Panama cruise

[eeyorefanuk]

For people who have done this

Who enjoyed/who didn't. Reasons please

Was the weather nice/hot for the September cruise

Thank you

 

[BartmanLA]

We just completed the April 23rd Westbound Panama Canal cruise, it was incredible, we got to be the first passenger cruise ship to transit the brand new expanded Panama Canal locks. There was a lot of fanfare and interest by everyone on board. The pace of life on the ship you quickly get used to, it's so relaxing and enjoyable. Weather for our trip was fantastic every day, we had one morning of some rain but it quickly cleared off and was gorgeous the rest of the trip. Seek out any social media groups pertaining to the particular cruise dates you want to really enhance your experience, and it's a great way to make LOTS of new friends too! Our preference was to do the Westbound trip because we dis-embarked in San Diego, which is close to where we live so the trip home was a snap. We are hoping to book another Canal cruise again very soon. You'll get spoiled and only want to do the longer cruises!

 

[etoe]

The Panama Canal cruises are amazing. I have been on 2 WBPC and 1 EBPC and have the EBPC for 2018 booked. I was also on the WB that just happened. The locks are definitely cool to see. But the cruise itself is the selling point for me. You really get to relax and enjoy everything. The crew on the Wonder is the best and you really get to know them. They bring in extra entertainment so there are no repeats of shows. As for the weather - in that area, its about the same year round. It's 80's and humid, but on a moving ship you really don't realize it that much. It's pretty much perfect in my opinion. If you have never done a long cruise you will be spoiled. I only do the longer cruises now.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Thanks

I was lucky enough to do the Hawaii cruise and it because it was Hawaii and the length of the cruise

Would you say it is sunbathing weather if you say 80 and humid?

Any more comments appreciated

Thanks again

 

[jdb in AZ]

Thanks

I was lucky enough to do the Hawaii cruise and it because it was Hawaii and the length of the cruise

Would you say it is sunbathing weather if you say 80 and humid?

Any more comments appreciated

Thanks again

Definitely sunbathing weather. We did both Hawaii and Panama with DCL. The Canal was fascinating but we preferred the ports in Hawaii -- more to do, more scenic, not quite as humid. DCL usually changes the ports they visit on the Panama cruises from year to year (ours included Costa Rica) but there's a lot more poverty in those ports than in Hawaii.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Wife and I did the WB back on 2011, loved it! Weather was warm and humid for us but we were sailing in spring. DCL should have a retired Pilot that sailed ships through the Panama Canal leading up to and while sailing through the locks. We made all his talks; it was very interesting with lots of good and funny stories.
There is definitely fewer children on board, there was only about 1/3 of the children that would normally sail on DCL. We had two other couples in our rotational dining and one of the women mentioned how odd it is that we were actually part of the younger crowd. There were a lot of people looking like they were retirement age. But it was 11 nights long; while school was still in session for most school districts.
Wife talked me into having us sign up for length of cruise in the Rain Forest Room. Thought it was going to be a total waste of money, ended up spending a LOT of time in there. Going from sauna to shower to another sauna to shower to the heated tile lounge chairs and start all over again.
Going through the locks and canal was fun and interesting. We do plan on going again now that the new locks are open. Interested to see how different it may be. My guess is it will be at least three years out however. It will give the hillsides time to heal from all the heavy equipment that were preparing for the bigger ships.
And hopefully the water will have cleared up, it looked like you could get off the ship and walk on the water it was so brown with sediment. The pilot said before all the work the canal had some of the cleanest water. Ships would ask permission to take on clean, fresh water.

 

[VowRenewal13]

We did our first, but definitely not our last Panama Canal Cruise. It was amazing. We loved all of the ports, except for Cartegena. The events at the kids clubs for adults were great. There are lots of sea days, but there were all kinds of things to do, organized by great people in our group. Met lots of new friends and hope to cruise with them again.

 

[o&smom]

We did our first, but definitely not our last Panama Canal Cruise. It was amazing. We loved all of the ports, except for Cartegena. The events at the kids clubs for adults were great. There are lots of sea days, but there were all kinds of things to do, organized by great people in our group. Met lots of new friends and hope to cruise with them again.

What did you do in Cartegena? We were pleasantly surprised and ended up enjoying a very lovely day walking around the old walled city. We ended up meeting a very nice man named Octavio while we were trying to find a restroom. We ended up using him as our private tour guide for the time we were there. He helped us get and do all our of the things on our list and made sure we saw the main sights while giving us information on what we were seeing. We gave him what we thought was fair at the end of the day and much less than we could have gotten a private guide with Disney or a tour company and was very grateful. I would go back just to drink more of the yummy juice from the street carts!

 

[littleaussie]

I did the WB PC cruise back in May 2008. It was 15 days.

The Pros: it was a DISNEY cruise! Definitely had my Disney fix.
The trip was memorable and it was great to see an important part of history (Panama Canal)
The islands we toured were mostly interesting (Aruba, Cabo, Puerta Vallarta, Acapulco) and then Castaway Cay too.
It was a great value per day per person compared to other cruises.

Cons: it was a long trip. I've discovered I like port-intensive cruises so 8 sea days (not counting Panama canal day) was long for me. The same food for breakfast and lunch got kinda tiring, even though we rotated between buffets and sit down places.

But I can't complain too much about that because it still was a Disney Cruise and overall it was fantastic. If my parents really wanted to go on it again, I would. . . hahaha!