Suggestions for Panama City excursions: NCL Gem, Feb 6 2023

[MLA]

Hi.I'm going on a back to back on the Gem (NY-Panama City; Panama City-NY).  There's no information on the NCL site about any excursions while the ship is in Panama city (it's there from early morning until midnight, having done the transit the day before).  Not even sure where the ship docks.  Anyway: has anyone sailed to Panama City and if so, any excursions you can recommend? Would appreciate any thoughts.  Best, Laura

[BillB48]

Probably the reason they don't have excursions listed is due to the fact you are in the middle of B2B cruise.  Many of the B2B cruises I have been on have offered a limited number of excursions for passengers who are staying on board for the following sailing.  However, many times those excursions wind up being cancelled because of insufficient interest.

 

The more popular excursions that cruisers often take in Panama may have a focal point of seeing more of the Canal.  This could involve a trip to Miraflores Locks Visitor's Center to see the original Canal Locks.  There are also the new Agua Clara Locks over on the Atlantic side which would involve about an hour and a half bus/van ride.  Sometimes these two excursions are combined.  Another popular excursion is a tour of Panama Viejo which are the ruins of the original Panama City.  Also this usually would include a visit to El Casco Antiguo which is where Panama City was rebuilt after Panama Viejo was sacked by Henry Morgan.  A visit to one of the Embera villages is also very popular.  The Emberas are part of Panama's indigenous peoples from the Darien region of Panama.

 

The cruise ships have started docking at the presently under construction Amador Cruise Terminal located very near the entrance of the Canal.  Depending on when your cruise is, the facility may be completed and in operation.  The way things have been going with the construction it has been a work in progress and there has not been much progress!  If you want to get an idea as its location with the Panama City area, try Google maps... Perico Island, Ft. Amador Panama, the pier and terminal will be on Perico Island.

 

Since I would think there is a good chance you may have to arrange for whatever excursion you would like on your own, I would suggest finding the Roll Calls for the two sailings and you may be able to join some of your fellow cruisers in hammering out an excursion.  Combining parts of the various excursions is certainly possible.

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, MLA said:

Hi.I'm going on a back to back on the Gem (NY-Panama City; Panama City-NY).  There's no information on the NCL site about any excursions while the ship is in Panama city (it's there from early morning until midnight, having done the transit the day before).  Not even sure where the ship docks.  Anyway: has anyone sailed to Panama City and if so, any excursions you can recommend? Would appreciate any thoughts.  Best, Laura

 

Hi Laura, 

 

My wife and I are also booked on those B2B Gem cruises.  I'm happy to see you've now joined the Roll Calls.  🙂 

 

An excursion for our turnaround day is something I've been looking at for some time.  NCL does occasionally offer excursions for B2B guests, but my understanding is that we would not know of any until we are on board.  I suspect, however, that there will not be enough folks for ship-sponsored tours.

 

 @BillB48 has already given you great information about things to do on our turnaround day, and there have been some discussions on our Roll Calls as well.  I would add to all of that taking a look at Tours by Locals as well as Guru Walks.  I also suggest following the thread linked below in this forum about Fuerte Amador; it's really a mess right now -- the cruise terminal is still under construction, and it's hard to believe it will be finished in time for our Feb. 5 arrival, but we can hope . . .  🙂 

 

Looking forward to meeting you on board

 

 

[Essiesmom]

I believe your ship will transit the canal on February 5 and actually dock at Fuerte Amador after the transit.  NCL Jewel has done that today and is currently docked there.  She turns around tomorrow and goes back through the canal on Sunday.  I was hoping for pics of the terminal from her bridge cam, but she is docked stern in with the city skyline in view instead.  So you could possibly do an evening excursion…. EM

[Turtles06]

38 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

I believe your ship will transit the canal on February 5 and actually dock at Fuerte Amador after the transit.  NCL Jewel has done that today and is currently docked there.  She turns around tomorrow and goes back through the canal on Sunday.  I was hoping for pics of the terminal from her bridge cam, but she is docked stern in with the city skyline in view instead.  So you could possibly do an evening excursion…. EM

Yes, we are going to dock on Feb. 5 after the southbound transit.  I believe we will leave sometime very late at night on Feb. 6 (the itinerary says 11:59pm, but that may be a placeholder), getting in position for our northbound transit on Feb. 7. 
 

Maybe you can post some screenshots of us. 😊

[Essiesmom]

I post transit pics on another forum, but if there is a ‘live from’ thread I will post pics there.  EM

[quillwercruisers]

18 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

I believe your ship will transit the canal on February 5 and actually dock at Fuerte Amador after the transit.  NCL Jewel has done that today and is currently docked there.  She turns around tomorrow and goes back through the canal on Sunday.  I was hoping for pics of the terminal from her bridge cam, but she is docked stern in with the city skyline in view instead.  So you could possibly do an evening excursion…. EM

I was hoping to see the port as well on the ship cam.

[Turtles06]

6 minutes ago, quillwercruisers said:

I was hoping to see the port as well on the ship cam.

Really not much to see right now but a construction site. See comment 51 on this thread, which has the NCL Encore’s web cam view from a few weeks ago:

 

 

[Suwanee12345]

I will be on this ship too arriving Panama city on 2/6/23.  Called NCL twice and was told the ship will be docked on Colon cruise terminal. Kind of could not believe it, but this is the docking information the representative can find out from the system.  There is a hop on hop off bus which is an option for a day excursion,  one stop right at the Fuerte Amador cruise port (if Gem docks there it will be perfect tour option).

https://city-sightseeing.com/en/71/panama-city/77/hop-on-hop-off-panama-city

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Suwanee12345 said:

I will be on this ship too arriving Panama city on 2/6/23.  Called NCL twice and was told the ship will be docked on Colon cruise terminal. Kind of could not believe it, but this is the docking information the representative can find out from the system.  There is a hop on hop off bus which is an option for a day excursion,  one stop right at the Fuerte Amador cruise port (if Gem docks there it will be perfect tour option).

https://city-sightseeing.com/en/71/panama-city/77/hop-on-hop-off-panama-city

Do you mean the Gem’s January 25 – February 6, 2023 Panama Canal cruise out of New York? If so, you were right to suspect that the docking info you were told was not correct. It would not be the first or last time that cruise line telephone representatives gave out misinformation.
 

How could we be docking in Colon, on the Atlantic side of Panama? Think about it; we are doing a full transit of the Canal on February 5, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In order for us to dock in Colon,  we would have to turn right around and go back through the Canal again. The Gem’s next cruise, departing from Panama City on Feb. 6 to go back to NY, is going through the Canal on Feb. 7, which it could not do from Colon. 
 

There’s a very active Roll Call for our cruise, I hope you’ll come over and join us. 
 

 

[long Island]

Hop on hop off bus, Should we  buy a ticket online now or wait till you get to Panama City?

[vtgumby]

On 1/6/2023 at 5:32 PM, long Island said:

Hop on hop off bus, Should we  buy a ticket online now or wait till you get to Panama City?

Wait. No advantage to advance purchase and who knows what that day might bring…