My review - Canopy Adventure Challenge in PV

[HappyCruiser383]

We were on the Golden Princess April 12th to April 22nd. This is a clip from the cruise review. Enjoy!

 

We didn’t get to see Puerto Vallarta at all because we took the ships Outdoor Challenge Canopy Adventure tour. What a rush!!!! WOW! :eek: Ship docked at 9am. Scheduled meeting was 10:45 in the Princess theatre. Our tour was at 11:30am. Dave didn’t want to go into town and chance missing the tour so we stayed on the ship for breakfast. We didn’t know that we could tell the crew at the Princess Theatre that we would meet the tour on the dock! Oh well. What the tour documents don’t tell you is that you get to this tour via ½ hour ride in a small boat across the choppy ocean. Some people who get seasick need to know this. There were a couple of green people on our boat but nobody required any bags. The story begins: After arriving at a CUTE little fishing village (I could have stayed there for hours) we get into open-air Mercedes Army type 4x4 trucks and rode for another ½ hour up a rugged mountain side. People are driving little Toyota cars on this road too so it wasn’t that bad. When we arrived, all of our belongings, including cameras, water, hats and sunglasses are stuffed into a huge duffel bag. The happy guides introduced themselves and fitted us with our gear and helmets. The straps that go around our waist have these heavy pulley things on them and I now have wet thick leather gloves hanging off my sides. We’ve all received safety instructions and are told to hang on and scream when we go down the zip lines (along with some other very serious instructions). We’re off! A quick little foot trail brings us to the Mule pen where we are instructed on the proper handling of the Mules. I really miss my sunglasses! At this point, we’ve all found that the crew are having way too much fun. These guys are pure entertainment. By now, they are learning our names and who they can have fun with. We learned a few new words in Spanish to get the Mules moving. My mule really likes the passing lanes! It’s about 80 degrees and a bit humid. A perfect day. Half an hour on the dusty rugged trail, we arrive at another Mule pen where we said goodbye to our Mules. More dusty trails and bugs? Yip . . .here we go again . . another vertical trail. My legs are killing me! My knees are shaking from holding onto that fat Mule. Civilization is long gone along with any chances to cancel this trip! We finally arrive at our very first zip line! It’s 300’ off the ground and about 200’ long. What happened to the ‘training’ that I read about? I thought we would try a little sample zip line close to the ground. As I go to raise my hand an enormous venomous bug with a huge stinger flutters around my leg! AHHH!!!! Laughter erupts from the crowd as I find that the bug was actually a crew member abusing his authorities. He was tickling my leg with a palm leaf! If I could only find a way to get him back! We all laughed then turned our gaze to the zip line. A hollow sea of trees awaits its first victim. The first 2 or 3 crew members zip down the line ahead of us. Somebody has to be down there to catch us at the bottom! They gracefully fly through the air to the platform in the trees bellow. Dee, the first victim, is hooked up to the cables. With a slight nudge off the platform, she screams wildly into the wind. Did she make it? My boyfriend is afraid of heights (ya learn something new everyday!) he’s looking a bit green right about now. They hook him up and send him down. He lands on the platform bellow and disappears onto the next trail. Was he ok with it? Where did he go? It’s my turn! The crew member takes a large pulley thing off my side as I worriedly inspect the zip line cables. As if I really know what I’m looking at. 2 parallel cables attached to the platform by a triangle type station then tied to trees. I think I’m ok with this. I’m all hooked up, ready and butt puckered then poof HE slides down the cable! I was so busy looking at the cables, I didn’t realize that he was hooking himself up. ARGH! You really need watch these guys. They are a lot of fun. He had already hooked my safety strap to the safety rope so I wouldn’t go anywhere. It’s all very safe fun with this crew. Ok, now it’s really my turn. We all put on our gloves to find that they are all wet and cool. Why are they wet? My pulleys are attached to the zip lines by a crew member. The safety cable from my side is attached to the cable bracket on the zip line. As I bend my knees, I can feel that my weight is supported by the harness around my hips. It’s like a soft seat, very comfortable and secure. My left hand is wrapped around the rope that I’m hanging from. My right hand is behind and above my head resting gently on the bottom of the 2 zip lines. To slow down, I pull down (don’t close your hand) on the line. Off I go! The ground disappeared as the breeze whisks my hair back. It’s beautiful! I’m so high off the ground! There must be a hundreds of tre . . . . . oh dear . . there’s the platform .. pull down with my right hand to slow down like they said. UGH . . Ok. I’m here and safe. That was fantastic!!! Can I do that again in slow motion so I can take in more of the scenery? On the platform, I pull down on the top zip line to help the crew member remove my pulley from the line more easily. It’s a race to get me unhooked because now the next victim is on the line coming down. Get out of the way! As I look up somebody pointed to the trail which leads to the next platform. How many more vertical dusty trails are around here and where is my Mule when I need him most? ARGH! About half way up the trail, I have to stop. I’m worn out and extremely thirsty. My knees are still shaking from the Mule ride and the excitement of my very first zip line. I just can’t do this. Somebody should have told me . . ok . . they did tell me that it was a physical ‘experience’. I pry my self off the rock and continue on. YEEHAA!!! Bottled water and my long lost boyfriend! He WAS afraid of heights. Now he’s having such a great time he can’t wait to get to the next zip line. Cold water, is it a mirage? There are two ice chests filled with cold bottles of water. Who in the world was responsible for getting these way up here? We’re on the top of a mountain! They’re both pretty beat up which makes me wonder if they traversed the zip lines too. I make it to the next zip line platform. Zip line after zip line. The views get better and better. Zipping over trees and rivers. Platform to platform, the trails are long gone. There’s a waterfall. You can see other zip lines criss-crossing through the canyons but you can’t see their platforms. The sounds of Tarzan (my boyfriend who WAS afraid of heights) and screams of crazy women fill the air. Now, we’re all professional zippers. We’ve