I had a look at vacationstogo.com and did a Panama Canal search between oct-dec 2010 to try and see what may be repeated in 2012. Celebrity, Princess, NCL and Holland America do that route, and are all fantastic lines (especially for such a celebration) and some had an option for either 14 or 28 nights (return journey from /to Ft Lauderdale). There will be other lines doing this. Another option is to fly to West coast and do Las Vegas/San Fran/Los Angeles/San Diego for a week or more, then take the one way Panama Canal to Ft Lauderdale and finish with a few days in Florida!! You can self arrange or go into a TA and tell them what you want, and they should be able to package it for you.

Typicaly the full panama cruises are 13-16 days.

Depends what you want to do to make it upto 28days.

More cruise or maybe some land time

Does it have to have "the" date in the trip.

could you fit the Panama after a late Alaska trip? or is that too early

Would leaving from or returning to the UK be of interest?

I also like the V2G search engine for narrowing down the choices.

Thanks for the tips. I'll have a look at Vacations To Go to get an idea of what's available. I've read some dodgy reports about them, though. Are they reliable? I'm not used to booking online - always prefered the face to face approach.

Use V2G to do the research.

Then shop around as normal.

I have not read any bad reports on V2G but then I have not looked for any but would if was thinking of using them.

Noticed a cruise on teletext....would have been holidays P228 probably....for a Princess cruise Panama canal in October 2010 lasting 25 nights! Might be worth checking out the what/where etc. and storing in memory for when you finally get around to looking for 2012.

A real coincidence I was going to put the same question to Windjammer/Hamrag.

Hubby and I are both 70 April/May 2011 and I have never cruised on the Panama Canal so we thought we would like to do this. Only problem I would have liked to cruise with Rccl/Celebrity because we are enjoying the perks with the Diamond/Elite programme offered on both cruise lines.

I would also like to be able to add on a stay somewhere before or after the cruise any suggestions would be great

thanks

Can I join in the conversation as well? We will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary next year and I'm looking for that extra special cruise. The Panama Canal appeals, as does an Alaskan cruise. We would like some land time involved with either cruise.

I know there is a fantastic cruise out of Southampton in April which would fulfill just about everything - unfortunately although I've looked at it every way possible I just can't make the dates fit!! Shame

Rosalyn

have a look at p and o oriana on the 12 of feb 2011.
it does part of the panama canal as well as south america etc.
great price

Prindy,

Both Celebrity and RCI have a cruise late April for 15 nights through the Panama Canal. They all end in San Diego so plenty alternatives for a stay on West coast e.g. LA/San Fran/Las V etc. Ships are Century (from Miami), Millennium (from San Juan) and Radiance of Seas (from Tampa).

prindy wrote:

Hubby and I are both 70 April/May 2011 and I have never cruised on the Panama Canal so we thought we would like to do this. Only problem I would have liked to cruise with Rccl/Celebrity because we are enjoying the perks with the Diamond/Elite programme offered on both cruise lines.
thanks

To add to the hamrag selecton if you can go a bit earlier(March 13) Infinity is going from South America up to Florida through the Panama.

You could stay on in San Diego and cruise up to Vancouver on the Millenium or the Century and follow that with an Alaska.
Radiance does a 12n combo relocation/Alaska as a follow on.

With one night in SD. you could century the canal and radiance Alska.

should have said the oriana sails from and returns to southampton so no flights involved it is 36 nights however.