Costa Rica and Panama Canal?

Hi All, We’re new to Windstar but have traveled PG, Uniworld (river) Celebrity Xpedition (Galapagos) and many of the large cruise ships. We like ships with outstanding service and nice accommodations.

Does anyone have insights and/or opinions on the Windstar cruise through the canal? We like the idea that it’s 8 days (we have limited time) and stops in Costa Rica and does the full canal but we’re also looking at the Lindblad but it is a fortune.

Thanks!

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Loved it! Great naturist onboard in Costa Rica, excellent options for excursions and narrator going through canal. Have sailed Windstar many times and this one exceeded our expectations.

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We did the Panama Canal and Costa Rica a few years ago and it was wonderful! Going through the canal on the small ship was magical. There was plenty of room to go all over the ship to watch at the front as we entered a lock, to the back as the lock filled and then back again to the front. The stops in Costa Rica are slightly different today than our cruise but they were wonderful and we enjoyed the cruise so much. We flew in early to Panama City and stayed in the old town for a few days before taking a car service over to Colon to board. Our cruise was over the holidays and fulfilled a bucket list for both my husband and me.

This one was especially wonderful. I immediately thought “the people you’d like to see in the buff are never those who are”.

 

We had a not so great experience as we were in the period when the canal part was completely at night. Official story is that WS did it to avoid the heat, unofficial word was that it was cheaper. In any case there were tons of complaints and I believed they’re back to passing through in the daytime.

Dave Barry wrote a really funny story about his experience at a nudist resort here in sunny Florida and said, to paraphrase, how come the people you see at nudist resorts are the people you would never want to see naked?

I remember your experience with the night passage. They should give you a major discount on a re-do. Hopefully my attempt to add photo of Coral Princess coming through lock right after the Breeze.

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Loved it! Great naturist onboard in Costa Rica, excellent options for excursions and narrator going through canal. Have sailed Windstar many times and this one exceeded our expectations.

 

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Thank you!

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We did the Panama Canal and Costa Rica a few years ago and it was wonderful! Going through the canal on the small ship was magical. There was plenty of room to go all over the ship to watch at the front as we entered a lock, to the back as the lock filled and then back again to the front. The stops in Costa Rica are slightly different today than our cruise but they were wonderful and we enjoyed the cruise so much. We flew in early to Panama City and stayed in the old town for a few days before taking a car service over to Colon to board. Our cruise was over the holidays and fulfilled a bucket list for both my husband and me.

Thank you! I know it isn’t the same magnitude but we loved going through the locks on the Rhine on our river cruise. This is a bucket list item for us as well

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This one was especially wonderful. I immediately thought “the people you’d like to see in the buff are never those who are”.

 

 

 

We had a not so great experience as we were in the period when the canal part was completely at night. Official story is that WS did it to avoid the heat, unofficial word was that it was cheaper. In any case there were tons of complaints and I believed they’re back to passing through in the daytime.

Yes, they are back to the daylight. That was also a down side to Lindblad as it is a night passage.

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Loved it! Great naturist onboard in Costa Rica, excellent options for excursions and narrator going through canal. Have sailed Windstar many times and this one exceeded our expectations.

 

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Thanks! A “worry” for us was lack of a good naturalist and good narration, as we’re pretty sure that’s an area that Lindblad excels in. This is very helpful info!

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They have contracts with several different people. The young woman who was onboard with us was Karla Taylor Martinez. She is native Costa Rican with degree in biology. Lovely and well spoken. Each day she did a full lecture in the lounge as well as walk the decks to point out all types of bird and sea life. Also went on some of the tours. Our ship's tour director, Steve Miller, said that all of the naturalists they had on board for the entire season were really good. I can't remember the name of the canal narrator but he did a great job. We lucked out with a relatively cool day and a transit that started around 6:30 a.m. and into the Caribbean around 3:00 p.m. There is ample room on the ship for watching from all sides. Costa Rica excursions really good but seriously hot in March. Would skip the chocolate farm though. Am chocoholic so had to go but so hot that all we could concentrate on was finding a cool spot.

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We are trying to make a decision now since the Star Breeze itineraries came out. Help me Star Breeze 7 days $2699 or Windstar 10 days $3899. Also, what did people do in Peurto Caldera after the cruise? Love any and all ideas.

