Panama Canal crossing and excursion photo trip report + tidbits

CC friends,

I have just completed assembling my Panama Canal crossing and excursion pictures for your enjoyment. Direct links to the albums can be found in my signature below. You get get to all of my albums by going to the index page: http://picasaweb.google.com/ebslcc. Please note that NOT ALL of the pictures from our cruise are posted yet. I am about 70% done :). Check back when you have time when you want a feast for your eyes.

I have arranged the Panama crossing pictures with timestamps and timeline inserts to give you a better idea of how long the crossing was and where and when the pictures are taken. I also have live links to other web sites which I have found useful. This may help you with your research for your Panama Canal trip. If you are interested in the live links, click on an individual picture in the index page and then click on the link. For your convienence I have also put the links related to Panama Canal at the end of this post below.

It is best to view the pictures using the slideshow option. Just click on Slideshow, full screen photos will play on your computer with caption. You can adjust the speed of the playback clicking on the + and - icons. Warning: there are A LOT of pictures in my albums! It will take more than a couple of minutes to see one slideshow.

BTW, Picasa is FREE from Google, it's a great digital photo organizer, it has simple and intuative photo correction tools, you can get 250MB web space for sharing your photos. If you go over (I just did) it's $25 a year for 6GB which can hold many many thousands of pictures. No, I don't work for Google - I wish, I heard they serve great cruise quality food in their cafeteria.

Below are some tidbits based on our trip that may help you if you are planning a canal cruise:

- We did a East bound full crossing on the Celebrity Infinity (Sept 24th, 2006 sailing). The day started at 7am for us. We were told the night before that the ship will arrive at the Miraflores locks at 7:50am. The pilot from the Panama canal authority was going to be on board around 7:10am to take over control of the ship. There was a time change the night before so we decided to just sleep in until 7am. It worked out perfectly for us. We skipped breakfast got up and got on deck in 15 minutes. The only thing we may have missed is seeing the ships queued up to get into the canal. We know of folks who got up 5am in the morning just to get a spot outside or in the Navigator Club (inside). It's a LONG DAY so for us sleeping in was more important.

- The front decks of the ship had folks 2-3 deep (see my album). It was hard to walk up the stairs between decks. There were more space on the sides of the ship. We were up on the top deck for awhile. The approach to the first set of locks were exciting. Then we moved around to the sides and the back of the ship. Our conclusion: it's better to move around to see the canal and canal operations from different view points.

- 'One Guarantee, it's going to rain' said our lecturer (Richard Detrich http://www.beautifulpanama.com). Sure enough it did! When we went through the Panama needs the water to keep the canal in operation! It pour down big for 5-10 minutes as we approached the Pedro Miguel lock (2nd set of locks from the pacific side). October is a 'wetter' month for Panama however, our lecturer said that it will rain sometime during the day long crossing applies to any month of the year!

- 'It will be hot and muggy' Well for us this didn't come true for us. It was overcast all day, warm but not overly hot nor was it very humid. We had some light rain off and on all day. Advice: be prepared. Bring an umbrella if you are going on an excursion.

- 'ONLY those guests that have purchased a shore excursion organized by Celebrity Cruises will be allow to disembark by tender at Gatun Lake.' We were told this many times before we arrived to the canal. From what I've read the same is true for other cruise lines as well. Perhaps for security reasons and for logistics of tendering, Only approved tour operators associated with the ship excursion are allowed in the canal zone.

- Stay on board through the 3rd set of locks or go for an excursion? We were going to stay on board. However our lecturer encouraged us to get off and enjoy a little bit of Panama. 'After you see the first 2 set of locks, going through the 3rd set is about the same'. We are glad we took his advice!!

- The Dome train tour was the first one to be SOLD OUT - EARLY in the cruise. If you are considering it, purchase early.

- Long tours vs. short tours? Since we were in a rainforest already in Costa Rica (see my album) we considered taking the Panama City tour. We are glad we didn't as it would have been a VERY LONG DAY. We finally purchased the 'Chagres River Adventure & Eco Walk'. This 3 1/2 hour length was just right as we wanted to get back on board for dinner and shop at the pier. We had a very nice cruise of the river finding and watching wildlife, had a some what muddy walk through the rain forest with an excellent guide. We also went to the Gatun locks observation deck to see the canal lock operation up close from the outside.

