Panama Canal cruise excursions

[wheaton24]

Would love to hear about cruisers' excursions in Half Moon Cay, Aruba, Curacao, Colon and Costa Rica. What was worth it and what wasn't? We're booked on the Zuiderdam's 2/11 cruise.

[MACPC]

I reviewed what we did at these ports on our Dec 23rd in this review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1332624&highlight=

 

You will find lots more info in threads about these ports. Have a great cruise.

[VermeulT]

in Aruba & Curacao we went on our own. (found great info on a beach in Curacao in the board about that port).

We chose to get off the boat in Gatun Lake and took the Eco Cruise. We really enjoyed it - we got to see the workings of the locks from the observation center (where we lucked out and watched the Zu on her way back through the locks), a nice boat ride around the lake where we saw monkeys and other wildlife, and a tour of a banana plantation - not the most exciting thing but interesting enough.

In Costa Rica, we took the Caribbean Train Eco Cruise and Countryside. Somewhat similar to the Panama tour but we enjoyed it.

 

You can't get off in Gatun Lake unless you are on a ship excursion. Don't go farther than the building with local vendors in Colon either - not safe. You can check out the Costa Rica board on what you might want to do on your own.

[janna1]

We were on Zuiderdam from Dec 13-23

Half-moon Cay (12/14/s010, Windy, Cloudy, 62F?): the day that we were there was windy, Wavy and cold (feel like colder than 60F). We signed up with sting-ray excursion ($19 pp). We got on a truck and it brought us to the other side of the island (no very far, walk able distance). They provided water shoe, snorkel gears and even web suit for us. There is a shower, changing room and lockers too. The sting-ray area is small. There are 8 sting-rays there. I think it was interesting but it wasn't as adventure as the sting-ray tour in Cayman island. If the weather is a little bit warmer, I think we can enjoy it more. The island should be beautiful, that it was too windy to explore. We went back to the ship very soon after the sting-ray encounter.

Aruba (12/16/2010, Sunny, 80F): we took the bus ($2.5 pp for a round trip) to Palm Beach (took the pentican pier stop). The weather was nice and warm. However the ocean condition was not perfect. Although everyone told me that it is calm there. There is quite a bit a wave and the sand is mixed with dead coral. I could recommend a water shoe, but it is not necessary. There was a storm hit the beach a couple days before we were there. There was a lot of dead seaweed on the beach which doesn't look nice at all. Hope they clean them before Feb. But if the condition is right, Palm Beach can be very beautiful and it is a nice beach to stay. There are a lot of hotels/timeshares on the beach. There are shops, restaurants and bars. We saw an empty chair close to Holiday Inn and sat down. Later someone came and asked for $10 for the chair.

Most of the shops close to port closed at 6:30pm. We didn’t know that. After dinner on the ship, we thought we can spend one or two hours shopping. But then we found out all the shops are closed. There is a casino, within walking distance to the port.

Curacao (12/17/2010, cloudy, 80F): we crossed the bridge and walked to the town. On the way, there was some bus tour sales tried to get some business. Most of the tours start from 11am. It is 2 ½ hour island tour and will drop you on a beach at the end. Cost is $15 per person. Since it was still early when we docked. We didn't want to wait that long to take on the tour. We walked along the water front and then the floating market then the shopping area. We later caught a taxi near the bridge to the Seaquarium beach. It was $4 per person one way ($5 to go back to the ship). We arranged the driver to pick us up at 2:30pm. We have kids and seniors. I thought they might be interesting in seeing the aquarium. But turns out everybody just wanted to stay on the white sand beach with palm trees. It was beautiful there. There were some fish. You can see them just onshore. But snorkeling was not very exciting according to my son. I didn’t try. There is protected water. Safe for swimming. The water was clear. It is not very big compare to Palm Beach. There are two restaurants that you can order food. No one asked us for any fee to use the beach. That’s the best beach experience on this trip.

