Panama Canal Cruise: planning tips for gay cruise passengers
A gay friend just asked me for suggestions on upcoming Panama Canal cruises. If you’ve followed this blog, you should
You can actually touch the side of the Panama Canal from your cruise ship, as my partner Kevin is doing.
know that both my partner and I consider our 2005/06 canal cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas our best-ever vacation, for many reasons.
Perhaps the biggest reason was the many gay men we met on board — about 40 of them, mostly couples — some of whom we had “pre-met” through Internet searches… long before MeetMeOnBoard.com was born. Many of us dined together each night in 4s and 6s, but still at larger tables with straight passengers… it was a BLAST. (We’re still friends with many of them, and still travel to see each other).
The gays also took shore excursions together, including one that I had pre-arranged privately — a really remarkable zipline experience in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Check it out in the list below.
Anyway… I could go on and on about what a great cruise it was. But I suggest you go book your own! Here are a handful of tips for that trip:
Ziplining in Costa Rica is a great
- Do a full-transit sailing, not a partial.
- Go east to west (start in Florida, end in California) so you’re always adding hours to the clock.
- Stay on the ship through the entire canal–that’s what you’ve paid to experience. Guests who get off at/in the canal to do shore excursions miss the complete wow of having sailed between the two oceans.
- If your ship stops in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, arrange privately for a full-day zipline & waterfall tour with http://www.finca-daniel.de/
- If you stop in Acapulco, you MUST see the cliff divers show.
Bon voyage! Randall
