Panama Canal Cruises

Your ship will be raised up 85 feet through a system of three locks to the level of the freshwater Gatun Lake. Once you’ve crossed the lake, you will descend 85 feet back to sea level through another set of locks. Explore the engineering genius of the Panama Canal with Celebrity on a thrilling voyage that brings history and human achievement to life. On a Panama Canal cruise, experience the lush rainforests of Costa Rica, teeming with scarlet macaws and slow-moving sloths. Best known for connecting east to west, the Panama Canal is the right thing in the right place for speeding up transit by sea. With its mouth located on the Atlantic near the city of Colón, this decades-in-the-making canal flows past the lush green scenery surrounding the canal's impressive Gatún Locks, on its way towards the expanse of Lake Gatún itself.

Cruises

That meant we planned to spend however much of the day was taken up by the Panama Canal, actively engaged in the experience. The Big Easy is one of the world’s most fascinating cities and a melting pot of culture, food and music. Here are a dozen of the best Panama Canal cruises to consider.

Windstar Cruises' 7-night Costa Rica & Panama Canal cruise

Then continue your Viking journey to the heart of the Caribbean & Central America. Jalisco, the state where Puerto Vallarta is found, is the definitive influence on this destination's cuisine. Go for the famous lemon-marinated grilled fish known as pescado embarazado, and ask for huichol sauce, a blend of chili peppers, cumin and vinegar. Cross foggy suspended bridges or zip-line along the treetops at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve near Puntarenas, Costa Rica, where local travel guides take you deep within the forest as you learn about its precious ecosystems. A stop in Colón, Panama, lets you lay on the sand at serene Maria Chiquita beach or hike your way through Portobelo National Park to reach the 17th-century San Lorenzo Fort.

Related Ports

Zoom your map way out and Panama looks like a small sliver of land, so a trip through its famous canal is a quickie, right? But not so fast — traversing the canal actually takes at least 20 hours! Cruise the Panama Canal and enjoy a zoomed-in real-life look at perhaps last century’s greatest engineering achievement… along with its surrounding lush, verdant lands. This testament to human audacity joins the Pacific and Caribbean in the most direct way possible, and is worth making a leisurely part of your vacation. Even better, Panama Canal cruises call at Central American ports along the canal like Limón and Cartagena… plus at Caribbean island hotspots along the way. You’ll get to explore the local beaches and culture while heading to or from one of the greatest man-made marvels in the world.

You’ll go with the flow as you enter — and exit — the lake through these locks, getting two chances to take in up-close views of the land. With four pools (including an adults-only aft Serenity Pool), a WaterWorks aqua park, Camp Ocean kids club and seven restaurants, the ship offers enough diversions for sea-day fun, even at half the size of Carnival's newest megaships. For a Panama Canal experience that begins and ends in Fort Lauderdale, Celebrity Cruises' 11-night Panama Canal & Southern Caribbean itinerary is a great option. There's plenty of time to plan ahead for the Dec. 2, 2024 cruise or the half-dozen almost identical sailings that follow through March 2025.

Despite the monumental achievement of engineering that the Panama Canal represents, the drive from Colon to Panama City is just under an hour, so there are plenty of options. You will most likely find you want to enjoy the experience from different areas on the ship. When you’re in a lock, it’s fascinating to watch the mechanisms of these engineering masterpieces, so find the best position on deck to observe this. Typically, the transit of the Panama Canal takes eight to ten hours, but this depends on how much traffic there is and whether there is any congestion at the massive locks. The Panama Canal is open to ships year-round, but the most pleasant time to cruise is in the winter season, from November to May. During these months, the climate is less humid and there is less rainfall.

This ship, which pays tribute to some of the most enduring legends throughout the ages, still features classic Carnival Legend favorites. Take a dip in the Camelot and Avalon pools, wish for fortune at Club Merlin Casino, and taste something savory at Truffles Restaurant. There’s more than one way to dine at Lido Deck’s Unicorn Café, including handmade faves at Guy’s Burger Joint™ and fresh taco-burrito goodness at BlueIguana Cantina™. And of course there’s our signature steakhouse, Nouveau Restaurant, where the multi-course meal is no myth. You’ll find no shortage of things to do on board your luxurious Celebrity ship. Sunbathe by the pool, relax in a bubbling hot tub, join a class in the Fitness Center, or indulge in a treatment in the spa.

