In January 2018, I went on a unique cruise through the Panama Canal. I have taken 14 cruises in total, all with Carnival Cruise Lines, and this one by far takes the spot as my favorite cruise. Please keep reading to find out what made it so incredible. Sneak peek 14 nights, five incredible ports of calls plus the transit through the Panama Canal, amazing people to hang out with on the cruise, and a special bonus before the journey even started!

I believe Carnival announced this cruise about a year and a half before the set sail date, and immediately I knew that I would find a way to be on board! As you probably already guessed, I made that happen. Carnival announced two cruises that would go through the Panama Canal around the same time. One would start in Florida and finish in California. The other would go in the opposite direction. I decided to take the latter for several reasons: longer cruise by one day, easier flying route, and smaller ship that fits through the old locks.

For the cruise, I went with my Dad and a family friend of ours. Dad and I were both living in The Bahamas at the time, so we flew from Andros Town to Nassau, The Bahamas. From there, we flew to Atlanta and finally to Los Angeles. Since we were flying to the other side of the country (about 5 hours on the last flight), we decided to splurge a little and fly in first class.

We had an unexpected surprise before the cruise!

We left a few days before the start of the cruise to hang out in LA for a couple of days. Arriving early for the trip ended up being an excellent experience because we stayed at Hotel Maya in Long Beach, and the crew from the show Ballers was there to do some filming one evening/night. Dad and I stayed up super late that night to watch the crew film and even got to see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson doing a scene. Needless to say, it was a fantastic way to start a trip! It was also the most incredible part of the journey before the cruise began. Read about Day 1 on the next page! Or you can also jump to any other day with the buttons below.