Nov 2025 – Panama Canal Cruise
- Trevor
- Jan 1
- 23 min read
Cruising – people seem to either love it or hate it. We are in the “love it” camp, enjoying the pampering on board and the ability to see a string of new sights without worrying about the logistics and planning. In early summer 2025, Sandy decided that we needed such a break – a trip where I didn’t need to figure out the when and where, and both of us could just relax for a bit.
Background and Booking - We debated a few cruise itineraries before settling on sailing through the Panama Canal. My grandmother emigrated to the United States when she was 2 years old, passing through the Panama Canal on her way from Europe to California. She always claimed to remember that trip, and she took two canal cruises with my grandfather during their retirement. We looked at a few options for our cruise, settling on a west-to-east transit from San Diego, California to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in November. We would set sail about two weeks after our Portugal trip, giving us a little time to relocate from Denver and see some family in the U.S.
We chose Holland America, a more formal cruise line, with an older demographic, and less of a party atmosphere compared to, say, Carnival. (Nothing against Carnival, we have also sailed with them, nice, just different). I used some cruise-deal web sites to benchmark cruise costs, and we ended up booking through Costco travel, where we paid the same price as the Holland America web site, but received a rebate from Costco (we have a $375 gift card waiting for us when we get home).
We booked a balcony room for our 3,000-mile, 17-night cruise. This is our third cruise, and I have suggested we try a cheaper inside cabin to see if we would like a room without windows, but Sandy really enjoys sitting on our balcony, scouring the ocean for marine life. She spent hours-and-hours on our balcony on sea days, as well as many shorter stints on other days, spotting all sorts of fish, dolphins, and turtles. Yes, we could probably find some good spots to sit and watch around the ship, but it’s not nearly as convenient as having a balcony. Following conversations with other passengers, Sandy saw much more than they did and since she enjoys watching the ocean so much, I have agreed that from now on, if we’re cruising, it’s in a balcony room.
Embarkation - We sailed from San Diego, but it felt like our trip started in Arizona. That’s where we left our car, at my parents’ house, and packed our final travel bags – one suitcase and one carry-on each. My parents will drive our car from time-to-time, and they also have a few boxes and bags of supplies and clothes that we’re not taking internationally. They dropped us at the Phoenix airport, where we enjoyed another credit-card-perk Chase Sapphire Lounge visit for a free meal and drinks before our flight to San Diego. We went to San Diego a few days before our cruise, mainly for less stress about connecting to the ship. We enjoyed a few touristy days, visiting Sea World, Old Town, and the waterfront, which you can see pictures of on my Facebook page.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn near the waterfront. On embarkation day, it was an easy check-out and walk over to the cruise terminal. We got there around noon and joined a long queue. After 20 minutes, we reached a bag-drop point for our suitcases. We both kept our smaller bags because we carry laptops, and we felt more comfortable keeping them with us. After another hour in the queue, we passed through ship security, and also had a digital photo taken to be used for quick identification as we got off/on the ship in each port. The process was overall slow, but we kept moving throughout. We got on the ship around 2pm, put our carry-ons in our room, and explored the boat.
We were on the Holland America Koningsdam, one of the largest ships in their fleet. It has 13 decks, and capacity for about 2,000 guests. Our room was on the 6th deck, on the “port” (left) side, towards the front of the ship. We purposely chose the port side to see land as we approached and departed ports, and also to have more afternoon shade as we sailed. Some people say the front of the ship feels more motion, but we only had one high-motion day, right after we exited the Panama Canal. The rest of the trip was smooth, and we liked our location.
Stateroom and Ship Infrastructure - This section is more for non-cruisers, with some info about our room and the layout/infrastructure of the ship. Our room was cozy, with a desk, couch, king-sized bed, TV, closet, and bathroom with shower. It was easy to unpack our suitcases into the closet, then store our bags under the bed. The balcony really added to our usable space, and it was nice to be able to get outside whenever we wanted. The TV selection was limited, with three news channels, a few lifestyle channels (cooking, home improvement), and 3-4 football games each week. Notably, the ship did NOT broadcast the final game of the World Series during our departure! The TV also had a decent mix of on-demand movies and shows that we watched a few of the nights that we stayed in. We had two cabin stewards throughout our journey, who tidied our room daily, and left towel origami and chocolates a few times.
