a bus ride difference.  It was just so nice not to have hordes of people around.

 

[formernuke]

What I understood from one of the tour guides was that Mahogany Bay was built/‘owned’ by one of the cruise lines (maybe they said Carnival?) and that normally all other cruise lines use the other port so they were surprised to hear we had docked there. 

[Mimiya11]

2 minutes ago, formernuke said:

What I understood from one of the tour guides was that Mahogany Bay was built/‘owned’ by one of the cruise lines (maybe they said Carnival?) and that normally all other cruise lines use the other port so they were surprised to hear we had docked there. 

I did some research and yes it seems to be a private beach for Carnival.  Based on the port schedule, Viking is the only ship in port the day we are there.  Mmm 

[Mimiya11]

1 hour ago, Mimiya11 said:

I did some research and yes it seems to be a private beach for Carnival.  Based on the port schedule, Viking is the only ship in port the day we are there.  Mmm 

I stand corrected. Not necessarily Carnival’s

Edited February 11, 2023 by Mimiya11

[Gaz-n-Mindy]

We too were on the Star over Christmas and New Years and while docked at Mahogany Bay we walked down the path to the beach and there was no charge to do so. The walk down the pathway was beautiful!

Edited February 11, 2023 by Gaz-n-Mindy

[SM77]

Thanks Knoxclone for your review of this Panama Canal cruise - this is one that we are interested in and your experience and the others who commented will certainly help us in our planning and setting expectations.  My primary interest is in the canal transit so that is where my focus is.  Everyone's comments are very helpful.