Panama Canal Partial Transit Cruise

I am so excited! I just booked the Freedom out of Galveston for January of 2019 for the Panama Canal journeys cruise. It's also the cruise I will turn platinum so even more reason for excitement. Has anyone been on a journey's cruise to the canal? Did you like it? We are also going to Cartagena, Colombia and Limon,Costa Rica which are both new ports. Anyone been there and have any tips on what to do?

Thanks!

Was on a journeys cruise last month that had partial transit through the canal. One of the stops was in Costa Rica where we did the Sloth Sanctuary.

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I am so excited! I just booked the Freedom out of Galveston for January of 2019 for the Panama Canal journeys cruise. It's also the cruise I will turn platinum so even more reason for excitement. Has anyone been on a journey's cruise to the canal? Did you like it? We are also going to Cartagena, Colombia and Limon,Costa Rica which are both new ports. Anyone been there and have any tips on what to do?

 

Thanks!

Congrats on the booking!! Check out my Carnival Pride Repo cruise photo review for info on the canal and Port Limon. The link is in my signature. Enjoy!

I did a partial transit a few years ago albeit on Princess.

Cartagena is a fabulous city and was probably my favorite port on this cruise. I would go to the Ports of Call forum for Columbia and look for a guided tour, preferably private if the budget allows, that includes a walking tour of the old town, and stops at La Popa and the Castillo. (La Popa is reached by a narrow, winding road so the ships excursions in their large buses skip it because they can't drive there.)

I also highly recommend booking the small boat excursion through the remainder of the Canal. (This will have to be booked through the ship--there are no private excursions for this activity.) You will get such a different perspective of the Canal in a small boat as opposed to a cruise ship PLUS you get to go through the other locks completing the journey through the Canal. (We even got a certificate attesting to our completion of the journey!) It was a long, but wonderful, day.

Most of the excursions in Limon were long ones requiring a lengthy trip from the ship. So we chose to remain onboard in port and it's always nice to have the ship almost all to yourself!

I also highly recommend booking the small boat excursion through the remainder of the Canal. (This will have to be booked through the ship--there are no private excursions for this activity.) You will get such a different perspective of the Canal in a small boat as opposed to a cruise ship PLUS you get to go through the other locks completing the journey through the Canal. (We even got a certificate attesting to our completion of the journey!

On Carnival's partial transit, there are no stops at the Canal. You sail through the first three locks, loiter in the lake for a few hours, and then exit thru the same locks. But we did get a certificate. :)

We stopped in Cartagena on our last trip and it was the best one of all. We couldn't go on the winding road to La Popa as it was closed due to rain and landslides.

We used http://cartagenatour.com/cruiseshiptour.html and will do so again if we ever return there.

I am so excited! I just booked the Freedom out of Galveston for January of 2019 for the Panama Canal journeys cruise. It's also the cruise I will turn platinum so even more reason for excitement. Has anyone been on a journey's cruise to the canal? Did you like it? We are also going to Cartagena, Colombia and Limon,Costa Rica which are both new ports. Anyone been there and have any tips on what to do?

 

Thanks!

We are doing that Cruise in October of this year. Have not done it before. There are only 8 excursions in Cartagena on our cruise. We are taking the "Cartagena By Land and Sea" excursion and the "Rainforest Canopy Adventure" in Limon, Costa Rica. It will be our Diamond cruise and both of us took the 25% OBC for reaching 25 cruises because of the price of the 14 day cruise. It amounts to a little over $1300.00 total. If you want to know excursions we have planned for the other ports, let me know.

John