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Panama Canal


papaoma

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Posted

I am in the process of booking our next cruise which will be in February 2010 and will be the Panama Canal. I would really appreciate hearing from those that have taken this cruise and any suggestions you may offer. What is your preference for cruise line and ship? Would you recommend full of partial transfer? Do you think it is necessary to have a balcony room? We are from Canada, where would you recommend we commence and end, if we do the full transfer? Any other tips would be appreciated :)

Posted

IMO the full transit is much more interesting than just seeing the same locks twice.

 

I think that not only is a verandah not necessary, but if you have one you shouldn't be on it while you're going through the canal. (Or at least not when going through locks and the Gaillard/Culebra cut.) If you stay in one place on the side you'll miss a lot. Move around from bow to sides to stern (when leaving locks).

 

IMO eastbound or westbound doesn't make much difference, nor does the ship.

:)

Posted

I've sailed through the Canal twice; both were full transit. We sailed from Miami to Los Angeleson each trip; the first time on the Volendam and the second on the Zaandam. We had outside cabins on both trips and didn't feel a need for a balcony as we spent most of our time out on deck going from one side to the other.

 

I really have no preference of one ship over the other. They were both very nice. On our second trip we stopped at the San Blas Islands prior to entering the canal and I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Both trips made several stops along the west coast of Central America and Mexico and I really liked getting to see that part of the world.

 

Passage through the Canal was a an enjoyable experience. And being an engineer, I found going through the locks of particular interest. I was surprised on our first visit was that it took all day and to find much of the transit was across a lake. The only draw back on our cruises was that we didn't stop either time and there were no excursions where we could see the land except along the bank of the canal.

 

Never the less, they were both great cruises and I am sure you will enjoy your's whatever you decide.

Posted

My own experience tells me to suggest you do the full transit. We did the partial, and could hardly wait to book a full. I wouldn't have thought I'd be so fascinated by the Panama Canal, but it truly is amazing. Whichever you choose, you'll love it.

Posted

We've done full transit of the Panama Canal three times, and enjoyed each trip very much.

 

I agree, a balcony is not necessary. Be out on deck, and move about, trying to take it all in when going through the locks. Do be careful re the tropical sun - very easy to get badly burned if you don't take precautions.

Posted

user8, you bring up a good point: OP, pick a cruise with ports that you would like to see, because the canal itself is just one day. On our cruise we liked Cartegena (Colombia) on the Atlantic side and Huatulco (Mexico) on the Pacific.

Posted

We did full transit twice on b2b and it was great!!! Saw new things each time through. We spent time on deck, on the bow, at the stern .... moving about and seeing as much as possible. Great trip and a balcony is not necessary - actually you see much more from up on deck.

 

Susan

Posted

I'm Canadian, too, and I'm currently struggling with finding flights that get us home at a reasonable time. The last cruise DH & I did, our flights sucked and we arrived home feeling that we'd had no vacation :( after travelling for most of a day. And then a stinking whiteout blizzard that tripled our highway drive to our home.

 

I suggest you look at the flights that you need when considering which cruise to take. I'm currently thinking about changing cruises, to get better flights than what I can find for the cruise we now have booked. Just one more factor to consider when one lives off the beaten path :)

Posted

I've found the Panama Canal board (especially poster Richard in Panama) very helpful:

 

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

 

I let friends talk me into going with them on a partial transit this November. As a fellow Canadian, that round trip FLL airfare was really attractive.

 

Subsequent research showed all the mistakes I made. November is the end of the wet season (your February trip in the dry season is perfect). Now I'm booking a ferry excursion ("Canal Experience") that will take me all the way through the locks. I'm told some people even like this better, because the tiny ferry gives a different perspective on the huge locks.

 

So, while of course a full transit is better, a partial transit can be "fixed".

Posted

We have done quite a few full transist canal cruises a about 4 partials.

If you chose a full transit -- remember that you can not get off the ship during the day while you go through the canal -- so the other ports will be important -- pick a cruise for the ports on this type of a cruise.

Now if yopu choose to do the partial -- there are quite a few excursions that you can take once you have gone through the Gatun Locks -- we loved the train that took us over to the Pacific side where we boarded buses to go tour around and also stop at the Miraflores Locks and Museum.

Posted

We did a full transit once, from Fort Lauderdale to Seattle on the Westerdam. About 80 Canadians got off in Victoria, BC. I'm not sure you could go the other way, getting on in Victoria.

The Canal is amazing. I agree about other seeing your other ports. My favorite was Costa Rica, although we did stop at Acapulco, Cabo St. Lucas, San Diego and several others.

Posted

If you are going to the Panama Canal, you should try to read David McCullough's wonderful book " The Path Between The Seas". It will make the experience much more meaningful.

Posted

Papaoma, I've written a full Web page about canal trips at http://richarddetrich.wordpress.com/canal-cruise/ - the big difference I can see between a complete transit and partial, aside from length of trip and cost, is that on a partial you get to stop and see some of Panama, and generally on a transit, you do not see any of Panama.

