Question about Panama Canal From Galveston Cruise

[wo5m]

A friend and I are looking at the Oct 22, 2022 cruise cruise on the Dream. Its listed as a "Panama Canal Cruise", but one thing is clearly missing. It doesn't mention actually transiting the Canal.  instead it say the port of call is "Colon (Panama canal)" from 8am -  6pm. Is the port where we dock inside or outside the Canal? I see you can do a Panama Canal shore excursion, but I think that would imply it doesn't. Any thought? 

[N7786W Flyer]

13 minutes ago, wo5m said:

A friend and I are looking at the Oct 22, 2022 cruise cruise on the Dream. Its listed as a "Panama Canal Cruise", but one thing is clearly missing. It doesn't mention actually transiting the Canal.  instead it say the port of call is "Colon (Panama canal)" from 8am -  6pm. Is the port where we dock inside or outside the Canal? I see you can do a Panama Canal shore excursion, but I think that would imply it doesn't. Any thought? 

 

My wife and I are booked on the same cruise...

 

Based on past experience, the ship will NOT actually enter the Canal, but dock outside the entry-way for the Gatun/Agua Clara Locks.  Carnival does do cruises from Galveston that do a partial transit...essentially, you go through the locks, enter Gatun Lake, then make a U-Turn, come out though the locks again to re-enter the Atlantic side.

 

Garnett

Edited July 24, 2020 by N7786W Flyer

[ch09]

2 hours ago, N7786W Flyer said:

 

My wife and I are booked on the same cruise...

 

Based on past experience, the ship will NOT actually enter the Canal, but dock outside the entry-way for the Gatun/Agua Clara Locks.  Carnival does do cruises from Galveston that do a partial transit...essentially, you go through the locks, enter Gatun Lake, then make a U-Turn, come out though the locks again to re-enter the Atlantic side.

 

Garnett

The Dream has overhanging lifeboats, so the ship will not be entering the locks. Instead, the ship will dock at Colon.

[coevan]

A little off topic, but last year we did a land trip to Costa Rica and Panama. We did a Panama Canal cruise on a 100' boat with 50 guests, guided with breakfast and lunch. Seeing the canal from a small ship is a completely different experience. The guide describes every facet of the canal, very fascinating. You get to see the lower walls of the canal and watch the lock full up. We spoke with other guests who have done it on a cruise and he said apples and oranges

[jsglow]

We did an 8 day on the Freedom years ago that docked in Colon.  We visited the canal on a shore excursion.  Carnival does all 3 types of visits (dock at Colon, partial transit, and full transit).  The information available about any particular cruise is typically quite clear.  

[evandbob]

I have been on cruises where the ship docked at Colon and we had to take excursions from Colon to the Canal.  One time on our return to the ship a highway accident delayed us by over an hour past sail away time.  There were 3 or 4 busloads of cruisers that the ship had to wait for.

 

A different Colon excursion had us transferred to a small craft that went through the locks.  We have done several partial transits on smaller cruise ships that anchored in Gatun Lake and while there, the ship lines only allowed pax with ship sponsored excursions to tender to shore.

 

We've also done 2 land vacations in Panama, one a structured 10 day tour, the other a week at a Rui Hotel in Farralon up on the Pacific coast. The land tour allowed for nighttime viewing of the Canal during a dinner show in the Locks party room.  Unfortunately today Panama has not handled the pandemic very well (like us here in the USA) and will need lots of time to recover.

 

We have not been to new, larger locks yet.  We had been scheduled to visit last April, but COVID interfered with our plans.

[firefly333]

21 hours ago, N7786W Flyer said:

 

My wife and I are booked on the same cruise...

 

Based on past experience, the ship will NOT actually enter the Canal, but dock outside the entry-way for the Gatun/Agua Clara Locks.  Carnival does do cruises from Galveston that do a partial transit...essentially, you go through the locks, enter Gatun Lake, then make a U-Turn, come out though the locks again to re-enter the Atlantic side.

 

Garnett

Yep these are the ones I'm watching the price on. I want the partial transit so indont have to pay a separate excursion fee to get up close to the locks. There is a 9 and 14 day out of Galveston fall 2p21

[Bgcruising]

6 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Yep these are the ones I'm watching the price on. I want the partial transit so indont have to pay a separate excursion fee to get up close to the locks. There is a 9 and 14 day out of Galveston fall 2p21

 

Are you sure about that?

