Adam Leposa of Travel Agent Central previews the schedule for 2019-2020.
Princess Cruises has released its itineraries in South America and the Panama Canal for the fall 2019 through spring 2020 cruise season. In South America, travel agents can expect 14 departures, including itineraries in Antarctica and a 58-day circumnavigation of South America with highlights including Easter Island, Rio’s Carnival, Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, Patagonia and more. In the Panama Canal, the cruise line will be offering its largest deployment ever with the inaugural season of the Emerald Princess sailing through the canal’s new locks.
South America Cruises
Princess will deploy the Coral Princess and Island Princess to South America for the 2019 – 2020 season.
During the season the cruise line will offer three departures on Coral Princess to the Antarctic Peninsula departing December 20, 2019, and January 5 and 21, 2020. The itineraries will sail between Buenos Aires and Santiago.
Fourteen other departures, representing nine itineraries ranging in length from 14 to 58 days, will visit 31 destinations in 18 countries, including overnight stays in Lima, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Departures will be available from December 2019 through March 2020 out of Fort Lauderdale, Santiago or Buenos Aires.
All told, the South America season will offer travelers the chance to visit seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Pre- or post-cruise land tours will also visit Iguazu National Park in both Brazil and Argentina, as well as Machu Picchu, Peru.
Panama Canal Cruises
The inaugural season of the Emerald Princess will headline Princess Cruises’ largest-ever deployment to the Panama Canal during the 2019 – 2020 season. The Emerald Princess will be the cruise line’s second Neo-Panamax ship, after Caribbean Princess, to be modified during a scheduled spring 2019 drydock. The ship will then traverse the new Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side of the canal, as well as the new Cocoli locks on the Pacific side, that opened in June 2016 as part of the 10-year, $5.4 billion “Neo-Panamax” expansion, Princess said.
Departures will be available roundtrip from either Fort Lauderdale or Los Angeles, or as a full transit that sails between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles or San Francisco and Vancouver, British Columbia. In total five ships — the Caribbean Princess, the Coral Princess, the Emerald Princess, the Island Princess and the Pacific Princess — will sail itineraries ranging from 10 to 21 days with stops at ports in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.
Each Panama Canal transit will include live narration from the bridge describing the canal’s history, as well as a day of scenic cruising through Gatun Lake. Guests will have the chance to visit 24 destinations in 12 countries, including eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, such as Cartagena’s walled Old City. Shore excursion offerings will include the Animal Planet Exclusive tour of Costa Rica’s Sloth Sanctuary, where guests may have the chance to meet the sloths featured on Animal Planet.