Island Princess Panama Canal Full Transit excursions

[Luvs2trvl]

Mom and I are considering a full transit PC cruise next spring, and have looked at HAL Westerdam, Celebrity Century and Princess. One thing we noticed is that both HAL and Celebrity say "cruising" Panama Canal, but Princess does not. Our itinerary is not the 2 day Panama experience, just the one day. Princess's website shows excursions for our cruise, but I want to make sure those are available for the one day Panama transit.

 

If we do an excursion, do we miss one of the locks, or does the ship "park" for a few hours, and then go through the locks?

 

The one we are interested in is the Gatun Lake and Locks Cruise & Embera Indians. You start on the Gatun Locks, and end up back on Colon.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Sam n Janet Evening]

My DH & I did the full transit cruise in 2012 and it is scenic cruising through the canal. The ship approaches the Gatun Locks about 5:00AM and it takes about 8 hours to make it through to the other side. The shore excursions are only for the 2-day transits. When we were planning our trip we had the same question. The princess website is not very clear regarding the shore excursions.

[Pam in CA]

The ship goes through the Gatun Locks very, very early in the morning and sails into Gatun Lake. Once there, passengers booked on ship's tours disembark the ship for their excursions. Independent passengers cannot disembark. Once those passengers have gone on tour, the ship turns around, sails back through Gatun Lake, through the locks and on to Colon where it docks for the day. If you elect to do a tour, you will miss the 2nd passage through the locks and the early morning passage might be too early for you. A great way to experience the Panama Canal is to do the ship's tour on a boat through to the Pacific, returning by bus to Colon. You'll go through all the locks and be very up close and personal.

 

HAL does the same thing as Princess. Don't know about Celebrity. I've done this cruise a number of times on both Princess and HAL. The time I did it on HAL was on the Oosterdam and my friend and I booked aft cabins which had huge covered balconies and a great view of the locks and Canal. Last year, I did it on the Island Princess and took the small boat tour through the locks. I could really see the construction and the tour guide pointed out all of the things they were building, the dredging, etc.

[pompeii]

I am on the 3/17/14 1-day full transit and the shore excursions list does show that you can depart the ship by tender in Gatun Lake for excursions. I didn't think there were excursions in Panama on a one day transit, but it shows that there are in my cruise personalizer. So I'm confused, too. I would love to go by dugout canoe to the Embres Indian village, but I wouldn't want to miss any of the transit either.

[AKman2495]

The one we are interested in is the Gatun Lake and Locks Cruise & Embera Indians. You start on the Gatun Locks, and end up back on Colon.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

That is for the 10 day partial canal crossing. In that case, the ship does enter the lake, anchor of the excursions and then leaves the canal to pick up the passengers in Colon. After that the ship returns to FLL.

 

On a full transit, you end up in the Pacific Ocean, 50 miles from Colon.

 

When we booked our canal cruise we looked at the one day crossings and decided to go with the 2 day canal experience. There, you have an extra day to explore Panama.

[Essiesmom]

We did full transits on Oosterdam and on Infinity. Both were eastbound, from San Diego. On Oosterdam, we could have evening excursions from Fuerte Amador. Exiting the canal in the Caribbean, we sailed straight to Cartagena. On Infinity, we transited the canal and docked the next morning in Colon, where excursions were offered. EM

[Luvs2trvl]

I am on the 3/17/14 1-day full transit and the shore excursions list does show that you can depart the ship by tender in Gatun Lake for excursions. I didn't think there were excursions in Panama on a one day transit, but it shows that there are in my cruise personalizer. So I'm confused, too. I would love to go by dugout canoe to the Embres Indian village, but I wouldn't want to miss any of the transit either.

 

That's what I did as well - pulled up the cruise and looked at excursions for that particular cruise. Hmmmm....

[rdsqrl]

Mom and I are considering a full transit PC cruise next spring, and have looked at HAL Westerdam, Celebrity Century and Princess. One thing we noticed is that both HAL and Celebrity say "cruising" Panama Canal, but Princess does not. Our itinerary is not the 2 day Panama experience, just the one day. Princess's website shows excursions for our cruise, but I want to make sure those are available for the one day Panama transit.

 

If we do an excursion, do we miss one of the locks, or does the ship "park" for a few hours, and then go through the locks?

