Tom Pepper

Thank you both for your suggestions. I followed up the idea of using an hotel and emailed the concierge at the Intercontinental who has agreed that,

because we will have been staying pre-cruise at their New York hotel, we can leave our luggage there temporarily for a small charge. So our problem is solved thanks.

Thanks for your suggestions. I think I saw somewhere - probably TA - that you needed a train ticket to be allowed to leave luggage at the station However your hotel suggestion sounds worth pursuing. Before our cruise we are staying 4 nights at the Intercontinental in New York and I see there is one in Montreal so maybe they might be amenable to looking after our luggage with the help of an upfront tip. We could possibly get the NY Interconti bell staff to contact their Montreal counterparts to ask on our behalf.

I know this topic has been raised before but I can't find any recent info so I'll pose my question here if that's OK.

We are four friends arriving Montreal port on Crystal Symphony at 8am on 20 Sept and departing same day from airport (YUL) at 22.35. So we will each have a large suitcase which we would like to leave securely somewhere near the port while we sightsee. We would then want to collect our luggage and take a taxi or van to the airport.

Crystal cannot help as they do not have a storage facility at the port. I know they offer transfers to the airport but you end up spending hours stuck at an airport hotel so we'd like to avoid that.

I tried the port authority website and email but got nowhere so I would welcome any suggestions on this please.

TIA

Tom

We are going to be in port from 8am to 5pm and would also like to do a private tour to Kohunlich or possibly Cacchoben. Jaital are offering tours to both and are cheaper than Crystal.

Does anyone have any experience with Jaital and would we still run the risk of getting held up in traffic and missing our sailing?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Thanks for this - I can see deciding how long to spend in Tortuguero is not going to be easy!

Regards

Tom

We would very much welcome help in planning our itinerary please. We are two couples from UK due to spend 8 nights in CR before embarking on Crystal Serenity at Caldera on 30 November. The cruise then transits the Panama Canal before making a one day stop at Puerto Limon.

The itinerary proposed by our travel company has us first nighting near San Jose before going up to Tortuguero partly by boat for two nights. We would then fly (!) back to SJ before heading to Arenal for two nights then Monteverde for one. Finally we would spend two nights at Tambor before heading to Caldera on day nine to embark.

Our first dilemma is to decide whether it is worthwhile spending two nights in Tortuguero at a time of year when apparently the turtles will not nesting/egg laying or simply do a day trip from the ship at Limon. If the latter is likely to be a better choice we'd welcome any suggestions on what sort of trip to do from Limon - we would at least like to spend time on a boat along the canals there observing the wildlife.

If we don't stay in Tortuguero we'll have two more nights to plan into our trip and again any suggestions would be much appreciated. We are however quite OK with the prospect of spending the last two nights in Tambor possibly at the Tango Mar hotel.

Sorry if this is a bit long but this our first (and possibly only) trip to CR and so we want to make the most of it. Thanks in anticipation of your responses.

Tom

PS Any tips please about where to search for the weather we can expect especially rainfall!

Thanks for all your prompt responses.

We've still to make a final decision but we are reassured that we don't have to be bridge "nuts" to enjoy the cruise - no. 3508 as I managed to put wrong number in my original post!

Our last cruise was a first on Crystal Symphony and we were delighted with most things especially the service, food and our fellow passengers. We fancy a cruise through the Panama Canal on the Silver Shadow next April and have read more negative comments than I would have expected. We want to go ahead and would be more confident if any of you have any more recent positive experiences to report.

Also the cruise (3058) has a bridge theme and we hope we wouldn't feel out of place as non card players!

I hope as a forum novice I've posted this in the right place but apologies if not.

Best wishes

Tom

We are visiting these two islands on Crystal Symphony next Jan and would like to book privately in advance a 1/2 or 3/4 day snorkelling excursion.

I read Moorea is better for this but have tried Hiro's Tours(website no longer available) and Albert Transport (submitted online booking request and had reply from lady named Clarita saying they don't take advance reservations!)

So I'd appreciate any suggestions others may have please as I doubt it's possible just to go ashore on the day and get on one as ship has over 900 passengers.

Thanks

Tom