OK folks...need lots of opinions on which cruise line to take through Canal!!

[halos]

Hi

I just got off the Carnival Miracle..7 day Bahama cruise. It was the best cruise EVER. I decided that 7 days is not long enough and want to do a longer cruise. My DH and I really want to do a 15 day Panama canal cruise and experience going through the canal. He has wanted to do this for the longest time...the engineering involved thrills him...being on a ship for 15 days thrills me.

I am so unsure of which line to chose and which ship. I'd like all you cruisers to give me lots of feedback on what you liked and even things you may have been disappointed in about your Panama cruises. Also, is fall or winter better?? Are there less children on board a Canal cruise?? Any advice or feedback will be greatly appreciated.

[Host Caroline]

Yes, less children on Canal cruises always.. cruising season fall through mid-spring... transcanal is better than 'roundtrip'... IMHO depending on age (cause age group is older on this itin) I would consider Holland America if you are 60+ and don't care if there's not much night life or Princess or RCI if you want a little more active shipboard experience.

[halos]

Thanks Caroline.

Not quite ready for HAL yet (biological age 42, emotionally still age 19 at heart!!) may never be ready for HAL (LOL!!)...considering Princess....I have only cruised 3x and each time was with Carnival (which I love)...what are the pros and cons of Princess and RCI?

[roothy123]

We just put a deposit down on Oceania's Jan. 2 trip (16 days from Miami to LA, through canal, ports in Costa Rica, Mexico, etc.) Might be a little too old a group for you (probably averages around 55, but some in the 40-55 range) but the line is terrific. We did a Med trip in May on them and LOVED it so much my husband has just pressured me into saying yes to the Panama Canal. Less than 700 people on the ship, great food and service, but kind of low key entertainment and small casino. Reasonable (though not cheap) prices, and cheap but lengthy flights. Beautiful ship, great clientele - fairly upscale but not stuffy or snotty. Casual atmosphere on board, and no tuxes ever, and two special restaurants in addition to the two regular dining venues. No extra charge for those. Open seating. We are a little older than you (53) so maybe this would not be your thing, but we found it close to perfect. Most Oceania cruises are very port intensive, but their Panama Canal trip has a lot of sea days, I notice. Devotes a whole day to the canal. Might be a little more expensive than Princess - don't know - but even if it IS, it's probably worth the extra if you can afford it. We loved being on the ship with less than 700 people. SO - might want to check it out. Web site is oceaniacruises.com, I think.

[Host Caroline]

I'm not really ready for HAL most of the time either and I'm older than you are.. I also think that although Oceania is a marvelous cruise experience, you won't find a much different crowd than on HAL. I think Carnival is doing a few Canal transits in connection with moving some ships around.. have you gone to www.carnival.com and done a "cruise search"????/ RCI and Princess are IMHO very similar although I prefer Princess bec. they have great bartenders and the Brits have a very irreverant sense of humor! Since the Canal attracts an older group than 7-nighters in Caribbean and along Mex. Riviera anyway I'd almost say go with price between the two... ???

[halos]

I apppreciate the fedback from both of you.

 

Since we won't be taking this cruise for about 2 years (after my youngest goes off to start college) it's difficult to investigate.

Right now Carnival has 2 ships that do canal Cruises, but that may change over the next 2 years. You know how they always move their ships around!!

I've looked at the Princess ships that currently sail the Canal and they are the Regal and the Dawn (The Coral does the Canal, but only half passage...I see no point in that, I want to do the whole thing!!)

I am leaning more toward Princess or Carnival. I guess I'll have to wait until next year before I can actually see what ships will be available for this cruise in the fall of 06/winter 07.

Man, how depressing...that is TOO far away!!!!!

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

Our first full transit of the canal was on the Royal Princess and we loved it.

 

Since then we have taken several full transit canal cruises on HAL (we are in the 60+ group).

 

There were very, very few children on board.

 

And there were also of a lot people in their 40's. This type of cruise attracks a lot of people of all ages.

 

:)

[skiiergirl]

Halos....I would highly recommend RCI...either Radiance or Serenade. We have done this trip twice and are booked already for next year. We are early 40's and we love this trip. I can't compare cruise lines as RCI is all we have ever sailed (25+ times). We love Radiance and Serenade and think you would be very pleased.

[halos]

skiiergirl.

Thanks. Although I have not totally ruled out any paricular line, I have been shying from RCI because the food is rated very low.

How did you find the food on your cruises??? You must have liked it (you took 25 RCI cruises??!!)