The ship seemed huge at first, but less-so once you figure out where everything is:
Deck 2 – bars, stages, showroom, specialty restaurants and main dining room
Deck 3 – walking path (outside), shopping, and casino
Deck 9 – indoor fitness center, spa, swimming pool, buffet
Deck 11 – smaller walking path and sports area (all outside)
Deck 12 – “crow’s nest” area, basically an indoor spot to see where the ship is headed
Deck 14 – small “sky deck” outdoor area, with panoramic views around the ship
Everything below is infrastructure and crew quarters, and everything in between is passenger rooms. There’s a lot packed in, but there were three banks of elevators, and it’s only about 300-yards walking from front-to-back. Nothing is far and there are maps to help find what you’re looking for.
The ship is really a floating city. We attended an onboard presentation that went into the infrastructure of the ship – the engines, food storage and prep, seawater desalination, and sewage treatment. The ship is really a giant power plant, as the propellers were actually electric-drive. All tap water on board is potable, and likely cleaner than the city water you’re used to. We generally refilled water bottles right from our bathroom sink, though Sandy preferred the dispensers at the buffet so she could add ice.
Activities are scheduled every day, whether the ship is at sea or in port. These might include meet-ups for yoga, trivia contests, board games or Mahjongg, or presentations about upcoming ports, marine animals, future cruise routes, or other topics. In the evenings, there would be large stage productions, comedians, magicians, and live music. There might be other one-offs, like an ice cream social or a movie on the big-screen. There’s never “nothing to do” onboard.
There is no laundromat, but you can send individual items to the laundry at a-la-carte prices, or send a bag, with as much as you can fit inside, for $35. The bag held around a week’s worth of clothes for the two of us, so a bit expensive to think we spent $35 per week on laundry.
One benefit to traveling by cruise ship is that time zone changes are spread across the journey. We transited from Pacific Daylight Time to Eastern Standard Time. Because of the end of Daylight Savings Time occurred while we were traveling, it was actually a net +4 hours. On the ship, we only changed 1 hour every 3-4 days, which was very easy to adjust to.
Wifi / Staying Connected - Cruise ships have a cellular service, but roaming charges are pretty high - T-Mobile says $6/minute for calls, $0.50 per text message, and no data available. We turned off our T-Mobile sim cards while on the ship to avoid any accidental charges. Since our plans have international coverage, we did turn our sims back on when in port, so we could text with family back home. (Hint to any family members reading – install WhatsApp or Signal, and we could text all the time, because those apps use cellular data to connect….)
Our cruise ship had wifi, but useless if you don’t pay for an add-on package. The free connection only allows use of the Holland America app, which is good for accessing the daily program of activities and checking upcoming ports/excursions. There’s a messaging function in the app, but we didn’t think it worked well. It only works onboard, to others with the app, so it doesn’t allow messages back to people at home. Upgrading to a ship wifi package is pretty expensive – around $30-$50 per day, depending on what speed you want.
We didn’t get a wifi package, but instead trialed an eSim from gigsky which used the ship’s cellular service. The eSim provided 5GB of cellular data on our phones, and worked on the ship and in each port that we visited. We both got 30-day packages $75 (normal price is $99, but we found a discount). Gigsky worked well for us, letting us check email, do our daily Duolingo lesson, play a bit on social media, and generally stay in touch – we used Signal to text or call each other on the ship. Over the course of our journey, Sandy did fine with the 5GB data package, but I needed another 1GB towards the end of our cruise.
The Panama Canal - Let’s get to the point! The Panama Canal was the main reason we booked this cruise, and it was our highlight for sure! We sailed from west to east, so our 50-mile progression was: Pacific Ocean, coastline, pass Panama City, pass under the Bridge of the Americas, rise up 85 feet using the Cocolí Locks, pass under the Centennial Bridge, sail through the narrow manmade Culebra Cut, sail across the large manmade Gatún Lake, drop back down 85 feet using the Agua Clara Locks, pass under the Atlantic Bridge, sail across Limon Bay, enter the Atlantic Ocean / Caribbean Sea.
