Panama Canal Cruise

[kimbacat]

My husband and I are going on the westbound Panama Canal cruise in January 2010. Has anybody done this cruise? Any tips you could offer us? Which excursions would you recommend? Thanks.

[Joy2theworld]

What are the ports this time around? We did this trip 2 years ago, but did the eastbound. Also, what month is it? We love Disney cruises, but we found this one to be a little too long for us. The kids, especially the teens, formed little packs and took over most areas of the ship. The adult areas were also overly crowded because more adults went to those areas to escape the kids. I heard the westbound that was before most schools let out wasn't nearly as bad. This really was bad. Even the cruise director came over the speaker a few times to remind guests of certain rules.

[kimbacat]

Oh my--packs of teenagers. Maybe we can avoid that since our cruise is in January. If not, it's books and the Cove Cafe for us! We will be stopping in Aruba, Puntarenas Costa Rica, and Cabo San Lucas, Manzanillo, and Puerta Vallarta in Mexico. And Castaway Cay, of course. We've been to Aruba so we know what we'd like to do there, but would love suggestions for the other ports.

[Joy2theworld]

You will probably be good in January! It would make me want to try it again actually. Your ports are a little different than ours were. Aruba, Castaway Cay, Cabo and Puerto Vallarta are the same. In addition, we had Cartagena (Colombia) and Acapulco. Acapulco was horrible and dirty, but we bought some of the prettiest things there. Cartagena was my favorite by far. It was stunning. I'm sorry you don't get to go there.

In Puerto Vallarta we did a Mexican cooking class. It was fun and changed the trip up a bit so it wasn't all beach all the time.
In Cabo we did a swim with the dolphins which was great. We didn't care for Cabo as it seemed like very much a party/bar town.