Jade Miami to Panama Canal round trip

Has anyone been on Jade Miami to Panama Canal and return....looking for input on excursions good and bad and any other ideas. Going Nov 5, never been on Jade or this cruise.

I am booked for this trip as well. Looking forward to panama canal and new ports for us. Interested in others experiences as well.

We are on it next year and would love to hear both positives and negatives.

Two years ago went on the Pearl, Jades sister ship on a similar itinerary.

; Cartagena (Colombia): The city is fascinating to see, high congestion of traffic, cool fort (WORTH THE VISIT)

Panama Canal/Gatun Lake (Panama): Interesting to go through the locks. Get up really early if you want to be in front of the ship while you go though. Was there at 5 am and front deck was packed. Visited the locks themselves, not much to see but at least we did it. Jungle tour was included in package. Jungle tour was going to a lake near a resort and looking into the trees for monkeys, saw 2.(NEXT TIME WILL STAY ON SHIP AND ENJOY THE LAKE)

Colon Pick up point for the ship, Dirty, nothing to see, shady part of town, the dock is for commercial ship traffic. Where you wait their is a small souvenir mall with about 15 stores that sell the typical stuff. hats,scarves, etc. About 3 restaurants. (HATED THIS COMMERCIAL PORT)

Puerto Limon (Costa Rica): Did train tour through the jungle, No real jungles on Caribbean side, brought us through a work quarry and saw a few sloths and a couple of monkeys.(NEXT TIME WILL TRY AND DO THE PACIFIC SIDE WAS TOLD BETTER JUNGLES AND BEACHES)

Roatan, Bay Islands (Honduras); Nice beaches would go back

Harvest Caye (Belize); Resort looking private island, a few restaurants and bars you have to pay for all of them, these are not included in the ship price; not like the other private island which hold a buffet and supplies beverages. Has a very nice pool, beach is OK , has a man made rock formation that you can go snorkeling, two years ago had 2 excursions none to the main land.(WOULD HAVE LIKED THIS PRIVATE ISLAND BETTER IF THEY INCLUDED THE BUFFET, JUST A PLACE TO LIE ON THE BEACH)

Costa Maya (Mexico) Been there many times just a beach town very cute, a pick up point for tours

Over all liked seeing these sites, going to the Panama Canal was worth it.

Just would like to add at the Gatun Lake stop, if you get off the ship you must have a ship's excursion booked. You may use private excursions and leave the ship on your own at any of the other ports of call.

I was on the Jade to Panama and Lizygirl 3 is right on target. You're going to love it.

Was on the Pearl March 2017, 11 ni, Panama Canal. Amazing trip! Your Jade trip should be very similar. I wrote a pretty extensive review here on CC after my cruise that talks about the ports and excursions, same itinerary as notes from lizygirl3. Although, we did not stop at Harvest Key, we did Belize City. Not sure how you can pull up my reviews, I'm sure you can somehow. I am booked on the Jade for a 10 ni Southern Carib trip March 1 2019. We really enjoy the Jewel class ships and NCL does a great job. Enjoy your cruise! It's a good one!

Here is the link for kbmbluerzr's review

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=574252

Here is the link for kbmbluerzr's review

 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=574252

Thanks! :)

Was on the Pearl March 2017, 11 ni, Panama Canal. Amazing trip! Your Jade trip should be very similar. I wrote a pretty extensive review here on CC after my cruise that talks about the ports and excursions, same itinerary as notes from lizygirl3. Although, we did not stop at Harvest Key, we did Belize City. Not sure how you can pull up my reviews, I'm sure you can somehow. I am booked on the Jade for a 10 ni Southern Carib trip March 1 2019. We really enjoy the Jewel class ships and NCL does a great job. Enjoy your cruise! It's a good one!

If you choose to stay on the ship in the lake, what does the ship do? Just stay anchored all day?

Also - we are thinking of doing the transit by ferry from the lake - have you heard anything from anyone who has done this?

If you choose to stay on the ship in the lake, what does the ship do? Just stay anchored all day?

 

Also - we are thinking of doing the transit by ferry from the lake - have you heard anything from anyone who has done this?

