Princess Shore Excursions on 10 day Panama Canal

[rdndhd]

Hi All!

 

Looking for any and all advice on shore excursions available on Coral Princess, sailing December 10 from Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Ports of Call:

Limon, Costa Rica

Colon, Panama Canal

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Cozumel, Mexico

Belize City, Belize

 

Thanks!

[khuff7]

Hello. We are on the same ship. I have never been to any of thes ports, but we have booked in Costa Rica- a private tour with Oscar Brown and going to Almonds and Corals for zip-lining. In Panama- gatun locks & eco tour, In Grand Cayman-highlights tour, Cozumel-San Gervasio ruins, and in Belize- cave-tubing with X-treme. We decided on the cave-tubing and zip-lining tour due to the great reviews from others on this board. Good luck choosing tours!

[WeBeGone]

Hi All!

 

Looking for any and all advice on shore excursions available on Coral Princess, sailing December 10 from Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Ports of Call:

Limon, Costa Rica

Colon, Panama Canal

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Cozumel, Mexico

Belize City, Belize

 

Thanks!

Last December Costa Rica suffered heavy rains so all Princess excursions were cancelled. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the flea market at the port then laid by the pool back on board. Hope you have better weather. -- At the Panama Canal we did the combination locks tour/Embara tribe visit. I highly recommend it. This Feb we plan on taking the train trip which I heard was wonderful.-- I doubt if you'll actually go to Grand Cayman. My information is that it is closed to ships until sometime in Jan due to hurricane damage. Princess has been putting in an extra day at sea instead. Last Dec we took the island tour with stops at the Turtle Farm (which is no longer there) and Hell. We've also snorkled at Sting Ray City which was cool.--At Cozamel we took the ferry across to Play del Carmen and then a bus to see the Mayan Ruins-fabulous.--Haven't been to Belize yet. Hope this helps.

[wongri]

khuff7 - do you have contact info for Oscar as our group of 6 will be in Costa Rica in January.

Thanks,

Rita

[khuff7]

His email is cbrown@costarricense.cr. It took a few days to get a reply.

[phelina]

We were on the Coral on Oct 31. What a cruise you'll have!

Our shore excursions:

Limon: Costa Rica's favorites- aerial tram ride in the canopy of the rain forest, lunch and a wildlife riverboat cruise . An incredible all-day excursion that covers everything about Costa Rica- economics, bananas and plantation systems, educational network, coffee, history, sloths, monkeys, butterflies, rain forest. Our guide Carla was very knowledgeable.

Panama: Gatun Locks and Ecocruise- a pretty good half day excursion, watched other ships go through the locks, saw the older models of locomotives and where they refurbish the lock gates, another river cruise for wildlife.

Grand Cayman: Stingray sandbar (snorkel boat)- Amazing, you have to try this! The stingrays are like puppies or kittens- you can pet, feed and hold them. They will swim all around you, nudge you, even try to climb into your arms.

Belize: Xunantunich ruins and marimba lunch- a rather long bus ride compared to the shortish amount of time at the ruins. Not a lot of ruins are uncovered. View was breathtaking if you climbed to the top of the temple though. Very rushed lunch (half hour for two bus loads), but tasty. Our least favorite tour.

Cozumel: We shopped.

 

Have a great trip!

[WCAB]

We were on the Coral on Oct 31. What a cruise you'll have!

Our shore excursions:

Limon: Costa Rica's favorites- aerial tram ride in the canopy of the rain forest, lunch and a wildlife riverboat cruise . An incredible all-day excursion that covers everything about Costa Rica- economics, bananas and plantation systems, educational network, coffee, history, sloths, monkeys, butterflies, rain forest. Our guide Carla was very knowledgeable.

Panama: Gatun Locks and Ecocruise- a pretty good half day excursion, watched other ships go through the locks, saw the older models of locomotives and where they refurbish the lock gates, another river cruise for wildlife.

Grand Cayman: Stingray sandbar (snorkel boat)- Amazing, you have to try this! The stingrays are like puppies or kittens- you can pet, feed and hold them. They will swim all around you, nudge you, even try to climb into your arms.

Belize: Xunantunich ruins and marimba lunch- a rather long bus ride compared to the shortish amount of time at the ruins. Not a lot of ruins are uncovered. View was breathtaking if you climbed to the top of the temple though. Very rushed lunch (half hour for two bus loads), but tasty. Our least favorite tour.

Cozumel: We shopped.

 

Have a great trip!

 

 

For the stringray excusion, can you stand up in the water or is it over your head? Did you hear anyone talk highly of other excursions in Belize?

 

Carol

[PINEY10]

We just got back from the Coral yesterday. Here is what we did:

 

We did the tour with Oscar in Limon but did the ziplining at Almonds & Corals--what an experience! It was great. I was petrified but ultimately had the expeience of a lifetime--it was just getting over the first jump from the platform to the zipline but after that what fun! We also saw the banana plantation and some monkeys on route. We also stopped at the supermarket in Limon to buy coffee. There also is a relatively good deal on the ship to buy coffee for $99 (20 pounds I think) which we did as well and there was not much of a price difference.

 

In Panama we did the ocean to ocean. That was really fun because it gave you the full sense of the canal. The train does not completely parallel the canal, and we wanted to see the canal. It did get a little boring as you went through the various locks and waited for the water to go up and down to go on, but overall we thought it was a fabulous and not to be missed experience! In the smaller boat it made the locks seem so huge and we really could see the detail in the construction of the locks and canal. It was also awesome to see the large ships/tankers in comparison to our small boat holding 200, which we had one right behind us. Getting to the first stop, which was a long bus ride before we boarded the boat was actually quite fascinating because we went through the rain forest with our guides giving some very interesting details and information about the country and the building of the canal.

