Three ways ashore, depending on the day
Panama City has three cruise options, and an itinerary that just says Fuerte Amador can mean any of them. The Amador Cruise Terminal on Perico Island, at the end of the causeway, was formally inaugurated in March 2024 after a US$206 million build, and berths up to two ships at once. Ships that do not get a berth anchor off Flamenco Island and run tenders to shore. A few use Port Balboa, the canal-side commercial port.
The new terminal was also built as a home port, not only a port of call - 17 sailings began and ended there in its first months of 2024. That is worth knowing if you see a Panama City start on a canal itinerary: the embarkation is out on the causeway, not in the city.
The causeway is the walk
Whichever way you land, you are on the Amador Causeway, the strip of fill that joins the four islands to the mainland. Before taking a taxi straight to Casco Viejo, consider the causeway itself: it is a waterfront promenade with restaurants, and bike and scooter rentals make the length of it easy. Also on the causeway is the Biomuseo, the Frank Gehry building about Panama's biodiversity, with indoor exhibits and outdoor gardens - a good first or last stop on a day built around the old quarter.
Sources: visitcentroamerica.com, cruisemapper.com, cruiseweb.com