[darkauf]

This will be our first trip on RCI. We have done mostly Carnival and one HAL...and yes, there is no night life on HAL and we probably won't sail them again unless they give it away like they did for the Zuiderdam. We will be on the West to East sailing on the Radiance. Everyone says it is a fantastic ship but the food is so-so. We love the food on Carnival and a number of people think it is not good at all. On our most recent sailing on the Carnival Pride, our bus person at dinner has worked on several cruise lines. We asked his honest opinion about food on other ships. His answer was - they all buy their food from the same vendors and they all basically use the same recipes but it is how the chef seasons the food and presents in on the plate. He said that all the food is the same. Some serve larger shrimp and some larger lobster tails but basically, they all have the same types of food, unless you are on a specialty cruise line which he could not tell us about. We will let you know how our cruise turned out. We leave 10/24/04. We were originally booked on Carnival but they decided to keep the Spirit in California so a majority of the people who were booked moved over the RCI. I have friends that only sail RCI, ones that only sail Celebrity and ones that will only sail Princess. As you can see from our signature, we are trying them all out. Good luck in hunting. BTW..they only do the West to East and East to West 2 times a year and not that many ships due the full Panama Canal sailing. So, there aren't that many to choose from. We did a Carnival cruise that took us to Belize, Colon Panama and Limon Costa Rica. Thinking we would never see the Panama Canal again, we took an expensive, but very well worth it, excursion through the first 3 set of locks of the canal. It was fascinating.

 

Darlene & Larry:o :) :cool:

[Stacky]

We are booked to go through the Panama Canal on the Celebrity Infinity in October '04. We did the California to Florida passage in '95 on the Legend of

the Sea. This time we're going from Florida to California. My recommendation is that whatever line you choose, book early and try to to a veranda cabin at the very back of the ship. That way you have a good view of both sides of the canal. The main top deck gets "very" crowded so it's nicer to have your own viewing area. We highly recommend either Celebrity or Royal Caribbean - don't recommend Norwegian. This will be our 29th cruise on everything from barges, Windjammers to the "big" cruise ships.

[Urban trekker]

Stacy - just wondering why you don't recommend Norwegian for the Panama canal - I did it this year on the Norwegian Sun and had a great time - it is always preferrable on these boards to state a reason why you don't recommend something and not just make a general statement.

 

As for the cruise it was in April of 2004 and 16 days from Miami to Los Angeles ( San Pedro) - and I stayed on to Vancouver for a total of 21 days

 

Halos - I think everyone should transit the canal at least once in their lives - it is hard to believe that the technology used is over 90 years old and still awe inspiring - the only minor negative comment and this will apply regardless of ship is that it is usually very hot and very humid so if you are going to be out on the deck make sure that you have lots of water, sunscreen etc and get out on deck early if you want the best views - i was on deck before 5:00AM and an hour later all the good viewing spots were taken.

 

Good luck on what ever ship you happen to book and i hope that you enjoy the cruise whenever you take it.

 

Dennis

[Stacky]

Hi Dennis,

In answer to your question - we took a Hawaiin cruise on the Norwegian line -

our first cruise with them - after having done many other cruises of all types.

Their lack of organization in embarking and disembarking for shore trips. Passengers couldn't get through crowded passageways trying to get either on or off the ship. Lack of consideration for passengers - there was an unfortunate accident to a crew member during the cruise and we missed some of the islands we were supposed to visit. They gave us free punch for about an

hour to compensate. The theatre had seats where you couldn't even see the stage and if there had been an emergency - the layout of the theatre i.e., lack

of aisles, could have led to a very dangerous situation. Needless to say, we were not impressed.

Stacky

[Urban trekker]

Were you on the POA for your first time with NCL? I think NCL has created a marketing nightmare with there America First ships in Hawaii at least until they get the US crews trained to give the customers first class service.

I can only speak for the 21 days that I spent on the Sun and and had no trouble embarking or disembarking at any of the ports and I did both ship excursions and solos - the Sun seems to get good writeups about there service levels etc.

It's obvious that you had a bad cruise experience with NCL and you are probably not willing to recommend them based on that experience.

 

I had a positive experience sailing through the Panama Canal on the Sun and would certainly recommend that ship for that cruise.

 

The other readers of these posts will have to use there good judgement and perhaps that of friends or TA's to decide if NCL is for them.

 

Based on what I have been reading about POA in Hawaii I doubt I would cruise with them for at least a year until they can get the crews properly trained and out of the party atmosphere.

 

Cheers and good evening from Vancouver.

 

Dennis

[Stacky]

Hi Dennis,

The ship we were on was the Norwegian Star - enough said about the subject.

We visited your fair city twice last year - once, to start a cruise to Alaska and

later to begin the train trip across Canada. Very nice city - we thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent there.

[Urban trekker]

While it is a little off topic i am wondering how you enjoyed your train trip across Canada on Via Rail - on my recent Panama canal I trained it from Vancouver to Miami and generally gave it good marks except that it always seemed to be late into stations - some of the people we met on the train said they found Via rail meals, service better than Amtrak.