If you are doing a round trip cruise, say from Miami, you do a partial transit of the Panama Canal. The ship will turn around in Gatun Lake and go back through the locks and port at Colon'. As BillB48 mentioned, the only people that are allowed to disembark the ship in the Lake are those who have purchased a shore excursion through NCL. All excursions will end up at Colon' where you will then connect back up with the ship. The ship tenders/anchors at the Lake as folks board ship to shore tenders/ferrys to connect up with their booked excursion tours. We chose to stay on board the Pearl and go back through the locks. There is a professional historian that comes on board the ship before you enter the Panama Canal and gives an all day narrative of the history, building of, details of the Panama Canal. It is super interesting! He does a fab job of talking about everything you see as you pass by and go from lock to lock, it's kind of it's own excursion. We were very glad we did this. We heard pros and cons from fellow passengers as they returned from the various off ship excursions and tours. You may want to find and read any of those other reviews from folks that have done those excursions. Hope this helps. :)

If you are doing a round trip cruise, say from Miami, you do a partial transit of the Panama Canal. The ship will turn around in Gatun Lake and go back through the locks and port at Colon'. As BillB48 mentioned, the only people that are allowed to disembark the ship in the Lake are those who have purchased a shore excursion through NCL. All excursions will end up at Colon' where you will then connect back up with the ship. The ship tenders/anchors at the Lake as folks board ship to shore tenders/ferrys to connect up with their booked excursion tours. We chose to stay on board the Pearl and go back through the locks. There is a professional historian that comes on board the ship before you enter the Panama Canal and gives an all day narrative of the history, building of, details of the Panama Canal. It is super interesting! He does a fab job of talking about everything you see as you pass by and go from lock to lock, it's kind of it's own excursion. We were very glad we did this. We heard pros and cons from fellow passengers as they returned from the various off ship excursions and tours. You may want to find and read any of those other reviews from folks that have done those excursions. Hope this helps. :)

Thanks, I have read a bunch of reviews, half say its awesome the other say its hell lol. I dont know if only going through one lock will really give us the experience. I kind of thought doing it on a small boat would be kind of cool but so so so dislike the ship tours being packed in like cattle.

Did you feel like you got the canal experience staying on the ship? I assume the return through the lock is in day light as opposed to when you enter

Is the Historian doing it over the PA system or inside at the theater?

Sorry for all the questions and do not mean to hijack this thread.

Thanks, I have read a bunch of reviews, half say its awesome the other say its hell lol. I dont know if only going through one lock will really give us the experience. I kind of thought doing it on a small boat would be kind of cool but so so so dislike the ship tours being packed in like cattle.

 

Did you feel like you got the canal experience staying on the ship? I assume the return through the lock is in day light as opposed to when you enter

 

Is the Historian doing it over the PA system or inside at the theater?

 

Sorry for all the questions and do not mean to hijack this thread.

You actually go through 3 locks. I believe there are 6 if you make the full transit. So you do 3 locks twice. Yes, I personally felt that staying on the ship gave us as good or better experience than those who went on the various excursions. The Historian narrative was over the PA system so you could hear him from anywhere. Also, the ship used the bridge camera to video the entire transit and was transmitted on the big screen in the Atrium area, so people could see everything happening on the front end of the ship from the Atrium area as well as from the O'Sheenan's area, if one did not wish to be outside. The other nice part of staying on the ship is that a majority of the passengers were off the ship!

On the partial, many folks will get off the ship in Lake Gatun, leaving PLENTY of viewing space for you return trip out of the canal! There is no real reason to do an excursion unless you are majorly interested in the entire canal. And it's so freaking HOT and HUMID...having some AC to escape to is pretty nice!

Thanks, I have read a bunch of reviews, half say its awesome the other say its hell lol. I dont know if only going through one lock will really give us the experience. I kind of thought doing it on a small boat would be kind of cool but so so so dislike the ship tours being packed in like cattle.

 

Did you feel like you got the canal experience staying on the ship? I assume the return through the lock is in day light as opposed to when you enter

 

.

You are certainly right that some people pan the transit through Gaillard Cut and the Pacific Locks, however a lot of those negative reviews often stem from when there have been significant delays encountered. These delays are unforeseen and there is no way to know if your tour would be affected. However I can say I have read many more positive reviews than negative. Your thoughts of going through in a small boat are spot on. In fact, traversing the locks in a smaller vessel is a completely different experience than locking through on your large cruise ship. On the smaller vessel you get to take in the operations from the perspective of how large everything seems to be. This is particularly noticeable when you are low in the chamber and the massive gates open or close near you. You really don't get the same feeling on your large cruise ship.

