Excursion Recommendation: Panama Canal

[Hucc]

Hi... has anyone done this tour in the Panama Canal? It looks like it'd be a cool experience. Anyone take part in this one? Thoughts? Other recommendations for tours?

The Panama Canal Experience By Boat
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Experience the full wonder of the Panama Canal with a partial crossing of the canal by tour boat.
Travel by ship’s tender to the Gatun Yacht Club, where you board air-conditioned transportation for the drive through the isthmus to Gamboa. Embark on your tour boat for a partial transit of the canal. Cruise Gatun Lake, once the largest man-made lake in the world, to the Gaillard Cut, where you cross the Continental Divide. Enter the Pedro Miguel Locks, which lower your vessel 28 feet on its way to the Pacific. Sail across Miraflores Lake to the Miraflores Locks, which lower your tour boat the final 56 feet, matching the level of the Pacific Ocean. Your cruise ends at the port of Balboa in Panama City, where you board your air-conditioned transportation for the return trip to the ship.

[Mgram]

Hucc, we took it a couple of years ago and I highly recommend the experience. It gives a whole new perspective to the locks....you are actually down IN them....and at some point we even were able to reach out and touch the walls. On the big ships, you tower OVER the locks and look down on them. Plus, this allows you to go all the way through. This excursion is only offered on turn around cruises (going only into Gatun Lake), I believe.

[Lady Jag]

Hucc, we did this and my experience wasn't anything like the good one that others report. Now, we had 2 kids with us and a husband that likes more action than sitting around all day.

The kids were bored to death. I think I was even more bored than they were. We had to wait until each lock was completely full of boats before they'd open it. Won't take long, right? After all, there are ships waiting for days and days to get an appt. to go through the locks. WRONG! We had to wait for a MASSIVE cargo carrier to catch up with us at every lock. They don't have brakes. It takes FOREVER for one of those things to move. I've seen snails move faster!! =eek =eek =eek

Our little 7.5 hr. tour ended up taking 13 hours. The boat's entire food for purchase was sold out. People were getting hungry with just a little lunch during a 13 hr. tour. We bought a deck of cards to pass the hours. Everyone followed our suit and soon, there was pretty much nothing left in the gift shop. We were on that boat SO long, that at one point, I thought I'd go crazy. It's a terrible feeling when you feel trapped and you can't do anything about it. I wanted to get the heck off that boat or move it along faster by myself.

Once we finally saw the Pacific side and passed under the Bridge of the Americas, I thought, "Great, we're there!" Nope. You have to continue around to the marina which takes about another 45 mins. Once at the marina, you board buses back to the ship. This is a LONG drive on roads that make the Road to Hana on Maui look tame. The bus drivers were having races in the pitch black night and were constantly trying to pass each other.

Everyone on the bus was so exhausted, I think we all got a little dingy. We started cheering when our bus would pass the other one and cut him off. This was on narrow, twisting roads with no street lights whatsoever. At one point, our driver had to slam on his brakes super hard so we didn't hit the two cars in front of us that had collided.

The ship had to wait for us. We missed dinner (horrors! :lol ) and we were so tired, the next day in Costa Rica, we didn't feel like doing a thing.

I warned my friend, SusanA, about what we experienced, as she was on the Island Princess just 3 or 4 days behind us. She had booked the same tour, but cancelled it and booked a tour of Gatun Lake, which they really enjoyed. She said on her sailing, the people that did this boat tour of the Canal were also late, exhausted, disappointed and that the ship had to wait for them too. So, I don't think our incident was that unusual.

To tell you the truth, kids just don't get into the engineering marvels like some adults do, even a kid who is engineering-minded would be bored.

If I had it to do over again, I'd stay on the ship and watch it go through the locks. You really can see a lot from the ship!

Sorry to post such a long description, but I really wish someone had told me about it. All I read were positive posts. No one ever mentions the other side of the coin. :)

[Hucc]

so very different experiences...... thanks for your input :thumb

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anyone else?

Thanks :wave

[Einstein]

Did it 2 years ago on the P@N@M@ Group cruise along with MANY others from the group and had a fantastic time. I would HIGHLY recommend it as a way to get the entire feeling of a FULL Canal transit. Its definitely HOT though so make sure U drink LOTS of liquids and take frequent breaks in the AC. :thumb

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[JacquieP]

We were with Einstein and I think all of us enjoyed it. HOT is the understatement of the year, but I feel it was worth it.

[CruiseDiva]

We didn't do it last month, but others on our ship did... they echo Lady Jag's "late, exhausted, disappointed" comments, although they weren't terribly late getting back to the ship.

The first time we did a partial transit we took the eco-cruise boat & land tour. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Last month we stayed on the ship to go back through the locks and were glad we did--you get an entirely different and unique perspective going the opposite direction.

[Hucc]

good points, all

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I think Linda's comment cinched it for me... the trip back through the locks would be missed. So, I think I won't book it.

[maw]

Good question Hucc and I really enjoyed the discussion pro and con on this. Good job all.

[Lady Jag]

Linda's right there. I feel like I missed out not being on the ship when it went back out through the locks. Seeing that much would be enough for any kid (and some adults). :grin