traversed the zip lines high in the mountains of Mexico. I get to the next zip line that seems to be pretty steep down to the next platform. The crew member on the platform grabs that weird looking pie shaped metal gadget that’s been silently sitting on my side the entire tour (I was afraid to ask what it was). He wraps a rope around it, gives it a twist, pushes it through one of my brackets . . . “Hey? You’re doing that wrong!” Was my first thought (I’m a professional zipper now). We are repelling now huh? Ok, I can do this too. I’m not supposed to stop with my right hand on this one. The guy who is holding the rope at the bottom will tighten the rope to stop me. This doesn’t sound right. Pull a rope at the bottom to stop gravity and my big puckered butt? Oh my. Down I go. This was a short little drop compared to the other ones so it was quick. It worked! Now we’re at the top of a waterfall. It’s beautiful. The sound of rushing water sounded refreshing in the hot afternoon. Here, we do a real rappel down the face of the rock mountain bordering the 50’ waterfall. I really need my camera! No jumping out away from the rock (like you see on TV). Simply walk down the rock face. My right hand holds the rope that controls my speed so I can go slower on this one. A photographer snaps a few pictures of me. I feel so special! SPLASH! I land in water up to my ankles. WOOO that’s cold! Fantastic! What a rush! The waterfall is broken into sections. It starts about 300’ up the mountain then goes into a puddle then falls then puddle then falls etc, all the way to the bottom. We get to the next repel where there is a deeper puddle at the end. You could loose a VW in this one. My boyfriend (The Super Zipper Tarzan Dude who used to be afraid of heights) is going down the zip line when the crew member grabs the line, gives it a good pull which completely dunks my boyfriend into the water. Everybody around burst into laughter except for me, I was next and that water looked really cold. I held myself up high while zipping down the 30’ line towards that cold water. As the crew member yanked on the line, I could feel my body curl upwards. I didn’t know I could do that! SPLASH into the water clear up to my shoulders!! AAHHHH!!! Holly COWW That’s Cccccold! The ‘receiving’ crew member or ‘catcher’ saw that I needed help getting completely wet so he splashed me some more. I felt like a drunken sailor trying to pull myself out of that water. There’s nothing ladylike about this tour! I brush myself off as if to clean off any embarrassment that may still be attached. As I look up, I see the granddaddy of all zip lines. This line may be as long as the ship! Ok, it’s not, but it is pretty intimidating. One of the crew members scrambles into the woods and brings out a long stick. Maybe he’s going to do some fancy grand finale’ zip trick? Nope. He knows that there is a fruit tree half way down the line and he’s going to try to knock some fruit down for us. Excellent idea! He slides half way down the line wildly swinging this 5’ long stick aimlessly into the tree tops. As he stops, he takes aim at the tree with the fruit. Everybody is cheering him on now! We can see the tree that he’s aiming at but it’s too far away to see the fruit on the tree. He must have succeeded because he slid down to the next platform. We all took turns going down the King Kong of zip lines trying to see the fruit on the fruit trees bellow. What a rush! I noticed that people are taking off their gloves. NO! I’m not done! That wasn’t the last one, was it? Once the group gathered together, we all hit the trail. This time, the trail was going down hill and we were much cooler. Elephant Ears, ferns and various other plants lined the trail. Skinny branches were 30’ long winding up and around other plants, across the trail and flowing gracefully up the hill.. I can’t tell if they’re roots or branches. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. By now, we’re skipping on the trail like little kids on the prairie. This has been a day that I’ll never forget! Around the corner, a few crew members trot up into the bushes to gather the fruit that had fallen earlier. I had completely forgotten about the fruit that they worked so hard to get down for us! The yellow fruit was the size of a plum with 2 or even 3 large seeds inside. Lemoncia (spelling?) was sour yet sweet. It was almost a cross-breed between a peach and a lemon. Yum! A little bit later we’re back at the base where we were originally geared up. No Mules on the trip down I guess! We strip our gear and rinse out our shoes. Everybody has hat-head from wearing helmets all day and we’re all pretty hungry. It’s about 3:45pm now. They offer us some chips & salsa and show us our pictures (at $15 each). It’s about 4:15. Last ship tender is at 5pm and we still have over half an hour 4x4 ride down the hill AND half an hour boat ride to get back to the ship. It’s a good thing we booked this through the cruise line! Did I mention that its dinner time and we never got lunch? The 4x4 trip down the hill was just as exhilarating as the ride up hill. We get to that CUTE little fishing village at the bottom of the hill and it seems that we still have to wait for the boat. Perfect! We can order a real Mexican burrito from one of the beach vendors. By now, I’m starving and my blood sugar is dropping. Here comes the boat. Everybody swarms to the boat but we still don’t have the burrito! As we scamper away from the tables, the waiter comes running with my burrito. Life is good and so is the burrito! A storm hovers overhead as the ocean comes alive. Senor Capitan presses full speed ahead to make up for lost time. Save the burrito! I feel sorry for the people towards the back of the boat. One gentleman next to us had a beer that was splashing and my salsa was flying. Some of the people in our group were from the Holland America ship or the Carnival Pride. They drop us off at the tender pier where the very last tender waited for us to board. I’m SO glad we booked though the cruise line! We hop on the tender only to find that there was another Golden Princess ship tour that was running late. It was a dolphin tour. As we approached the ship, we see the anchor coming up. People on decks were applauding us. Apparently, the ship captain had announced that they were waiting for our group before they could set sail. We’re off to the buffet! We can shower later! Tips: No bug spray please. You will be going through rivers and the poison will contaminate the water. Wear good shoes. I’m glad I wore tennis shoes. Sandals will allow rocks in. There were a number of rocky, sandy, pebble trails. They will ask you to take off all hats because you’ll be wearing helmets. Do-rags or Skullcaps were popular and ok to keep on. All in all, this tour gets an A in my book. I would definitely do that again.