 

The one we are interested in is the Gatun Lake and Locks Cruise & Embera Indians. You start on the Gatun Locks, and end up back on Colon.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

The reason it doesn't say "cruising" the Canal is that you're not looking at a the right itinerary. Princess has two (the Island and Coral alternate) Panama Canal itineraries: a 10/11-day partial transit and then a 15-day full transit. The former goes only to Gatun Lake, turns around and goes back to Ft. Lauderdale. The latter begins in Ft. Lauderdale (or Los Angeles), transits through the entire Canal, and ends in LA (or FLL). The full transit is by far the better cruise if you want to see the whole Canal (although the shorter roundtrip out of FLL does have an excursion that will take you all the way through the Canal -- but you can't do that and do the Embera Indians excursion, too). So, I think you first need to decide what kind of Canal cruise you want (roundtrip or full transit) and then think about excursions.

 

One other note re the full transit: if you look for one that has a second day in Panama (it's a stop in Panama City, the day after or day before the Canal transit), you can do the Embera Indian thing on that day. Used to be all the transits were two-day Panama cruises; now, it's just a handful that spend that second day. But worth it.

[caribill]

We did full transits on Oosterdam and on Infinity. Both were eastbound, from San Diego. On Oosterdam, we could have evening excursions from Fuerte Amador.

 

Wer had a full transit on Princess which spent the evening with excursions at Fuerte Amador (Panama City).

 

The Princess excursion we had into Panama City would have been great in daylight, but was a dud in the dark. ("At the top of this column is a statue of xxxx. If it was daytime, you could see it.")

[BillB48]

Luvs2trvl, what particular sailing are you considering or at least which direction is your cruise... Pacific to Atlantic or vice versa? The reason this may be the key is on some full transits from Pacific to Atlantic tours will be offered when the ship reaches the Gatun Lake anchorage just before Gatun Locks. At this point tours will operate in the same manor as they do on ships that are only doing a partial transit. That is, you will tender off the ship to join your tour and then rejoin the ship in Colon. While you are on tour the ship will pass through Gatun Locks and sail to Colon. Taking a tour before the ship passes through Gatun Locks you will have sailed through a little more than 40 miles of the Canal, missing the final 8 miles.

[skf]

pulled up the cruise and looked at excursions for that particular cruise.

This works, but if one's planned cruise is too far in the future the particular excursions will not be up yet.

You could try AKmans idea of a 2-day, this is what we did in 2012 on Coral.

Steve

[pompeii]

That's what I did as well - pulled up the cruise and looked at excursions for that particular cruise. Hmmmm....

 

OK, correction.....when I look at the 3/17 full transit from LA to FLL, there are excursions listed on Panama day. But when I go to my cruise personalizer page, there are no excursions offered. So, bottom line, there are no excursions offered on a one-day full transit. Which is what I had assumed when I booked it.

 

Princess shouldn't list them under that specific cruise if they aren't actually offered on that specific cruise. You shouldn't have to actually book the cruise and have a personalizer page in order to find out that there aren't really any excursions in Panama. This is much more confusing than it needs to be, even though it's what I figured in the first place so I'm fine with it.

[BillB48]

Here is a screen shot of the Mar. 17 full transit, the excursions on the day of the transit are written exactly as they appear for the partial transit. Since I am not booked I could not look at the excursions via the personalizer. Perhaps the excursions have not actually been finalized or they may only have them available on the ship?? I certainly can see why this may cause some confusion. Hope you can do an excursion at the Canal if that's your plan.

 

[paul929207]

We are on the March 2 and March 17, 2014 Island Princess Panama Canal sailings. I just checked and for both cruises, excursions are available. For neither cruise are there any excursions on the transit day. Maybe Princess has not finalized them yet, I don't know. We are getting close to 90 days out for our first leg.

[Luvs2trvl]

Thank you for the clarification, although that doesn't put Princess at the top of the "Pros" list anymore. Sigh...

[freetocruise]

I am on the 3/17/14 1-day full transit and the shore excursions list does show that you can depart the ship by tender in Gatun Lake for excursions. I didn't think there were excursions in Panama on a one day transit, but it shows that there are in my cruise personalizer. So I'm confused, too. I would love to go by dugout canoe to the Embres Indian village, but I wouldn't want to miss any of the transit either.

 

That's strange. I'm on the same cruise and I just checked my personalizer under excursions and it shows nothing for the Panama canal. No excursions and not even a "button" to click on.

