Booked Panama Canal last minute!

[baldtomato]

11 hours ago, Spanky My said:

Baldtomato we just did this cruise and here was our thoghts....

The crew was very good as was service. Our first stop after doing the panama canal was Balboa panama. We did not do any Windstar tours and booked everything ourselves ahead of time. In Balboa we went to the Embarrass village for cheaper than what Windstar excursion was via" Monkey adventures". Next day we  took a taxi to the Older section called  Casco Viejo and then went to the Bio museum which was fairly close to the dock.

 

 Then we went to Isla Parida which has a nice beach for swimming and they had the Beach Barbeque there which was nice, They had  kayaks, paddle Boards and snorkel gear available to use. I heard the snorkeling was not particularly good there but the water was warm and had a sandy beach.

 

Then we went to Puerto Jimenez and took a tour with " ficus tours" which is a guide who took just me and my wife  bird watching. He was very good and we saw many species of birds and a sloth or two.

 

Then off to Bahia drake where we went to a place called NAGULA JUNGLE LODGE. We hiked for about a 1/2 mile to a very nice waterfall and swam for about an hour in crystal clear water and then went back to the lodge for an local lunch plate.

 

 

 

Our next stop was Quepos and we had yet another tour with a company called" Epic Adventures" into Their national park. This guide was excellent and we saw sloths,lots of monkeys,birds anteater and a  crocodile and many other things

 

Then we went to Bahia Herradura and took a nice tour called the best of Jaco.. it lasted about 5 hours and we saw a lot of the area ,had a very good lunch and the guide was very good explaining the area as we drove in a well kept van.

 

If you have more specific question I would be happy to help if I can. Enjoy your cruise. Have fun ... 🙂

 

Cruisingbilly

• Cool Cruiser
• 
• February 26, 2017
•  
• 274 posts
• Boston

•  
•  
•  #4

Posted December 14

 

Hi Spanky - THANKS a big bunch for the info!

I keep seeing people mention Bahia Drake, and Jaco, but I think we might have slightly different ports - you had more ports that the schedule that I'm looking at.  😅

 

We have 1 overnight at Balboa but don't really arrive till 10 pm, so that doesn't really count as a "two day" port.  Fortunately, my last minute air options are forcing us to arrive early enough to have 2 full days in town before embarkation.  I'm debating whether to do the hop-on-hop-off bus for 48 hours (and see Casco Viejo, Bio museum, the Miraflores locks and the associated info center...?   and/or  even the Gatun lake area), versus hire a driver for one of the two days (and spend the other day lounging at the hotel pool and/or shopping in that gigantic Albrook mall).  Depends on the weather I guess.  By the time we hit Balboa (port), we would have gotten Panama City out of our systems so I plan to focus on the Emberas village for the actual excursion. 

I took a look at the lead provided upstairs by NewCruiser (THANKS!) - Embaras Village Tours, http://www.emberavillagetours.com/,   but seems like they are even more expensive "per head" than WS Shore-ex.  but then i might be comparing apples to oranges?   not sure if the private one has some extra stuff that WS Shore-ex doesn't include.

 

Right before Isla Parida, we have a total "At Sea" day - perhaps that's how we end up missing Bahia Drake!?  Did you guys have an "At Sea" day (not counting the full day Canal transit)?

 

then the next port is Jimenez which i don't see you mention - did you guys not go there?  That's where the ship sells a chocolate tour

Golfo Dulce: Chocolate Farm - A Sweet Experience  $139 - 4 hours - Approximate Tour Departure 8:45 AM • $139.00

that i don't really see anyone else on CC mentioning - i have a sweet-toothed daughter so i think this might be the highlight of HER trip, LOL!   If i could get away with self-arranging this one, i would be ecstatic... probably save me half the cost, I suspect.

 

The next is Quepos and Manual Antonio National park, from 7 am to 6pm.  My tentative plan is this - get off the ship and figure out how to make our own way to the Park (probably taxi... at the pier?!) - pay entrance per person and then hire a guide on the spot.  That sounds like a total USD 150 exercise (taxi plus return, $15 x4, plus $40?) - as opposed to $400 if i were to book a private tour for 4 people for the park ($99 x4).  At least I know I won't have to book this with WS at all, even if we were to splurge to get a private 4 people tour.

