Porobello and Gatun locks tour

My wife and I are sailing in 6 days. IT IS TAKING FFFFOOOOORRRRREEEEVVVVEEEERRRRRR. We were wondering if anyone has done this tour through Carnival, and How long of a bus ride is it? Thanks in advance.

The Gatun Locks is only about 10 miles from Colon, so this portion of the tour would not be a long ride. I don't know in what order they run the tour, but you could expect about an hour or so to Portobelo from Colon on secondary roads. Hopes this post catches you before you sail!

Has anyone done this tour as of lately? How was it?:confused: We cruise next month. Thanks in advance.

Has anyone done this tour as of lately? How was it?:confused: We cruise next month. Thanks in advance.

We did a similar tour - not through the ship - last month. The Gatun Locks were interesting but very crowded. All the tours were there at the same time and it was hard to get a place at the window to see the ships coming through. Still, was a very cool experience. After the Gatun Locks, we went to Portobello and toured the old fort and learned some of the history. We saw the church with the Black Christ - a wooden statue of a black Jesus. There was a little market and we bought souvenirs at the lowest prices of all our stops. I enjoyed this stop. When we returned to the ship, there were some shops nearby, including a grocery store. We went in and bought diet cokes to have in our room and lots of coffee to take home.

One thing to note, Panama is relatively new to tourism (according to our guide) and the countryside had a lot of garbage. It was so bad that many people on the tour questioned the tour guide as to why it was like that.

Just wanted to thank you all for your answers to our question. I will admit Portabello is a little boring. Our guide Alex was very informative and very funny. Portabello is a history tour, which gerenally is not a bad thing. It was just very hot and with my wife being pregnant about halfway through the tour of Portabello she had enough. Which was fine by me. It was like 90 92 or so. When you were out in the sun YOU BAKED.

At Gatun locks we got to see a ship go through and see how that worked. It was very fast for a ship to get through. What I found amazing was 1) how fast the lock fills with water and 2) that any ship has to be under its own power going throught the locks. The mules just really guide it not pull it, like I thought they did. It was pretty cool to watch.

Again thank you all for your info. Hope this little review of this tour helps