- We heard from people who went to the Panama City tour that it was TOO LONG. They didn't get back until after 9pm and didn't get to shop much in Cristobal pier. Most of the shops and stalls were closed by 10pm.

- At least on the Celebrity the souvenirs sold on deck during the crossing were available ALL DAY and even on the next day. There is no hurry to purchase them. We got better Souvenirs on Cristobal pier and we also saw some very unique Panama Canal souvenirs at the Gatun lock souvenir shop.

- As our tour bus drove into Cristobal, we saw a little bit of urban life in panama. The poverty was very visible. Since the ship docks pretty late in the day I don't think it's advisable to venture out outside of the terminal building as it gets dark.

- After a quick dinner on board, we headed down to Cristobal pier. The port authority hired some local dancers to provide a free show at the pier. Very nicely done. The stalls had interesting sourvenirs to sell. Some of the indigenous tribes have stalls setup to sell crafts. Some of them were dressed (and undressed) in their native wears with body tatoos.

- We think the Embera Indians had the most delicately made crafts. They were very friendly! They had a stall in the right back corner of the pier.

- We got a kick seeing the natives put their jeans and T-shirts on when they pack their stalls around 10pm!

- It was a LONG day but it was one of the best highlights of our 14 days cruise.

- Our canal experience started many days before the crossing. We had an excellent lecturer on board. We enjoyed the history lessons we learned from his lectures. The guide from the canal authority on board (over the PA system) during our crossing was also very informative. Then on our execursion we heard more stories about the canal and Panama from our guide on our tour.

- If you are going through a partial crossing from the Caribbean side or going from west to east you may want to take an execursion which covers the rest of the locks Culebra Cut (or stay on board for a full transit). Otherwise you will miss 70% of the canal transit. I think the canal by ferry to the Pacific side would be a good excursion to take if you are on a partial transit cruise from the caribbean side. See the maps in my album and the timeline and you will see what I mean.

Before your trip you may want to read up on the canal. Here are a few good web sites:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_canal - from online (free) encyclopedia

2. http://www.beautifulpanama.com/cruis...anama_cana.htm and http://www.beautifulpanama.com/ Dr. Detrich was our lecturer. He is on board once every 6 months. He is an advocate of moving to Panama for retirement.

3. http://www.galen-frysinger.ws/index.htm - click on Panama

4. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html - tell your friends to see you cross the canal

5. http://www.focuspublicationsint.com/focuspanama/en/canal.htm - official Panama Canal Authority web site.

6. Picture someone took from the Embera Indian tour (one of the excursions): http://www.pbase.com/panamabunny/embera_indians You will arrive on a canoe!

7. We picked up a unique souvenir from the Cristobal pier: sculptures made from Tagua nut (see my canal excursion album). It is also known as vegetable ivory. Tagua nuts / palms are found in the Panamanian rainforest. Here is a good link with pictures http://panamarts.com/index.php/cPath/30

If you have questions re: our Panama Canal crossing and excursion please post it as reply to this message. If you have general comments and questions re: my photos, please post it in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=433369

I hope you get as much pleasure from the pictures as I have putting the albums together.

CC friends,

I have just completed assembling my Panama Canal crossing and excursion pictures for your enjoyment. Direct links to the albums can be found in my signature below. You get get to all of my albums by going to the index page: http://picasaweb.google.com/ebslcc. Please note that NOT ALL of the pictures from our cruise are posted yet. I am about 70% done :). Check back when you have time when you want a feast for your eyes.

 

Ihttp://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=433369

 

I hope you get as much pleasure from the pictures as I have putting the albums together.

On the Infinity out of Fort Lauderdale 25th March 2007 most helpful and enjoyable

David

CC friends,

I have just completed assembling my Panama Canal crossing and excursion pictures for your enjoyment. Direct links to the albums can be found in my signature below. You get get to all of my albums by going to the index page: http://picasaweb.google.com/ebslcc. Please note that NOT ALL of the pictures from our cruise are posted yet. I am about 70% done :). Check back when you have time when you want a feast for your eyes.