 

In Belize, we did the Coral Breeze snorkeling trip which was fun going to Coral Gardens and shark ray alley. The rays were incredible--much larger than the ones we had seen on previous trips to the Caymans. The nurse sharks also were neat. They need to get their boats fixed once and for all (which I have read about a lot on these boards). The engine broke down on the boat and it was getting close for others on the tour who had to make their boat. We did get back in time, and the guides actually were quite good and informative. We also had a great lunch at Caye Caulkers. An overall good experience.

 

In the Caymans we took a cab to Seven Mile Beach--we had done Sting Ray City before. If you have not done that before, do it! It is really an incredible experience. This time we just wanted to do a beach so based on what I had read on these boards, we went to SEa Grape. It is very nice and good facilities/amenities. Cab ride was about $4/pp. The island is still trying to recover from the impact of Ivan which you could see on 7 mile beach and that apparently was minimally damaged in comparison to other parts of the island that is still in the recovery phase and many without water and power still. They are really trying to encourage tourism to bring in the money, yet the people are very proud and hardworking--always a smile on their faces and looking ahead, not back. Extremely impressive and my hopes that they succeed. Grand Cayman is a beautiful place and I hope it is a speedy recovery.

 

Cozumel is Cozumel--we have been several times and it is just getting too crowded. The terminal we were docked at was great--we had never docked there before. It is a ways from the main part of the city, but there was so much there that you don't need to leave it (unless doing a tour)--stores were the same and they had generally the same stuff. REstaurants, too. Previously we had done Xcaret which we had really enjoyed. Another time we took the Fury Catamaran snorkel tour which also was fun. We also did the bike and snorkel tour--that was okay. If you like snorkeling, we also went to Dzhul Ha (not far from the ship by cab)--and the snorkeling there was excellent!

 

Hope this is helpful.

[snowcat]

WCAB - We've done the Stingray City visit twice at Grand Cayman. The first time I could easily stand in the water....it was about chest high. The second time I could touch on my tippy toes only as the water was choppier. Not a problem as most of the time I was snorkeling around watching the rays anyway!

[WCAB]

Thanks for the info on the stringray excursion. Someone at work has done this

and said it is fun. I swim but tried to snorkle in Hawaii (first time) He took us out in the ocean and it was kind of rough and choppy. It was deep water and I was too worried about drowning to really enjoy it. It was also a little difficult to climb back onto the boat.

 

Carol

[jazzcat]

Has anyone done the rainforest hike in Panama? Wondering how much of a strain it may be on my mother-in-law.

[katricia]

Hi, I was also wondering about stingray city. Do you have to book through the ship or can you just go there. And how much did it cost?

Thanks,

Katricia

[Mike2131]

Has anyone done the rainforest hike in Panama? Wondering how much of a strain it may be on my mother-in-law.

 

I cannot recommend this tour. We saw some interesting plants, but no wildlife except for a few butterflies and some a few distant birds (I did not even see all of them). I know that a lot depends of the guide and the trail they select, but this was the dud of the shore excursions we took.

 

The trail was pretty tame and not too uneven. If your mother-in-law is in reasonable shape, has appropriate footwear (boots not required but no sandals), and has no problems walking 2+ miles over possibly wet ground she will be fine.

[Mike2131]

Hi All!

 

Looking for any and all advice on shore excursions available on Coral Princess, sailing December 10 from Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Ports of Call:

Limon, Costa Rica

Colon, Panama Canal

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Cozumel, Mexico

Belize City, Belize

 

Thanks!

 

We were on this exact cruise (date and ports) last year. The Coral is a beautiful ship and the itinerary is just outstanding. My impression of the tours we took:

 

Costa Rica: I will second the recommendation for Costa Rica's Favorites. The tram was scenic and sedate, but the Tortugero Canals were terrific. Great wildlife - sloths, 4 separate groups of howler monkeys, a huge croc, numerous caimans, large iguanas, bats, lots of waterfowl, etc. Lunch was tasty, we made an interesting stop at a banana grove, and had a top notch guide. Highest recommendation.

 

Panama: The transit of the Gatun Locks was fascinating. One tip, everyone was packed in up front and the stern was practically deserted. It offers a great view. The excursion we picked (Rainforest and Wildlife Hike) was a dud. I cannot recommend it (see my previous post).

 

Grand Cayman: Rough seas caused the cancellation of all snorkel and scuba tours for the 4 ships in port. We were scheduled for the combination Reef and Sting Ray Snorkel and were very disappointed, but you can't control the weather. We ended up on a land tour that visited Hell, the Turtle Farm, and the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory (the one next to the Turtle Farm). It was OK (love those cakes!), but I strongly suggest getting wet in Grand Cayman.

 

Cozumel: I went to Tulum and really enjoyed it. My girfriend took the full Dolphin Swim and it was the highlight of her cruise. Both definitely recommended. If you take another ruins tour in Belize, Tulum will make a very interesting contrast because of the unique setting.

Belize: We took the Lamanai and New River excursion. It was another tour I can highly recommend. The river trip was interesting (the wildlife sightings were better in Cost Rica), the lunch was very good, and the ruins were wonderful. The setting is very different than Tulum and the two very vocal groups of howler monkeys gave it a very Indiana Jones feel. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Have a great cruise. We cannot wait to go back for a full transit!

[Host Caroline]

The Princess tour "sandbar stingray city" (UCM tour I think) was excellent!

We went West instead of East so had nothing planned for any of the ports. Don Foster Dive runs this tour and everyone in the group (40+) that decided to go thought it was worth every penny... they have a great vessel (pontoon type, covered, drinks etc.), the crew is very interactive and it was obvious when other smaller boats arrived near the sandbar (local ops?) that our guys were way better guides, stingray "helpers" etc. Highly recommend this tour.