Not that the Atlantic approach and the Gatun Locks are uninteresting (they are), but you are only seeing about 8 miles of a 50 mile Canal and twice at that. Beside the Locks, the Gaillard Cut (Culebra now) is where the bulk of the excavation for the Canal took place. Sailing through this man made fjord helps in visualizing what a tremendous effort it was to complete the Canal. To me there are just more visual treats in seeing the Cut, the two Pacific Locks, the skyline of Panama City and what used to the only two bridges over the Canal. The new bridge over the Atlantic end of the Canal should be complete by the time you take your transit, so will see all three!

I think this tour should be considered, particularly if you don't think you will be able to a full transit cruise in the foreseeable future. Besides where else can you say you sailed in two oceans and formerly the world's largest man-made lake all in the same day:D!

Edit: While your approach to Gatun Locks may partly be in the hour or so before dawn, the passage through the Locks after the sun rises.

You are certainly right that some people pan the transit through Gaillard Cut and the Pacific Locks, however a lot of those negative reviews often stem from when there have been significant delays encountered. These delays are unforeseen and there is no way to know if your tour would be affected. However I can say I have read many more positive reviews than negative. Your thoughts of going through in a small boat are spot on. In fact, traversing the locks in a smaller vessel is a completely different experience than locking through on your large cruise ship. On the smaller vessel you get to take in the operations from the perspective of how large everything seems to be. This is particularly noticeable when you are low in the chamber and the massive gates open or close near you. You really don't get the same feeling on your large cruise ship.

 

Not that the Atlantic approach and the Gatun Locks are uninteresting (they are), but you are only seeing about 8 miles of a 50 mile Canal and twice at that. Beside the Locks, the Gaillard Cut (Culebra now) is where the bulk of the excavation for the Canal took place. Sailing through this man made fjord helps in visualizing what a tremendous effort it was to complete the Canal. To me there are just more visual treats in seeing the Cut, the two Pacific Locks, the skyline of Panama City and what used to the only two bridges over the Canal. The new bridge over the Atlantic end of the Canal should be complete by the time you take your transit, so will see all three!

 

I think this tour should be considered, particularly if you don't think you will be able to a full transit cruise in the foreseeable future. Besides where else can you say you sailed in two oceans and formerly the world's largest man-made lake all in the same day:D!

Great points, helped a lot, thank you

My mom and I are on this sailing -- make sure you check in on our Roll Call: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2509495

We're going to sign up for one of the tours that goes into the former Panama Canal Zone or Panama City, because I was born there when my parents were stationed with the Air Force and we want the chance to see not only the Canal but a little of the country!

You are certainly right that some people pan the transit through Gaillard Cut and the Pacific Locks, however a lot of those negative reviews often stem from when there have been significant delays encountered. These delays are unforeseen and there is no way to know if your tour would be affected. However I can say I have read many more positive reviews than negative. Your thoughts of going through in a small boat are spot on. In fact, traversing the locks in a smaller vessel is a completely different experience than locking through on your large cruise ship. On the smaller vessel you get to take in the operations from the perspective of how large everything seems to be. This is particularly noticeable when you are low in the chamber and the massive gates open or close near you. You really don't get the same feeling on your large cruise ship.

 

Not that the Atlantic approach and the Gatun Locks are uninteresting (they are), but you are only seeing about 8 miles of a 50 mile Canal and twice at that. Beside the Locks, the Gaillard Cut (Culebra now) is where the bulk of the excavation for the Canal took place. Sailing through this man made fjord helps in visualizing what a tremendous effort it was to complete the Canal. To me there are just more visual treats in seeing the Cut, the two Pacific Locks, the skyline of Panama City and what used to the only two bridges over the Canal. The new bridge over the Atlantic end of the Canal should be complete by the time you take your transit, so will see all three!

 

I think this tour should be considered, particularly if you don't think you will be able to a full transit cruise in the foreseeable future. Besides where else can you say you sailed in two oceans and formerly the world's largest man-made lake all in the same day:D!

 

Edit: While your approach to Gatun Locks may partly be in the hour or so before dawn, the passage through the Locks after the sun rises.

Great comments. Thanks! Now I am thinking I need to do another Panama Canal cruise, and make a full transit. :)

We have done the full transit and it was wonderful. This will be different and we are looking forward to this one.

Mike