Choosing a Panama Canal Cruise with Tim Hersh

is the panama canal on your travel to-do list or perhaps a panama canal cruise stay with us as we review panama canal cruises with tim hirsch and as always folks if you enjoy this content please like subscribe and turn on all notifications to get notified each time we post my guest today is tim hirsch a real travel expert with cruise holidays of topeka tim and his wife denise specializes in cruises and cruise tours and have been planning cruise vacations and group vacations since 2018. hi tim welcome back to rte travel talk how you doing ken uh good to be with you again it's great to have you with us tim so tim one of our viewers has reached out for advice and they're looking at a panama canal cruise and they can't decide whether they should go with a full transit a partial transit or maybe just do an excursion as part of perhaps the southern caribbean cruise now i understand that you're leading a group on just such a cruise on valentine's day of next year i was hoping that you could give our viewers and listeners an overview of the options available for a panama canal cruise perhaps some tips for first-timers and best time of year to go and how did you arrive at that particular itinerary for your upcoming cruise well the the best time to go is uh definitely after the rainy season they generally go between october and into april but you want to go after november because the rainy season is kind of in that first part okay so you want to go after that time that's how come we we were looking at february it happened to be with the crews we were looking at fell on february 13th as a beginning so we kind of logically thought that would be a good time to uh throw that in with a valentine's day theme and uh you know take somebody that is meaningful to you onto a cruise through the panama canal there's many ways you can do that there's anywhere from a seven day to a 14 to a 21 day cruise and uh and you can really start from anywhere that you want there's really any place that you can originate your cruise it could be from florida it could be from panama city or it could be from the west coast a lot of them come from los angeles as well so uh it it's generally what you want to see and where you want to go so really you can you can go you can go from either the pacific or the the atlantic side correct okay what cruise line what cruise lines generally do panama canal well all the cruise lines will do panama canal in some form you know holland princess there's uh norwegian are all you know royal caribbean or major players in the in panama canal uh we generally like going with norwegian only because they have some really good air promotions right now and uh they do a nine-day cruise which i think is kind of right there in the middle of it kind of hits a sweet spot with nine with nine days and uh so that's kind of uh where we tend to go with but all of the cruise lines will will originate uh out of any of those ports right on so you recommend like if you're thinking thinking about a panama cruise that perhaps a seven day might be a little bit on the short side and correct okay yeah and the only reason why is because you're going to spend a day transiting the canal and so you want to be able to take time to go each of the one of the unique things about what we put together with this itinerary is is some of the things that that my wife and i wanted to do we wanted to do a southern caribbean cruise we wanted to do the panama canal and so and we also love costa rica wanted to go there so this particular itinerary kind of captures all those things and bundles them into a nine-day cruise now i notice at looking at some of the southern caribbean cruises that you're departing uh in and out of panama itself yes uh you're gonna leave out of actually cologne okay is where they generally go out of but you're going to probably stay in panama city and take a transfer to cologne that is generally what they do because they'll either originate in cologne do the southern caribbean and then come back through the canal to panama city or you can also cruise from panama city on through the canal going north and then go that way but most of them usually go out of cologne now i would i would expect when we think about that one of the advantages to going in and out of cologne especially on a southern caribbean itinerary is you're reducing the amount of transit time that it takes for the ship for example if it's departing fort lauderdale or miami to actually get down to where the your first port of call starts so you're eliminating those those kind of sea days yeah you are and you also some of not all of the crew panama canal cruises go all the way through some of them will go down to lake guten and they'll cruise around there go take maybe an excursion into the panama canal or maybe go halfway into the panama canal on a smaller ship and turn around and go back so you really have to be educated on what the cruise provides if if one of the things that you want to do is go all the way through the canal so you have to be you know really aware of what this particular cruise that you're looking at does because some of them will go to the canal some will partially go on the canal some will go all the way through the canal we did a southern caribbean cruise there all probably 10 years ago and it went down to cologne and we went to the panama canal as part of an excursion right we didn't go into the panama canal so i suppose it depends on what you're actually looking for does it well it's if you want to experience the locks right i think one of the things they do on the cruise ships is as you're going if you transit through the panama canal they really give the history of it you know it's over 100 years old and they talk about all the different areas along there's a railway that actually runs parallel to the panama canal it's uh there's a lot of different ways but just being on it and you can be out on your balcony and kind of see how they they go through each lock and experience how that whole process especially with a cruise ship which this ship is around you know a little over 2 000 people um that's what's really cool and experience going all the way through it what are what are some of the other things that there is to do in the in and around the panama canal and central america well central america just has so much to offer it's such a diverse climate you know there's there's volcanoes there's there's jungle there's rain forest there's beaches i mean with this particular itinerary you know we're going to be going to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world in aruba curacao and bonaire and then we are experiencing you know colombia uh going to cartagena and then also you know over to costa rica that whole region is just has so much wildlife and and it's just a whole different experience from what you would see say in a caribbean i recall from our time on the southern caribbean cruise it was warm what should people prepare for when they're thinking of taking the southern caribbean in panama canal cruise in terms of weather well there's really four things you have to have besides the things that you do need like a passport and things of that nature you know you're going to need sunscreen you're going to need bug repellent you're going to need a really nice hat and you know you're also going to need what one thing i do is wear sometimes if i'm going to be out in the sun all day i'll wear some of those sport beat shirts that all go all the way down to your wrist that is like an spf 50 and those are really good to wear while you're on and out in the sun during the day only because the the last thing you want to do is get a really bad sunburn the very first day on your cruise and then you're miserable you know for the and and so you just prepare for it but those are really the