Excursions at Gatun Lake

[highland2]

We are booked Nov. 13th on the Zuiderdam. Need help choosing an excursion. We are looking at the dome railway car to Cristobal or the Canal Experience to Cristobal. Any suggestions?

[kyriecat]

I went to the Panama Canal board and did some research on the tours when I was doing my planning. I was also torn between the train and the ferry, but ended up booking the ferry. My cruise isn't until April so I don't have any first-hand feedback yet.

 

Panama Canal Board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=89

 

Here are some links that might help you compare the two:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1191671

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=986776

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=830025

 

There are more threads - do a serach for "ferry" or "train" on the PC board.

[CtheW0rld]

We are booked Nov. 13th on the Zuiderdam. Need help choosing an excursion. We are looking at the dome railway car to Cristobal or the Canal Experience to Cristobal. Any suggestions?

 

whichever you choose, book it early. i took this cruise at the last minute and everything was booked up.

[Randyk47]

We picked the ferry but once we got on the ship we canceled and were glad we did. That's nothing against that tour or any of the other tours available. As it turned out we got up very early, like 5 AM, to experience the transit. By the time that was over and we were "anchored" in the lake we were ready for a nap. It was incredibly peaceful that day and we really enjoyed just simply taking it easy. Eventually got back up for lunch and just relaxing the rest of the day and the transit back through the locks.

[MAHLO]

As we got an itinerary change concerning our feb. 11 cruise would this affect the tours that are suppose to go to cristobal and now are docking in colon ??

[michmike]

For those of you taking a Panama Canal cruise, I'd recommend reading David McCulloughs "Path Between The Seas" before going. I'm just finishing listening to it on tape during my daily commute and it's left me feeling that I will get much more out of the Canal trip when we finally get around to doing it.

[kyriecat]

As we got an itinerary change concerning our feb. 11 cruise would this affect the tours that are suppose to go to cristobal and now are docking in colon ??

I booked the ferry cruise a few months ago. This past Friday, I got an email from HAL that my tour had been cancelled because of the port change. HAL pulled all the Panama Canal excursions for the Dec. 2010 to April 2011 sailings. There was an updated excursion list posted on Saturday morning showing the port change. I was able to rebook my ferry excursion then.

 

Since my cruise is in April and your in Feb, I would assume your excursion list has also been updated with the Colon port.

[askworldtraveler]

The early morning Transit is great - but even better is going back - watching and being part of the lochs at work in the afternoon is fantastic.

 

There are many reviews on the tours - nothing against them - just that the Zuiderdam for this is a tour in itself.

 

Consider it...