[donaldsc]

If I may make a suggestion for future posts - your review which was 41 lines long was virtually (actually, totally) impossible to read because it was one long paragraph. It should have been broken up into at least 4 or 5 short paragraphs. English 101.

 

DON

[HappyCruiser383]

Thanks Don, you are excused from class. :D

[zebramatie1]

Instead of criticizing your post, I am going to THANK-YOU for the detailed post of your ziplining adventure. We have gone ziplining in Costa Rica and are considering going in PV because of the wonderful post from previous cruisers. I sure hope my posts don't get critiqued, English wasn't my best subject! Thanks again for taking the time to tell us about your adventures.

[Happy5804]

I think we should all be thanking Happy for her due diligence in writing

such a nice, detailed review of HER experience. I had absolutely

no trouble at all reading her wonderful review of her ziplining excursion.

 

According to the rules of the board you're not to respond harshly

to another poster. That is just mean-spirited IMHO.

[paradise4ever]

great trip, we'll be in PV in june and my grandsons want to do this. I printed your review. i m sure they will love it. as for english, oh well, it was never my best subject with verbs, nouns etc. thanks

[trm012400]

I thought it was a great story and makes me wish we would have chosen this excursion! Definitely next time!!!

[genoa]

Thanks Happy Cruiser for a great review. Quick question: In the princess shore excursion book, I'm showing the Jungle Canopy Adventure $96 and the PV Outdoor Challenge $39.

 

Do you remember which excursion this was.

 

Thanks:)

[HappyCruiser383]

I'm sure that this was the PV Outdoor Challenge (on page 54) but the cost was listed as $110 per person anywhere else that you look. We paid $110 per person. A typo in the book maybe??? Go check it out online. That will probably be more accurate.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[genoa]

Thanks Happy Cruiser,

 

It could have been an old shore excursion book I was reading. My DH really wants to do this excursion.:)

[MamaParrotHead]

Can you tell me if there's a weight limit on the zip lines? DH is a "fluffy" 350 and don't know if this is even a possibility fo us. Thanks!

[Family Man]

Yes. I think some tour companies have a 250 pound and some have a 275 pound limit.

[PACURN]

If I may make a suggestion for future posts - your review which was 41 lines long was virtually (actually, totally) impossible to read because it was one long paragraph. It should have been broken up into at least 4 or 5 short paragraphs. English 101.

 

DON

 

Thanks Don, you are excused from class. :D

 

With a hall pass to the mean posters detention room.

[btorlv]

Thanks for a great review. Somtimes people can be jerks.

