Caribbean Princess Panama Canal Cruise

[blkspy]

Its been announced the Caribbean Princess will be the First large Princess Ship to sail through the NEW Panama Canal. Not sure if pricing will change.

 

Would you sail this Maiden inaugural cruise ? Like when the Royal sailed her maiden TA cruise. Do you think the interest would be high?

[CruiserBruce]

It is more expensive (what the Canal charges) to use the new locks. Discussed over on the Panama Canal board.

Edited May 16, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[RocketMan275]

Its been announced the Caribbean Princess will be the First large Princess Ship to sail through the NEW Panama Canal. Not sure if pricing will change.

 

Would you sail this Maiden inaugural cruise ? Like when the Royal sailed her maiden TA cruise. Do you think the interest would be high?

You can see the prices in the attachment to the first post in this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2354813

[blkspy]

You can see the prices in the attachment to the first post in this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2354813

I saw the spread sheet last week.

I guess I should have said:

 

Not sure if the pricing will change with the May 24th Red, White and Blue sale.

 

I was really asking if people would line up to be the first to sail a Princess ship through the new lockes, regardless of price or if they'd done it before. As they did for the Maiden TA on the Royal. Just was curious, its a lazy day here in NJ :)

Edited May 16, 2016 by blkspy

[LeeW]

Balcony on Island/Coral 10 day is usually around $1600pp, so these rate are not all that unusual. Not sure we would take advantage of this, though.

[cruzsnooze]

what are the amenity points?

[JF - retired RRT]

what are the amenity points?

I think that's for the Travel Agents.

[Redhaven]

Am I reading the spreadsheet correctly? It seems to say that the Caribbean Princess does not go all the way through the canal, but just does roundtrips from FT Lauderdale. Maybe that's ok, but I'd rather wait for a FTL to LAX or reverse itinerary.

[RocketMan275]

what are the amenity points?

 

Amenity points are awarded to the travel agents for booking certain rooms. The TA can keep those points or they can use them to give amenities to their customers such as wine, flowers, OBC, etc.

[BillB48]

Am I reading the spreadsheet correctly? It seems to say that the Caribbean Princess does not go all the way through the canal, but just does roundtrips from FT Lauderdale. Maybe that's ok, but I'd rather wait for a FTL to LAX or reverse itinerary.

 

Yes, you are reading it correctly... the Caribbean Princess locks through the new Atlantic Locks, Agua Clara, enters Gatun Lake, then back out the same way. Meanwhile the Island and Coral will do a mixture of full and partial transits.

[fishywood]

Am I reading the spreadsheet correctly? It seems to say that the Caribbean Princess does not go all the way through the canal, but just does roundtrips from FT Lauderdale. Maybe that's ok, but I'd rather wait for a FTL to LAX or reverse itinerary.

 

The new locks will allow ships longer and wider than the current Panamax ships to enter the canal--but not necessarily taller as there are bridges on the Pacific side of the canal to consider. Most of the speculation on when cruise ships will begin using the new locks originally concluded that the initial offerings would be partial transits on the Atlantic side. Which is confirmed at least on Caribbean Princess.

[BillB48]

The new locks will allow ships longer and wider than the current Panamax ships to enter the canal--but not necessarily taller as there are bridges on the Pacific side of the canal to consider. Most of the speculation on when cruise ships will begin using the new locks originally concluded that the initial offerings would be partial transits on the Atlantic side. Which is confirmed at least on Caribbean Princess.

 

On the bright side all of Princess's ships to include the Royals will fit nicely under the low bridge (Bridge of Americas). The cruise line with the "tall" ships is Royal Caribbean, a lot of their post Panamax fleet as of now are a no go. Princess's sister line Cunard has the QM 2 that approaches the limit, but it too will fit under the BoA. By time the Caribbean Princess makes its Canal debut there will be a new bridge on the Atlantic side that it will have to sail under.