One notable point is that our cruise ship was too large to use the original canal locks, so we instead used the newer lock system. Pros – very modern and quick, with fewer locks required, large control towers monitoring the activities, and tugboats escorting us through. Cons – we didn’t get the old canal experience, which is the transit my grandmother made, where ships are escorted by rail cars. We have put “old Panama Canal transit” on our bucket list.
We arrived at Panama’s western coast early on the morning of Day 12 of our journey. We got up at 5am, and were upstairs on Deck 14 to watch the sunrise, where our boat had stopped for migratory clearance and to pick up a pilot. Legally, everyone on the ship entered and exited Panama on the journey, so there was a bit of paperwork to do first. We actually had a medical emergency mid-canal, so one passenger and family were taken off the ship, and truly did enter Panama and were met by an ambulance.
Our ship’s personnel didn’t operate the ship through the canal, but instead gave control to a Panamanian pilot for the day. We approached land around 6am, had reasonable city views passing Panama City, then passed under the Bridge of the Americas, which supports “Highway 1” – the Pan-American Highway that runs nearly uninterrupted from the western coast of the United States to Argentina. Around 7am, we reached the Cocolí Locks, a set of three steps that raise the ship a total of 85 feet higher than the Pacific Ocean.
As we entered the first Cocolí Lock, we scurried around the top of the ship, watching the activities unfold below and ahead. We could see another ship ahead of us, rising up, then sailing forward. In our lock, we could see the ship raise up, and the lock doors slide open to let us move forward. Sandy spent the trip on the forward deck, but I hustled to the rear of the ship to watch the activities there. From the back, it was easier to see the tugboat escorting our ship, and also to see the locks close and the ship rise up. It took almost two hours to pass the three Cocolí Locks, but was very interesting and entertaining, and didn’t feel like that much time at all.
Clearing the locks, we sailed under the Centennial Bridge and into the Culebra Cut. This narrow passage was excavated to form the canal, leaving stepped hillsides reminiscent of the open-pit mines that we used to work in. When on the ship, the cut feels very narrow, but it’s wide enough for large ships to pass each other safely. There are huge markers on the shore that the pilots use to align their route, so they never have to worry if they’re too far into the center of the cut. It took us a couple of hours to navigate the Culebra Cut, then two more to cross Gatún Lake. This portion was fairly scenic, with various points of interest, such as the permanent dredging operations that keep the canal clean, and the large Gatún Dam that creates the lake. We passed some of this time eating lunch and wandering around the ship to find different viewpoints.
Our itinerary estimated we would arrive at the eastern Agua Clara Locks between 3-4pm. It must have been a light day on the canal, because we arrived closer to 1pm. The three Agua Clara Locks functioned very similarly to the Cocolí Locks. Sandy spent the passage on Deck 14 at the front of the ship again, whereas I ran from front to back and front again. Both of us took lots of photos, and I also made some time-lapse videos with my phone.
After the locks, we paused to drop off our pilot, then headed under the Atlantic Bridge, and east across Limón Bay. As we exited the bay into the Caribbean Sea, around 5pm, the waves and ocean became noticeably rougher. That night and the following day had the most motion of our trip, but it was never enough to cause motion sickness or any other issues. We had a very long, interesting, and entertaining day, and we both immediately agreed that we would enjoy sailing through Panama Canal a second time.
Other Ports and Excursions – The canal was the highlight, but we had many other stops along the way. First, some general excursion comments, followed by some detail for each port:
We booked most of our excursions through Holland America. Some people book on 3rd-party sites to save a few dollars. The biggest advantage to booking through the cruise line is that the ship is guaranteed to wait for you if your excursion returns late. Using a 3rd-party, the ship won’t wait, and you’ll have to find your own way to the next port to rejoin the cruise!