 

On a partial you do have the opportunity to take a smaller boat to see the entire Canal, but for many people the trip through the locks is pretty much the same at each set of locks.

 

Hope that helps! Either way it is a great experience and if you do a little work before hand - like reading some of the books about the history of the Canal - it will be even better.

 

Regards, Richard

Posted

Such a wealth of information ... thank you for doing that, Richard. Every time I visit your site I learn something new and get excited about Panama all over again.

Posted

I agree that if you have a balcony on the side of the ship, during the Canal portion you'll see only a portion of what there is to see.

 

We've been fortunate on our two full transits to have SB and SC aft corner cabins, with a wrap balcony. Our views were fantastic, and the balconies were large enough for us to host a party during the Canal transit.

 

DH still got up early and headed for the bow to get pics of the initial approach to the Canal.

 

I'd do the Canal again in an instant ... really enjoyed Huatulco and Cartagena.

Posted
I am in the process of booking our next cruise which will be in February 2010 and will be the Panama Canal. I would really appreciate hearing from those that have taken this cruise and any suggestions you may offer. What is your preference for cruise line and ship? Would you recommend full of partial transfer? Do you think it is necessary to have a balcony room? We are from Canada, where would you recommend we commence and end, if we do the full transfer? Any other tips would be appreciated :)

 

We did the Westerdam full transit from FLL to Vancouver in April this year. Although I have not done a partial transit, I would suggest doing the complete one - it was short enough already - 7am at Gatun locks, 4pm out of Miraflores locks.

 

We did have a balcony - an SS - and we did use it. The trick we learned, from others on the board here, is to watch the transit from different vantage points. We were on the bow for Gatun, variuos places including our balcony for the lake, up on deck above the aft pool for the Centennial Bridge, down on the promenade deck for the Pedro Miguel lock so that we could reach out and get photos touching the side of the locks, and then on our balcony for Miraflores locks - nice and high up in comfort with a glass of wine at hand.

 

I would definitely recommend a balcony - just don't do then entire transit on it. I would also avoid lunch in the dining room that day - you'll miss too much - we nearly missed the cut and the bridge.

Posted

Thank you to all that have responded to my thread..what a great source of information. Richard you have a super site and a wealth of information and "Wine Taster" - thanks for the info on the book.

Now one has to make up their mind. I am leaning towards full transit and will probably look for something that will go Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver or Seattle. I guess my next querry would be---can you fly with aeroplan or airmiles, just one way? :confused:

Posted

I did a full transit on the old Westerdam in 1998 and I have done two which enter Gatun Lake through the Gatun Locks and come out the same way. I will be doing it again in October on the Zuiderdam

Posted
I guess my next querry would be---can you fly with aeroplan or airmiles, just one way? :confused:

You never used to be able to do that. That last time I checked was several years ago. I wonder if they do it now.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

With miles, it may depend on the airline. I believe American Airlines allows this now.... I know, for certain, that they look at each leg differently in terms of mileage.

 

Delta has great deals right now, at least from NYC, for our holiday panama canal full transit, we found non-stop flights to LA and back from Ft Lauderdale for under $300 rt.

Posted
Thank you to all that have responded to my thread..what a great source of information. Richard you have a super site and a wealth of information and "Wine Taster" - thanks for the info on the book.

Now one has to make up their mind. I am leaning towards full transit and will probably look for something that will go Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver or Seattle. I guess my next querry would be---can you fly with aeroplan or airmiles, just one way? :confused:

We have only done PC once on the Zaandam in 2006 and it was a partial. Not having done a full transit, we cannot comment on the difference; however, the main reason we booked the partial was ease of airline scheduling. we were able to inexpensively book roundtrip rather than multi-city flight.

We had a verandah, but did not really use that as, and this was pointed out quite well earlier in this thread, it was much more exciting to be in the front of the ship on each side, from time to time, and then on the stern observation deck, again going from side to side. The best part of the experience was that a learned individual narrated the passage.

A number of folks eschewed the transit, instead taking a train for an excursion and they spoke quite highly of that - but they were all veteran of prior PC transits.

harry

Posted
I guess my next querry would be---can you fly with aeroplan or airmiles, just one way? :confused:

 

For a one way flight, Aeroplan will cost you almost triple the miles required for a round trip flight!:eek:

 

Dave

Posted
I'm Canadian, too, and I'm currently struggling with finding flights that get us home at a reasonable time. The last cruise DH & I did, our flights sucked and we arrived home feeling that we'd had no vacation :( after travelling for most of a day. And then a stinking whiteout blizzard that tripled our highway drive to our home.

 

I suggest you look at the flights that you need when considering which cruise to take. I'm currently thinking about changing cruises, to get better flights than what I can find for the cruise we now have booked. Just one more factor to consider when one lives off the beaten path :)

 

Hi, I am from the Vancouver area, it was much cheaper to travel to Seattle, board the Ship there (Celebrity Infinity to Ft Lauderdale) We were able to get flights back to Seattle for $111.00 CDN Couldn't beat that. One stop over. I am not sure where you are originating from of course! Happy Planning!

 

Jewels:)

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