Emerald Princess - Panama Canal Ocean to Ocean

The canal is one day; getting to it is the other fifteen, and seven of those are at sea. The Pacific leg works south with a sea day between almost every call, Puerto Vallarta, Huatulco, Puerto Quetzal, Puntarenas, which posters on Emerald Princess transits describe as the appeal: ports the standard Caribbean loops never touch. The Fuerte Amador call sits the day before the transit, long enough for a shore excursion to the locks the ship will not use, which two route threads recommend precisely because the two sets are so different. Then the transit itself, a sea day, Aruba and two sea days to Fort Lauderdale. One thing to check before booking: the itinerary summary on this page promises the original 1914 locks, but a poster who did the full transit on Emerald Princess in February 2020 listed it as the new locks, and a 2023 reply on a thread about the Los Angeles departure pointed out that the ship's 118-foot beam puts it in the newer, wider chambers rather than the century-old ones.

Two first-hand accounts cover this ship on this route. The February 2020 transit, written up in 2021, was warm: unusual ports, a ship in very good condition, food and entertainment good, and a balcony that earned its keep on a canal day running from six in the morning to four in the afternoon. The February 2024 transit out of Los Angeles was more mixed: embarkation took hours and was described as chaotic, one port was lost to weather, and the top decks were impossibly crowded during the transit, so that poster watched most of it from a starboard balcony while praising the live music around the ship. Replies on both threads, and on a 2024 route thread, agree that a Panama Canal sailing draws an older crowd on any line and that Princess suits people who rank quiet, food and service above onboard energy. Practicalities from a 2023 thread about a nineteen-night version of this transit: self-service laundry rooms on almost every deck at under three dollars a load, humidity rather than temperature as the thing to prepare for, and travel insurance for the storm months, with the odds of actually meeting a hurricane put at close to zero.

Against the rivals, this is the budget end of the full transit. Norwegian Bliss does the same sixteen-night Los Angeles-to-Florida crossing for a little more per person with fewer of the Pacific ports; Norwegian Joy's three-week run from Seattle is a little less and Norwegian Encore's from Los Angeles a little more; Eurodam's three weeks from Seattle cost a good deal more, and Oceania's double transit on Marina is in another price tier altogether. The Princess-versus-Norwegian question comes up directly in a 2021 thread about this route, and the replies gave Princess the edge on food, service and calm, and Norwegian the younger crowd and, usually, the lower fare, which is reversed here. It suits people who want the whole canal in daylight with a Panama City day beforehand and are happy to fill seven sea days with lectures and a book; it does not suit anyone who booked for the 1914 locks specifically without confirming which chambers the ship is scheduled through, or anyone who wants a ship that entertains itself.