That said, we booked one 3rd party excursion, through Costco, for snorkeling in Aruba. It was quite a bit cheaper, and no risk that we’d miss our ship because we had a late 10:30pm departure from Aruba. We looked at other Costco excursions but found nothing offered in our smaller ports. We also found some 3rd party excursions that appeared to be cheaper, but would require us to take a taxi to the event location, whereas the direct-booked tours provided a bus. So, making a good side-by-side comparison is critical, rather than booking solely on price for the “same tour”.
We booked all of our excursions in late-August, about 2 months ahead of our trip, and got many, but not all, of our 1st-choice options. It can feel difficult to commit so far ahead, but we will try to book as early as possible on future cruises. For excursions booked through the ship, the tickets showed up in our account immediately, and it was very simple to just show our ship ID cards to check in for each excursion.
The concept of tipping drives me crazy, and adjusting to local differences in behavior and currency isn’t easy. Pre-trip, we researched tipping for each port and found that local currency is preferred, but U.S. dollars are acceptable, especially when tipping port-based guides. We also found that for large group tours, tips are not always a percentage, but often a fixed amount for the service:
Mexico: 100 pesos for guides, 50 pesos for bus drivers
Guatemala: $5-10 for guides, $2-3 for bus drivers
Costa Rica: $5-15 for guides, $2-5 for bus drivers
Aruba: 10-20%, or $5-10 for half-day tours
With no ATMs on the ship, and likely no chance to exchange bills, we pre-planned our tips for all of our excursions, taking pesos that we already had for Mexico, and getting extra $5s and $10s in San Diego for our USD tips.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – We stayed here for a month in 2022, so we’re very familiar with this city. We booked an excursion for the morning – a dolphin encounter at Vallarta Adventures, for $120 each. We were taken by van from the cruise port to their dolphin facility. After an introductory briefing, we got into a pool and had an exciting 30-minute interactive playtime with two dolphins. Afterwards, Sandy and I talked about the excursion and aren’t sure how we felt about it. We enjoyed the unique experience, but the pools for the dolphins seemed very small, and the dolphins seemed to be little more than trained pets. We can’t say if we’d do a similar experience again, but are leaning towards “no”.
After our dolphin encounter, we had a buffet lunch (just ok), and were shown some photos of our day for purchase (we couldn’t use our own cameras, so the only option was to buy their overpriced photos, which we declined because of the $200 cost!). We took a second van back to the port, but still had about 4 hours until our departure. We used Uber to get a ride to the local malecon – one of our favorite spots in Puerto Vallarta. We walked about an hour, looking at new street art and a number of temporary decorations from the recent Day of the Dead celebration. We had a margarita at Day Off, then took an Uber back to the port.
Huatulco, Mexico – We waitlisted for an excursion, then got a spot when the vendor scheduled an afternoon slot for the tour. With a free morning in port, we hustled off the ship and walked 30 minutes to the nearby town, using a nice paved touristic corridor. The town is very small, and appears a bit touristy, though online research suggests they only get 3-6 cruises per month. We explored the local church, central plaza, and a few of the shops before returning to the port. We were still early for our tour, so we sat in a beach club restaurant and snacked on guacamole, while Sandy used their wifi to FaceTime with Skylar and her kids!
At 1pm, our tour began and we headed by bus to the prehistoric Copalita ruins. Archeologists claim that these were the longest-occupied of all Mayan ruins, with essentially 2,000 years of occupation from 400 BC until the Spanish invaded in the 1,500’s. Much of the site is still being excavated, and we were disappointed at the lack of access to the already-uncovered ruins. Throughout the tour, we stayed on a roped path at least 100 feet from the ruins. At a larger temple, scattered trees and bushes blocked parts of our view. It was tough to see, and therefore appreciate, the site. We walked and saw a few more ruins, though nothing notable. Copalita has potential, but we’ve had much better experiences at other Mayan ruins in Mexico.