Afternoon of Quepos - Aim to get back to pier by noon (from Manual Antonio morning), eat a light lunch and then meet up with a zipline tour I just booked (Iguana Tours - they advertise double cable lines but sounds like they have fewer "zips" than some other competitors.... anyone got any feedback on that?).  So that would be a double activity day.

 

And then disembarkation day - booked the 8-in-1 with Gio.  That's the easiest one to decide, and economical too.  I'm now trying to figure out what hotel to stay in at San Jose, any suggestions? -🙏  we fly out at 0630h the next day so we'll only really be in the hotel for a few hours, after Gio drops us off at the hotel before dinner time...  Although we'll be using the room at midnight so i doubt any hotel will give us a "day" stay rate.  We only need a clean, safe, not too out of the way place to stay (and for the kids to shower...) , not needing luxury for the few hours before a 3 legged flight back home.

 

Any help is appreciated - thank you everyone, this has been a very very awesome thread.  Thanks for helping out someone who's a little overwhelmed coz she booked a cruise trip a mere 8 days before flying.... and that 8 days include Christmas eve and new years eve!  😮 😆

 

Baldtomato

 

[Spanky My]

Some thoughts about your tours Baldtomato. As I said we used https://www.monkeyadventures.com.pa/v_aldea-indigena-embera for the Embarass tour.. It was a lot cheaper than ws check them out.

 

In quepos we used https://www.epicadventurescr.com/activities/manuel-antonio-national-park-tour/ to tour the park . Our guide was excellent and a very small group. I would suggest you check them out as they picked us up and took us from our landing spot to the park. Much cheaper than the ship tour and a lot less people.

 

In Puerto Jimenez we used http://www.ficustours.com/birdwatching-tours/.. If you like a 4 hour bird watching walking tour this might be a good choice.

 

Hope this info helps  🙂 

[Ski Mom 2]

Baldtomato

 

We did the chocolate tour through WS five years ago (we were going through the canal today!) and enjoyed it. We had our two teenage sons with us and they seemed happy to be there with us. You do walk throughout their farm and see many flowers, fruits and the cacao. They show you the process of harvesting from the tree to making the chocolate and at the end we had a lovely sit down with fruits, chocolate and such (see pic). The folks were very kind and I’m happy we did this tour. It left us time to walk around the small town and we stopped for some of the best ceviche I’ve ever had. We did buy some chocolate nibs and they were a very dark chocolate. 
 

In Quepos we booked individually the Rappel & Canyon Day Trip through Quepos Canyoning. It was actually a half day tour and was the most fun we have had as a family. We all loved it! http://quepocanyoning.net They have more than just zip lines too including rappelling down a waterfall (that’s me in the pic!). It was quite the adventure!

[sb44]

15 hours ago, baldtomato said:

 

Hi Spanky - THANKS a big bunch for the info!

I keep seeing people mention Bahia Drake, and Jaco, but I think we might have slightly different ports - you had more ports that the schedule that I'm looking at.  😅

 

We have 1 overnight at Balboa but don't really arrive till 10 pm, so that doesn't really count as a "two day" port.  Fortunately, my last minute air options are forcing us to arrive early enough to have 2 full days in town before embarkation.  I'm debating whether to do the hop-on-hop-off bus for 48 hours (and see Casco Viejo, Bio museum, the Miraflores locks and the associated info center...?   and/or  even the Gatun lake area), versus hire a driver for one of the two days (and spend the other day lounging at the hotel pool and/or shopping in that gigantic Albrook mall).  Depends on the weather I guess.  By the time we hit Balboa (port), we would have gotten Panama City out of our systems so I plan to focus on the Emberas village for the actual excursion. 

I took a look at the lead provided upstairs by NewCruiser (THANKS!) - Embaras Village Tours, http://www.emberavillagetours.com/,   but seems like they are even more expensive "per head" than WS Shore-ex.  but then i might be comparing apples to oranges?   not sure if the private one has some extra stuff that WS Shore-ex doesn't include.

 

Right before Isla Parida, we have a total "At Sea" day - perhaps that's how we end up missing Bahia Drake!?  Did you guys have an "At Sea" day (not counting the full day Canal transit)?