[gwhizma]

I totally loved your review!

 

I am deciding weather or not I will subject my body and my dignity. I imagine my teenage boys will be just as entertained with the excursion as watching my discomfort. There is something about mom being "freaked out" that instills hilarity in my sons.

 

Well I have a few months to get in shape.....

 

Thanks for sharing!

[mkw_21]

Hey, I loved the review you gave on the outdoor adventure. It is the best review we've read so far. Thanks for all that effort. I am petrified of heights and a little worried about the two rapell areas. Can you or somebody describe in detail the rapelling experience. I've never done it before. How high? Is it a cliff or a slope? Do you feel the tension in the rope before starting and stepping off the edge? Was rapelling the scariest part of the whole excursion? We are going in October 2007. Can you skip the rapell parts or not? I am not too worried about the zip lines. Any details would be great. Thanks!

[marydvt]

Wow!

 

I think you are a great storyteller! It was funny and a pleasure to read. I agree, in this forum content is more important that visual and you indeed had great content - I was laughing while I was reading this. Loved the detail.

 

Now, ummmm, I am shhhhh (don't tell) 54 not too bad physically, female, not heavy, but I am sooooo afraid of heights.

 

I need some advice here. I did the zipline in HI with my son shhhhhhh 25 lol but I did book this feeling hey at my age? Wanna go down with "what a ride!" at the end instead of "should've". Sooooo, honestly, tell me just how bad it would be for someone like me. I know I should go for it but, I saw pictures and while sitting at my desk my heart was pounding and my palms were sweating. (Sorry, is this paragraph too long?)

 

I am taking the Golden Princess as well this Oct 13 and we seem to have more time since the tour is early in day. Also, people have mentioned to maybe book outside the cruise line since a bit less expensive.

 

Thanks for your advice in advance.

 

Still shaking thinking about this.

[Stillfloatin']

I know how you feel. My friends did the zipline in PV last October and I didn't do it. When I saw the video, I was SO jealous! I decided that nothing would stop me this time, so I'm already booked for the zipline for our Jan cruise. If you just push through your fear, I suspect you (and I) will have an amazing experience that we will still smile about on our deathbeds. Go for it!!!

 

PS: I'm sixty and NOT skinny.

[SDPadreFan]

Hey, I loved the review you gave on the outdoor adventure. It is the best review we've read so far. Thanks for all that effort. I am petrified of heights and a little worried about the two rapell areas. Can you or somebody describe in detail the rapelling experience. I've never done it before. How high? Is it a cliff or a slope? Do you feel the tension in the rope before starting and stepping off the edge? Was rapelling the scariest part of the whole excursion? We are going in October 2007. Can you skip the rapell parts or not? I am not too worried about the zip lines. Any details would be great. Thanks!

 

We spent a week in PV last year. The company that offers the Outdoor Challenge also offers one with just the zip line experience (no repelling). Don't remember the name of the adventure but it was the same company. Hopefully, your ship will offer both. Or you can research it online and book it independently. Have fun anyway.

[househunter]

I am going to have to agree with Don, I cannot read this! Is there any way you can edit it to make it easier to read. I am very interested in it but my eyes which are not that great to begin with go blurry after the 2nd line.

 

Thanks!

[louanne93]

If you can't say something nice than don't say anything at all. :mad:

 

This is an information board not an online classroom!

[flowers58]

Fantastic review! You are a great story teller.

 

Do you remember the company name? That sounds like one we would like to try.

[jayzee]

Copy it into a word document and then double space it. That should make it easier to read.

 

I loved it. I zipped last year in Belize and we are doing the mexican Riviera in November and taking our dd - 22 year old - and she doesn't really want to do it so I am going to print this review out and she will want to go after she reads it!!

 

I am afraid of heights too, and the rapelling was the easiest part. Standing on the platforms freaked me out a bit, but there was another gal (way younger, in her 20's) that was freaking out also, so I put on a brave face and told her we could both do it, and we did and it was a BLAST! The actual zipping didn't scare me, but standing on the platform did. I'll have to get over it if we do it again. This tour sounds like it's a little bit different and a lot more fun!

 

Thanks for the review!

[danesmama]

This was a great review. We are going to book it for our cruise in Jan. Did you book through the ship or privately. I thought I remember trying to book it privately the last time we went on the ship and the cruise lines buy them all out

[tequilasunrise]

Bravo, this was a delight to read! Thanks for the entertainment, I really enjoyed this :D It made me want to do this, definitely!!

 

For the person who wondered about weight, because of the mule ride, there is a weight limit of 220 lbs, sorry. Regular zip line only tours have higher weight limits, but they are usually 250 or 300 lbs. Sorry :( If you ever get to the Carribean, try the cable car rides over the rain forest, which have much higher weight limits. Not as exhilirating, perhaps, but a great view!