Cruise Through the Panama Canal??

Question

Have you ever done a cruise that went all the way through the Panama Canal from East to West or vice versa? If so was that type cruise better than a cruise that simply goes through the locks into Lake Guten and then back into the Caribbean.

What exciting did you see that should not be missed or that makes a cruise all the way through the Canal better????

Answer 1

Haven't done the canal, but oh would I love to do that.  We have been to the first lock on an exercusion.  It just feels needs neat, you can just imagine the history.

Go ahead and do it, you only live once!

Answer 2

Last November, I was on a cruise that stopped at Colon...

However, while there, I took a train ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific side and back...complete with a tour of the Panama City area, all of the locks, and the Bridge of the Americas.  The tracks followed right along side of the canal...so it was almost the same as cruising through it.  Anyway, I absolutely loved the train ride (it was informative and full of beautiful sights)...but the canal is one of those sights that you see it once...and you don't need to see it again for a long time.

Anyway, to (kind of) answer your question...I recommend seeing the whole canal once before your time is up...how you do it is up to you.  With the sights and experience that I have after seeing it via rail, I don't believe that I will ever need to cruise through the canal.

Answer 3

I just did a full Panama Canal transit on the NCL Jade.  The day we crossed Central America was February 24, 3008.

Here is a link to my review of the cruise ...

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreview...

And here is a link to 198 photos from that day ...

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562...

Answer 4

Sorry i do not know

Answer 5

Hey Tinkertoy asking a question, cool. I have been all the way through. We went from San Diego to Florida. My brother and sister-in-law went with us also. I don't know if we saw more then just going down and back, but the whole day it took to go through and up the lakes was a great day. I really loved Costa Rica. We now get our coffee shipped from there on a regular basis. I liked the length of the cruise was 15 days which I think is the perfect amount of time, even though I have been on a 29 day cruise too. This cruise was one of the more relaxing cruises we have been on because of the length.