Puerto Quetzal and Panama Canal

[tap & dap]

On the 14 day repositioning cruise to CA from FL. Was wondering if anyone has ever been to Puerto Quetzal? Looks like we will only be there 7 hours and most of the other cruiselines show excursions that last 10-14 hours, so not sure what will be available. The website for the port says that there is very little at the port and most towns and such are 1 1/2 hours away. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Also it seems that some cruiseships let people off in the Panama Canal area and others do not, has anyone heard Disney's plan yet? I emailed the cruise line and they told me we would only receive information like the other cruises, when the excursions come a few months before and then when we receive the little box with all the cruise documents in it, just prior to leaving. So it sounds like they will not be sending us much.

Has anyone booked one of the 10 night cruises with Disney to tell us how they handled those special cruises as far as informing the cruisers ahead of time, it just seems like we should not expect much between now and the time we sail.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

I don't have any definite info, just info from others who have been to Panama Canal and Puerto Quetzal, and others on disboards who have heard various things from CMs and such...

As for Puerto Quetzal, the stop for the FLA to CA trip is several hours longer, so those 10 hour excursions to the main city of Antigua would be possible. For the shorter stop on the CA to FLA trip, they may offer an abbreviated tour--I know there are coffee and sugar plantations to visit and colonial artifacts. The area around the port is not supposed to be good (according to one cruiser) who said they were burning garbage at the stop. He highly recommended taking an excursion if one were to stop there because the port itself isn't really a place you want to hang out. Based on location info, it looks like the areas around the ocean are very tropical and rainforesty, and the inner areas of Guatemala are more arid and where most the population and cities are. I have a feeling Disney will create some excursions to accomodate those on either trip. I hear there is fishing near the port, but can't imagine many kids would be able to do that. Most likely there will be some motorcoach excursions that stop at one of the colonial cathedrals or a plantation. But that's just a guess!

As for Panama, there are often unadvertised stops on Panama Canal cruises, but so far, it looks like Disney is not planning on stopping--just going through the canal. I hear the experience itself is very neat, as well as Panama City not exactly being the safest place to disembark. Many reported being careful and enjoying themselves, however, so I don't want to needlessly cry Beware, but based on the threads I read, I'd probably be more comfortable staying on the boats and just experiencing the going through the canal, rather than getting and meeting up with the ship at the other side of the canal--as there is plenty of crime and we have curacao, castaway cay, acapulco and cabo to do fun excursions on.

 

[tap & dap]

Thanks sounds interesting.

 

[RickW]

Originally posted by Ladyhawke10
As for Puerto Quetzal, the stop for the FLA to CA trip is several hours longer

Actually, the Westbound cruise only stops in Puerto Quetzal for 1 hour more than the Eastbound. From the Disney Cruise Website:

Westbound:
"Arrive in Puerto Quetzal at 11 a.m., depart at 6 p.m."
- 7 hours

Eastbound:
"Arrive at Puerto Quetzal at 7 a.m., depart at 1 p.m."
- 6 hours

Now, as far as excursions go, there may be more things possible between 11 and 6 than between 7 and 1, so the "effective" time in port cound be more than an hour.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Thanks for correcting that, Rick. I had looked at the departure times and didn't notice that the arrival times were different....uh, sorry! .

 

[ivanova]

Passporter.com interviewed one of the DCL execs at the DLR announcement on May 5th --- in a nutshell, they don't plan on announcing ANY of the summer 2005 excursions until early 2005.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

The Panama Cannel bit is very interesting and can be left to the last minute, i think ships are given a booking of a time, but like many thinks can 'back up' Therefore most cruise lines allow a lot more time to go through than required.

On my Princess cruise, we went East to West ( to Pacific) and we are stopped outside the entrance of PC in the bay from about 6am to 8am, it took until about 5pm to get through, but then we had an unannounced stop at a port, at the western end, I do not know its name, but its close to Panama city, from 6pm to 12 midnight.

No this was never advertised at all, and we only picked up on it, when we looked at the sea charts a few days before, with the route and time planned for our ship and it noted a stop.

On the navigators on the day they then advertised the stop, but there were not any organised excursions.

The ship refueled and restocked there, there was a open market so it implied they knew we were coming.

I know some pepole booked taxis and went to Panama city, ( some people we from Panama city in Florida).

So if we did stop it will be a last minute annoucement. But plan not to get off at all.

 

[Regina]

Since they only recently added the excursions for San Juan and Antigua, and have yet to add them for the 10 day cruises, don't expect to see anything until you're within a couple of months of the cruise.

 

[tap & dap]

Thanks for all the information, seems we will have to wait a while before hearing more.