Glad that you enjoyed Vancouver - its sunny and 75F here as I post

 

Dennis

[halos]

Wow.

Thank you all for your help.

It is SO hard to pinpoint what line I want to try. There are so many numerous good/bad reviews for each that it is confusing. I have only sailed Carnival and each cruise was better than the next, but I want to try another line. I DID decide that no matter which line I wind up with, my choice will most likely be on which ship is the newest. It seems that the newer ships on ALL lines have better reviews than the old ones.

I also know that because the ship has to be a certain size to fit through the Canal, that the mega-ships aren't sailing that itinerary...but there are some as big as 90,000 tons (Panamax ships) going through. I think my choice will be for the newest, largest ship available for the time I want to go. I much prefer the larger ships to the smaller ones.

 

Thanks to all of you for your input. It has helped a lot and I appreciate it!!! :D

[Stacky]

Hi Dennis,

We thoroughly enjoyed our train trip across Canada. We started from Vancouver on the Rocky Mountaineer to Jasper - then switched to VIA ending up at Sudbury Junction. From there we bussed to Ottowa where we encountered "the blackout of 2003". This September we are taking Amtrak across country - starting in Lancaster, PA to Chicago - then to Seattle for a few days - down the coast to Los Angeles for a couple days - then across Texas, up through St. Louis to Chicago - back to Lancaster. We're looking forward to comparing the different lines. In October we'll be doing our Panama Canal cruise on the Infinity - really looking forward to seeing the canal again - going in the other direction!

Stacky

[tinkerme1]

I just want to say that RCI never lets you go hungry. I believe that many people expect the food to be the way it was 15 years ago, prepared gourmet-style for small ships. Time marches on and with the expectation of larger and bigger ships, RCI has made some concessions with regards to the food. Each ship is very similar, each ship has good food, it just might not be "gourmet" food. If you want gourmet, you'll pay dearly for that experience. I've never had "bad" food on RCI and many folks here on cruise critic, although they bash the food, still cruise with RCI so things can't be all that bad.

[Deloresgardella]

My daughter, her boyfriend, my 16 year old grandson and I am going through he canal on the Coral Princess from Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco on April 27th. It is an repositioning cruise. We are really excited about it. I think the longer cruise tend to have an older crowd. Of course I am a senior and enjoy all groups.

[lamwnfa]

We did the canal transit last November on RCI Legend and had a wonderful trip. Loved the Legend and the staff. Our wait staff on the Legend were the best we've ever had. An aquaintance went on a canal transit about the same time we did (I'm trying to remember it was either Carnival or NCL) and they slipped notes under there door during the night before they were suppose to do the transit that said "We are announcing that you will have the unique experience of transiting the Panama Canal over night." They anchored outside the canal for the day and didn't even get into the locks until midnight. Needless to say...they were not happy.

 

Lori

[abridalmaven]

Food is so subjective. But this will be our 5th cruise on RCI and I have never had one bad meal . We have gone on the largest to the smallest, and were more than satisfied. Which is more than I can say about one we took on NCL Dawn in May. We are on the Serenade and were on the sister ship Radiance to Alaska and loved it.

[PricePerformer]

Thanks for the good info on the Panama Canal.

 

We were on RCI Mariner earlier this year. Of the 7 nights, beef was only on the menu 2 or 3 times. Had Pork, Chicken, even Lamb.... did get Lobster on 1 of the 2 Formal nights. This may be the reason for the food criticism.

 

They did have a steak on the Everynight menu. Nobody tried it because the steak the second night out, was like a TJ Applebee's $10.00 steak... not inpressive.

 

PricePerformer

[Msquared]

I am sailing the Panama Canal, leaving San Diego on February 6, 2005. I was pleased to see someone speak highly of the ship, RCI Legend of the Seas. I was also glad to glean that children are a bit more scarce on canal cruises. If anyone can give me some advice on weather, must see ports etc. I would appreciate it. Actually any advice or information would be great.

 

Is there a specifice thread somewhere for cruisers on this same cruise? I am not sure how this site works.

 

M2

Panama Canal

Legend of the Seas

February 6, 2005

[skiiergirl]

Msquared....to find fellow cruisers on your same ship/date....go the the "Roll Call Forum"....go to Royal Carib. "Meet and Mingle" page....from there you can look for your ship and date. I tried to do a search for you but I didn't see anything. I would think there would be a roll call out there. If you don't find one...then start one. Be the first and get it started. Hope this helps.

 

You willl have a great time on this cruise. I have not done Legend but love going through on Radiance. Get up early and plan on a "long day" because you won't want to miss any of it. It is a spectacular day! (The whole trip is great but we love "canal day"!)