gingerspice

I can understand your reluctance. I was the same way. Especially when you have children. Are you stopping in Hualtulco? If so...don't bother doing a shore excursion with the ship. We had one booked but for some reason it was cancelled at the last minute, anyway...we got off the ship and found a some tour operators right there on the dock. We had a private snorkel tour with our own boat, we went to the places that the ship went to, except we only paid 70.00 for all of us. compared with 89.00 per person on the ship. We had a great time.

In Guatemala we went to Lake Attitlan with the ship. It was a long trip I was glad we were with the ship there. If you are going to Antigua a private tour or just a cab would be best i think.

Nicaragua-I was very nervous of this port. It was very sketchy outside of the port gates. When our tour guide showed up i felt much better. I never felt nervous the rest of the day. If you like adventure do the hiking up the volcano, or kayaking like we did. You will enjoy yourself more than touring Leon, not much to see there.

Now, Cartagena is one city I wish I would not have taken a ship tour of. A taxi cab to the walled city or fortress would have been so much better. It is a beautiful city and safe. Not a person came up to us to bother us we were not bothered by vendors and not a soul tried to sell us drugs! With the ship tour we were stuck watching street performers(which were probably related to the tour guide) and were made to feel as if we had to tip them all. I was not happy with that at all. Here is a link to our Panama Canal Cruise

http://community.webshots.com/user/gkrue49?vhost=community

Ginger

Hi All, We just got back from our Holiday Panama Canal cruise on the Coral.I felt like i needed to respond to your posts because i remember being in your shoes and not knowing what to expect in this particular port. With that being said....don't be afraid to do a tour on your own. I felt safe in Puerto Corinto. We did a kayak, lunch and Leon tour. We were a family of 6, 4 kids ages13-21. We felt a little nervous when we were waiting for our tour guide to show up. We were the only people out ,all the tour busses had left. and the port is surrounded by a tall fence with locked gates. It felt a little akward but our guide showed up and off we went. We booked with VaPues tours. It is very hot and the air was very smokey from trash burning. We went a kayaking first. saw crocodiles in water and out. Many types of birds. went to the office of Vapues which I guess is a restaurant also. Ate there for lunch and had vegetarian food. We had to rush to see the old church building and the square. We ran out of time and had to leave before we could see more. A note here....schedule your tour for as early as possible. The traffic is bad and it does take a long time to get from the port to the city. We were late getting back to the ship! we were the last people to board. All in all we had a good day. The guide was nice and he spoke good english. My kids loved the whole experience and said it was their best tour. If you have any questions i will try to answer them.