Panama Canal Transit – 2013

In 2013 I was lucky enough to be able to take a few weeks off and take a cruise from Miami to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. In order to chose which Cruise Line was right for me I did a lot of research online and decided that I would rather pay up front for everything, a smaller ship (the smaller the better) and the right itinerary. The Cruise Line I selected was Regent Seven Seas and the ship was the Seven Seas Navigator, the smallest in their fleet. With Regent they include:

  • All meals onboard
  • All drinks except premium wines and spirits
  • Tours, especially as I would be by myself and did not think it would be cost effective to arrange my own in each port, plus I doubt I would have had the time to have done research for each port.

As Regent is an all inclusive Cruise Line and in the Luxury Cruise Category, it was not cheap, but after hearing the costs that other people on other lines ended up paying at the end of their cruises, the difference was not that much. The single supplement with Regent is fairly high, but most lines are the same when it comes to this. One of the great things about cruises is that you only have to unpack and pack ONCE!! Also, you have the same suite every day, travel with the same people and have the same crew looking after you, so they get to know you and you can make friends, which was a lot of fun. My posts over the next few days will be of the photos I took during the cruise. BTW, if you considering transiting the Panama Canal, stop procrastinating and just do it!! It is an amazing journey and the engineering associated with the canal is incredible, especially when you consider when and how the canal was built and the fact that all of the water used is gravity fed, there are no pumps, it is all fresh water (which is good) and each time a new ship / vessels enters and exit the canal 22,200,000 imp gal of water is emptied into the ocean. Enjoy

Cruise Itinerary

Day Date Port Arrive Depart
MON 22 Apr 13 Miami, Florida 18:00
TUE 23 Apr 13 Key West, Florida 08:00 17:00
WED 24 Apr 13 Cruise Florida Straits
THU 25 Apr 13 George Town, Grand Cayman 08:00 18:00
FRI 26 Apr 13 Cruise Caribbean Sea
SAT 27 Apr 13 Cartagena, Colombia 08:00 13:00
SUN 28 Apr 13 Transit Panama Canal
MON 29 Apr 13 Cruise Gulf of Panama
TUE 30 Apr 13 Puntarenas, Costa Rica 08:00 20:00
WED 01 May 13 Cruise Coast of Central America
THU 02 May 13 Puerto Chiapas, Mexico 08:00 17:00
FRI 03 May 13 Huatulco, Mexico 08:00 17:00
SAT 04 May 13 Cruise the Pacific Ocean
SUN 05 May 13 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 09:00 16:00
MON 06 May 13 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 09:00 17:00
TUE 07 May 13 Cruise Coast of Baja
WED 08 May 13 San Diego, California 13:00 23:00
THU 09 May 13 Cruise the Coast Of California
FRI 10 May 13 San Francisco, California 07:00

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