Panama Canal - Eastbound or Westbound?

[startpacking]

I am thinking of travelling on a Panama Canal cruise, just wondering is a significant different in crossing eastbound or westbound.

 

Any information about Panama Canal cruises will be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[BillB48]

Going Atlantic to Pacific or vice versa will not impact in any way on a Canal cruise. For most people I think the biggest factors are what are your travel connections to the embarkation port and how difficult/easy getting home when you disembark, airfares etc. Beyond that, just look for itinearies that interest you, most of them will have a lot of the same ports of call. April-May you will find most of the full transits going to the west coast, while early fall, Oct-Dec most will be headed back to the east coast. November through April you will find the partial transits through the Canal, from Florida. Most all of the popular cruise lines have some Canal cruises. About the only one I can think of that does not do Canal cruises regularly would be Carnival but they occasionally have a Canal cruise when they are repositioning a ship.

[Richard in Panama]

The only difference I could imagine would be if the ship planned a stop in Panama . . . and most "transits" just barrel through without stopping. Usually it's the "turn around" itineraries that give you the opportunity to see something of Panama. But if you did find a transit that was offering a stop in Amador, that would be preferable in my opinion to a stop in Colon.

 

For more Panama Cruise info see my blog at http://richarddetrich.wordpress.com/canal-cruise/

 

Regards, Richard

[startpacking]

Thank you, BillB48 and Richard in Panama.

 

Richard, your website is excellent, thanks for the link.

[cruznjan]

I prefer going west to east with the canal transit being the highlight of the cruise. The transit itself quite leisurely - it takes about 9 hours.