 

Ihttp://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=433369

 

I hope you get as much pleasure from the pictures as I have putting the albums together.

On the Infinity out of Fort Lauderdale 25th March 2007 most helpful and enjoyable

David

Absolutely stunning photography - Wonderful information.

We were pleasantly surprised with your information regarding Huatulco. Very little information is available through our research.

Thank you so very much for sharing.

We shall be reviewing this many times prior to our cruise next April on the Sun Princess.

We will be doing a 17 night cruise - and are even more excited now that we have viewed your presentation.

Thanks again!:)

Thanks for taking the time to post your pics. It brought back alot of memories when we did a partial and a full transit both on the Coral Princess. Again thanks.

Marilyn

ebslc, Thank you for posting your pictures and the added info, I will be on Brilliance of the Seas this February!

I am doing the Brilliance of the Seas in March and your review and pictures were wonderful. We are planning on doing the Emberra Indian Village tour. I saw the pictures but I was wondering if you have any feedback on the tour itself, if it was good or not? Also I love local handicraft and the tauga nut carvings seem just what I would love. Where were they availbable? from the Emberra? I am getting so excited for this cruise.

Thanks for taking the time to do the review and pictures.

Sue

CC friends,

I have just completed assembling my Panama Canal crossing and excursion pictures for your enjoyment. Direct links to the albums can be found in my signature below. You get get to all of my albums by going to the index page: http://picasaweb.google.com/ebslcc. Please note that NOT ALL of the pictures from our cruise are posted yet. I am about 70% done :). Check back when you have time when you want a feast for your eyes.

 

I have arranged the Panama crossing pictures with timestamps and timeline inserts to give you a better idea of how long the crossing was and where and when the pictures are taken. I also have live links to other web sites which I have found useful. This may help you with your research for your Panama Canal trip. If you are interested in the live links, click on an individual picture in the index page and then click on the link. For your convienence I have also put the links related to Panama Canal at the end of this post below.

 

It is best to view the pictures using the slideshow option. Just click on Slideshow, full screen photos will play on your computer with caption. You can adjust the speed of the playback clicking on the + and - icons. Warning: there are A LOT of pictures in my albums! It will take more than a couple of minutes to see one slideshow.

 

BTW, Picasa is FREE from Google, it's a great digital photo organizer, it has simple and intuative photo correction tools, you can get 250MB web space for sharing your photos. If you go over (I just did) it's $25 a year for 6GB which can hold many many thousands of pictures. No, I don't work for Google - I wish, I heard they serve great cruise quality food in their cafeteria.

 

Below are some tidbits based on our trip that may help you if you are planning a canal cruise:

 

- We did a East bound full crossing on the Celebrity Infinity (Sept 24th, 2006 sailing). The day started at 7am for us. We were told the night before that the ship will arrive at the Miraflores locks at 7:50am. The pilot from the Panama canal authority was going to be on board around 7:10am to take over control of the ship. There was a time change the night before so we decided to just sleep in until 7am. It worked out perfectly for us. We skipped breakfast got up and got on deck in 15 minutes. The only thing we may have missed is seeing the ships queued up to get into the canal. We know of folks who got up 5am in the morning just to get a spot outside or in the Navigator Club (inside). It's a LONG DAY so for us sleeping in was more important.

 

- The front decks of the ship had folks 2-3 deep (see my album). It was hard to walk up the stairs between decks. There were more space on the sides of the ship. We were up on the top deck for awhile. The approach to the first set of locks were exciting. Then we moved around to the sides and the back of the ship. Our conclusion: it's better to move around to see the canal and canal operations from different view points.

 

- 'One Guarantee, it's going to rain' said our lecturer (Richard Detrich http://www.beautifulpanama.com). Sure enough it did! When we went through the Panama needs the water to keep the canal in operation! It pour down big for 5-10 minutes as we approached the Pedro Miguel lock (2nd set of locks from the pacific side). October is a 'wetter' month for Panama however, our lecturer said that it will rain sometime during the day long crossing applies to any month of the year!

