Picking a particular cruise company and itinerary was more difficulty than we had anticipated.
The criteria which we set for ourselves were:
- A departure date this year (2012)
- As much onboard flexibility as possible
- A full transit of the the canal
- A daylight transit of the canal.
I was surprised to find that many companies only offered a partial transit or an nighttime transit. As our objective to to see as much as possible of the Canal itself these cruises were eliminated immediately.
After much searching we were able to find only one that offered all of the above. Operated by Norwegian Cruise Lines.It is a 15 day trip that starts in Los Angels and ends in Miami.
Ironically, despite the name, the company is headquartered in Miami most of its ships are registered in the Bahamas and the companies owning the NCL brand are both US and Malaysian registered. What happened to the Vikings I don't know.
The itinerary is shown below:
As you can see this is not a “beach” itinerary but does offer some stops with interesting possibilities in the historical and ecological area. We have done the “beach thing” as we spent in total over 30 years living in or near Virginia Beach,Los Angeles, and Cabo San Lucas. In addition our walkers and wheelchairs get stuck in the sand!
The most awkward part of the itinerary are not on the map. From Home to the ship and from Miami to home!
Our best (and also least expensive) option from home to the ship is to catch an early flight from Ft. Myers to Los Angeles take a shuttle from LAX to San Pedro (LA Harbor) check into a hotel and use their free shuttle to the ship the next day. This option helps to mitigate the vagaries of flight punctuality and travel stress. We should be in the hotel, which is within sight of the cruise terminal, by early afternoon and will not have to leave for the ship until mid day the next day. Plenty of time for some good Mexican or sea food!
Upon return we should be off the ship in Miami by 10AM so a one way rental car should have us home pretty quickly. getting home from Charlotte Regional Airport – the drop off point for the rental car –is always a pain.