things that you really need to pack to have a great experience so you mentioned a passport is definitely a must to do the panama canal correct yeah because you're going to be flying into panama city panama because there's also panama city florida i don't want people to get confused with that and so yeah you will need a passport and uh as of right now you know there's no other requirements now tim would that apply if you were to take a cruise out of fort lauderdale or or the pacific side yeah it depends on if it's what's called a closed loop cruise so if you left miami and went down and and returned to miami all you would need is a birth certificate and a driver's license or some form of state-issued id right a lot of times when you're doing panama canal and you start from from cologne you'll go through the canal to panama city out the southern end and then take that whole uh pacific up the mexican riviera all the way to southern california if you're starting in panama city ending in the united states you will need a passport but if you begin an end in the united states then all you need is a driver's license and a bursaries still recommend a passport anyways for oh yes yeah anytime you're traveling outside the country you know that's what we recommend and making sure it's one that's uh up to date and it's not going to expire you know within six months of you being on the road right and most countries now are looking for your passport to be at least six months prior expiry that's good advice good advice for folks that are traveling all right i understand you are leading this group it's a southern caribbean on valentines that sounds like a real blast to be yeah tell us a little bit more about this particular itinerary tim well what we're going to do on this particular trip and and there is one reason we're using norwegian right now is because they're uh doing an unbelievable air promotion it is round trip buy one get one free uh on the air and so we're flying into panama city and we will stay at the panama if you come in there and do a pre-night uh we'll stay at the panama hilton in panama city they'll transfer us to clone where we start the cruise and then we'll go to a we'll go to columbia first and spend a day there and then go to aruba curacao bonaire and then a sea day over to costa rica and then kind of the crowning jewel of it will ended up with transiting the panama canal from cologne all the way back to panama city and that's where you would fly out of and right now with that air promotion depending on where you're coming from it's anywhere it can be as low as 349 dollars per person round-trip air and so the the deals on if everybody's looked at air right now it's gone sky high so a promotion like that uh is really great norwegian also offers uh the drink package the specialty dining wi-fi and a short excursion credits as part of their package too so they're really uh we really put together a good itinerary for this southern caribbean panama cruise on that airfare promotion like that's a fantastic promotion because just as you said airfare is getting to be a real issue how long is that on ford you know or that's as long as norwegian has that inventory right they they buy that air in bulk so as soon as that bulk air is all gone uh then that promotion will end and it'll go back to regular price right that's a that's that's a no-brainer so air is really important when you're traveling down that far and it how many days is that it's nine it's nine days nine day cruise and and one of the things i think and we've talked about this before i have a lot of clients that come in and they say well can i just get a hotel and go down there and i can rent a car and do this on my own we tell people you could do it that way you could just get a hotel and you can rent a car but you're going to see so much more on an organized itinerary more than you could have ever possibly seen you know on your own and you know the other thing is we have a excursions that are provided through the cruise line and these are all vetted for safety for covered protocols for all those kind of things and we we have a track record with these vendors of knowing they're dependable and that's why i tell anybody when they're going on any kind of cruise always book your cruise excursions through the cruise lines uh because if you are out on excursion and you don't get back to the ship and you book it through them they're gonna wait on you and find out where you're at if you book one on your own and you don't make it back to the ship you're just leaving well i can tell you from firsthand experience with clients of mine if you don't if you take an excursion that is not booked through the cruise line and you don't make it back to the cruise ship they will leave without you so i've had clients that that's uh have it have experienced that on their adventure that's not the kind of story you want to come home with no and it's a very expensive story yeah i'm sure it probably is i'm sure probably is well tim that's absolutely great information if folks are looking to get more information on this particular cruise or perhaps another cruise vacation with you what's the best way to get hold of you well you can either uh email us at uh any of the people if you go to our website at cruise holidays of topeka it'll have all our contact information and you'll have access to any of our consultants that we have here right and uh right now what i recommend to people that if you're wanting to take any kind of vacation to book it really far in advance because the inventory is really tight everybody's wanting to go right now and they're wanting to go right away so we're booking things already into 2024. that's what we're seeing is availability is is really shrinking so if it's something you're thinking about if you're thinking of going it's time to it's time to get at it this has been excellent great information you've convinced me i am going to have to even though we've done a southern caribbean cruise at least a couple of times i'm going to have to go back there and we're going to have to think about doing the panama transit because that's one thing that we didn't do all right my friend well that's great information i will like i said i will leave those links in the description and with that i'm just going to wish you and denise and happy travels may the wind always be at your back and i hope to see the both of you on elito deck real soon i appreciate it we'd love to have you on this cruise sounds like a plan you never know take care tim all right have a good day bye-bye and that about wraps things up for today folks a very special thanks to my guest tim hirsch of cruise holidays of topeka if you'd like to reach tim about a panama canal cruise or another cruise vacation i will leave his links in the description if you'd like to reach us you can send a question to questions realtravelexperts.com visit our website realtravelexperts.com or simply leave a comment we always respond and as always folks if you enjoy this content a like subscribe and a ring of the bell is certainly appreciated and helps us to spread the word so until next time happy travels [Music] you

Channel: Ask a Real Travel Expert - RTE Travel Talk

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Keywords: panama canal cruise, panama canal cruise tips, cruising the panama canal, panama canal cruise norwegian, panama cruise reviews, panama cruise february 2023, cruise tips for first timers, panama canal cruise 2023, cruise trends 2022, norwegian cruise lines, southern caribbean, southern caribbean cruise, best panama canal cruises 2023, best panama canal cruises 2022, top rated panama canal cruises, cruise tips for travellers, cruise tips and tricks, tips for travellers norwegian

Id: 5GDcrDLNxbM

Length: 16min 17sec (977 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 02 2022