Holland America's 14- to 16-day Panama Canal cruises

Panama Canal to Increase Daily Transits in January - Cruise Industry News

Panama Canal to Increase Daily Transits in January.

Posted: Tue, 19 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

You'll get to see other ships as they cross, too, giving you a different vantage point and a new way of learning how the canal works. Once you're crossing the canal, head to the front of the ship for the best view. Cruise from Los Angeles or Miami and pick the trips that make your favorite stops. There's a cruise with stops in Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. A cruise to the Panama Canal is filled with country-hopping adventures that take you to Mexico's Mayan ruins, white beaches in Cabo San Lucas or Colonial treasures in Colombia. Remove the hassle from air travel and give yourself the gift of flexibility, time and a thicker wallet with Princess EZair flights.

At Alchemy Bar® we make drinks into art, while the laid-back RedFrog Pub™ has "Caribbean cool" down to a science. And up in SkyBox™ Sports Bar, we've combined luxury-box comfort with the up-close view from the 50-yard line. This change does not affect guests booked in specialty dining restaurants or suite or reserve collection accommodations, who enjoy a dedicated dining room on Princess ships, where no reservations are required. There’s also a lot of the classic Carnival fun that repeat cruisers ( hey there!) know and love. Deliciously familiar flavors come from spots like Bonsai Teppanyaki™ and Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse™, while celebration spots include Piano Bar 88 and Serenity Bar, and relaxation happens at Cloud 9 Spa™ and Serenity Adult-Only Retreat™.

For a cruise vacation that’s sure to go down in your history books, turn to Carnival Legend. If you’re out to find new legends, flip directly to the RedFrog Pub®, featuring not only a mythical mascot, but actual drinks — plus Caribbean atmosphere by the gallon. Your heroic journey down the Green Thunder waterslide is a saga you’ll recount for ages. Bonsai Sushi™ proves that you needn’t teach a man to fish for him to enjoy delicacies from the sea. And once you’ve had a look — not to mention a taste — at the certifiable cocktail magic of Alchemy Bar®, you still may not believe your eyes. On the Panama City side of the canal, you’ll sail under the graceful arch of the Bridge of the Americas, which forms part of the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Patagonia.

Carnival Cruise Lines Panama Canal cruises offer diverse ports-of-call, vibrant scenery, and interesting culture—all with maximum fun in mind. On the way to mankind’s greatest creation, you may have the opportunity to relax on a white sand beach, or be lucky enough to spend some time sightseeing in the historic area of Cartagena. You will be both bewildered and awestruck when you have the opportunity to view the trip through the locks, after which you can head ashore to experience the culture of the natives or the beauty of the rainforest. All this, and much more when you cruise to the Panama Canal with Carnival Cruise Lines. Silversea Cruises' indulgent 31-day New York to Lima sailing aboard its newest ship, 728-guest Silver Nova features a Panama Canal transit in the middle of the trip.

We soaked our tired feet in the lukewarm water of the hot tub and watched it finally fade into the distance. What struck us the most about Gatun Lake was how normal it looked. Unless there was a giant container ship sailing by you hardly noticed you were somewhere so exotic as a lake in the middle of an isthmus in the middle of a canal that was built 100 years ago to connect the two major oceans of the world. After lock #2 closed, I decided to run downstairs to see what it looked like from the 3rd deck, which mostly wraps around the entire ship on the Carnival Pride.

And adults can get lost in a good book, or just one another’s company, at the legendarily kid-free Serenity Adult-Only Retreat™ area... And over time, this ship has become even more deserving of its nameplate. On the stretches between the locks, you’ll be immersed in nature.

The shipping channel—which took 33 years to complete and cost more than 25,000 workers their lives—is arguably the greatest engineering achievement of all time. As you cruise the canal, you will pass through the two-chambered Miraflores Locks, the one-chambered Pedro Miguel Lock, and three-chambered Gatun Locks. Along the way you’ll find Gatun Lake, once the largest manmade lake in the world, which has proved a boon for the species that thrive here, undisturbed by the passing ships.