[nunuc2000]

That's strange. I'm on the same cruise and I just checked my personalizer under excursions and it shows nothing for the Panama canal. No excursions and not even a "button" to click on.

 

He corrected himself upon further scrutiny.[/B]

OK, correction.....when I look at the 3/17 full transit from LA to FLL, there are excursions listed on Panama day. But when I go to my cruise personalizer page, there are no excursions offered. So, bottom line, there are no excursions offered on a one-day full transit. Which is what I had assumed when I booked it.

 

Princess shouldn't list them under that specific cruise if they aren't actually offered on that specific cruise. You shouldn't have to actually book the cruise and have a personalizer page in order to find out that there aren't really any excursions in Panama. This is much more confusing than it needs to be, even though it's what I figured in the first place so I'm fine with it.

Edited November 25, 2013 by nunuc2000

[caribill]

Here is a screen shot of the Mar. 17 full transit, the excursions on the day of the transit are written exactly as they appear for the partial transit. Since I am not booked I could not look at the excursions via the personalizer. Perhaps the excursions have not actually been finalized or they may only have them available on the ship?? I certainly can see why this may cause some confusion. Hope you can do an excursion at the Canal if that's your plan.

 

 

The screen shot shows conflicting information, so the problem is with the IT folk at Princess.

 

The cruise is a full transit from Pacific to the Caribbean.

 

The description of tours says "..the ship then retraces her route through the Gatun locks..."

 

It is only on a partial transit that a ship will go through the Gatun locks twice, so the tours listed do not apply to this sailing.

 

In addition, some of the tours listed take six hours. This amount of time is not available once a full transit reaches Gatun Lake.

 

No excursions will be available on Panama Canal day on this cruise.

[BillB48]

The screen shot shows conflicting information, so the problem is with the IT folk at Princess.

 

The cruise is a full transit from Pacific to the Caribbean.

 

The description of tours says "..the ship then retraces her route through the Gatun locks..."

 

It is only on a partial transit that a ship will go through the Gatun locks twice, so the tours listed do not apply to this sailing.

 

In addition, some of the tours listed take six hours. This amount of time is not available once a full transit reaches Gatun Lake.

 

No excursions will be available on Panama Canal day on this cruise.

 

I completely agree that this is an IT issue with Princess and it certainly is their bad if some folks book that particular sailing planning on an excursion at the Canal only to find out that they can't when it may be too late to select another sailing. The issue with the tours being six hours is not really a problem however as there is sufficient time to tender the passengers off, take the tour and return to the ship in Colon. I have been on several northbound transits (Pac-Atl) where this was accomplished without any difficulty. I have also been on northbound transits where they did not have tours leave the ship at the Gatun Lake anchorage. On southbound transits (Atl-Pac) I have not seen tours offered at all after the ship reaches the GL anchorage.

 

Right now in light of what appears to be conflicting info, if I were betting tour or no tour, I think I would come down on the no tour side, since there is no mention of even a technical stop for Colon. Maybe paul929207 can provide an on the scene report when he heads back to FL on 3-17-14:)!

[paul929207]

I will try to remember to go to the 3/17 Roll Call and report during the prior cruise.

[Teris50]

I am on the March 17th sailing also on the Island. There are 10 of us and 6 of us would really like to do some tours that are not with Princess. I have one with friendsofColombia.com on hold, but we need a few more people. I was reading about the Panama Canal tour, but I think we can't get off the ship, we are just cruising through. If anyone finds out differently, it would be great to know...my email is teri.superagent50@gmail.com.

 

thanks

[windsor26]

Paul I would be very interested in your findings We are booked on 1st May 20 day FLL to Vancouver and see that it only gives us one day in Panama 5am to 4.30pm and is classified as full transit.

[caribill]

I am on the March 17th sailing also on the Island. There are 10 of us and 6 of us would really like to do some tours that are not with Princess. I have one with friendsofColombia.com on hold, but we need a few more people. I was reading about the Panama Canal tour, but I think we can't get off the ship, we are just cruising through. If anyone finds out differently, it would be great to know...my email is teri.superagent50@gmail.com.

 

thanks

 

The "tour" is the passage through the Canal.

 

Even if the ship was to stop at Colon after passing through the Canal, there would be no tours offered.