 

then the next port is Jimenez which i don't see you mention - did you guys not go there?  That's where the ship sells a chocolate tour

Golfo Dulce: Chocolate Farm - A Sweet Experience  $139 - 4 hours - Approximate Tour Departure 8:45 AM • $139.00

that i don't really see anyone else on CC mentioning - i have a sweet-toothed daughter so i think this might be the highlight of HER trip, LOL!   If i could get away with self-arranging this one, i would be ecstatic... probably save me half the cost, I suspect.

 

The next is Quepos and Manual Antonio National park, from 7 am to 6pm.  My tentative plan is this - get off the ship and figure out how to make our own way to the Park (probably taxi... at the pier?!) - pay entrance per person and then hire a guide on the spot.  That sounds like a total USD 150 exercise (taxi plus return, $15 x4, plus $40?) - as opposed to $400 if i were to book a private tour for 4 people for the park ($99 x4).  At least I know I won't have to book this with WS at all, even if we were to splurge to get a private 4 people tour.

Afternoon of Quepos - Aim to get back to pier by noon (from Manual Antonio morning), eat a light lunch and then meet up with a zipline tour I just booked (Iguana Tours - they advertise double cable lines but sounds like they have fewer "zips" than some other competitors.... anyone got any feedback on that?).  So that would be a double activity day.

 

And then disembarkation day - booked the 8-in-1 with Gio.  That's the easiest one to decide, and economical too.  I'm now trying to figure out what hotel to stay in at San Jose, any suggestions? -🙏  we fly out at 0630h the next day so we'll only really be in the hotel for a few hours, after Gio drops us off at the hotel before dinner time...  Although we'll be using the room at midnight so i doubt any hotel will give us a "day" stay rate.  We only need a clean, safe, not too out of the way place to stay (and for the kids to shower...) , not needing luxury for the few hours before a 3 legged flight back home.

 

Any help is appreciated - thank you everyone, this has been a very very awesome thread.  Thanks for helping out someone who's a little overwhelmed coz she booked a cruise trip a mere 8 days before flying.... and that 8 days include Christmas eve and new years eve!  😮 😆

 

Baldtomato

 

My 2 cents on the chocolate tour. We did this on a day that was crazy hot. Everyone was exhausted from the heat, including the guides. I had portable battery operated fans that are hung around the neck. Other people on tour were asking to buy them. That was in April right at the end of the tourist season. It should be somewhat cooler now but wear something that you will be comfortable in and maybe a cool neck towel.

[new_cruiser]

42 minutes ago, sb44 said:

My 2 cents on the chocolate tour. We did this on a day that was crazy hot. Everyone was exhausted from the heat, including the guides. I had portable battery operated fans that are hung around the neck. Other people on tour were asking to buy them. That was in April right at the end of the tourist season. It should be somewhat cooler now but wear something that you will be comfortable in and maybe a cool neck towel.

We went in January and it was fine. Not too hot at all. We did have a burst of very heavy rain. It was pretty short and they had covered areas in various places around the farm so we retreated to one of those for a bit. It was warm enough that getting wet wasn't a big deal. Temperature was pleasant throughout our trip and rain when it happened was brief.

[baldtomato]

Thank you everyone for your great advice and recommendations!

 

I'm trying to see if either Gio or Iguana tours will combine a morning Manual Antonio tour and afternoon zipline for the four of us.  Ski_mom your photos look AMAZING, the belays!!  but I think my children are too young still, ah, it feels like I'm already planning to return to Costa Rica a few years down the road, LOL!

 

I found TWO chocolate farms near Jimenez, looks like one is used by WS official shoreex (Kobo) and it's reassuring to hear from all of you who have done this tour that it was great.  The other farm is top rated on TA and 1/4 of the cost.  I'm trying to figure out "what's the catch???" 

 

Emberas village I'm still researching...  being careful which operators pick up at the port (Balboa, not Colon) and which only picks up at hotel (Panama City).  Quite tricky.  But it's coming along... again, thank you all! and please keep sending advice (and positive energy) my way 😄

[baldtomato]

OK i can hardly believe it but we're already BACK!   (booked on the 24th, got back home on the 12th hahahaha!)

For all the help that we've received on this awesome thread, I want to reciprocate, so for anyone interested, here's how we did it.  There are probably better ways to do it, smarter cheaper better, had we more time to prep and research, but overall my spouse is super impressed with the quality of scrambled plans - VERY impressed LOL.