Panama/Colon (12/19/2010, cloudy, 73F): we took the Embera India village excursion offered from the ship ($99 per person). It was nice, interesting and unique experience. The bus ride was about 1 and half then we transported to a motorized canoe which took us another 40 minutes to the village. Village people are very friendly. They provided us some food. The fish was very yummy. Fruit was not local. I didn’t try it. I saw them took them out from an ice chest that was brought from the canoe. The children are lovely. They are very happy to make post for you to take photos. The young women are pretty too. You got chance to tour their village, climb up to one of their “house”. At the end, they also had a dance. I found the craft they were selling are expensive. The wood sculptures are more expensive than those in Mexico and I also found the similar coconut sculpture later in Limon port with less. I think some of the crafts may be not made by them. But there is no other shopping opportunity in Colon’s port.

Limon (12/20/2010, cloudy, 80F): we pre-arranged a tour with Oscar Brown tour($85 per person with lunch). We were off the ship at 7:30am and met Oscar Brown tour outside the gate area. One of their drivers holds a sign so it is easy to find them. We have a group of 7 people. There was no other group join us. So we kind of got a private tour. One of Oscar’s sisters Toni was our tour guide. She is very nice. First we drove through the town. It was early in the morning. The town is quite and no one on the street. On the way, Toni told us about the building, shops and schools. The town looks poor. Buildings are old and the streets are dirty (garbage everywhere, something I really hate to see). Soon we drove north and outside the city. We stopped a local’s home and he showed us a sloth. We even got a chance to hold it. It is very cute, like a smiling baby. Then we stopped by a local fruit stand where we tasted some baby banana, coconut and coco. Price is not cheap, similar price you can get in US. Then we planned to go to Cedar Ranch for a wagon ride. For some reason, the ride was unavailable then we went to the banana plantation and Tortuguero Canal for the boat ride. The boat ride is about 50 minutes. We saw a couple moneys and a sloth. Then we went back to Cedar Ranch and took the Wagon ride. The wagon ride is the highlight of the tour. We saw a lot of tree frogs. They have very bright colors. We saw a couple sloths and some people playing zip line. We have a chance to walk a little bit in the forest. We wish the walk is a little bit longer. After the wagon ride, we went to beach for lunch. We should not have the lunch option. That way we can order the food we like instead of what they arrange for us. The beach is just so so. Not impressive at all after going to the beaches in Aruba and Curacao. Then we went back to the ship 15 minutes before they close the gangway. The tour included a lot of sightseeing. Next time I would pick the Rainforest Aerial Tram instead.

 

Fort Lauderdale (12/23/2010, sunny, ??): We didn’t rent a car. Maybe because of Christmas time, the rental rate is crazy, $189 and above for a min van for one day. We found that unacceptable. We took the airboat excursion to the sawgrass recreation park ($49 pp, $39 kid). It was a half hour airboat ride. We saw some alligators. Besides the airboat ride, there is also a small exhibition in the Sawgrass recreation park where you got a chance to hold a snake, alligator and some reptile. There was also an alligator show. We went on an airboat ride in Gater land two years ago. We like Gater land’s ride better. More animas to see and the ride was longer with different speed and made turn. It made it more interesting than one we have this time. The whole excursion was short, only about 2 hours. Then they send us back to the airport. We took taxi to Renaissance Hotel where we stayed for another two more days before we headed home.

[kazu]

Definitely you can do Curacao on your own if you like.

 

Last year we did the Embera Indian Village with the cruise line and it was really quite neat.

 

We booked a private tour for Costa Rica with Danilo Hall. He was excellent. It worked out much cheaper than the ship, but what really hit home was as we watched a tour bus. The people were trying to see a monkey from the bus. Meanwhile we had already gotten out and could easily see it and several others. Privates just offer more time and more specialized service as there are only a few of you.

 

All of our people were very pleased with him (there were 6 of us in total).

[iriemon]

I would echo most of what the other people have said, the one thing that we also did and loved is on HMC we did the horse back riding. The land portion was OK, but the ride in the water was great. Would highly suggest that.

[ncmomof2]

We did this itinerary back in March 2009. We did the Stingrays at HMC, the beach in Aruba on our own, walked around Curacao on our own, Embera Indians in Panama, a private tour with JJ in Costa Rica, and the Everglades airboat with airport transfer in Ft Lauderdale.

 

You can read details about all of them here.