panama canal

[billb5]

looking for any info on the Panama Canal sailing:):)

[r&rd]

What specifically are you wanting to know? We have done the sailing twice on Windstar and find it a totally different experience going through the canal on a small ship than a large cruise ship. We enjoyed going east tonwest better than west to east - mainly due to the timing of going under the bridge of the Americas. If you are wanting to do Costa Rica I found the Costa Rica only cruise a better nature experience than the Canal cruise. But I love Windstar regardless of where you go.

[billb5]

thanks, just looking for general info, tours etc.

[bzv143]

We did the Panama Canal sailing over New Years from Costa Rica to Panama. The earlier poster may be right that the West trip (Panama to Costa Rica) is better than the East trip for viewing the Bridge of the Americas. We went under it so early in the morning that most were still in bed (including us but we had our young adult children get up and take pictures...). Transiting the Panama Canal in a small ship was on my Bucket List, and Windstar fulfilled my desire beautifully.

There was a Naturalist onboard that narrated through the transit, and got off at the ports to give any and all cruisers information on the sights and sounds of the birds and beasts and creepy crawly things. The San Blas Island we tendered at was a picture-perfect Robinson Crusoe island. The other ports were Nature Tour/Zip Line/Scuba Dive oriented.