Again, this is for a Colon to Puerto Caldera 7 day itinerary on the Wind Star, January.

 

1.  We flew to Panama City, 3 nights in the Le Meridien (for the hotel, a "meh"... not much walkable and not too interesting a neighbourhood, but we got it at a decent price, and then uber is super affordable in Panama City). 

2.  We had 2 full days in Panama City.  Day 1 did the Gamboa Rainforest Resort trio (Aerial tram, sloth sanctuary and butterflies / orchids frogs, plus the Monkey Islands Gatun lake boat cruise back to back.  I believe this would have been split into TWO  $120 pp tours if we were to have waited till port day and booked w WS.  We did it in the afternoon so not much wildlife (too hot, and it rained so the sloths all went into hiding, and the monkeys were already overfed).  Gamboa Rainforest Resort tour dept a little disorganized and the trio of a package still had a lot of "what now..." and was pretty unguided, but good price to pay for the medium quality experience.  I believe it's the same tour you'd get even if you pay double and book w the ship.

3.  Day 2 we uber'd our own way to Miraflores visitor center - we arrived at ~8:20 ish and happened to see the Wind Star crossing Atlantic-bound, going to Colon!!  pretty awesome.  Make sure you arrive before 9 am... or after 4 pm.  2 hours here would be enough, do the IMAX and skip the museum (it cost USD 100 for family of 4 as we did both. brrrr(

We took uber to the Albrook Mall from Miraflores (we had to buy some last minute supplies and clothing), then uber'd again to old town.  Would have been good to get a guided tour of old town as tourist signage wasn't great for English tourists but by the time i asked, all English tours were sold out.  Worth a stroll.

4.   Booked with VINCENT (thanks to the forum post upstairs who mentioned him) to pick us up from Le Meridien to go to Colon port.  He was perplexed how we found him, and was overjoyed when i told him he's now famous on Cruise Critic LOL.  He recommended a half day trip to Portobello but we requested to see the Agua Clara locks and Fort San Lorenzo.  What we didn't know was that the 9 miles paved road to Fort San Lorenzo had more potholes than i have ever seen in my life as a Canadian.... and it took us almost an hour to drive that 9 miles (i know right?  i know some ppl who can run faster than that....). Vincent was great - on time, engaging, LOVES his country, knowledgeable and gives us so much info enroute.  The pot-holed filled road wasn't all for naught - we found out it actually was an old american army base / restricted area, and they used to do rainforest survival training there prior to Vietnam war.  You still get some relics now, while you navigate thru the potholes.   Colon is rough and i suspect not safe for independent strolling around.

 

5.  Full canal transit was great.  Wear UV clothing and a very good hat, and some sort of tripod if you plan to do a time lapse video like i did...

6.  Fuerto Amadour / Balboa port is basically Panama City.  We booked the Embera village tour with Monkey Adventures, private tour.  Paid less and got a better experience.  We got to swim in a bottom-clear waterfall before visiting the SAME village that the official Shorex visited (while we were at the waterfall).  We got grilled fish for lunch and fruits - so there is obviously different levels of "tour" groups could buy from this village and obvious that we got the top package (waterall, grilled fish, fruits, dessert, personal tour of living quarters, butterfly sanctuary).  Our guide Thomas was great.  Got back to tender boat half an hour before last boat.  Note to anyone who wanted to visit the biodiversity museum:  it's CLOSED on Mondays (so, yup, we had to miss it)!   Plan accordingly if you could.

 

7.  At sea day - lots of stuff to do on the ship, not a dull moment 😄  The food on this ship is really quite good.  Steaks rival our local top steakhouses.  Lots of types of grilled fish to choose from.  I always lose weight on Royal Caribbean.... but i think gained a bunch on this 7 day cruise LOL.

 

8.  Isla Parida... or what it's supposed to be.  Apparently (according to our funnyman Maitre'D) we're the first ship in a looooong time to have to MISS this port due to waves / weather.  So, nothing to report.  Captain tried to salvage the situation by offering a 3 hour landing at Golfito which is across the bay from Jimenez, so we got off the ship and walked around with the Naturalist and saw lots of birds.... but nothing to write home about.  We didn't even find anywhere we could have a drink.  At least there's good cell phone signal in port and in town.

