Panama Canal cruise

[Delorse]

We are doing the Panama Canal cruise on Carnival soon.   We have been looking at the excursion that take a hour and a half to Panama City.  I would love your opinion as the the safety and also is it worth going to see.   It will be a city tour once we get there 

[Cruising Caribbean]

@Delorse That sounds like a lovely itinerary. Panama City has a level two advisory, recommending that guests proceed with caution. This is mainly due to crime. If you are staying with a guided tour, you shouldn't have any issues when it comes to safety. I would not, however, go off exploring on your own outside of your group. That's just how I personally feel about that region right now. Are there any other excursion options that may interest you while you are there? There was an issue with water tables in the canal more recently. Do you know how they are right now?

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/panama-travel-advisory.html

[Kendall James-Vargas]

@Delorse It's true that the Panama Canal is having some very low water tables that have impacted some cruise itineraries. Aurora Expeditions had a cancel a cruise through there due to the low water levels. This is all due to less rainfall and increased local usage. RCL had to cancel Rhapsody of the Seas' Panama season for 2023-24. Let's hope your sailing won't be impacted by this!

[Tootie]

On 8/16/2024 at 4:13 PM, Kendall James-Vargas said:

@Delorse It's true that the Panama Canal is having some very low water tables that have impacted some cruise itineraries. Aurora Expeditions had a cancel a cruise through there due to the low water levels. This is all due to less rainfall and increased local usage. RCL had to cancel Rhapsody of the Seas' Panama season for 2023-24. Let's hope your sailing won't be impacted by this!

There were no water table issues that I recall - it wasn't even a thought. It was a great cruise for us. The one thing we missed was a chance to see Panama City - it wasn't offered on this trip. We are likely to repeat some form of this cruise as we fell in love with Cartagena. Barring that, we might choose to fly down and stay for a week or two. It's one of the only places I want to see much more of than the cruise typically offers. That applies to much of Mexico as well. We also love Cozumel - one of the regular stops on many carribbean cruises. We've explored it to the point we can easily advise newbies or inexperienced cruisers.

[Cruising Caribbean]

@Tootie I'm so glad you were able to cruise without any water table issues. It sounds like the cruise went pretty smoothly for the most part. What other stops did you travel to instead of Panama City? I have heard Cartagena is amazing. You aren't the first one to tell me this, and it makes me want to visit there even more! Cozumel is a great stop. It has plenty of beautiful attractions that are easily reachable during a short cruise stop. Cartagena is hard as a cruise stop because you have minimal time to explore. Clearly you just didn't have enough time to see everything you wanted to!