The upcoming Princess Cruises fall 2019-spring 2020 season offers the cruise line's biggest deployment ever to Panama Canal, featuring Emerald Princess' maiden season sailing through the new locks.
Back in 1967, Princess was the first cruise company to sail through the locks of the canal, and now it carries more passengers across it than any other company.
Emerald Princess is the cruise line's 2nd Neo-Panamax vessel, after Caribbean Princess, to be refurbished during a scheduled drydock in spring 2019. The cruiser will traverse the brand new Agua Clara locks on the canal's Atlantic side as well as the Pacific Side's Cocoli Locks, which opened in June 2016, as part of a 10-year, US$5.4 billion "Neo-Panamax" expansion.
Princess Cruises 2019-2020 line-up features 5 ships, with 10- to 21-day itineraries, also visiting culturally rich ports in Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America.
Each Princess transit of the Panama Canal features live narration from the bridge with a glimpse into the history and a day of scenic sailing through Gatun Lake. Beyond Panama Canal, passengers will enjoy the diversity of cultures in Central and South America, the wildlife and rainforests of Panama and Costa Rica, along with some of the top-rated Caribbean beaches.
Program highlights for Panama Canal 2019-2020 season include:
- 5 ships offering 6 itineraries and a total of 36 departures onboard Coral Princess, Caribbean Princess, Emerald Princess, Pacific Princess and Island Princess.
- 6 unique itineraries from 4 departure ports – Fort Lauderdale, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
- Calls at 24 destinations in 12 different countries, including 8x UNESCO sites, like Cartagena's walled Old City.
- 21 transits through the old locks on Island, Pacific and Coral Princess and 15 through the new locks on Emerald and Caribbean Princess.
- Shore excursion offerings including Animal Planet Exclusive tour of Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica, where passengers may meet sloth superstars featured on Animal Planet.