Which Cruise Line?

[babs135]

We're giving consideration to doing a partial transit either in November or December but is one cruise line better than the others or are they all the same. I'm talking about specifically sailing through the canal. 

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

Depends on what you define as "better".

 

I don't think a lot of cruise lines do the partial transits. I know HAL does, think NCL does. HAL does them full time from November to April. Not sure about the others. Princess does a rare partial from the Pacific side.

 

Some reading on the board would find truckloads of info on transits, both full and partial. 

[BillB48]

HAL, Princess and NCL offer the most partial transits, so you will certainly have more choices in dates.  I think what would make the better cruise line is if you choose a line that you are already happy with in terms off food, service, entertainment, price, etc.  If you look at Princess you will need to choose between a partial transit through the original locks or the new expansion locks.  I think most would recommend the original locks for your first transit.

 

Carnival and Celebrity offer a few partial transits as well, which would give you a fairly good cross section of the main stream cruise lines.

[babs135]

We've done a full transit with Cunard but this time our DD will be joining us and she is time restricted so I'm looking for the cruise that will offer her the best in the time (possibly a maximum of 14 nights including flights) she will have. That's why I'm looking for the line which offers her the best in a short time.

 

I realise the word 'best' is subjective but from some of the things I've read here some ships offer more viewing areas than others?

 

Of course I should have said all this in my original post but that was too obvious 😊

[BillB48]

Most of the HAL, NCL and Princess partial cruises run 10/11 days out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami.  There are several Carnival ones that originate out of Tampa, Mobile and Galveston and IIRC some of them are up to 14 days in length.  The Celebrity partials are out of Tampa but I don't recall the length of the cruises.  If I were to choose, I probably go with HAL or Princess for the partial.

[Heidi13]

Haven't sailed HAL or NCL, but with Princess, I find the Coral/Island the best ships for passengers in the Panama Canal. They have 2 fwd decks below the Bridge accessible to pax.

 

Been through Panama way too many times on numerous ships and the Coral Princess is my favourite of all the ships still sailing

[PlanoTim]

Viking Ocean also does partial transits.  We're on one late Jan/early Feb of next year.  I'm hoping the smaller ship makes for a good experience. 🤞

[Ski Mom 2]

We cruised 5 years ago on Windstar though the Panama Canal on what I think was a 10 day cruise. We flew in early to Panama City and stayed two nights before boarding in Colon and ending in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica where we flew directly home. We LOVED being on their small ship, Wind Star (188 passengers) and our ability to walk anywhere and everywhere we wanted during the passage through the canal. If you can cruise through the entire Canal I think you will love it!

 

Here we are going through the canal.