Meaning of Panama Canal "cruising"?

[cruising camper]

We are going on a 14-day Panama Canal cruise with Celebrity on January 3. We are not "in port" in Panama; our time in the Panama Canal is listed as "cruising" but it still lists shore excursions. If we do any shore excursions, will we miss the experience of passing through the locks? Are we dropped off at one location and then get back on the ship at another? As you can see, I'm confused and would appreciate any explanations from people who have done this cruise previously.

[Treven]

Does your cruise begin and end at the same port, i.e. Ft Lauderdale? If so, it's my understanding that you go through one set of locks into Lake Gatun, then after cruising & excursions you go back through the same set of locks and come back to FLL.

 

If your cruise begins in FLL and ends at one of the ports on the Left Coast, or vice versa, then you'll go through all sets of locks. Mine begins at FLL, overnites in Lake Gatun, and ends at SFO.

[LHT28]

We are going on a 14-day Panama Canal cruise with Celebrity on January 3. We are not "in port" in Panama; our time in the Panama Canal is listed as "cruising" but it still lists shore excursions. If we do any shore excursions, will we miss the experience of passing through the locks? Are we dropped off at one location and then get back on the ship at another? As you can see, I'm confused and would appreciate any explanations from people who have done this cruise previously.

 

Looks like you will be just cruising through the locks no stop in Panama.

They usually go through the first set then anchor in the lake until the traffic is ready to go through to the west coast.

Unless they tender you ashore on one side & pick you up on the other end but they usually list a port.

I would clarify that with your TA or Celebrity

[cruising camper]

We begin in Miami and end in San Diego; day 6 is "Panama Canal (cruising)" from 7 am to 7 pm.

[Jahla Jahla]

We did the reverse. We started in SD and ended in the Ft. L. We went through the locks on the west side. Then cruised the lake, and tendered so that we could do an excursion and caught up with the ship in Cristobal. Since you are doing it in reverse, I don't know how they will do it if they have the same excursions. Your best bet would be to call and see. I was glad that we did an excursion and missed the last locks, as one set of locks was enough for me.

[DanJ]

It's likely they make a short technical stop on the Pacific side and pick up those that took shore excursions. We did similar in 2001, albeit ours was a round trip from Florida. We went into Gatun Lake, those on tours were tendered off. We went back down the locks and docked in Colon for about 90 minutes, which wasn't listed in our itinerary either.

[GORDONCHICK]

Since you don't actually dock at a port, then the excursions will tender (most likely using the ships' lifeboats as tenders) while your ship is in Gatun Lake, which is after having gone through the Gatun Locks. The people who do excursions may or may not make it back on board before the ship goes through the Miraflora locks. If you do take an excursion, two words: INSECT REPELLANT! I say that if you are doing an excursion in the rain forest, because the insects are really bad.

[ChubbyHubby]

In 2001 we made the Atlantic to Pacific crossing of the Canal on Holland America.

 

The locks were very interesting as was the Bridge of the Americas and shiny looking Panama City off in the distance, but quite honestly, the several hours of the long slow trip through very often narrow channels across Lake Gatun became a bit dull, boring and very hot.

 

We would have looked forward to a side excursion and a trip OFF the ship

during the Lake Gatun portion of the crossing.

 

Sincerely,

ChubbyHubby

[BillB48]

Based on what I have seen, they generally do not offer tours in this direction. Looking at the Celebrity web site the tour descriptions may just be a generic entry since it did have a disclaimer saying the tours may not be available on all sailings. Rather misleading in any event. While not trying to provide the final word on such tours, from what I have seen tours are offered when the ship is on a partial transit, on a full transit going from the Pacific to Atlantic and stopping in Cristobal or when they include a stop at Ft. Amador either before or after a complete transit. How is that for trying to decifer a pattern:rolleyes::eek::D!

 

After I typed this I went back and found a similar question on the same sailing of Celebrity. Take a look at the thread, I think it will answer the question, no tours in this direction.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=20818743&highlight=#post20818743

[cb at sea]

If the ship goes into the canal, and into Lake Gatun, you really don't need to pay for an excursion...the ship and the passage will give you everything and more! that you'd want to know about the canal and the locks!

It's also lovely to have many of the passengers OFF the ship (those who do take excursions) as you will have a great afternoon, with a relatively empty ship!

[kitty9]

I've done this cruise on Celebrity 4 times. What you're talking about is that the ship will stop at a dock area and off load any passengers who are taking a tour of Panama City or other excursions in the area. The ship will then cruise through the canal locks and then stop again on the other side of the locks and pick up the passengers who have taken tours. This is done mostly by those passengers who've taken many Canal cruises and want something different. I believe you're going to be stopping at Cristobal Pier to drop off/pick up the persons after their shore excursions.