Panama Canal Excursions

[Qchell]

I have a cruise booked on Princess going through the Panama Canal in December.  There are few excursions listed and many ports don't have any.  Have any of you cruised through the canal on Princess before?  Do you recall how long before the cruise excursions started being posted?  Thanks in advance! 

[PacnGoNow]

40 minutes ago, Qchell said:

I have a cruise booked on Princess going through the Panama Canal in December.  There are few excursions listed and many ports don't have any.  Have any of you cruised through the canal on Princess before?  Do you recall how long before the cruise excursions started being posted?  Thanks in advance! 

I’m surprised you don’t see them.  You looked on the itinerary or on your cruise personalizer on the website?  You book them on the website.

 

Here is a link for an idea of what is offered.  
 

https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/cartagena-colombia-excursions

 

Just enter the port you are visiting to get an idea.  
 

Maybe if you can say the ship and dailing we can see if we see it on the website?

[PacnGoNow]

47 minutes ago, Qchell said:

I have a cruise booked on Princess going through the Panama Canal in December.  There are few excursions listed and many ports don't have any.  Have any of you cruised through the canal on Princess before?  Do you recall how long before the cruise excursions started being posted?  Thanks in advance! 

Looks like the 10 night cruises for December, they may be working on the tours now.  So, just keep checking. I would think soon?

 

The 15 night ocean to ocean has some open on it.  So, that would give you a good idea of what might be available for your ports.  I usually check them out and at least know if I’m interested in one of them.  I’d then be ready to book it.  

[Thrak]

Recommend Dora De Zubiria

 

http://cartagenatour.com/

 

If you are lucky you can get Dora herself. I wouldn't hurt to ask if you do book. We had a great tour with her. We were just leaving the main spots as the Princess bus full of people was arriving so we didn't have the crowds. When walking through Cartagena the majority of the vendors (think Mexico vendors but more of them and even more aggressive) knew Dora and left us alone. Only one guy was super pushy and she shut him down fast. I think there were only 8 of us in the van plus Dora.

[Qchell]

18 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I’m surprised you don’t see them.  You looked on the itinerary or on your cruise personalizer on the website?  You book them on the website.

 

Here is a link for an idea of what is offered.  
 

https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/cartagena-colombia-excursions

 

Just enter the port you are visiting to get an idea.  
 

Maybe if you can say the ship and dailing we can see if we see it on the website?

That is a link to what 'can' be offered, but not what is being offered right now.  The sailing is the December 10, 2023 sailing. There are some excursions being offered for some of the ports for this particular cruise, but many of the ports don't have any listed yet, the message that comes up is:

There are no excursions for this port at the moment.
Please check back later.

(when going through the booking and looking at the main website in general). I'm asking people who have cruised on Princess through the Canal before how long before the cruise that excursions for their cruise began being posted.  

[Qchell]

16 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Recommend Dora De Zubiria

 

http://cartagenatour.com/

 

If you are lucky you can get Dora herself. I wouldn't hurt to ask if you do book. We had a great tour with her. We were just leaving the main spots as the Princess bus full of people was arriving so we didn't have the crowds. When walking through Cartagena the majority of the vendors (think Mexico vendors but more of them and even more aggressive) knew Dora and left us alone. Only one guy was super pushy and she shut him down fast. I think there were only 8 of us in the van plus Dora.

Thank you!  Will definitely check that out!

[PacnGoNow]

16 minutes ago, Qchell said:

That is a link to what 'can' be offered, but not what is being offered right now.  The sailing is the December 10, 2023 sailing. There are some excursions being offered for some of the ports for this particular cruise, but many of the ports don't have any listed yet, the message that comes up is:

There are no excursions for this port at the moment.
Please check back later.

(when going through the booking and looking at the main website in general). I'm asking people who have cruised on Princess through the Canal before how long before the cruise that excursions for their cruise began being posted.  

Yes, I understand.  We have cruised several times through the canal on Princess and as I said, I’m surprised they are not shown yet.  We have had them shown about 9 months ahead, sometimes less than that. They may be working on them.

 

 You can call the excursion desk at Princess to ask, but they usually don’t know and will say check again later.

 

 

 

 

[Thrak]

On our last cruise through the canal - December 2022, Ruby Princess, New Locks - there were no excursions showing until very near to the cruise date. It was odd. Excursions did eventually show up but nowhere near as far out as we usually see them.

[CruisinCadie]

We're on the Nov. 20 - 30th cruise and the only excursions that show on the cruise personalizer are for Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Ft. Lauderdale, and the last ones just showed up recently.  I did try the link above and excursions showed for all but Colon and the partial canal transit.  Since I have to get through our Alaska cruise later this month before I start wondering about the November one, I didn't investigate too closely.

 

BTW, we toured with Dora the Explorer before and she does a wonderful job.  I highly recommend her.

[LeeW]

For partial transits a lot of tours leave from Gatun Lake after the ship locks up and anchors.  Then you return to the ship after it locks back down to the Caribbean.  Not as many tours are offered for full transit cruises in the Canal since the ship doesn't anchor.  Some cruises have an overnight in Panama City before/after the transit and can offer more tours.

 

Have done a few full transits before and like most Princess cruises the excursions were available as much as a year before sailing.

[Qchell]

Thanks everyone!  Just have to keep checking.

[mocha9]

We are going on the November 30 Panama Canal cruise. The list of excursions came up a few days ago. The December 10 cruise will probably have the same excursions as the November 30 cruise. You can look at the November 30 cruise and have an idea of what is being offered for your cruise on December 10.

[TravelFiend]

On 6/13/2023 at 1:33 PM, CruisinCadie said:

We're on the Nov. 20 - 30th cruise and the only excursions that show on the cruise personalizer are for Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Ft. Lauderdale, and the last ones just showed up recently.  I did try the link above and excursions showed for all but Colon and the partial canal transit.  Since I have to get through our Alaska cruise later this month before I start wondering about the November one, I didn't investigate too closely.

 

BTW, we toured with Dora the Explorer before and she does a wonderful job.  I highly recommend her.

We're on the same sailing! Ours finally posted, I think last week? But much later than I had expected. I just had to keep checking. Annoying, but thankfully they did show up! But I agree, it was a little odd, they have always been available much further out when we've cruised before! So hopefully the Dec. 30 sailing will show up soon, too!

[Ellipooh]

Strange. Our April 2024 transit has had full excursions posted for weeks now. 
My problem is that none of them is enticing…