After visiting Copalita, we were supposed to stop for a chocolate and mezcal tasting, but both were cancelled. With just a tour of the ruins, we probably should have cancelled this $80 excursion, and after taking the tour, we wish we had. If we return to Huatulco on another cruise, we will likely take a taxi to the nearby bay, where it’s easy to snorkel and relax at a number of small beach clubs for the day.
Puerto Chiapas, Mexico – We weren’t expecting much from this tiny port town close to Mexico’s border with Guatemala. There were multiple excursions to the city of Tapachula, about 1 hour away, but none of them looked especially interesting to us. Shuttle buses to the city were available for $30 round-trip, but no unique sights showed up during our research. Admittedly, we’ve been in A LOT of Mexican towns, so they’re not as novel to us, and many of the visitors seemed to enjoy their trip to the traditional Mexican city.
Since this stop was in the middle of three consecutive port days, we decided to simply explore the small port terminal. We watched some traditional Chiapanecan dancers, got a carajillo (iced coffee with 43 liqueur), looked in a handful of small shops, and sat for an hour at a small bar. It was a pretty uneventful day for us, and really not a great port-of-call in our opinion.
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala – We arrived before sunrise, and Sandy and I were up early to grab breakfast and get off the ship at 8:15am. Many passengers booked excursions here, and the crew did a great job coordinating everyone and getting us grouped, off the ship, and onto buses efficiently. I was surprised at how smooth our morning went!
Our excursion started with a 2 ½ hour bus ride, heading 5,000 feet up into the mountain city of Antigua. The bus was comfortable, with good AC, USB charging ports, bottled water, and even wifi! Our guide talked for about half of the ride, giving us a nice overview of Guatemala and our plans for the day.
Our bus dropped the group in Antigua, then we walked to the center of town. We got a short historical tour, then our large group was divided in half for the rest of the day. Our subgroup started at a local jade museum, which I thought would be a gimmicky sales pitch for jewelry. Instead, we saw a nice presentation about the growth of the jade mining industry in Guatemala and were left to explore a small museum. Many tourists did spend a time in the adjacent shop, but Sandy and I spent our time watching jewelry fabricators and looking at a series of exhibits with Mayan jade artifacts and reproductions.
After the museum, we walked to a nearby rum shop, where we had a tasting of three Xacapa rums. The staff gave a nice explanation of the rum manufacturing and aging process, and the differences between our rums. We ended up buying a mid-range bottle to take home. (Note – you can’t bring liquor on the ship, but the staff will hold it and return it at the end of the voyage.)
After the tasting, we had a good Guatemalan buffet lunch, with beef, chicken, black beans, fried bananas, guacamole, and salsa - all very tasty. Following lunch, we boarded the bus for another 2 ½ hour journey back to the port. Our guide didn’t talk as much on this trip, and many of the passengers napped. We arrived to the port around 5:15pm, past the all-aboard time of 4:30pm, and thankful that we booked through the ship so they didn’t leave without us. This fully-packed day set us back $135 each (plus the rum), and we both agreed that it was a good value for everything that we got.
Puntarenas, Costa Rica – Similar to Guatemala, we arrived around sunrise, and began our day surrounded by others eager to get to their excursions. Our trip started with a 1 ½ hour bus ride to a sloth sanctuary about 3,500 feet up into the mountains. The bus was similar to our Guatemalan bus, though our guide was more talkative, with information about the geography, history, wildlife, and even passing around local currency for us to see. Though advertised as a sloth sanctuary, our destination was actually a rescue center for many species of animals, including sloths, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and many types of birds. Multiple tour groups arrived and circulated simultaneously, so it was challenging to follow our guide, hearing her comments, and have time to appreciate each animal. Overall, it was a nice destination, worth supporting, and the animals seemed to be well-cared for. Our goal was to see the sloths, and we saw at least six, plus three juveniles that were born on site.
Next, we took another 1 ½ hour bus ride back towards the coast, then south to a “rainforest adventure” site. We started with a nice Costa Rican buffet lunch, with shredded beef, chicken, rice, beans, vegetables, and a tasty hot salsa. We spotted a large iguana and some coatis nearby, then boarded our 45-minute out-and-back “aerial tram”, carrying us about 20-30 feet above the rainforest floor. We hoped to see a lot of wildlife, but only spotted one small lizard, a vulture, and a very nice yellow toucan. After the tram, we walked through a butterfly pavilion with two different species fluttering around.
