Aerial tram or Tortuguero canal ship excursion?

[blomo]

Hi. I will be on the Zuiderdam Panama Canal partial transit cruise Feb 7. I would appreciate your experiences on the Aerial tram trip near Puerto Limon and the Tortuguero canal trip, to help me choose which excursion to take. They both sound amazing. I am a little nervous about booking privately in Costa Rica as I have read about safety issues there, on these boards. Many thanks for your assistance.

[mii]

I have done the Tortuguero Canal excursion but on Princess but i think they are about the same. Anyway it was one of the best ships excursions we have ever done. We were taken by bus to the canal and boarded a covered boat, did the water tour which by the way was great as we saw all kinds of birds, spider monkeys, sloths, alligators, etc. Wonderful excursion. then we were taken back by bus to the ship. I would not hesitate on doing that one again.

 

Marilyn

[Sanlin]

We did the aerial tram on a visit to Costa Rica years ago - it was above the canopy and you did not see anything but the tops of the trees. I actually saw a man sleeping in a passing tram. The only animal we saw was a coto mundi at the snack bar. The Tortugero Canal ride was awesome and our guide even caught a sloth that had fallen in the water. Great to see one close up. We will be on that same cruise and are planning on doing the Tortugero trip again with the ship's tour. Did you join our roll call?

[blomo]

Thanks for replies. More info would be appreciated. Yes I did join the roll call yesterday but today the thread says no posts for more than 30 days??? A gremlin is loose in there...Looking forward to the cruise!! Happy 2009 to all!

[sherco]

We were on the holiday cruise last week. we booked a tour from Charlie Soto online after some friends used him earlier in the season. http://www.okeydokeytours.com/tours.htm

The tour was amazing and we saw many of the people from the ship on the HAL tours at each stop. We got to see several locations and the lunch provided at a resturant on Bonita beach was better than some of the meals on board. If you choose to book, I recommend their A-1 tour. If you do I would ask for Carlos as your guide. He has spent time in San diego so his english is perfect, but he really knows the area. He also stopped at a supermarket in Port Limon, where we bought Coffee at 1/2 the price at the dock. He was very helpful in selection and finding things in the store.

[bermudafan8]

Hi

On our Panama Canal trip we were lucky to have a stop on both the Pacific and Atlantic sides of Costa Rica, so we did the canals and the Pacific Tram. I was really looking forward to the tram, but it was just ok - we saw no animals, just the tops of trees. Wasn't very exciting.

But the canals were another story. HIGHLY recommended. We saw several groups of monkeys in the trees lining the river swinging around and howling; saw many birds; several sloth, a great big blue butterfly, lizards, and a local fisherman showed off his catch of a blue crab. Prior to boarding the covered boat we enjoyed fresh fruit and live music from a calypso band. If you have just one day, do the canals.

[JNCRUISEBUMS]

The new Rainforest is called Aquavera and it is about an hour from Puerto Limon and it was FABULOUS!!! We booked Charlie Soto and Ray was our guide and Stayton our driver! You just can't go wrong with them!

[ndavis7515]

Thanks for replies. More info would be appreciated. Yes I did join the roll call yesterday but today the thread says no posts for more than 30 days??? A gremlin is loose in there...Looking forward to the cruise!! Happy 2009 to all!

Did you sign up for the Meet & Greet from our roll call for 2/7?

[eltigre]

I have done the Tortuguero Canal excursion but on Princess but i think they are about the same. Anyway it was one of the best ships excursions we have ever done. We were taken by bus to the canal and boarded a covered boat, did the water tour which by the way was great as we saw all kinds of birds, spider monkeys, sloths, alligators, etc. Wonderful excursion. then we were taken back by bus to the ship. I would not hesitate on doing that one again.

 

Marilyn

The canal cruise.

How long a trip to the canals? The canal trip how long is it?

Washroom facilities should someone need them on short notice is a concern for us?

[oldhappymama]

DH and my sons (18 & 19) did the canal tour last year at this time. We did not have as good of an experience as some others. We saw 1 sloth (way up in a tree) and one group of monkeys (far up in a tree) and 1 small alligator. We really love all animals and try to enjoy all of our tours, but this one was a little disappointing. Maybe we just went at the wrong time of the day, or were unlucky in our animal spotting. We would not go again

[travelite]

Hi. I will be on the Zuiderdam Panama Canal partial transit cruise Feb 7. I would appreciate your experiences on the Aerial tram trip near Puerto Limon and the Tortuguero canal trip, to help me choose which excursion to take. They both sound amazing. I am a little nervous about booking privately in Costa Rica as I have read about safety issues there, on these boards. Many thanks for your assistance.

 

I'm going on this same cruise leaving the end of March. I have done both of the above. Did you hear from other passengers any other suggestions for the day in port? I was consider Cahuita National Park.