 

- 'It will be hot and muggy' Well for us this didn't come true for us. It was overcast all day, warm but not overly hot nor was it very humid. We had some light rain off and on all day. Advice: be prepared. Bring an umbrella if you are going on an excursion.

 

- 'ONLY those guests that have purchased a shore excursion organized by Celebrity Cruises will be allow to disembark by tender at Gatun Lake.' We were told this many times before we arrived to the canal. From what I've read the same is true for other cruise lines as well. Perhaps for security reasons and for logistics of tendering, Only approved tour operators associated with the ship excursion are allowed in the canal zone.

 

- Stay on board through the 3rd set of locks or go for an excursion? We were going to stay on board. However our lecturer encouraged us to get off and enjoy a little bit of Panama. 'After you see the first 2 set of locks, going through the 3rd set is about the same'. We are glad we took his advice!!

 

- The Dome train tour was the first one to be SOLD OUT - EARLY in the cruise. If you are considering it, purchase early.

 

- Long tours vs. short tours? Since we were in a rainforest already in Costa Rica (see my album) we considered taking the Panama City tour. We are glad we didn't as it would have been a VERY LONG DAY. We finally purchased the 'Chagres River Adventure & Eco Walk'. This 3 1/2 hour length was just right as we wanted to get back on board for dinner and shop at the pier. We had a very nice cruise of the river finding and watching wildlife, had a some what muddy walk through the rain forest with an excellent guide. We also went to the Gatun locks observation deck to see the canal lock operation up close from the outside.

 

- We heard from people who went to the Panama City tour that it was TOO LONG. They didn't get back until after 9pm and didn't get to shop much in Cristobal pier. Most of the shops and stalls were closed by 10pm.

 

- At least on the Celebrity the souvenirs sold on deck during the crossing were available ALL DAY and even on the next day. There is no hurry to purchase them. We got better Souvenirs on Cristobal pier and we also saw some very unique Panama Canal souvenirs at the Gatun lock souvenir shop.

 

- As our tour bus drove into Cristobal, we saw a little bit of urban life in panama. The poverty was very visible. Since the ship docks pretty late in the day I don't think it's advisable to venture out outside of the terminal building as it gets dark.

 

- After a quick dinner on board, we headed down to Cristobal pier. The port authority hired some local dancers to provide a free show at the pier. Very nicely done. The stalls had interesting sourvenirs to sell. Some of the indigenous tribes have stalls setup to sell crafts. Some of them were dressed (and undressed) in their native wears with body tatoos.

 

- We think the Embera Indians had the most delicately made crafts. They were very friendly! They had a stall in the right back corner of the pier.

 

- We got a kick seeing the natives put their jeans and T-shirts on when they pack their stalls around 10pm!

 

- It was a LONG day but it was one of the best highlights of our 14 days cruise.

 

- Our canal experience started many days before the crossing. We had an excellent lecturer on board. We enjoyed the history lessons we learned from his lectures. The guide from the canal authority on board (over the PA system) during our crossing was also very informative. Then on our execursion we heard more stories about the canal and Panama from our guide on our tour.

 

- If you are going through a partial crossing from the Caribbean side or going from west to east you may want to take an execursion which covers the rest of the locks Culebra Cut (or stay on board for a full transit). Otherwise you will miss 70% of the canal transit. I think the canal by ferry to the Pacific side would be a good excursion to take if you are on a partial transit cruise from the caribbean side. See the maps in my album and the timeline and you will see what I mean.

 

Before your trip you may want to read up on the canal. Here are a few good web sites:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_canal - from online (free) encyclopedia

2. http://www.beautifulpanama.com/cruis...anama_cana.htm and http://www.beautifulpanama.com/ Dr. Detrich was our lecturer. He is on board once every 6 months. He is an advocate of moving to Panama for retirement.

3. http://www.galen-frysinger.ws/index.htm - click on Panama

4. http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html - tell your friends to see you cross the canal

5. http://www.focuspublicationsint.com/focuspanama/en/canal.htm - official Panama Canal Authority web site.

6. Picture someone took from the Embera Indian tour (one of the excursions): http://www.pbase.com/panamabunny/embera_indians You will arrive on a canoe!

