Thinking of doing LA to Fort Lauderdale

[Thecat123]

We are new to this cruising and some fellow workers are doing a 7 day cruise from LA to Mexico I think before going to Vegas. It got me thinking about doing one as well. The wife and I are thinking that to do a cruise from LA to Fort Lauderdale would be better as we haven't been through the Panama Canal and the sailing dates fit in with a Flooring Show at Vegas we are going to attend in early February. My question is how do you cruisers rate this cruise? Some people are saying there are a lot better cruises to go on and others are telling us it should be a really good 14 days. I have paid a deposit but wouldn't mind looking at another cruise if this one is really bad

[DanJ]

Whether there are better or worse cruises to go on is really a matter of personal taste. I would love to do a 14 day canal repositioning. Good mix of ports in Mexico, Central America usually as well as Caribbean. Plus I've only done the partial canal transit so far, and would love to do the whole way through.

 

To some people, 14 days just doesn't fit into their schedule. Some don't want to deal with separate ports and the transportation issues that can arise from that compared to coming back to the same port you left from. To some people who have cruised a lot, maybe 14 days in this part of the world loses it's lustre compared to maybe Europe or Asia.

 

Of course, the other issue would be which cruise line and which ship, which you didn't mention. At my age, I personally wouldn't really want to spend 14 days on a smaller Celebrity or Holland America ship.

[ab0si]

The canal is truly an engineering wonder and well worth seeing. We have done several such cruises and always enjoy them. But, then, we seldom get off the ship (neither of us have much interest in the Caribbean; my wife used to spend way too much time working there).

[jagoffee]

We cruised for 14 days on the Summit thought the canal and loved every minute of it. Cruising in the canal is like an excursion while on the ship. The cruise had a lot of sea days and it was perfect for us. Costa Rica was one of our favorite stops. Only three stops in Mexico, so you will need to compare different cruise lines if Mexico is important to you. It was our longest cruise, but for us the canal was the main objective of the cruise.

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

 

My DW and I have done cruised from California through the Panama Canal twice and a partial transit of the Canal from Florida once.

 

I highly recommend the itinerary from California to Florida vis the Panama Canal as you will see some of Mexico, Central America, the Panama Canal, and some of the Carib. Also, Fort Lauderale has an excellent cruise terminal and airport.

 

If you tell us the ports of call we can give you more information on each.

 

Fred

[LUV CRUSIN]

I highly recommend this cruise. We were on the NCl Sun for the L.A. to Ft. Lauderdale about 4 years ago. It is a great cruise, several ports in Mexico. There was a narriator on the ship's speakers as we cruised the Panama Canal who gave interesting information about the building of the canal etc. Almost everyone was out on deck while going through the canal. I think you will thoroughly enjoy.:)

[Thecat123]

Thanks for the imput you make me feel better. We have a mini suite on the 11th floor booked for Jan 20th on the Coral Princess. I am looking forward to the cruise as I believe one should see the Panama Canal once at least. My Travel Agent, who I have a good understanding with, like he would never dare to send me somewhere that I would abuse him later, says this would be a good cruise due to our time frame. As it is we are going to miss the first day of the flooring show. Its just that some other people say we could do a lot better. This cruise fits in with our trip to Vegas with no lost days waiting. Since 1998 we have traveled to Vegas each year from New Zealand and then traveled for a couple of weeks around different areas of the States so visiting another area really isn't an option due to being away to long due to other commitments

[Fredr]

New Zealand,

 

You have selected a very nice cruise. Here are some ideas/suggestions for you (we cannot have persons from that truly wonderful country called NZ going off without some guidance)...

 

Plan to arrive in Los Angeles the day before your cruise. We can have quite a bit of rain in southern California in January, which leads to flight delays and even cancellations.

 

And if you rent a car and drive the 300 miles or so, you can get snow in the mountain passes (the summit on I-15 south of Victorville is probably the worst) give yourself lots of time. And night driving on I -15 is not recommended unless you are very familiar with this freeway.

