Royal's Rain Forest excursion in San Juan

[SuiteLady]

I have been to San Juan numerous times and am looking to do something different on my upcoming cruise, besides walk around Old San Juan, Senor Frogs and the Casino.....  Has anyone done the ship's Rain Forest excursion, and if so, pros/cons please!!  Thank you for any feedback!

[Iamcruzin]

following this

[irishgal432]

I would look at a company called Natural wonders.  They do small group excursions very reasonable.  We used them and saw the huge busses the cruise ships had.  In addition, we went to a few other spots off the beaten path.  this was before the hurricane however, thing may be different.

[Hoopster95]

34 minutes ago, SuiteLady said:

looking to do something different on my upcoming cruise, besides walk around Old San Juan, Senor Frogs and the Casino.....  Has anyone done the ship's Rain Forest excursion, and if so, pros/cons please!!  Thank you for any feedback!

 

Well done!! Do something different rather than the same old walk around a 4 block radius with 5000 other passengers, and then those people complain how they don't like San Juan port anymore. Definitely kudos to you for branching out.

 

Pros: You get to see a different side to Puerto Rico and it's famous rain forest.

Cons: you get too little time to truly appreciate the Rainforest on the ship excursion. Most reviews I've read all say the same thing... not enough time, too short & too expensive... like most ship tours.

 

Google and hunt around on the web for a private tour excursion option. Likely much cheaper than RCL excursion and yet you'll see and do more.

 

I've done a private full day tour (in combination with a night tour to the Fajardo bioluminescent bay) to the Rainforest welcome center for tourists, walking (they call it "hiking" but it's very easy) through the rain forest, swimming in the river/rope jump of the rocks & swimming under the waterfall... can't all be done on an RCL tour as not enough time, however if the RCL excursion is perhaps only option then go for it and have a great time!

 

 

[Clarea]

47 minutes ago, SuiteLady said:

I have been to San Juan numerous times and am looking to do something different on my upcoming cruise, besides walk around Old San Juan, Senor Frogs and the Casino.....  Has anyone done the ship's Rain Forest excursion, and if so, pros/cons please!!  Thank you for any feedback!

 

I would confirm how much time you have in the actual rain forest.  When we did that excursion, most of the time was taken by the driving and forced stop at a souvenir shop.  We hand maybe 30-45 minutes in the actual rain forest.

[PigsCanFly]

We took the RCI tour last fall (2018) and thought it was informative (both the drive to and from and in the rainforest).  We had several stops in the rainforest that we enjoyed.  I would recommend it.

 

[luv2sailAgain]

3 hours ago, PigsCanFly said:

We took the RCI tour last fall (2018) and thought it was informative (both the drive to and from and in the rainforest).  We had several stops in the rainforest that we enjoyed.  I would recommend it.

 

I noticed that there were two choices: one just a bus tour and one bus/hiking tour.  Which did you take?  Thanks for the info.

[luv2sailAgain]

Wow! This thread had great timing for me.  My daughter and I were talking about this tour 20 minutes ago. Thank you!

[SuiteLady]

Awesome responses....this is why I love these boards and my fellow cruisers!!  I will be with my mother, so we would probably need to do the bus tour versus the bus/ hiking one.  Not sure I want to be on a bus for hours!  Anyone do the bus tour and did you feel that you got off the bus enough to see things?

[ladytaekwondo]

My DH and I did this tour!  It was fabulous...wear comfortable shoes!

[wildcat46]

Following.  Mainly interested in whether person who viewed the excursion favorably did the bus tour or bus tour /hiking tour.