Panama Canal

[evergladesgator]

Has anyone on the Freedom taken this tour ?? Get back to the ship in time ????

 

PANAMA CANAL PARTIAL TRANSIT BY YACHT

[cruisinlawn]

we took similar tour last year off Carni Freedom. We did the transit by ferry. Made for a long day but it was worth it though probably would not do again. Kinda, been there done it thing. It's definitely something you should do if you visit canal.

 

As for the yacht tour, as long as you stay with ship tour, you should be fine. Enjoy.

[BillB48]

I think you will find that when a cruise ship is in Cristobal/Colon they will monoplize all the Canal tours that go through the locks. I believe that the Canal by Yacht is primarily used for tourist that are staying in Panama as oppossed to cruise ship passengers, (in other words, the yacht is used for smaller groups). If by chance you are able to book a partial Canal transit on your own, (not through the ship) you would be taking a lot of responsibility that you or the tour operator can't control. There can be significant delays on the Canal by Canal traffic congestion, weather, equipment problems, etc. To take this tour you travel a good distance from the ship and you could also include highway traffic delays as well, even though that is less of a problem since they opened the new road. This is really one time that the ship's tour is preferable although more $$.