Nicaragua..Panama Canal..Recent?

[Denmal]

We are sailing on the Coral for a full transit of the Panama Canal on April 5th.  Wondering if any recent sailing actually stoped in Nicaragua??  With the unrest I was wondering if Princess just skips this port or goes elsewhere ?

 

any feedback from recent sailing would be appreciated

[Wavelet]

We just finished the Panama Canal cruise on January 21st. The Coral did stop at Nicaragua. We chose to stay on the ship, but several people said they had a wonderful time doing tours. 

[riffatsea]

We were there on the Coral in December. There was NO unrest that we could see or hear about from our tour guide. All tours went as planned and no one had any issues on land.

[vantec]

We were there January 13, we did get off the Coral and just stayed in the port area.  It was a wonderful day, we ate lunch at a local hotel and used their free internet, walked around a little bit, did some souvenir shopping and then stopped at a bar right on the beach.  We felt completely safe and had a great time. When we were there last March, we did a ship's excursion and also felt very safe.

[DiamondDiva]

We were also just there this month and no one had any bad experiences that we heard about, either in town or on tour.  The vast majority of the trouble there seems to be mid-country, and cruise ships keep a close eye on what is occurring.  If they are concerned, they will not take you there. 

Unfortunately, in our current world, bad situations can develop anywhere.  Use common sense and enjoy the opportunity. 

[hobbyfarmer2]

Just off the Coral Jan 21.  Nicaragua was lovely with zero problems and very nice people.  We took the Granada excursion.

[Thrak]

We visited Nicaragua in November of last year. Not even a hint of a problem. We wondered before going but the "unrest" is nowhere near the cruise port. We walked quite a way through town to a bar owned by Canadians. (A fair distance.) I had a good time and got a reaction when I said, "Dos mas cervezas, por favor. Eh???" It was pretty funny.

 

Seriously though, there was no sign of an issue and, like I said, we walked a fair distance through town to get to that bar. The last time we visited Nicaragua it, as I described it to one of the entertainers onboard, "Sucked hard". This time was much (MUCH!) better. It was kind of funny though. They have built a tourist "welcome" place where the tenders dock. One of the things they had for sale was a small (375 ml) bottle of rum. I bought the same brand of rum in town for waaaaaaaaaaaaay less. The little bottle was something like $10 or $12. I bought a liter in town at a local store for $12. (Nobody said a word when I took it back on the ship.)

[CurlyQgrL]

On 1/30/2019 at 7:07 PM, hobbyfarmer2 said:

Just off the Coral Jan 21.  Nicaragua was lovely with zero problems and very nice people.  We took the Granada excursion.

 

Wondering how the road was up to Granada... area comes highly recommended but the 8 hour tour is pretty long with quite a drive.. just wondering how windy the roads are... debating between the Granada, Masaya shopping & volcano tour.. there is a shorter one that skips the volcano and is only about 6 hours.... decisions decisions.... though chillin in town, finding a bar and a beach sounds nice too. We have a long tour day before in Puentareas....

[hobbyfarmer2]

1 minute ago, CurlyQgrL said:

 

Wondering how the road was up to Granada... area comes highly recommended but the 8 hour tour is pretty long with quite a drive.. just wondering how windy the roads are... debating between the Granada, Masaya shopping & volcano tour.. there is a shorter one that skips the volcano and is only about 6 hours.... decisions decisions.... though chillin in town, finding a bar and a beach sounds nice too. We have a long tour day before in Puentareas....

We took the shorter tour without the volcano.  The roads were very good and not windy at all.  Our bus had seen better days though and the A.C. was leaking water from the overhead carry area in a couple of places.  The driver drove a bit fast for my liking as well but with no mishaps or close calls.  The country seemed very safe andvtge people were quite friendly.

[CurlyQgrL]

3 minutes ago, hobbyfarmer2 said:

We took the shorter tour without the volcano.  The roads were very good and not windy at all.  Our bus had seen better days though and the A.C. was leaking water from the overhead carry area in a couple of places.  The driver drove a bit fast for my liking as well but with no mishaps or close calls.  The country seemed very safe andvtge people were quite friendly.

 

Thanks, appreciate it! We have taken road trips in Mx, and CR in the past year and always find the people warm and friendly. Nicaragua also gets really good reviews, so looking forward to it. Granada gets great reviews... just unsure if I want to spend that much time on a bus.. LOL

[hobbyfarmer2]

17 minutes ago, CurlyQgrL said:

 

Thanks, appreciate it! We have taken road trips in Mx, and CR in the past year and always find the people warm and friendly. Nicaragua also gets really good reviews, so looking forward to it. Granada gets great reviews... just unsure if I want to spend that much time on a bus.. LOL

The bus ride to Granada was 65 minutes or so and it went fairly quickly.  The countryside was far more open than I would have thought.