Experiences with Colón, Panama departures?

[marne-c]

My wife and I, plus our best friends, are considering booking an ABC Islands itinerary, round-trip Colón Panama, on the Rhapsody of the Seas.   Does anyone out there have recent(-ish) experience sailing out of Colón?

 

Also, while we're regular cruisers, we last sailed with RCI in June 2011.  Any comments on things we should be aware of would be very welcome!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

--Marne

 

 

 

[orville99]

39 minutes ago, marne-c said:

My wife and I, plus our best friends, are considering booking an ABC Islands itinerary, round-trip Colón Panama, on the Rhapsody of the Seas.   Does anyone out there have recent(-ish) experience sailing out of Colón?

We did a 10 night cruise out of Tampa in February on Serenade that did a full day port stop in Colon. The new port terminal is very nice, although they had not finished fitting out all of the retail shops, so only 1 or two were open, but sailing in and back out was very smooth. We just got off of Rhapsody's sister ship Grandeur, and we love that class of ship.

[marne-c]

Thanks, @orville99!

 

--Marne

[orville99]

1 hour ago, marne-c said:

Thanks, @orville99!

 

--Marne

This is the terminal that we docked at. The retail shops are in the sail-like structure behind the terminal. Not sure how you are getting from Volcancito to Colon, so can’t offer any insight about parking, etc.

[marne-c]

@orville99:  Thanks for the photo.

 

No terminal parking for us!  We'll head down the volcano to the David airport and fly to Tocumen in Panama City.  Then our wonderful friend Zuyitza of Zu Concierge Services will drive us to the cruise terminal in Colón.  Ditto that in reverse after disembarkation.

 

--Marne

 

 

[njhoo]

We are seriously considering the Rhapsody out of Colon to the ABC islands.  Appreciate the guidance of Zu Concierge.  We would arrive in PTY mid afternoon, which would be better, go over to the Port that day or stay in Panama City overnight?  Also at the end, the flight home leaves at 6:41 pm.  Any suggestions for how to spend the 1/2 day?  Have already previously transit the canal and visited a lock?  We could always look for a hotel day room close to the airport.  

[orville99]

2 minutes ago, njhoo said:

Have already previously transit the canal and visited a lock?

We did  partial transit when we were there in February, and it was a 7-8 hour journey that started mid canal, went though two locks and five elevation changes, and ended in Panama City. I believe the company that runs those (Aventura 2000?) also does ones that start in Panama City and end up mid canal. We were bussed to the starting point from Colon and then bussed all the way back to Colon at the end.