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Panama Canal Cruise


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So now that I booked one of my husband's bucket list cruise, Hawaii, we now are wanting to plan a Panama Canal cruise. I briefly looked and I guess the departure and arrival ports are usually different. We live in California so I'm sure airfare will be involved as well. We aren't retired yet so the longest time we could possibly manage is 14 day cruise. We are looking at possibly next November or December. January is out because my husband is out of town for 2 weeks in January for work.

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Do you have a question? :D

 

I think there is one here- one that could be resolved by just a little research.

 

Full transits are almost never less than 14 days. However, as commonly discussed here, partial transits, which do round trip out of the same port, are typically 10 or 11 days.

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This will probably be our only panama cruise so I am trying to figure out the best option to get the most out of our trip. I'm just starting my research so it is a bit confusing. We plan to purchase FCC on our upcoming cruises. I will study the history to figure out what to do. So much to think about.

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Just trying to figure out the best option for us since this will more than likely be our only Panama Canal cruise. I'm not sure if full or partial is best. I plan to purchase FCC on board our next cruise. I'm just starting my research so I have a lot to consider,

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For a little background, Princess used to do a 10 day full transit, but the drug cartels decided that the western terminus (Acapulco) was a good place to have their drug wars and endanger the indigenous tourists....so now Princess begins/ends their full transit itineraries in Los Angeles (San Pedro).

 

If you really want to avoid flying, my buddy says to do a B2B, full transit. (He is not a fan of air travel)

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Just trying to figure out the best option for us since this will more than likely be our only Panama Canal cruise. I'm not sure if full or partial is best. I plan to purchase FCC on board our next cruise. I'm just starting my research so I have a lot to consider,

 

Thanks for clarifying.

 

With two weeks, you should have time for a full transit (you can find 14-nighters). Having just done one (16 nights), it was awesome, and I'd certainly recommend it for the "full" experience of ALL the locks, as well as the transit of Gatun Lake and the Culebra Cut, and for understanding just how incredible a feat of human engineering this was by experiencing it completely from one end to the other. My detailed review, with photos, is here:

 

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

 

I don't know where in CA you are, but at least on one end of a full transit, you won't be flying across the continent. :)

 

There's plenty of info on this board about the Canal and partial and full transits, so with some reading and deciding what is important to you, you should be able to make a decision. (You have mentioned a "bucket list" several times. If you are just trying to tick off stuff on a list, maybe a partial transit would be sufficient for you. It would not have been for us. We did not even consider it.)

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Thanks for clarifying.

 

With two weeks, you should have time for a full transit (you can find 14-nighters). Having just done one (16 nights), it was awesome, and I'd certainly recommend it for the "full" experience of ALL the locks, as well as the transit of Gatun Lake and the Culebra Cut, and for understanding just how incredible a feat of human engineering this was by experiencing it completely from one end to the other. My detailed review, with photos, is here:

 

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

 

I don't know where in CA you are, but at least on one end of a full transit, you won't be flying across the continent. :)

 

There's plenty of info on this board about the Canal and partial and full transits, so with some reading and deciding what is important to you, you should be able to make a decision. (You have mentioned a "bucket list" several times. If you are just trying to tick off stuff on a list, maybe a partial transit would be sufficient for you. It would not have been for us. We did not even consider it.)

 

 

We are central California so we can leave out of LA or San Francisco with not too long of a drive. We may do Panama Canal in 2019 and possibly a different cruise next year. We like to take at least one cruise a year.

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Well if this going to be your only pass through the Canal then hold out for the full transit if you can. There is one partial transit that may be worth consideration even though it is a wee bit out of your parameters. Princess has offered one partial transit round trip from LA on the Island Princess in the November time frame, it is around 18 or 19 days. The ship enters the Canal on the Pacific side, travels almost to Gatun Locks where it will anchor and tours can be taken. After an overnight in the Canal the ship will sail back through the Canal and exit on the Pacific side. It is practically two complete transits of the Canal all on the same cruise. However there is no way to know if they will offer in 2019.

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My detailed review, with photos, is here:

 

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

 

 

There's plenty of info on this board about the Canal and partial and full transits, so with some reading and deciding what is important to you, you should be able to make a decision. (You have mentioned a "bucket list" several times. If you are just trying to tick off stuff on a list, maybe a partial transit would be sufficient for you. It would not have been for us. We did not even consider it.)

 

Thanks for your review, doing 24 days at the end of April and you gave great info!