 

9.  Puerto Jimenez - so we're one of the few lucky people who get to visit this small port that large ships don't get to go, and it's 6 hours by car from San Jose so most tourists won't venture this far.  We ended up doing the one and only official Shorex here - the chocolate farm tour to Finca Kobo.  I tried to write to another chocolate farm but wrote them 3x in a week and no response.  The ship Shorex tour is OK.  It's more an edible plants tour and we got to see (and taste) lots of different tropical fruit trees, herbs, tumeric, and if you ever seen the superfood "Nomi" at your local health food store, you should see what it looks like.... it taste like blue cheese jello (!!!! that's why they sell processed supplements...).  There were about 25 people from the ship all in the same group with the same guide, it felt OK, everyone got to see and taste.  Interesting black sand beach where we wet-landed but i don't see anyone swim there.  Saw half a dozen macaws and a toucan while waiting for the tender.  We took the advice from this thread and brought battery operated fans for the kids to wear around their necks and it was awesome!   If you wanna bring some Kleenex and/or wetwipes, you will become a popular person on this tour LOL.

 

10.  Quepos.  After MUCH research, we went with Manuel Tours for Manuel Antonio park and met Berny, and got an experience much much better from (what i heard) the rest of the ship passengers got.  We paid probably 1/3 vs ship, got a PRIVATE tour (2 adults 2 kids), and every other guide comes to Berny to ask him where to look!  When others were excited to see a sloth, Berny found us a sloth who has a BABY in her arms.... at the tree top (with his naked eyes! and showed it to us on his $5000 Swarovski telescope.  He spotted finger-nail sized hummingbird chicks in their nests, colourful poison grasshoppers, species of lizards that are camouflaged (yup, eagle eyed...) I can't recommend him more highly - you get the gist.

We got dropped back at the Marina and we tender-boated back to the ship for lunch and to put down my 300mm lens and camera, before we come out out to a zipline canopy tour.  We booked privately with the TitiCanopy tour - there was quite a bit of confusion with booking (too frustrating for me to recount) ,and then they were 20 min late picking us up making me worry that i got the wrong location, etc etc.  Anyways, when we did get to the ziplines, everything was GREAT.  4 guides plus a camera-man for a group of about 10.  My younger kid (age 7) had sooooo much fun.  The ziplines were well set up, long, and awesome.  LOTS of climbing up flights of metal staircases (not too wobbly; we generally felt safe) but this is NOT for someone who has ambulation challenges.  

 

11.  Disembakation - we booked the 8-in-1 with GioTours, and they (like Berny with Manual Tours) are A+++.  Highly recommended.  I didn't look into the tour description too closely when I booked so I was a little surprised to find that this tour does NOT include San Jose, but it's for the better coz San Jose would have been much easier to tour on our own than what we ended up getting to see with Pablo of Gio Tours.  This tour included a full 90 minute boat ride of the Tigris (?sp) river where were get within 2 feet of 2000-lb crocodiles, and "jesus chris lizards".  It all reminded me of the zodiac rides at the cliffs of the Galapagos islands.  Lunch included and it was actually decent food.  Pablo made MULTIPLE unscheduled stops when wildlife appears, and we got within arms reach of a tribe of monkeys, some babies carried on mom's backs.  Macaws, Toucans, I think we got more wildlife on this tour than the 1.5 days at Jimenez.  We even got to visit a local fruit stand and ate lots of never-seen tropical fruits (hahaha i'm noticing a theme to my post). He dropped us off at sundown at our hotel (way past his booked hours), huge smile on his face and still eager to carry our suitcases.  Two thumbs up.  Would call them again if i'm ever back in San Jose.

 

OK sorry for the long post.  Hope this helps anyone who's still planning.  Love these two countries.  Loved this cruise trip.  Pura Vida!

 

[Chipshot from Michigan]

Nice report.  No need to apologize for its length.

 

I enjoyed the Canal museum.  Worth it if you have an hour or so.

 

Did you have good sunsets?  Did any dolphins "bow ride"?  Did you find 300mm was enough lens?

[baldtomato]

wow incredible dolphin photo!  We saw a pod of dolphins swim towards the bow and "played" along starboard for a good half an hour.  I found it too hard to predict when or where one of them would decide to hop up next, so my camera lens wouldn't be able to help me LOL!

