Miami to LA Panama Canal Cruise on NCL's The Pearl
Norwegian Pearl Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America
31 Night Panama Canal & Alaska (Miami To Seattle)
Sail date: April 16, 2015
Ship: Norwegian Pearl
Cabin type: Suite
Cabin number: 11150
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 years ago
Review summary
First off I'd like to say that 17 days on a cruise boat is way too long, but to do the Panama Canal right there was no way around it. We loved our cabin, a mini suite #11150 top cabin floor on the very back of the ship, little wind and fantastic views.
The day going through the Panama Canal was wonderful, especially since you could sit on the balcony and watch the entire process. The TV in the room had a channel with a web cam showing the ship from the front so we could see both ends at the same time, pretty great.
Freestyle cruising is the way to go, eat anytime (we never had to wait for a table and only 2 of the restaurants require "dressing up" (capri's for women, men in pants-jeans OK with a collared shirt, no open toed shoes for the guys, otherwise shorts and flip flops were good for all the other restaurants.
The crowd on the ship was older, canes, walkers, wheelchairs, scooters, so sometimes things go slow, a little too slow.
We were excited about the ports in Columbia, Guatemala and Costa Rica, but they were not that great and the distance to do anything was far. The ports in Mexico were much better except for Puerta Chiapas (which we have no idea why they stop there).
If you need a LONG vacation but only have 17 days... go on a cruise...you will feel like you have been gone for 2 months.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Lotus Garden a restaurant on the ship had amazingly good Chinese food, the pot stickers were delicious. Cagney's had the best filet I had ever eaten. Two pools plenty of room for everyone.
Ports of call
Puerto Chiapas (Tapachula), Mexico
San Pedro (Los Angeles), California
5 Comments
noname111 9 years ago
We are doing B2B Panama canal cruises this winter, one partial and two full transits. The total number of days for these three cruises is 45 which we can do because my husband is retired and I can work from just about anywhere that has an internet connection (even a bad one). We have seen longer cruises are the domain of the retired/semi-retired because of the issue of time-off-work.
I appreciate your review comments. Perhaps for your next review, consider being more specific as to why you selected a particular port rating. Understanding your rationale for selecting a rating is important because what matters to you might not be an issue for someone else.
Happy cruising!
Johngold 9 years ago
We took the Panama on the Princess. We will do it on the Pearl next.
We want to do the Horse and Buggy again in Cartegena, but the other stops are iffy.I'm lookin forward to this trip. I will be going on a balcony as the last time I went through the canal we had to deal with crowds on deck. We would rather have Champagne and orange Juice on the Balcony that cold coffee on deck.
We will take the ship to Vancouver again.
JusMe 9 years ago
Longer cruises tend to get an older clientele as younger people are working and can not get 3 weeks off work. Some people like the longer cruises, I did the 14 night Transatlantic cruises and would have liked to stay on the ship longer but then I like the days at sea.
If you post any photo's it would be nice to see some of the ports that you did and the canal.