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doubts about panama canal itenery with reviews on this board


creel5857
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We have been on 3 Alaskan cruises, 1 new England/Canada cruise and 2 different routes in carribean and have had great trips. This week we agree to an itinerary in canal traveling west to east from San Diego to Ft Lauderdale without the usual research that I do. Just kept hearing how great the different routes through canal are. Now is see many negative or blah (don't get off the ship) reviews for most of my ports.....Cartagena, Puerto Caldera, Corinto, Puerto Quetzal, Huautulco and Puerto Vallarta. I am in search of some honest reviews about this itinerary and the disappointment we may face.....just want to prepare my husband ahead......he is so excited about finally marking off panama canal off his bucket list and then we realize that is about the only thing we will see that is nice and not impoverish or unsafe. Please help, any thoughts or comments

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I'm sorry you've had such negative input. The Panama Transit is the real hero of this cruise and the day of the transit is magnificent and full on. Up with the sparrows, running around the ship all day for different views of all the activity and finally on dark you get to go to dinner and compare stories with your dining companions. Or order room service and recover! :eek:

 

But those ports all look great. Our ship called at Cartagena a wonderful historic, but vibrant walled fortress city. Hautulco one of those walk off the ship to the beach and do nothing places or be very watersport/zipline active. We sat under a brolly, ordered a seafood meal, had a couple of beers, heaps of beautiful refreshing dips in the ocean and a bit of a wonder amongst the market stalls. It was a wonderful day. Puerto Vallarta where we did a tour which included an old town walk and a tequila factory which we've always avoided but it was heaps of fun.

 

The itinerary seems wonderful to me although I don't know the other ports. But isn't that part of the adventure? Have a great time on your Panama Transit whichever cruise itinerary you choose.

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Been to all the ports you mentioned except Corinto and technically Caldera, but that is just the port some cruise lines use to access the Pacific side of Costa Rica. All the times I've stopped there it was Puntarenas... about 10 miles down the road. None of those stops have I put into are the "don't get off the ship category", depending on what interests you there is always something around. Take for example Puerto Vallarta, right where the ship docks there is a Wal-Mart! Oh man just like home!!! I'm kidding, but there is a Wally World there:).

 

The one piece of advice I will offer about a Canal cruise is to pick an itinerary that includes a full day stop in Panama. I think so many itineraries miss the mark completely by just transiting the Canal without a chance to see some more of Panama and/or delve more into the Canal. There are two ports in Panama where the ship stops, there are some advantages to both. In the end however which one is not that important as you will be able to access virtually all of the same points of interest from either.

 

In choosing your Canal itin you may also have to think about which locks your ship will be using... new locks or the old locks. May not sound like much of a deal, but it is a consideration.

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thanks so much for the replies.....we normally just travel and don't worry about it but seems like this trip had some snags and negative comments that threw me off some......so thanks very much for the positive comments

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OP: we've been back a little over a month from our first Canal transit (east to west) and had port calls in all the ports you've named (plus others). Overall, we had a WONDERFUL time on this cruise. First and foremost, the Canal is incredible, and absolutely worth the trip. That was our reason for going, and if you are at all interested in seeing the Canal, I would not pass it up. Second, with the exception of Corinto, we had an excellent time in all of the ports you named. In fact, the day we spent in Costa Rica (we docked at Puntarenas, which is very close to Puerto Caldera) on a private shore excursion with Gio Tours was a highlight of the trip. Just incredible. And our beach day in Huatulco was beautifully relaxing, we'd still be on that beach if we hadn't had to get back on the ship! :)

 

I did a ton of reading about this cruise and the ports before we left, and I've kept up since, and I'm not quite sure where you are seeing "don't get off the ship" comments about the ports you have named (except perhaps Corinto, but even there, you can visit Leon as we did). Just not true!

 

I have a very detailed review of our cruise, with lots of photos, including what we did in each port, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2456255

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To Turtles.......thanks so very much for your reply and for the great pictures and description of your trip. Your response has reassured me somewhat that we just need to go with it and enjoy it. I will disregard the earlier negative comments on our itinerary and the unsafe situation of 2 of our ports and assume that recent travelers like you would know better. Thanks again

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We have been on many Caribbean cruises. We hummed and hawed over a Panama transit cruise. Never did make it.

 

After spending a month on an independent land trip to Costa Rica and Panama we are glad that we did not spend the money on a canal cruise. We found our independent travel be far better. We did not think that the Panama Canal cruise ports were very inspiring. Instead, we travelled where we wanted and spent a fair amount of time in the canal area. SInce returning home from this trip we are both happy that we did not take the cruise.

 

So this is another perspective.

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There are a lot of market stalls at Puerto Quetzal but you need to take either a tour to Antigua or the ship transfer to Antigua. A mountain city very colonial, traditional Mayan. Don't miss the cathedral and the ruins of the previous magnificent building behind. (Earthquake damage in 1800's). EM

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  • 1 month later...

We are grooming on our second Panama Canal cruise in November 2017. Just some thoughts:

 

I agree with other comments - our first cruise did not provide a day in Panama City so we missed the opportunity to take an excursion to have a closer look at the canal. This time we are taking a full transit of the canal and have an extra day in Panama City

The day we transited the canal was exciting - felt like Christmas. Even from the balcony we got to see a lot of the work for a ship to pass through plus there was someone on board who provided continuous commentary throughout the transit.

We went in October and it was very hot and humid - much more than we expected. If you have excursions planned beware that the heat might affect the ease of walking, climbing, hiking, etc.

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