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Thank you all. We may do a partial transit. We love cruising, but 10 days was the longest cruise we have done. We have a 15 day coming up to Hawaii. That's a big step for me. Some of you may think I'm nuts, but I am a bit anxious being away from my dogs that long. I have a 25 year old son that lives with us and will watch them, but ooh I'll miss them. So I'm thinking Panama Canal should be a max of 2 weeks for us especially if I have to fly which is an extra day.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you can squeeze out a few more days, Princess has one on Island that is R/T LA. She goes through Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks and all the way to Gatun Lake, spends the night there and then goes back out the Pacific side. It is 19 days.

 

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruisesonislandprincess-dec2017.html

 

She does it again in April 2018:

 

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruisesonislandprincess-apr2018.html

 

There is no schedule for her past Sept 2018, but chances are she may do it again in that Nov or Dec., maybe again in Spring 2019. EM

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  • 2 weeks later...

We did the partial transit on the Island Princess and enjoyed it immensely. My wife took tons of pictures for her website. If you take a partial cruise, you may be going to some of the same ports of call that we visited on our cruise. If you have time, you may want to take a look at her website at the link below which includes our shore excursions. It may give you an idea of what to expect.

Partial Panama Cruise on the Island Princess

 

Have a great cruise everyone. It's a wonderful way to travel!

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  • 4 weeks later...
We did the partial transit on the Island Princess and enjoyed it immensely. My wife took tons of pictures for her website. If you take a partial cruise, you may be going to some of the same ports of call that we visited on our cruise. If you have time, you may want to take a look at her website at the link below which includes our shore excursions. It may give you an idea of what to expect.

Partial Panama Cruise on the Island Princess

 

Have a great cruise everyone. It's a wonderful way to travel!

 

 

Ok back to my Panama Cruise research. I believe we will stick with Princess. I will look into the Island Princess,

 

Thanks

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Ok back to my Panama Cruise research. I believe we will stick with Princess. I will look into the Island Princess,

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

If you are looking into Princess, you may want to consider the Coral instead of the Island.

 

I did a review of the partial canal cruise a couple of years ago, but there probably are not many changes since then. It can be found at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2040176

 

They did offer an excursion to take a ferry through all the locks, and this gives a different perspective than you get from the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Thank you all. We may do a partial transit. We love cruising, but 10 days was the longest cruise we have done. We have a 15 day coming up to Hawaii. That's a big step for me. Some of you may think I'm nuts, but I am a bit anxious being away from my dogs that long. I have a 25 year old son that lives with us and will watch them, but ooh I'll miss them. So I'm thinking Panama Canal should be a max of 2 weeks for us especially if I have to fly which is an extra day.

 

We are scheduled to do the 15 night on the Coral Princess on January 20. We will leave on January 19 and fly to Fort Lauderdale and board the ship on January 20. We will fly back home to San Francisco from Los Angeles on January 4. There are a few of us flying from California; we are traveling with a couple who live in Clovis. I believe the air fare for us purchased through Princess' EZair is $356.58 per person. I booked it through EZair but since my husband works for the airlines, this gives me time to see if I can book tickets at his discount at a cheaper price than EZair is offering or set alerts to see if I can get something cheaper. This cruise is one night longer than what you are doing for your Hawaii cruise, but it seems like it would hit all of your other desired requirements.....just sayin:-)

Edited by margob111
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We are going to be on Holland America's Oosterdam this November for a 15 day full transit of the canal. It begins in Fort Lauderdale and ends in San Diego. We are from Washington state so it will be a short flight home from San Francisco.

 

By the way, Holland American was and is having a great sale on this sailing (Nov 17-Dec 2 2017), not through the Holland American website but through numerous travel agents at over 70% off the brochure rate. I just looked at the travel agent we booked through and it's still going on. And the one big box store we usually book through does not even show this particular sailing as being offered on their website.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
So now that I booked one of my husband's bucket list cruise, Hawaii, we now are wanting to plan a Panama Canal cruise. I briefly looked and I guess the departure and arrival ports are usually different. We live in California so I'm sure airfare will be involved as well. We aren't retired yet so the longest time we could possibly manage is 14 day cruise. We are looking at possibly next November or December. January is out because my husband is out of town for 2 weeks in January for work.

 

We are doing the 14 day from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale Feb 4, 2018 Full transit. We have done this transit the opposite way before. A Good cruise. We are using this cruise to then take the Feb 25 th caribbean east/west 14 day.

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