The macaws and toucans stayed still enough for long lenses and even tripods (i didn't bring a pod).  Sloths, too, of course!  But not monkeys LOL.  I have a 200mm with image stabilizer and it was better than the 300mm with no I.S.  - but i'm too much of an amateur to comment on lens selection for this trip, LOL!

Super glad to have brought a go-pro.  Kids had lots of fun using the go-pro during ziplining, and the afternoon when we swam at the marina off the stern.  awesome!

 

my son enjoyed the canal museum - I thought they could have done with more interactive items for the admission price.  It sounds stupid in retrospect but I made it thru 4 floors of museum and still didn't quite understand why they couldn't do a sea level canal and had to bother with trying to figure out "locks".... until i watched the IMAX, duh.  Really stupid, i know.  If we had done the opposite order - IMAX first, then the museum would have been redundant too.  Note for future travelers - the IMAX starts on the hour and lasts 45 min.

[Chipshot from Michigan]

Thanks.  Burst shooting is often the best way to capture images of bow-riding dolphins and other unpredictable events.  I had my camera strap wrapped securely around my wrist and hung the whole kit out over the rail.  200-300 shots yielded about a dozen keepers.

 

We did not see any sloths in Costa Rica and Panama.  Fortunately there were plenty when we plied the Peruvian Amazon with a different line.  My son is in charge of the Go-Pro.  He has produced some terrific time-lapses.  I have a little Fuji waterproof for snorkeling and places such as the Baths that has produced surprisingly good results over the years.  Having a macro lens along also paid off.

 

I agree the canal IMAX was good. We received separately a good explanation of how the new, larger locks use less water and no longer have mules.

 

 

[lilli]

On 1/16/2020 at 8:39 PM, baldtomato said:

4.   Booked with VINCENT (thanks to the forum post upstairs who mentioned him) to pick us up from Le Meridien to go to Colon port.  He was perplexed how we found him, and was overjoyed when i told him he's now famous on Cruise Critic LOL.  He recommended a half day trip to Portobello but we requested to see the Agua Clara locks and Fort San Lorenzo.  What we didn't know was that the 9 miles paved road to Fort San Lorenzo had more potholes than i have ever seen in my life as a Canadian.... and it took us almost an hour to drive that 9 miles (i know right?  i know some ppl who can run faster than that....). Vincent was great - on time, engaging, LOVES his country, knowledgeable and gives us so much info enroute.  The pot-holed filled road wasn't all for naught - we found out it actually was an old american army b

Baldtomato—thanks for all the info!  We are on the windstar from puerto caldera to colon leaving Saturday. 

We also have booked with Vincent to pick us up at colon. We are currently planning to visit the Agua Clara locks and then head to Casio Viejo and craft market. 

How did you like them?  Worth a visit?

we are also booked with Manuel’s tours at Quepos!

thanks!

[Coco-T]

On 1/16/2020 at 9:39 PM, baldtomato said:

OK i can hardly believe it but we're already BACK!   (booked on the 24th, got back home on the 12th hahahaha!)

For all the help that we've received on this awesome thread, I want to reciprocate, so for anyone interested, here's how we did it.  There are probably better ways to do it, smarter cheaper better, had we more time to prep and research, but overall my spouse is super impressed with the quality of scrambled plans - VERY impressed LOL.

Again, this is for a Colon to Puerto Caldera 7 day itinerary on the Wind Star, January.

 

1.  We flew to Panama City, 3 nights in the Le Meridien (for the hotel, a "meh"... not much walkable and not too interesting a neighbourhood, but we got it at a decent price, and then uber is super affordable in Panama City). 

2.  We had 2 full days in Panama City.  Day 1 did the Gamboa Rainforest Resort trio (Aerial tram, sloth sanctuary and butterflies / orchids frogs, plus the Monkey Islands Gatun lake boat cruise back to back.  I believe this would have been split into TWO  $120 pp tours if we were to have waited till port day and booked w WS.  We did it in the afternoon so not much wildlife (too hot, and it rained so the sloths all went into hiding, and the monkeys were already overfed).  Gamboa Rainforest Resort tour dept a little disorganized and the trio of a package still had a lot of "what now..." and was pretty unguided, but good price to pay for the medium quality experience.  I believe it's the same tour you'd get even if you pay double and book w the ship.

