Brilliance - 2 December 05

[Sydney Oz]

Anyone done this Panama, Western Caribbean trip before that could recommend tours either private or through RCL?:confused:

[lul113]

I am going to talk to a friend, we are on Brilliance in Jan, and one of our cruisers has done the Panama before. She swears by someone who does tours and ziplining over the forest called Oscar.

 

I will tell her you are asking, and see if she will post the info.

 

Her name is Driftwoodgal, but call her the Empress.

 

Matthew (soon to be beaten up by the Empress)

[Driftwoodgal]

Sydney,

 

I found the most amazing tour guide in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, his name is Oscar Brown. You can go to the ports of call here on the message board and read about his tours there.

 

It is best to just call him on the phone and talk to him directly. You can buy a phone card at Sams, Target, Walmart etc and it will cost you less than calling from you home phone. His number is 011 506 350 6415.

 

A pointer....make sure that you discuss the time that your ship will be docking. It seems that some cruise lines change their clocks and some don't. We were late getting to Puerto Limon as one of the tours in Belize was late getting back, that put us late going into the Panama Canal, and then late into Puerto Limon. Oscar waited for 1 1/2 hours on us. He knew we were coming as I had talked to him on the phone.

 

Our tour day was as follows. We left the pier and drove to Almonds and Corals, to zipline, this takes you a while as the roads aren't the best. Oscar stopped along the road for us to take pictures of the monkeys in the tree and a huge bee hive. After ziplining we toured a bananna plantation, Oscar explained the entire process from start to finish. Then we went to a friend of Oscars and I got to hold a monkey and pet a sloth. We toured in some of the neighborhoods, stopped at Oscars sister house and saw her lovely home, and toured downtown Puerto Limon. The end of the tour we went to a restaurant where there was the most incredible view of the harbor, we did not have time to eat there, since we were late arriving. We ended our day by shopping with the vendors close to the pier. They have great coffee, Oscar can take you to a grocery store and get it cheaper. He will tailor you day around what you want to do. Now the thing is that your fee that he charges covers everthing on the tour, except what you would order at the restaurant.

 

I already have him booked for our day in January 2006.

 

Please post any questions that you want, and I will try to answer them.

[jules71]

Driftwood Gal -- do you know how many people Oscar can take?

 

Sydney OZ -- my dh and I are on this cruise -- have you signed up for the Meet n Mingle?

[Driftwoodgal]

jules71,

 

I am not sure how many people that Oscar can take now. When we used him he was subleasing a van from someone, I think. I think that he now has his own van and maybe more than one. He really does a wonderful job, and has had to add personel to help him show off his country. There have been some negative posts about him..... but looking back I can understand how some people confused the time etc. That is why it is important to establish correct time of meeting him at the pier. He has gone back to pick up people, only to have them find someone at the pier, and he wasted his time and the others on the tour because someone didn't have the correct time to meet him. They were over an hour late getting off of the ship, when they were already docked.

 

You also need to compare apples to apples, his tours include all charges except for the restaurant that he possibly will take you to. We gave a tip to the man that had Rosita ( monkey).... and the pet sloth..... If you use him you will have a magical day. I only book independent tours, and I can still say that his tour is still the best. When we toured with him there was 10 in our party.

[Sydney Oz]

Just new to this site and am still trying to educate myself. Haven't found were to sign up yet but thanks for your input.

 

Sydney Oz

[Driftwoodgal]

Sydney,

 

Look at your upper right hand corner of this page and you will see people sitting around a table. There is a hyperlink that you click (Meet and Mingle) this will take you to the area that you can ask questions and sign up. You will need your cruise information to do so. The meet and mingles allow you to post to others on your sailing. It sure is nice to walk aboard the ship and finally meet the people that you have been posting to for months.