A final 1-hour bus ride took us back to the ship. We had our best sunset of our cruise while driving past the coast, before arriving to the port, late again, but with no concerns because this excursion was also purchased through the ship and we knew that they would wait for us. Overall, our review is mixed because we loved the animal sanctuary, the lunch was good, but the aerial tram/rainforest site was lackluster. This was our most expensive excursion, at $170 each, and we would probably say not worth it.
Oranjestad, Aruba – Sandy spent a few days in Oranjestad in 2016 with Skylar and sister Debbie, so she was pretty familiar with the town and the choices we had for excursions. Rather than explore the island, we opted for a snorkel tour, booked through Costco’s travel site. We weren’t leaving this port until 10:30pm, so we had plenty of time to explore.
We arrived around 10am, but our excursion started at noon, so we just took our time and got off the ship around 11:30. Our tour group was loaded onto an old school bus and taken to a small pier north of town. The tour boat provided all equipment, though Sandy and I had our own snorkels and masks, and just needed fins. Our first stop was a shallow area where swam for about 30 minutes, spotting multiple turtles. The water was very clear, and we really enjoyed the up-close adventure there. Next, we moved to deeper water, where a small sunken ship was now a very active reef feature. We swam for another 30 minutes, watching all sorts of colorful fish, and one small turtle, swimming in and out of the old ship. Both snorkel sites were great, and we had very clear water and good lighting throughout. We got a small snack-style lunch and unlimited drinks as we headed back to the pier. The all-inclusive snorkel tour (bus, 3-hr boat tour, snorkel equipment, lunch, and drinks) was only $62 each, which we thought was a great value.
As the bus was taking us back to the port, we asked the driver if he could drop us at Eagle Beach. He was happy to oblige, so we got off the bus early and wandered the beach, sat in the sand, and relaxed until sunset. We then walked to the “Salt and Pepper” restaurant that Sandy had eaten at a couple of times during her prior visit. We had a series of small-plates and some overpriced drinks, totaling $83. After dinner, we got a local taxi back to the port for $20 USD including tip. We boarded the ship around 9:30pm, then watched our late-night departure from our balcony.
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas – Our final stop was this Holland America / Carnival private island in the Bahamas. There is no pier, so ships anchor off the island and we used small tender boats to take us to shore. We spent our day snorkeling, swimming, and relaxing on the beach. Lunch was provided on the island and there are a few island bars scattered about. Other than a couple of drinks, we didn’t spend any money on the island.
Sea Days – In addition to the canal and all the stops, we had 8 full days at sea. People often ask us “what do you do all day on the ship?” We stayed plenty busy! We went to a number of presentations, including a few by child-actor Willie Aames. He gave a very good talk about marine life on the west coasts of California and Mexico, and another talk about the Spanish mission sites in California. We also attended port-specific presentations, with overviews of the ports we would be visiting. We really enjoyed the pre-canal presentation about the history and construction of the Panama Canal, as well as a very interesting talk about the inner-workings of the ship – basically a floating city on the sea.
I attended a few presentations from the onboard cruise department, previewing where they would be sailing in 2026 and 2027 – not that we are looking for a cruise, but just to provide some thoughts and inspiration for places we might like to go. I also attended a couple of talks about phone apps and technology that might help make traveling/cruising simpler. I would not give them all 5-stars, but most were decent. Sandy was less-interested in all of these, but was happy to scan the ocean from our balcony.
One tip for the presentations and shows – arrive early! We began our cruise arriving 15 minutes before a start time. We quickly had to increase this, arriving 30 minutes before the Panama Canal presentation, and 45 minutes before the evening shows! Sandy and I also travel with puzzle books (sudoku or similar), which are great while sitting on the ship, or to fill the 45-minute wait time before a show.