3.  Day 2 we uber'd our own way to Miraflores visitor center - we arrived at ~8:20 ish and happened to see the Wind Star crossing Atlantic-bound, going to Colon!!  pretty awesome.  Make sure you arrive before 9 am... or after 4 pm.  2 hours here would be enough, do the IMAX and skip the museum (it cost USD 100 for family of 4 as we did both. brrrr(

We took uber to the Albrook Mall from Miraflores (we had to buy some last minute supplies and clothing), then uber'd again to old town.  Would have been good to get a guided tour of old town as tourist signage wasn't great for English tourists but by the time i asked, all English tours were sold out.  Worth a stroll.

4.   Booked with VINCENT (thanks to the forum post upstairs who mentioned him) to pick us up from Le Meridien to go to Colon port.  He was perplexed how we found him, and was overjoyed when i told him he's now famous on Cruise Critic LOL.  He recommended a half day trip to Portobello but we requested to see the Agua Clara locks and Fort San Lorenzo.  What we didn't know was that the 9 miles paved road to Fort San Lorenzo had more potholes than i have ever seen in my life as a Canadian.... and it took us almost an hour to drive that 9 miles (i know right?  i know some ppl who can run faster than that....). Vincent was great - on time, engaging, LOVES his country, knowledgeable and gives us so much info enroute.  The pot-holed filled road wasn't all for naught - we found out it actually was an old american army base / restricted area, and they used to do rainforest survival training there prior to Vietnam war.  You still get some relics now, while you navigate thru the potholes.   Colon is rough and i suspect not safe for independent strolling around.

 

5.  Full canal transit was great.  Wear UV clothing and a very good hat, and some sort of tripod if you plan to do a time lapse video like i did...

6.  Fuerto Amadour / Balboa port is basically Panama City.  We booked the Embera village tour with Monkey Adventures, private tour.  Paid less and got a better experience.  We got to swim in a bottom-clear waterfall before visiting the SAME village that the official Shorex visited (while we were at the waterfall).  We got grilled fish for lunch and fruits - so there is obviously different levels of "tour" groups could buy from this village and obvious that we got the top package (waterall, grilled fish, fruits, dessert, personal tour of living quarters, butterfly sanctuary).  Our guide Thomas was great.  Got back to tender boat half an hour before last boat.  Note to anyone who wanted to visit the biodiversity museum:  it's CLOSED on Mondays (so, yup, we had to miss it)!   Plan accordingly if you could.

 

7.  At sea day - lots of stuff to do on the ship, not a dull moment 😄  The food on this ship is really quite good.  Steaks rival our local top steakhouses.  Lots of types of grilled fish to choose from.  I always lose weight on Royal Caribbean.... but i think gained a bunch on this 7 day cruise LOL.

 

8.  Isla Parida... or what it's supposed to be.  Apparently (according to our funnyman Maitre'D) we're the first ship in a looooong time to have to MISS this port due to waves / weather.  So, nothing to report.  Captain tried to salvage the situation by offering a 3 hour landing at Golfito which is across the bay from Jimenez, so we got off the ship and walked around with the Naturalist and saw lots of birds.... but nothing to write home about.  We didn't even find anywhere we could have a drink.  At least there's good cell phone signal in port and in town.

 

9.  Puerto Jimenez - so we're one of the few lucky people who get to visit this small port that large ships don't get to go, and it's 6 hours by car from San Jose so most tourists won't venture this far.  We ended up doing the one and only official Shorex here - the chocolate farm tour to Finca Kobo.  I tried to write to another chocolate farm but wrote them 3x in a week and no response.  The ship Shorex tour is OK.  It's more an edible plants tour and we got to see (and taste) lots of different tropical fruit trees, herbs, tumeric, and if you ever seen the superfood "Nomi" at your local health food store, you should see what it looks like.... it taste like blue cheese jello (!!!! that's why they sell processed supplements...).  There were about 25 people from the ship all in the same group with the same guide, it felt OK, everyone got to see and taste.  Interesting black sand beach where we wet-landed but i don't see anyone swim there.  Saw half a dozen macaws and a toucan while waiting for the tender.  We took the advice from this thread and brought battery operated fans for the kids to wear around their necks and it was awesome!   If you wanna bring some Kleenex and/or wetwipes, you will become a popular person on this tour LOL.