[firefly333]

6 hours ago, Bgcruising said:

 

Are you sure about that?

Could have changed. I admit I haven't looked lately. Listed for radiance who we all know is stuck in dry dock. I gave up right now looking with the lack of information

 

Well I just looked and the radiance cruises are gone from the carnival site. Wow. Just the 14 day dream at a higher price. Wow. Glad I didnt book it and decided not to book radiance until we had news. It used to be there wow

 

I've been working the past couple of weeks on my house so havdnt looked for a week or two. All those radiance cruises .... gone. Well I guess I wouldnt be going any time soon. I can cross that off my list. I was waiting for my oct 4th freedom cruise to cancel to decide. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by firefly333

[xDisconnections]

18 hours ago, jsglow said:

We did an 8 day on the Freedom years ago that docked in Colon.  We visited the canal on a shore excursion.  Carnival does all 3 types of visits (dock at Colon, partial transit, and full transit).  The information available about any particular cruise is typically quite clear.  

We also did an 8 night cruise on the Freedom and docked in the town of Colon. We opted for an excursion to transit the locks and it did not disappoint. Luckily it was reserved through Carnival as we returned to the ship three hours after it should have left due to canal traffic and an accident. 

[xDisconnections]

13 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Yep these are the ones I'm watching the price on. I want the partial transit so indont have to pay a separate excursion fee to get up close to the locks. There is a 9 and 14 day out of Galveston fall 2p21

You might not have to purchase an excursion but the taxes/fees will certainly be much higher for a canal transit.

[firefly333]

1 minute ago, xDisconnections said:

You might not have to purchase an excursion but the taxes/fees will certainly be much higher for a canal transit.

Well those two radiance cruises I was watching seem to have up and dissapeared. Lol

[xDisconnections]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

Well those two radiance cruises I was watching seem to have up and dissapeared. Lol

That’s unfortunate 😞 

 

It’ll come to a wash though if you decide to book an excursion and will end up being the same as the taxes would have been. An excursion will be on a smaller ship so you’ll have a more immersive experience.

Edited July 26, 2020 by xDisconnections

[firefly333]

2 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

That’s unfortunate 😞 

 

It’ll come to a wash though if you decide to book an excursion and will end up being the same as the taxes would have been. An excursion will be on a smaller ship so you’ll have a more immersive experience.

Not exactly. Even the 14 day was like 1818 plus fees and the 9 day 1298. That dream cruise a lot more.

[xDisconnections]

1 minute ago, firefly333 said:

Not exactly. Even the 14 day was like 1818 plus fees and the 9 day 1298. That dream cruise a lot more.

I know it’s because you book solo but all things considered, $260 per person on double occupancy additional is a pretty good deal for an extra 5 days. That’ll even shift it to the next bracket for shareholder onboard credit.

 

Have you looked into Princess? They’re always sailing the Panama Canal, usually with multiple ships, so the itinerary is more common than on Carnival. I haven’t been on their website in a long time so I’m not sure how pricing is these days but it might be worth checking 🙂 

[goduckies05]

You can see the inside of the walls if you go to the lower decks

Sent from my SM-G988U using Forums mobile app

[firefly333]

8 hours ago, xDisconnections said:

I know it’s because you book solo but all things considered, $260 per person on double occupancy additional is a pretty good deal for an extra 5 days. That’ll even shift it to the next bracket for shareholder onboard credit.

 

Have you looked into Princess? They’re always sailing the Panama Canal, usually with multiple ships, so the itinerary is more common than on Carnival. I haven’t been on their website in a long time so I’m not sure how pricing is these days but it might be worth checking 🙂 

Well tbh, I thought I'd book a 7 day this year then need 10 or 11 days to the next loyalty tier was my plan.... you know what they say about plans often go astray. 

 

I have 5 booked on rcl to get me to diamond plus, but I'm beginning to worry now about next Feb b2b. ... the best of plans .... I had it all mapped out, but covid has other ideas. 

 

My carnival plans were to get me to next loyalty tier, so princess wouldn't work though I have a few on princess already and ncl and celebrity. Decided to work on next tier for carnival and rcl ....so far covid has other ideas.