We took the Wind Star through the canal years ago when WS did it as a repositioning to get to Costra Rica. Fabulous transit. We too had a great narrater. We had to stop at the Bridge of Americas and dock because the tides had to be dead low. Going under the bridge the optical illusion was unbelievable it truly looked like the masts were going to hit the bridge. Great passage. Very hot. When we docked in Costa Rica we took a driver to Villa Caletas not too far away near Jcao Beach, which is an amazing small hotel on the side of a huge hill 1km up a road, sits over looking the Pacific, glorious, has a Greek amphatheatre with music. Now with a highway from that area it is very quick getting to the airport. Happy Sailing.

We enjoyed the chocolate farm and learning about the different fruits and flowers they grew there in addition to the chocolate. We were there in January and it was warm but not hot.

I would choose the Wind Surf for her sails.

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We enjoyed the chocolate farm and learning about the different fruits and flowers they grew there in addition to the chocolate. We were there in January and it was warm but not hot.

 

I would choose the Wind Surf for her sails.

 

 

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January would definitely be much cooler. We thought the farm was interesting but it was incredibly hot. Would do Wind Star if either time or money is not a deterrent. We did a French balcony on the Star Breeze and loved it but also love the sailing ships. Took your advice and did the monkey excursion/boat ride on Gatun Lake and loved it. It was cooler on the water and gave us more canal information and exposure.

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We are leaning towards the 10 day Wind Star. The extra stops sound worth doing it.

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They have contracts with several different people. The young woman who was onboard with us was Karla Taylor Martinez. She is native Costa Rican with degree in biology. Lovely and well spoken. Each day she did a full lecture in the lounge as well as walk the decks to point out all types of bird and sea life. Also went on some of the tours. Our ship's tour director, Steve Miller, said that all of the naturalists they had on board for the entire season were really good. I can't remember the name of the canal narrator but he did a great job. We lucked out with a relatively cool day and a transit that started around 6:30 a.m. and into the Caribbean around 3:00 p.m. There is ample room on the ship for watching from all sides. Costa Rica excursions really good but seriously hot in March. Would skip the chocolate farm though. Am chocoholic so had to go but so hot that all we could concentrate on was finding a cool spot.

 

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Thanks! We’re thinking about a Dec trip so hopefully heat won’t be a huge factor

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They have contracts with several different people. The young woman who was onboard with us was Karla Taylor Martinez. She is native Costa Rican with degree in biology. Lovely and well spoken. Each day she did a full lecture in the lounge as well as walk the decks to point out all types of bird and sea life. Also went on some of the tours. Our ship's tour director, Steve Miller, said that all of the naturalists they had on board for the entire season were really good. I can't remember the name of the canal narrator but he did a great job. We lucked out with a relatively cool day and a transit that started around 6:30 a.m. and into the Caribbean around 3:00 p.m. There is ample room on the ship for watching from all sides. Costa Rica excursions really good but seriously hot in March. Would skip the chocolate farm though. Am chocoholic so had to go but so hot that all we could concentrate on was finding a cool spot.

 

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Opinions on the Chocolate farm seem to be mixed. We did not have an overwhelming time. This was April a couple years ago and was indeed VERY hot. There was little shade and those of us who burn sort of clumped until small random bits of shade.

Other tours I don't remember - so they must have been OK but not thrilling. We missed one since the waves were so high they couldn't get either the tenders or the zodiaks off.

The beach BBQ was great, although if the promised hike with the Naturalist happened we saw no sign of it.

We also really didn't like the trip on the canal to see the Monkeys, but other reports were OK. I felt very much like a tourist (which we were, LOL) that were on a boat pulling up to a couple spots where the monkeys were trained to wait to get their bananas. Getting out on the water on the canal was good though.

We did hit a little bit of overlapping tours. We'd booked the walking tour around the Old City the day we were docked in Panama City, which was actually a good tour. Then, on our WS transfer/tour from Colon to the Panama City Airport we again pulled up in the Old City for a four hour walk. and it was HOT HOT HOT, several couples just stayed on the bus for that.

I was the one on the night canal transit, and the afternoon before was very odd. We were rushed to the dock to get back to the ship that was moored just outside the canal - when I say rushed, I mean rushed. Our tour was - OK, we need to go now - hurry, hurry hurry. Then, the ship sat for hours and hours and hours before we started to enter the canal. It was never clear whether there was some delay or if it was planned, but it wasn't the greatest WS experience of all time.