Sandy and I walked for an hour on all of our sea days. We started on the small track on Deck 11, but quickly moved to the longer loop on Deck 3. On a couple of the rougher sea days, I went to the fitness center and walked on the treadmill instead. We didn’t take advantage of any of the published meet-ups for games, cards, or mahjongg, but we did go to a couple of the live trivia competitions. We didn’t do well enough to win, but it was an entertaining way to pass an hour onboard.
Food – Cruise ship food is great, that’s all I really need to say. The buffets are huge, there’s plenty of selection, and the hardest part is not to eat too much. We went to the buffet for breakfast and lunch, but the main dining room for dinner. The dining room options were usually available on the buffet, but we liked the idea of a bit of fine dining. Both the buffet and dining room are included in the cruise rate, so it’s really just personal preference. There are also a few upscale restaurants, available for an extra charge. They seem to be a reasonable value, because you’re really just paying an incremental fee and not full price. Sandy and I didn’t try these though, and just ate in the dining room each night.
We had open seating, with passengers grouped as they arrived. Early in the journey, we sat with 4-6 other passengers and had some nice dinner conversation. On one night, we ended up at our own table, which we enjoyed, as it can be tiring meeting new groups of people night after night. We asked for our own table after that, though we were not always successful. We ended up in different areas of the dining room each night, often in so-so locations, near host-stands or clearing-areas, with extra noise and activity all around us. Eventually, we got a solo table in a nice quiet corner with a super-friendly waiter. We requested that table with the hostess, and she blocked it out for us for the remainder of our trip. Our main learning – we’d rather eat as just the two of us than with a group of strangers.
Many cruisers don’t like the dress code in the main dining room. Well, that code has relaxed since our first cruise in 2004! Many people show up in shorts and t-shirts, but that doesn’t feel right in a dining room with tablecloths and cloth napkins. Sandy dressed up a bit, and I wore a button shirt or polo shirt each night. There are also pre-set “dressy nights” with a request for men to wear a coat or suit. I took a sport coat for our three dressy nights, and we were disappointed that only about 10% of the men dressed up on those nights. Many wore floral-print shirts or collared shirts, and there were still a few t-shirts. Our personal thoughts – play the game and dress accordingly, or head to the buffet instead.
Thus, traveling with dressy clothes has become a debate – with only one suitcase each, do we want to pack nicer sets of clothes? We continue to debate, but we were just invited to a wedding in Peru next fall, so it seems the answer will be “yes”! To be honest, it’s a bit easier for Sandy to pack a couple of nicer dresses and a pair of shoes, the challenge is for me to take a couple of shirts and a sport coat without them turning into wrinkled messes. I plan to scour the internet for a wrinkle-proof set of dress clothes. Time will tell if I’m successful.
Costs – This is a bit tough to talk about – when I think about the full cruise cost, it feels like an overpriced splurge. Rather than detail costs of the cruise, I’m going to concede that Holland America is an upscale line, maybe 50% higher than Carnival or Celebrity and a balcony room is generally 50% higher than an interior cabin. We also learned that cruise ships purchase their 6-figure (yes, >$100,000!) canal transit passes over a year in advance, so the number of canal cruises is limited. Thus, we paid a premium for a highly-popular, but not-highly-available cruise route. All that to say, there were some markups for our cruise, but I’m not going to put the full cost of our splurge in the blog. 😊
Summary – We love cruising! We think it’s a fun way to see a diverse set of destinations, and an easy way to travel – your home just sails along with you. The meals and events are often a bit upscale for us, but it feels like a nice treat that we want to continue giving ourselves every once in a while.
We’ve been considering using cruise ships for relocating during our travels. All cruise lines offer relocation cruises, and many people talk about them as great ways to move longer distances, for example sailing from Florida to Europe. The journey can take 10-14 days, so you can travel in style, adjust time zones slowly, and arrive to your destination with no jet lag. The downside is that these cruises have limited sailings and only happen at specific times of the year. Based on our canal cruise, with multiple time zones and a lot of sea days, we are in agreement, and will look at taking cruise ships instead of flying when it makes sense.
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