 

Rent a car on Aruba as it is the best way to see this very interesting island.

 

A ship's tour of Puntas Arenas is recommended because when we were there several years ago it did not look like you could go off on your own. We generally do not go on ship tours but this is the exception.

 

I live in Southern California and hope that this helps,

 

Fred

[Thecat123]

Fred your idea of driving in the States is not on for us. :D The steering wheel is on the wrong side. People we have meet in Vegas in the past suggested we drive somewhere have told us it's dead easy. When I asked them for the keys to their car to try all of a sudden they can't find them. Then they ask if we NZers have to pay higher insurance? We would rather go on a tour. The driver nows where to go and you see a lot more than worrying about if you have missed a turn etc and the other American drivers would be a lot safer. Turning into a street on the left would be a real killer for us.

The other people are going for a seven day cruise out of LA on the Sapphire Princess but I am not sure where the are going as the dates one of them gave me don't tie up with the ships cruising departures when I looked tonight

[chasetf]

Fred your idea of driving in the States is not on for us. :D The steering wheel is on the wrong side. People we have meet in Vegas in the past suggested we drive somewhere have told us it's dead easy. When I asked them for the keys to their car to try all of a sudden they can't find them. Then they ask if we NZers have to pay higher insurance? We would rather go on a tour. The driver nows where to go and you see a lot more than worrying about if you have missed a turn etc and the other American drivers would be a lot safer. Turning into a street on the left would be a real killer for us.

As far as the driving.... your challenge would be the same as I had driving in NZ. At least we don't have the "roundabouts". That is the only place I almost got hit.... seems I looked over the wrong shoulder and didn't see the other car. Fortunately they saw me. My other challenge was the turn signal.... seems every time I went to put the turn signal on the windshield wipers went on.

 

We can not wait to get back to your beautiful country.

The other people are going for a seven day cruise out of LA on the Sapphire Princess but I am not sure where the are going as the dates one of them gave me don't tie up with the ships cruising departures when I looked tonight

I would agree with the above posters and say do the canal trip. Given you are coming that far... 7 day Mexico Rivera verses the 14 day Panama Canal (and we have done both) is our recommendation.

[Thecat123]

As far as the driving.... your challenge would be the same as I had driving in NZ. At least we don't have the "roundabouts". That is the only place I almost got hit.... seems I looked over the wrong shoulder and didn't see the other car. Fortunately they saw me. My other challenge was the turn signal.... seems every time I went to put the turn signal on the windshield wipers went on.

 

We can not wait to get back to your beautiful country.

 

quote]

 

 

New Zealand drivers are meant to be the worst in the world so how did you survive? :D We have found the American drivers very polite even when we are looking the wrong way before stepping off the footpath

 

Every place we have been to overseas has beautiful spots and like here there are some places you will never see on the postcards. We live in Auckland but I think the best spots here are Queenstown ( got the lakes and mountains) and the Bay of Islands. Talked to my Travel Agent today and booked for the cruise so now all we have to do is get a flight to LA about that time. Thanks for the tips. We will keep a look out for further suggestions

[Krazy Kruizers]

We are new to this cruising and some fellow workers are doing a 7 day cruise from LA to Mexico I think before going to Vegas. It got me thinking about doing one as well. The wife and I are thinking that to do a cruise from LA to Fort Lauderdale would be better as we haven't been through the Panama Canal and the sailing dates fit in with a Flooring Show at Vegas we are going to attend in early February. My question is how do you cruisers rate this cruise? Some people are saying there are a lot better cruises to go on and others are telling us it should be a really good 14 days. I have paid a deposit but wouldn't mind looking at another cruise if this one is really bad

 

Do IT!!

We have done several full transit cruises -- we love going through the Panama Canal -- have done it both directions. It is so interesting to watch the mules and the workings of the locks.