 

10.  Quepos.  After MUCH research, we went with Manuel Tours for Manuel Antonio park and met Berny, and got an experience much much better from (what i heard) the rest of the ship passengers got.  We paid probably 1/3 vs ship, got a PRIVATE tour (2 adults 2 kids), and every other guide comes to Berny to ask him where to look!  When others were excited to see a sloth, Berny found us a sloth who has a BABY in her arms.... at the tree top (with his naked eyes! and showed it to us on his $5000 Swarovski telescope.  He spotted finger-nail sized hummingbird chicks in their nests, colourful poison grasshoppers, species of lizards that are camouflaged (yup, eagle eyed...) I can't recommend him more highly - you get the gist.

We got dropped back at the Marina and we tender-boated back to the ship for lunch and to put down my 300mm lens and camera, before we come out out to a zipline canopy tour.  We booked privately with the TitiCanopy tour - there was quite a bit of confusion with booking (too frustrating for me to recount) ,and then they were 20 min late picking us up making me worry that i got the wrong location, etc etc.  Anyways, when we did get to the ziplines, everything was GREAT.  4 guides plus a camera-man for a group of about 10.  My younger kid (age 7) had sooooo much fun.  The ziplines were well set up, long, and awesome.  LOTS of climbing up flights of metal staircases (not too wobbly; we generally felt safe) but this is NOT for someone who has ambulation challenges.  

 

11.  Disembakation - we booked the 8-in-1 with GioTours, and they (like Berny with Manual Tours) are A+++.  Highly recommended.  I didn't look into the tour description too closely when I booked so I was a little surprised to find that this tour does NOT include San Jose, but it's for the better coz San Jose would have been much easier to tour on our own than what we ended up getting to see with Pablo of Gio Tours.  This tour included a full 90 minute boat ride of the Tigris (?sp) river where were get within 2 feet of 2000-lb crocodiles, and "jesus chris lizards".  It all reminded me of the zodiac rides at the cliffs of the Galapagos islands.  Lunch included and it was actually decent food.  Pablo made MULTIPLE unscheduled stops when wildlife appears, and we got within arms reach of a tribe of monkeys, some babies carried on mom's backs.  Macaws, Toucans, I think we got more wildlife on this tour than the 1.5 days at Jimenez.  We even got to visit a local fruit stand and ate lots of never-seen tropical fruits (hahaha i'm noticing a theme to my post). He dropped us off at sundown at our hotel (way past his booked hours), huge smile on his face and still eager to carry our suitcases.  Two thumbs up.  Would call them again if i'm ever back in San Jose.

 

OK sorry for the long post.  Hope this helps anyone who's still planning.  Love these two countries.  Loved this cruise trip.  Pura Vida!

 

 

On 12/27/2019 at 4:56 AM, Spanky My said:

Some thoughts about your tours Baldtomato. As I said we used https://www.monkeyadventures.com.pa/v_aldea-indigena-embera for the Embarass tour.. It was a lot cheaper than ws check them out.

 

In quepos we used https://www.epicadventurescr.com/activities/manuel-antonio-national-park-tour/ to tour the park . Our guide was excellent and a very small group. I would suggest you check them out as they picked us up and took us from our landing spot to the park. Much cheaper than the ship tour and a lot less people.

 

In Puerto Jimenez we used http://www.ficustours.com/birdwatching-tours/.. If you like a 4 hour bird watching walking tour this might be a good choice.

 

Hope this info helps  🙂 

WOW ladies and gents - I am thoroughly amazed at ALL the detail of information you all shared here! Thank you Baldtomato for your trip report. We are embarking on the same trip next week (slightly longer 10 days) and all your helpful information should make this an awesome experience! 

[baldtomato]

@Coco-T hope you had a good trip!   I am on CC researching the first post-pandemic cruise we're taking, and ran into my own old post - that brought back SUPER nice memories!  That Wind Star sailing, unbeknownst to us, would be the last trip we'd have for a long time - it was from the WindStar's daily news printouts where we first heard about this "atypical pneumonia" breaking out somewhere in China, a month before it circulated to North America.  Who would have thunk!

anyways, i can't believe i wrote that long review either 😄 but I'm glad I did it!  If we ever have the luck to be able to go back to Costa Rica or Panama, I won't forget which guides we had met!