Panama Canal Excursions

[lilpad1]

I am not sure if this has been covered before, but your help would be greatly appreciated....

I am taking my Mom on a 14 day cruise on Island Princess Oct.2008.

She has MS and can only stand to transfer from her wheelchair. Our Ports are: Huatulco, Mexico (tendered, so not off the ship) / Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala / Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua / Puntarenas, Costa Rica / Panama Canal / Cartagena, Columbia / Aruba. Has anyone traveled there and done shore excursions?? I contacted Princess and of course they said it was to early to discuss excursions and things change with time (?). I really do not want to take Mom if she cannot do anything but stay on the ship. I am used to pushing her on all other Cruises, so that is not a problem. I just need to make sure that there is the availability of wheelchair vans/buses ect. for tours. Thanks in advance for your help ......

[Splinter]

Don't depend on Princess for any of your excursions unless your mother can climb up into a regular van or bus.

 

I don't believe you actually get off the ship in the Panama Canal on this trip, do you?

 

The Island Princess is a nice ship. I assume you have already booked a wheelchair accessible cabin??

 

There is at least one company in Costa Rica that has van lift tours. The rest you will most likely be out of luck. Can she transfer to a car? Then plan to take taxis whenever possible.

 

Check the resources in the "sticky" message at the top of this forum.

[NorthernLite]

Just got back from a Azamara Journey cruise that included Cartegena. Outside the dock area, you will have to push her about a quarter mile between the gangway and out through the duty free area first, there is a large taxi/van/ area. None of the vans are accessible and are not minivans. We found tat you need to use the licensed taxis where the number on the side of the taxi matches its license plates. Then go for a large car that she can transfer into with a standing pivot. I have a forward folding Quickie manual and we had to get partially in and then out of a non-licensed next in line taxi to figure this out... And the huge Pierro.....something Mall does not have elevators. For shopping try the Los Bovedas dungeons. At the far end is a ramp of sorts and none of the stores have more than one step to bump up/down and all we went in had nice wide aisles. Be prepared to say no or bargain.

[KL&KR]

since Princess won't talk to you yet:

 

We went on Regal Princess in Nov. 2005. It was a RT from California, so we overnighted in Gatun Lake and then came back out to the Pacific. We were very pro-active about trying to get accessible tours set up by Princess, talking to other w/c and scooter-using passengers, and trying to sign people up for the one excursion the tour staff came up with. I would recommend, still, asking for a disabled passenger meeting to be set up right away when you get on, advertize in the Princess Patter, and organize with other disabled folks!

 

Puerto Quetzal has a dockside tourist Center which was still being added onto at the time. Lots of kitsch for sale, some nice art, a jade store with small but interesting historical display, an animal show with a large boa constrictor, music, rum tasting, etc. Very accessible, except for the step up into the jade store (probably manageable with a w/c, not so for scooter); kept us busy for over an hour. Able-bodied tourists walked right through to the waiting buses and vans on the other side.

 

Puerto Corinto was a small, sad, very poor port. This is the one the U.S. CIA mined to try to destroy Nicaragua's maritime trade. Professional vendors had traveled for miles to set up booths dockside. The vendors were wonderful warm people (though this was a very early cruise ship visit there, we were told). St/rolling around town was bumpy, but there were curb cuts. Not much to see except the poverty.

 

At Puntarenas, Princess arranged an accessible bus tour (Swiss Travel Service bus company-- swisstravelcr.com), with a lift-equipped bus that was sent out from the capital. The drive was a little hair-raising :eek: --they definitely have their own driving style there... The destination was fun though a little artificial--a resort in a forest setting with a folkloric dance show, buffet lunch, and shopping (no bargaining). But we enjoyed it--our only shore excursion! We did a little walk-around in the Puntarenas market stalls area afterwards--bought the best coffee there, Shade Lady or something like that.

 

Didn't go to Cartagena, and the rest of Panama was not accessible for a scooter--everything done by tender. But we thought the trip through the Canal was fascinating enough, so we were satisfied.

 

Kristen and Kathy

[tcworld]

We cruised on the Island in October thru the canal. Princess arranged for me, a wheelchair user, to swim with the dolphins. An accessible van with a wheelchair lift met us at the ship when we docked at Montego Bay and then took us, my husband and I, to Dunn's River Falls and then swimming with the dolphins. It was a Princess Tour. We had the best time!