[sultan_sfo]

More Encouragement!

We did the San Francisco to FLL on the sister ship -- Island Princess. Both the Coral and Island were designed to just squeeze through the canal. One feels that one could almost touch the walls of the canals. It is a great cruise.

 

There is thick book about the history of the construction of the Canal starting with how the French abandoned their efforts. I think the title is "Between the Seas". Someone on this forum may have the exact title. It is definitely worth reading -- before and during the cruise.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

Thanks for the imput you make me feel better. We have a mini suite on the 11th floor booked for Jan 20th on the Coral Princess.

...

[luv2cruise450]

I think this is a wonderful cruise and the Panama Canal is an absolute engineering marvel! If you get the chance to sail one...go for it! We did the transcanal cruise on HAL's AMsterdam and absolutely loved it! And to DANJ...the HAL and Celebrity ships are beautiful and offer a great cruising experience!

[ST MARTIN GAL]

We just completed our 14 day Panama Canal cruise from LA to Fll on the wonderful Coral. We had a port side balcony on the Baja deck (11th floor). You will have a wonderful time. The Canal is fantastic.

[Thecat123]

We just completed our 14 day Panama Canal cruise from LA to Fll on the wonderful Coral. We had a port side balcony on the Baja deck (11th floor). You will have a wonderful time. The Canal is fantastic.

 

 

Any tricks about the Coral or recommendation's we should know?

[ST MARTIN GAL]

We were all around the ship the day we did the transit. It is really crowded on the main front deck but if you go all the way forward on the Baja Deck or all the way back you will find little known public decks which do not have blue glass in front of them. Both places are great to watch from while actually in the locks. We had maybe 20 people at the most to share this area with. During the rest of the cruise these decks were almost always empty of people. Being on the port side until we reached Aruba we had the morning sun, which I liked because it is still nice and warm but not hot on your balcony. They serve hard ice cream for free from 3:30 -4:30 just past the buffet area every day. I'm sure there is more but cannot think of anything at the moment. Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Thecat123]

We got the Starboard side, cabin B207. Its funny how people look at things differently when we were on the Veendam to Alaska we had a cabin in about the same position and thought the port side would have been better as we would of had the afternoon sun as in the mornings we were having breakfast or ashore. Its funny we we booked on the Alaska cruise we found out we had the port side and thought that it was the wrong side to see the land as we traveled to Alaska from Vancouver so TA canceled that booking to the next cruise. Nobody thought about it at the time that the ship sailed at night so we wouldn't see anything anyway. As it happened we should have stuck with the first cruise as the old captain took the Veendam alongside the Hubbard Glacier not the 5 miles away as we got with the new captain. It's a joke now as everyone is telling me now that the new captain from the Veendam has been transfered to the Coral Princess and he won't be going though the Panama Canal :D

[ST MARTIN GAL]

Everyone has different wants and expectations in regards to cabins. We were totally satisifed with ours but I know of people that would have wanted to sit in the afternoon sun when not on deck with others. We had quite a few sea days so enjoyed our balcony very much.

[DanJ]

And to DANJ...the HAL and Celebrity ships are beautiful and offer a great cruising experience!

 

I know and didn't say they weren't. We honeymooned on the old Westerdam in our 20's and had a great time for our first cruise. But that was also a 7 day Caribbean cruise with a group of a couple hundred people from our area as part of a business trip.

 

What I said was I wouldn't personally want to spend a 14 day cruise on the smaller ships on a line with higher average passenger demographics, as those ages tend to go way higher on longer cruises. The oldest crowd we ever had was on a 10 day Carnival cruise in January. It was a really sedate trip, and when I commented to a couple of casino employees that I was wondering what happened to "The Fun Ship", they just said these trips attract older crowds, even for Carnival. HAL and Celebrity both have more amenity filled larger ships that I'm sure I would handle a longer cruise on just fine.