7. We picked up a unique souvenir from the Cristobal pier: sculptures made from Tagua nut (see my canal excursion album). It is also known as vegetable ivory. Tagua nuts / palms are found in the Panamanian rainforest. Here is a good link with pictures http://panamarts.com/index.php/cPath/30

 

If you have questions re: our Panama Canal crossing and excursion please post it as reply to this message. If you have general comments and questions re: my photos, please post it in this thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=433369

 

I hope you get as much pleasure from the pictures as I have putting the albums together.

Thank you so much for the beautiful picture I would love to know the tour company ortour director you use for the trip, and if you wouldn't mind the cost of your tour.

I appreciate alll the time and effort you made. This was really a treat!:cool: :cool: Silver

I really enjoyed your pictures!! I hope to take a Panama Canal cruise someday. I will be back to see the rest of Acapulco as that is where my husband and I honeymooned 17 years ago!! Thanks.:)

All I can say is WOW!! Thanks so much for the great detailed review with pictures. We are doing the 11 night partical canal cruise leaving on Nov 20th. We are doing the same tour you did in Panama, I am so excited now.

I am doing the Brilliance of the Seas in March and your review and pictures were wonderful. We are planning on doing the Emberra Indian Village tour. I saw the pictures but I was wondering if you have any feedback on the tour itself, if it was good or not? Also I love local handicraft and the tauga nut carvings seem just what I would love. Where were they availbable? from the Emberra? I am getting so excited for this cruise.

Sue

Hi Sue,

We didn't take the Emberra Indian tour. We took the river and eco walk tour. I only gave a link to photos others took. Our lecturer HIGHLY recommended the Indian tour and it was sold out on our cruise. I am sure you will have a good time. If it's the same tour you will be brought to the village by canoe! The river is very scenic. I am sure you will have a good time.

Re: tauga nut carvings. Emberra Indians have them at the craft stand in the Cristobal pier. You can see the ones we bought at the end of my excursion album. Other Indian tribes also sells them. There are also Indian baskets sold at the pier. Very nice!!

Enjoy your anticipation! You will have a great time.

Thank you so much for the beautiful picture I would love to know the tour company ortour director you use for the trip, and if you wouldn't mind the cost of your tour.

The only pre-arranged tour we took during our Panama cruise was in Costa Rica with Charlie Soto. You can find links to his web site from my photo album on Puntarenas. We paid $45 for a full 7 1/2 hours tour of Costa Rica + $40 for the side zipline tour in the rainforest. I will post some tidbits on Costa Rica later.

Please watch my signature below. I plan to put trip reports up on each of the ports and tidbids from our onboard activities on the Infinity. I will have clickable links to the message threads.

I really enjoyed your pictures!! I hope to take a Panama Canal cruise someday. I will be back to see the rest of Acapulco as that is where my husband and I honeymooned 17 years ago!! Thanks.:)

Thanks. If you like Acapulco you may want to check out the photos from another CC poster gomexico http://community.webshots.com/user/billmasterson He has HUNDREDS of pictures on Mexico. The slideshows are great!

CC friends,

Glad you like the photos and info. To let others on your cruise critic roll call for your cruise about this thread, please copy and paste a link to this thread to your roll call forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=438428 Thanks!!

Hi Sue,

We didn't take the Emberra Indian tour. We took the river and eco walk tour. I only gave a link to photos others took. Our lecturer HIGHLY recommended the Indian tour and it was sold out on our cruise. I am sure you will have a good time. If it's the same tour you will be brought to the village by canoe! The river is very scenic. I am sure you will have a good time.

 

Re: tauga nut carvings. Emberra Indians have them at the craft stand in the Cristobal pier. You can see the ones we bought at the end of my excursion album. Other Indian tribes also sells them. There are also Indian baskets sold at the pier. Very nice!!

 

Enjoy your anticipation! You will have a great time.

Thanks for the info and if I could ask one more question, do you remember the cost of the nut carving items, I want to know how much cash to bring with us on the tour. From others that did do the Emberra indian village tour they did say the items for sale at the village were much cheaper than at the pier and they were sorry that hadnt bought more at the village. So if you have a range that will give me a general idea. I don't want to be caught short of money.

