Celebrity Excursion CO26 Ferry thru Canal

[youwash]

The highlight of the cruise, in our opinion was Colon, Panama. In preparation for our visit to the Canal I ordered 2 books from Amazon. Cruising the Panama Canal by Richard Detrich and The Path Between The Seas by David McCollough. Richard’s book is very informative and easy to read. He is from the travel industry and now lives in Panama and sometimes serves as a guide on cruise ships going through the Canal. The Path Between the Seas is more intense reading (I am still at it) but gives a step by step history of the Canal.

 

Panama Canal Tour CO26

Most important way to start this excursion is too take along a really big dose of PATIENCE. Our tour was not quite 9 hours. There is a very nice lunch included, make sure you have enough as it gets to be a long day. There is water and soda (no diet). Beer for purchase. They sell souveniers on board.

 

This is the only tour that is on a ferry. After getting our stickers in the theatre and waiting to be called we exited to the gangway and boarded a very nice bus and had a very good guide whose name was Jill. Very informative, but couldn’t help notice the little “digs” aimed at the USA, in relation to the Canal.

It was about a 1 hour bus ride to the ferry. You join it at a point on the way to the Pacific. It is a 3 level ferry and there were probably 250 people on it. We had a great spot to sit on the middle level all the way forward. There were 3 tables with chairs, inside. There was a good narrative by another guide but was hard to follow because fellow passengers WOULDN’T STOP TALKING.

You do really get a full experience of the locks. We had to wait in the lock for a big tanker to come in with us and he moved realllllly slow. But it was all part of it to see him attached to the “mules” and hardly any clearance on the sides. We exited the locks into the Pacific where the ferry docked and the buses were waiting. Then another ride of about an hour back to the ship.

There wasn’t much walking but the ramp onto the ferry was short but steep and when we got off the ferry the ramp from the dock up to the buses was really long and really steep.

Again, we enjoyed the tour. We thought it was well organized and they always were trying to see to the guests comfort. My only addition would be is that they should have a snack later on. People start to get crabby. After all they haven’t eaten for 3or 4 hours.

 

[BillB48]

From one Badger veteran to another, thanks for the review and glad you enjoyed the excursion. Had to laugh by your remark your guide slipped in some little digs at the US. I guess there are still some would rather think that the Republic became independent in 1903 and nothing much happened until 1999;)! That's OK, Panama and the Canal are still great:D.

 

PS: My Badger crossing was like a mill pond, just damp and drizzling... the Badger is a neat ship!