Edited July 26, 2020 by firefly333

[wo5m]

9 hours ago, xDisconnections said:

You might not have to purchase an excursion but the taxes/fees will certainly be much higher for a canal transit.

 

You beat me too it. A while back I looked at what I thought was  a cheap cruise partial transit from New Orleans (that has now been canceled). When I did a mock booking I was amazing how much they charged in port fees and taxes that were not included in the listed price. It Actually made it a little more pricey than what I was looking for. That is one advantage to docking on colon. If I have to pay the fee, I think I would rather do a full transit so I can experience the entire thing.  There is one on the Freedom going from Galveston to Seattle that I would love to do, but instead my wife has all my 2021 vacation time tied up for a 12 day July 2021 Baltic Sea cruise on the Legend out of Dover, England.  I can't be too disappointed about that as its an itinerary they haven't done in a few decades  🙂

Edited July 26, 2020 by wo5m

[stobe1]

9 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Could have changed. I admit I haven't looked lately. Listed for radiance who we all know is stuck in dry dock. I gave up right now looking with the lack of information

 

Well I just looked and the radiance cruises are gone from the carnival site. Wow. Just the 14 day dream at a higher price. Wow. Glad I didnt book it and decided not to book radiance until we had news. It used to be there wow

 

I've been working the past couple of weeks on my house so havdnt looked for a week or two. All those radiance cruises .... gone. Well I guess I wouldnt be going any time soon. I can cross that off my list. I was waiting for my oct 4th freedom cruise to cancel to decide. 

 

9 hours ago, firefly333 said:

Well those two radiance cruises I was watching seem to have up and dissapeared. Lol

 

 

Carnival announced last week that Radiance would be going directly from Cadiz after her drydock refit to Long Beach early next year to take over the Inspiration and Imagination 3 and 4 day sailings to Catalina and Ensenada.  That is likely why you do not see those sailings listed anymore.

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, stobe1 said:

 

 

 

Carnival announced last week that Radiance would be going directly from Cadiz after her drydock refit to Long Beach early next year to take over the Inspiration and Imagination 3 and 4 day sailings to Catalina and Ensenada.  That is likely why you do not see those sailings listed anymore.

Oh I missed that. Tbh some of these threads get too opinionated and argumentative I quit reading the drama and missed that.  Thanks

 

Once a thread dissolves into arguments I admit I stop reading it. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by firefly333

[coevan]

11 hours ago, xDisconnections said:

We also did an 8 night cruise on the Freedom and docked in the town of Colon. We opted for an excursion to transit the locks and it did not disappoint. Luckily it was reserved through Carnival as we returned to the ship three hours after it should have left due to canal traffic and an accident. 

 

There are only several licensed canal tour operators. They all have the ship's phone number. Running late in the canal is more common then on time. The ship will wait even if it's not Carnival

[xDisconnections]

2 hours ago, coevan said:

 

There are only several licensed canal tour operators. They all have the ship's phone number. Running late in the canal is more common then on time. The ship will wait even if it's not Carnival

Maybe but where's the guarantee?

[Runaway Parent]

We are looking at a partial transit cruise. So, with a partial transit, does the ship never dock nearby? You just go through the locks and then head out back to sea? 

[N7786W Flyer]

2 hours ago, Runaway Parent said:

We are looking at a partial transit cruise. So, with a partial transit, does the ship never dock nearby? You just go through the locks and then head out back to sea? 

Others may have had different experiences, but in my partial transit, the above is exactly what happened.  There were no dockings or excursions offered around the Canal Zone...as the passage itself was an excursion in itself.

 

To Carnival's credit, they did bring on a local expert who, via the PA system, gave everyone a narration as to what was transpiring during the passage as well as a history lesson on the canal itself and its inner workings.  It was very well done.

 

For me, it was a great trip which was greatly enhanced by our stateroom location (we had one of the scenic oceanviews on the very front of the ship).  From the comfort of our stateroom, we could watch the lock gates open and close and see the tugs pull us into and out of each respective lock.

 

Garnett

[dude_hdt]

We were supposed to be on Radiance out of Galveston doing the partial transit in Oct 2021.  That got cancelled so we rebooked the 14 night partial transit from New Orleans for late Nov 2021.  We didn't want to just dock in Colon.  Bad thing is, instead of 30 minute drive to Galveston port, it will be 6 hour drive to NOLA.