Sue

Thanks for the info and if I could ask one more question, do you remember the cost of the nut carving items, I want to know how much cash to bring with us on the tour. From others that did do the Emberra indian village tour they did say the items for sale at the village were much cheaper than at the pier and they were sorry that hadnt bought more at the village. So if you have a range that will give me a general idea. I don't want to be caught short of money.

 

Sue

Hi Sue,

We got two nut carving items for $50 (last picture in my excursion album). Each one is unique and the prices varies. I think the price range was $20-$35. If there is one that you like I would recommend buying it vs. waiting for shopping at the pier. Also there are Indian baskets that are $30 to $80 each depending on the size. This web site sells them http://folkart.com/catalog/baskets_454649_products.htm for about the same price however it's nothing like being able to buy them directly.

Thank you Laurence for your beautiful photos and all the information on the Panama canal cruise. We are planning to go next sept/oct. You have done a terrific job at getting me even more excited!

Just curious...what's the deal with Christobal pier...one cruise I'm looking at says Panama canal (cruising) 6am-4pm then Cristobal pier 6pm-8pm...the others just say Panama canal 7am- 4:30...I guess they don't stop there? Would you choose the one that does? Appreciate any input

Thank you Laurence for your beautiful photos and all the information on the Panama canal cruise. We are planning to go next sept/oct. You have done a terrific job at getting me even more excited!

 

Just curious...what's the deal with Christobal pier...one cruise I'm looking at says Panama canal (cruising) 6am-4pm then Cristobal pier 6pm-8pm...the others just say Panama canal 7am- 4:30...I guess they don't stop there? Would you choose the one that does? Appreciate any input

Thanks! Re: stop or no stop at Cristobal Pier. If the it doesn't show it in the schedule then you will not stop there (and the cruise company saves $ by not having to pay for the port fees). I think it's worth a stop for the shopping experience.

We were on the Celebrity Infinity with the following schedule:

Tue Panama Canal, Panama 6:00 am 4:00 pm

Tue Cristobal, Panama 6:00 pm 11:00 pm

I think the publish schedule for the crossing is just a guideline. The real schedule depends on the canal traffic for the day... how many ships are queued up to cross the canal. We didn't cross until 7:50am. Our excursion drop off was at 12:40pm. There is not much cruising between 1 and 6pm as the ship queues up for the last set of locks and wait for 6pm to dock at Cristobal Pier.

BTW, we went Sept/Oct and the weather was perfect throughout. May be we were lucky? It rained in the canal but I think we prefer the cooler temperature with the rain vs. hot and humid.

Which particular cruise are you looking into?

Hi Laurence... Thanks for clearing up my question about Cristobal pier..

Now for your question of which cruise.....

I've narrowed it down to 2....both on Infinty.......S.F. to Fort Lauderdale (Sept. 29,2007) or Fort Lauderdale to San Diego (Oct. 14,2007)

My 1st choice is out of S.F to avoid 1 airport day and go to Cristobal pier (not to mention sailing under the Golden Gate bridge out of S.F wow)....but my favorite CC aft balcony cabins are not available...

on cruise #2 the aft balconies are available, it stops at the Grand Caymans (which we love) but no Cristobal pier ..it's only a short flight home from San Diego but still the nightmare of the airports...:mad:

#1 is 15 days...#2 is 14 days... cruise cost is the same...but would need an hotel overnight in Ft. Lauderdale on #2 and airfare would be a little higher for that one too......I know either one will be great...but our friends are joining us they've put me incharge.....and I'm trying to make it extra special...again I appreciate all of your expertise and wonderful pictures...I have been sharing them with my friends! :)

Hi Laurence... Thanks for clearing up my question about Cristobal pier..

Now for your question of which cruise.....

I've narrowed it down to 2....both on Infinty.......S.F. to Fort Lauderdale (Sept. 29,2007) or Fort Lauderdale to San Diego (Oct. 14,2007)

 

My 1st choice is out of S.F to avoid 1 airport day and go to Cristobal pier (not to mention sailing under the Golden Gate bridge out of S.F wow)....but my favorite CC aft balcony cabins are not available...

on cruise #2 the aft balconies are available, it stops at the Grand Caymans (which we love) but no Cristobal pier ..it's only a short flight home from San Diego but still the nightmare of the airports...:mad:

 

#1 is 15 days...#2 is 14 days... cruise cost is the same...but would need an hotel overnight in Ft. Lauderdale on #2 and airfare would be a little higher for that one too......I know either one will be great...but our friends are joining us they've put me incharge.....and I'm trying to make it extra special...again I appreciate all of your expertise and wonderful pictures...I have been sharing them with my friends! :)

Hi Sue,

From what I have read and experienced the Pacific to Caribbean transit is better:

1. You will go through the best part of the transit earlier in the morning => cooler!! - the two locks, the 9 miles Culebra cut, the two bridges.

2. You will have the option to do an excursion or not do one. Whereas if you are going from Caribbean to Pacific I would recommend staying on board for the whole transit so you won't miss the best part of the transit in the comfort of the ship. You can stay in your room and enjoy the views from your aft balconies - just turn up the TV sound for the commentaries!!

3. You get to shop on Cristobal pier.

You are right, it's an awesome feeling crossing under the Golden Gate bridge!

So my recommendation is to go with the SF to FLL. However I am sure you will have a grand time with either cruise.

Sue L:

Here is another link with pictures of Embera crafts: http://www.beautifulpanama.com/embera_crafts1.htm

Thank you for your posting. I thoughly enjoyed it. We are doing the same trip but from Miami to San Diego 12/23/06-1/8/07 on the Celebity Mercury. I was very exciting seeing your pictures. You answered so many questions for me. We have already booked the same tour in Costa Rica with Charlie. We were thinking of going to Puerto ***** in Acapulco. We have booked a tour with the ship in Puerto Vallarta because we want to go to Yelapa and the ship leaves 1 hour before we can get ourselves back to the ship.

Thank you again.

Denise

We are doing the Tortuguero Canal trip with Charlie Soto in February. Were you happy with his tour? Did anyone get sick from eating at the restaurant on the beach? Did you enjoy the zipline? Is it too hard for older people (past 60's)? Your photos are lovely....what great memories.

We are doing the Tortuguero Canal trip with Charlie Soto in February. Were you happy with his tour? Did anyone get sick from eating at the restaurant on the beach? Did you enjoy the zipline? Is it too hard for older people (past 60's)? Your photos are lovely....what great memories.

Our Costa Rica port of call is on the Pacific side in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. I think your port of call is Limon which is in the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Tortuguero Canal is part of Charlie's Limon tour.

Yes, we were very happy with our tour with Charlie. He is a very nice guide. It was very good value as we went to a lot of places. His English is ok. He tries to make sure everyone is happy.

Re: eating at the beach side restaurant, I think you will go to a different one on the Caribbean side. I don't think he will travel all the way across to the Pacific side where we went. The restaurant we went to (see photos) is extremely clean! I was the last one to sit down as I wanted to check the place out before eating there. The food was excellent!!! Everyone enjoyed the food there - in fact I think we spent way too much time enjoying the food. No one got sick. I didn't drink the water. We took water bottles from Charlie's van.

Re: zipline - it was FUN! There was a 75+ year old couple who went also (not on our tour, but went on the same day). I don't think it's too hard to do for anyone 60+. At least at Villa Lapas where we went, the guides were very careful to make sure we are always hooked up and we understand the safety instructions.

You may want to check out the Costa Rica board and do a search there. There's many reviews and comments of Charlies' tours, zipline etc.

Yes, our tour with Charlie begins in Limon. I knew that he did a tour on both sides. Our restaurant for lunch will be at Bonita beach. I am just a little fearful of eating at the beach restaurant. Guess I will do what you did and check out the place first. Our cruise is just doing a partial canal, so we will do the rest of the locks by ferry. Your review is very helpful and I absolutely love your photos. Thank you very much for taking the time to share this with us.

:D What a great thread for anyone who's planning on a canal cruise! Thank you!!!:D :) :D